The BIG Snow

BBQ anyone?

Loking out the kitchen window to the N W

There is an ice dam on the patio roof just above this

Looking out from the garage

Looking out te kitchen window to the S W

Avalanche in the chicken run

Happy Halloween & Happy Birthday Spooks!

Happy Halloween to All & Happy Birthday

to two of my favorite Spooks!

Beulah Hafen: Is my incredible #2 Mom and today is her birthday. She is probably spending the day in bed, not a fun way to be on a birthday, but she's not feeling well after a little fall the other day. But Happy Birthday to you anyway Mom Hafen. I love you and am so glad to have you a part of my life.

Brenna Ezparza: Is the other birthday celebrant. She is one of my favorite nieces. Her mom always decorated for the holidays and one memory I have is of Brenna always reminding her mom to decorate for Halloween real early. She knew it was her birthday and I believe for quite some time she believed everyone decorated and celebrated for her birthday. Brenna has 4 children of her own today and I believe Halloween is still a favorite holiday for her and her family.

I had fun this year with a few new projects inspired my Martha Stewart's Halloween magazine. I made the wreath below for under $15!!! Gotta love a bargain. The wreath I purchased at Michael's for $7 and the roses & skull came from the $1 Store. I painted the roses black and tipped them with purple glitter the glittered the skull. The ribbon was Christmas ribbon on sale, there is about 45 cents of ribbon and some hot glue to hold it all together.

I found a little bag of skulls, originally bought for the wreath, and put them in with my pumpkins in my canister on the tabel in the entry. Many visitors commented on them and enjoyed seeing them; a lot of fun for a $1. Visitors really liked them, so did Chuck and I.

Fancy Up That Fudge!

I'm teaching a class for Relief Society Super Saturday tomorrow called "Creative Gifts From Your Kitchen or Fancy Up That Fudge."
It's been a lot of fun gathering recipes, ideas and creative containers. I just wrapped up a star tin filled with microwave rocky road fudge, a two quart Santa container filled with instant potato soup mix, a rose bowl filled with fancy dipped pretzels and the list goes on.
When I get them all filled this evening I'll take photos and post them.
I'm also including handouts full of recipes, gift tags, ideas and web sites one can visit for even more ideas.

Fathers Day BBQ

My dad of 20+ years died just before fathers day weekend so we changed the plans for our Fathers Day BBQ. It worked out better because Taera and her family were here and so was Shaunie and the kids. It was a meat fest! Rick brought 3 racks of beef ribs, yumm!!!!!!!! Tom made his Terriyaki Flank Steak and Chuck BBQ'd yummy chicken. Then there were the salads and the games and the homemade ice cream and cherry brownies and the visiting, playing and all around fun time with family.

Evelyn wanted to play croquet with us, she carried her ball to a spot and then hit it with the mallet. Nollie is eating her rib bone.

Nate and Rick are playing Lawn Golf
Taera & Fernando visiting with Tom and Chuck.

The two honorees cooking for all of us.

Insanity

A few weeks ago as Chuck and I were lying in bed on a Sunday morning we heard a crashing noise coming from downstairs. We ran down to check it out and found nothing out of place or that had fallen. A few minutes later a Robin flew into our kitchen window. It kept hitting the window and would only stop when I would open the front door and scare it away. Then a few minutes later it would start up again, flying into our kitchen window again.
This went on about the same time each day for almost a week. In fact it was happening so much that the Robin lefts its droppings behind on the brick ledge under our window.
I thought to myself, "This Robin is insane. It keeps doing the same thing over an over and I'm sure it's expecting different results." I have been going through some personal coaching and this experience struck a chord in my life on some habits and behaviors I'm working on changing. I realized that I also was expecting different results in several situations while not changing my behavior/habits; a good lesson and wake up call for me.
During that week I left my camera in the kitchen because I wanted to get a picture of the "Insane Robin" but was never able to get a picture of him. But this morning when I was getting a drink of water I heard something hit the back door and turned to see The Insane or another Insane Robin doing the same thing! My camera was still there and I was quick enough to get this picture.
I've done some research on why a Robin would repeat this behavior and found out that it is a male Robin protecting his territory from other male Robins. Did you know the were so aggressive as to fight off another male? They are; and the ones that keep hitting my windows are seeing their own reflection thinking it is another male Robin. Maybe that is why men won't wash windows...they don't want that other guy in the window to see them doing household chores.

