Harvey, The Girls, & Mr. Satterwhite

 Harvey.
To be exact, he's actually Harvey 2.
And, he's old.
Older than dirt.
Almost.

 However... he still dehydrates food like a champ.
I had my sweet husband, dig through storage, and find Harvey.
We scrubbed him up, and plugged him in.
Even after all these years, he still is a workhorse of a dehydrator.

 My dad gave me this dehydrator, about 20 years ago; and that was after he and mom had used it for about 20 years also.
I tried to look this brand and model up on the Internet, and couldn't find out much.
I would really like to buy another one.... either as a back up, or to have an extra one running during the Fall.
No such luck. They are not made anymore, and haven't been made since the late 60' s  or early 70's.
Shoot and bagooties!
Honestly the best food dehydrator ... ever.
With a fan, and temperature controls, it makes dehydrating fruit, veggies, and making jerky a snap.

 A week ago Monday, 'The Girls' were delivered.
We shared an order with a friend of my husbands.
Fifty chicks. 
We only bought 12 hens.... but  all the chicks were delivered to us.
We picked out our 12 chicks, and took the rest to the friend.
25 of his are roosters.
Yikes.
He has a big ol' farm and will add the 25 roosters to the 50 or so chickens that he currently has.

 We also went to Satterwhite's lumber mill.
It's a great place to get lumber locally, and the prices are terrific.

 Of course, I noticed the cute flower hanger.
I'll have to add this to the 'would like to make' list.

 Satterwhite's has a scrap pile.
A lot of people buy wood out of the scrap pile for projects, and as winter gets closer, they stock up on the scrap wood for firewood.

 We needed some lumber for a partition fence, and we also found the most perfect log for my bottle tree.
By the time we finished loading the truck to the top of the truck bed with lumber and paying for it, all in all we only spent about $20.00.
A fraction of the cost that this much lumber would have cost us at the hardware store.
And, we never would have found the log with which we are making the bottle tree out of.
It is about 8 feet long, and 18 inches in diameter.
Should make a dandy bottle tree.

The little barn is getting a new roof now.
It's incredible to me, that after all these years, there is only one layer of shake shingles on that barn!
My sweet hubby has worked 72 hours in the last 6 days, and so progress on the barn roof has been a bit slow.
He's hoping to get a lot of work completed on it in the next few days.
New sheeting will have to be put down on the old one-bys and then the metal roof can be put on.
If I'm M.I.A. for a bit, you'll know why.


Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for getting our first squash blossom.
I'm going to baby, and appreciate that first squash like no other. Considering all the freezes that we've endured, it's nothing short of a miracle that we even have squash plants left in the garden.
~I'm grateful for all the over-time that my sweet hubby has been able to work.
Sure, it's hard to have him gone from home so much, but the over-time pay will come in so handy to really get some homestead projects done this summer.

Skyline Drive

Where the mountain meets the sky.
 Skyline Drive.
Approximately 10,000 plus feet in elevation.  Click on the link below to read amazing facts about this area of the Manti- LaSal National Forest.
Skyline Drive is one of the highest roads in the United States.
  http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/travel-ta-scenic-drives-manti-lasal-national-forest-salina-provo-sidwcmdev_052663.html

 It is where we drive each week to take Spencer back to work.

It's where we found this new bottle tree.
Someone had to have used a ladder, or shimmied up this Aspen tree
 to place the bottles on it.

Finally.... someone found a way to use those plentiful brown beer bottles.

I wonder how long it will last.

Will the wind blow them off?

Will a bear tear them off?

Will other people add to the bottle tree?

Guess we'll wait to see.


Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful that we are heading out this morning to Satterwhites to pick up some lumber for building some of our fences.
~I'm grateful that my sweet hubby has a day off today and that we can spend the day together.
Sure.. we'll be 'working', getting projects done.... but we'll be spending time together and that's what matters.
~I'm grateful the 'girls' are doing well and are healthy. Didn't really want new baby chicks right now... but they sure are cute! Now, lets just hope we get the barn done in the next few weeks so that by the time they feather out.. we'll have someplace to house them.

Saturday treasures.

 Hosta
Yard sale hosta's.
Imagine my delight to find a yard sale that was selling garden plants.
Actually, a sweet lady in my ward was having a fund raising yard sale to
help raise funds for a granddaughter's trip to Europe.

 She had previously given me a lot of plants when she divided her gardens about a month ago.
She had plenty more divisions, and told me that I didn't have to buy any at the yard sale, and she would be happy to give me some more plants.

 Still, I was more than happy to make a contribution to her granddaughter's fund.
She only wanted .50 cents for the hosta's, and .25 cents for the lilies, and .10 cents for some of the other plants she had.
Incredible deal!
At the local nurserys you can pay $10.00 for a single hosta.

 I also snagged up this pip-berry heart shaped wreath for just $2.00.
I'm not certain exactly where I'll display it permanently .

 An old zinc lid 'Ball' canning jar... a mere .50 cents.

 Darling shaker box. It's huge... 16 inches in diameter.
Not a huge fan of the previous owners stamped lid.
I'll be making a change to that for certain, and more than likely, the entire box will be painted white, and distressed.

A wonderful surprise this morning as I stepped out the sun room door to water the flower pots... a sweet little butterfly.
A day filled with treasures.


Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm so grateful to be able to drive well and not make everyone else on the road crazy.
Sorry E. .. but maybe it's getting time to put the drivers license away and let J. drive you.
I'd be sick if you wrecked or caused a wreck.
~I'm grateful that I have a love of thrifting, and making the most of every dollar.
~I'm so, so grateful to be getting such a bounty of gorgeous landscaping plants at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the nursery.
One day, I hope to have enough plant divisions to share with others also.

It's difficult as a Mormon girl to find beer bottles....

 Well, it is!!
Have you ever gotten a 'bee in your bonnet'?
I have one.
It's an idea.... buzzing and buzzing, and buzzing around in my brain.
Along with about a million more ideas.
I want a bottle tree.
So.... the quest has begun to find bottles.
We've been looking down on Pigeon Hollow Road for bottles,
 and we've found a few.

 On Saturday, for Mother's Day, my sweet hubby took me
 to have a picnic at the top of Manti Canyon.
We went with some friends, and we all drove our A.T.V.'s.
I was the caboose.
I had to drive slowly .... because I was looking for bottles.
Sheesh... I didn't find not one single bottle.
So far, all I've found is about 23 bottles.  The first picture is a sample of some of the bottles that I've found.
I especially love the cobalt blue bottles.
 My second favorite ... the green ones.
If I were looking for brown bottles, I'd have it made.
But, I only want blue, green, and clear. 
Mostly, blue and green.

 The blue bottles look awesome lining a side walk.

 I really like the 'flower bottles' too.

Green bottles marking a garden path.

And, should I ever hit the 'Mother Lode' of bottles.. well, then I will have an awesome, beyond awesome bottle tree.

So, if you have any extra bottles.. please send them my way.
No.. really.
Because it is really hard for me being a Mormon to find beer bottles.

*Note: all pictures of the bottles (except the first picture) are from Pinterest.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for the little bit of rain that we were blessed with yesterday. Cooled things off, and
I loved the cloud cover.
~I'm grateful that we were able to haul the yard debris off to the landfill.
That spot in the yard where everything has been accumulating looks so much better!
~I'm grateful for my 'new clothesline'.  How wonderful our sheets smell when we crawl into bed after
working in the yard and gardens all day.
~I'm grateful that my sweet hubby made me a pumpkin patch.  It's small ...but I am looking forward to having our own home-grown pumpkins this fall.  Next, year.. we'll expand the pumpkin patch.