Persimmons and Tomato Sauce! - Emma

    Yesterday Mom and Taylor went to Zeloni Bazaar to get some fruit and veggies. They came back with 7 kilos  of tomatoes and a whole bunch of fruits. Among this variety of fruits was one we had only seen once or twice before. Persimmon. We had never had it until we got here. It is a very odd fruit that looks like an orangey-yellow tomato on the outside, and is brown and sweet on the inside.    

Persimmon!

Inside of a Persimmon

They do not have much taste, but we like them.

     
With the 7 kilos of tomatoes, Tanya made lots and lots of tomato sauce! She has been doing a lot lately since it is nearly impossible to find many veggies at the bazaars besides carrots, potatoes, and onions in the winter. Good thing our pantry is huge.

   

Cut up tomatoes, waiting for the blender

Cooking some peppers and onions to go in the sauce

Boil boil boil! 

The finished product! 

Photo Chalenge

Hello Everyone!


   As Emma said, we are doing a photo chalenge for friends blog at ~His Handmaiden~.  The topic is anything that gives you joy.  Here is a photo that gives me joy.  Although I know nothing about photography and this picture is probably not great from a photographers standpoint, I hope you all enjoy it! Grace is sitting right outside our gate with our new flowers!

Taylor : P

Photo Challenge Entry - Emma September 26

Hi! Taylor and I are participating in a photo challenge on our friends blog,  ~His Handmaiden~. This would be my entry for her *Joy* Challenge:

Emma =)

Our Trip by Luke

Hello everyone!


   We went on a camping trip last week.  We went up into the mountains!  I liked driving in the mountains. We camped in two places.  The first was a cold lake Iskandurkul.  My favorite part about this camping on this lake was that the boys almost caught some fish!
   Then we camped at the "Seven Lakes".  I loved watching the fishermen set their nets up.  It was really dark when they were setting up their nets.  Maxim had to take the net across  the river on a tube.  He got all wet!  The next morning, the fishermen had fish in their nets.
   I enjoyed climbing up the mountains.  I taught Grace and Ben how to climb up the rocks!  So went home on Sunday.  We bought a huge bag of apples on the way back.  It was thirty kilograms of apples!  Then we were squished all the way home because of that big bag of apples!  It was a fun trip.  See you later!


   Luke   ✪

Us three boy swimming Tajik style!

Matt and a fisherman

Our campsite at the "Seven Lakes"

Me teaching Grace and Ben to climb!

Here is Ben with a little fish that Maxim gave us!

Pictures of the Lake trip!!!

 

The road

Ben and Grace On the Rocks

The River

One of the Seven Lakes

The river running into lake #2

Girl picture on the side of the road on the way up

The kids in the Iskanderkul lake

Washing dishes at Iskanderkul

Vineyard On the way home

Mountain reflections on one of the Seven Lakes

More Mountain reflections

The kids at the Seven Lakes

The Amazing Lakes Camping Trip! - Emma - Friday September 9, 2011

      Last weekend we decided to get out of the city and see some of Tajikistan.  We stuffed the car full of backpacks, kurpachas, food and water. Now, packing a suburban full of food, bedding, clothes, and the like for nine people is no small matter, as some may testify.  We finally got everything in. In the end we had the two big girls and Ben in the back seat, sitting on pillows and kurpachas stacked high. Two of the three other boys and Grace where in the middle seat, and Mom, Dad and the remaining boy in the front. Full car! The trip was very fun for the most part. We went through long tunnels, and over some very skinny, bumpy roads, always going higher and higher and higher. Much too high for some of us. After about four hours we got to the first lake. It was gorgeous! The first view of it was quite exciting! It was a beautiful blue color, and you could see the reflections of the mountains on it! Once we got down to it from the mountains, we picked a camping spot. We had to haul all the stuff across the beach and a few other peoples campsites to get to our spot. The tent-setting-up department got busy and had it set up in no time. We all had a snack and then went for a swim....well, more like a dunk. The water was freezing, owing to its being a glacial lake......=) Oh well. We did get some great pictures! 

Lake  Iskandrkyl with the reflection of the mountain

Tent set-up in progress

We had a great time at this lake! It was a lot of fun and very pretty.

 After one day there, we loaded up in the car again and started heading for the "Seven Lakes". It took a lot of asking, and map searching, and several hours, but we got there! We snapped lots of awesome pictures on the road. These lakes were even prettier than the other lake. We only saw the first three of the seven, but they were very nice. We camped on the second lake. There was a river running right into it. All the lakes were connected by this river we think. It was really cold and windy when we first got there but it warmed up. There was a group of fishermen a little way up the river. They were working on fishing with a net that looked just like a whole bunch of strings tied together.  It took a long time for them to untangle it. When they finally did, the one who was teaching the others asked who was going to swim across to drag the net across for the night! Brrr! They decided, and sent "Maxim" across on a tube. By the time they got the first net over it was pretty dark, then they had to put one more over! By now, it was pitch black outside, and very cold. Well, the net was finally set up and we all settled in to stare at the stars. We found the Big Dipper! We could not get a picture of it though, oh well. The next day we got in the car and headed home. Long car ride! But we made it! It was a great trip, and we all had a wonderful time! 

Pictures will appear on a separate post.

Emma =)