Elkus Ranch

Elkus Ranch Half Moon Bay

Amanda, Angie, Natasha, Veronica, Kayleigh

food for the pigs

laughing goat!

The spitting lama...

"Lucky Campers"

Barlow Flat Camp

We had an eventful backpacking trip with the dog this weekend. We got a late start and stopped at a camp three miles from Sykes hot springs and then... the wind started. Ferocious gusts were shaking a forest weakened by fire. From inside the tent in the dark beneath a grove of towering redwoods, we'd hear and feel the wind, then hear branches cracking, then hear and feel redwood trimmings raining on the tent, and sometimes hear a tree crashing to the ground in the distance. Early in the evening a very loud nearby crack got Amy up and shouting my name. I woke up to hear and feel a ground-shaking thud. We rushed out of the tent and saw that a tree about 80 feet high, maybe three feet in diameter, had come down in the adjacent campsite, less than 10 feet from where our neighbors were sitting around the campfire, and not far from either their tent or the tent one more campsite over. Eventually we got back in the tent and listened to more gusts and cracks and branches falling. We decided to then move the tent. The wind finally died down but we still didn't sleep much. In the morning we skipped Sykes and hiked out over fresh downfall blocking the trail, including a couple of massive redwoods. Not an ideal trip, but definitely one to remember!!

ben getting ready to hike

ari loves hiking!

ben cooking dinner

ari relaxing in the tent

baby beef dinner!
mountain house is better

breakfast

the tree that came down beside us in the middle of the night...

same tree

one of many downed tree on the hike out

MT Diablo

MT Diablo Hike
no dog allowed!

ben showing us a sasquatch print

me

Halloween

Halloween at Marika's House

scott finishing up the decorations

evil sophie...

sophie trying to eat bunny ben

ben's pumpkin!

Alice

First Snow!!

South Lake Tahoe, CA
6 inches at 6500 feet!

this is what we woke up to on sunday morning! we were really excited!

ari playing in the snow!

ben wanted this titled "bald man in the snow" but i think "ben loves the snow" is a better title.

ari loves the snow too!

amazing morning!

Bun's Mail Order Bride and Chicken Updates

we have a new friend on our farm. alice, the rabbit, was flown from massachusetts to us. we are happy to have her. we hope bun is going to like his new wife!

alice

bun meeting alice for the first time

pile o chicken
marguerite, etheldore and tille in the front, elizabeth and fillet in the back

kissing buns

tillie is doing great! she is still smaller than the rest of the girls but she is growing. she has a great personality. she is the last one to get up in the morning and the first one to bed at night.

tillie taking a nap on our front steps

elizabeth and etheldore playing on the rock in front of the house. the girls love to play on our front porch.

etheldore standing tall

chick fillet pecking at the ferns