~ Soaking up Summer ~

 Hello friends,
It's been a wonderful summer.
My sweet husband took some time off, and we spent the time doing projects, and we threw in time for fun too.
We went to visit our oldest son and his wife. This adorable cottage is in a little town, near where they live.
Isn't it just precious~!

 Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, and for their tips on getting our sunflowers to grow again, after we had to dig them all up.
The above picture was taken shortly after we transplanted them back into the ground.

 And now, they are thriving.
I think that the shock of being up-rooted, stunted their growth a bit, but they are putting on quite a show, and surviving!~

 We planted about 10 different varieties.
So far, we think about 6 of the varieties have survived.

 These red ones are really stunning.
I am so happy that they survived, and I'll be saving seeds from these to plant en~mass next spring.

  
 A new flower to our gardens, is this Green Eyed Susan.
Isn't it wonderful~?!
I do hope that it takes hold, and next spring takes off!  I hope to have enough next spring to divide and put in several places in the borders.

 One of the things that we did while my sweet husband was off, is work on the fence. We now have one side completely done...~~ Yay!
We also bought new perennials and planted them in the borders.  This variety of cone flower, as well as a yellow variety, another variety of lavender, and we put in 4 trees! Two of the trees are maples, and one tree is an apple tree, and the other is an ornamental pear tree.
With the other variegated maple and the two plum trees we put in this spring, our yard will have beauty, shade, wind protection and fruit. It's a wonderful thing~!

 It's always nice to have fresh flowers in the summertime.
Cosmos are growing ~ seeds from a friend. Goldenrod ~ plant starts from a friend. Daisies, they were here when we moved into this house, and the Black Eyed Susans, I planted last spring, along with some tick seed.

 And, yes.. some of our beautiful survivor sunflowers are gracing our kitchen island.
The gladiolus are some that the stem snapped on, after a rain storm. I generally do not cut them, for I like them in the borders, more than I like them in a vase ~~ still, they are gorgeous! We planted them in the early, early spring this year.

 We bought a flat of raspberries.  Seven plus pounds.
We made the most delicious raspberry jam~!
My sweet husband helped me.... he is a wonderful pot stirrer.... in the best way~! He generally helps me with the canning, if he's home.
We made 3 batches of raspberry jam.

 We also bought some gorgeous, giant apricots at the farm stand. You can just see one peeking out of the yellow bowl.
I made 4 batches of apricot ~ pineapple jam.
I had to stir the pot all by myself though, as my sweet husband was at work.
He thinks I'm a great pot stirrer too ~~~ smile.
The jam turned out wonderful, sweet, and delicious~!
By the way........ have you ever had a pan fried potatoes and onions and topped it off with a dollop of apricot ~ pineapple jam??
It is a taste of heaven~ really!

Another project that we worked on, was to make a shed overhang roof for the ATV's.
We planned to add a shed overhang roof to the back side of the garden shed, when we first ordered it in the spring.
Once the shed was delivered, and we painted it, we knew the next order of business was to get the shed overhang roof built, before winter and snows descend on us.

My sweet husband, and our youngest son worked together to get the shed overhang roof done.
There is plenty of room for our ATV's, plus there is still enough room left over to stack wood next to the roof.
Just disregard the totes {they still need to be put in the garage} and the garden wagon {full of tools and supplies for the fence} and the birdhouse {still needs to find a home in one of the borders} and the charcoal grill { we only use it once in a while, and generally use our gas grill}.
I still need to get the stuff put away, and finish the posts, etc.  I'm debating if I want to stain them to look old, or paint them to match the garden shed.
The roof is old tin that was recycled from our son's old garage.
Hmmm..... guess I'd better decide soon, and get it finished.

When summer began, we had one hummingbird feeder, and one faithful little hummingbird.
We now have 2 hummingbird feeders, and we are filling them 2 x a day.
Last night as we sat watching them, as close as we could count... we now have over a dozen little hummingbirds.
I think they are trying to soak up summer too ~!
In one of our previous houses, we had 3 feeders and filled them multiple times a day.. we could count more than 20 hummers.
So, for now, we haven't set a hummingbird record.
Still, there is a bit of summer left, so one never knows.

Another fun thing we've been doing to soak up summer, is to go up to the lake.
This lake is just five miles from our house.
My sweet husband catches the biggest lake trout, and we've had some delicious dinners of lake trout with grilled veggies.
Tastes of summer.......

Can you spy that little town? That's our little town.
The winding road takes you up the canyon to the lake.
As you can see, we are blessed to live in a beautiful valley.
Mountains surround us, and fields make a beautiful patchwork like quilt in the valley.

I'm off to soak up some more summer.
Before you know it, it will be Autumn.


