A Great Outlook For Life

Just a quick post today.  I saw this and thought to myself that there was so much truth to it!

I have to say that everytime I am camping outdoors I think the same thing!  Happy Trails!

Follow Up on the Dehydrating Apples experiment

On our first blog of October, I mentioned that I was trying to dehydrate some apple slices.  I tried using both the solar oven and the windshield of the truck.  If you go back to the pictures from that blog you will see how many apple "chips" I was able to make with 5 apples. 

I am happy to annouce that it was a success.  The windshield of the truck and the solar oven both worked equally well.  In fact, I wasn't able to take pictures of the final product because they were just a little bit too tasty.  Between my daughter and I, we had those chips eaten in a very short amount of time.  I really think that I prefer the dehydrated apples over regular apples.  I think it has something to do with the fact that there is no water to "dilute' the sweetness of the apple. 

I would encourge everyone to try to dehydrate some fruit.  I simply went online and checked out a few sites to see how to do it.  Lessons I learned:

1)  Soak the apples slices in a mixture of 1 cup of water with 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice for 8 to 10 minutes to keep the apples from turning brown right away.  (They will brown up a little in the dehydrating process)

2)  Don't look the apple chips touch each other on the dehydrating rack.  Make sure that air has a chance to get to both sides of the chips.

3)  Air temperature should be between 115-150 degrees for the best results. 

4)  Due to cloudy skies, the apples took a couple of days to fully dehydrate in the windshield.  (One full day of sunshine in the solar oven)

If you have any questions just leave me a comment.  Happy Trails!

Fall Colors of a Beautiful Mountain Range

We have a family ritual that we do every year in early October.  We find a place fairly close to us where we feel that the brighest fall colors can be found and have a picnic.  This year as with all years since moving to the Las Vegas area we went to the Mount Charleston region.

Fall view overlooking the ski area near Las Vegas

Entrance to the Las Vegas Ski Area

A look at the Las Vegas Ski Lodge

Our first stop was the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort.  Yes, there is a ski area near Vegas.  I was surprised too when I found out.  It is close to 9000' (3000 m) in elevation.  In fact, a couple of years ago I remember skiing there on the first day of business.  It was October 7th.   It was hard to believe that a ski area near Vegas could be open that early but I was there and it was.  :) 

View from Mary Jane Falls trail near Las Vegas, NV

Anyhow, after having our picnic at a nearby national forest picnic area, we traveled to my favorite trail in the area called Mary Jane Falls.  It is 2 miles out and 2 miles back.  The elevation change is about 1000 feet  (300+ m)  The views from that hike are amazing!  My wife, daughter and I had a great time and I already look forward to next year! 

Happy Trails everyone!

I really didn't know you could do that....

For far too long, I like too many people believed that all food came from stores.  Okay, being raised on a small farm I didn't really believe that.  However, I have to admit that I have grown accustomed to relying on stores for everything.  I really want to change that as much as I can.  Today, I tried something new.  I am dehyrating apples for future use. 

Dehyrating using the windshield of the truck

I am doing it in two different sources.  1) using our the solar oven and 2) using the windshield of my truck.  I am anticipating that they will bring the same tasty results.  I hope so anyhow. 

Another use for the solar oven

As I write, a problem has developed.  A fluke rain storm has just rolled through the area.  I really need to have the sun out to have this effectively work.  Ideally, the temperature should be between 115 to 150 degrees F.  Right now, my solar oven has a temperature of 98 degrees.  The good news is that the sun is now out so we shall see. 

Happy Trails!

Enjoying the weekend with wild horses?

How often do you have the chance to spend the weekend in a community with no electric lines running to it?  We did this weekend.  We had the opportunity to attend a Cold Creek, NV community potluck.  Great food, great people and great fun!

Wild horses near Cold Creek, NV

On our way to Cold Creek, which is located just a half hour from our site in Indian Springs, we passed by a few wild horses along the road.  It is nice to know that there are a few animals left in the United States untouched by human hands. 

Crystal clear Cold Creek

All of the houses there get their power from either solar panels or generators.  (Most homes use the solar panel option)  The friends that invited us have 12 solar panels connected to a pack of 24 batteries in their basement.   They have a wood stove which supplies both heat and a cooking surface during the winter months.  It really is an impressive operation.  He is 81 years old and his wife in 71, but they still act like they are in their 50's. 

No electric lines here in Cold Creek, NV

Cold Creek is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to stay.  He were able to test out our new "old" truck camper, and it preformed flawlessly.  (Ok, maybe the mattress could have been more comfortable but nevertheless it was a great time.  We will get a egg cartoon cushion and fix that!)    Get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend!  Happy Trails everyone!

Before and After Pictures of Our New ‘old’ Truck Camper

Last week I mentioned that we had the opportunity to buy a 30 year old truck camper.   We wanted to move up a step from camping out of the back of our pickup’s shell.  To be honest it looked a lot like what you might imagine a 30 year old camper would.  However, my wife has a talent for transforming the look of the inside of RV’s. 

 

The first pictures are from the advertisement that was posted on craigslist.  It is what got our attention.  To be honest with you everything was in pretty good shape on the inside, it was just that nothing seemed to match. 

The first couple of days were spent CLEANING!  It had gathered a bit of dust over the past month (maybe years) or so.  After that, we washed all curtains.  My wife bought new curtains for some of the formally ‘naked’ windows, and fabric to cover the couch cushions.  She bought a few cans of spray paint to tone down the bright red of the Craftsman toolbox that had been installed over the summer according to the previous owner. 

The pictures below are the final outcome of all of the hard work.  We think that it looks much better now.  I have decided to keep it on my truck at all times, as it has had no effect on my gas mileage.  This enables us to go do some greendocking (boondocking while going green) whenever we have a little free time. 

We hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather!  Happy Trails!

A New Toy to Play With!

For those of you that have been following our blog for awhile now, I am sure that you have noticed that we are not writing it daily like we used to do.  We are back working again full time as teachers.  The first few weeks of school are extremely busy and it takes a little time to get into a good working routine.  Still we are not the kind of people that like to just sit around the house watching TV.  As you could tell from our summer exploits, we love to be out of the house.  We decided to start a new project last weekend.  We bought ourselves a 1981 pop-up truck camper.  We have been working on it ever since.

As many of you know, we spent a full month over the summer camping out of the back of our truck.  We had a small shell over the bed and made it work as a camper.  It worked fine and gave us much better gas mileage.  However, I am over 50 years old now and it is not as easy as it used to be getting in and out of the bed of a pickup.  During our summer exploits, we talked a lot about buying a truck camper as soon as we could.  Over Labor Day, we found just what we had been looking for in a truck camper.  It is a fixer upper with the potential for greatness. 

In the coming days we will post the ‘before and after’ pictures of "The Project".  Our youngest daughter is coming here for what could amount to a fairly long visit (possibly 3 months) and we don't want to post any pictures of her "new home" until it is finished.  If it were up to me, I probably wouldn't have bothered fixing it up.  I would have just accepted it 'as is'.  However, my wife is quite an interior decorator and couldn't wait to get it back on our lot so that  she could get to work.  Before she began her tasks, I made sure that we had the inside of the beast working well.  The new deep cycle battery, 10 gallon fresh water tank, propane tank, sink, stove and bicycle rack were all checked before we bolted it onto the back of the truck.  It may look like a 30 year old camper on the outside but the inside should look much better soon. 

 More on this later!  Happy Trails!