Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Happy 12th Birthday, Farra!

And happy Mother’s Day to me!  =)

       Actually, it was yesterday, the 14th, but because we had such a full day, I didn’t have time to post.  Farra declined my offer to take her out to eat, just she and I, and instead we came up with a hike at Pickle Springs, about 45 minutes away.  It was a balmy 75° here yesterday, with that southern breeze that makes it seem like spring, very overcast and threatening to rain.  It did rain near the end of our 2 mile, 2 hour hike, but only for about 2 minutes.  We had a grand time.  Unfortunately, Bobby was at work.  We managed to get home and get dinner and a German chocolate cake made, and the other kids finished preparing their gifts for Farra, so the evening was fun, too.  Farra is an incredible young lady, a very conscientious and helpful daughter, and one of my best friends.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Feast of Tabernacles 2011 – Camp

It’s a quiet Sabbath at Make-It-Do Farm.  It hasn’t really sunk in that the Feast is over and we probably won’t see our dear friends again until next October.  But it’s good to be in a house again, see my critters again, and just rest.  I’m coming down with a cold, I think…

Camp

The Too Awesome Chuck Box my spouse made for me.  Needs a little tweaking for next year, but was wonderful.  Packed all my cooking/dining items in it (except the grill).  You can google “Boy Scout patrol box” and find plans to build one.

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Tables and shelves are wonderful.  You really don’t want to work out of boxes on the ground for ten days.  In the corner there are the hanging shelves we made.  Bobby strung the plywood pieces together with rope so they collapse nicely and I added upholstry fabric around the sides and back.  I stuck a spare vinyl tablecloth behind it because we were expecting rain.  You can see a couple hammocks set up in the back.  Farra & Bobby hammocked the whole time, our friend Christian part of the time, Atira and Seth part of the time.

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Dinner the first night.  Burgers.

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Bobby & Christian, my AWESOME new 1-minute tent.

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Most of our dinners were cooked at home and frozen in 1-gal Ziplock bags.  To prepare dinner all I had to do was dump it into the Dutch oven and pop it on the campfire.  Here the oven doubles as a sock dryer.  Welcome to Hillbilly Camping 101.DSCF2358

Royal watching Christian take a turn with the hand chain saw, cutting some dead wood scrounged from the forest.  The guys faithfully kept the fire going all week.

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Good morning!  Hard to keep a gazillion blankets and sleeping bags tidy… but we did stay warm, even on the 31° night.

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Two hammocks, poorly made by us, gave out on our dear friend, but someone gave Christian this tent.  We moved his “storage” tent into it, so he had a closet. 

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Feast of Tabernacles 2011-- Fellowship

We arrived early and had some one-on-one time with our good friends, the Singhs.  The weather changed so drastically mid-Feast, it’s hard to believe we were having a little ice cream social here!

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Looking in from the playground on the 1st big gathering

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Justin made the rounds, visiting all the girls…

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Taking a stroll with  Naomi Fournier  (Justin in his stroller, Little Brook on Naomi’s lap)

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The overflow of one morning meeting

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Bobby and Atira playing 4-Square, which was THE game of the Feast this year

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42 children lined up for a scavenger hunt.   They marched all around the camp—what a sight!

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Feast of Tabernacles 2011 -- Misc

Soap smell-tester

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Cracked me up!  Making the same face as Daddy…

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Hanging out in the Singh’s tent, “doing hair”

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…and drawing…

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  Atira with friends

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Little Brook and Blue doing…?

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Dancing

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Bobby                                             Noah Tucker

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Faith Tucker

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Kelly & Steve Fournier

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Our family—I am so blessed!  (Don’t let the photo fool you, Farra is crouching a little.  She’s actually almost as tall as me!)DSCF2487

Mississippi River sunset on the way home (bridge from Ill. to Mo.)

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