A Look Back at Our Years of Fulltime RVing and Worldschooling {A collection of our 'Year in Review' posts}

 Some of my favorite posts to read are the annual reviews. I decided to make it easy and put all of them here for quick reference. While living in the RV for the first five years, I wrote a recap of the previous year on our nomadiversary in April, but I later switched to calendar year. Click on the year to read.

2014: Began Fulltime RVing. 22 States, 33 state & national parks 

2015: 12 states, Hawaii, Japan, 22 national parks, Began birding, work-camping at a National Wildlife Refuge 

2016: Drive to Alaska for the summer. camp hosting. 6 new states and 3 provinces of Canada (Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta). 13 national parks 

2017: East Coast plus New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Downsized from 37ft to 16ft RV! 13 new states, 37 national park sites, first birding festival. Birding the Everglades.

2018: 2 new states, Established a home base, Road trip to Vegas, hosted exchange students, training trip to Kenya with ITEC, Uganda to visit friends, Birding Colombia 

2019: Five months in Ecuador, visit with Waodani in the Amazon Jungle, Birding Ecuador. Colombia, Trip to Ohio, Tennessee 

2020: The good, bad and ugly year. The Keys

2021: Florida Keys. Charleston, South Carolina. Ohio

2022: Four month RV roadtrip out West. Our 50th state together! North Dakota. Minnesota

2023: Three months in South America: Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Tunisia. 

2024: Southeast Asia: A month in Thailand and a month exploring Cambodia, Vietnam and Taiwan.  Turning Teenagers and flying airplanes.

Searching for Sapphires

After the sheep farm, we decided to spend a bit longer in the Helena area. I found a campsite for us at Devil's Elbow on scenic Hauser Lake for $15/night. 

While Asher was fishing I watched swallows feeding nestlings inside the dock railings. 

Asher has always had an interest in rocks, but lately he's developed a desire to try mining. As we traveled he was searching on our phones for locations he could go treasure hunting. I surprised Asher with a trip to the Montana Blue Jewel Mine, known for sapphires. When we arrived, they instructed us to begin filling buckets from the stone pile.

We sifted them thru three screens stacked together from largest to smallest holes.

The large rocks from the top screen we could easily look thru then discard. We kept the rocks from the two smaller screens and then ran them thru the sluice, which fills with water then pushes the lighter rocks down the belt while keeping the heavier gems at the top. The rocks that go down the belt are discarded and the heavier stuff is dumped onto a metal tray for us to pick thru with tweezers.

Once we thought we had found all that was there, we put sections of the rocks on a smaller screen and shook thru a tub of water to again move the heavier gems to the center of the screen. We dumped them again and found even more sapphires! It's a long process, but quite interesting and fun.

Not only did we find a good amount of sapphires, we also found root beer agate, hemitite, quartz, and other agates. After we were finished, the employees gave us a tour of their main mining operation. It's a similar process to what we just did, but on a larger scale and automated. The larger, heavier gemstones end up in the trays and an employee checks them on a regular basis to see what they've uncovered. 

You can't go to Montana without attending a rodeo! Fortunately our timing was perfect for the Helena Rodeo. We really enjoyed the Mutton Busting- children attempting to ride sheep like a bull. None of them lasted more than a few seconds and some changed their minds before the gate swung open. Who could blame them?! 

There were two young girls age 12 and 16 doing trick riding around the arena. Standing on top of the horse or hanging from the side. It was really impressive! 

Overnight at a Sheep Farm

We were amazed at the free and super cheap camping options in Idaho and Montana. Of course they're all dry camping, but I prefer that over full hook-ups in a city parking lot anyway. I found the Clark County Reservoir in Dillon, Montana has about six campgrounds along it's edge. Beaverhead Campground seemed to be the most popular and had the easiest access for our RV. It was perfect- peaceful, incredible scenery and fishing for Asher. Even Denali enjoyed the view and watching the Richardson's Ground Squirrels right outside our door. 

There's a popular birding hotspot at the south end of the lake, so as the sun was setting we went to check it out.  It was such a beautiful view, however......

It didn't last long as the bugs were INTENSE! The bug photo was taken thru the sunroof. There was no way we could lower a window or step out to scope the mudflats or lake. Still we saw quite a few birds from the safety of the truck. 

