It’s been fun having our family with us. When they come to stay, we take the opportunity to visit points of interest in our area, and so this past week, we spent time with Archie’s youngest son’s family going places: The Skunk Train is an adventure in itself, and Leggett has huge redwood tree that you can drive right through. We also visited 10 Mile River. Nathan’s wife, Elena, was born and raised in Russia and she was amazed at everything: it was a delight showing them around.

The two older girls decided to sleep in our camper and spent the entire day cleaning it and adding their special touches. When they found out their boy cousins might sleep there as well they were incensed! The first night they heard noises in the dark; they held on tightly to each other and ran to the cabin! We did not realize that they had spent the night in our living room until we got up the next morning.  We explained that the noises were probably deer and birds; they looked at us dubiously.  Archie went to the local hardware store and bought a light for the camper. The next night went well, however it was too cold for them, so they ended up in the cabin after all.

My son, Jason, and his family will be coming up later this week. Not sure what they will want to do: sight see or stay on the land and weed in the gardens, clean up the forest, have camp fires.

One way to clean up the forest is to get the wood that has fallen and is in the process of rotting. We cut it up and put it in our campfire; most of the time we just sit around the campfire and enjoy the fire, watching the birds, deer, rabbits (thank goodness we have fences around the gardens!), and clouds. Sometimes we talk, other times just sit and enjoy the space in which we live.

Speaking of food, remember to enter the first-ever Hot Raw Chef Video Recipe Contest. Food contests are always so much fun, and this is the first time we have ever held one, so we are very excited!