A week in the country.

One thing about this time of year, it's warm enough in the morning to sit on the front porch and watch the sunrise. 

Everything is beginning to spring to life. 

We had a productive week. 

We freeze dried five pounds of cream cheese, and freeze dried peaches, and pears.

I made sourdough biscuits, and then put my starter back in the fridge to be neglected for another week, or so.

It's been fun to have new recipes to try out. 

 I have a sourdough banana bread recipe to try this week. 

I bought a 40 pound box of bananas, a while ago, and froze some to use in banana bread and muffins, and smoothies, and then I freeze dried the rest. 

The box cost me five dollars, and I knew I couldn't go wrong for that price!

Freeze dried bananas are so yummy!

Shopping bags full of MaryJane's Farm magazines.

One of my friends has been saving these magazines for years and gave them to me this past week. 
I'm going to read through them, save what I want to and then I'll take them back to her. She's over the Senior Citizen's yard sale and she'll put the magazines in the yard sale.

Fish Fillet station
This is the filleting station that the DNR set up, after gathering the fish from the nets.
At Piute State Park, the DNR checks the health of the reservoir by placing nets in the water, then seeing what type of fish survived winter and determining what type of fish to plant in the lake for summer time. 
All of the fish netted where donated and that way there wasn't any waste.
The water is used for farming, and in fact the water in our subdivision is all from Piute.
Our subdivision was farm land, and the water rights are preserved now that this land has been developed into a neighborhood.

Attitude of Gratitude:
Our Grands and DIL made it back from Brazil this week; our son is overjoyed to have them home again! The Grands called us to tell us that they missed us and they love us.
Our DIL's grandma is doing ok, and her health for now is stable.

Feeling accomplished with all of the freeze drying that we got done this week.

Grateful for sunny days that allow me to work in the yard. It's been far too nice to be in the house.
 
Grateful that me sweet husband has giant trout to smoke this week... should be delish! 

~ Summer Scrapbook ~

 

Summer sunflowers.

Sleepy morning bees...still sleepy from gathering pollen.

Sweet little sheep, grazing in a field. 

On an early morning ride, we saw these sheep in a nearby town. They are very small and quite sweet looking, though I haven't any idea what kind they are.

We drove to Loa to a shop to have new tires put on one of our vehicles. Loa is close to Capitol Reef National park.  This cute old truck was at the gas pumps. 

Love it!

Lots of beautiful skies this summer. 

Most mornings we go for a walk, and what a treat to see such beautiful morning skies. Although, most evening skies are equally beautiful.

Sea Holly. This has been a good year for our flowers, and the sea holly is gorgeous. 

For July, I put out buntings and this sweet Uncle Sam porch sitter that I made years ago. I gave him a refresh this year with a new wooden USA tag. 
July is a big month in Utah... not only do we celebrate Independence Day, but Pioneer Day as well.

Also, both of our sons have birthdays in July, one of our daughter~in~love, and our only Grandson has a birthday in July!!!

There is a great barn door and shutter-making factory in our area, and many times they will have scrap wood that is free for the taking. It is a great benefit for the community to have the free wood, not only for making cute crafts but also there are those that heat with woodburning stoves, and that scrapwood is so nice for that.

We used a bit of the scrapwood to make these sweet little 'lathe' stars. I put one on all the exterior doors of our house for July.

 

Another day, another beautiful sky.

New French-style bistro in our area. 

There is a darling patio attached to the bistro as well, strung with cafe lights and cute French-styled bistro chairs and tables.

July hutch... all the red white and blue. 

Barn on the property just west of us. This barn belongs to the people that sold off 40 acres of their farm and made our subdivision. We are still on 'farm share' water, and we pay just $10.00 a month for pressurized irrigation.

Incidentally, the couple that owns the farm, and barn, and sold the land for our subdivision, lives in our ward. The Mr. told me that this land is fertile and some of the best farmland he had ever had!

We made this sweet 'Garden Angel' with scraps we had. The shutters were given to me by a friend when we lived in Spring City, the head and wings and arms were from the scrap wood pile at the factory that I mentioned previously.

The wheelbarrow was a curbside find and given a bit of a crafty makeover. 

I am enjoying this summer so much. It's been a long time since I remember enjoying summer so much! Usually, I tend to wish summer away a bit. 

Especially as I have gotten older the summer heat just zaps me, but not this year! I am loving all things summer and each and every day has been a blessing and a treat. I am thankful for this summer.

So many good things and blessings plenty this summer. My cup runneth over.

Improvement

 Improving skies.
Much less smoky and murky skies these past few days, as some of the wildfires closest to us are becoming more contained. 
Very thankful for all the incredibly hard working firefighters.
Very thankful for their families and the sacrifices that they make in order to let their loved ones go out and fight and contain these wildfires.

