Trip to Music Camp

Last week we went up to Sisters, Oregon for our second year at Booher Family Music Camp. This time Melissa stayed home to take care of the the garden and the animals (especially Tizzy). It was kind of strange going without her. We took Jonathan's friend Trevor A. with us also, so there were still five of us.
We left very early Saturday morning and stayed over night near Grants Pass. We had a chance to go swimming in the Rogue River and to pick wild blackerries. We arrived at camp around 3 pm Sunday afternoon and got set up and checked in. Then a busy week full of activies began. I took fiddle classes everyday, every night there was a concert, jamming or dancing. During free time I played games, went on hay rides, talked to people or sometimes helped in the kitchen. I even did some crazy things this year like .. . go on a motorcycle ride. It was not something I ever would have thught I'd do. But it was pretty fun, not something I'd want to do often though :). I had more fun this year than last year. Everything was more familiar, I knew more people, and got to know more people then last year.
Here are few pictures from the week.


Jonathan and Trevor Swimming in the Rogue River


The view from camp


Visiting over one of the delicious meals


Jenny and I having a nice talk.


My motorcycle ride


Rachel Z. working in the kitchen. I enjoyed being in the same class with her and getting to know her.


Dancing


There were many backrubs given throughout the week


My class playing during the Friday night student concert

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are such cheerful flowers. I love growing them in my garden. These are some that are growing in the corn patch. I can't imagine summer without sunflowers.

Independence Day!

Pasta Party

Yesterday afternoon we had the Keulen ladies over for a pasta making day. Then later in the evening the rest of their families joined us for a pasta dinner. We had lots of fun making the pasta, visiting, and laughing. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. :)


Studying the recipe. Let's make sure we do this right!


Mixing the dough. The correct way to do it is on a board, but we decided a bowl would be easier. :)


Jenny, myself, and Beth putting the dough through the machine.


Bekah, Mary and Faith cutting the noodles. Faith worked hard making lots of pasta. She probably made more than anyone.


Aimee and Beth got quite creative with theirs. They cut out shapes and letters using knives.


The Pasta Ladies!!


Mom and Ruth cooking the pasta


Mr. Keulen admiring the result of much hard work.


Visiting in the living room.

A Wedding

On Saturday we drove down to the L.A. area for Gabe and Mandy's wedding. We carpooled down with the Keulens, making one stop for lunch at In 'n Out. Altogether the drive took about five hours. We arrived at around 4:30 and the wedding began at five. When we got there we had to quickly find a place to change from traveling clothes into our nice clothes. That was a bit of a difficulty but it worked out fine. It is always neat to see two people covenant before God in marriage. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. We enjoyed seeing many friends again. We drove home that night after the wedding and arrived home at 1:30.
I took quite a few pictures, so here are some of them.

The parents of the bride and groom.


Mandy coming up the aisle with her father.


Mandy and Gabe saying their vows.


Mr. and Mrs. Gabe Booher


The bride and groom.


Gabe sang a song for Mandy...


...and Mandy sang a song for Gabe.


Gabe and Mandy dancing.

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.