Turkey Hunting Adventures

The Mighty Hunter has returned with the spoils of his hunt:) We left last Sunday morning and just got back last night. We were originally going to camp until Tuesday but I just couldn't take it anymore and so we packed up and drove home Sunday. I was really glad to come home and be able to sleep in my own bed and take a shower without having to build a fire first :) Plus it was a yucky rainy day today and yesterday and that would have been no fun. We did have an excellent time though.
Saturday we spent most of the day packing up everything that we would need. I really felt like we were moving or something, we took so much stuff with us. We woke up on Sunday and packed up and left as soon as we could, which ended up being around 11:00am. We got to Ricketts Glenn around 2:30pm, unpacked and went for a little drive around the country side. Boy, it was beautiful up there. when we got back my parents were there waiting for us. All of the kids (that's everyone except for my mom) went on a bike ride to the little beach nearby and my mom cooked up her famous salmon and rice for dinner. After we ate we all went on a longer bike ride and then Ricky made a fire and roasted marshmallows with Chase.
Monday Morning, Ricky woke up at 3:30am! and left around 5:00am to go hunting. He came back in for breakfast and was very excited about all the turkeys he had seen and heard. He and I actually were able to go out together until noon. It was the first time we had been out [hunting] together in 3 years! Of course it was only for a few hours, and of course I was worried about the kids the whole time, oh and of course we didn't see anything. Oh well, we had a really funny moment of Ricky falling into the swamp up to his hip after he told me that we shouldn't go that way and I insisted that we should (oops! wasn't that smart of me to make him go first?). "Ahh, the peat!" :) I am hoping I will be able to go out with him this fall some more. He's so fun to hang out with:) Anyway, I had to have my mom snap a picture of us when we got back. We did have more camo on but it was so hot last Monday.

After Lunch and nap time we all went on a hike down one of the falls trail at the park. It was so nice, really hot, but nice. We went 2 miles and Chase walked almost the whole way! It was not an easy hike either. That boy is crazy.

We had Chicken BBQ pizza for dinner and then we drove out to the Go-cart track and my Dad treated us to a bunch of laps around the track and then some ice cream. The go-carts were a lot of fun, Ricky won the first round and I won the second and was really close to lapping him.

Tuesday, Ricky and my dad left early in the morning to go hunting again. They came back around 7:00am with a turkey! It was a pretty good sized bird with a 5 inch beard. It sounded like they had a good time and Ricky was pretty pleased with himself for calling it in.

After breakfast, I went on a bike ride by myself while everyone else kinda lounged around, we didn't do a whole lot this day. For lunch I fried up the turkey breast for us that Ricky had pulled off the bird. I had cut them into strips and soaked them in milk and egg for an hour and then dredged them in pancake batter and salt and pepper. then I fried them in canola oil, pretty simple but it turned out good and I didn't really plan ahead for cooking turkey (duh!). Mom and Dad packed up and left around 3:00 in the afternoon and Ricky and I just kinda kicked around the rest of the day. It was so nice to have my parents with us for a little bit, I felt bad that they didn't get a whole lot of sleep though, what with Joanna crying, and Chase waking up, and Ricky's alarms going off, yikes! I think they might have had fun anyway though:)

Wednesday morning Ricky came in around 8:00am again with another turkey! I thought he was just coming in for breakfast so I asked him if he had any matches on him to start the coffee maker. He said, "yeah, do you have a camera?" He just loves when he can surprise me. This bird was almost twice the size of the other one with a 9 inch beard.

So Ricky was officially "tagged out" in PA, and not the least bit humble about it either, I might add;) We didn't do a whole lot the rest of our time at Ricketts Glen, just enjoyed our time together. we drove down to the town of Benton and did a load of laundry and walked around a little bit. We also rode our bikes a lot. When Ricky got his first turkey he wanted me to wrap it in bacon to cook it (he has a thing for bacon), so I told him if he got another one I would do that, not thinking that he would get another turkey, silly me. Well I did it, I wrapped it in bacon and covered it with spices and onions and it should have been really good but it was terrible.

It was so tough and stringy, we couldn't even eat it. Oh well. Here are some more cabin pictures.

We really enjoyed our time at Ricketts Glen and definitely want to do that again next year.

So onto the second part of our trip. We left pretty early on Thursday and drove through the Endless Mountain region of PA. It was a gorgeous drive. We had left the cabin around 8:00 in the morning and were planning on stopping at "the first restaurant we came to" for breakfast but didn't end up finding anything till 11:00am! we were so hungry and pretty grumpy but felt a lot better after we ate. We found this little tiny restaurant called Gramma's Kitchen. The toast that I had with my omelet was homemade and soooo good! Gramma was still there, 90-something years old, and working in the back, it was so cute. We had wanted to stop in at Ricky's cousin's farm but couldn't get a hold of them so we just drove up to NY and set up camp.

Our big tent was awesome. we were able to put our air mattress, Chase's air mattress, the pack-n-play and all our luggage in there and there was still room to walk around. Of course this is how we all ended up sleeping.

Poor Ricky was on Chase's air mattress, practically falling off. I don't know how he did it but he said he slept well.

This is the shower. The barrel to the left of the picture is for heating the water. You build a fire in the barrel and the cold water from the rain barrel at the top of the shower moves down, through the barrel, heats up and then rises to the top of the rain barrel. It's a pretty simple process and after only 2 hours you have a hot steaming shower. I think we only had showers once while we were there. Thursday afternoon we went for a hike in the woods to find a hunting spot for Ricky and set up his blind. Chase got tired of walking and didn't want Ricky to carry him so I put him on my back in the Ergo and Ricky carried Joanna. The hill getting out of the woods was crazy steep and we were definitely huffin' and puffin' on the way out, but we made it.

Friday morning, Ricky got the third turkey of his trip! It was about the same size of his second bird.

We were pretty tired of eating turkey at that point so we decided to take that one over to our Mennonite friends with 10 kids; Elvin and Doris Hoover. I always enjoy spending time with them when we are in NY. Doris is always an inspiration to me and has such a wonderfully humble spirit. They invited us to come back for dinner on Saturday. when we got there Saturday evening we walked down to their barn to look at all the animals. I had to laugh, despite all my efforts, I still have"city kids", Joanna was really scared of the horses and Chase didn't want to get his feet dirty by walking around the barn with his flip flops, meanwhile the Hoover kids were running around barefoot. We definitely enjoyed our time with them though. Elvin and Doris go to church with the same people who bought our house up there and informed us that they just moved and our house is up for sale again. They were trying to convince us to move up there again, I don't think it would take much convincing.

Sunday morning, I woke up and told Ricky that I really wanted to go home. I really had had enough. Joanna wasn't sleeping and I was pretty worn out. So we packed everything up and headed home. I think Ricky was a little disappointed that he didn't "tag out" in NY as well and he might go back up by himself in a couple weekends. I was so happy to be home and sleep in my own bed and take a shower and just enjoy the simple luxuries of modern life that we enjoy. It looked like we had been gone for a month though, the grass was really high and everything has burst into full bloom. The baby chickens are huge and Mishti's belly is growing. Ricky's parents were kind enough to keep the dogs and take care of everything while we were gone. I guess I forgot to tell them that Mishti was pregnant and they were really worried that they were feeding her too much and she was getting fat, how funny is that, hahaha. Anyway, it's really nice to be home, I've been slowly catching up on my sleep and starting to feel better, we did have a wonderful time together as a family and are already thinking about our trip for next year:)