October post

October started off with more bringing in the harvest...

Emily found a cheap you-pick place for grapes so I helped her get 9 or 10 boxes of grapes.

They were mostly Concords...

Emily was really good at filling buckets because she moved around picking the big bunches.

I stayed in one place and picked it clean.  So she got about 70% of the total grapes gathered... but I think I helped the grape place clean out their grapes in a few spots.

So I forgot to mention in the September post early in that month we woke up to this... dead and dying bees from a pesticide kill off.

A very sad morning.

We waited a couple weeks to see if the hive could recover but it was so late in the season we didn't have much hope.

In oct Aaron opened up the bees to check on them since we might as well get the honey rather than the robber bees we were afraid had been at work (see the reducer on the landing board in the picture below ).

Gage "helped" (by watching!)

He cleaned out the hive, we took some honey (quite a few quarts actually) and Aaron said he was surprised at how many bees were there.  So, we will continue to feed them and hope they make it... there are still some alive so we assume the queen made it (they may have made another) but not sure there are enough of them to keep the hive alive through the winter.  Bees need to keep the hive quite warm to grow baby bees. We've got a heater on them now but... we shall see.

Mom and Dad stayed for a while with us and we put them to work... Dad worked downstairs and Mom canned all our grapes! So many quarts... and a couple half gallons.

 And then she cut peppers for the freezer.. Hardworking Mom.

We didn't get as many peppers as in times past because I hadn't been out there picking them.  Kinda a fail in that department this year.

We got a free gate off of KSL to put in the back.

Funny story, when going to pick it up, Google tried to send us down the canal road behind the house we were trying to get too.  The road was blocked off of course!  It was a little weird. I was blindly following the directions and should have noticed we were going the wrong way (Emily was driving since I don't do standard).

One Sunday Carly used our glue gun to make a pretty wreath.. which she forgot so I sent a picture to her.

And Alec forgot his backpack.  I guess our nieces and nephews feel right at home!

Emily and I chippered up the corn stalks to store as feed for the goats.

It was very loud.

Emily rigged up the board so the chippered up stalks wouldn't blow away.

Unfortunately, we laid the corn out to dry in the garage but apparently didn't turn it enough so it still molded.  Sigh.  Still learning.

The sunday before Halloween I made my nieces and nephews make halloween gingerbread houses which I had seen on Mel's kitchen cafe blog.

Aaron took pictures when asked.

Forgot to get pictures of the participants..

But the houses sure were cute!

I had made the frosting a little too runny but... live and learn, right?  And I do like the burnt sugar for putting the houses together. Quick and strong.  It was a little dangerous working with that hot sticky stuff (might have gotten some blisters to prove it) but was way better than trying to stick the houses together with my runny frosting :).

OK, October done!

September Post

September, we start bringing in all the harvest.

Late in the summer, I started spending time in the bean patch (part of the corn, squash rotation) trying to get ahead of the weeds. This patch is out in the field so I didn't think about how quickly the weeds would take over... In other words, this wanna be farmer is still learning :)

Anyways, I came home one evening and saw the goats in there. I Marco Poloed all my sisters to show the bare stalks and trampled destruction, and then took pictures of how they got in.

Pretty sure it was Spots babies who enlarged a small hole then exploited by the adults.

I read somewhere that Farmers are not "experts in their fields" because they only get to try new things once a year. So in a farmers career, his experience consists of 50 tries. Compare that to an expert who has practiced his craft 100s of times in just one year.

So we should figure this out in about 50 years.

September also includes the annual trek to Heber to watch the sheepdog trials. I guess I decided a selfie with Emily was called for...

This year Joseph joined us...

And those are the only pictures I took there... It is always way fun. We got to see a lot of classic runs as well as the ones where the dog doesn't listen. Jared came for the morning with Gage and is cousins... They liked the easy access to fair food.

Labor day Emily and I canned peaches and pears. See Marco Polo :) I think we did 4 boxes.

Here's a trapped skunk picture... See previous post for the full explanation.

Jenny came to visit us for a couple weeks in between taking Sarah up to Idaho for school and waiting for Megan to pop Lincoln out :)

So Aaron used her piano playing skills to accompany his alto recorder.

She was a great help to everyone while she was here. Babysitting grandkids, calming expectant mothers, canning, cleaning garages, accompanying, vacuuming, and cleaning kitchens. Perhaps most especially helpful to us :)

Another skunk... Aaron covering it before putting it in the back of the truck and relocate it.

Woman's conference! Nice to live in Utah where we can watch it at home.

Aaron had gone to get the takeout Emily had ordered so we wouldn't miss anything. I had wanted to go to the stake center to watch because instead of watching I knew I would find other things to occupy myself at home. And they were serving pie :) But we just ran out of time.

Because this is what we had been doing all weekend... Canning! Applesauce, tomato sauce, and beans.

Funny story, tried to go buy pie/ice cream afterwards at Weatherbys but forgot we were in Utah. Everyone else had the same idea! We ended up at Kneaders for a shake.

Nathan and family came to visit Jared for conference. It was so fun to have everyone there!

Emily and Jenny canning corn during the session..

So happy to be here and to be a good helper! :)

We do always have a good spread.  Emily says the Word should be sweet!

Jenny found a bunch of different types of M and M's to share... I think we still have the nasty ones in our pantry :)

Sunday Emily and Gage came with me to take the dogs out and Gage showed off his jumping skills.

Its funny how they keep digging the place up, place pipe/cable, bury it, and then go do it again right next to it.  It won't be very funny when they have big ol' apartment building us there. Sigh.

