Happy Thanksgiving!

Our gorgeous frosted world, created by the fog of our weather inversion, looks more like Christmas than Thanksgiving. It inspired us to mail our first Christmas package that has the furthest to go ... southern Forida. Today we baked squash and green beans as our portion of the family Thanksgiving get-together. We are starting to saute onions, garlic and homegrown oregano in olive oil to add to our homegrown green beans. The result is delicious and less calories than the more traditional green beans with mushroom soup and french fried onions. We made both styles for today and will see which one folks like the best. We fix the squash almost like you would candied yams. Louis will eat yams or squash only if they have a little butter, brown sugar and marshmallows to sweeten the dish. Hope you all are enjoying your favorite foods & families. God is so good! May He receive all of our thanks for such memory-making times as this.

Simple yet delicious

Sometimes I find a recipie that is both delicious and extremely simple to make. While I was volunteer nursing at Camp Utmost, the cook was Chef Bill Colson. Bill usually is the chef for a restaurant in Shelby, Montana, I believe. After tasting his cole slaw at two meals, I sought him out in the kitchen to see if he would share his recipie. He did and here it is...

COLE SLAW DRESSING
Chef Bill Colson (Camp Utmost 2004)

Chop up 1 large head of cabbage & 1/3 small white onion.

Blend: 1 cup sugar
¼ cup oil
¼ cup vinegar
salt to taste
1 1/3 cup salad dressing or mayo.

Combine with the cabbage and onion and refrigerate.

Sometimes I add some shredded carrot to this recipie.

Enjoy. - Cary

Storms are a part of life and growth

Our first snowstorm arrived yesterday but is melting away fairly quickly this morning. We loved watching the big snowflakes, but had to moderate our driving to the lack of visibility and slick pavement. Another storm of sorts has arrived in our household. Have any of you had to take away a car from a teenager? Fireworks! No, warfare results! Our daughter's grades had fallen dramatically and she was not always obeying the family curfew, so the boundaries got tightened to her dismay. Now the relative shalom/peace of our home has been exchanged for a familiar battleground of wills, tempers, negotiations... It's back to taxiing our daughter to school because she won't budge out of bed to get to the bus in time. It's teaching through consequences that you don't always get your own way in this world, even if you are doing "OK" in the biggies like staying away from alcohol and drugs and illicit sex. More is expected in the areas of responsibility and authorities - to include parents - are to be respected and obeyed. Sound familiar to you? It's become a decade's theme for us. Thankfully, we have the best Father around to turn to for encouragement and wisdom. He assures us that it is worth it to hang in there and teach the proper values.

October Hikes in the Bitterroot/Selway

The drop off at the top of Bear Creek Canyon Overlook was a little scary.
Bear Creek Canyon Overlook is a long but fairly easy hike with a gorgeous view from the top.

While Louis hunted and brought home four deer for our year's meat supply, I had the fun of weekly Wednesday hikes in the Bitterroot Mountains and Selway Wilderness. The best way to share these with you is by a sampling of my photos taken during some of those hikes.

More hiking photos

Would you like to join me on a hike like these in the Spring?

Golden tamaracks and aspens are common in the Bitterroots...as are cathedral-like cliffs... so typical of our hike up Chaffin Creek in the Trapper Peak area.


Glen Lake was a more difficult hike into the Selway Wilderness, but the scenery was great!! The hillsides were covered with bear grass and huckleberry bushes dressed in their Autumn russet leaves.
Because of the high elevation, on some of the hikes we had a touch of winter via snow on the pine branches on either side of the trail.