A post before New Year's Day

Hi, we just wanted to make sure that we posted a little something before the New Year hits us! We are both looking forward to a great 2010. Our 2009 has been a wonderful one - lots of snow early in the year, a first birthday for our nephew Payton in Las Vegas, our first wedding anniversary, spent time with family both in our home and away, had a beautiful veggie garden, Earl got a new job which he is really enjoying (especially the winter break so far!), U of Montana Griz Football season tickets, and we got a new puppy, Porter. We also had a couple of sad moments but know that we have angels watching over us everyday.

Here is a picture of Porter with his new upland game bird - he's a bird dog you know!?! He loves his Christmas bird and loves to hear his call.

Here are a couple of pictures of Brian and Charlie and then of Earl and I sitting on a neat tree that we saw while hiking on a pretty but cold day at Bass Creek in Montana.

Earl and I had a very nice Christmas in Stevensville with Brian and Charlie, our time flew by quickly!

I would have posted pictures of our new RC plane the Super Cub but well...we'll save that for another time - maybe within this next year!

Lots of love to all, as well as, great joy for the up and coming 2010!

22 pounds of Porter

Porter is getting SO big, the first Friday we had him at home he weighed in at 14 pounds and now he is 22 pounds. He is just a crack up most of the time (Earl might tell you differently) but is becoming more and more brave around the house - that is both good and bad...my crocs and tevas are proof of the bad (at least they are still wearable)!

As you can see Porter likes to play with all of his toys at once

Just another shot of Porter and his Bird...not really the right kind of bird but it is a bird...

And the name is...

PORTER

It's a BOY!!!

Meet the new addition to the family, this is well...we're not sure which name we like the best, he is an English Springer Spanial mixed with a German Shorthair Pointer, 12 weeks old and came with the name Boone but we're not so sure about it. This little guy is a rescue from the English Springer Rescue America.

So far we have learned that he gets a bit car sick - at least on the ride home in my lap...maybe it will be better in the back of the RAV4 or so we hope since we are headed over to Missoula this coming up weekend for a football game. He also likes to rest in the laundry room while the washer and dryer are running, and he is a little shadow so you better watch out where your feet are going.

So far he is just a love bug and wants to be around us all the time, no matter where we are headed in the house. We'll see how tonight goes...

Hey any ideas for names? Let us know...we have a list that we are testing out already!

HOT JALAPENOS!!!

Man we have a TON of HOT jalapenos from our garden, we are going to try our hand at canning these guys here in the picture but we have already picked quite a few for salsa - HOT SALSA!

All of these jalapenos came from our plants this year, isn't it just amazing? There still a few baby peppers on the plants, we're unsure if they will get any bigger just because the weather has started to be quite a bit cooler these days (hot apple cider cool out) but, we'll see. I picked a few yesterday and the ones left on the pepper plants seem to have already grown so I'll cross my fingers for a bit more sunshine even if it is cool out.

In Loving Memory

Kuuma June 10, 2002 - October 1, 2009

Sad news in our home this past week, Kuuma lost her battle with lymphoma (January 11, 2008, was her diagnosis). Her great memories are with Earl, myself and our families forever in our hearts. Kuuma was the very best dog ever (no offense to anyone out there) but she had the very best kisses, the cutest doggie butt, the brightest eyes, and a personality that just sparkled to no end. I miss her so much but I also understand that it was her time to become an Official Angel. She is now able to run and play and be silly without worry of cancer or of pain of any kind.

Kuuma "booma" I love you and I miss you.

A Little Golf...at The IDAHO Club in Sandpoint, ID

The Idaho Club in Sandpoint, ID

Hole 16 break...waiting at the tee box

Hole 16 - jump the water and then dog-leg to the left

Jump the grass/marsh area and then dog-leg to the right

This might look like I was going to be coming in for a great drive but really it went straight into the grass just off the tee box and well I lost my fourth or fifth ball...oops!

Hole 5...NARROW!!! Oh yah, we lost at least two balls off of the tee box...

Friendly moose on the course...

The course was SUPER hard but A LOT of fun other than losing a billion balls but from what everyone else was saying...that is normal! Hope to play again soon.

Found a YUMMY recipe for all of our zucchini

Okay I found this recipe and boy is yummy!

