Well getting ready for christmas has been a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I had made all the gifts for Sara and Sam's family, and I just finished my last big project, a quilt for Dick. I think it turned out quite well. the under side is patchwork, and this is the top. It is a look inside Dicks workshop. I really hope he likes it, it took a lot of time. I had to hand stitch around all the fancy stuff (tools, saw, person, pig, bull horn, and the barbwire, which I also embroidered. After it is all said and done, It has been a lot of fun, I had started to forget how crafty I can be.

Thanksgiving was so great this year. We all got together over at Andrew and Brenda's house. Everyone made something, and we did sort of a potluck style meal which made it a bit easier for all of us. The food was great and the company was even better. Brenda's parents and brother were there also which was great. We all got to know them a little better. Another highlight was we all got to meet Little Lincoln. It was fun passing him around and giving him love.

Well we have been pretty busy lately, but I figured I had better fill in some blanks for the past month. The 20th of November was my birthday. Chris didn't seem to have anything planned, so I told him I would like him to take me out to dinner. He had said he would. So all day I waited for our little date thinking Chris was at work. Our friend Kenyan had called, and asked if we could come and help him move a few things over to his new place, I had said yes thinking that this would put us on time to go to dinner. When we were finished Chris told me that he didn't want to go to dinner any more and that he would just prefer to go home. This made me quite frustrated, and luckily for Chris David had called on the drive home to wish me a happy birthday. Chris would have heard my frustration the whole way home if it hadn't been for David. I had talked with David the whole way back from Boise, I got off the phone right as we turned down ten mile. Then I started telling Chris how bummed I was that he wasn't taking me to dinner. We pulled into the driveway and went inside, and of course my sweet Chris had a party planned for me there. Needless to say I felt like a turd and had to apologize. We had a great time. Hannah and Chris had made a bunch of great food, made a pinata, and a game of pin the tail on the donkey. We had so much fun, and ended the night off with a game of Cranium. Thank you Chris for being so sweet to me and making my birthday so much fun. I love you.

CHRIS' BIRTHDAY FUN

I was pretty trixy this year and told Chris that we were going to have a dinner just the two of us at this restaraunt that he loves, where they serve local and organic food, but instead of just us I had got ahold of a few of his best friends and his sister, and had everyone meet us there as a surprise for him. He was none the wiser, which was really hard on my part, since we had hung out with quite a few of them through out the day. He had a great time

You can see the surprise on his face!

I call this one walking on sunshine. Here is Chris doing hand stands on the trail earlier in the day while on a hike with Kenyan and Hannah.

Here is the happy bunch all together. We had six dogs with us too, which was really entertaining to say the least. We were glad that they are all good listeners.

Chris stopping in the shade checking out some mushrooms he spotted in the trunk of this tree.


Chris having a little too much fun on his skateboard going about 20 mph down this hill. I have no idea why he is looking at me and not where he is going.




The 7th was chris' birthday, and we sure did have a lot of fun. I got him new wheels and bearings for his skateboard, and he just had to go and ride down some hills. We went with gage to Brumback hill in Boise, it is in the north end, and they rode down a three mile stretch about 10 times before they were ready to take a break. Chris's speed averages 25-30 mph on the hill!

MORE CANNING!

well last week i got another large batch of canning done. I made white grape juice, pink grape juice, purple grape juice, apple juice, plum juice, apple sauce, plum chutney, and plum sauce! I sure do love to can, and everything turned out wonderful. It only took one long day, but I got another 150 pounds of food put away.

This is Chris's pumpkin which he is so very proud of. Notice the mouse eating his carrot!!!

Last night we got together with Chris's sister and her boyfriend (Crystal and Jonathan), and carved some pumpkins for Halloween. I had made home made marinara sauce which we ate with spagetti. We had a great time. It was really nice getting to spend some time with them. Here are some pumpkin pictures. Chris is very excited about his. He keeps telling me how it is the best pumpkin he has ever carved, and the best idea he has ever had for one.

Here is Gage up on the ridge headed for centerville.



A quick snap shot of Gage and I after picking some elderberries.

And who says that dogs don't blink in pictures.

Over the past few weeks Chris and I have been working a ton, that might even be an understatement! Although the work load is tough, we have been trying to go on day trips on our only day off together. It is kind of funny, we get married, now we never see eachother anymore. Has anyone else found this to be true? Well any way. This is Kona looking pretty happy on our last day trip.

This is a look toward the Trinities from the back side of Bogus Basin.

This is Kenyan and Kelly on our day trip to Jackass Gulch, a horrible name for any place, but we found some really cool pieces of petrified wood.

Here is Hannah poking around for some rocks. I don't know why she brought her shovel, everything we found was just lieing on the surface.

Just a nice view from the gulch.

