Fourth of July Weekend

C n I had an awesome weekend with my sister and her family. Any spare minute we had the girls wanted to go 4 wheelin and go karting. K had so much fun driving the go kart by herself. We went to a gravel pit just across the creek to just ride around.

After lunch on Friday they wanted to ride horses. They really enjoyed that but they wished they could ride them by themselves. However, my horse leads really good, and we had only ridden them once this year because of all the rain so we didn't dare turn them loose. Side note: which turned out to be a good thing because when C n I went riding on Tuesday night we had a rodeo with her. The darn horse.
We then had a break in the clouds to light off a few fireworks before it started pouring down rain. We forgot to light the rest of the fireworks off the next night. Next time you guys come up we'll have to light the rest of them off.

Monday we went to Bear Lake. It was so much fun. However the sunburns we got were not so much fun.

This is right before M took his 2 daughters out of the tube and then flipped it over. Thanks M!!

I'm so excited to see them in August. I wished we lived closer to them.

Rhubarb

My rhubarb was really big this year. It was time to pick it for the first time this year. I started at one end and when I pick it, I cut off the leaf and the end of the rhubarb. Then I would throw it in a cleaned out garbage can. I was just about 1/3 way through when the rhubarb decided to bite me.
Ok, It wasn't the rhubarb. As I was cutting off a leaf I got a little too close to my finger with the knife. I just have to say I love how sharp my pamper chef knifes are. It was cutting the rhubarb like butter. However, this is the deepest cut I've ever had. I probably should have gone for stitches. I ran inside and stuck it under water. It scared me when I realized the blood was coming out quicker than the water could wash it off. I grabbed some paper towels to wrap around it and ran outside to ask C for help. He applied direct pressure for a half hour to get the bleeding to stop. It hurt really bad. C is really good in first aid and he wrapped it for me, then sent me outside to finish with the rhubarb.

I got my rhubarb all juiced and it looks really pretty. I have to admit I'm glad that it's all done.

Garden pics

My garden is looking awesome. Since it has been so cold lately C decided to build me a mini green house for my tomatoes and squashes. I love it.

The rest of my garden doesn't look quite as spectacular but it still looks good. However, having to cover it every night because the temperature is too low is not very fun. It makes gardening a whole lot more work.

I must love this man

Monday night C n' I hung out at his parents house. They brought T & H's children back with them from Utah on Sunday. We had fun playing with the nieces and nephew. On our way out the door his parents asked us if we needed any eggs. I said no. They said ok, but we have 4 dozen if you need any. Then thinking of C, I said if I got any eggs from them I'd have to make another Angel food cake. C then goes Oh! Oh! We NEED eggs. Then he walked back into the house to get some eggs.

On our way home he tells me that his mom isn't very nice. I guess there conversation by the refrigerator was pretty funny. He said that he couldn't believe that I didn't think we needed eggs. His mom then pats his stomach and goes, well I can understand why she doesn't think you Need the eggs. He then sucked his stomach in and his mom goes, well obviously I was mistaken!!

I left the eggs on the counter and last night I made C an Angel Food cake. Then while he was over helping his parents I decided I'd better start weeding my garden a little each night or it would be overgrown with weeds. C came back just as I was finishing the peas and we decided to put the wires down the rows for them to grow up. His parents came over and we showed them what we had done and I told my MIL that I thought I'd better start weeding so I could make my goal of weeding the garden more than once this year. She started laughing and said that that was a very good goal to have. I never see any weeds in her garden. She is very good at taking care of hers. If it ever warms up so I can uncover my tomatoes, squashes, corn, and beans, I'll take pictures so you can see how awesome it is doing.

Concussion

My dog got a concussion last night. The poor puppy dog. C was outside throwing rocks off of our yard. Buckie was by the barn and as soon as C threw this one rock he saw it was going to hit Buckie. C yelled look out Buckie. So Buckie stopped what he was doing and looked up and watched this rock hit him in the head. He yelped and took off running.

C felt really bad and took him in our house to check him out. Then he started walking in big circles and started throwing up. After the third time C called the vet and by the time he was off the phone and went to get our poor puppy he had thrown up 4 more times. The vet gave him 3 shots and one of the shots the vet had to shave Buckie's leg so he could put it in his vein to stop his brain from swelling. C told me because it was after hours at the vet he charged an automatic $80.00. So I was expecting a huge $500 bill. So when he told me the total was only $164 I was relieved, it wasn't anywhere close to what I was expecting to pay.

They had just gotten home from the vet's when I got home. Buckie just laid in the chair for the rest of the evening. He got up to drink a little before we headed to bed. I'm sure he just doesn't feel good but this morning he wouldn't even eat the piece of ham I was trying to give him:( I hope he feels better when I get home from work.

GRASS!

Our grass is coming in nicely. We planted half of our back yard last year. When it first started growing we had an overwhelming population of grasshoppers come through and eat all of our new grass. I was sad.

We were then told by some friends that the best way to grow grass was to plant the seed right before the snow falls and then the snow would push it into the ground and in the spring when the snow melted it would keep the seeds moist and they would grow when spring came. I'm happy to tell you that it is true. All of our seed is starting to come up. And it turns out the grasshoppers didn't eat all of the grass because the grass is a lot thicker by the house where we had planted last summer.
We have tons of dandelions and I don't like them. My FIL said we had to give our lawn a mowing before he would spray. Luckily where the dandelions needed spraying was were we had planted last year and it was in need of a mowing. So our grass just received it's very first mowing. We borrowed my FIL's riding mower and C went to work. It makes me really excited to see the progress we are making on our yard. And I now know why they call it yard WORK!!

Work Work Work

We started with the HUGE hole in our front yard. We decided that we wanted an edger between the parking area and the, coming later, front yard. We dug a little trench on the border of the yard and parking area. Then we pulled the logs out of our garden, it needs to be squared up and C wants the garden to be a little bigger this year, and placed the logs in the trench to keep them from rolling. We then brought in drain rock and filled the hole most of the way in. We are hoping that the rock will help the water drain into the ground this next year instead of creating another giant lake in our front yard. Last we put road base on the rocks to create a nice parking/turn around area. Here is the finished product:Our next project was to get the garden ready to plant and then plant it.

My FIL bought us some nice railroad ties to put around our garden. So we pulled out the logs that were around our garden for the above project. Then we made our garden area as level as possible. Then we had to carry the railroad ties into the garden. Man are they heavy. However knowing that each railroad tie is 9 feet long helped us square our garden up. I didn't realize how off we were. One side of the garden was 3 feet wider than the other half. It is nice to be able to step into my garden without the logs rolling out from under me. My FIL also bought us tons of soil conditioner and we bought some steer manure to go into our garden. C tilled it for me and 2 days later we planted our garden. I really like the way our garden looks this year. We still have to put in our watering system but for now we are using a sprinkler. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, straight neck squash, peas, lettuce, radishes, carrots, onions, cabbage, pickling cucumber, broccoli, potatoes, corn, and beans. My garden has been in for a week and a half and tomorrow I have to take the walls of water off of my squashes. They are growing so awesome. They are trying to come out of the top and today I noticed a few bent leaves so tomorrow the walls come off from around them. Here is my finished garden. Hopefully it does a little better than last year!