Welcome Home & Birthday Celebrations

 Dad came home Thursday. Friday we settled in. Saturday, we had everyone but Jamin (who had cold symptoms), Nolan (who had to work),  and JaRissa (who live in Juneau), over for a Welcome Home/Birthday Celebration. Our October birthdays are Larissa and Carrie. Larissa isn't here...but we remembered her anyway. LOL 

 

The table, and our hearts, were full. Aaron was over to check on building a ramp and he and Elise stayed and celebrated with us. 

Stacia made an ice cream cake for Carrie...and we still had 1/2 the welcome home cake too. It takes 3 male Gherkins to properly light a cake - 2 to light and 1 to cheer. 

Note to self - check to be sure photos aren't blurry so they can be retaken. Carrie was a sport and wore the old party hat! Corrie assured her it's only strange the first time. ::snort:: 

Cory had put out a call for those who would participate in the one chip challenge with him. I do NOT foresee this becoming a part of our traditions. Oy vey! The heat - the smell....the courage. 

Cory, Alex, Krista & Aaron - 1 Chip Challenge

It was a fun night. Dad decided to go to bed at 6:20 p.m. That was o.k. Carrie has clinicals now and has to leave her home at 0500....and we were all a bit worn out...

If you'd like to LISTEN to the challenge....

Moose Tales

 Hunting season ended and I swear that very day the moose came back to our yard. LOL   They've not gotten into the garden or orchard all year....but they are back and they are hungry. 

I went out one dark morning to tend to chickens and found HIM far too close for comfort. 

We've discovered Millie is an excellent moose alarm. She takes her job SERIOUSLY and runs to the nearest window or door to sound the alarm. 

Check out Millie in action. 

This is a post about moose, and not Millie, without further ado...pictures galore.  In September this mama and one baby visited. They discovered the bed outside of the fence. They liked the kale, but left the beans and squash. They did not get inside the garden and we continued to contentedly co-exist. 

 

In October moose began their daily treks to our yard/woods/garden. We now have a mama, two yearlings, a big bull with a collar, and a younger bull. The two bulls have never come at the same time. Moose don't travel in family groups so it's ODD - but the yearlings, mama, and Big Bull ARE often in the yard at the same time and seem to travel together. 

I love our wooded area in fall

Well, Hello!

The Fish and Wildlife are tracking this boy. We've previously had a mama with a collar, Rosey. We haven't seen her this fall. This is obviously NOT the same collared moose. LOL 

Phoenix is less than impressed with all the activity around the coop. I can't tell if he dislikes the moose or Millie's frantic barking more. 

This day they decided the zap of the garden fence was worth the price for the garden produce. I had some colder crops still growing...Brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale and carrots.  Mama and babies got zapped and stayed away. Bull showed them it's not such a big deal. The little ones get tangled and tear the fence out. 

Big as day - a yearling in my garden...I had been trying to figure out what to do with the kale (right side). We have been eating it all summer....they ate it all! Just stalks left. They also demolished the sprouts to the left...9 plants gone. 

The younger bull out by the trees! 

Yep, gardening was about done for us at this point...the cabbage we were still nursing along to can. 

All that is left of the sprouts and kale. 

While they DID eat the carrot tops - I was able to harvest carrots. 

Millie stays vigilant in her watch. 

Our Dog Had Dreadlocks

We have many darling photos to share of Millie - but you know - I have to blog to do that. LOL 

We hit a milestone on October 9th! Not only was it Dad's first full day home, Millie got her first hair cut. She had become quite a fluff ball - but we had to wait until she had all her shots. Our dog had dread locks. 

At 5 months she is over 30 lbs and at least 21 inches high.  We loved her fluff, Stacia grooms her at least once a day - often more. She looks nothing like a poodle. 

We headed to the groomer. They said they often have to take Labradoodle's to the skin due to matting. I assured them we'd been grooming her faithfully.  They were impressed. They said there was only one small matted clump....and she seemed to enjoy herself. 

She certainly LOOKS different. We miss the fluff, but some of it is sure to come back. They said a lot of the frizz was baby hair and it wouldn't have been gone anyway with time. 

She looks much smaller, doesn't she? This was also Dad's first full day at home. It began with breakfast, pills and the paper and ended with a family game of Farkle. I think he's happy to be out of prison. 

Michael is installing a few grab bars. We thought we had another month to get this done. 

Garden Harvest

 2020 was a good year for our garden! Everyone got involved to help harvest the potatoes. This year we planted red and Yukon gold. 

Stacia and Krista 

Millie actually has a good nose for locating potatoes. LOL 

Benny dropped by to help! 

This year's harvest. Rather than hills, we made rows and planted in the top of the rows. We had a good number of potatoes. I should have put more straw or dirt around them as they grew...quite a few were green. 

This year we knew to leave the dirt on them and to lay them out to dry before we store them for the winter. 

We're still harvesting zucchini! We took a wheelbarrow full of squash to the church. What our church didn't use the Russian church which meets after us did. All was used. 

We're still getting plenty of greens! 

Odd looking carrots

Evidence of a moose visiting. 

Time to relax after a long day of work in the garden.