Owens Endeavors

Our Rental Car Experiance

Posted on June 19, 2014 by theowenscrew

We are learning lots of lessons on being flexible. We have planned since before we left Salem for Chad and the kids to take a trip home so he can go to Honduras and the kids could get in some Grandma and family time. We showed up to pick up our rental car this afternoon at 4:30pm to discover that even with a Visa backed debit card we could not rent a car. It has to be a credit card. We have been on the Dave Ramsey plan for the last five years and do not have a credit card. We instead believe in saving up and buying what we want and having an emergency fund, well, I don’t know why but we didn’t even see that coming. We looked at the cost of last minute plane flights X 4, train tickets, renting a car from acquaintances here in New Mexico. Plan A, B, C, D were checked off the list as possibilities. I don’t work tonight or tomorrow night, and my parents, even though they are elbow deep in a bathroom project, have offered to meet us in Idaho, so we packed the car and headed out.

Thank you mom and dad for being there for us. Thank you Chuck and Donna and mom and dad for all the brain storm ideas and for help nailing down a plan.

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50 Things I’m Grateful For

Posted on June 17, 2014 by theowenscrew

1. Chad
2. Caleb
3. Hannah
4. Eve
5. Mom and Dad
6. Chuck and Donna
7. Stephanie, Suzanne and their families
8. Being a labor and delivery nurse
9. Our dream
10. Silverton FBC
11. Midwives & Doctors
12. Salem First Church of the Nazarene
13. Dan & Robyn
14. CC group
15. This Job & being in 4 Corners
16. Being able to go to Honduras
17. Chad being able to go to Honduras
18. Being able to see Israel
19. Myra
20. Calls from managers who say they really want me.
21. The Grand Canyon
22. White Sands
23. Carlsbad Caverns
24. Beautiful lakes
25. Camping
26. The Navajo people
27. Homeschooling
28. The USA and democracy
29. Good health
30. A car that runs
31. Bowel control (hey sometimes it’s the small things)
32. Friends
33. Extended family
34. NNU and my nursing degree
35. Road trips
36. Amazing man made wonders like Mesa Verde
37. The beauty of Shiprock
38. That I grew up in Cambridge
39. An emergency fund
40. (This should be number one) Jesus lover of my soul.
42. Jehovah Jireh
43. Food to eat especially Chad’s cooking
44. An opportunity to be God’s hands and feet
45. Home birth
46. Kindness of others
47. Variety
48. Clothes
49. Books
50. Art
51. Marshmallows
52. Watermelon
53. Jalapeños
Oops I went too far here

Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Happy Father’s Day Chad

Posted on June 16, 2014 by theowenscrew

A Sunday drive after church lead us back to Silverton Colorado. With only an hour to explore the town after lunch on Thursday, we left with out really getting a feel for the quaint little town. We visited the shops that we had not yet seen.

<img src=”https://owensendeavors

For dinner Chad decided on a little place that has been featured on ” Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” called Thee Pitts Again.

Chad had the Guy Fieri special.

Then we played at the playground by the school and public library and took in the sites all around us.

We had looked at all the shops in town so we decided to drive through the side streets as the houses are pretty cute. That didn’t take long and we weren’t quite ready to head home so we headed up the dirt road towards the mines.

The road up to the mine was so scenic that we decided to continue on up the road to view a little more of “the scenic loop” noted by a sign on the side of the road.

We didn’t do the whole loop because we had no idea how far it was and it must have been big because we did see a sign for Lake City in 30 miles. It was getting later and this wasn’t the kind if road you would want to be on after dark so we found a wider spot in the road and turned around.

Just before we got into Durango there is a hot spring just bubbling out of the ground on the side of the road. We had to stop and touch it.

It was not too hot, only slightly warm and was fun to touch and feel.

We watched the sun set over the mountains as we descended out of Durango, a day well spent.
Happy Father’s Day to all Fathers out there especially Chad, Chuck, Paul, Jeremy, Jayson and Great Grandpa Lawhead as well as to many Uncles and great uncles. We love you guys.

Categories: Family Time, food, new mexico, Road Trip | Leave a comment

Homemade Cheese

Posted on June 14, 2014 by theowenscrew

Several years back we talked about trying to make our own cheese. We looked up recipes and browsed the web for ideas, but we never did make it. Then we didn’t eat cheese, so even though we still wanted to try making it, it didn’t make since to.

Well we are in a “you only live once” faze right now. Not in the make stupid mistakes kind if way, but if you really want to try something like making cheese (a whole $5 worth of ingredients) then it doesn’t hurt to try it.

