Blessed Beyond Belief

She's always been a farm girl...

Trying to organize some photos and came across this one.  Taken with our first digital camera that probably had a whole 2mp's. Those were some of our first eggs from our new chickens on Barnard St.

Visit with Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan

We were so happy that Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan finally made up to visit us!  They are on their way to KY and wanted a northern drive. So they stopped in for two nights with us.

On Tuesday afternoon after they got here we BBQ'd a simple lunch.

Then we took them over to the barn to meet the stinky pigs and all the farm animals.

Tuesday evening is the farmer's market in Meridian.  I didn't get the Saturday Kuna market, so I didn't want to miss another chance at farm fresh produce.  They waited and watched Will get a balloon costume while I shopped.

After that we HAD to take them to our fave mexcian place, El Gallo Giro.  YUM!  Came home and I spread out my FM haul while they chatted.

Will was still in summer camp for the mornings so we dropped him off and headed over to the greasy spoon cafe, Sunrise Cafe.

Had a little time left before going back to pick up Will so we stopped in the Harley dealership so J&S could trade in their van for a bike to drive to KY.

Then, since it was Wednesday it was milk pick up day.  Uncle Steve was impressed by the big red barn.

And since we were in Emmett we went looking for more blueberries. But the blueberry place was closed.  Couldn't resist going back for more cherries.  AND we got a bucket of apricots.  That night I made cherry and apricot cobbler with ice cream from the cream on the milk we picked up.  It was kinda good. ;)

After dinner we took a drive out to Idaho's own grand canyon. Don't remember the name of it.  Had to tell the the story of Mike climbing out past the wall and scaring us all to death.

We all held on tight to Will - it's a LONG way down.

This place has the most incredible views.

My camera took a dump so I grabbed aunt Joan's camera for a few shots.

And decided to put this obnoxious shot on there for her to find later.  Isn't that fun?

It was a fantastic visit.  Will loved playing with them.

They left Thursday morning and headed to Yellowstone.

I hope they come back someday.

Baby goats

This post is for Autumn who keeps asking me to post pictures of the new baby goats!  

Lexi and Tessa both had their babies last week.  First Tessa had this little girl - they named her Maggie May.

Will introducing her to Buzz Lightyear.

Then we came back a couple of days later and Lexi had her twin girls.  One brown one and a black one.  One is already sold (not sure which) and the other they named Stella.

They've decided to milk the goats and bottle feed the babies.

Will tried the milking for just a moment.

Then went back to his favorite chicken - Pickles.

These two babies are at the Christianson's ranch.  Aren't they sweet!!!

I want this one:

Aunt Joan and Uncle Steve left today.  I'll put up some photos soon.

What we've been up to.

Tim is doing a fantastic job on our gardens!  He's out there several times a day watering, weeding, and tending to all the plants.  Along with chasing the chickens off his new seedlings.  We've discovered that they really REALLY enjoy the corn plants.  Oh, and they've scratched and dug up or buried our sunflower plants.  Geez, the sacrifices we make for free range eggs!

I've taken Will to the library program several times and he 

really likes it.  Heather also brings her kids and last week

we brought a picnic to the park afterwards so the kids could 

play.  We got Mathew and Will in the tree together and actually

got them looking in somewhat of the same direction for a photo!

A lesson at Ride for Joy.  They've moved to a new arena, so they

will be going nearly year round now.  This is Will's third year with 

them.  At the next five week session he takes they are going to

start getting him riding much more independently - as in no helpers guiding him around.  Should be interesting!

We've been out to Emmett three times now to pick up our milk.  At the last visit we talked about some options for helping out on their bottling days and about coordinating some more families in Kuna looking for raw milk.  Exciting stuff!!!

It's blueberry season and after we picked up milk we went up the road to a pick your own blueberry patch.  We had never seen actual blueberry bushes before so it was fun to pick!  Not bad at 2 dollars a pound!  We ate them all week and also made blueberry ice cream from the cream I skimmed off the raw milk.  YUM!

Here's Carmel hanging out in the shade of a big bushy plant.  Will still likes to go out there and hold them.  In fact, Tim caught him trying to hang one by the tail feathers the other day!  He was giggling as the poor chicken was flapping about trying to figure out why it was being strung up by the tail.  Tim had to remind him to be gentle and nice to the hens.

Cheap entertainment - take the dogs down to Indian Creek for a creek bath.  Snoopy took some convincing to get in the water.

Once he was in his swimming instincts took over and he was a paddling pup!

4 th of July - we took a little drive into Meridian and parked up on a hill to watch the fireworks.  As the grand finale was going Tim was frantically packing up the car to 'beat the crowds' trying to get out at once.

A group of model T's came through town and we went to check them out.  One guy said he bought his for 50 bucks more than 50 years ago.  Will pulled out his wallet and tried to hand him 50 monopoly dollars - 'I'll buy your car'!

Will has been at a day camp for this week and next.  It's only for two hours in the morning, so no point in going home.  We took the dogs for a walk around part of the Boise river.

Did a little family photo shoot for Heather.  This is my favorite!

I've started a new blog to chronicle my food obsessions.  I figured I would let you decide if you wanted to read about eggs and milk and fats and such.  I'll keep it 'family friendly' here!  But for those of you who dare, here it is - Keep it Real.

Will and Carmel share some laughs.

Q:What do chickens serve at birthday parties?
A: Coop-cakes!

Q:What do you call a rooster who wakes you up at the same time every morning?
A: An alarm cluck!

I can NOT wait for my taco bell drive thru lunch tomorrow.

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature