Creation Explorers

been a while

2012-02-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

Wow...seems like the last few posts are pretty much the same. I don't have any pictures to upload at this time as my computer died and the one I am on now is a little ancient. Since our last talk, we have moved to Hamilton, Mt and then now we are back in Central Oregon to stay for a while.

The life of a gypsy can be fun but for a 9 year old, not so much. Seeing your child make friends and then rip him away from them was wearing on my heart so we made him a promise that we wouldn't move towns again until he graduates unless it is a unanimous family vote!

Things with my mom didn't work out so well and I have been dealing with a lot of things on an emotional level but that is for a different type of blog, right? So, adventures, yeah, so many of them. Montana was BEAUTIFUL as always! Oh, the places we saw! I will upload some photos soon but honestly, it feels good to be home, to our home church, and as ironic as it sounds in my head, I am loving it here. I do desperately miss the fog, the green, but Central Oregon has grown on me.
So....too many new adventures with very little money!!! heer heer!

Take care!

changes

2011-07-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

Seems so funny how many times a person can move in a year :} Yes, we have moved again! We are back in Southern Oregon and planning on moving again someday. Nope, were not sick of it yet! I told you previously I am part Gypsy!

Life is a little hectic right now as I am staying home taking care of my mom who is not deathly sick but is in a lot of pain. My hubby is working and it is summer. I cant wait to get out and go explore to share with you all. Hopefully, soon, I will have a new adventure to share with you all! Until then, keep on exploring and share your stories!

Been a long time....

2011-04-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

I cant belive that it has been a year since I have posted on here. Been a long year. We moved numerous times, down to Southern Oregon and back to Central Oregon so, the blogging should start up again. The gypsy lifestyle is alive and well!
As far as adventures go, not a lot to post on. Did a lot of people photography while down in the valley, did a little hunting with no luck, and not much else. As far as havin fun with little money, oh yeah, last summer we spent it in a local creek about ten miles from where we were living! Lots of fun. We adventured around the woods and had great times.
Now that were back, we are looking forward to snow melt so we can get out and about. I will definitly post pics on the first outing we have which I hope will be coming up really soon! Thanks for reading! I will be on here more!

Gypsy at heart...

2010-04-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

I have decided I am 85% Gypsy and 10% settled and 5% wild. What does that mean? Huh, well, I have moved so many times in my 31 years that I have grown accustomed to moving. I love to move to new places, meet new people, see new areas yet there is a part of me that wants to have a home somewhere, plant seeds, settle and a smaller part of me that wants to just roam free and wild like.

My hubby and I have been trying to find a place to live for some time now and we can never decide. We pick this place because it is green and rains and has fog, or this place because it has mountains and lots of animals or this place because we used to live there and it is comfortable but none seem right just yet.

***FYI if you are planning on moving, how we do it is by lots of research online, finding out about jobs, rentals, schools, hospitols, and our hobbys (outdoor stuff). If it sounds promising we take a trip to there if we can. Check it out, see if we really like it. Then it makes our list!**

That part of me that wants a permanant home, wants to be able to have a dog, paint walls, grow a garden, it comes out and rears its head every now and again. It is depressing when it does because at this point,I am not sure if, even if we did find a place to call home, we would be able to afford to buy a peice of dirt. I do long for that day though.

Remember back to when you were a kid, roaming free, no worries. Yeah, my wild inner child. I sometimes, would love to just move to teh woods, nothing with me but my hubby, son, and my Bible and just live off the land. No job, no bills, just livin. HOwever, the idea sounds great but I would miss my computer and other modern conveniences. It is still tempting though.

All in all, I think we all have different percentages of those things in all of us. It just takes figuring out what to do and where to go to find the balance. For me, at this point in time, the balance would be living in the very North West of the US in a small cabin on about five or ten acres. The area would calm the gypsy in me, the home would calm the settled part of me, adn the acreage would calm the wild child in me.

To all the gypsys, never stop livin and seeing the beautiful Land God created for us! For those who are settled, Paint a wall for me, adn the wild children, keep on chasing those dreams!

Spring adventure...

2010-04-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we drove over to Camp Sherman, Or. and went to the hatchery. We had a great time watching the geese and ducks swimming. I had lots of photo ops with the fish and geese. Yet, it was not too far away from home.

The two geese here were very friendly. They even ate fish food from my sons hand and my own. It was a great day all in all. Fish, Geese, familly, and pine needles.

Pine needles you say? Yes, we gathered a bunch of pine needles so that I could attempt a basket. My willow has just been sitting around, not enough to make a basket with so it just sits. Yes, it is pretty to look at, but it taunts me.

SO, pine needles, why not give it a try right? ANd guess what, I did, I finished a basket. It was not as hard as it looks, yet the preperation was a little tricky. I wont give you how to's just yet as I am just a beginner but you can get some help from PaleoPlanet.net and go to the baskets sectoin, lots of info there, or I was actually reading a book called "Pine Needle Basketry- From Forest to Finished Project." BY Judy Mofield Mallow.

This book had a ton of how to's and a ton of photos of diffent baskets you can make. Not so primitive as I would hope but to start out, what the heck right? So I had fun, hope you enjoy my finished product. One Geese photo and one basket photo!

Questions from home

2010-02-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

I was curious, if you could move anywhere you could move to, where would it be and why? If I was to answer myself, it would take a lot of thought, right off, right now, I would say someplace on the Oregon coast or Washington Coast as I love the beach but I would want to live in a small cottage and work from home. Dream on...right?

But given the chance to really think about this, the most important fact to me, would be that my hubby and son were happy there. Two, that we could eventually live off the land wherever that may be. Three, a place where there are many adventures to be had. And four, preferably in Oregon, Washington, or Montana.

We have thought about selling everything and moving to a foriegn land like Austrailia, Ireland, or someplace like that, and I must say, That sounds awfully intreaging, yet, I am getting to the age where I would love a place to call HOME and hang my hat for the rest of my life.
I dont know how many of you rent, but we do and it is sad wasting money each month into a place you dont own, you cant make your own all the way. I would lvoe to decorate, paint, fix up the yard, al that but as you know, we cant. OH HOME, you are somewhere out there, please come soon!! Oh how I long for home.

checkin in

2010-02-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

We have not wrote on here in a while. A lot of things have been going on, unfortunately, nothing that include being out and about or learning about canning. HOWEVER, we still have been talking about lots of that.
We are still focused on getting out of debt, learning how to can, learning how to provide for ourselves and even talked about buying a piece of land cheap somewhere and building a off the grid home.
It was fun actually sitting at home learning about all the different types of homes. From earthships, which I must add personally< I love some of that idea, to building trapper cabins off the trees on the property you buy.
I dont know if we will be able to attack that dream this summer as that will take some time to buy a piece of land for us but we are still wanting do to this when we do buy. And of course, solar power computer acess will allow us to let you follow step by step, I know, I still laugh at online stuff when we want to be so unattatched from the outside world.
We just recently got an inexpensive video camera and have started a youtube site as well. It is also called All Over His Creation,look us up and see some tutorials on some primitive skills and thoughts from Johnny and a little about our pets. :)
In the meantime, since we are having cabin fever, share your stories and make sure you are enjoying His creation!

Some thoughts from home

2010-01-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

Today, my husband and I were discussing how our grandparents always has extra food stored in the cupboards, they didnt worry if they were not getting paid or if there job was going downhill because they didnt live paycheck to paycheck.
In this day and age, most people live paycheck to paycheck. I can not stand the feeling of knowing there is a week left until I get paid so that I can go buy groceries. I dont like knowing I only have enough money for gas until I get paid because we are out.
This is because of numerous things including our debt which, I might add, this is the year we are going to get out of this debt we are in. And it is also because we rent so we dont have a place for a garden or any of that.
We have decided that using "a rental" as an excuse is just not going to work for us anymore. We are going to start growing a garden when the time of year is right in movable pots so that we dont damage our rental but we can still have a garden.
Our hope is that this summer we are going to move out of the town we live in to a place we can finally call home. Even if home is a rental, we are still planning on gardening and looking into a tear down green house. IN the mean time, I am gonna learn how to can.
Canning has been a desire of mine for a long time now yet everyone I ask says they will teach me and never do. I am reading on it and have what I need other than the bath canner. ONce i Have that, I am gonna be a canning fool. I can not wait!
My goal is that by this time next year, we will be, number one, out of debt, and two, we will be self sufficient so that we dont have to rely on paydays. We are gonna do more hunting no matter where we are and hopefully fill up our freezer too.
Might be strange goals to most out there but that is us. We love to not depend on money and we would love to have the ablity to live off the land if need be! (strange coming from an online blog site ...hee hee) Wgen I do get into canning or into planting herbs to start, I will definitly post some pics and how to's!
HOpe your lives are going great and your adventures in Gods Beautiful land are eventful and in abundance!

