Schnei-On-The-Fly

If we had to sum our experience in Utah with one word it would be relationships. We’ve been on the road almost a year now and we have never experienced relationships like we have here. 

We have neighbors/coworkers, that turned into friends, that we shared a meal at least once a week. We have been invited to a 3 year olds birthday party from church and that turned into a multiple visits and lots of memories. We have spent a holiday with a crew of friends. We had workers come help in the garden that transformed into genuine friendships. In our other spots we met people, yes, but here it was truly different. It’s been one of the sweetest parts and makes it one of the hardest parts to leave. (That middle pictures is Merrick clocking out with a friend…that could be my twin!)

We’ve seen birds, big horn sheep, lizards, coyotes, bison, bobcats, tons of animals like no where else. The views with the red rocks and little green sage bushes popping out are so unique, truly impressive. The slot canyons and caves are a gem, almost feels like a set from a movie! 

In 13 weeks we have not turned on the TV once. We have not FaceTimed, made a phone call or sent a text while in our home (had to walk over to the laundry room to do so). It’s been good to have it gone and we can see where we don’t want it back ie: meal times, unintentionally, in the bedroom…you know just those times when you don’t need it. But technology isn’t bad and I’m soooo looking forward to be able to make a phone call or send a picture in real time whenever we would like. 

We are sad to leave but excited to leave all in the same moment. We’ve had lots of talks about emotions with the boys. We can have multiple emotions about the same thing. And all four of us could have different emotions about the same thing. Teaching moments ALL the time! 

We always thought we’d do this a year and with the year mark coming it just doesn’t feel like it’s time to stop yet. We don’t know where we are going to be working next. We are prayerfully figuring that out. But we have 6 weeks of traveling and seeing family and friends! And then we’ll take to the road again and try our hand at officially homeschooling a kindergartener!

The little town we go to church had the cutest 4th of July celebration, like it looked like it was out of a Hallmark movie. There was a 5k in the morning, a parade, food trucks and vendors at park and then a firework show that evening! A friend and I ran the 5K, it was the first color run I’ve done! Chase brought the boys up and met us for the parade. The boys got lots of candy and got sprayed a bit by the fire trucks! 

We went to the park and stood in long lines to get yummy chicken! The boys played at the park and in the splash pad. Then that afternoon we gathered at a friends house and ate more delicious food, played and got to see the fireworks.

This all occurred on the 3rd of July…so on the 4th a little crew of coworkers gathered at our camp site for a potluck picnic! I made my an apple crisp pie! There was cornhole and memories made! We missed our normal family time but it was sweet getting to be together with other vagabonds sharing a holiday together. We had people from Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Utah and California! 

This week on the farm we really got see the fruits of our labor!! We got to harvest a few different varieties of potatoes. We cleaned and cooked them, and they were tasty!! A dream of the owner’s was to get guests to do the same. Dig their own food and cook it. Chase and I came up with an idea and we executed!! 

For the potato pickin powwow people got to dig their potatoes with Chase in the field. It was like treasure hunt people loved to get way more than they could eat…. so we took the extras to the restaurant! After getting their potatoes they cleaned them with instructions from Merrick “wash them real good like this”….as he forcefully rubbed his hands back and forth. I was at table with foil, oil, salt and pepper. They sliced their potatoes and doctored them up. Mac took them to get fresh green onions and/or rosemary from the green house to add to their packets. Then they folded their foil packets up and took them across the street to be roasted on the fire for 15ish mins. We did this Friday and Saturday nights and it was a hit! Everyone loved it and just kept talking about it. It was a fun time for us four seeing people enjoy what we’ve worked so hard on. We’ve been able to have lots of conversations with the boys about working hard and how God gives everyone different jobs and how doing a good job can make other people smile and excited. From the customer service call person to the doctor to the barista to the farmer everybody matters and everyone can make someone else have a better day just by the way they work and interact with each other!

