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.