Countdown

I really love a good countdown activity.  I've made them for family.  I do one myself.  I look for new twists each year.  I even started a tradition of sending one to my grandsons for the month of December so they can think of me every day as they countdown.  I had this crate at a sale recently when all of a sudden this idea came to me.  I pulled the crate off and saved it for me to use.  It works perfectly for the twelve days of Christmas.  I ordered the craft boxes on Amazon.  They are 3x3 and fit perfectly. I got it ready and delivered it today so it could be started tomorrow.  Jeremy will have fun seeing what's inside the box every morning.

"Moose on the Loose"

This December I wanted to do something fun to celebrate each day.  There has been a lot of interest in

Elf on the Shelf which really took off in popularity last year.  I wanted to do a twist on it for Gareld.  I thought about Elk on the shelf and went to D&B to find and elk.  They didn't have one but they did have this moose.  From there Moose on the Loose was born.  Here is Morning Moose from day 2.  Gareld is playing along and even gave him a name today.  Meet Morris.

Testing 1,2,3.

I haven't looked at my blog for months!  I had a lot to blog about this summer, too.  Last time few times I tried to blog I couldn't get pictures to upload.  This is a test.  I just may have to get back  into blogging.  I had several blogs I followed and I haven't checked in on them either.  Wyatt and Grayson are having a blast playing in the hay during their photo shoot last week.  I can't wait to see them in a couple weeks.

Pumpkins

It's time to start thinking about the big summerlong growing project again.
In order to have a pumpkin patch for our Shabulous show in October we need to get these beauties started.  Last year for the first try at the patch we had a cold spring and we weren't sure when to plant.  Then the first week of June we had two graduations and a trip to Disneyland.  I don't think they were in the ground until mid-June.  Not enough time for them to all turn orange at the end.  

Last fall I saw this idea on pinterest to use paper rolls as "peat" pots.  I have been saving them for months.  I lined them all in a tray.

Next I filled them with seed starting soil.

These are the seeds I saved from last years pumpkins.  They sprouted in my test run so I used them here.  I also planted mini pumpkins and gourds.

They are watered and out in the sun.  Grow baby grow.

Caught on Camera

Here's a pretty shot of the house and shop from the trail camera across the field.  Gareld decided to take them down today.  He thought the batteries were probably dead in both cameras but this one had a lot of life left in it.

This is the young bull that hung around our place by himself. 

Four-wheeling.

We have about 200 photos of our neighbor on his tractors preparing the ground and planting seeds.  Round and round he goes. 

And round some more.

The sky sure was blue today.

Demolition

It's coming down.  The ugly trailer is being torn down and sent to B&K for recycling.

Almost everything can be recycled.  If it can't be it will be burned.

It served a good purpose as a storage unit but now it is time to go.  It had become a giant beehive.  Hopefully they move on and don't just invade my shabby shack.

We have a good crew doing the work.

Pumpkin Seeds

Last summer we made our first attempt at growing a pumpkin patch.  It was a learning experience.  We need to get them in the ground earlier for one thing.  No trips to Disneyland to postpone the planting.  My goal is to get them in the ground at the end of May.  Once they started growing we had plenty in numbers.  They all didn't have time to turn completely orange though.  

I saved the seeds out of several pumpkins last fall.  I removed them and let them dry then put them away.  I haven't done this before so I don't know if there is anything special you have to do to get them to grow.  I decided to plant some now and see what happens so I don't find out later that a whole field of pumpkin seeds is not going to sprout.  The toilet paper tube in the center is an idea I saw on pinterest to create your own planting pots.  I will let you know how it works.

Little Boy Blue

Wyatt during his first winter.  This isn't very good edited but I wanted to close in on his face to see how he looks next to Grayson's photo in the same hat this winter.  It is one of my favorite pictures of him.

Now look at this cutie pa tootie!  Love the big blue eyes and the bubbles are priceless.

Elk Crossing

We've been enjoying the elk migration.  Spotting them on the hill is the highlight of each morning that we are here long enough to see daylight.  Gareld has one of his camera's down by the old house where we caught this bull.  It's fun to collect the cards and see what we caught on film.  By the looks of the date on this one it's time to go get them again. 

Winter Blues

It's winter here on the property.  It's also been very cold.  Last Saturday I ventured out for a few minutes to get some pictures for the blog and then I couldn't upload them.  I was reading another blog today and she mentioned her google account had been suspended, she couldn't upload photos, and she had to start a brand new blog.  I was about ready to do the same thing until I saw today I could upload again.  I don't know what was going on.

This pile of pumpkins brings back memories of long summer days and two a-day watering sessions.  I saved a lot of the seeds from that crop and the rest are just composting away along the fenceline.  Jeremy had a good idea.  He said I should try planting one to make sure it's going to sprout.  I'd hate to have all my little seeds planted in the toilet paper tubes I've been saving and not take off.  As I found out last summer, we planted too late.  Each year we will learn something new.  In the meantime we will enjoy winter. 

