Keepin' Busy

We have all been keeping pretty busy around here lately. It is now officially summer, we have been having warm summer weather. We have been having lots of fun with Melissa's puppy, Tizzy. Last Sunday afternoon we took her over to the beach for the first time. She was so excited, there was so much to see and do! The waves made her a little nervous but she didn't mind getting wet.



Our friend Bethany also got a puppy and named her Sadie. Sadie is one of Tizzy's sisters. Whenever we get together they both bring their puppies. Tizzy and Sadie love it, they go wild and have a blast.



Tizzy love to see different people... when people come over or we take her to someone's house she gets so excited. This picture is at the neighbors house.



We have all been working on cleaning up the back porch for the last few weeks. Back in February we added on to the porch. So we were cleaning the old wood and oiling the whole thing. Oiling was such a messy job. I basicly was covered in it when I finished.





It has been fun to pick and use fresh fruit from our orchard. A few weeks ago the apricots were ripe. They were so big and juicy and delicious. This past week we picked all of the white nectarines. The tree was loaded. This is the first year we have gotten any good ones. Usually they are small and scaly. We have been having nectarine cobbler and crisp. Yum!





Now I am going to bore you all with more pictures of my garden. But this is so exciting to me. It is doing so well and I am kind of amazed. So here is a squash plant, a little tomatillo, tomatoes starting to come on, and the whole garden.









One other project I have been working on this week is sourdough starter. We have made sourdough starter before but is has never been very sour. So.. I ordered a sourdough culture here. I orderd the Italian cultures. It came with two different cultures. On Monday I started one. Activating it was a little trickky because it had to be a certian temperature. It took three days to activate fully. Then yesterday morning it was ready to use. I made one loaf of bread to try it. It takes a long time for sourdough to rise, pretty much all day, then it was ready for dinner. We ate it with spagetti and meatballs. Everyone agreed that bread was a success. It was nice and sour and had a nice crispy crust. Next week I want to start the other culture!







Tomorrow we are heading down south for Gabe and Mandy's wedding. I am really looking forward to it. There should be a new post soon after I get back.

Milking Time

The Garden is Growing

I am very excited to see the garden growing. Everything except the melons and cucumbers are growing well. The melons and cucumbers were attacked by insects at the beginning and now are growing very slowly. We got everything planted just before heading up to Washington last month. It was fun to see how much it had grown when we got home.

These pictures were taken just after everything was planted.



This was about a week ago.


This is what the garden looks like currently.

Tizzy

Here are some pictures of my cute new puppy, Tizzy. She is an eight week old Border Collie I got from our friends,the Gannage family. I have had her for two and a half weeks now. She has been so much fun.

Washington Travels

Last week we all had the pleasure of traveling up to Washington to attend the wedding of Jon and Aimee. It was such a blessing to be able to go. The whole trip was wonderful.
We left home early Thursday morning and drove all the way up to Milton-Freewater, Oregon. We enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Currans family that night. We arrived very late that evening and after playing some frisbee and soccer in the dark we all went to bed.
The next morning we got a tour of their seed and plant business. It was quite interesing. We even got to try doing some of the work.
It was fun to see the Currans again; we had a good time of visiting and fellowship.


Melissa, Mrs. Currans, Hannah Currans, and myself planting seeds.


Ben Booher, Levi Currans, and Jonathan working on a wall in the barn.


A group picture of some of the Currans and us just before leaving.

After leaving the Currans home we traveled up to Kettle Falls, Washington where the wedding was to be held the next day.
The day of the wedding was beautiful. The weather was perfect; warm and sunny. The lilacs in the park were in full bloom. The wedding was lovely and simple.


The wedding vows.


The wedding party was made up of Jon and Aimee's families.


One of the highlights of the trip was seeing Beth, Rebecca, and Nathan Serven. The Servens used to be our neighbors in California, but now they live in far away Missouri.


The pretty flower girls.


Mr. and Mrs, Engall, parents of the bride.


Mr. and Mrs. Keulen, the parents of the groom.


Sweet sisters.


The bride and groom departed in a horse drawn carriage.

The day after the the wedding my parents and brother left to head for home, but Melissa and I got to stay a few extra days with the Keulens and come home with them. We spent Sunday and Monday at the Engall home. The Engall's house was full of many visitors including the Servens, the Gibsons, and the Setzers. We spent our time visiting, playing games, eating, walking in the forest, looking at photos, and much more.


Visiting at the Engalls.


The Setzer Family


Juliana, Rebecca, and Beth preparing lunch.


Jessica, Beth, and Juliana.


Bethany, Ruthie, and Luke playing music together.

Monday evening the we along with the Servens headed over to the Weathers. We all met at a restaurant for dinner then went to the Weathers house. We said goodbye to the Servens before going to bed because they were getting up very early(3:30) the next morning to catch their flight home.
Tuesday was a fun day. After a late start in the morning we all went outside to work in the garden for awhile. Later the guys had their guns out and I was able to try shooting for the first time. After everyone had been shooting for awhile we took a drive to some caves. We had fun exploring the caves then we hiked down to a waterfall.


Playing Swap to see who had to do dishes.


Me shooting for the first time, Bob instructing.


Melissa shooting for the first time also, Bob instucting.


Exploring the cave.


Reading names carved in the wall of one of the caves.


Hiking down the side of the waterfall.


The beautiful waterfall.

After the hike we spent the evening at the Weathers aunt and uncles house eating pizza and ice cream, talking, and enjoying the player piano. Many if us were so tired that we were falling asleep in our chairs.


The player piano was so much fun.

The next morning at 11, after a wonderful breakfast, we piled into the car to head back home to California. The drive home was mostly spent eating and sleeping. We were all so tired by this time after all the activities and late nights. We drove all day, then stopped for dinner with a family in Oregon, then continued all night and arrived home around noon on Thursday.

It was so wonderful to be able to stay the extra time in Washington and have the opportunity to visit more with friends we hadn't seen in quite awhile.

Recent Projects & Photos

This post is going to be mostly pictures. Hope nobody minds. :)

I have a small garden with cooler weather plants. These pictures show the colorful radishes and lettuce I am starting to pick.





The past few weeks I have been working on getting a summer garden started. One weekend we all got out and moved a fence to give us more planting space. Last week Bob Keulen Jr. brought his tractor over and broke the ground up. It was very packed and hard. And this week we have been rototilling it. I started tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and a couple gourds indoors several weeks ago. The plants are starting to get bigger and ready to plant. I am excited to be getting closer to planting everything!









This is just a cute picture of our dog.



We also ordered baby chicks. Chickens are not my favorite animal but they sure are cute as babies. We got some Americauna chicks that will lay green eggs when they grow up.





All the roses have starting blooming. They are so pretty.