This, being our last full week here, was also a week full of horse riding. Everyone got one last ride in! Mac had another lesson, Merrick got to do another junior ride and Chase and I got to go on an hour ride one morning! Mac took his cowboy-ness up a notch after getting “tossed off” and got back on and finished his ride. His horse sunk down in some mud up to it’s knees and then as the horse really tried to get out Mac rolled right off…into the cushioned mud. So his fall was three feet shorter than it could have been and into something soft and squishy, we couldn’t have asked for a better fall off a horse! Not a tear was shed, he was startled a bit was brave and wanted to finish the lesson and get right back on! It was a really good teaching moment, we don’t want bad things to happen but when they do…we get up and keep on going!

Can you believe we’ve been here three months?!? Me neither! The end is drawing near so we are soaking up our time here. 

Fun facts: 

We have listened to home on the range about 16,283 times during this stent. The boys can each sing it word for word. We’ve listened to it via many different versions all the way from Gene Autry to Elmo 🤣 

We found some potatoes! We might start really harvesting a few rows before we leave woot woot! We got to do a taste sample and they were pretty tasty!!

Gas here is $3.59 🙄 

When asked where their favorite spot has been Mac and Merrick say here 9 out of 10 times. I was honestly a little worried about how they would like it here. No swimming pool, no play ground, no streets to ride bikes, no jumping pillow. But they love it here without any of that. It’s been so fun to see them grow and learn to play and imagine! 

I wear overalls 95% of the time at work 👩🏼‍🌾

We’ve seen more big horn sheep in the last week than we ever have in our lives! 

Garden babies are here!!! Tiny squash and tomatoes have shown themselves!!

A hummingbird got IN OUR CAMPER!!! We have no clue how, Merrick opened the door when we got home from work and there it was just fluttering around!

Zion National Park made the news with flash floods and park closures….we were on the other side of the mountain and got 0.04 inches of rain 🙃 

But on that note…Arizona and Southern Utah have monsoons….you heard me right there is a “monsoon season” and it’s just like it sounds heavy torrential  down pours and wind. They it pops up out of no where and is gone in a flash but the effects of it can be devastating. 

We hiked up and saw this view of Zion. Amazing piece of God’s handy work!! 

We’ve been doing a lot of weeding. And though it is not the most fun I get it. There are plants taking up water and space. Some are actually choking out the good things…our fruit (veggie!) bearing crops. 

We have to weed this garden. 

And I truly believe we have to weed our hearts. Our heart soil can be good and things can be growing but are we sure what is growing. Have we stopped and looked? Are we producing fruit or are there weeds choking the fruit out? 

It can be so hard to identify some weeds and some can be so easy. So easy that our five year old can get bucketfuls without us saying a word. And then there are times when Chase and I have to really look at the leaves and pull one out to see…and how do we really know it’s a weed….there is no fruit. 

If there are things in our lives that do not produce fruit why are they there and why in the world are we letting them grow?!?

It will alter our hearts when we weed. Some of the potatoes have been supported by weeds. The potatoes and weeds are tangled and twisted up together and when we pull the weeds out… the potato plants lose a leaf or two and look a little droopy. But with some water and some time these beauts grow! They get stronger, they stand up straight and tall and they produce more fruit. 

That water….without it nothing would grow. It’s a life giving water, a water that will make us thirst no more. So make sure you’re getting the water!! And don’t forget to weed, it’s not the most fun but it is productive, you’ll yield a better crop, He told me so! 

Matthew 13: 22 “As for what was down among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit.”

Once upon a time a cowboy was born. Man oh man Mac is going strong in this cowboy phase…that little video of him trying to rope and the baby bison came up to him that’s the life right! Mac gets dressed by himself every morning… 95% of the time he puts on jeans and a plaid button up shirt. 98% of the time he’s got boots and his hat. It’s just his thing right now! Each week here at the ranch there is a “roping show” and he brings his rope and they teach him a little more about it. Merrick was given a rope last week…so we’ll see how this all goes! It’s so much fun to see them doing new things! 

Garden update: 

• 39 cucumber plants (2 varieties)
• 228 tomato plants (11 varieties) 
• 44 squash plants (5 varieties) 
• 20 watermelon plants (2 varieties) 
• 20 cantaloupe (2 varieties)
• And then solid rows of spinach, kale, cabbage, green onions, red onions

Along with the three potato fields, eighteen potatoes pits and two asparagus fields we are keeping plenty busy 🤣 but really truly we are loving this work! When we left on this camper life adventure I thought gardening would be something I would miss in the spring….but here God took care of that 100 fold! We actually forgot to take two days off this week because…work really isn’t bad when you like it. We didn’t mean to and I doubt it happens again… but it really got us to thinking about how much we enjoy doing this. 

I had started some flowers in the green house so we finally got those in beds near the main office and restaurant! Sunflowers 🌻50 wild flower “hummingbird mix” and 24 nasturtiums. 

Merrick is in a highly absorbent sponge 🧽 stage. He is watching, listening and just soaking it all up. He is turning into a source of information and can usually relay a message. He joins Mac in giving tours at the chicken coop. The kid could sit on the tractor all day everyday. 

The boys picked gooseberries one afternoon! We turned them into gooseberry blueberry tarts when we got home. Mac wanted a candle lit dessert while we ate them so we did!

After church we explored a resivour we had been told about! Really neat little spot that I think we’ll visit after church more often! 

Animal highlight of the week: seeing a Western Tanager right in the campground! And getting to feed Bonnie the bison myself 😊

Coyotes, Bobcats and Snakes Oh My!!

What a whirlwind of wildlife!! We were up at the garden checking gophers traps…part of our morning routine…when Mac said mom is that a wolf or a dog….and I look and in the chicken coop area there is a coyote!! Chase and I head up there leaving the boys behind the fence and there were actually two coyotes! We run them off, let the boys watch an educational video on what to do if you encounter a coyote and go with our day. Not 45 mins later Mac and I are watering in the green house when Merrick runs in and says “Dad made the bobcat run away”…..well Chase had heard the chickens squawking so he went up there and going through the window of the coop he sees half of a bobcat….the other half INSIDE the coop! He throws a rock at it, bangs on the coop and it runs off. We let the boss man know and he got one of the ranch dogs up there to ward any future predators off!! That afternoon we saw a snake go by out in the open. A good opportunity for us to talk about snakes and really be able to show M&M a snake. Well it goes around the green house and not five minutes later Mac is walking and steps on said snake….a prime example of why we watch where we are walking….can I say it any louder! We were thankful for the experience but it sure scared him but I’m hopeful that lesson has sunk a litter deeper this time! 

We started moving stuff from the green house outside into the garden! At this point in time we have: 

• red onions- 278
• Red rock cabbage -seeds 
• Green onions- 259
• Dinosaur kale- 25
• Spinach- 39 
• Banana squash- 10
• Spaghetti squash-10
• Crookneck squash-7
• Cucumbers- 36
• Early girl tomatoes-25

Pictured below is some of the spinach starts we planted and Mac watering in the green house!

In most of the rows if the seedlings did not complete the row we put seeds in and hopefully will have a second yield from the younger plants after the first go around with the older ones! 

The rest of the seedlings were still too small/can’t handle the cooler temps at night so they are still getting bigger and stronger inside. 

St. George Utah is about an hour and half away and is the “big city” near us, it has the nearest real stores….so we adventured this week with a list of errands to run. We explored a garden there and it was so pretty! And the sunset on the way back through Zion was beautiful!! 

While in St. George Chase found a hat and a few shirts and now we have three cowboys! 

I painted some mountains along the boys beds in the bunk room….we might wrap the mountains around the whole room….but we’ll see about that! Love how they turned out for now! (This project $5.03- for a pint of paint—the darker brown and then I mixed the brown and the white/green that I had used for the living room and made the second range out of that, and then used the color for the living room for the front range!)