 Once again, as the sun rises we can see the gorgeous mountain tops.
So much better!!

 Driveway improvement. 
On the bottom right portion of the above picture is the driveway. 
It is much improved after spending a good amount of our weekend on it.
 Powerwashed, primed with cement primer, then painted with an epoxy paint. 
It is a much better-looking driveway now!
Some years ago, due to the frost, snow and salt damage that the cement had suffered, we resurfaced the driveway. 
One winter was all it took to make the resurfacing crack and break. 
Sans digging up the concrete, and pouring a new driveway, this is our attempt for getting a few more years out of the concrete. 
We have a north facing home and live in Utah where we get LOTS of snow.
 Concrete, snow, ice and ice melter make for a messy mix
If we ever have to repour the driveway, we will have low voltage warmers placed in the concrete, in order to melt off the winter snow and ice 

 My second attempt at bleaching out the pinecones resulted in a much lighter pinecone.
Still, these pinecones aren't as white as the ones that I've seen on magazine covers, Pinterest, etc.
I wonder if it is a certain brand of bleach that should be used, or have those photos of the super white pinecones been enhanced?
Still, I'm quite happy with these pinecones and the color that they are. I will absolutely use them in my Autumn decorating. 
Today I will place the pinecones in a box, and add some cinnamon oil to them. 

 The very large frame that I bought at the thrift store is now a new chalkboard.
It is a more substantial size than the last chalkboard that I had in this location.
The other chalkboard was made from an old cupboard door, and I gifted it to our younger daughter in love.
She was tickled to have it.
I was happy that she wanted it.

Even without measuring, I knew when I spied this large frame that it would make a better chalkboard than the cupboard door chalkboard for this space.
Another thrifty shopper asked me if I was an artist and if that is why I had the frame in my cart... **smile**. 
I told her 'nope, but I have big plans for this frame!'
This is the section of wall that is between the garage door and the laundry room door. 
I'm so pleased with this new chalkboard, and it's generous size.

Attitude of gratitude:
 ~ Thankful to wake up to clearer skies. Grateful to have less smoky air.
~Grateful for sweet summer garden produce.
 It's not a ton.. as we only have a few plants, but I'm thankful that I was able to pick a few squashes and a couple of peppers this morning; they'll be used for dinner.

~ and then ...

 In the middle of the night,  smoke drifted through the windows, waking us up, and then we realized that there must be a wildfire burning nearby.
In the light of the morning sky, we looked across the meadow, seeing the smoke filling the valleys and obscuring the mountain views.

 And then, we spent the day digging out the old rock edging and replacing it with a scalloped metal edging. We bought the metal edging at Walmart in the spring.
Additionally, we pulled out nearly all of the Brunnera that had gotten crazy~overgrown and cleaned up the beds.
Cut back the bleeding heart, cleaned out the window boxes, etc.

 And then,  we decided to clean out the potted annuals and transplant those annuals into the border beds to make them easier to water and maintain. 
We are currently on watering restrictions in our little town.
Finished the front border bed and then we will continue to work around the house, getting all the border beds cleaned up and we'll thin out the leggy overgrown plants.
Even though cold weather is a little ways off, it will feel great to get the beds and borders ready for Autumn and winter.

 
 Sunflowers growing like crazy.

Sea Holly.
 This is the second year for this perennial in our border. 
The sea holly was a birthday gift for my husband two years ago. 
It has become one of our favorite plants.
I've seen Sea Holly pared with sunflowers on Pinterest and would like to fill a vase or two with the pair one of these next days.

Dowels drying in a wire basket on the window sill. 
We have a monthly "Dinner Club" where we get together with other couples and then have a themed dinner party.
This past Sunday we met and one of the menu items we made was 
" Italian Bread Twists". 
There is a Utah restaurant that makes bread twists and they are delicious. We did a copy~cat version of the bread twists.
 The dough is wrapped around wooden dowels, and then baked hanging over a cake sheet as to not have a flatted side of the twist. 
Here's the link, if you would like to make the recipe:http://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/twisted-breadsticks

We've had string bulb lights on the front porch, though they were the style that had the brown wire between the lights, so we took off the old lights, and then hung up new lights with a white wire.
 A lovely glow for a summers night.

And then, we awoke to a new fire this morning. 
This fire is closer than the last one.
 More smoke-filled air, more murky sunrises, and sunsets. 
Many prayers for everyone that is feeling the fear of wildfires creeping closer to their homes. 
Prayers for brave firefighters. 
Prayers for rain.

