Yellow River Game Ranch

James left for Boy Scout camp this morning. Hannah came home from Girl Scout camp yesterday. She was looking for something *fun* to do today since she was an only child.

We drove to the East side of Atlanta and went to the Yellow River Game Ranch. It was our first time there.

Hannah purchase a variety of "animal" snacks when we bought our tickets.

The Yellow River Game Ranch is a 24 acre animal preserve. All of the animals have been rescued and rehabilitated and can not survive out in the wild. There is a mile long trail that takes you around to the different animals.

 Hannah was excited to be able to feed the animals.

There were a lot of people there, so the first few animals that we stopped at were not hungry. They had been getting lots of food already. The first animal to seem appreciative of our feeding efforts was a black bear.

Here's a close up of the bear. He was particularly fond of raw peanuts.

The deer were little pigs! They kept eating and eating!

They preferred the corn.

This goat ate cabbage leaves.

Here's an alpaca.

The sheep were quite hungry. They gobbled up cabbage leaves.

Hannah found a new friend.

And another new friend. This one has his own house.

Many of the animal enclosures had "tube" feeding stations.

You drop the food down the tube.

And it lands on a tray.

Most of the bunnies were hiding in the shade, but Hannah found one she could give a carrot to.

Another sweet deer.

A picture of Chris & me.

This guy wasn't on exhibit, but we enjoyed watching him anyway.

The Yellow River Game Ranch has been around for a LONG time. It was a bit out dated and worn, but we enjoyed the experience. Hannah is already making plans to go back.

Sweet Potato Chips

We have recently discovered how easy it is to make our very own sweet potato chips. They are absolutely delicious.

We slice 1 to 2 sweet potatoes.

We have one of those mandolin style slicers which does an excellent job. Though I cut my thumb pretty badly the first time I used it. It was one of those "I probably should have gotten stitches" cuts. But of course, I didn't.

Here's a close up of one slice so you can see how thin it is.

We heat up canola oil to 350 degrees. We watch the temperature pretty closely and adjust as needed.

It's fun to watch them curl up.

We sprinkle them with fine sea salt. Yummy!!! We put a few in a Ziploc bag to see how they would taste a day later. (They tasted almost as good - they were room temperature instead of warm which is the only difference.) The kids want us to make them for lunches.

Sweet Potato chips have quickly become a favorite snack at our house.

Hannah's Birthday - A Late Post

Before Hannah went off to camp, she told me that I never blogged about her birthday! Her birthday was the day after my mother's funeral and we were still in Indy.

We actually buried Mom on Hannah's birthday. When we were finished at the cemetery,  my Aunt & Uncle took us to lunch in North Salem at Perillo's Pizzeria.

Then we had fun exploring and shopping at an antique store nearby.

Later that evening, we had a birthday party for Hannah at Grandma Jeannine's house.

She got to celebrate her special day with her all of our cousins as well as some of her aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Now my baby girl is 12!

Fossil Hunting in Georgia

Many, many years ago, back in 2006 to be exact, we took the kids fossil hunting. Chris had found information about a trilobite fossil site near Chatsworth. I didn't want the kids to think we were definitely going to find a fossil, so I warned them that we might come up empty handed. Boy was I wrong! We found over 20 trilobite fossils within 10 minutes!

Well, that was 7 years ago. The kids had been asking to go back there. Then last week, Chris mentioned it to a friend of ours and offered to take him and his kids out there sometime. But since it's about an hour and a half drive from home, we wanted to scope it out first to make sure it was even there before taking our friends out there!

There's an overgrown path that leads down to the Conasauga River.

There was a spot to park the car.

A closer look at the head of the path.

The path down to the river was rough and steep. There had been some definite erosion here since were here before.

The kids wasted no time looking for fossils.

There's the river.

More searching.

Look at the rock formations.

I included this picture with Chris' legs to show a size comparison.

You could just break off pieces from it with your hands. Then you would split those apart and in many cases, you would find a trilobite fossil.

 

Here's a happy girl with some fossils!

A close up of one of Hannah's fossils.

And more fossils.

Once again, we found many fossils in a very short time. We chose the best of the best to take home. 

This picture gives a better view of the path we had to take down to the river.

A better view of the overgrown path.

 

 

And for fun, here's a picture from our fossil hunt in 2006. Look how little James & Hannah were! And how young Chris was! 

 

Now we can plan another trip back with our friends.

Hannah's Camp Trunk

Hannah is getting ready for a week of Girl Scout camp. She has decided to use a trunk this year instead of her usual duffel bag. We had an extra plastic trunk, so she cleaned that out.

Here's the empty/clean trunk before she decorated it.

Hannah LOVES duct tape crafts, so she used many of her beautiful duct tapes to decorate her trunk.

On the sides, she put random stripes of printed duct tape to show the many different types that she owns.

She is especially proud of the top of the trunk. She wanted it to look more finished as opposed to sides. She put her initials on the top.

Hannah with her finished masterpiece.

She is super excited about camp! I'm hoping she'll start packing soon.