Spring Wildflowers up Hendry's Creek

Back in late spring (mid-May, I think), we took a Sunday drive up Hendry's Creek (en route to doing some ranch work for my husband). I was amazed by the orange desert floor, lit up by globemallow.

We continued driving up the road until we got to the Hendry's Creek trailhead. Hendry's Creek is the main trail on the east side of the North Snake Range, especially now that the Hampton Creek road has been obliterated by the flooding following the wildfire.

It must have been a chilly morning if Desert Boy had to wear his winter coat!

It was warm enough that flowers were blooming and insects were pollinating them.

We didn't get far when we reached the obstacle. The trail crossed the creek bed. While it is sometimes dry here (like last fall), on this spring day it was roaring, and we didn't feel like getting our shoes wet.

So we hiked towards the cliffs and found a beautiful patch of Solomon's seal, a wetland-loving plant.

As we climbed higher, we got a nice view of the cottonwood-lined creek from the lichen-covered cliffs.

We could have gone farther, but we decided that was enough hiking, so we headed back down.

On the way we saw a gopher snake on the trail. These are awesome snakes, they eat a lot of rodents. I wouldn't mind a few more near our house!

I wanted to spend some more time with the flowers and I had my bike, so my husband and the kids went on in the truck, and I took a leisurely bike ride back down, stopping for photos.

When I came down the bench further and saw the majestic snow-covered Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peaks, I took a ton of photos. What a beautiful sight!

Farewell, Sweet Henry

It is with great sadness that I say that yesterday we had our sweet dog Henry put down. He was full of cancer and each day was having a much harder time. He's been such a part of our lives the last eight years. It's going to be difficult not to see him when I wake up in the morning or come home or go for a run or eat the scraps after dinner or go for an adventure walk. We will miss him a lot. I wanted to remember the good times with him, so I started going through photos, pulling the older ones from my blog and the newer ones from my computer (some have also been on the blog).

We got Henry when Desert Boy was one year old; we wanted them to be buddies. And they sure were. Henry helped Desert Boy walk a little faster so that he wouldn't get caught.


Desert Boy tried to ride Henry. That never went too well.

Desert Boy fed Henry his dog food a lot during the years. Desert Boy also fed himself the dog food.

We had a lot of apricots one summer, but they kept disappearing. It took me a while to realize that both Desert Boy and Henry were eating them.


Henry always loved to chase the cows. But sometimes he would be calm enough to have a moment with them.



As a black lab, Henry loved the water. He was in it a lot.


It didn't matter if the water was ice cold, he still enjoyed it.

Along came Desert Girl, and Henry helped protect her too.

Henry was part of the family, ready to be in the family photos.

As he grew bigger, we built him a bigger dog house.

He liked it.

So did the kids.

We honored Henry by making a new dinosaur and christening it Henryosaurus.

Henry like to be with us for bike rides.

I think he would have liked to have gone on the school bus when the kids headed off to school.

Henry was an outside dog, and he loved nature. Here he checks out a little snake.

And although he loved to chase rabbits, when he encountered this baby one, he just sniffed at it.

Henry came on walks with us all the time (photo credit: Peter and Sarah Schenk).

He loved swimming and fetching sticks.

And although he wasn't so fond of work, he went along for the company.

Henry went hiking with us high in the mountains, delighted when we found patches of snow.

He summited several peaks, including Mount Moriah and the North Schell Peak.

So high up!

He sure saw some spectacular scenery.

He also went into slot canyons.

He came on numerous camping trips and when I would get up in the morning to take photos, he came along. Here he is stretching out on Ibex.

And he was part of my shadow selfie.

For the last year, he hadn't been moving quite as well, but up until a couple months ago, he could still do a 3-mile run with me. Except that he just ran three miles, whereas in the past he would run about double that as he sniffed in the sagebrush and made loops and played. He was such a loyal dog, always there for us.

 Last weekend we took him for his last hike. It wasn't easy for him, but we could tell he really enjoyed being outside and with his family.

