Homemade Chapstick

Today I made 41 tubes of chapstick, about 20 cherry and 21 cinnamon flavoured.  The recipe I used was okay but I think I'll keep looking for a better one.  

Here's the mix I used:

4 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons beeswax (rough estimate: about 25 grams, melted and strained)

1 tablespoon raw honey

essential oil (I used cherry and cinnamon)

I found I needed to keep everything pretty darn hot and keep stirring or it would separate and not set in the tubes very well.

Live and learn. :)

Pig Stew

We’re getting low on hog feed and Grandma has a ton of potatoes in her root cellar, so Hubby welded up a huge stew pot & stand and is making a concoction fit for pigs.

Along with barley from the barn and a few gallons of water the stew is actually turning out pretty good, although I’m taking the pigs word for it ‘cause I haven’t tasted it.

Love Hubby’s wooden spoon for stirring. :)

The pigs are enjoying it, and they actually got a bit testy when he skipped a day and gave them straight hog feed. :)

The other night Hubby lost a bet with me on the hockey game… he’s gotta cook one dinner, complete with doing the dishes up afterwards (this will be a first and we’ve been married for 17 years this year!).  It better not be his pig stew!!

For more stew pics visit my flickr site.

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Butchering Day on the Ranch

One day; two cows, and two pigs… busy day.

Thanks goodness we have lots of helping hands on the Ranch because we did two cows and two pigs in short order.  Hubby and I drove the meat into the butcher toot sweet because it was way too warm to hang ‘em.

Mike, Brent, and Hubby.

Pops sharpens his knife.

My BIL, Mike, runs the tractor.  Bonnie, a first time watcher, takes it all in.

Grandma and Aunty Helen work side by side.

Brent, a friend who used to live at the Ranch long before Grandma and Pops bought it, always helps.

A good day’s work for all of us (although I mostly just ran my camera) but I did pitch in for one of the pigs. :)

Lytton Walking Bridge

Until yesterday both Hubby and I had never seen this bridge… and until just a short time ago we didn’t even know it existed.

The bridge is about 3.5 miles out of Lytton on Highway 12 and carries water in a large pipe beneath it.

I got about a quarter way out and when one looks down at the Mighty Fraser… well there was no way I could get any further.  The height doesn’t scare me… it’s the river that had me on edge. :)

Hubby walked out halfway and tried to convince me to come further but I was content snapping pics where I was. :)

Before finding the bridge we did a tour of the area.  There’s quite a few abandoned buildings all over the place including a yurt and old cabins.

We then came across a Quiggly hole.

Inside it was a bit dark and scary and I wasn’t sure if it was going to cave in any second!

The doorway leading out was very low and even I had to duck my head (and I’m short!)

After coming up from the Quiggly hole we still hadn’t found the bridge so Hubby stopped and we decided to walk across a large draw.  He was supposed to be following me but when I turned around I see him still standing at the truck!  I hollered at him to drive around and meet me on the other side because I could see there was a road on my side.  He some how turned right and I went left (or he went left and I went right… not sure) and it took a bit before we found each other again.  Mind you I was packing my camera, gear, and tripod… and he was in the truck, so I was a bit “heated” when we finally did hook up!

One of the places I ended up.

After walking a bit more I found this quiet spot…

And when I got here I couldn’t even hear the truck anymore!

It was a great day for exploring but I think next time we should pack the two-way radios. :)

For more pictures of the bridge and Quiggly hole visit the “Lytton Exploring” collection at my flickr site:

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Fountain Valley Beaver Dams

On Friday Hubby and I took a couple of trips up to the beaver dams in Fountain Valley.  Every year on a continual basis we have to rip sections of the dams apart or the Ranch seriously lacks for water.  If there’s an abundance of water it’s fine but when there’s a water shortage the beavers do not like to share and keep building dams that get much too wide.  We find draining off some of their water helps down here quite a bit.

We go to Fountain Valley Tree Farms which is on private property and we have permission from the owner.

A beaver lodge.

Digging out one of the many dams.

It doesn’t take long and the water quickly subsides.

It was a tad breezy while we were there.

We managed to get one beaver.

The beaver tail.

The topside of the beaver’s back foot.

The ponds the beavers have created have increased quite a bit since last year.

Hubby with a pulaski.

Mikey holding the beaver.

For more beaver and pond pictures visit my flickr site:

And the snow melts!

Wow, one day of heavy snow and the next day it melts so fast I’m thinking “Did it really snow?”

