A few random pictures

Michael Franti concert! End of September. AWESOME!

Giant Red Mangles. Crazy huh?

Apple picking time. Beginning of October with my mom, dad and the kids. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my dad on the top rung of the ladder on top of the truck :) Nor did we get a picture of Joanne (Matt's mom) and I in the loader bucket picking the first tree!

A "Midget Melon". We will definitely be planting these again!

We found out where apple BUTTer comes from.....

Sunrise October 25

Zane, Bonnie and Clyde. Ok, both kitties are girls but we didnt know that when we named them and its just too cute to change!
Trying to play a little catch up on the blog.

Inspired by Julie :)

The Second First Day of School...

to be posted on this blog! I was working on uploading these pictures tonight and thought of the fact that I have been blogging for almost exactly one year now.

Here are the kids this morning, first day of school. A sophomore and a 7th grader!

A 6.5 and a 10.5 shoe size! Guess which size goes with which kid....

The first day was uneventful, which I think is a blessing. Tomorrow will start football and drill team practices. More on those as news happens...

The changes we have seen this past year simply amaze me! Honestly I am glad we are all intact and happy! Not expecting the number or the magnitude in the next year! Although I am pleased about the ones that graced us this year, I think some quiet time is in order!

8.5 lbs

Between rain showers today I picked tomatoes.

Honest to Pete, this is todays haul only.

Ok, minus the cherry tomatoes I ate as I went.

At least this much ready to pick tomorrow too.

Anyone want to come jar sauce and salsa with me?

One for the Men

I realized I didn't have many pictures of the guys up......

Brent and Shea

Curt and Maggie

Brad keeping an eye on the roux

Bill, Brent, Rick, Jimbo and Andy

And I wish I could find a "then" picture of years ago for this "now" picture!

Drew, Zane, Shannon, Mik and Alex

AK 09

Great friends

Good food

Surprise visit

Playing with kids

Salmon

Walking/biking through town

Gumbo

Playing in the woods

Guest beds

Kayaking

Highliner Dinner

Glacier

Growing Belly

New homes

Halibut

Birthday party

Fishing

Reservoir

Crater Lake

Break water

No voice

ABC beer

Rain

Yoga at "home"

Flaking nets

Eyak Lake

Bon fires

Processing Fish

$5 shower

For all this and more, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

See you next summer!

Sheep Update

We have sadly lost 3 of the littlest sheep. One male, two females. I sat with the first one as she passed, Matt sat with the second one and the third one. It does not get any easier. We try to keep in mind that they had a better go of it here with us than they would have otherwise.

Luckily the rest of the crew are looking pretty good. A couple of foot issues but I am learning that there will most likely always be something. We still have one of the littlest ones and he is fat and sassy! I give him a pep talk with every feeding that he WILL be staying with us and there is NO other option but for him to live....So far he is listening.

I get an amazing pleasure out of seeing them in the morning and especially watching them in the pasture. We only let them out to graze for short periods of time to get them and their bellies (they each have two) used to the grass as they would literally eat themselves sick. Once they are a little bigger and are used to the pasture we will be able to leave them out to graze freely.

Matt is a great shepherd, watching over his flock and herding them in! He has started calling me Bo Peep. I need a name for him, any suggestions?

Other news on the Grove is the lilies are blooming and the veggies are growing! We have eaten lettuce, spinach and peas so far. Tomatoes are doing great and so are the peppers, onions, squash, pumpkins, beans and melons! OH, and we have apples on two trees!

4th of July

Our second annual 4th on the lake!

The kids and I went up to Dan and Co's house for the Fourth of July. We spent Friday night (til around midnight!) on the water, swimming, enjoying one of the most incredible sunsets I have seen and watching some great fireworks set off by the Crosslake Fire Department. Then we reluctantly went home to bed.

We were up and on the boat by 10:30 on Saturday (pretty good for this crew!) where we played for most of the day before returning to the house for some sprinkler fun, crochet and some fantastic (albeit illegal) fireworks by Dan and Zane and the neighbors.

Sunday we hit The Chocolate Ox for ice cream-yes before lunch but AFTER breakfast-then back to the boat until Mik, Zane and I had to finally head home late in the afternoon. We had such a great weekend and wished Matt could have been there to share it.

Shady Grove

Ok, so I have been REALLY bad about keeping this up to date!!!  To say the least, right?

For those of you who don't know,we have moved, once again, and this time is for keeps :)  We bought a 10 acre farm with a beautiful house that is 109 years old-very well taken care of- and many outbuildings!  We have planted a veggie garden that is doing nicely and inherited several lovely flower gardens that, thanks to Mom T and Mom E,  I have some idea of what is growing and how to take care of them.  

One of those out buildings will come in very handy to house and maintain Matts spreaders!  The barn is simply gorgeous!  (See Dan and Co's blog for some great pics of that) and there is lots of yard and space to play. 

 We also seem to have inherited two barn cats, one of which just loves.......Matt!!  He is a cool cat that loves to run in front of you and plop himself down for a good belly rub.   I am not sure who is happier out here- any of us or Shim!  He doesn't even mind the cats.

We have even had our first official, non born-in-to-the-family guests!  Suzanne, her daughter Grace, and Judi came to spend a few fun filled days with us!  We did yoga, jumped on the trampoline, played in town, played guitar, played with Grace and drank wine.  It was GREAT!  Thanks so much for coming girls and I can't wait to do it again!

And to add to the news, yesterday we decided to expand our family...........

by 24...........

We bought 24 orphaned Katahdin Dorper cross sheep.  They are hair sheep that shed and do not need sheering.  Some of them still need to be bottle fed and we are not 100% that all of them will make it.  

Matt and Zane went to western Iowa yesterday to pick them up and we spent the evening getting a space ready in the barn and a small pen for them to be outside.  Shim was not sure what to think of them all in the back of the truck while we built the pens.  Today we spent the morning talking to a vet, vaccinating them and trying to get the 6 that are in the worst shape to eat some medicated feed all on our own.  We all think we did pretty darn well being the greenhorn sheep herders that we are!  Everyone had a job and it went pretty smoothly!  There was talk of naming them all after lawn mowers but coming up with 24 brands was harder than we thought.  We may try to stick with names that have been used in songs.  So far we have named two and I must admit one is not necessarily from a song.  We have George (#1730) who is very curious and his gal pal Lucy (think the Beatles) (#2014).  George and Lucy are presenting themselves as leaders of the flock.  Lucy seems to be some what of a "mother hen" keeping an eye on the others  and George is very, um, vocal and personable!

So wish us and the little ones luck!  I should have plenty to blog about now yes?  We will try to keep you posted on how things are going.  Next we need some chickens....

Hope this finds all of you well and having a wonderful summer!

Peace!