Backpacking the Florida Trail part 1

Ok so I know everyone knows how much we love being outside and camping etc. But did you know how crazy we were to try backpacking with 3 little kids? Well we are. This particular trip was to North Florida to the Osceola National Forest. We were going to trek along a portion of the Florida Trail for 3 days..2 nights. The whole reason for doing this is because we are taking a family trip up to the mountains in North Carolina in May. We are going to hike a portion of the Appalachian trail. It is the same trail that a few of you will remember from our Laurel High Adventure. Anyway so this trip is a practice trip to see how prepared we are.

We left very early in the morning because it was a 3 hour drive and we still had to hike in when we got there.
These are the kids in the van that morning.



Breakfast at DENNYS!!Yummy!



Right across the street from Denny's just happened to be a Gander store. That is a huge camping store similar to Bass Pro shops. Mom still needed a pair of Hiking boots so we decided to stop. Amazingly my mom actually found a pair she liked so she did not have to take her old stinky shoes on the trail..Lets just say dad made sure those old shoes hit the can before we left the parking lot.



Keeping busy on our drive.



Me and My love!!



When we got to the forest we had to stop at the rangers station and let them know where we were going to be. Inside the station they had several animals on display. The kids loved seeing the animals and touching them. The neatest was knowing we could possibly see these animals alive in the wild.









Near where we were going to be there was a historical train depot. This picture is of the front room/entrance of the depot.



This is a basket of cotton like what the slaves would work all day in the fields to retrieve.



The railroad like most southern historical sites has its grim past...This set of tracks was built mainly by slaves whose masters loaned them for a price to the railroad.



These were examples of money they had in the south and the North during the mid to late 1800's.











These are pictures of us getting all our gear on. The Orange shirts were required to hike in the forest so we did not get shot. It was hunting season!!It definitely made it easy to spot us on the trail.









Shaylyn and uncle Chris walking the trail hand in hand!!So cute!



After walking about a mile or so we came across a hikers refuge. It was a covered pavilion area. We were hoping to walk further before stopping but we wanted to take advantage of the shelter so we decided to go ahead and stop for lunch.



When we stopped about midway through our lunch some bad weather decided to come through so we just decided to stay. It was a good decision because a storm came through just after deciding to stay. We set up our hammocks and the kids tent right there under the cover of the pavilion. It was definitely convenient.











Ok so the best story of our whole trip was that my dad could not get his hammock under the pavilion. He decided to go ahead and use a couple of trees just beside the pavilion and put his tarp over him. About 45 minutes after going to bed.. in pitch black we here an earsplitting crash!! Of course we are all freaking out because it is black outside and we don't know what it was. I thought it had been thunder and that it had been right over us. As I turned my flashlight on and started looking around I noticed my dad's hammock had fallen to the ground. Daddy was fine so I was panning around when my mom screamed STOP...I stopped moving the flashlight and what did we see?........My dad actually broke the tree.. The huge bang was the tree splitting and hitting the covered roof of the pavilion. Talk about scary and funny at the same time.




We are packing up and getting our packs on , Ready to hit the trail again. We had heard even worse weather was on its way so we decided to leave early and head south to the Ocala National Forest.









BYE Osceola National Forest.



It was lunch time and since we were en route to a new location we decided to stop at TEXAS ROADHOUSE for lunch. Talk about scrumptious.Peanuts anyone?













When we reached the Ocala forest we decided to hike the 5 mile trail to a campground. If we could find a place to camp along the trail we would, if not we would hike the whole trail and just go ahead and drive home that evening. The trail was so narrow.( look at the pictures below) That there was no place to camp for the night so we just hiked our miles and we drove home late that night. I have to admit that after hiking that much I was happy to be in Air conditioning and a real bed. The trip overall was a great success though because we proved we could walk the miles that will be required of us in North Carolina. The best was that noone quit or complained and Shaylyn was amazing..That 3 and a half year old trekked with the best of us that day. She was amazing and loved being with the family. I love introducing her to nature and the outdoors at such a young age. I hope all the kids grow to love nature and desire to protect it.

Camping =)

We went camping a few weekends ago and it was so much fun. The kids got filthy and so did the dogs, but we had a blast.