I really do need to take more pictures.  I just get too busy having fun!

August 2017 Post

August.

Gage spent the night with us when Jared and Amy went to see a show and would be home late... I took him out with me and the dogs. Tend to get "king of the mountain" pictures :)

They are doing tons of construction behind us with new houses and the new REAL (soccer) practice stadium. Finding a huge pile of dirt, Gage wanted to climb it... So we did.
 
It is sad how much of the area where we used to run the dogs is all torn up. Not sure where the bunnies and associated predators have gone.

Side note, once I was out with the dogs and saw someone walking down from mountain view corridor carrying something large and dark on top of a long pole. My first thought was a surveyor (sad. Another open area gone) but he was too far away to tell. Next time I looked he was without pole and swinging something around and around over his head.... I realized it was a lure and the pole had carried some type of hawk he was teaching to hunt. I bet he too will be sad when the bunnies are gone.

I'm on a roll. Now "out with the dogs" stories involving coyotes. I may have already mentioned the time a coyote followed Daisy as she was jogging back to me. My first thought was "get away from my dog!" which I yelled very loudly... It was scary! Later I thought perhaps I should have seen what it did when it got closer. It was lean and pretty, all mottled with shades of browns, yellows and white, not grey and scraggly like NM and Vegas coyotes.

Second coyote story. I had walked out 10-15 minutes with the dogs on a dark, dark night. Suddenly in front of me a loud yipping started up. It sounded coyote-like but I thought maybe Daisy was in trouble. She ranges much more than Cooper when it's dark. I started running towards the sound yelling Daisy's name. Checking to make sure Cooper was behind me, I saw both dogs behind. Now Daisy was anxious to go check it out and went around me. Calling her and after a couple tries, I grabbed her collar and tried to decide what to do. If I had leashes to control them I would have checked it out. As it was I turned around and made them come back with me along the canal. Now I really wish I looked. Jenny and Emily suggested it was a dog rather than a coyote in distress. :( Next day I went out when it was light and didn't see anything.

Ok, back to the regularly scheduled blog.

Typically a Saturday morning finds us at the South Jordan Farmers Market. This morning Gage got a crown from a balloon guy.

August is also Bluffdale Old West Days. First, the family rodeo where Gage tried again to stay on a sheep.

No dice :( poor guy, he's a good sport.

Then the parade, which stopped in the middle because a little girl in the parade fell and got run over. Luckily it wasn't fatal like a parade earlier in the summer.

At the time we had Emily's old roommate Melinda and her 3 boys staying with us for the week. It was a hard 1/2 hour wait before more candy came.  So hard that I didn't take any pictures...

We had gone to the actual rodeo last month when Angela was visiting but of course I didn't take any pictures.  Bailey, Talon, Talon's sister also joined all the SLC Helms... which I only know by the photo evidence on Amy's blog :)  I just remembered a nice story from the rodeo!  Jared was worried about getting seats so Aaron graciously headed over early to save some while Emily and I took the kids out to In and Out.  It took a long time to go, order, wait for food, and then drive back to the rodeo that we were late.  Thanks again Aaron!  He was much happier about the situation after we brought him food :).

Work decided to go to a Bees baseball game for the summer activity. With no takers from my immediate family, Gage obligingly came with me.

He seemed to really enjoy it.

We were going to leave right after the game but fellow coworkers said the fireworks would be great. Gage decided we should stay :)

Thanks for going with me Gage!

Carly had a birthday.. sometimes I take pictures, sometimes not. I think James had a birthday in July.

The eclipse happened so I went with my coworker Kade over to Gateway to see it. I was amazed at how many people were there!

Kade let me use his glasses.

Loved the pattern of the leave shadows.

I took picture of the ducks to show Emily. Thought it was funny how dirty daffodil was... and that Emily had left the other gate open

Now some skunk news. This is a picture of the 3rd time Cooper was skunked.

Emily got good at washing him down (Dawn, vinegar, then some essential oils) and protecting his eyes but he sure stunk for weeks.  Always around the face.

First time was right at the end of a walk out chasing bunnies... It was dark so I wasn't sure what happened until I smelled him. My only thought was to get him home so I threw the dogs in the back of my car and drove home. BAD plan. My car didn't smell good. Aaron had already caught one skunk a couple days before and just the blowback permeated my car, especially after sitting closed up all day in the parking structure. Something had been eating the duck eggs and finally killed the baby ducks we didn't know Gerald was trying to hatch. That's why Aaron (under Emily's direction) started trapping. The orchard/paddock/pasture hadn't smelled like skunk so we thought it might be a weasel.

Emily suggested I try setting my car out in the sun to try cooking the smell out. Cooper had originally scared a skunk under OB1 (Out Building 1) earlier in the summer and she said the smell dissipated fairly quickly under the sun. Aaron let me use his car to get to work and the cooking did work well.

Aaron caught a total of 6 skunks, one of which skunked Cooper when he went up to bark at it... That was the third skunking. Emily said as soon as he realized what was happening he ran as far away as he could get in out backyard. He knew what happened next! The second time Emily saw it first and thinking it was a cat, tried to keep the dogs off. But once the skunk tried to run out under the gate, Cooper wouldn't listen anymore. Emily was so mad! We have very naughty dogs. It's funny because when I take them out off leash, Cooper is the one that comes when called and Daisy doesn't listen. The good news is, he listened to Emily on the other ones we caught so he hasn't been skunked a 4th time... Yet. We don't think we've caught them all yet... Still loosing duck eggs.

Its a little strange to say Daisy has been the smart dog :)

(this post has information into November but I am still pretending I posted it in September :)