Rock Candy & Frokes

 Big Rock Candy Mountain, that is.
Have you ever been to Big Rock Candy Mountain?
Remember the song 'Big Rock Candy Mountain', by Harry McClintock?
His idea of a Hobo's dream life.

 ~ Big Rock Candy Mountain, is a short drive from where we live. The drive up the canyon is beautiful, and there is a beautiful river walkway/ bike path. 

On our drives, we often pick up a 'Froke'.... or a frozen coke to sip on.
One of our favorite summer time treats!

 How darling is this potting shed ~ or garden shed ~or she shed? 
This gal has decorated her shed is such a cute fashion, and it  makes one happy to see all of her cute collections.

 This is the kitchen table 'before', and below is a picture of the kitchen table 'after'. 
We gave our youngest son our very large kitchen table when we were packing and moving, thinking that we were going to St. George. 
We had a small drop leaf table to use in the interim, and planned on replacing our main dining room table with something permanent, once we were moved in and settled.

 We had kept the chairs from our original set because we really liked the style and quality, but the table was far too large for us. 
One day, while we were visiting friends, I mentioned how much I liked their single pedestal table and they told me that I could have it. 
I didn't feel right about taking it for free, so I made a trade with them. 
I had an old extra trunk ~ the wooden kind, and traded that old trunk for the table. 
Of course I painted the entire set a cottage white, and I love love the finished project. There is an extra leaf for the table so that we can quite comfortably seat 6~8, when it's more than just the two of us for meals.

 We managed to save three red twig dogwoods and transplanted them.
I spray painted all of my metal love hearts and placed them near the dogwoods.

 I'm loving the hutch in the entryway, where I can enjoy it every day.
 It's also great for extra storage!

 Kitchen hutch is right where we like it, and love that the bee ware dishes are so handy for dinner time.

 Lastly.. I've been styling the tops of the cupboards in the kitchen. 
Above the pantry, I have a 'Bakery' sign, and little mason jar lights that are on a convenient light switch.

My sweet husband is counting down...just about 7 months more, then he will retire.
He has put in more than 30 years in law enforcement, and he always tells me that he wants at least 30 years of retirement life in kind :)
My sweet husband is fourth generation LEO, and our boys are 5th generation LEO (law enforcement officers).

 We've been practicing for retirement...going to the lakes and ponds fishing, working in the yard and garden, taking trips, going for rides, etc..

I told him "we are going to be the best retirees ever!" 
We always have a blast together!

~This week:
  *Finishing the last bit of painting in my sweet husbands office, and getting it decorated and pictures and awards etc. hung up;one of his favorite pics of the unit he was over in the police academy.
*Planting the 'new to me' pussy willow tree.
*Working on the spot where the garden shed will go.
* Planting in our veggie garden.

Fish lake and Fish lake Lodge

 Fish lake Lodge : The Fish lake lodge was built between 1928 and 1933. 
The logs were dragged across the frozen lake for construction of the lodge. 
The lodge is one of the larges log structures in the United States, measuring 80 feet, by 320 feet.

 Guest cabins...

 Snow being whipped up by the wind across the lake.  A blue heron takes flight .







 Ranger cabins.

 Pando Aspen Clone ; 107 acres of Utah's Fishlake National Forest is one of the world's largest organisms.
A forest of some 47,000 genetically identical quaking aspen trees, which all stem from a single root system .
 (Info from Smithsonian Magazine)

Driving back home again through the canyons.

See the highway that winds through the land on the left side of the picture?

In the distance you can just make out our valley; it looks like a narrow white stripe at the bottom of the snow covered mountains in the distance.
We are loving where we live and feel so fortunate to have so many beautiful places in our county and close to home.

Once the ice melts off the lake, we would love to take a picnic to the lake, and do some fishing and enjoy the beauty.

My list:
~ I rearranged the entire living room.
~Worked in the garden borders.
~Baked bread
~Started more garden seeds.
~Worked on family history
~Worked on spring cleaning.

Pumpkins love Gelato

 Plant companions... a long held standard for gardening and growing happy plants
Must be true... because the pumpkin seeds that I started in previously used gelato containers, are doing great!
(perhaps this version of companion planting isn't exactly as those gardeners of old imagined..hee hee)
The seeds are germinating at a 100% rate, with no loss of seeds.

 The seeds are from Baker Creek, and must be nearly 7, or 8 years old.
Hurrah for heirloom seeds!

 To get seeds started, I created a mini greenhouse on a folding table in our dining area. 
Cut down foam cups placed in smaller, clear storage containers.

 The zone that we are in now is a zone 7. Previously, I had learned to grow a garden in zone 5a. 
In fact, the local nursery owner told me last fall when we purchased new trees from him that we would have to water our trees in the winter. Once a month, dump a 5 gallon pail of water on them, so that the roots didn't dry out.