Mostly Chad’s idea but we were all excited about this little science experiment.
The items needed are:
-A gallon if whole or 2% milk
-something acidic we used 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice and 1/3 of a cup of vinegar although Chad believes it wasn’t enough acid because our whey was awfully white.
– salt (more than you would think because some of it escapes with the whey)
-large pot
-wooden spoon
– a large bowl
-strainer
-cheese cloth (we used a nylon mesh bag, the ones that we use to make almond milk)
The whole process takes at least 8 hrs, but you are only actively preparing it for maybe an hour of the total time.

1. The first thing you do is pour the entire gallon into the large pot and put it over medium to low heat on the stove. Heat it up slowly to about 185 degrees, which Chad tells me is just before boiling temperature.
.

2. Then we added the vinegar and lemon juice mix, causing the milk to curdle. Leaving it on the heat for a few more minutes as you stir the curdling milk.

3. Pour the curdled milk into the mesh bag or cheese cloth, in the strainer. (We poured it onto the mesh bag then due to the volume of curdled milk, we had to change our strategy mid stream to pouring the curds into the bag.

4. Add your salt to the mesh bag or curd in the cheese cloth after most of the whey has been strained out. The salt will pull out more moisture and allow for the cheese to become more firm.

After several hours we took the curds down and put them in the refrigerator, in the bag, in the strainer with some heavy cans on it to add weight and pull out even more moisture.

5. Time is all you need at this point. Our directions said eight hours, but we left it all night and it still came out the density of a spreadable cheese.

Our first attempt turned out a little salty, but still a big hit with the kids.

Categories: Family Time, food, new mexico | Leave a comment

Chad’s Birthday Dinner

Posted on June 14, 2014 by theowenscrew

Those of you who know us well know that for the last year and a half we have tried to maintain a mostly vegan diet for health reasons. On this trip so far we have been failing miserably. But we knew before we left that there were some animal based foods that we wanted to try as part of our experiencing the USA, so I guess it is not a total surprise. Also the produce here seems to be more expensive and our budget for it less. I will be happy if we can maintain with at least 75% of our meals without animal products, and so far I think we are at least doing that.
Keeping that in mind, you won’t be as surprised when we tell you about Chad’s choice for his birthday dinner.

Chad has been wanting to do a traditional crab boil for a while. We are pretty far from the sea here and the crab that we found was not a reasonable price, so just like Chad always does so well, he improvised. We had a Shrimp and Sausage boil.
I think he seasoned the broth like the entree round at The Melting Pot. In it he cooked corn on the cob, potatoes, onions, shrimp and sausage it was fabulous as so many of the things he cooks are and I left for work with a very happy full belly.

His favorite pie, Strawberry Rhubarb, was a little harder to hunt down this year, but we did find it in Durango.

Happy Birthday Chad!

Categories: food | 2 Comments

“Our Trip Down” by Caleb Owens

Posted on June 13, 2014 by theowenscrew

The story of myself is hard for me to tell, cause we spent our time coming here in a La Quinta motel.

We got our food in drive throughs, and we ate a lot of junk, and I think Myra had a time of living in the trunk.

And now we’re all living in our cramped two-story apartment, all because we packed some stuff in our back-seat compartment.
-Caleb

Categories: Written by the kids | 1 Comment

Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Posted on June 13, 2014 by theowenscrew

A lot of people have recommended the Durango to Silverton Historic Narrow Gauge Train ride. Chad first suggested it only a few days after we arrived here at Four Corners. It sounded fun but I didn’t think it would be fun enough to justify the price so I didn’t really want to do it. Then people at church and work started asking if we had done the train ride out of Durango yet. They all strongly suggested it so we looked again. Chad found a coupon on line that was up to two kids free and three and under are free so we only had to pay for the two adult tickets and that made it doable. Since it was a big, exciting, all day outing we planned it to celebrate Chad’s birthday.
To get to the train station we were up at six and out of the house. Grabbing a few jackets just in case we ate breakfast on the way and got there just in time to board.

We chose an open air gondola where we were facing out as we had heard it would be a very scenic trip.

The train takes you through a canyon that is shared with the Animas river which looks like one huge rapid some of which are class 5.

The little town of Rockwood is famous for being the location of a Butch Cassidy film.

At times the cliff walls are only inches away from the windows of the gondola, and on the other side of the train there are only inches between the edge of the car and the drop off way down to the river below. This is my favorite picture of our birthday boy.