Dirty Dogs



Silly faces with Daddy and Shaylyn





There were a few Armadillos in the area where we were camping but there was one that was not afraid of the people and would walk right up to you and not even care. it was really cool. This one was foraging for food and did get a little scared when we got too close.



Our little campsite setup. The boys little tent is the prefect size for them and they can put it up and down on their own.



Dirty Dogs again.



SMORES=) Yum!!!



Seriously look how dirty they are...





I was taking a picture of my seriously yummy marshe- mallows when this is the picture I got of a little boy trying to steal them from me!!











Shaylyn loved her little flashlight..



Shaylyn was a little scared of the fire at first but she finally stood with Daddy and enjoyed roasting her marshmallows.







A very dirty Shaylyn right before her shower=)

Food Storage Part 1 of 3

Oh PEAS AND CARROTS!!

I finally dehydrated some veggies and they came out great. I used 1 bag of frozen peas because I couldn't find fresh. The only thing is because they were frozen I did not blanch them before I dehydrated them and I just put them in some cool water briefly to get the icicles off. They turned out nice and green and they taste great.( seeing as how they are dehydrated now)





I also dehydrated some carrots. They came out bright orange and kept their good slightly crunchy texture and flavor. I used 2 lbs of carrots and that dehydrated filled up 1 8 ounce jar. The peas were 1 bag of peas which also when finished filled up a small 8 ounce jar.

Food Storage Part 2 of 3

CANNING BUTTER!!!
So We learned in food storage class how to can butter and I could not belive how simple it is. I also thought what a great thing to have because sooo many recipes call for butter and if we end up without electricity we will still be fine.

Step 1 is to melt the butter in a saucepan over med. heat until melted and simmering.Let it simmer for a minute and then take your heated jars( you put them in a warm water bath until you are ready to use them.)and fill the jars with the melted butter. Place the lid on and tighten until finger tight. You then flip them over to seal.You will need 2 1/2 8 ounce jars for 1 pound of butter.
This is what it looks like after you just put it in the jars.



The most important step in all of this is you have to turn the jars ( not shake) back and forth a few times every 5 minutes to keep the butter from separating...Once the jars are cool enough and sealed you may put them in the fridge to continue cooling but you have to continue to turn them until solid...
This is the turning process...





You will know when you are done when the butter has solidified and turned a milky yellowish white color. Then you can place on the shelf like any other canned good. I was told the shelf life is around 2 years.

Food Storage Part 3 of 3

MAKING STRAWBERRY JAM=) YUMMY !!!!!

Well I decided to take a leap and after going to a food storage how to class on Jam making I tried it myself. I loved it. The first batch came out horrible of course but the the following 3 came out beuatifully. The first one is going to be used for ice cream etc. because it did not set properly.

This is the Sure Jell that is used to actually make the jam set and jell.



These are the jars I got from Wal mart. You heat them up so that when you put the hot jam into them they wont break. It also helps them to seal.



The last batch I did after the kids had come home from school and I thought it would be fun if they all got to help. I love the idea of them helping because it is something I think they should learn to do and what better way than actually doing.



Our Gorgeous bowl of Strawberries



Chace's job was to cut the tops off of the strawberries.



Makai's was to dish out the sugar.



Shaylyn's job was to blend up the strawberries. We don't like chunks in our jam so blending it was our way of eliminating chunks=)



SMILE!



These are some of the jars upside down waiting to seal.



These are the final product. Amazingly yummy for our first attempt. We can't stop eating PB&J. It is that good.

Cabbage Update...

Its still growing. It is so fun to go out every day and see a new big leaf or more budding from the middle. I love it. So Here it is another week later and a little bit bigger.

It's Growing

Chace's cabbage plant is actually growing. If you look at the picture in our garden post and then look at this picture you can see how much it has grown in only 1 week. WOW. we are so excited because that means that with a little garden soil added, our garden is hopefully going to grow some nice veggies.



These other pictures are of a Tomato plant that Cr's grandmather started for us and as you can see it is also being productive.Yeah. We should hopefully have nice juicy tomatoes in just a few more weeks.Salsa anyone?=)

You can see the tiny, tiny little green buds..you can actually compare their size to my pinky finger.



This is a little bigger than the last ones and is starting to yellow



and this is the biggest one on the plant right now. Getting even closer to being done