Mojave 2018 - Kelso Dunes

Our last night we camped out by the Kelso Dunes again and made an afternoon attempt on the summit. In contrast to our 2016 summit, the temperatures were significantly more comfortable. But the wind was brutal. Molly scampered up to the top, I trudged (but made it!), and Zach wisely aborted his attempt after over-exerting himself. It's important to note, though, that he carried the pack most of the way up, which definitely didn't help his chances!

Mojave 2018 - Canned Ham

Molly's been asking to get back to the Mojave Desert since we briefly visited on our big road trip back in 2016. We finally made it this fall, in part because the kids got the entire Thanksgiving week off of school instead of the usual three days off, which gave us the time we needed to get down there. Well, not quite enough time, because we packed in a lot of other stops along the way. So Molly is still asking to get back to the Mojave Desert for another, longer visit.

Clara opted to stay with Nana and Pa for the week, and since we didn't really know what we would be getting into for the trip it seemed to be a good idea. We ended up taking a side trip to Redlands to pick up a "canned ham" trailer (an insurance replacement for the yurt that was destroyed in the fire). That side trip took a bit of extra time because the truck needed new brakes and a new hitch. We were lucky, though, in that we were back on the road with just one day lost. The family that sold us the trailer hooked us up with their dad, who is a mechanic and who could squeeze us in first thing in the morning. Then U-haul did the hitch install quickly and we were back on the road in (almost) no time.

Here are some glamor shots of "Faye" the 1960 Santa Fe Trailer. Her insides are pretty simple: two couches that make one large bed, a hammock style bunk loft, a small closet, and a tiny kitchen galley.

Olives 2018

We once again went to our neighbor's farm and picked olives. There was a bit of a twist this year, though: we picked 958 pounds (with the help of some friends) and took it to an olive oil press to be magically turned into olive oil!

Rachel & Anthony had decided not to harvest this year, but told us we could come and pick what we wanted. After discussing various options with them, we thought we'd give a try at seeing if we could get enough to bring to the press. We even had enough to pick a bucket just for curing as table olives.

We started by hand, but found it way more efficient to use the electric rakes (imagine a long rake with tines that wiggle). Huge thanks to the Newmans and the Foley-Maddoxes for joining us and making this happen!