"to everything there is a season..."

Paris in June

How can I get there this year?

Morgan is going to be in Europe for a month with her friend, Amy.  They planned on going to Disneyland and since it is one of my favorite places, I said "I should meet you there".   The idea was planted.  I can't shake it.  Could I really go?  Paris has never been on my list of places to visit but I just don't think I can pass this up.  Why not...do it!!

I hear they have a little flea market there. 

Here's part of the plan:

1.  Do not attend Junk Salvation in Hillsboro in February.

2.  Do not attend EXPO in March. ( Easily saving $700 or more)

3.  Do not carry debit card to work everyday.  (If I need it plan for it.)

4.  Only $20 per paycheck budgeted to thrifting. (I couldn't go cold turkey)

5.  Trip to Philadelphia Easter weekend paid for up front.

This is one of my goals for 2013 so I'm going to make it happen!

Deck the Halls

My first experience with purchasing digital design.  I liked this a lot and bought the file.  Lexy helped me download and convert it to a photo file and I had it printed at Walmart.

Now I can proclaim the reason for the season.

This is the first year in a while that I haven't done my countdown to Christmas calender.  Instead I just left this one up to look at all month (like Sandra does with hers).  I made 4 of them for the sales and etsy.  People just haven't fallen in love with them like we have.

Colonial Village is set in the bay window.

My Christmas chubbies have replaced the everyday ones and the cactus has just finished blooming.

There's Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause, a snowman and a caroler.

I love my funnel trees and the red antifreeze can makes the perfect vase for winter greens.

I change out these cloche's for each season.

Santa and his reindeer.

I have several books from when the kids were little and the classics are Morgan's favorites.  Now I get them a children's book each year for their own collection.

This little book set is from my childhood and it is one of my favorite things.

A santa from my tole painting days.

A gift from my sister-in-law that gets hung up every year.

Very old village houses came from some of Phyllis' things.

(my mother-in-law)

I like deer, and green wreaths and windows so I put them all together.  I could go on and on but these are some of the things I get to enjoy every December.



Elk Crossing

On my walk down Kerns Loop there are signs that the elk are actively moving back and forth from mountain to valley.  This little crossing goes into our upper field.

There's trails like this in several places.  When there is a frost or fresh snow in the morning it's fun to see where they have been walking.

Looks like a rig drove up here but it's elk tracks.  This seems to be their favorite spot to cross, at least on our road.  It really is quite an adventure watching them all winter.

Walking

Monday I started a new round of Feeling Great in 8.  That means I have to exercise 5 days a week.  Walking has been my go to exercise of choice.  I have a beautiful place to walk.  It's getting dark so soon though.  I got off early today so I hurried home and bundled up.

This is my "Wyatt" hat.  I got it to wear when I was talking to him on facebook a couple weeks ago.  Now it will keep me warm on my walks and I think of him (and Grayson) the whole time I'm wearing it.

I walk the loop.  It's a nice 2 mile walk to the other end of Kerns Loop and back.

After I get to the bottom of the hill near Hassingers, I turn around and head back up this little incline.  It's a nice workout.  In fact sometimes I only go to the top of this or half way down but I really need to go the whole distance.

I saw a herd of deer tonight.  Turkeys are often around, especially in the spring, but I did see some a few weeks back.  There's a tree on the corner that they roost in.  Everyday quail fly up out of the shrubs.  Morgan and I watched a little owl family earlier in the year. It's is quite enjoyable exercise.

The Long Goodbye

Moving Day.  Sherwood, Kerri, Dylan and Gareld (plus other helpers) spent the weekend moving out of Merlin's shop.  It's kind of sad.  He died in 2003 but his shop has still been there all these years.  Gareld would say "I'm going over to dad's to work on the Nova", or I'm going to go borrow dad's saw.

I'd say "does your dad have any casters over there?"  "Dad has one".  "Let's go to North Powder and park that in Dad's shop."   The times we've thought of or spoken of him go on and on.  It was a big job.

Sherwood hauled his stuff over to his in- laws place in Haines.  Gareld hauled his stuff here.  Now that it is Sherwood's and Gareld's we can't borrow "Dad's" stuff anymore.  Can you imagine how much was in that huge shop that had accumulated over 30 some years.

Everyone used this space to store things with all the moves we've all had.

Those shelves were full of a lot of treasures.  This is Dylan's project car.

The North Powder house finally sold after all these years so it forced us to all find a place for our own stuff.

It's almost empty.  There are a few more things to get but it was a long few days and the loads were all full at the end of today.

Gareld parked his loaded trailer inside tonight.  He was ready to sit for awhile and unload it tomorrow.
He came home with some good stuff.  Notice the cupboard laying on it's side here at the end of the trailer.  That's mine :)

We thought Sherwood was going top keep the cider press.  We have it!  Now we need to take care of all the apple trees so we can press some fresh cider next fall.  Maybe as part of our Shabulous celebration.

Goodbye North Powder childhood home.  No more connection to that property.