Some days.....

You just don't get moving.  At least in the direction you had planned to anyway.

We wanted to head back to the park, we really did.  But then, S had a thought to finally fix the boy's beds.  I had a thought to take advantage of our electric hook ups and do some dehydrating.  And the kids had a thought to just hang around and play!  Translation: We never left the campsite.....

It's not the end of the world if you 'waste' a beautiful day on other stuff.  Like I said in an earlier post, things can't be just go go go.  We were however slightly anxious to 'finish up' with this part of Yellowstone and move on since it was, relatively, expensive.  But oh well.

So this is what happens when all those above mentioned plans come to fruition.  The house, as we refer to it, ends up looking like this:



Ahh ya yay!!

What you see above is the entire contents of the kid's room (including the boy's bedding) dumped in the living room so S could do this:



Yes, saw off the legs of the bunks!  You see, after S originally built these beds, Inventor didn't end with much headroom.....He really even couldn't come close to sitting up in it.  The toy storage space, or 'the cave', however, had plenty of headroom....so, off came 6 inches or so from the bottom.

This is the before shot, once all the toys were removed - see, lots of headroom.



Back to this scene, so you can see what I kept myself busy with that day, our dehydrator! I was so excited about finally pulling it out!!  We had been electric hook up free since the first few days of our trip, a month and a half ago.  I was itchy to get my hands on it and we all were itchy for what we produce with it.



And this -


Is just one of three creations that day, onion bread! Yummmm!

Its even extra yummier this way - with avocado!



Also got some granola and macaroons made as well as dehydrating some soaked almonds for future use.

All in all, even if it didn't match what we had envisioned, it was a pretty darn productive day! And the kids got to just hang inside and outside, in our "Little House in the Big Woods' like surroundings.  I know, I just can't seem to stop with the Laura Ingalls references....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...... 8.22.10-.........

Life at the campground has been pretty awesome.  It's really the first time, in a very LONG time, we all have had a chance to just relax.  We didn't feel the pressure to do this that or the other.  We had the opportunity (sometimes thanks to the weather) to just be.  We also soon learned that our campground had a lot more to offer up than 'just' a gorgeous view and wonderful people.  Our hosts introduced us to all the edible berries in the area! There were a total of 5 different kinds, some we've never even heard of!  And that's not even including the abundant rose hips we harvested for medicinal purposes and use.

 

 

This is the end result of berry picking.....

 

 

The berries that didn't get eaten right away were tossed into our smoothies for an extra healthy and tasty boost!

 

 

Like I said, relaxing.  Anybody ever know S to lay down and take a nap?!  It's unheard of.

 

 

Reading on a rainy day -

 

 

 

More berry picking on a spectacularly fogy morning -

 



Yup, that's the lake with dead trees sticking up out of it.  Those are trees that slid down the mountain when the slide occurred and have been there since.....

 

Friends and food - the basics.

Talk about a day spent in nature, and not in the usual sense either!


No, we didn't go hiking, swimming or anything of that nature. We did however, once again, feel like the pioneers.  That too seems to be a theme.  There is, apparently, something about this lifestyle that brings you back to basics, or the 'old' way of doing things.  Not complaining at all, it's pretty cool.


Day started pretty cold, but the sun was finally shining brilliantly and it was bound to warm up.  A wonderful change from the past several days.  S had to head back into town to pick up that part for the heater that had gone missing yesterday, and he took Inventor with him.  Analyzer went berry picking with S, our neighbor, berry picking best buddy and adoptive grandmother to boot.


Taken on a different berry picking day, but this is S chatting and berry picking with us:




Anyway, Analyzer and S were specifically going after Sarvis berries and currants.  We have an abundance of both here along with several others as well.  Whirlwind and I headed out to the picnic table where he diligently worked with his play dough and moon sand.


After quite a while I started wondering where Analyzer was. Since we had had a bear in the area not long ago I was, admittedly, getting a bit nervous.  After locating her and our neighbor S we joined them in the harvest.  Until then I had pretty much stayed away from the berry picking expeditions, not for any particular reason, just had better things to do I guess.  Let me tell you, there is really something to wandering around picking ripe berries off the bushes!  It just feels so primal, so natural and most importantly, so yummy!  I really was surprised at the abundance of ripe berries that were available to us.  I would think the bears, birds and other animals that roam around here would have gotten to them before us.  It was as if more and more berries were ripening as we were picking and picking.  Despite eating so many, we did manage to amass quite a harvest along the way. Analyzer wants to make a jam, but the thought of cooking down fresh, ripe WILD berries is quite horrifying to me. Why destroy perfection I ask? So, I'll need to come up with a raw recipe to utilize them in, preferably some kind of raw jam since that's her desire.


As harvesting drew to a close by mid afternoon, it was time to move on to yet another primal and basic task:  Making bread.  Specifically, pita.  We had mentioned our homemade pita bread to our neighbors M&S earlier in the week and had decided that we would have a day of pita making right here at the campground.


So....we gathered up all the necessities, spread out at M&S's campsite and began the process.  As some of you know, it is *quite* the process.  We spent about 5 hours in total making them and then of course an hour or more enjoying them along with B&K, our other neighbors who had returned from their bike ride.  About 100 pita's were made in total, but I believe only about 40 were left by the time we were done with them!  There's a reason I make a ton of them all at once.


Kids helped too :-)






There was something pretty spectacular about kneading dough outside, chatting with friends, with the sun shining down on us all the while looking out over the blue blue lake.  Again, primal. Basic. Down to earth.  So fulfilling.