This was an accident involving a local Highway 12 resident on the day it snowed, previously we had nothing, nada, not a lick of snow, and haven’t had any for over a month.  That’s Hubby heading over the bank to make sure no one was in the vehicle… there wasn’t.

A RCMP officer from Lytton came up shortly after we arrived to check things out.

Then yesterday everything warmed up and all that snow had to melt… and it melted fast!  It was running off the rooftops of every building on the ranch.

The above pics were snapped right beside the chicken coop.  The chickens seemed to drag their butts sticking around their house most of the day until the snow was gone.

But at least they kept laying eggs!

Never again

I say it every time, yup, every single time!  You would think after 16 years (it’s our anniversary today) of being married to my Hubby I would know better but he got me again this year!!

I am standing off to the side with my hands shaking, camera & lens filled with snow, freezing body, out of breath, hair turned white, and have even lost the rubber frame off my eye piece!!  Why oh why do I let him talk me into getting on the back with him?

You would think having my camera slung over my shoulder he would keep it reasonable but nope.  Instantly I’m trying to get the camera into my coat, it’s banging on my leg, filling up with snow and ice, my hat goes flying off… I’m gripped onto Hubby so tight my fingers are starting to hurt… all I can think is “oh joy this is fun” and I don’t mean that in a nice way!  At the first sign of stopping I’m flying off the beast of the machine, gripping the ground like I haven’t touched it in a year, throwing curse words out like one throws garbage off the back porch!  Twenty-four hours later every time I reach for my coffee cup my arms ache… I will remember this!

The man does not know the word: SLOW!  It’s flat out, screaming across the field… not only the snowmobile but also me screaming “STOP, I WANT OFF!”  My life is quickly flashing before my eyes and he calmly informs me that we are going 70 miles per hour, who in their right mind goes 70 on a snowmobile??  Only a man who runs a skidder for “fun.”

Well there’s one person who enjoys it…

I walked most of the route we took looking for my missing rubber frame eyepiece and had no luck finding it… Hubby bought me a new one online and said it was worth it to hear me scream.  MEN!!

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Here today, gone tomorrow

I went to Kamloops on Tuesday and picked Hubby up from the Airport.  Taking my new camera I was hoping to get some great shots... but not all worked out as planned.  Instead of leisurely driving over, stopping where I thought things were interesting, I had to run an errand for someone and I ended up flying over trying to catch a store before closing.  I did make the store, but only because the guy working likes to stay late, it closed at 4:30 and I walked in the door at ten to five.  Then a quick run to Costco and Rona and I was over to the airport.

I did manage to take a picture of the large plane that is mounted on a stand outside because I've been wanting to show Jevan for quite some time, but that's about it.

So the first day Hubby is home we go get wood.  We head up the old dump road where he's knocked down bug kill trees awhile ago.  This picture is looking across the river and south of our house.

He dons his works gloves and loads up the first batch.  No No on guard watching for anything that moves... so she can bolt in the other direction.

He throws a bit in before we move to the next wood pile.  No fear of seeing any wildlife with all the dogs travelling with us, we started with two and by the time we got to the end of the driveway we had five.

I threw in the next pile and we load up pretty quickly.  The dogs jump in for the ride home, although Blue, No No, and Doolittle all bailed and ran home alongside the truck.

The porch is filled up again, and Hubby was off at 12:30 this morning to 100 Mile.  He has a month long job there and won't be home for about a week and a half.

Grinding & Welding

Today I decide to head down to the shop.  I seldom go down there because there's really not a whole lot of girl stuff going on, but I thought I might snap some pics of Hubby doing what he does.

The first thing I see is how extremely busy he is, hard at 'er, just what he tells me every time he comes up to the house.  Whew, I bet it was hard to put all that wood in the stove?  (If I had a sarcastic key on my laptop I'd probably wear it out :)).

I see this as an opportunity to snap some pics.  He grabs his welder's helmet (that's what I bought him for Christmas last year) and gets busy, although I do have to hear things like "You better not be blogging me."  But do I listen?

I soon realize how hard it is to shoot pictures with massive flashes of lights in your face!  No matter what setting I pick on my camera nothing comes out and I really have to tweak this picture with the Canon software.  I took DaviMack's advice and have been shooting in RAW format so tweaking pictures is great now, but I don't think this pic was going to get much better.  Most of the pictures turned out terribly dark.

He switches to the grinder and things lighten up quite a bit, at least now it doesn't look like we are down there at midnight.

So I've had enough of the shop and I head back up to the house.  Hubby and Jevan have gone somewhere on the skidder so I just may saunter out there again and snap some skidder pics in a bit.