We had cooled embers and soot all over us.

There were a ton of little waterfalls. Both Hannah and Eve took short naps towards the end of the 3.75 hrs it took to get to Silverton.

The snow tipped mountains were beautiful. One we had passed was Mt. Garfield (I saw no orange or black stripes on it but it may have looked a little presidential). Silverton Colorado is an old mining town it now is mostly supported by tourism. They have a population of 2000 residence in the summer and 600 in the winter. Even in the winter it is more populated than the town I grew up in. It was quaint and we enjoyed the historic buildings.

Check out the elevation!

Eve enjoyed picking dandelions and then giving them to everyone she met one at a time. aTFRggggThe recipients loved it.

We had two hours in Silverton one was spent getting and eating lunch and the other hour was not nearly enough to see the rest of the town but we sure did enjoy what we did see.
We got back in the train at 1:35 and it didn’t take too long until Caleb was out.

We saw the sites on the other side of the train on the way home and it was very scenic. But 7.5 hrs on an open air gondola may have been a touch too much as we were feeling a little sick from the fumes by the time we made it back into Durango. I still feel like it was better than the closed cars as they didn’t have very much air movement and were a little too stuffy for me.

After the ride was over we stopped in at the Durango Train Museum.

Sushi from City Market for dinner and the hour + drive home and we are all already tucked into bed we are worn out from a loooong day of fun and excitement.

Categories: Family Time, Homeschool, new mexico | 1 Comment

So Dissapointed

Posted on June 11, 2014 by theowenscrew

We have been planning to go to the Celebrate Recovery fundraiser at Chilies for a couple of weeks. Not only did Chilies sound good but we really wanted to support Celebrate Recovery. So after waking up every little bit all day to look at the clock and make sure I wasn’t over sleeping, I finally drug myself out of bed in what we thought was plenty of time to go get an early dinner and get back to the house before I needed to leave for work.
We arrived at Chilies at 4:30pm and I had to leave for work at 6:00pm…that should have been plenty of time. There were only a handful of families at Chilies that early in the evening, so we thought we wouldn’t have a wait time and we would beat the rush. But when we checked in at the front desk and told them there were five of us they informed us that they didn’t have seating for a family of five right now and so it would be about a 15 min. Wait. Seriously! They were practically empty. I was playing out the times in my head. It’s 4:30 in 15 it will be 4:45. If we order our food at 5:00, and it comes at 5:20, and we have to leave at 5:30, so we have time to get home and changed, that means 10 min. to eat. So we decided that wasn’t enough time and ran across the road to Fudruckers. After all that looking forward to Chilies and fitful sleep all day… Fudruckers was fast but completely disappointing too after being used to the one in Wilsonville.
-Sarah

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: food | Leave a comment

Gingerbread House

Posted on June 10, 2014 by theowenscrew

Ok maybe it isn’t made of gingerbread but it is a house….
Today the kids made an Indian pueblo out of wafer cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough and pretzels.

…and then they ate it!

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Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

Posted on June 9, 2014 by theowenscrew

Yazzie, Begay, Nez, Bitah, and Tsosie are Navajo sir names that are seen frequently on posters and billboards on the Navajo Reservation. The names of towns and mesas recall to mind their specific details and rock formations as we have driven by them on this trip. We have been in a reconstructed hogan at Salmon Ruins. Maybe these are the reasons in which I was drawn in and able to relate to Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Nez, Chester, Schiess Avila, Judith (2011). The recollections of the Long Walk of the Navajo, The Live Stock Massacre, cruel matrons and life as an eight year old child at boarding school are just the beginning. The detail in which battles in the pacific are recounted and the struggles to fight off battle fatigue as Mr. Nez attempts to reintegrate into civilian life after the war with no recognition for his heroism or even being cleared to tell his family exactly what he had done in the war.

Code Talker is a fairly easy read and leaves you with a desire to learn more about World War II, the Navajo people, Code Talkers, and the Geography of the Pacific Islands. As I finished reading this book this afternoon I decided to search YouTube for Chester Nez and it has quite a bit. After watching a few recent news clips I was shocked to note the date of his death was so resent. Wednesday June 4th, 2014, this very week. I was reading his book on Wednesday as we camped in Colorado…now he is gone…the last living of the original 29 Code Talkers. A piece of living history, Chester Nez, with the help of Judith Schiess Avila, has made a memoir that will allow the Code Talkers to continue to tell their story to the generations to come.