Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

 

Our good friend, Lance, had an abundance of colorful tomatoes in his garden. He gave us a couple of box fulls, so we made our very first batch of spaghetti sauce today!

Stories to Tell

 

Here are a few shots with definite stories behind them. The gruesome headwound pictures tell the tale of a 4-wheeler accident, and a night spent in the Emergency Room. I only wish that I had my camera in the ER! Thankfully, Steve is fine (25 staples later). Now that is one hard-headed man! After finding Wayne's elk, the guys arrived home before I did. When I did get home, it was to the glorious sight of dinner being cooked and dishes being done. Now this is a sight I don't see everyday! Definitely a Kodak moment! The final picture of Wayne is for his "Babe";)

Wayne's Elk

 

They found her! Wayne shot this cow elk in the evening; the same evening that I (Kim) was bear hunting. It was pretty exciting because Mike and I saw 4 cow elk making their way down the trail toward Wayne. Mike heard Wayne shoot his bow. A little while later, we saw 3 cows making their way back up the trail. Yes! We started to gather our things so we could help Wayne blood-trail his elk, when Mike spotted the 4th cow - now, about 5 minutes behind the others - trying to keep up with them. We could tell she'd been hit, and Mike could see the entry hole through his binoculars. We met up with Wayne to begin the search, but night was coming on and we didn't know for sure which game trail the elk had followed. The guys decided it would be best to come back and try to find her in the morning. And find her they did! Here she is with the mighty hunter that felled her- that would be Wayne:) Congratulations, Wayne!

Wilma - This One's For You:)

 

Some friends, and fellow hunters, are here from Ohio this week - Wayne, Steve, and Paul Lavy, and Paul Ritchie. So far, they've only had one day of hunting without rain - and that day, Mike took a cow elk with his bow, and the guys helped him pack it out. But the elk are bugling now, and the rain has cooled things off - so hopefully tomorrow will be the day! This collage is for Wilma, who is missing her honey and the Western Slope of Colorado. You had better be here next year, girl! (Click on the collage if you want to see it better)

Past my Bedtime!

I am weary - OK, I am exhausted! I did it to myself on purpose today, actually yesterday now. Sept. 10 - 1 year ago - my wonderful, big brother beat me to Heaven. (He always was competetive:)I love him; I miss him; I think of him so often. Mom and I talked often of Michael when she was here to visit. It was such a good time. She flew home Tuesday AM, so I decided to keep extra busy Wednesday. I made bread and cinnamon rolls (that's what Wayne will be having for breakfast, Wilma;), worked up a couple more boxes of corn for the freezer, ran errands, ran out of gas (not a fun story), got things arranged for Children's service at church, dropped off my children, picked up Paul at the airport in Grand Junction (the hunting party is now complete!), fixed supper for some hungry hunters, payed bills, clipped coupons, etc. I have made it through the day. It is past my bedtime. Goodnight.

Katie's 1st Horseback Riding Lesson

Katie had her first horseback riding lesson last Wednesday. She is soooo excited and has a wonderful teacher, Heidi Simpson. Heidi is teaching Katie to groom and saddle the horse, as well as ride. And Gram Gram got to be at her first lesson!

 

Come on Down To The Farm

Mike wanted everyone to see this. Just turn off my music before you play the video. Enjoy! (Thanks, Joe, for the link!)

Welcome my Mom to Blogville!

We have set up a blog page for my mom! It's called Grandma's Brag Blog, and she welcomes you to visit her! Just click on my "Mom's Blog" link under "Friends and Relations". Mom is both! Welcome to Blogville, Mom!

 

More Photos of our Excursion

Looking down into the canyon near where we cooked hot dogs. After supper, Mike and I saw a black bear walking in the bottom of the canyon. The kids just missed seeing it.

Repairing the Fire Pit

Blazing Fire

My boy!

A beautiful sunset on the ride out

Hunting for Mushrooms & Cooking Hotdogs

My mom arrived from NY on Tuesday. We are all so glad to have Gram Gram here! On Thursday, we decided to go mushroom hunting and cook hot dogs over a campfire. Unfortunately, the only mushrooms we found were of the poisonous (and very dried-out variety), but the hot dogs were good, and we had fun! Here are a few pictures from our outing.

Katie and Hunter on a fallen aspen tree

Kim with Pringles duck lips!

Some nice mule deer bucks we saw

Family shot

Katie and Hunter built their own teepee

Dragon Cake - YUM!

