That’s a quote from my favorite poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. Instead of cabbages and kings, I will be talking about canyons and Joshua trees.

We left Skooliepalooza on Jan 31. The wind chased us out. We drove to California and shopped for groceries. I am excited to say that its the 9th today and we haven’t made another grocery stop, except milk and bread. Our supplies seem to carry us for a while.

We arrived at Joshua tree with one of our Dory batteries overcharging. So that was a bit stressful. We made many stops and tried to use the overcharge for cooking, making tea etc. We camped at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campground just south of Joshua tree national park. We found a delightful spot, a little away from other campers.

The next day we went to the Ladder Canyon in Mecca, CA. My fear for heights reached new heights here! But I am happy to say that I managed to make it up the top with the others. It was a breathtaking scenery. Joshua tree national park has six mountain ranges. There are several rock climbing opportunities in and around the area. You can also see a snow capped mountain peak called San Jacinto from where we were camped.

We went into Joshua tree national park twice. The first day we visited Skull rock and jumped around the various rocks there. This is an easy and fun rock climbing experience. The next day we went to Arch rock. We strayed a bit and ended up in some more serious rock formations there. The kids and I also did the junior ranger program. Other than that we were doing some trash collection and walking around the BLM lands. The kids went on long bike rides with Kylo the dog by their side. We used the ham radio a lot during their bike rides to stay in touch. We were all happy about this.

For the first time since we hit the road, we allowed our chickens to free range at our campsite. They had their harnesses and leashes on so that we could easily catch them in case they tried to run away. But we needn’t have worried. Not only did they stay close, they even tried to enter Elfie, our little school bus camper, on a regular basis. It was quite funny. It got less funny when they tried to eat the hummingbirds that were visiting our hummingbird feeder, but overall it was very fun.

We left Joshua Tree national park today and are parked tonight at the Bombay beach by the Salton sea. Its a strange, artsy ghost town. We enjoyed some bike rides and the sunset by the beach. Oh! The animals are pulling at me to hand over the keyboard so over to them!

Rosie the dog: Kylo Ren wanted to write the blog again but one growl from me had him shrinking to his little corner. This week turned out to be a bit more fun than the previous weeks. I was off leash and got to push around Lazy Laurie, the chicken. To tell you the truth, Lazy Laurie is scary. When she looks at me, I have to avert my eyes. Anyway, my not-so-dear husband Kylo Ren got more outings than me. I am a little annoyed about it, but my beauty sleep has become more and more important to me. So I let him do all the tasks around here and still show him who is the boss by baring my teeth at him. Seems to be working! Uh oh. Lazy Laurie is here. Better let the scary chicken take over.

Lazy Laurie the chicken: Crazy Cookie has been trying too hard. She wrote two blogs and thought she was climbing the pecking order. Truth is, I am on top. I am the fattest. She is the thinnest. In our world fat is beautiful! Fattest are on top. She does lay eggs, gotta give that to her. Crazy Cookie shows promise. But she hasn’t risked her life like I have so often to make chicks. Its called being broody. Let me tell you, its a killer. You don’t get to eat or drink while sitting on an egg and you have to be fearless when the humans arrive by puffing up to scare them.

Now that spring has arrived (a little too early in my opinion), I am trying to nest in the yellow bus. Unfortunately the last time one of the human roosters was there when I hopped in. She caught me and put me on camera! Now I didn’t like being squeezed and had to fluff my feathers for a while afterwards, but hey! I am a celebrity now. So that’s something. Top that, Crazy Cookie. Ok more next week. I gotta go sit on an egg.