In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.
-2 Timothy 2:20-21 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, California, devotional, faith, God, Jesus Christ, love, mountains, National Parks, nature, personal, photography, salvation, Yosemite
| 1⁄2 | c | nut butter of choice |
| 3 | T | honey |
| 1 | t | unsweetened cocoa powder |
| 1⁄4 | c | diced dried fruit blend |
| 1⁄4 | c | mini semi sweet chocolate chips |
| 3 | T | shredded natural coconut, divided |
| 2 | T | toasted sesame seeds |
I used cashew butter for mine – any nut butter will work, either smooth or chunky. If you use ‘natural’ style butters your balls will be softer (which is fine!) over peanut butter that doesn’t separate.
You can use other sweeteners as well, use what you like. Agave Nectar or maple syrup can be used for a vegan recipe.
On the dried fruit I used a blend from Trader Joe’s of golden raisins, cranberries, cherries and blueberries. Any dried berry or fruit will work but keep the size small and uniform.
When making the balls a 1 Tbsp sized ‘disher’ works great – they are often found in restaurant supply stores, used for making uniform cookies and other things. Well worth owning one!
While these carry well, in hot weather they will soften quickly – consider them a 3 season treat!
In a small mixing bowl combine the nut butter, honey and cocoa, then stir in the dried fruit, chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp of the coconut, mix till well blended.
Cover tightly and let chill for 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Take two small bowls and put in one the remaining 2 Tbsp coconut and in the other bowl the toasted sesame seeds.
Scoop out 1 Tablespoon sized balls, drop in either ball and coat lightly. Roll into a ball quickly then coat with more toppings.
Store tightly sealed in the refrigerator till trail time.
Posted in Backpacking Recipes | Tags: backpacking, chocolate, energy, food, health, hiking, Jesus Christ, recipes, survival
“I keep drawing the trees, the rocks, the river, I’m still learning how to see them; I’m still discovering how to render their forms. I will spend a lifetime doing that. Maybe someday I’ll get it right.”
-Alan Lee
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, health, hiking, life, literature, local, love, nature, personal, photography, spirituality, travel
When the young prophet Samuel heard the voice of God calling to him in the night, he had the counsel from his priestly mentor, Eli, to tell him how to respond. Even so, it took them three times to realize it was God calling. Rather than ignoring the voice, or rebuking it, Samuel finally listened.
In our modern, pragmatic world we often have no such mentor, so we do not understand it is God speaking to us in our heart. Having so long been out of touch with our deepest longing, we fail to recognize the voice and the One who is calling to us through it. Frustrated by our heart’s continuing sabotage of a dutiful Christian life, some of us silence the voice by locking our heart away in the attic, feeding it only the bread and water of duty and obligation until it is almost dead, the voice now small and weak. But sometimes in the night, when our defenses are down, we still hear it call to us, oh so faintly-a distant whisper. Come morning, the new day’s activities scream for our attention, the sound of the cry is gone, and we congratulate ourselves on finally overcoming the flesh.
Others of us agree to give our heart a life on the side if it will only leave us alone and not rock the boat. We try to lose ourselves in our work, or “get a hobby” (either of which soon begins to feel like an addiction); we have an affair, or develop a colorful fantasy life fed by dime-store romances or pornography. We learn to enjoy the juicy intrigues and secrets of gossip. We make sure to maintain enough distance between ourselves and others, and even between ourselves and our own heart, to keep hidden the practical agnosticism we are living now that our inner life has been divorced from our outer life. Having thus appeased our heart, we nonetheless are forced to give up our spiritual journey because our heart will no longer come with us. It is bound up in the little indulgences we feed it to keep it at bay.
-John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, 2-3
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, literature, local, love, National Parks, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, Zion
But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”
2 Timothy 2:19
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, salvation, truth
“What a psalm the storm was singing, and how fresh the smell of the washed earth and leaves, and how sweet the still small voices of the storm!”
-John Muir
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: beauty, conservation, earth, enviroment, God, hiking, John Muir, mountains, nature, photography, spirituality, storm, travel
Some years into our spiritual journey, after the waves of anticipation that mark the beginning of any pilgrimage have begun to ebb into life’s middle years of service and busyness, a voice speaks to us in the midst of all we are doing. There is something missing in all of this, it suggests. There is something more.