After working hard but enjoying every minute, the boys and I headed back to our RV, or as we call it, home, and took some time to relax and hang out.  S and Analyzer took the canoe out for a spin and were lucky enough to see Beavers busy in their dams and several circling them and jumping out of the water at them!


About an hour later we all headed back to M&S's campsite for a campfire, friends B&K included.  After a couple hours of chatting by the fire a wonderful day finally drew to a close.


These pictures were taken on a different night (we had many), but you get the idea :-)







We've developed a real family out here and they make every day spectacular!

Heading to Jackson and some real food! 8.16.10

The day we pack and move is alway uneventful, thankfully.  We do take our time apparently, so we didn’t hit the road until late morning.  Waving goodbye to the Green River and the pioneers, we headed northwest towards the Tetons!  Finally!

The trip itself is pretty nondescript until you begin to approach Jackson, however, we did make one interesting stop on the way.

Names Hill :

It's one of the many places where the pioneers on the trail camped for the night and at this particular location, carved their names in the soft limestone hillside for posterity.  I was so looking forward to seeing it and showing the kids.  My thought was that seeing people’s names and maybe even ages would really bring it home to them.  It turned out to be very sad though. There’s a plaque of course, and James Bridger’s name carving is very clear as you can see below, but the abundance of other more modern names is terrible.  People just have no respect for history and apparently have no shame in broadcasting their lack of respect to the world as well.  What should be sacred, historically speaking, is heavily violated.  A lesson to us all in making sure we do our very best to take care of what we have and help preserve it instead of desecrate it.



Back on the trail, so to speak, we continued our trip north.  We were excited obviously about seeing the Tetons, but almost as exciting was the prospect of finally seeing a natural food store again!!!

Since we left, we’ve been shopping in local tiny town grocery stores and of course Walmart (that has unfortunately become our new best friend) and organic food has been hard to come by, to say the least. We’ve been lucky to find some spinach and lettuce and the occasional piece of fruit at some Walmarts and local chains, but it’s hardly enough to live on.  We’re sooo excited to finally see some normal fresh food!!!  We will be stocking up on much fresh produce and some not so fresh as well. We’ve come to the conclusion that while we’re in areas like these we have little choice but to eat non raw more often than we’d like.  We will now stock up on frozen and boxed foods for the times we can’t find anything else to eat.

Kids are hungry at the moment and when we told them we’re heading to a store in Jackson, Whirlwind asked “Does it have organic food?” Gettin’ them while they’re young.......I love it!  :-)

The addictive nature of cooked food - A personal experience........... 6.8.10

We’ve experienced it before, but not in such a clear fashion.

 

On good days our diet is mostly raw. We’ve known all along that theoretically cooked food is addictive. We’ve even experienced it somewhat when we ate it occasionally and felt that need for more and more, never quite being satisfied even when we were stuffed. But now, we’ll, this is on a whole new level. We basically spent a whole week eating more cooked food than ever before since going raw. On my part, what I deviated with was bagels and cheese (cream and otherwise). I also had a few meals consisting of cooked vegetables and either a noodle or rice. Other than that, I was pretty much on the straight and narrow. S on the other hand deviated significantly more than I. He enjoyed meat, fish and eggs in addition to everything I ate. And he ate much more of it than I did.

Results?

 

Well I think if you had stopped and asked us how we felt we’d say: Slightly heavier and loaded down.

Fast forward to the following week at home and back to our normal lifestyles......

Here’s where the significant change kicked in. For 4-5 days after we got home both of us were constantly searching for something to eat. Anything. Anything at all just to munch on. Just so you understand the big picture here, we never do that. We eat our breakfast smoothie that usually last us well past lunch. Then we eat something for dinner. Rarely do we look for something else to eat in between and certainly don’t spend the day hunting and pecking in the kitchen. We just don’t have the need to, it’s not our will power that’s keeping us in check, the desire is not there.

The other big change would be in the gastro department, which I will kindly spare you the details of, but let me tell you, we’re significant as well. To add insult to injury, those gastro issues tacked on the pounds! Not to worry, all’s well now, ‘gastroly’ speaking and pound wise :-).

So, what lesson did we both learn from all this? Well, nothing new really, but boy did it reinforce what we already knew and then some!

Bottom line is: Cooked food is addictive!

When you eat it, you want more. And more. Your body doesn’t recognize it as nourishing and sustaining food, hence, your brain doesn’t tell it to stop desiring the food.  The brain thinks it needs more to supply the body with what it needs (that's a pretty simplistic explanation on my part but will do for now). Therefore, we keep eating. And eating. And eating.

When you enjoy a primarily raw diet, and yes I did use the word ‘enjoy’ quite deliberately, you eat you feel satisfied and you stop eating. In fact, the taste of food changes once you’re body’s had enough. It’s not as tasty anymore and it can even become downright bad tasting sometimes.

I already hear some of you saying, sure, it doesn’t taste good to begin with so of course you don’t want to eat a lot of it!

Ah, but that’s not the case! When we eat raw on a regular basis, we find ourselves desiring those foods. We actually developed cravings for greens. Have you ever sat in front of the TV and had a craving for lettuce wash over you? We have. When we find ourselves hungry, it’s not the chips or pasta we want but a nice crisp piece of fresh veggie of some sort. Even cravings for fruit have died down some (too much is not a good thing). So, you see, it’s all about what the body demands. When it eats healthy, it demands healthy.

I know, some of you will cry out and say low fat cooked veggies and whole grain pastas and breads are good for you. And certainly, they are better than heading for the drive through.  Even just a little bit of research into the difference between foods as they appear in their original forms and those same foods when they are cooked and wilted down, or worse, processed in some fashion, is highly recommended.  But that's just my humble opinion :-)