Happy Halloween

Halloween was quiet this year as we only had the two granddaughters with us and no one to take trick or treating.  Joseph answered the door this year instead of me. Ashley came over and we made donuts and wassail as we always do, along with Sloppy Joes and deviled eggs.  We had quite a few trick or treaters for a change.  We only had two bags of popcorn leftover at the end of the evening.  We started to look through the cupboards to see what we could give out if we ran out of treats.   

Here is my little helper, patting out the dough. It is natural to have someone helping me cook. 

 We gave donuts away to some of the families in our neighborhood.

 Our pumpkin never turned orange but it still was good for carving. Joseph is getting lots of help.

 Keith spent this last year working on chain-mail as well as the complete outfit. 

 There are many hours in this as he made each individual link and then linked them together to create the chainmail. We quilted the fabric for the jerkin which also has leather straps with buckles. It was a challenge for me as well, as we had to design and make the pattern for the jerkin. 

  He spent the evening with a group of friends. 

Our new little granddaughter being held by her sweet mom.

fall 2013

These are pictures from earlier this fall. This has been sitting in my draft section waiting for me to find time to write.

As always the maples were pretty this year. 

 

 

These are our gals.  We are now getting three to four eggs a day.  They love wandering around the yard and scratching for bugs.  They loved my grapes earlier this fall.  Because of cats they only get to be out when I can keep an eye on them.

We painted the playhouse on the outside this fall. Hopefully next spring we will get the inside fixed up.  Audrey loves playing in it. 

We painted the coop opposite of the playhouse.  Joseph wanted a barn red for the coop.  I think it turned out nice. 

Our chickens think they need to come in the house when the door is open.  Of course this is not acceptable so they get escorted out the door very quickly.

 

A pumpkin we grew.  The vine had huge leaves and was really pretty.

Zinna's in the backyard.



Enjoying a snack.

 I've been busy canning the last two months.  The peaches, pears and apple trees produced well.  This is some strawberry pie filling I made when Joseph brought home a flat of strawberries from the store the were a really good price.  I thought this would be fun to have on hand for crepes.  I also made blueberry pie filling for the same reason.  It is fun to have variety in our food storage.  I tried Apple jelly made the old fashioned way but I over cooked it.  It is really pretty in the jars but a little hard.  If you heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds it softens it so we can spread it.  I still have a few apples still to bottle.  Hope to get those done soon before it gets too cold.

pheasant hunting

We got a text from Eric today telling dad to check his e-mail.  We thought others would appreciate seeing what he's been up to lately.

 

 Eric and his roommates

He said he is going to learn how to cook pheasant. Looks like they will have several meals in the upcoming future. 

Trip to Island Park

This year for our 30th wedding anniversary, we thought we would do something different, so Debra planned a trip for us on a working ranch at Island Park. We made the reservations in late summer and were looking forward to wonderful trip to Island park, as well as Yellowstone. We thought it would be a nice change to see Yellowstone in the fall, especially when the tourist season had slowed down.

We started our adventure on Saturday and found the ranch everything it promised to be. They had a private lake, boating,  fishing, horseback riding, archery, shooting and much more. Because we arrived late in the evening,  it was already cool. We were only able to take a quick canoe ride around the lake. We found our 1 bedroom cabin and settled right in and had a wonderful evening that included a hot tub on the front porch of the cabin.

The following day it snowed about 3". Although this canceled any of the activities at the ranch we didn't let that dampen our adventure. We headed off to church in the morning and then went for a ride on the snow packed roads (there were other cars on the roads so we knew we would be OK if something happened). Since we had nothing else to do, we decided we would head on over to West Yellowstone, knowing the park would be closed due to the government shut-down.

 We played tourist in town going to a few tourist shops on main street and then had lunch in an old time cafe. We  went through the town's Yellowstone museum and by the time we were done the snow was letting up a bit and the roads were now finally clear with the aid of the snow plows. We headed back to our cabin taking a few detours on the way so that we could take in the sites. By the time we got back to our cabin the car was covered with mud due to the wet and snowy dirt roads.

When we finally returned to our cabin and it was fortunate that we had brought along a few board games to keep us entertained.  We took a walk around the cabin area in the evening. They recommend that you do not walk around after dark because they do have bears in the area.

 The following day as we headed home, we took the scenic route where we stopped to take a short hike to Mesa Falls. It was really beautiful. We came up from the back side where we could see the calm, crisp cold water before it went over the incredible falls.  They were spectacular.

Even with the closed national park and the bad weather, it was nice to get away and relax for a change as we seem to be constantly on the go with more to do than we are able to get done.  We hope to have the opportunity to visit Island park again.

camping in the Uintas

It has been a very busy summer and it is coming to an end way too fast. Joseph and I decided to take a weekend and go camping in the Uinta's.  Since it was just the two of us we took our tent instead of the trailer.  There was a fire by Wanship where you start up the canyon and they had the road closed to traffic, so we went up through Evanston, where we dropped in from the North. We had plans to camp at Mirror Lake but the campground was full as well as the other campgrounds by the other lakes in the area.  We drove back towards Evanston where there are plenty of campgrounds but they are not close to any lakes so they are not as popular. We camped at the Bear Fork campground which is next to a river. There were only six sights.  It is lower than Mirror Lake so it was warmer which was nice since we didn't have use of our furnace, which is a nice advantage camping with a trailer, but it seems silly to haul a trailer for just the two of us for a weekend camping trip.

 We took a hike to Ruth Lake, which was a mild hike.  There were a lot of people there who had hiked in and were camping.

 We then continued our hike on over to Leary Lake.  It turned out that this part of the trail wasn't used very much as there is another trail to get there that it seems everyone uses instead.  Much of the trail was marked by rocks stacked up.

 Here we are at the tree line.

 A pretty meadow.

 Since we came home by way of Wyoming we decided to go on over to Fort Bridger. We have passed it many times and have never taken the time to stop and see what it there.

We enjoyed ourselves as well as learning about the different histories of the fort.  As it went from a trading post started by Jim Bridger to the early Mormons using it, then to a military base when Johnson's army came.

family reunion 2013

Our family reunion was held in Southern Utah this year.  One of the activities was hiking to Kanaraville Falls.  This is a slot canyon that you hike up the river to get to.  There are two falls. The first falls, you climb up a tree that had slats nailed into it like a ladder and ropes attached into the rock to hold on to, then you continue on to the second one where you can slide down if you are brave (or crazy) enough.  It was really a beautiful hike. Within the walls of the canyon the air was very pleasant and the water was cold but after hiking so far it felt great.

 McKenzie, Keith and Casey

 A group of the cousins

 Some were brave enough to slide down the falls.

 Relaxing before our descent back down to the heat.

 Myself, Katrina and Jim

 the top of the slot canyon....

.... to the bottom of the canyon.

 Mom and dad

 The cousins playing crochet in grandpa and grandma's backyard.

 This years' group; which is only half of us.  It seems to be getting harder to get everyone together.

With my parents and all but one sibling.  It was nice to spend time with everyone.