Chowder Throwdown

A few months ago we were having dinner with a few friends, the Yetts & Byrnes, when the subject of cooking came up. Dan Yett & Chuck began talking about the good cooks that both Fran and I were and that took them to the soups that we both make well. Dan said, "Well no one can top Fran's clam Chowder and Chuck said, "That is one of Di's best soups!"
We all laughed and I said, "We should have a Chowder Throwdown." And so it was.
On March 27th the Byrnes, Yett's, Spencer's & McGuffy, Powells & a few Brinkerhoffs joined us for a Clam Chowder Throwdown. Fran brought a huge pan of her spicy with bacon clam chowder and I made another huge pan of my traditional style clam chowder. We downed almost 5 gallons of clam chowder, 4 dozen rolls and the desserts, YUM! There were Carmel laced brownies and ice-cream, chocolate moose pie, fresh strawberries & pineapple with coconut fruit dip, I'll say YUM again.

Whose Clam Chowder reigned supreme? It was too close for anyone to make a decision and as you can see there was just a bit left in each pan. It was fun, loud and even a bit chaotic at times yet we all had a pretty great time and definitely consumed the best Clam Chowder in Gem County!

Fresh Eggs & Counter Lights

Does anyone want to buy fresh eggs? This is 10 days worth not including the ones we have eaten and the few in my fridge. We average between 7 & 9 eggs a day and I need to sell some quick as my ladies are out of feed! Patrica gave me the rug for Christmas. It's at the front entry to my fresh egg store. She also gave me three kitchen towels and pot holders with chickens on them. Way cute! The cords hanging down are from the unfinished counter lighting, see the last photo. I bought these marshmallows for the girls when they were here bot forgot to send them with them. I'm going to use them for a snack in my Sunbeam class when we sing the ducky song next week.

Chuck finally installed, well partially, the counter lighting. Now I just have to get him to wire up all the cords so they are hidden and go to the switch.

Happy New Year from the Cluffs!!!

December Activities excluding Christmas

Shanda, Devin (Santa) and Derrick some of my favorite kids. They dressed up and shared the Christmas Spirit with visitors who came to see their Granpas Christmas village & Nativity. I took Shaunie and the girls to see the Christmas village. They could have stayed much longer but it was too cold outside.
This was taken just before Evelyn asked Santa to bring her "New Panties, Please" for Christmas. The funny thing, I'm pretty sure "panties" isn't in Santa Devons vocabulary.
The pains of being beautiful start at a young age.
Auntie Michelle had just applied beautiful eye shadow on Evelyn and she had to show it off. Both girls love putting on make up. One of their favorite things I got them were the Princess Chap Sticks. Until its gone it will be applied every two minutes, sometimes on Drama & Drampas lips.
Its nice to have a picture of Jilly were she isn't doing the "Cheese Ball Grin" she inherited from her daddy. I don't think we have more than two pictures of Ben where he isn't pulling his version of the same.
I got to make a gingerbread house with the girls. We had been talking about it on the phone so it was one of the first tings we did when the girls arrived.
My Kitchen, me and the girls had Royal Icing all over by the time we were finished making our house. Then as long as they were here they were able to pick off the candy and eat it, yum! We caught Jilly picking off the candy, licking the icing off then dropping the candy on the floor. Then one night when Evelyn was ready for bed I found her biting off all the candy on the tree. She wouldn't go to bed until she had all the candy off. Thanks Shaunie for choosing to fight other battles and letting your girls eat candy like they did over Christmas. What a sweet memory it is!
Most of you know Chuck plays the bagpipe. Thankfully he plays outside most of the time. The girls were very interested in watching Drampa play, they say, "He's loud."
He is getting pretty good, you'll have to believe me that he is playing Amazing Grace in this picture. As soon as he is done with piping school we are hoping he gets an invitation to play with the Boise Highlanders. Notice the snow in the background, it was actually snowing when I took this picture.
I've always wanted to have a table scape on my table and found that one of the benefits is though Chuck still lays out all his work stuff on the table, he'll clean it up when he's done so the table looks good again. I used my silver snowflake napkin rings, snowflake runner, and three snowflake ornaments all from Pottery Barn. Then finished off with silver chargers, white plates, snowflake votives and the Southern Living At Home Pine Sprig Tray. We enjoyed our winter table scape until the girls came then it was changed to the plastic cloth, Winne The Pooh and Princess place mats and Melamine dishes.
I've not mentioned it on my blog but those of you who read Ben & Shaunies know Evelyn and Jill are going to get a baby brother, Gordon Benjamin, to torture & love the first part of April. I couldn't resist this Classic Pooh outfit when I saw it. I believe they are going to bless him in it. Jilly was playing with me and a bowl of marshmallows and would open her mouth just as I took the picture. I was trying to get one of her just being Jill until I realized she is "just being Jill" when she is goofing off. Evelyn, who doesn't have comedic timing at all had to pose with her mouth open. I managed to get one of Jill without her mouth closed and true to form she has her cheese ball grin. I love having little "photo shoots" when the girls are not doing anything special rather doing every day things. Those are the precious times I so love with my grand children.