We made a quick stop in Butte, Montana to enjoy a pizza dinner and I noticed the Berkeley Pit was only a few blocks away. I was really the only person interested in seeing this former copper mine landmark, so I walked there while they waited for our pizza to bake. It's about one long and half a mile wide and 1,780ft deep. The water is so acidic it's on par with Coca Cola and causes dangerous chemicals to leach from the rock into the water. This has had devastating effects on birds who land in this deceptively attractive body of water. The worst loss happened in 2016 when several thousand snow geese died after taking refuge here during a snowstorm. Since then, they've been using multiple means to deter birds, a Phoenix Wailer emits an alarm call every few minutes and an employee is armed with a rifle to scare off any that ignore it. This plus the use of pyrotechnics, lasers and air cannons has been successful in preventing another mass casualty and keeping the losses to a minimum. 

Our next stop was our very first Harvest Host experience! Harvest Host is a membership based program that allows RVers to stay overnight at farms, wineries, museums, and businesses in exchange for a minimum purchase of $20. Locations can be found all over the United States and Canada. 

In Helena we were greeted upon arrival at KJ'n Ranch's Sheep Mountain Creamery, where the owner escorted us to a place to set up the RV with a beautiful view.  He arranged to give us a tour at 6pm and left us with a packet containing information about the history of the farm, what is available for purchase, and facts on the breeds of sheep and working dogs that live there.

We loved meeting their Pyr/Mar (Great Pyrenees and Maremma mix). Such a beautiful dog!

The farm has different breeds for meat, wool and milk. The milk sheep are being kept at a different location at this time, so we didn't get to meet them. 

The breeds they have include East Friesian, Lacaune, Awassi, Assaf, and Dorper.

We learned that covid had a huge impact on the wool industry. There are only a handful of people who are qualified to analyze and grade the wool before it can be auctioned. They all live in New Zealand and stopped working during covid, which backed everything up. Demand then began shifting to synthetic fibers and the price dropped from $2.60/lb to an astounding $0.03/lb! It wasn't even worth processing. So right now across the country there are wool farmers with literal barns full of wool just waiting to be graded and for prices to come up. Tough situation!

Month old Dorper lambs.

After our tour, we were treated with samples of their sheep milk, which is rich like creamer, packed with three times more vitamins and minerals than cow's milk, and is easier to digest, making it lactose tolerable. There is a huge demand for their sheep milk, so they are working on growing their flock. While a cow can produce 8-10 gallons per day, a sheep can only produce one. We sampled seven different cheeses that they make themselves. They were all delicious and we ended up walking home with a supply of cheese curds, milk and two types of seasoned sausage. Yum! Daddy has been trying to find more sheep milk ever since we ran out! 

This was a fantastic roadschool/homeschool learning experience! I highly recommend it!

Funny Foot Farm

While I was birding Sweetwater Wetlands, the family met our friends at Christopher Columbus Park to enjoy the view while Asher fished. Arizona requires a fishing license for children over 10, but fortunately it's only $5 per year for them.

Then Yair joined us for a visit to the Funny Foot Farm, an exotic zoo where you are invited to feed and pet most of the animals! It's reasonably priced and holds an impressive collection. It's not just a normal petting zoo, you actually get a behind the scenes tour of the facility, stepping into the enclosures of many animals. 

The kids really liked the Patagonian Maras. They kind of look like a mix between a rabbit, a deer and a kangaroo! 

The African porcupines were my favorite! They only have quills on their back half so it looks a little like they're wearing a skirt.

They have great birds here: Guineas, Currasows, Pheasants.

If capybaras are your favorite, they offer a special opportunity to spend extra time with them. Have you ever seen a capybara's feet? Pretty interesting.

This is the only place in the US you can touch, maybe even see these next two animals: 

Red-rumped Agouti and the Chacoan Mara.

This warthog absolutely loved attention! When you start petting her, she'd flop over and soak it up. As soon as you stopped she'd jump back up and continue on with her day.

This enormous rabbit is only a year old! So soft and sweet!

After the tour, you're free to spend unlimited time with the goats, pigs, birds and ostriches. Your admission price includes three cups of food to feed the various animals.

Definitely a fun place to visit, and if you live locally, you can hire the zoo to come to you for a party and for a great learning experience!