Latest Events

Well, it's been a while since I posted, so I'm going to try and catch up with pictures.  We've been busy! We had one day a week or so that rained for 4 hours, got just shy of 5" of rain!  It was like monsoonal rains but they lasted for hours.  Found out we had some drainage problems but most of it came from across the road.

We have found a very relaxing thing to do in the evenings, fishing!  We go to our neighbor's place, very kind of them to let us fish whenever we want.  They have a huge pond behind their home and on the first day, Larry caught 9 small bass!  We have been a few times, I'm going to give it a try next time.  Had to practice my casting at our place before I went out in public, caught several small rocks in our driveway... LOL

Larry cut some of the downed trees and then split and
stacked.  The left side of the pole barn is now full of wood
ready for winter.  We actually have more chopped wood now
than going into winter last year.  Should be set!

The pond behind our neighbor's home.  It is soooo peaceful
and quiet.  Frogs making noises and Canadian Geese
make it so nice.

The bass were small, but perfect pan-size.  The biggest he caught
was about 3 pounds, this one was one of the smaller ones.

Our 4-hour rain created a waterfall over our rock wall and
a river in front of our porch.  The main amount of water-flow
came from the driveway across the street, but we're going to
try and fix that before the next big rain.  It was an unusual
amount of rain from what everyone said.  Our creek washed over
the road by several inches.  They fixed that the next day.

Front of the house with trailer where it has set since
last June.

All hooked up and ready to move.  This was basically our
view from the bedroom french doors.

Now we have a more open view from the bedroom.  The deer
like to go toward the corner of trees there to make their
way down to the creek.  Now we can see them much more easily.

Trailer's new home.  It has full hook-ups there, so we have
extra room for out-of-town guests.  

Much better now with blocks and things moved away.  Now we
have to finish leveling it and plant more grass.  The garden
is doing well too, as you can see.

Enjoy the pictures.  I think I'm about caught up now, but will go back and check all my pictures to see if I missed anything.  Take care, I'll be posting again soon.

Father's Day

I hope everyone enjoyed their Father's Day celebration.  We did a BBQ with our daughter and her family.  We also were lucky enough to meet another neighbor who has two children.  They are 9 and 7, the twins are 8, so it worked out perfect.  Had them over for the day also and the kids played baseball, both of the boys are in leagues in the area.  They haven't played each other's teams, but probably will next season.  Ryland finished this season last week and his team lost only one game, making them league champions!

Baseball Game begins...

Emma at bat...

Ryland Pitching...

Eli in Right Field...

Raegan in Left Field.  They had a blast
until the ball went down to the creek.
Grandma found it!!!

Then there is Evan who is a bit too young for baseball but he's happy in Mom's arms with Dad close by.

Fireplace Mantle

The fireplace mantle is a thing of beauty in my opinion.  Larry's happy with how it turned out.  Our neighbors gave us some wood planks that they had cut from an old Elm tree that was destined to die.  It's been in their barn for quite a long time, amid the hay and birds.  You'll see a "before" picture and the finished product.  It took Larry quite a long time, but it turned out exactly like we hoped.  I'm very proud of him.  He also added some woodwork to the ends of the two hallways which help differentiate between the dining area and the great room.  It looks so much nicer than just the end of the wall.

This is the "pillar" that Larry added to both sides of the
opening between the great room and the dining area.
Really makes a difference!

Elm, with all it's personality... LOL.  It's great wood, very hard
and cleans up very pretty.  The grain, once it is planed out flat and
squared up, turned out just perfect!

Mantle piece is up, it's solid elm with a maple bottom cap.
Now for the finishing touches...

Now to put up our Mantle Clock and maybe some candles...

Loving it!!!

I have found that if you want to see the pictures a little bit better, just double click on one of them and it will bring them all up in whatever program you view pictures.  It only does it for the pictures in that post, so you would have to do it again for a different posting.  Enjoy!  I know I am... 

Garden Progress

It's coming right along!  Green stuff popping up everywhere.  I am so thrilled, just can't wait to pick my first produce and eat truly fresh veggies!!!

Garlic in the front, various onions, asparagus and even
the zucchini and cucumbers!

It's so whispy, you can't hardly see it, but it is
asparagus!  Can't eat it the first year, supposed to
wait for the second year's crop to cut and eat.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I know I did.  I got a lavender plant.  Larry said since the garden is doing so well, he got me this plant instead of flowers.  We planted it at the end of the big front porch.  Will be able to see it from the master bedroom and from the front porch.  A beautiful day it was, talked with our kids and talked with my Mom.  I'm truly blessed!!!  And a bit spoiled... LOL

It sure is pretty!  Hope it grows as well as the rest
of the garden is so far.

Garden is popping up!

