Snowman

LA Thanksgiving

"The trip takes us." -John Steinbeck

Jay in his cubicle.

Hike in the San Gabriel Mountains

Jay chauffeurs us to the beach

Thanksgiving dinner picnic at the beach.

Korean Friendship Bell

Point Fermin Lighthouse

Good-bye LA. Thanks for a wonderful holiday visit.

JOY=JAY

This is Jay and his friend Dan on a Brazilian beach last winter. What a joy it is to be young and full of promise.

from the book SWAN LAKE by Mark Helprin

"[Young men], even if they are not royal princes, even if they do not excel in marksmanship and other such things can get astoundingly smug. And why not? They are in the peak of health. Nature itself makes them want to sing and dance. And, in the main, they do not know grievous loss.

...this kind of natural arrogance...[serves] to power [them] through the difficult years of [their] twenties."

Salvage-By Tim

I have been cutting up the old equipment and taking it to the recycling yard.

Before

During

After

The Harvest Begins

2010 1003MoonwalkAiden20100013

I LOVE TEENAGERS! THEY ARE SO MUCH FUN!

General Conference-October

When Jay was about 5 years old he and Ben were playing outside and something happened and Jay hurt his head and came crying in to the house. I was sitting on the recliner and he crawled up on my lap to get comfort and fell asleep. I hardly breathed for fear of disturbing him and ending my chance to snuggle. I accurately predicted that it would probably be the last time he ever fell asleep on my lap. Well, after a 19 year drought (not counting little babies falling asleep on your lap) another cutey fell asleep on my lap. This time during General Conference. Can you tell Grandma is loving it?!

I thought Dad and Cory looked so handsome striding off together to the Priesthood session.
They went two blocks to the stake center instead of the one block to the regular meetinghouse.

My Post-Lasik Face

I'm loving no glasses! After 48 years I can look in the mirror more than 8 inches away and see myself. I look familiar to me, kind of like my brothers and sisters.

These are my reading glasses.
This is a foxglove flower. In the waning days of the growing season I thought I'd better get a photo and record what a customer at the greenhouses told me. "Just look at this flower! It looks like its dripping with nectar. No wonder the hummingbirds and insects are attracted to it!"

Cory's Marathon

Mile 17

Mile 21 and still smiling

Mile 24


Waiting at the finish line


He did it!!!!!

Way to go Cory

Relaxing with family.

For Sale- One Boat- Cheap

Only used once.

It was a quick little outing. We circled once and the motor went kaput! Luckily we were near the dock. We used the paddle boaters are required to carry.

It's Very Eggciting!

After all their trauma the hens finally started laying. Yippee!

Hits and Misses in the Garden 2010

The sum total of our grape juice from the vines in the garden.

We did 3 raised beds. They work well for some things and not so well for others.

1. The cruciferous vegetables overwhelmed the raised bed and didn't produce good vegetables. The broccoli and cauliflower were okay but the brussel sprouts and cabbages were runts. Back to the ground.

2. Strawberries grew well in the boxes but we didn't get many; probably need more fertilizer.

3.Raspberries produced well; lots of even watering because Dad did it.

4. Artichokes: I planted them near the house and they were stunted, need to go out in the good garden soil.

5.Peppers: Planted in the boxes and didn't produce well. Tried the Gypsy peppers because the Armenians and Bosnians who came in to the greenhouses bought them by the hundreds but I didn't notice that they were much better than other sweet peppers. I really liked the lipstick pepper but I only got one. Maybe the season was too cool.

6. Summer squash: Green and yellow zucchini, yellow crookneck, flying saucer squash, all good if picked small. They got a mildew on the leaves that probably came from the greenhouse. Plant seeds to avoid mildew and find a new location next time.

7. Tomatoes: Planted lots of kinds but didn't label them so we don't know what is best. The cherokee purple didn't have much taste compared to the red ones. Both grape and jelly bean cherry tomatoes are tasty but the yellow pear was bland and had a mushy texture.

The Lemon boy tomato was good and did look like a lemon. Some were planted in boxes and some in the ground. I didn't notice a difference in growth or production.

8.Melons: Sugar baby watermelons were tasty and ripened at the end of August. Cantaloupe was tasty. Don't wait until it loses its green to harvest. Be careful with melons to not to let them over ripen. We should grow about 4 plants each to satisfy our appetite.

9. Concord grapes: Good. Still young and didn't produce enough to make juice.

10. Root vegetables.: Planted in the boxes, excellent results. Carrots so yummy they are almost habit forming. I liked picking them when they are baby carrot size. Golden beets, excellent, the golden ones seem milder flavored than red beets. Greens are good too cooked or raw. They have a chewier texture in salads than lettuce.

11. Cucumbers: I liked the lemon cucumbers because the skin seems more tender and it's a smaller cucumber and I don't need much at a time.

12. Onions: Planted in boxes and they didn't do well. They hardly grew. The Walla Walla are worth planting. They taste terrific. Back to the ground.

13. Corn: We don't know what kind we planted but there seemed to be three kinds. All did well with Dad's masterful watering.

14. Winter squashes: They did well in spite of the mildew. I learned that if you can easily pierce the skin with your fingernail they aren't ready and the bigger the spaghetti squash the tastier.

15. Gourds: They did well in spite of the mildew but I would like them to be decorative so I should grow them on a trellis maybe somewhere besides the vegetable garden.

16. Pumpkins: Planted seeds, the French Antique. Excellent

17. Eggplant: In the ground, did well but the season was too cool for them.

18. Potatoes: Yukon gold and Red Pontiac. Excellent. It was the kind of year that makes Idaho so great for growing potatoes. Temperatures in the 90's and nights that cool down and rich volcanic soil. We got a lot of big smooth tasty potatoes.

It's the Jack Benny Anniversary!

#39 years today.

This photo was at 9 years.

When you want to escape the summer heat-

Head to the northwest coast. We went to see the Lion King; awesome!

I appreciated the Japanese garden all the more for having worked at my job this year.
Here in Bellingham we needed our hoodies.

Here we are at the border crossing where we waited 30 minutes for our interrogation by the border patrol officer. The experience was very impressive to me. The officer did a good job.
Did I mention how I love having grown children to do the driving?

Vancouver and totem poles.

Information on totem poles.

Monday is Moon's day

We went up to the mountains for a campout but I'm too sad to finish this blog because we just discovered that the neighbors Rottweiller killed most of our chickens while we were gone.

Okay, I'm back to my post. We tried the Wood River campground this time and liked it. I like to go when the moon is full because you can see the silhouettes of the cathedral pines on the tent walls at night.

Brooke, to add to the miscellany of signs: Here is a funny one warning us that the bridge will be bumpy. My mother used to say, "Funny strange or funny Ha Ha?" This one is funny HaHa.

We liked the paved bike trail

"Mom, I'll be home tomorrow night, will you make an apple pie?"

Jay and his friend Leandro, visiting from Florianopolis, Brasil, stopped by for a visit to the farm after a weekend at Bear Lake. The world has some terrific young people!

Tutorial from Samantha

Samantha, do you remember saying I should put the antique tricycle in the flower garden as a garden object?

I put it by the black-eyed susan vine. What do you think?

Lidia on the Horse of Course

Cute Kids Crunching Corn on the Cob

Ben takes a little breather to be a kid again.

Look Who Came Home With Us!

This is a rest stop in the way to WA that had a play area for horses. I thought that was so sweet!

Ben came home with us to help Dad with the heavy stuff putting in the sprinkler system. Thanks Ben and Brooke.

This is for Brooke.