Yard Remodel

We must be totally crazy. Right in the middle of severe yard work time we are adding on to the kitchen. There is not enough time in the day to even come close to getting all of the fall yard work done. I've been working as much as I can but Lance is so busy working on the kitchen that I'm all on my own with this. So far there have been 30 spring bulbs planted with 40 more to go, seven roses moved and tons of ivy and perennials cut down. On top of all of this the snails are still on the move and so I must watch everywhere for them. Here is a picture of the current yard mess but I know it's always worth it in the spring.

Kitchen Remodel

Well, after all these years of talk the remodel has finally began. I am so nervous about having my kitchen torn apart. Lance is so brave attempting this himself, I'm so thankful for that. Our next door neighbor has done a considerable amount of work and if it weren't for him we would only be half as far with it as we are. James came over and helped today which was a huge blessing they put the new door on and it's a normal size foe normal people.

Juniper Beer

Here is a photo of the brew with Juniper. We gathered about 4 pounds of berries from Grand Gulch and for extraness some actual branches from across the street. I'm a little worried that might be too much but I reeeeally wanted to taste it strongly. I will let you know how this one does.

Grand Gulch

Grand Gulch is a place Lance and I have not been. We have driven by a few times but never stopped. When we were discussing where to go on our fal excursion as soon as it was mention I was like YESSSSS! Beside the fact that It was Everetts final place to explore it was definately a place on my list not traveled. We had to get a permit ahead of time and the BLM office is only open till noon so we had to leave at 5:30 in the morning and we got there with only 10 minutes to spare. We went in through Todie Canyon and it was very rough with our giant packs on and took forever (I wouldn't go in that way again). We had it all planned out like where to get water and camp but it turned out all the springs we were counting on were dry so we quickly changed our plans and didn't get to see all we wanted. The water we could find was extremely buggy and dirty, by the end both of our filters were clogged. The Native American ruins were exquisite and you could explore many of them. The fall colors were also very beautiful. I can't wait to go back and finish exploring this great unspoiled treasure of Utah.

Canning Season

One of my favorite times of year is here. Canning. I really don't know what I would do without it. You wouldn't be able to preserve food or you just wouldn't be able to can. I've done all of the usual things this year, pears, peaches, salsa, pear butter, pickles, green beans, and now I'm in the middle of apples. This year I'm going to try pickling some Jalapenos. I love just trying things to see if it works and I have a new stove to boot.

New stove of heaven.

We finally got a new stove. Yay!! I am so excited to cook now. I told Lance that I would cook everyday and so I plan on doing that. The best part is it has an extra large burner so with ease and quickness I can heat up the big, giant canner or the big, giant brew pot. The other cool thing is I don't have to light the burners with a match half the time. Hopefully I can keep her nice and new and clean looking.

Portland

My cousin lives in Portland and had invited us up there a couple of times. I don't know why we hadn't gone sooner we had so much endless fun. We hiked in the Colombia River Gorge, ate bacon doughnuts, drank lots of good beer, went to Edgefield where they make their own gin, enjoyed an afternoon at the Saturday Market, checked out the Rogue Nation, and drove to the coast for some serious beauty and rest. On top of all of that my cousin had such a marvelous place for us to stay.