The Adventures of Amy, Ben, and Ari

22 March 2010

Troutmere La Honda

Brief Summary of Troutmere Farm (where we live):

We gave some eggs to the neighbors. (That’s good!!!)

The neighbors live on compound of shacks and junk owned by a man notorious for dosing monkeys with acid in his back yard. (That’s weird…)

A few days later, the neighbors gave us fruit salad!! (That’s good!!!)

The fruit was drenched in cool whip and mixed with colored marshmallows. (That’s weird…)

The chickens just ate the fruit salad, and they will use that caloric energy to produce more eggs!!! (That’s good!!! And weird!!!)

Another week in the woods… 1500 fish were delivered on Tuesday. They look a little surprised as they all rushed out through a 18-inch pipe, but we think they’re getting settled.

view from the bottom of the driveway

our log house

side yard - where the chickens and bun lives

looking down the driveway at the garage

girls playing in my compost pile!

trout pond in the background

28 February 2010

Elkus Ranch

Elkus Ranch Half Moon Bay

Amanda, Angie, Natasha, Veronica, Kayleigh

food for the pigs

laughing goat!

The spitting lama...

29 November 2009

"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!!