Yes, I have started something green growing!!! I'm so excited.  Those of you who know me well know that I have the ability to kill a silk plant, let alone grow something.  I actually have radishes, two kinds of onions and garlic starting to show green stuff above the ground!  At least that's what I think they are, the little placard for each has blown away and I'm not sure which row I put what in... LOL. Thought the first one was a weed, but didn't pull it just in case.  Good thing!

Radishes poking out where I planted
them...

I must have dropped some radish seeds
as they are all in a clump where I did
not plant them... LOL

White onions starting to show more green.  There was some
part sticking up out of the ground when I planted them,
but they are getting taller and greener.

I believe this is a yellow onion...

Not actually sure what this is, I believe
it may be a white onion. 

This is a weed... pulled it!   LOL

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's new home

We had the kids over for the weekend a few weeks ago.  We decided to go exploring down by the creeks while it was still fairly open for hiking.  Little did I know how thick the area was with all kinds of trees and bushes and such.  We all got our walking sticks and headed out.  Crossed the creeks three times and still didn't get to the big pond where the two creeks meet.  That will have to be our next outing...

Got a call from our neighbor thinking that one of their cows was ready to give birth and the kids decided they wanted to see it, so we took a break from our hike and went to Chuck and Nancy's.  The cow decided to wait for now, but we had a nice visit.  I've never seen a pregnant cow before, OMG, she was huge.

The beginning of the creek.  We walked along the path to
the left of the creek to the end of our property then
crossed the creek back to the right toward our house.

There is a baby cow with it's mom.

Ryland and Raegan wanted to pet the cow, but Bryce just
wanted to look.  Chuck told them it could be bad to try and
pet the cow, they aren't real friendly, so they just looked.

Raegan listening to Nancy, learning about cows.  The
cow back there is one of the pregnant ones, she's huge!

How does she walk?!?!?

Starting down the trail, walking sticks in hand...

Crossing the creek.  Boy, was the water cold if you slipped!

Success!  On our way back to the house, will with sticks.
We'll keep those for our next adventure!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a great Easter Day.  Hope you all had a great day too.  Here are some pictures of the egg hunt.  Evan experienced his first hunt.  He found eggs and put them in his basket, but when he found the next one his basket would spill out when he bent over to get it.  He'd pick them all up and start out again.  Too cute!

Ryland thought he had won the hunt, but a miss-count revealed there was one more egg left out there to be found.  It was the tie-breaker egg.  Raegan found it.... doh!  The celebration changed from whooo-hoooo to drat!  Too funny!!!

Evan and Shannon off to find eggs...

The hunt has begun!

Evan collecting his spilled eggs then off to the next one.

Evan decided there must be an egg up in the tractor...

No egg up here, but look at me... I'm driving a tractor!!!

Gotta search more, there's one more out there!

We've got a garden!

Yes, we planted our first garden.  Our kind neighbors, Chuck and Nancy, have been a GREAT help.  They came down with the tractor and tilled up the ground for us and Nancy has been a wealth of information.  We planted garlic, 3 kinds of onions, asparagus, radishes, cucumbers and zucchini.  Haven't seen anything pop up yet, but it's only been a week.  I water it every day, if it hasn't rained.  Also looking for weeds, pulled one so far... LOL.  Pretty exciting stuff.

Chuck and his tractor tilling our garden!

Chuck tilled several times to
get it just the right depth.

Several rows and two mounds
at the far end.

From the other end.  Closest to you
are the cucumber and zucchini
mounds.

Garlic is at this end.  Used plastic forks to label
what is in each row.

 Chuck and Nancy left with the power pole that we used as our temporary service during construction.  When the electric company put up the new permanent service, they used a new pole too, so Chuck is going to make an "Amish Clothes Line" for Nancy.  She's so excited, you can hang up clothes and use the pulley system to move it for the next.  It goes from the laundry room out to the new pole.  Pretty cool stuff!!

Chuck pulling the pole to their house.

I'll post more later.  I have pictures of our Easter get-together, will put them up soon.

The Deer are coming back!

Yes, the deer are coming back out into the open.  We had two just the other day outside my craft room.  They weren't far down the hill, so when Larry told me they were there I grabbed the camera and got a few pictures before they spotted me.  All the snow was melted yesterday, but this morning it was white again.  What's up with that?  I thought Spring was here, but it's only on it's way... LOL

The other pics below are the Master Bathroom which is now completely done.  The shower works GREAT!  After being in a small trailer using that shower and using the smaller shower in the guest bathroom in the house, this one seems huge.  It is big, but we are very happy with it.

The deer are back out in the open!

Looking a little thin!

Looking around for more grass to eat.

Looks like they spotted me.  Once they did that, they took
off toward the creek down the hill behind them.

The stain on the doors make all the
difference in the world!  Love it.

The finishing touches of the trim work.

It works great!  Jake doing his inspection, he passed it!!