Clinton's home

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Desert Microburst!

Tree in front yard blown over

Almost landed on truck next door

Being pulled over by truck.

Last night we had another quick storm move in. It only
hit East Mesa! It snapped power lines on Southern,
between Power and Recker, one pole even landed on
someone's red SUV. It was on the news last night.
We were on the outskirts of the storm and this is what
it did. It was really weird. There was constant rumbling
of thunder in the sky from cloud to cloud lightening. I got
some great video on my camera, but it didn't download
very good on the computer. I need to find some new
software! It was amazing. It dumped about an inch of
rain in less than 1/2 hour! That's how quick the storm was.
It came and went and dissappeared off the radar!

This is a shop that sells baby stuff.
When you say La and Lo really fast
it sounds the same as our last name
with a Portuguese accent!

This is an activity they had. The people
dressed up and the boys wear fake beards,
so the Elders joined in the fun!
WE are SOOOOOO excited to have this
boy back home! Can you believe it's been
2 years already! I can - it's been a long
two years! He'll be home in 10 days!

Oh, what do you do in the summer time . . .

Go swimming of course. We got this fun pool at WalMart. The kids love playing in it. And it's easier to watch them in this one than in our big community pool. Although, Kensington hates being splashed and won't even go near it.

Cute new swimsuit - Gotta love Target! This suit was under $7!!!!

I love Maeley's face in this picture!

This is Kensington sweating to death

And here are some random pictures from the month of June

Rice Krispy treat on the eye brow

Mashed potatoes & green beans smothered all over her face

Cute piggy tails

This one reminds me of a picture of myself around the same age

Alternative cooking!

Did you know there are other ways of cooking
breakfast, lunch or dinner than in the oven or
on the stove? This is one of them! Yes! This is
a plain ole Thermos. But not just any thermos.
This one is lined with metal, not plastic. Very
important! Let's say you want hot oatmeal, or
mush or wheat for breakfast. Well, prepare it the
night before, put it in the thermos and in the morning,
you have a hot breakfast - ready to eat. I made rice
in it for the demo I did for the Spanish branch. I put
1 1/2 c. of white rice and 3 c. of water, one diced onion
and some salt and pepper in a pan, brought it to a boil,
simmered for 5 minutes and put it in the thermos at
about 10:00 pm the night before. The next morning
around 10:00, we opened it. It was done! It was hot!
It was delicious! And it stayed warm for 2 hours.
It's great! You don't have to heat up your kitchen,
cooking on the stove, just put it in the thermos and let it
finish cooking. This particular one I got at Walmart for
about $17.00. It holds a little over a quart and has
a wider mouth. It's a great investment in our arsenal of cooking
without using much fuel or energy! Google it and find out more
info. In my opinion - every home should have one!
And it should be used!
The next post is on the Haybox cooker! Another great
old idea that needs to be used more often. Also look
into solar cooker's and there's a neat idea using a
window shade you put in your car to make a solar
cooker - google that one to find out more! I borrowed
my neighbors solar cooker and made a cake, corn bread and a loaf of white bread in it - all during the day - usingthe sun! Neat stuff out there, if you'll just look it up anduse it to save money and time and energy.

Haybox cooking!

This is my haybox cooker.

Without the lid.

Without the pillow on top.

This is my pot, wrapped in a piece
of quilted material I had that was used to
make a baby blanket and one of those
turkey baking bags.

This is the soup I put in the pot about
10:30 am and took out about 6:30.
It was just as hot as when I put it in the
box! Yum Yum! This is Green Chile
Potato Soup.

So, I've rediscovered Haybox cooking. I found it 10-15 years ago and tried it with my brick firewood hole that use to be next to our fireplace. It use to be very popular during WWII. I only did it once and never tried it again. Then about a year ago, our neighbor's mother gave a great enrichment activity on it. They used it on their mission and would have a hot lunch when they went out on the road visiting people. The neat thing about this type of cooking is: You use very little electricity, just enough to bring your food to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. It doesn't heat up the house. It's similar to using the crock pot - only no electricity! You can take it with you - try that with a crock pot! You can use anything you have in the house to make it.
Here are some web sites to look at for more info. You can also google "Haybox Cooking" and get a lot more web sites to look at. www.talkingleaves.org/node/142, www.selfsufficientish.com/hayboxcooker.htm.
Basically, the principle is this, bring your food to a boil and simmer 5-10 minutes, put your pot in a blanket and put it in the prepared haybox which is very well insulated to retain the heat, and leave it to finish cooking! It works great. I did a demo for the spanish branch and made Posse Stew and it came out of the box hot and ready to eat!
Here's the recipe for the Green Chile Potato Soup - very easy to make
7 cups potatoes, peeled and diced, 5 cups water (next time I do it I don't think I'll add as much water) 2 onions, diced, 1/2 c. celery, diced, 1/4 c. butter, 4 tsp. chicken bouillon granules, 1 (15 oz.) can Stokes Green Chile Sauce with Pork (or chicken), 8 oz. sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded (I couldn't find any, so I used about half that size of mild cheddar cheese - it's what I had on hand), salt and pepper to taste. Bring all the ingredients except cheese, to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Place in Haybox and let cook about 8 hours. Take out and stir in cheese and serve.
So look at it on the net, make your own and use it! It's great!