Well I feel so proud of myself. I have gotten a lot accomplished. Well it feels like it anyway. I have grown a ton of vegetables, planned our wedding, and gotten a ton of food put away. Just take a look! Every time I walk through our mud room I am overwhelmed by my canning success.

This is us of course, and Chris's dad Dick, who was his best man. He jokingly said later how he waited 62 years to be a best man.


Here we are right after the ceremony got over. As you can see, ALL SMILES!

And here are some congratulation hugs from my best ladies.



These are the two beauties in the flesh, Katie, an amazing girl I've known for years, we met in California, and have been friends ever since. And the fantastic Hannah, as most of you know we have been best friends since we were in school. I don't know where I'de be without her.




I said I would get some photos up from the big day, so they are.

well we made it through the wedding, and know both of us are back to work. It has really been a great summer for us, I wish it could go on for a bit more, but back to the grind it is. I was so thankful to see so much of my family at the wedding. I couldn't have pulled it off without you guys. Thank you so much for all the help and love. I truly have an amazing family. I will post pictures of the big event once I get them.

This is Chris at one of the onion sheds this spring.
A cheesy grin from both of us, taken by Chris's dad Dick.
Here is Dick relaxing on the quilt he made Chris and I for Christmas.
Selling some produce at the Saturday Market.

This is Chris and I at one of our first markets. Dick took these pictures for us. As you can see, we have a lot of fun.

Here are a few pictures of the garden, this is some of our potatoes.

This is part of our summer squash patch, that is riddled with squash bugs, the only good thing about that is, our chickens love them! I have been catching them in a jar and taking them to the chickens as their snack!

This is the side view of our movable chicken house. I am going to paint it and put a sheet metal roof on it. I just need to find the time!!

This is of course the front, you can see the roosts, and they walk up the ramp at night and put themselves to bed. Way easier than putting kids to bed. All I need to do is shut the door at about ten o'clock.

This is Black Beard in front and Irene snuck into this shot too.

This is Splashy, we were going to name her splash because of her coloring, but she is pretty sassy, so we figured Splashy was a great name.

This is Lacey, posing for the picture. She seemed to really like the camera, funny huh.

Farming Life (exhausting)

Life has been pretty exciting lately. We have started to go to the farmers markets in Boise on Thursday's and Saturday's. Woohoo! Even though it is a lot of fun, it continues to be an overwhelming amount of work. We never seem to get ahead of the weeds, and we are still trying to get our next phase of plants in. We have a lot of produce that we are enjoying.(tons of squash, cucumbers, kale, garlic, potatoes, beets, a few kohlarabi, a variety of herbs, turnips, and still a few peas on the vines) We can't wait for more. I have been canning a lot lately also, which is also a time consumer. At least I can say we are uping our food storage day be day. Today I am working on zucchini chips. And last but not least........are you excited........WE GOT 9 LAYING HENS!!!!!!!! This also has been a big project. We have built them a movable chicken coop, and have been moving them around the front yard in a pen. They are so cute, and they have been eating a ton of bugs and helping to keep the lawn down, so I guess they are a just another member of the garden team. Hopefully we can get the dogs used to them so we can just let them run around.

HI!

Still Working In The Garden

Things are going well for us in the garden. We have over half our acre planted which feels great, but we still have a lot to do. Just keeping up with the weeds is a full time job. We do love getting to spend a lot of time with each other, and out in the sunshine. It feels so good to be active every day, and to see the garden develop. We are considering starting a business where we organize local organic farmers, and produce organic chicken feed. We know there is a lot of potential for making good money. Well I better get back to the garden, like I said, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.

Making our raised beds.

This is our garden progress so far this year, we are transitioning everything into raised beds. It is a ton of work for this year, but it will make the work lighter for years to come. This is David, he comes and helps us in the garden. This is Chris trying to use a mini shovel to make the raised bed, after he broke the large shovel he was using.

A look at our green house and our first section of raised beds. This is the home of our potatoes peas, radishes, leeks, onions, and carrots.

I set up a blog for mom and dad!

Today was a nice day, but a little windy for my liking. We got to spend some time with Chris's Sister Crystal, which was really nice. After dinner I decided that I would set up a blog for mom and dad. I was honestly surprised at how easy it was. Thanks again to Brenda for teaching me how. Well I have a ton to do tomorrow in the garden so I bid you Good Night.

Another Day At The Farm

There is a lot of work to be done today. We are making more raised beds, and planting more cold crops. The wind has been slowing us down for the last couple days, and we hope to get our planting accomplished. We want to thank Brenda and Andrew for helping us get our blog up and running. You two are amazing. Back to work!!!

We Finally Did It

Welcome to our Blog! We are actually not in the garden at the moment, an occasian that rarely happens.

Update coming soon.