~Attitude of gratitude
~ Feeling blessed to have fresh jam on the shelves in the store room
~Feeling grateful to have packages of shredded zucchini in the freezer... enough to last throughout the winter, and to make cookies, breads, soups and chili's with.
~Thankful that we've been able to travel safely to our destinations, and back home again. What a blessing!
~Feeling thankful for great books and magazines that I've found at bargain prices this summer. I'm all stocked up for Fall and Winter reading, and for just a few dollars!
~I am so grateful for my life! I have a wonderful life, and I am completely humbled by how blessed I am. I feel favored by the Lord...

* A Daisy kind of day *

One of the fun things about being in a new home aside from new spaces to decorate, of course, are some really pretty perennials growing in the berm and the borders.
Adorable petite daisies.  Anyone know the name of these?

 I placed a few stems of the petite daisies in a hob nail vase, and added a few Shasta daisies.
There are clumps of daisies planted every where.  In the borders, and in the berms.... daisies.
Another nice find, is the wooden basket.  
I found it in a box of stuff that I was organizing and putting away.
Like Christmas in July!! Even though we've had it for a few years, it's been packed away. 
Nice to have it out, and be able to use it again.

Geraniums are flourishing in the old wheelbarrow.
We bought this old wheelbarrow a few summers ago at a yard sale.  I've never regretted it!
I still love that old wheelbarrow, and I've placed it on a landing
 by the front porch steps.
Perfect colors for summer, and July.

On the front porch glider, new pillows.
As I was looking through my fabric stash for fabric to sew curtains for our youngest son's office and kitchen, I found these fabrics.
No wonder I bought them. They are so darling, and I still love these colors and patterns!
A bit of time at the sewing machine, and I had 3 new 20'x 20' pillows for the front porch.

This weekend:
~ I hope to take inventory of my canning supplies, and get my canning jars all washed and ready to fill.
~I want to finish the second guest bath paint job.  Just need to add trim, and paint a little bit more.
~Put a couple of batches of turkey jerky in the food dehydrator.

*** Edited to add.... so far, the deer spray IS WORKING... Yay!!

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for morning walks : time to ponder, and prepare myself for the day.
~I'm grateful that I have learned a few skills in my days that can be a blessing to my family.
 Sewing curtains for Spencer, cooking meals, and baking, canning and putting food up.
 I truly enjoy making a comfortable and welcoming home for my family. A place of respite from the world and a place to feel peace, and feel of our Heavenly Fathers spirit. It's important to me, and I'm grateful that I have the desire to be a girl that loves her home and wants to make it the best place in the world for her family to be.

Between the mountains, and the meadows.

 Our new neighbors.
It's pretty awesome to have an elk farm next to us.
It's across the meadow, but we can sit on our patio, and watch the elk graze and move through the fields.
We have been told that when Fall comes, the elk start bugling. We've been told that it is quite an amazing thing to see and hear.

 There are a few that are starting to re-grow their antlers. You can just make out new antler growth on the elk in the far right of the photo; with his head down, drinking from the trough.

 The beautiful mountains are right above us!
Looking out my windows, I see the mountains and the meadows.

 Deer in the meadow.  Early mornings, and evenings, the deer graze in the meadows.

 

 This is the view from our kitchen windows.

We also have lots and lots of birds in the meadows.

In fact, there are a few that have previously made our front porch their nesting place.

I need to fix that.

I'm thinking an owl decoy will do the trick.  I'd like to keep the swallows from re-building a nest above our front door.

We have been so blessed, and every morning when I wake up and look out our windows, and see the elk, the deer, and the birds I get a little warm spot in my heart.  We are so blessed that we are able to live here. 

It's my favorite house ever.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm so grateful that I'm able to fall asleep to the crickets chirp and wake up to the songs of birds in the meadow.  Life doesn't get much better.
~I'm so grateful that Spencer was able to play the bagpipes at the graves of our loved ones that have passed on.  In the Manti cemetery, when he was done playing at the graves of my grandparents, a woman came up to us and thanked him from the bottom of her heart. She had lost her husband many, many years ago and was so touched by Spencer's playing of amazing grace.  She had lost her husband when he was just 29. 
~I'm grateful that my durn root canal is done, and guess I'll be getting a new crown later this week.

Whew!

Whew!
It's been quite a busy month or so.
We sold our home, bought a new home, and moved.
We've been putting things away, and getting settled.

It'll all get done, and everyone will get settled ......eventually.
Weeds are getting pulled, and new plants planted.
Furniture arranged, dishes put away in the cupboards, and sheets folded and put on the shelf in the linen closet.
New address notices sent out, patio set put out, and the flag hung up on the porch post.

I'll be busy, but I'll try and post again soon and let you know what I've been up to.
There are some fun changes and I have some absolutely amazing views to share with you all .

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful that we were able to sell our old house, and buy our new house. 
~I'm grateful that I only need to have a root canal this week, and that I do not have to have another oral surgery. 
~I'm grateful for my wonderful, and amazing family. We could not have done this move, without every one's help!!!