Playing with the Grands

It makes my heart happy to be greeted by two nearly two-year-old boys and a nearly five-year-old boy each Tuesday morning. Such exuberance! The boys are on the tail end of their colds, as am I. Arielle determined we could play this week. I'm not sure when she took this photo, but I'm glad she did. 

📷by Arielle

 She went off to her meeting and the boys and I read, had snacks, built towers of blocks, had snacks, picked up toys, had snacks... Little Buddy is much more interested in knocking towers over than he is in building towers. Benny has learned to protect his towers. 

BreZaak's crew are learning about Vikings. This week they wove some bookmarks using a Viking pattern. 

📷by Bre

I believe Bella photo bombed Gideon.

📷by Bre

Working our Fall List

We have had several back-to-back days with no rain - it's a horrible time to be so sick and stuck inside. 

I heard Michael outside...a bit of investigating revealed he was playing with the chickens. OK! He was cleaning out the chicken coop. This is on our list of things to do before it snows. These girls are giving us 18 - 20 eggs a day! It is wonderful to have a good supply again - but it's a bit overwhelming as well. LOL

These girls were more concerned about their dust bath than the noises from inside the coop. 

As long as she knows where the food is, this one will be happy. 

While Michael did the hard work in the coop, I defrosted our stand-up freezer. I've been trying to eat down the food to make room to put our veggie harvest and stocking up on meat.  I am making no progress. No matter how much we eat the freezer keeps refilling as fast as I clear it. It was perplexing. I gave a mini-lecture to Michael about he and I need to change our mindset - possibly buying to many loaves of bread or what not when they are on sale. I unpacked the stuffed freezer....my WORD. I found 12 1/2 gallons of ice cream, another gal of ice cream and a box of keto bars. ::Snort:: Someone hit a sale and tucked them into the freezer. This cooler of ice cream takes up a shelf in the freezer...so at least I feel a BIT better about making progress in clearing the freezer.

We eat ice cream one night a week - we'll be eating a long time to get through all this. 

I helped scatter shavings and this gal was NOT happy when I tried to move her out so I could clean under her. 

Ah, a nice clean coop - the water heater is in place. Michael also spent time redoing the insulation on the doors. 

We were able to check two projects off our list today...chicken coop cleaned and winterized, and the last big freezer defrosted. We'll see if we are done before the snow flies. 

Allie's Birthday Trip

Allie turned 18 back in April. Krista and Brittany gifted her with a road trip for her and a friend. I was scheduled to go along and was SO looking forward to getting up North. We've not gotten out of the valley much since we moved back up here. The plan was a road trip to Fairbanks, Chena Hot Springs and North Pole. They also sought out a hike near the springs and they were sure to visit the Santa Clause house. 

Rooms were booked. Krista bought supplies and the day finally arrived. Alas, I was too sick to go with them. They had a great time. Thanks to Allie and Krista were keeping me supplied with photos! 

Road Trip Food

An essential

 

Always fun when they're together

Oops. 

Allie & Stacia

Lunch adventures

Chena Hot Springs

Watch out!

In Santa's sleigh

Brittany, Allie, Krista, Stacia

Such a fun trip for all! Our next girl's trip will be to Maria's wedding. I need to get those details nailed down! 

Last Fall Hike?

 Alex and Jamin went on an adventure today. They set out to use their drones....which "required" a hike up the south fork....

📷by Jamin 

It turns out the drones won't work unless they are paired with the aps on their phones and by the time they hiked up to where they wanted to use the drones, they had no cell service. 

I think that's how it went...but still they enjoyed a beautiful hike, didn't meet any grump grizzlies and spent time together....a win. 

September Snippets

 Dad (GG) spends MUCH time at this table poring over the newspaper. The paper has just raised it's price by $7 and frankly, I don't think it's worth the price....BUT for the hours of pleasure it gives Dad it IS worth the price. Most days he's plotting what he wants to buy from the classified ads. We've had some close calls...dogs, boats, cars, houses, jewelry...it is actually sort of fun to see what captures his interest each day. 

I filled Mom Mary's antique blue canning jars with twinkling LED lights last year. This year I replaced the batteries. Embracing fall and prepping to enjoy the magic of winter. 

