Supposed to be October Post

I totally missed October.  Thought about it, didn't do anything about it. Actually have a draft rant post about dumb books I could have posted... But like I said in the previous post, this is for me right?

If you don't comment I will be sad.

Singing.. my first real directing experience! Aaron played his recorder with us and Jared said it sounded really good.  Didn't realize he had come to hear till he texted me afterwards.

One Sunday night I asked Alec to play through a song for me so the babies all sang with us.  I like singing together.

Our Sunday dinners have gotten so big most of the time we use 2 tables. Its great.

Since Megan and Adam stayed with us for a month while waiting to get into their apartment we made her play with us on her viola.  I also made them practice and then sing with the choir when we performed.  Price of staying at the Aunt Hill!

Megan forgot her instrument since it was out in the parlor instead of up in their suite and I sent a picture to say it missed her.

Happy Talk like a pirate day!

The Friday before conference I got a big pile of sand delivered,

then jacked up the barn and tried to create an even surface...

to lay a bunch of pavers on (half of which I got off of KSL for fairly cheap.. that's what determined the color).

I decided pavers were more useful than concrete since all these building are supposed to be temporary.  Pavers can be reused or resold but not a big slab of concrete.

It looked really nice until the goats spent the night in there once (accidentally left the door unlocked.. Aaron has now placed a bar across the door).  The pavers do keep the dust down but it didn't quite work how I had planned so Emily has bought some stall mats to put down.  Live and learn I suppose.

My California PE finally came.  All very exciting.

Since we now have 6 goats, I bought a metal shed off of KSL and Aaron went with me to deconstuct it... luckily we first tried setting it straight onto Clarks trailer and it worked! Phew.

Thanks Clark for letting us use the trailer!  Thanks Jared for letting us use the truck!

It might have shifted a little bit on the ride home but we got it safely home before it tried to fly off.

Look, Aaron bring shed.

Look closely behind him in the goat shed.. I jacked up OB3 (goat shed) a bit and put it on blocks.  We were trying to get it up out of the water that drains off both our neighbors barn and the shed. So then put rocks around the base and filled it in with sand to raise it up.  Emily put hay down on top of that and its nice and soft.

Maybe eventually we can try concrete but if we are going to that much trouble we might as well put in a big barn!

Aaron pulled the new shed around..

Right where Emily wanted it.  Now Tulip and kids can stay nice and dry even if Spots is being a pain and kicking goats out of "her" shed.

Getting ready for Conference...

Always a working conference in this household (canning pears).

Traditional donuts after priesthood session.

Sunday breakfast of crepes!

Our spread...

Sunday group...

conference makes us a bit tired...

Bailey listening closely

And Jared too..

Sharing what they learned in conference...

It's always fun to have everybody with us to listen to conference!

The next thing on the list of stuff to do was get stinky Bud fixed.  Emily had tried to sell him on KSL but there weren't any takers.

So poor Bud had to become less than a man.  Funny story, the Vet (Kate) sent her assistant back to get the horse castigators. Apparently he was as big as the yearling horse they had done that morning and the little clippers weren't going to do the job...

He is very friendly but so stinky nobody wants to get close and he had been separated from the girls for weeks... although Tulip is so laid back she got pregnant from Bud's ONE escape that lasted all of a few seconds.  And it turns out that Spots (who ISN'T related to Bud) did not get bred by him, although she thought she was and skipped a cycle. Which of course meant we thought so too.  Sigh. Once again, live and learn.

He stood like this for a while after the operation as the drugs wore off.  His body actually healed quite quickly, although when he was out with the girls a couple days later he didn't seem to want to jump and run :)

He's happy now hanging with the whole herd even if he jumps up on his sisters just to annoy me.

Jalyn had a birthday (shout hurray!)

She wanted the same cake Emily had made last year... I think it turned out really well!

Jared actually did the frosting. Amy told me to ask him cuz he's good... and he was!

And it appears the cake was good too...

Just trying to make those nieces who didn't come for Sunday dinner that night jealous...

This post is long enough... I will do another one with all the canning pictures.