Out and About

2010-01-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I was on here last, mainly, due to computer issues. That is why there is no picture with this post. I did, however, want to share and adventure we had today that was fun yet did not cost more than a few dollars in gas.
We headed up to the local woods today to gather some more willow for my baskets, that I am sad to say is coming along slowly, but needed more willow anyway. Never have too much :)
There is a lot of snow around here so we couldnt go very far but we got far enough to gather some willow. My boys (hubby and son) were having an all out snowball war and leaving me out thank goodness when I got the idea for snowball baseball with a willow bat.
I took my hair tye out of my hair and tied the willow shafts I had, about fifteen, together, adn held them at the small end. They proceeded to throw snowballs my way and I would try to smack them.
THis was fun, to my suprise, yet the snowballs didnt go any distance but to the ground, it was a blast. The last one we did, my son through and as I hit it, it shredded into a mist of snow covering my face and shirt. Of course, bear laughed his head off.
But, point being, we had a blast just being goofballs out in the woods not too far just being silly with that we had. NO expenisive sleds, no gear, just layers of clothes, a little gas, and some willow.
Hopefully your adventures are all going well out there. Please pray for our computer issues so that I can add more stories and pics more often!
Until then, later!

Out and about

2009-11-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

We went out in search for more willow for my baskets last weekend and instead of finding willow, we found some bucks out looking for some does. The first buck we saw, the one in the picture, he was attacking some willow like no ones business.
Although the picture is nothing like watching him in real life, it was amazing to watch. He had no care in the world except that he was gonna take on that bush. I hope you enjoy the little bit I caught on photo.

Basket attempt, step one

2009-11-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

So, I have cut the willow branches and the first step is that I need to dry them out. I have them in my house drying as it is so cold outside that I am sure it would take way too long and I am much to excited to wait too long :) I am hoping they will be dry by thanksgiving weekend so I can work :)

The best time to harvest the branches is in the winter not only because of the quality of the willow but the nice thing is, it is already mainly de-leafed, no bugs when crawling in the bush to cut the desired peices out, and it is so beautiful colored.

I can not wait to begin. I am asking questions, reading tutorials on http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ and also the article on http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/basicbasket.htm. I will continue posting step by step!

out and about

2009-11-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

We went out into the woods on both sides of our town this weekend. Each side offering different habitats, each offering different activities, all the same as far as having fun goes. We headed out past Sisters on Saturday in hopes to build a primitive shelter but ran into some very cold, snowy weather so opted out for getting some wood, photos, and enjoying scenery.

Sunday, we headed east past Prineville and were out gathering willow to make baskets, and some other natural plants to make arrows and other primitive tools. We hiked along roads, creeks, and drove around as it was a little chilly too.

Although we didnt see a lot of wild animals nor did we get to build a shelter, we had the most amazing time, the three of us, spending time not too far from home. We got to take photos, share stories, enjoy sharing in each others ideas, and had a great time.

The willow I collected I am hoping to post a follow along as I make my first basket. We will see how it goes. I also got my first peice of vinemaple to make my first bow. Me and bear will be on our first, John on his what, millionth :)
Enjoy!

Not far from home

2009-11-05T11:47:00.000-08:00

As I got up the other morning, my husband said, we have fog. Now, that may not be a big thing for you, but where we live, we get fog maybe once or twice a year. Coming from our hometown where fog is a regular daily occurance, going to where none is, it is a celebration when its there.

So we drove up to the bluff and I captured some photos to remember this momentous occasion. It only lasted for about a half hour but it was beautiful being above it, seeing it move, seeing it dance in the wind.

There is so much to enjoy even if where you live is not your ideal place, even if you dont have reliable rigs or money for gas. You can explore very close to home, that is what we do. This day was incredible and I am so thankful I got to see this and be a part of something so simple, yet so breathtaking. I hope you enjoy.