...solstice snow...

 Yes...I think about such things as "solstice" and "equinox" and "total eclipse"---which we missed last night because of the storm :( And I know that this won't seem like much to many of you in the north or at higher elevations. BUT!!!! This is major for us!!! worthy of pictures on the blog!! And it's beautiful!! AND current..........I took the pictures 1/2 an hour ago!!! Are you impressed?? It will probably never happen again..........

Our birch tree--really "weeping"

 the front porch railing

 I know this is common in Buffalo, NY.....but here????

 Remember those lilac bushes????

And thank goodness for loving neighbors and young, strong, healthy backs!!!

...the thrill of it all

I wanted to make this post days ago, but I've been busy......so I'm determined to do it today. Last Monday we started shipping our bees to Needles. Forrest came the night before and spent the night in his truck. Roger was excited to get them loaded and on the road. I didn't need much of an excuse to "go see". I don't know what it is about seeing our bees on a truck...even when it was our "big" truck--which, by the way, looks really small when you park it next to a semi!...There is something about knowing they are ours; their worth--and we are trusting them to someone else!!! Forrest is a good man. And there is always a satisfaction, a relief of sorts, to get them out of Utah before it gets too cold. Those two weeks of real cold weather we had were pretty hard on them. So.........maybe you will feel a little of the thrill I feel just seeing them all loaded on a truck. And you might even "see" more bees on the road now that you know what to look for. I'm sure you've seen them...........just maybe didn't know what they were.............You can see it was a beautiful day!!

 I wanted to get there while they were loading, but Roger is so quick that the bees were all on the truck and screened! They were beginning to tie them down before I got there.

Michael is securing the screen while Forrest watches. He wasn't too excited to be in the picture, but I told him he is and important part of all this!

They have cross-tied the back and then they will put lots of more straps on them.

Not a very good picture, but you can see the dead bees on the ground. It was so cold for a couple of weeks that quite a few of the bees died..........and the others pulled them out of the hive.........they keep a clean house!

This is "Notch Peak"....50 miles west......I really want to climb it one of these summers. I especially love it with its dusting of snow!

the time thing...

So I'm not the only one!!! RAH!!!! Did you hear Pres. Monson last night??? I'd have to say I'm in pretty good company! I'm feeling much better than I did the other night...........I found the lights--clear on the bottom in the back! My sweet grandchildren helped me--truly, they were excellent help! Then Scott came home and he then Daniel finished them while I ran to get replacement fuses and bulbs. I don't know why lights on the house make such a difference, but they do...........I'm working on one little step at a time...........

Aren't they darlings?? And dressed so elegantly too! We did the best we could. Irene--recognize the blue coat???

it's all a blurrrrr......or a dream........

I am having great difficulty with the astonishing speed of passing time! Am I the ONLY ONE??????? Truly, I have not really got in the groove of writing 2010........thanks to the "back" button you don't know that I typed 1020!!!! Now that would be something!! I alternate between feeling pushed and shoved or panting to catch my breath as I race to "keep up". I'm beginning to think there really is no hope for the catching up part. So my shoulders droop and do I admit my defeat???? Is there no cure??? no hope??? I used to wonder what in the world Jacob was talking about (Jacob 7:26)....lives passing "away like as it were unto us a dream". But I think I'm beginning to understand what he meant........it wasn't that long ago that I got married! right? but there are all these people who are "mine" that I'm responsible for! ME!!!! a grandma?!?!?!?!??? yet I love these little ones as though they really were my own, so they must be, right? And didn't we have Christmas yesterday?? almost...........? some days it feels like it............and since my last post the days have whipped by like the light/telephone poles along the highway. Almost too fast to count, yet there they are for the counting...complete with the swoops in between them..........what a ride!!

We got home from Florida on 10 November--Wednesday. My friend and I do a little hour long quilt class "thing" (for want of a better word) every second Saturday. I had to hurry my preparation for that. Then it was time to get serious about the tree skirt for the "festival tree". (Some of my cousins and other extended family members did a tree for the "Festival of the Trees" in Salt Lake City for Primary Children's Medical Center.........we have ties...........). The whole saga of finding fabric etc. is another post...........went for over night to my mother's and sister's for Thanksgiving.......just returned yesterday from two days in Salt Lake for the state bee convention.................I just want to stay home and have nothing to do...........is that possible????? I can't find the house lights, so we have almost no Christmas decorations up and I'm really struggling with Christmas spirit. I found it yesterday in the distribution center on 17th South. I stood there with tears in my eyes when one of the men asked me if I was finding what I came for.............yes............and it was peace and love to calm my troubled heart. Maybe it's my fault that everything is a blur. If I slowed down maybe I could count the "poles". You think??? Maybe someday I will "wake up" and find that my life really was "like unto a dream" and I'll be home..............really home.................sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

In the mean time, I intend to enjoy the time I have here............even if it is not what I thought it would be like, I can enjoy it. Here's to enjoying mortality!!!!! Love you all. Thanks for listening to my ramble. Maybe I will get some "Florida pictures" on here one day.........maybe not...........at any rate, I'm determined not to stress about it..............

winter is coming!