Some Sept 2016 Happenings

I read a blog post the other day recounting happy memories the poster's children had shared with her which she didn't realize they remembered.  It made me think.

My life is filled with random happenings that may not seem important to others but that I want to remember. I enjoy going back through old posts every once in a while and remembering fun times. The enthusiasm included in starting this blog many many years ago is long past, but repentance is always available.  Every day :)

Many of the following pictures will have zombie duckies in them... zombie duck selfies are now pretty much required for dissemination to family members.

Saw this booth at Bluffdale town days and sent the idea on to Bethanie, Jenny, and Angela.  Jared is petting a violin.

While walking to work from the train one day, I saw this lineup of cop cars under the bridge by the station... is this a bad place in town?

I often say 'lets go to the fair!" on Saturday mornings when I really mean "lets go to the farmers market!".  And then one Saturday Emily got really excited when I messed up cuz there really was a county fair that day! So that evening after chores we went over.

We ran into some former and current ward members whose children are involved in 4H or FFA. It was fun to see them in their natural habitat.  I enjoyed looking at some of the crafts.

Why do I always judge the crocheted and knitted items according to my own inflated sense of self achievement?

Because I really am that awesome.

My blog, my opinions.

Emily and Aaron enjoyed the fair food.  Emily really wanted a turkey leg but they had run out :(

Took a picture of Emily and Aaron without them noticing, which turned out pretty good.

Emily tried taking one of me...

I embraced the awkwardness.

There were bears.. they looked rather sad and ratty but worthy of a ducky picture.

I like hootenanny pancakes and often make them for breakfast.  Uses eggs and milk of which we have plenty during the summer! Did you know hootenanny means a party? Like a hoedown? Just looked it up on Google.

For Labor day, we kept up the tradition of watching the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trials.  As always, it was way fun.

Zombie duckies enjoy it too.

Because it was labor day, we didn't get the whole Utah Helm crew to come with us...

We just got the best of the bunch :)

Usually get a pretty good group for Sunday dinner though!  Bailey was in Idaho... she's come the other weeks... And JAG was there, just in the back with the tractors. We made gyro's again in honor of the sheepdog trials.  This time I made naan bread instead of pitas. So much easier and quicker and doesn't heat up the house as much.

On actual labor day we canned peaches (28?)... and the last few plums! Wanted to try it although they ended up looking kinda like brains... or eyeballs.  They all came out of their skins. Too ripe?

I also run the morning milking though the cream separator on the mornings I'm not headed to work. Its a new tradition so we can start doing more with the goats cream.

Unfortunately, the last few times I've made ice cream using this cream its been very grainy, like sugared buttery cream bits surrounded with sugary frozen milk.  I've been afraid to try and blend it in case I make butter instead of helping the cream homogenize.  I think the grainyness is caused by a couple issues... 1) we used to freeze just the skimmings, meaning each small layer essentially flash froze. Now a full cup trying to freeze gives everything time to separate. 2) the cream from the separator is not as rich as skimmings so there is more milk to separate from the cream.

Still haven't decided how to fix this problem.  For now, Emily suggested if I want to make ice cream on Sunday, I shouldn't freeze the cream. Any other suggestions?

I have also been furiously working on crocheting baby stuff.  Unfortunately I let my stash get quite low (totally out!) so I've been scrambling to catch up.  Note to self... keep your stash trimmed and full! (October Conference should help me get ahead a bit)

Aaron got the tractor ready for Jared to take to our local IFA antique tractor show... I didn't get to go but Emily, Aaron, and Jared stayed the whole time so I guess they enjoyed it!

All those tractors got Aaron excited so he went out and got the little garden tractor working!

Here Emily is in the pasture trying it out.

I wasn't enthusiastic enough so it s a good thing Emily was excited.

Look at that dirt!

Part of the reason I wasn't excited enough was I needed Aaron to help me find the leak that caused our water bill to be 3 times its normal size in August... 3 days, 10 uprooted plants, and ~$1000 later its all fixed. Don't mind learning more about home ownership, but I like the less expensive lessons better.

So after a hard days work of learning, its nice to relax in front of the TV with a virgin margarita or a glass of new wine :)