So long, Henry. 

Thanks for being there for us. 

It's been a great run. You will be missed.

Try-A-New-Recipe-Every-Week Challenge: February

 In February we continued our new recipe-every-week challenge, and we tried five new recipes (one was to make up for January, when we just got three in.

Here are the results:
1. Best Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker, recipe from 100 Days of Real Food (we used the cookbook version).
VERDICT: **** (4 asterisks out of a possible 5). This was super easy to make and tasted great, but just a little on the dry side.

2. Tarragon Oven Fries, from The Smitten Kitchen cookbook (similar to the Baked Pommes Frittes on her website)
VERDICT: **** These fries tasted great (I added sweet potatoes because I love them). However, you have to boil them and then bake them, and I've gotten nearly the same taste skipping the boiling step, which adds a good 15 minutes. Just looking at the photo makes me want some more!

3. Paula Deen's Spinach and Strawberry Salad I found a good deal on strawberries and wanted to use them in a salad. This recipe looked good, and it sure was!
VERDICT: ***** Delicious! And quick to make. (I substituted some mixed lettuce for some of the spinach called for and didn't have poppy seeds, so I guess I will just have to make it again.)

4. Cube steak and gravy, recipe from Food.com. We have several packages of cube steak in the freezer, and I wasn't quite sure how to make it, so gave this recipe a try. I didn't manage to get a photo (I know, blogging failure!). But click on the link and you'll see. It's not a particularly pretty presentation, a steak covered with brown gravy. But looks aren't everything when it comes to food!
VERDICT: **** My husband wolfed this down. I thought there was a little too much flour taste to the steak, so I would like to tweek the coating mixture next time.

And the bonus recipe to make up for January:
5. Easy key lime pie. This is an original recipe, invented by Desert Boy. We love key lime pie (thanks, Kristin!). We recently got some Chobani Greek yogurt, key lime flavor. I wasn't sure what we would do with it, and someone said to mix it up with cool whip and put it in a graham cracker crust. I mentioned that to Desert Boy, and he asked if we had graham crackers. He then proceeded to put the yogurt right on the graham crackers. Presto, a super easy key lime pie!
VERDICT: ** I much prefer the real key lime pie. But this one made the kids happy, so I was happy too.

We also tried the Southwest Chicken Breasts recipe from last month in the crock pot (thanks, Janille!), and it turned out super. We'll be doing that again.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? I'd love to get some inspiration for March!

School Christmas Plays 2014

 Desert Boy goes to a one-room school with ten kids total in grades kindergarten through second grade. Every year his teacher picks a different theme for the year, which is an excellent idea to keep things fresh and the kids engaged. This year the theme is different countries, with each student picking one. Desert Boy chose Norway (I think at least partly influenced by the movie Frozen, which he honors frequently by singing the songs from it). The teacher writes the Christmas play, and this year the students were visiting the International Space Station and telling each other about the countries they came from.

They made such cute astronauts!

It took me a little while to get my manual settings correct for the indoor lighting. I was doing better by the time the next group came on stage, the 3rd-6th graders, who also attend a one-room school (actually the school has more than one room, but all 15 kids are in the same classroom with one teacher). They took us to the tropics for a pirate-themed play with lots of song and dance numbers.

They had obviously put in a lot of time to get the choreography right and memorize all the songs and lines.

Afterwards Santa arrived, and my kids ran to get in line to visit them.

Desert Boy had no qualms about sitting on Santa's lap. He asked for a toy light saber. But later, in the retelling, it sounded like he wanted a toilet saver. So now that's a family joke.

Desert Girl wasn't at all certain about sitting on Santa's lap. She couldn't think of what she wanted. She got uncomfortable.

I thought she might cry. Finally she got her bag of candy, peanuts, and a Cutie, and quickly departed.

Most of the kids enjoyed their visits with Santa, though, including this little guy whose father was afraid that his child might recognize Santa. I think he was safe.

Merry Christmas! The excitement is building in our house.