The Gojito!

I'm back to reminiscing about last summer. I'm proud to say I am now the master of the mojito! After much experimenting I feel my recipe can not be improved upon. What's even better is: It's easily transferable for that camping or beach trip. Hence the name: Gojito! How many more days until I have that fresh mint from my garden? Ahhh......too many, too many.

Reaping the Harvest

This is just a sampling of the root veggies I pulled out of the garden. I don't like carrots too much but my son loves them. I'm glad we planted them since I heard a funny comment from him in early spring. He thought carrots only came in the mini, cut, peeled variety. It was great to show him carrots in their true form. I've never planted potatoes before either. I can't believe one potato produced all the potatoes below!

65 degrees in January....

What does that make me think of? Sun, fresh garden veggies, and margaritas. I was going to post these pics this summer but: I was too busy, I was having too much fun to go inside and work on the computer, or I was plain lazy. Take your pick...any of those excuses would work.

On the bright side this gives me something to post when everyone is experiencing the doldrums of the winter months. I can let everyone dream of grilled pizza (home made crust) with Sun Gold & Italian Ice tomatoes (home grown), falafel, feta cheese, and a peanut/soy sauce. That's the picture above.

Not your taste?...I'll try again:

How about a grilled pizza (home-made crust) with Sun Gold & Italian Ice tomatoes (home grown), banana peppers (home grown), basil pesto sauce (home-made, fresh basil from garden) , and blue cheese?
I admit I was spoiled this summer. My lunches consisted of whatever type of pizza I could create from my garden. Due to our Indian summer I was able to keep the pizza's going until early October. Fresh pesto (pictured below) was a mainstay in most of the pizza's I constructed.
When I wasn't eating pizza I was eating grilled kale, kohlrabi, zucchini pie, hamburgers (beef from South Dakota), and freshly cut tomatoes. All of the veggies seen here are from my garden. My taste buds are salivating!
Another favorite, of course, is your good old BLT (mine might be a little different from your version...I'm a big fan of blue cheese), South Dakota bacon (look how thick that is!), BBQ sauce and mayo, spring greens, kale, and roasted kohlrabi.

Well now I'm off to cook dinner and I'm a bit disappointed. It's not going to be anywhere near as good as dinner this summer! Bummer!!

Breckenridge for Christmas

We spent a nice Christmas up in Breckenridge. That's the hubbie and my mom in the pic above. There was lots of snowshoeing, opening presents, seeing movies, some skiing (the little people), wonderful family time, swimming and hot tubbing, watched a fun play (the kids loved it-A Christmas Story), and sledding.

Snowshoe Day 1: Double Loop
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, Ski Jump, True Romance Mine, Trail of Tears, Sally Barber, up mini Heart Attack Hill, back to House
Distance: 5.52 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 2.6 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 09 min
Total Ascent: 1048 ft.


Snowshoe Day 2: Straight up
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, up the mountain to mine, over and down to ski jump, back to house
Distance: 4.25 miles
Difficulty: Difficult
Moving average: 2.1 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr, 59 min
Total Ascent: 1344 ft.

Snowshoe Day 3: Double Loop
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, Ski Jump, True Romance Mine, Trail of Tears, Sally Barber, up mini Heart Attack Hill, back to House (took a turn before I was suppose to)
Distance: 5.69 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.1 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr, 51 min
Total Ascent: 1062 ft.

Snowshoe Day 4: Double Loop
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, Ski Jump, True Romance Mine, Trail of Tears, Sally Barber, up mini Heart Attack Hill, back to House
Distance: 5.51 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 2.8 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr, 59 min
Total Ascent: 1076 ft.

Snowshoe Day 5: Straight up
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, up the mountain to mine, over and down to ski jump, back to house
Distance: 4.11 miles
Difficulty: Difficult
Moving average: 2.6 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr, 34 min
Total Ascent: 1300 ft.
Notes: Butt burner day!

Snowshoe Day 6: Double Loop
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, Ski Jump, True Romance Mine, Trail of Tears, Sally Barber, up mini Heart Attack Hill, back to House
Distance: 5.52 miles
Difficulty: Difficult
Moving average: 3.2 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr , 42 min
Total Ascent: 1035 ft.
Notes: Winds blowing 70-100mph that day; 3-4 dead fall trees on trail the next day

Snowshoe Day 7: Little Loop
Trails Used: House to Ski Jump, to Iowa Mill and back down to House
Distance: 3.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.1 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr , 04 min
Total Ascent: 635 ft.
Notes: I'm beat, need a break, got the job done today but that was about it!

Stink Lake! South Dakota

Yesterday I went for a 6 mile hike around what we call the quadrants. Funny how perfectly laid out the roads in farm country are: 1 mile for each length in a perfect square! I'll have to see how straight the lines are once I download the GPS info. (Straight, aren't they?)
Hike: Two Quadrants
Distance: 6.11 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 3.8 mph
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 35 min
Total Ascent: 670 ft.

Last night we had a huge booming thunderstorm (.65 inches) so the roads were wet. I decided not to walk for exercise today to help my foot. We headed out to do part of the quadrant but are bike wheels were getting so mucked up we turned around and headed back for town. We ended up going down the road to Stink Lake (it is currently underwater from the large amounts of rain this summer) and then turned around. It is foggy and muggy this morning!


Hike: Stink Lake
Distance: 8.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 7.8 mph (How pathetic is that...tells you how muddy the roads were!)
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 03 min (we did stop at Stink Lake for a bit)
Total Ascent: 61 ft.

Finally did just one quadrant! I don't like this way as much since I have to go on the highway for a mile. It was a Saturday and busy for Eden (~6 cars/trucks).
Hike: One Quadrant
Distance: 4.07 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 4.1 mph
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 00min
Total Ascent: 444 ft.

The highlight of our trip was being out at the farm to see this calf seconds after it was born. If we had gone in the barn when mama was mooing (we thought we were upsetting her so we stayed out for a second longer) we would have seen it come out. We did get to see her eating the sac though!

Kathy Fromme to Spring Canyon, to Poudre Trail and Home

I really did this August 6th but as you might be able to discern, I've been a bit behind this summer. Too much fun, not enough work!

Bike: Kathy Fromme to Poudre Trail
Trails Used: Kathy Fromme to Spring Canyon Park, to Overland Trail Road, to Poudre Trail, to Power Line Trail
Distance: 29.93 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 13.2 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 16 min
Total Ascent: 246 ft.

Last Visit to Canada Creek Ranch!! Sad :(

Where else can you see elk and deer, swim on the beach, kayak, play on the sand hill, go berry picking, play tennis, have bonfires, get married, have baptisms, or propose to your wife? It's been in the family for 48 years...the end of an era!

Lake Geneva up to Tamey Land
Distance: 4.22 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 6.1mph
Moving Time: 41 min
Total Ascent: 315 ft.
Lake Geneva
Distance: 2.15 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 5.2mph
Moving Time: 24 min
Total Ascent: 147 ft.
Little Joe (Out and Back)-Site of a wedding proposal and two baptism's
Distance: 5.29 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 6.1 mph
Moving Time: 52 min
Total Ascent: 594 ft.
Little Joe (The Back Way)
Distance: 4.91 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 3.7 mph
Moving Time: 1 hr., 19 min
Total Ascent: 594 ft.
Out Back
Distance: 5.03 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 5.3 mph
Moving Time: 57 min
Total Ascent: 620 ft.