7 Random Things- Labor Day Weekend Edition

We survived another Labor Day weekend. I use the term "survived" because our mountain gets infested with city people by the droves who come hauling everything they own in trailers and pick-ups to set up camp all over the forest.  They wipe out all of the food supplies at the grocery store, fill up every restaurant and gas station, and clutter up the highway to the point that you couldn't make a left hand turn if you wanted to. I was so glad to see them go home in their caravan of camping trailers yesterday. I normally don't mind the tourism, but Labor Day weekend is almost too much to handle.

1. On Friday, we drove over the mountain to pick up an order of 60# of  hatch green chilies! I was so excited to replenish my yearly supply since I lost all of my stash when my freezer died.  We had them fire-roasted, and then took them home to process.

It took several hours to peel the skins off and bag them, but it is sooo worth the effort to have good green chili all year long.

2. I've got a bumper crop of jalapenos this year in my garden so I've been making lots of poppers before dinner. They get gobbled up really fast. I tried THIS recipe from Hillbilly Goddess over at her blog Wild and Wooly and it's pretty tasty!

 3. On Saturday, our whole family came down sick with some sort of cold. It was not pleasant. Several boxes of tissues later, we're finally on the mend. I was the last to get sick, and the first to get better, I was only down for a day, and I firmly believe it's because I was drinking some crazy smoothies in the blender with strawberries, yogurt, milk, and 4 cups of spinach leaves. Everyone else in my family wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.  (Note: they taste NOTHING like those nasty Green machine smoothies I blogged about last month. They are waaaay better.)


4. On Sunday, we joined several of our friends out camping in the forest after church. We had a ball taking the horses all over the mountain on trail rides, and playing games in camp. We played frisbee golf, horseshoes, and several hands of Dutch Bliss. It was really relaxing to be out in the woods... in a spot so remote, the tourists couldn't find us.

Look how green the pastures are. It won't be long before we get a good frost and things turn brown.

5. On Monday, we had to water the pasture. I was so excited that during our irrigation I was able to break away and meet up with Monica from the  Blessed Mama blog. We got some time to chat while our kiddos played at the park. We recently discovered that we live near each other and have been trying to get together for a few weeks now. I can't tell you how fun it was to get to meet a blog friend in real life. I wish every one of my blog friends could become real life friends. Wouldn't that be fun?!?

6. The kids have been practicing some of their riding events for the fair this coming weekend. The only thing we lacked was a goat for the goat tying event, so we made a goat dummy.

My husband cut an old tire in half and attached some old pipe legs to it with nuts and bolts.

It can stand up, or be laid down at the end of the arena like a fake goat. It's legs swivel to be gathered for tying. The kids were getting black rubber marks on their clothes from the tire, so I made a sleeve to go over it with the legs from an old pair of jeans. Now when they flank it, they don't get black tummies.

It looks ridiculous, but it has been working really well for the kids to practice with.  I just love redneck solutions!

6. We've delivered our buyer's letters, and we are officially ready to show and sell these hogs next week.

7. I bought the NOAA Hi- Definition weather App for my iPhone, and now I'm obsessed with checking it for storm coverage. It has everything a girl could want in a weather app. You can see drought areas, different  map terrains based on GPS, tornadoes, hurricane paths, cloud coverage, etc. You can even scroll over any part of the whole world, zoom in to a teeny, tiny road, and see how the weather is in...say... Uliastai Mongolia. It's pretty stinkin' cool...if you're a nerd like me. Above is a pic of the current drought conditions for the US. Yikes!

Well, I guess that about wraps up my "chillaxing" Labor Day Weekend re-cap. I'm off to go meet with the farrier.

 Happy Tuesday, friends!

Nell