Zucchini Banana Bread (makes great muffins (12) with a half recipe)

3c Flour
2c Quick Oatmeal
4t Baking Powder
2t Salt
2t Cinnamon (or more if you like more)
2 Large Bananas, mashed
1 1/2c Sugar
1 1/2c Oil
4 Eggs
3c Grated Zucchini
1t Vanilla
3/4c walnuts (optional)

Beat sugar and oil, then add eggs - Mix until creamy then add the mashed bananas and zucchini. Add in salt, cinnamon, vanilla. Then mix in the flour and quick oatmeal slowly (sort of folding it in to your mix), then add nuts if you like. Put mixture into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes - makes 3 to 4 pans.

I made a half portion and filled a regular size muffin tin (12) with the batter to the just about the top. I baked at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes - they were PERFECT and YUMMY! I wish I had a picture!

cooks.com

Elk Farm in Rose Lake Area

On our way home from Missoula this weekend, we decided to make a short drive past an Elk Farm in the Rose Lake, ID area.

I had to take a picture of this Tom...I know, not an Elk! Maybe one day I'll get one...

The group of Elk at the farm, you can see the fence that keeps them in.

This is a wild Cow Elk that was outside of the fence. She was quite nervous about Earl, Kuuma and I in the car...she just wasn't too sure of us.

This is a video of a farmed Bull Elk that is "in love" with the wild Cow Elk outside of the fence. You can hear Earl and I sounding like the biggest dorks but you can also hear the Bull Elk bugle to the Cow Elk on the outside of the fence. They were both trying to figure out the best way to get to each other...LOVE.

All of the Bull Elk had their antlers trimmed down pretty short, we assume so they do not try to kill each other while they are in their fenced area this time of year. They tend to argue over the ladies a bit when they are in their rut.

Enjoy!

Weekend at the Cabin - Front Porch Roof - THE BEGINNING...

Of course, a shot of Kuuma doing her "usual thing" at the cabin - on post waiting for chipmunks to run right in front of her face.

The first few TGI's in place

Earl taking time to smile for the camera

At the half way there point

We had a great system - Earl and Charlie would put the TGI's and spacer blocks in place, and Brian and I would cut the TGI's and spacer blocks to fit

See the next post below for the finished product!

Weekend at the Cabin - Front Porch Roof - FINISHED!

The view from the top of the TGI's all of the way across the roof line

Side view of the cabin and porch roof

All of us very happy we were able to finish - all in one day - with the TGI's

Earl and I up on the roof

Another roof shot!

Next, to finish putting down the plywood over the TGI's...

We've struck Yukon Gold...

So we pulled up our Yukon Gold Potatoes because we were not sure if there was a "bug" or not...the plant was looking droopy and the leaves looked like they had been eaten on. The big ones are the size a baseballs and the small ones the size of walnuts. We hope there really wasn't a "bug" so we can enjoy our harvest!

We've been canning...

Man oh man...cannig is a lot of work! We have cucumber and zucchini overload - we give a bunch away and we still have more than we can eat fresh. We canned last week, zucchini pickles, and this weekend, we canned the cucumber dill pickles and zucchini relish you can see above. There are four quarts and one pint of dill pickles and eight half-pints of relish.

Working and having fun at Brian and Charlie's cabin

Kuuma treed the Chipmunk - this was a very long process it all began on Friday, you can see below in a backwards story...

Kuuma's chipper friend in the tree, she/he would work up the tree when Kuuma came around and then would work back down the tree to see if she was paying attention and you better believe she was at all times. Kuuma has chipmunk eyes!

Friday night she had worn herself out trying to find the chipmunk and you can see below she though it was in the wood pile - Do you think her tongue could get ANY longer?

Cute Kuuma butt trying to find the chipmunk

Kuuma taking post. Kuuma is the chipmunk watch dog, she will sit for hours on end just waiting for any movement that might be a chipmunk, she is on guard and so tense about her "job" that she will wear herself out.

Now to what we were doing at the cabin...

We were log washing the inside of the cabin - the logs look so clean and bright now!

Just a shot of some of the walls Brian and Charlie put up - view from the front door

Another shot of the walls from the back door by the kitchen area and the first room through the wall of studs is the bathroom - it now has a bathtub plumbed in and the toilet is next

Garden Shots

Roma tomato plant with my drip irrigation system

Poor lettuce...they got a haircut!

Pepper plants and the loan potato plant

Honey Bee on the cantaloupe flower

Our largest cantaloupe!

Pictures from our veggie garden - enjoy!

Not pictured - Walla Walla Onions, Giant Pumpkins

Our Cucumber Trellis

Earl and I built a cucumber trellis this past weekend because our cucumbers are out of control...Earl did most of the hard work and I just did some holding for him. We found the design on a do it yourself web page. The cucumber vines are being held up by wire that we can tighten with the screws on each end. The cucumbers are already starting to climb.