 ~ Update: August 7th, 2018 12:24 pm 
                                    Hilltop Fire ~ Sanpete County Utah

                                     *picture via SanpeteMessenger.com
                                    Our local newspaper
The fire has grown from 50 acres yesterday evening, to over 1000 acres currently. Two structures have been lost and over 150 homes are threatened.

~Attitude of gratitude:
We received an awesome text early this morning. 
Our daughter in love and Grand are coming back to Utah!! 
They will be home this next week.
She and our Grand have been in Brazil, visiting her family for the last 5 months, while our son (and her husband) has been in the language training school for the military; he's learning Mandarine. 

Feeling grateful for a date night with my hubby tonight. 
Picnic dinner in the mountains, and a bit of summer fishing.

So thankful for sunshiney~ summer days. 
Thankful for fresh flowers. 
Thankful for a wonderful husband that works side by side with me on projects.

~ Shades of Gold ~

 Sunflowers.. in all their golden beauty.
Earlier in the year, of course, as the frost and fall season have made the sunflowers fade.

 Their cheerful faces ...

 rows and rows.

 Fading sunflower.
Seed heads. Plenty of sunflower seeds for next summer.

 The meadow.
A few weeks ago, as the sunflowers were fading. Golden sunset against the mountains.

 Golden sunrise.
Can you believe how vivid and gold the clouds are?! This picture is 100% real!
As we were driving to Phoenix this last Friday, the skies just lit up in gold colors that were almost unreal. Our daughter and I went to Phoenix to see the Bonnie Raitt concert.
Her gift to me for my birthday, this past Saturday.
We left so early, and it was still dark, but as we were going through the canyon the sunrise and the gold clouds were simply gorgeous!!

 On the road.
Golden Fall foliage through the canyons.

 Back home again.
The meadow is beautiful, with golden grasses, and golden leaves.
A few clouds hang on the mountains and foothills.
We feel so fortunate, and blessed that these are our daily views.

 The sunflower patch today.
Faded to dark amber~gold.
Most of the seeds that were left in the sunflower heads have provided a feast for the birds.
I already cut and dried all the seed heads that I wanted to save, in order to have plenty of seeds for next year.

 The faded sunflowers are still beautiful in their own, golden~amber, Fall~ish way.

Final shade of gold.
We've decided to leave most of the sunflower stalks up during the winter.
It will provide a bit of a windbreak, and place for the birds to rest.
And, I honestly think that they are still beautiful .

~Attitude of gratitude.
~ I'm so grateful for good and true friends.
~Feeling thankful for the simple things in life.
~Grateful for prayer.
~Feeling thankful for pumpkin bread. ... what a delicious seasonal treat. I'm so glad that we have pumpkins!
~Feeling thankful for Fall festivals, pumpkins a~plenty, and scents of cinnamon in the air.
~Grateful for my sweet husband, and that we had a great date night last night and went to see the Odyssey Dance Theaters production of Thriller. I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to do that!

*Chalk It Up To The Season*

What is it about the holidays that makes us want to spruce up our homes; fluff our nests?
Is it the thought of company coming?
For me, it's wanting to be comfy and cozy in our home throughout the winter months.
It's a happy feeling, nothing in the world can buy... to have a orderly, cozy, and charming home.
A home filled with welcoming touches, comfortable places to sit and rest and visit with others.
 A sprinkling of twinkle lights on the tops of hutches, and candle warmers or stovetop potpourri filling the house with delicious smells.

The old lead glass window, that my sweet husband found for me is getting spruced up for the holidays.

 Homemade chalk paint in black.
{Instructions for making your own chalkpaint are easy to find on the internet.}
After it dries, it will get a quick swipe with fine grit sandpaper.
A little texture and personality added.
The frame was originally white, and I am in love with black trim right now.
Chalk that up to my love of old manor homes, and their black painted doors with white trim.
I  adore that look, and have plans to paint the French doors on the library with black paint, as well.

 More projects in the works....
including a project with black and white pictures of the  Manti Temple : http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/manti/

 Architectural details : Door Knob

 Wrought iron fence.
I have a special plan for these black and white photo's .
A little Christmas gift for a friend.

Finally, a shot of a sunrise this past week.
Just a little dusting of snow left on the mountains, and molten colored clouds.
Beautiful.

Ok... it's back to the holiday projects for me.

Attitude of gratitude :
~ I am grateful for a great vacuum! I love to vacuum, and sometimes I vacuum twice a day.
I just love those fluffy fibers in the carpet, and love the lines that the vacuum makes.
~ I am grateful for my recipe book collection.  I enjoy reading recipes, and trying new dishes.
Sure breaks up the monotony of meal time for me, and I'm sure for my family as well :)