Everyone was busy or working...Michael, Stacia and I opted to play Farkle.  It was a bit sad that GG can no longer enjoy Farkle. 

The colors didn't show as they did with the naked eye, and I refuse to digitally add color. I LOVE the fall colors when they parade with the snow on the tops of the mountains. The yellows and oranges are marching up the sides of these snow-topped mountains. 

My friend, Dorothy, posted this photo for me while she was on vacation. Dorothy lives in England, and this is a casual cream tea from the National Trust. In any event, I love the photo and it shows English scones are round and they do indeed list.  I love the reflection in the tea pot. It made my day just to see that Dorothy thought of me. LOL 

📷 by Dorothy

I continue to be amazed at the comparison between the Kuroda (Japanese) carrot and the Scarlet Nantes. 

It's a blast to visit the chicken yard since the new flock of chicks have matured. Lots of new eggs. Tiny ones continue to show up in the yard which clues is in that there are still some just starting. We continue to get 12 - 17 eggs a day. 

Fall bike rides - it doesn't get much better. Olivia is turning into such a beautiful young lady. 

📷by Carrie

Then there was the morning I slipped and fell in the chicken yard. This batch of hens are EXUBERANT. When I open the door in the a.m., they all CHARGE out the door with great noise and excitement. I fell. They charged me as I had the bowl with their scraps. What a mess. This is AFTER I hosed off. 

I love how the snow is coming down our montains. It isn't down to the treeline yet - but it's getting close. This was taken Sept 21st. We are guessing 2 - 3 weeks until snow in our yard. This photo doesn't do the fall colors - they've been gorgeous! 

We kept the community going after Women's Conference by having a potluck on Sunday. We had an abundance of eggs when we got home. This will make the world's smallest deviled egg. ::snort:: 

We pulled it together. These ones peeled eggs and Allie turned them into her famous deviled eggs, while I baked caramel apple and pumpkin spice cookies (two kinds - not one). I also threw together broccoli, salmon, rice, cheese, mayo and made salmon slop which all got eaten at the potluck. 

There's been a grizzly in our area. He has been eating turkeys, getting into chicken coops and crossing the river to town. Now, he's back out here. A friend's husband saw him in their woods. Their woods back up to ours - sorta - Michael says they are 200 yards up from us.... If I posted the map you'd be truly impressed - but I don't plan on posting a map with street names online. LOL On the 26th Millie began to bark and alert. Stacia saw something brown in our woods - heading for our neighbors. Michael and he got on the phone and determined it was these moose. 

I love fall. 

An A+ Day

Some days are simply perfect - A+ days. We've had a few of those days this week...mixed in with the sore throats, busy schedules, cancelled meetings and meetings kept.  We woke up one day with a desire to celebrate Allie: her journey and the nearing completion of her first round of college classes. 

Why, yes, we DO look for reasons to celebrate. Everyone needs a good party. Lunch found many of us at the restaurant in town with a table big enough to seat us all spur of the moment. Liv and Carrie, Nolan, Arielle and Benny joined Nolan, the girls, Michael, Dad and me. We love the family who runs the restaurant, and, on this day, Allie scored a cinnamon roll nearly the size of her face! We split it the next morning for breakfast.  

We all made sure not to eat past 80% so we could head over to our town's local ice cream shop after lunch.  Alex, Cory and the little boys and Bre and kids joined us there. We took over the establishment...and they seemed happy for our business.

Such hard choices

CoRielle, Danny and Little Buddy 

CoRielle and BreZaak live within walking distance of the ice cream shop. All the kids were excited about their unexpected walk - and the final destination. 

Carrie, Stacia and a photo bomber

Michael and Dad - we opted not to have ice cream as they
have no sugar free - solidarity with Dad

Livie, Allie, Jamin and Nolan 

BreZaak's kids 

The gang

Cousins - Annie, Bella, Gideon and Benny 

The only grizzly I care to meet! 

We cherish days when we can gather so many dear gherkins at the drop of a hat. We don't take the blessing for granted after all our years of wandering. We ended the night playing a bit of Pando. 

It was an A+ day! A day we'll remember with smiles for years to come.