I'm thinking of Laura today and being thankful that I live now and that we have all the information collecting and disseminating equipment and knowledge that we have. What a difference it would have made to those of DeSmet during that "long winter". And it makes me wonder if this is an indication of things to come? It's also a little exciting! a real, bonified blizzard!!!! I haven't experienced one of those for a very long time........makes me want to build a fire in the stove and curl up with some stitching or a book. I hope you all are safe and snuggled in for the storm...........and that your loved ones are too. Michelle just called. Snow has cancelled classes the rest of today so the students can get home before the storm--hopefully. And thankfully, she's on her way and will make it. I hope you have a wonderful day of Thanksgiving with your loved ones. We have so much to be thankful for............. by the way, if you haven't read this book you should! .........and I'm going to get some pictures on here soon..........life has been crazy!!!!

Delayed!!!!!

Roger learned today that the shuttle launch has been delayed!!!!!! Rescheduled for Wednesday at 3:30--I think...........We will still leave as planned and rearrange our plans there. Thankfully, we have kept things very loosely "planned" just for such contingencies..........I just hope they don't delay and delay and delay till we are on our way home!! At any rate, I will have lots of pictures to share when we return.

...feeling like a squirrel?

I just thought I would share with you what I've been doing this past month to six weeks. I'm aware that the number of my posts dropped dramatically............well..........for good reason, I think. I'm still not completely finished with all this, but enough so that I thought I would pretend I was finished. How's that? May I just say that I am really ready to have it all done? I was so tired of tomatoes last week that I just about didn't do the "last" batch. Then Peggy told me of her wonderful enchilada sauce so I thought I'd give it a try...........I had to punt though. There is no garlic juice in town. But with all the garlic in the basement why in the world should I go out and buy garlic juice?????? And my tomatoes were already juiced, so I hope I have something slightly similar to Peggy's. I have no idea............but we'll give it a try. Okay! Here goes!!! This is sometime in September.........

A typical picking of cucumbers once they really start to bear well.

After I wash them in the washing machine (I offer a prayer of thanks for my friend every time. It has been such a time saver.) I dump them in the kitchen sink where I sort and check them over. The small ones go in a bucket to brine for sweet pickles, the larger ones in bottles for dills and the largest in a pan to make bread and butter pickles.

Dills.........some in pints for some of the children.

A bucket of sweets and the pan of larger ones..........

A bucket of sweet pickles with the sugar/vinegar syrup on them. The cheesecloth holds the spices. I start doing pickles as soon as the cucumbers start bearing. Bless Roger. He picked most of them this year. That is such a help!

 Some of you may know that we try to go to Idaho for a load of potatoes every year.........well, this year was  no different..........Here is our load for this year, sitting on the truck in front of our house. Nine and a half TONS of them!! Roger and Michael went to get them the day I was supposed to start doing the peaches. 

You'll notice I said "supposed to". I think we did them the next day. A HUGE thanks to sweet Sarah who helped me all day long. We did seven and a half bushels that day!!! I can only imagine how her shoulders must have ached. She peeled and cut peaches all day long! I couldn't have done it without her and we were able to do them all that day! 127 quarts of peaches!!!!!

After the peaches, we did the pears......... I think I did them mostly by myself. Michelle helped as much as she could, for which I was grateful. But there weren't too many of them. I don't remember how many quarts I did...enough to be heartily tired of bottling fruit!

All the children came home for general conference. It's so fun to have them come, even though sometimes we have "bedlam". Richard went out and pulled all the beets. I thought, "Oh no!!" We had a bushel of peaches to do for Grandma! But Richard did the beets almost all by himself!...washed, cooked, slipped the skins, put them in the bottles..........I made the syrup, put the lids on and processed them. Don't they look pretty? (Yeah, sometimes it takes me a few days to get the full bottles hauled downstairs............)

My sweet "daughters" helped me with Grandma's peaches. We had a great time........I think........... I did, and it looks like they are having a good time. Looks like Lisa is sampling the goods..........

 Last week I finished up the tomatoes.........thank goodness!!!! I have made three kinds of soup from the "Ball Blue Book".....well, two are from the book, the third is from a friend. A pint is just right for supper when Roger is away--quick and easy and all in one bottle/dish--doesn't get any better than that, right?

The apple jelly is not all done yet...........OH!!!! And I forgot to get pictures of the 14 quarts and I don't know how many pints of applesauce we did one Saturday a week ago.............Richard came with three boxes of apples--I already had one here--and we made applesauce--yummy, chunky, beautifully white applesauce.

I'm not sure when I will really call it all quits and put the cookers away............well, I put one of them away the other day. But I might have to get it out again if I decide to do something else. I'm not planning on it at this writing, but you never know when I may get a hankering to try something new. And it's really quite a rush to go sit in the fruit room and look at all the beautiful colors of food sitting on my shelves. I sometimes wonder if this is how mother squirrels feel???