 Our daughter jokingly refers to our new town as the St. George addition. 
You see, we are just 2 hrs. from St. George, but our climate is more temperate. Not as hot in the summer as St. George, but not nearly as cold and snowy as our previous town.
In fact, our new home town is called "Little Green Valley"
Also, homes and land are still affordable around here, and if you want to park an RV, no problem.
(we had the hardest time finding a home to buy, or build in St. George that we could park our RV at our own home, without renting additional storage space)

 Our home was built in 2007, and faces East.
The morning sun had discolored part of the trim around 3 of the 4 garages.

 After a fresh coat of paint, the trim looks great. 
Quick maintenance project, with a big impact.

 Both the double garage door, and one of the single garage door trims are looking a whole lot better. 
The fourth car garage door doesn't get direct sun exposure and so there isn't any discoloration on the trim, therefore I didn't paint the trim on that door.

As I've been staying at home and getting projects done, I decided that I needed a creative project, so I went into my stash of silk flowers and put together a spring wreath for the front door. 

I also have a pretty big stash of ribbon, so that came in handy as well.

Until next time, stay well, and enjoy this glorious springtime season!

~ New~ Harvest Homestead ~

  'New' to me, but certainly not 'new' beans.
These are Fremont Beans.
These are heirloom beans that date back to the Fremont people.
They are a 'new to me' bean that is from a local 'new to me' company: https://heirloomsandmore.com/

Near our new town, there is a great farm that grows wonderful beans, and produce, and herbs, etc. 

They are sold at a farmers market, which is where I bought the beans in bulk.

I made 'refried' beans with these beans and made them in the Instant Pot.
I added onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and a little cilantro. Once they were cooked tender, I blended them with the stick blender and seasoned them to taste with sea salt and pepper.

We had company for dinner Sat. and we served these beans along with chicken street tacos and they were a huge hit!

I'm so happy to have found this great farm and have linked the website above.

New views.

The picture below is overlooking our new backyard.
We are on just over a half an acre. 

About half of the backyard is grass (newly hydro~seeded)

and the other half of the backyard will be a potager style garden. 

My sweet husband has the tiller out and is working the soil.

Our house is located in a newer subdivision that was built on an old farm.

In fact, the folks that owned the farm live just a hop and skip away, and they are very happy and proud to have developed this subdivision.

 One of my favorite things about our new house is the nightly sunset shows. 
Every night, we have the most spectacular sunsets.

 We placed our wood swing on the patio, and it has become our new nightly routine to swing and watch the sunset.

New name for our home: Harvest Homestead

 New:
 ~We've planted 6 new trees. 
~My sweet husband has continued to place the privacy slats into the fence.
~ We have a 'new' clothesline. A friend was moving and offered to let us have their clothesline. It's now installed and I just need to give it a new coat of paint and new line, then it will be perfect.
~New this week: I pulled my car into the garage... hee hee.. finally after weeks of putting things away and emptying boxes out of the garage, I was able to make room for my car... Yay!

Wishing you all a happy week. 
I hope you are all enjoying the last weeks of summer.

~ One Day at a Time ~

 Hello, sweet friends.
I think it's time for an update.
The past weeks have been a whirlwind, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Each day, and several times a day, I tell myself, 'One day at a time', 'You're never too old', and ' It's never too late'.
 These are the phrases, mantra's if you will, that have helped move me forward. 
We've been so incredibly blessed!

We had about 2 weeks after we closed on our old house before we could move into our new house. 
We were able to reserve 3 nights at a state park, and felt so thankful for that, even though we were pretty worried about where we were going to stay the rest of the time.
When we got to the state park, we asked the camp host if by any chance they had a cancellation, would they please let us know so that we could stay longer.

The camp host told us that in fact, they had space for us!
And the spot was available for exactly the remaining amount of days that we needed!

 I was so relieved and we felt so blessed! Here it was, the weekend leading up to the 4th of July, with most every camp spot already reserved, and yet they miraculously had one full hook up site left. 
With the incredible heat, having our dog Rowdy with us, and being pretty tired from moving, you can imagine what a blessing it was to us to have a place that we could stay and relax and catch our breath.

Another blessing...we were able to move into our new home a day earlier than what we had planned. 

So, of course, we have boxes stacked everywhere, and we need to figure out where everything goes now. 
It's always that way after a move because no two houses are exact..*smile**.

We are NOT in St. George either. 
I know. 
That has been the plan for over 2 years.
But, Heavenly Father has different plans for us.
We moved to a smaller town... under 3000 residents. 
We were going to downsize. 
Nope.
We ended up buying a bigger house, and more property as well.

I will tell you that every single turn, and every door, and every path led us to this place, and this house. 
No doubt about it.

This move has been all-around a blessing.
Not that it has been easy.
We have had incredible support and help and we could not have accomplished this move without the help of our children and sweet friends. 
From the storage units, we caravaned to the new house... One giant Uhaul, one pickup truck and trailer packed to the brim, our Yukon packed to the brim, and additionally 4 more vehicles packed to the brim.

We have been 'home' now for one week. 
It feels more and more like home with each passing day.
As I get things put together, I will share pictures. 

Wishing you all a wonderful new week.