Mar. 7 and part of Mar. 8, Mon. and Tues.

I soaked some dehydrated, cooked pinto beans and onions in the bowl. Tomatoes, peppers, and onions in the cup. Canned ground venison in the background.

I made spiced meat filling for burritos, mashed the refried beans and fried them, and we grated a jar of home-canned cheddar cheese to put in with it all.
Off-grid, no refrigeration luxury meal!


The sunset Monday evening was prettiest to the south, where the clouds caught the colors and reflected them onto the water.

Tuesday morning the wind picked up and came from the north, which is different.

Our camp looks south, so the water close to shore was sheltered from the wind.

Farther out, you can see the choppy water.

Steven gave the dog a baking soda bath, because she was starting to smell like a...dog.

She loves this because he rubs her down good while working the baking soda in,

then brushes her out. She practically purrs!

The baking soda does an exellent job. It works for about a week,

then we repeat the process.

I buy the baking soda in 14-lb bags at Costco, and it goes in that bucket you see.

We keep a copper measuring cup in the bucket.

In the afternoon a thunderstorm breezed through.

It came in from the west and circled our north.

I took several pictures but never got the lightening in it.
The brief, heavy rain probably caused some flashflooding.

Here's the poor pepper plant that is working to put out new leaves for the third time.

Last summer the cat decided to bat it around and pulled off or damaged all the leaves.

It grew back, and then got partly frosted and partly mangled from traveling on the way to Nevada last month.

A few people have asked about our solar cooker.

This is the original box. The reflector is folded and sitting on top.

Inside the box is the glass lid, the black metal inner bowl, and the glass outer bowl.

This is the only interesting page in the booklet that came with it.

I left it sideways so the print will be bigger.

I was cutting up potatoes for our stew, and breaking off the eyes that were starting to grow,

and I decided to plant a couple of them. I poked this one in across from the remaining-but-struggling cantaloupe plants.

I took this planter pot down near the water in a wash where there were green plants growing, and dug up some of the sand there. Back by the uhaul I planted a potato piece in it, but I didn't think to take a picture until after I buried it.

You'll have to wait for a picture of the plant when it comes up! :)

So far there's only potatoes and dehydrated peas in the solar cooker. Later I added dehydrated carrots, onions, and celery, some Rosemary and garlic powder, and a jar of venison chunks.

We left it to cook while we went on a hike. When we got home I made biscuits, and I thickened the broth of the stews, and we ate it all mixed together.

It was heavenly!

The cat was worn out from celebrating and singing "Happy birthday" loud enough to be heard from Nevada to Wisconsin. Happy birthday, Marge!

"29" looks as good on you this year as it did back in...um...yeah........

The uhaul needed a new thermostat, so Steven picked one up last time we were in town.

Then he opened it up and it has TWO thermostats!

Who's heard of that?

So he boiled water in an old food can to dip the thermostats in. He watched to see when they opened, so he could see which one was bad. He used a piece of wire to lower them into the water.

I washed laundry (now we're back on Monday. These pictures are mixed up) and used the uhaul ramp for a scrub board for Steven's work jeans.

Steven used a hammer to tap out a gasket, using the cover as a pattern.

For the thermostat cover.

I made strawberry muffins, using sliced dehydrated strawberries from our garden.

I added about a third of a cup of Nestle's Strawberry Quik powder for extra flavor.

Then I made some powdered sugar frosting for the muffins.

Delicious.