The ranch had an employees Jeep tour ride and we went! Fun little family outing one night! 

The buffalo fence is done!! ✅ and on that note….is it a buffalo or is it a bison. Well technically it’s a bison. There is no such thing as a buffalo in America. The only buffalo is a water buffalo and they are in Africa and Asia. Genetically the bison we see are closer to cattle than the real buffalo 🐃. But somewhere in American culture we started calling a bison a buffalo. It’s not like they are extinct from hunting or that the bison took over. It’s just that we called the bison a buffalo and it stuck. Soooo as we talk about them in our little family you would be corrected by a five year old and told they are “American Buffalo or Bison not just buffalo”…. so there you have it folks, may you sleep better tonight with that tid bit of info! 

Alert 🚨 Alert 🚨 chickens 🐓 and potatoes 🥔 do NOT go together ❌❌❌ 

The 52 rows of potatoes we planted looked like a giant buffet to the chickens…. which was less than ideal! 

The solution to that pesky problem was to put up a fence….across the entire length of the garden….this was no small feat for man kind! 

We were so thankful for the extra help that came to knock this project out. Chase learned about using a skid steer with a post hole digger attachment and was moving along just fine….until a water line was hit. Then I ran around here and there trying to find parts to get to one of our helpers who knew how to fix a broken water line (because we were clueless, but now we know!)…add in a gas line break and that day was a doozy. When we finally called it a day we had worked our longest day, a combined 18 hours. We typically average closer to 12-14 hours combined. 

After a solid 2.5 days and a few extra hours here and there we can finally say the chicken fence is done! Golly gee that was a feat! 

One morning we were asked if we could be mountain bike family models in 20 mins…we asked for 50 mins and got the job done 🚵‍♀️ We rode bikes on some legit mountain bike trails and were filmed here and there. It was tough for Chase and I, Mac did so good and kept trying. When he need a little more to keep him going a pep talk and ice cream offer kept his chin up 😜

We started to till the plot where our seed sprouts from inside will be transplanted outside. 25 early girl tomatoes have been planted thus far. These were not grown by seed, they we dropped off to us one day so we planted them 😆 

Merrick and I planted 278 red onions. I went to get a rake to cover the onions and he had started to cover them with the hoe on his own accord. A real life moment that showed me this boy is watching and learning. He saw us do this with he potatoes and knew just what to do! 

Chase was harvesting asparagus and noticed a seemingly fresh buffalo scat. We thought there was no way that could be the case. Upon asking our boss….🚨red alert 🚨….it was indeed and now…back to fence making! There must now be a buffalo fence around the entire garden! Thankfully we have a very handy cowboy friend helping Chase build a buffalo fence. Hopefully the garden will be safe from an rouge roaming buffalo! 

Spring is the time for babies that’s a known fact….There is a baby horse that was born on Cinco de Mayo…hence his name Cinco. He’s a cute little guy to watch run around. There are 3 or 4 bunnies who have had babies….there are going to be so many rabbits! There are baby chickens in a brooder in the laundry room. There is just new life everywhere!! I had never thought about baby buffalos….or that a baby buffalo might get orphaned but that’s what has happened to one calf and so she’s now a bottle fed baby buffalo here on the ranch. This little thing is pulling on my heart strings more than I ever could have thought. 

Reminds me that no matter what we always have a heavenly Father who loves us and will care for us even when we feel all alone. And it makes me wanna do that for this baby buffalo….bring it into our camper and give it cozy warm place to rest and play….but I’ll refrain from that craziness! 

We explored the Belly of the Dragon cave and the Pink Coral Sand Dunes Sate park! Both within 25ish mins of us, we’d recommend both if you’re ever heading to Zion. Really neat spots! One great thing about sand dunes….is that the kiddos can GO….so that little purple circle has Merrick in it….who may or may not have been leaving his mark 🙈 

Bryce Canyon National Park! This beaut is 1.5 hours away and is so neat! Rock formations like you’ve never seen before.