Knowing my son's great love for all things "Dinosaur", Gram Gram found this cool recipe for a Dragon Cake. The kids had a great time making and decorating this yummy cake with their New York Grandma:)

Doing Corn

Well, I've put Mom to work while she's here. Yesterday, we drove into Paonia to see if there was any corn by the box we could buy. The cheapest that I knew of was directly from the Olathe Sweet Corn factory at $9/box (4 dozen ears). The man selling corn said that he had some corn that had been picked 1-2 days ago, and we could have it for $5/box! I was thrilled. We got 4 boxes, and Mom and I did corn until midnight, but it's all done. I did my corn differently this year - it's a Mennonite recipe that all the Mennonite women use around here - no cooking involved!

Freezing Corn
15 c. corn, cut off cob
2 T. salt
1/2 c. sugar
4 c. crushed ice

Stir in large bowl. Let sit until ice is melted. Bag and freeze. Add no water when cooking.

British Soccer Camp 2008

Hunter's Coaches - Coach Pete and Coach Sophie

Hunter's Team

On the last day of camp, the younger kids came dressed up as a character of some kind - Hunter is, of course, the LION!

Katie's Practice Team w/ Coach Tom

The coaches divided the entire group of older kids (6 and up) into World Cup teams. Each day they had 2 scrimmages, and on the final day of camp the coaches announced the World Cup Champions. Katie's team, Wales, were the champs!

This year Katie and Hunter participated in British Soccer Camp (Challenger Sports Camp). It was a neat experience, as all of the coaches were from Great Britain - gotta love those accents. The kids had a great time! Hunter went everyday for 1 1/2 hours, and Katie went for 3 hours. Of course, Mama was there to supervise:) Katie's Fall soccer will start in the next 2 weeks.

Sorry for the Silence!

It was purely unintentional, I assure you! Actually, our neighbor's house got struck by lightning on Wed, August 6th (don't worry, he's OK:), and the same lightning also fried our computer, DSL modem, and 2 phone lines! I tried to blog from the library, but it said the URL I was trying to access was a Pornography site and wouldn't let me access. (I know, too much info) Anyway, we now - as of today - have a loaner PC tower, received a new DSL modem, and got our phone lines fixed. Now we're waiting to see if our other tower can be fixed or if we need to purchase a new one. It's been a busy 1 1/2 weeks - painting 7 rooms of a friend's house, British soccer camp for the kids, picking cherries, making more jam, etc. I'll try to blog some pictures later this week - but as it is now after 1AM, I will close.

Little House on the Prairie

 

Outside Independence, KS is the site of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. Here is a picture of the cabin, and the kids inside the cabin. (I wanted to try something new:)

The twins!

 

Here are Todd & Elizabeth's beautiful twins, Logan and Lexie. They are good babies, and we all fell in love with them.

Friends!

 

Here is a collage of Katie, Hunter, Samuel, and Abigail taken at the park in Independence, KS and in Woolaroc, OK. They had so much fun playing together!

Our Trip to Kansas!

We had a wonderful time in Kansas visiting our dear friends, Todd & Elizabeth Hamilton in Independence, KS. The kids had so much fun playing together. We took them to the park in Independence, which has great play areas as well as a small zoo, carousel and train rides, and Miniature Golf. We also went to Woolaroc, OK where the kids got to shoot a muzzleloader, throw real tomahawks, see alot of free-range animals - deer, buffalo, emu, ostriches, etc., visit a small petting zoo, climb a tower, and visit a very neat museum! And my kids (who are huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fans) got to visit the homestead outside Independence where the book Little House on the Prairie took place. We also went to McPherson Campmeeting for 3 days, which was a very special time. Besides having wonderful, anointed preaching services, the Lord gave us a miracle. Hunter had a hole develop in his palate a few weeks after his surgery. Saturday afternoon, one of the evangelists - Randy Neville, preached on physical and spiritual healing. After the service, I felt prompted to look in Hunter's mouth, and the hole was closed! We thank the Lord for His goodness to us! Here is a picture of our kids with their buddies - the Randel clan!

My best bargains yet!!!

Above you will find 2 packages of Malt-o-meal cereal, 1 box of Just Bunches cereal, 2 packs of CFL lightbulbs, 2 lbs. of peanuts, 6 packages of Kool-Aid, 4 bars of Johnson Buddies soap, 1 can of Muir Glen organic tomatoes, and a 10-pk. of Schick disposable razors. Drum roll, please............I paid $0.57! Definitely my best bargains yet! (Don't worry - I won't post all my shopping trips:)

Canning Apricots

 

Well, we finally "got 'er done"! But since it took several days for most of the apricots to ripen, I'm afraid the ones that were already ripe disappeared mysteriously - leaving us only enough to can 5 pints. Ah well, the kids had fun helping and learning about food preservation (and eating a multitude of ripened apricots - they're clean as a whistle:)