The voice often comes in the middle of the night or the early hours of morning, when our hearts are most unedited and vulnerable. At first, we mistake the source of this voice and assume it is just our imagination. We fluff up our pillow, roll over, and go back to sleep. Days, weeks, even months go by and the voice speaks to us again: Aren’t you thirsty? Listen to your heart. There is something missing.
We listen and we are aware of . . . a sigh. And under the sigh is something dangerous, something that feels adulterous and disloyal to the religion we are serving. We sense a passion deep within; it feels reckless, wild.
We tell ourselves that this small, passionate voice is an intruder who has gained entry because we have not been diligent enough in practicing our religion. Our pastor seems to agree with this assessment and exhorts us from the pulpit to be more faithful. We try to silence the voice with outward activity, redoubling our efforts at Christian service. We join a small group and read a book on establishing a more effective prayer life. We train to be part of a church evangelism team. We tell ourselves that the malaise of spirit we feel even as we step up our religious activity is a sign of spiritual immaturity, and we scold our heart for its lack of fervor.
Sometime later, the voice in our heart dares to speak to us again, more insistently this time. Listen to me-there is something missing in all this. You long to be in a love affair, an adventure. You were made for something more. You know it.
-John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, 1-2
Posted in Ransomed Heart | Tags: beauty, books, earth, God, Jesus Christ, John Eldredge, life, literature, local, love, nature, personal, photography, Ransomed Heart, salvation, survival, travel
Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.
-2 Timothy 2:15-16 NLT
Posted in Daily Scriptures | Tags: beauty, Bible, faith, God, Jesus Christ, life, love, mountains, nature, personal, photography, salvation, travel
“I love going out of my way, beyond what I know, and finding my way back a few extra miles, by another trail, with a compass that argues with the map…nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am, nights with strange paintings and floral spreads and cable television that furnish a reprieve from my own biography, when in Benjamin’s terms, I have lost myself though I know where I am. Moments when I say to myself as feet or car clear a crest or round a bend, I have never seen this place before. Times when some architectural detail on vista that has escaped me these many years says to me that I never did know where I was, even when I was home.”
-Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Picture Credit: Gary Fua
Posted in Nature Writer Quotes | Tags: beauty, books, conservation, earth, enviroment, health, hiking, life, literature, local, mountains, nature, personal, photography, spirituality, travel
Ο Watch for Extremes
Use landscape-specific details to pick the right path in snow and sand.
Snow
» Listen for water running under the surface; falling through a snowbridge may trap you in a flooded tunnel or soak your feet, putting you at risk for frostbite. Jam your pole into the snow to test firmness underfoot before walking on snow over waterways.
» Hard snow chunks, large surface cracks, or visible rock deposits atop a snowy surface may all indicate avalanche activity. When snow is unstable or you see signs of slides, move off of and away from steeps and travel in dense trees, on ridges, or in wide valleys.
» Blowing snow is not a good indicator of wind direction. When building a wind block, look for evidence that has built up over hours or days: The narrow tips of elongated erosional ridges (called sastrugi) point into the wind. Scour holes form on the windward side of rocks and trees; drifts form in their lee.
Deserts
» Prevailing winds shape dunes into crescents or ridges. Walk on the windward side where slopes are mellower and sand is packed.
» As you hike, regularly take note of your shadow’s profile while you’re on course. Though the shadow’s shape and length will change throughout the day, if you get turned around you can use a recent memory of it to help reorient.
Ο TIP: Look Up
Cloud movement overhead can signal wind direction even if dense trees block you from feeling it.
Ο Know Your Birds
Watch local and migratory species for clues to weather and terrain. Warblers stay within a mile of water, snow geese fly north in spring and south in winter, insect-eaters like swallows change flight patterns pre-storm (flying low when bad weather is coming), gray jays nest in subalpine areas (so you’re approaching open alpine terrain), and ptarmigans live almost exclusively above treeline. Note: Watch flock (not individual) behavior.
Courtesy of Backpacker magazine.
Picture Credit: Dennis Davenport
Posted in Weekly Survival Skill | Tags: backpacking, enviroment, health, hiking, local, mountains, nature, personal, photography, survival, travel, wilderness, winter
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