For our ward party I made Brandon & Kara Thompson Joseph and Mary costumes. They loved the cutting put part of the process. Both Brandon and Kara were in Chuck and my nursery class, they are the cutest little people and made an adorable Mary & Joseph.

On the first Sunday in December we came home from church to find a heard of sheep walking down Central Avenue, right past us. I had Chuck stop at the top of our street so I could take these pictures. I love the one with the sheep dog doing his work. I don't know how many sheep were there but there were only two dogs and three shepherds. All winter the sheep travel this way to fields where they eat the straw or hay down to the ground. The other day as I travelled up Gem Ave there was a herd of sheep eating my brother Muggys field down where I believe he had wheat planted. They chomp it all down then move onto the next field via the nearest road. This woudl never happen in Torrance, Ca. Girin:)

Are You Still Canning? I Am

I wasn't going to bottle much this year but I just couldn't stay away from it. I started with some beautiful Pears and ended up with 34 quarts, no peaches this year then the tomatoes came on, finally! From my garden and a small box I bought at the farmers market I was able to get just 15 quarts of salsa. Not an ideal number for me but there just weren't any ripe tomatoes! Then Clara Mae gave me one of her pickings and wow! I made spaghetti sauce and Patricia canned a bunch of them for me because we were leaving for Phoenix the day after I got the tomatoes. Then last week I did grape juice with Patricia. The grapes were not very plentiful this year but we were thankful for the ones we got and between the two of us we bottled 36 quarts of grape juice each! I still have my beets in the ground which I need to pickle and some I think I will julienne then I have a box of green tomatoes which I just might make some green salsa with.
On November 11th Patricia and I are going to the Church cannery to do applesauce, I'm looking for more quart jars since I signed up for 80 quarts of sauce. Twenty I will give to Michelle & Nate. My goal is to get my beets done before the applesauce so I can hang my canning utensils until next year.
It's such a good feeling when you look at your pantry shelf loaded with food that you have bottled.

I'm Baaack!

Wow! Life sure goes by fast, apparently I have been caught up in it. We had a fun visit from Chuck's friend, James Wood on the weekend of September 20th. We hadn't seen him since we left LA so we talked and talked then I went to bed and Chuck and James talked and talked through the night. Good Times.
James is an excellent golfer and while we didn't get a chance to play we hit some practice balls in the back yard. He gave both Chuck and I some instruction and WOW! My swing is way better, thanks James!
When Chuck and I flew to Phoenix for a business trip on the 5th of October we met James again and he took us to the Ping factory to get fitted for Pings. Niiiicee! The pros who do the fittings are great and they gave us both a ton of tips for our game! Chuck and I both are hoping we still have some good weather, just one afternoon will do, when he gets home from Nashville on the 7th of November so we can play one game.

The Fast Lane

I like to blog on Sunday afternoons when I have time to reflect about the event of my past week but I missed it last Sunday because I was in the fast lane and missed that exit.
As I write I really should be making nectarine jam, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the bathroom, exercising, finishing thank you notes or getting a jump on my day. Rather, it feels good to sit and pound on the keyboard about something personal taking a break from real estate and events and commitments I have taken on. I have enjoyed blogging and plan on saving the blog on an annual basis as a sort of journal.
Chuck and I took the opportunity on Labor Day to labor some on Coop DeVille and the roof is almost finished. We haven't had a free hour since then to put on the rest of the shingles. The roof looks great, the trim is painted and I'm ordering the paint for the rest of the Coop probably today so I can get it painted then we can install the chicken wire roof on the run in a more permanent way. Chuck also made a door to cover the hole the ladies use to enter the run. He plans on making it work automatically. (Yes, we know it's fancy and the girls don't need it, but we are having fun with it. Plus it give us something to do when we don't have anything else to do {sarcasm})
Speaking of our big fat hens, we had our first 5 egg day yesterday! And to top it off, I beleive it was Whiney Wynadotte that laid a double yolker! This will be our third double yolker, they are always fun to get. I'm thinking one of the BIG Brahamas laid her first egg when I found a different egg outside in the run yesterday. I've been reading about Brahamas and I didn't realize that they get so big, I have two 9 pound chickens! The don't get up on any perches and I think it's because they are too big for the size of their wings. I put a cinder block in front of the lower perch to see if they will use it to help them get into the nesting boxes. We may have to put another nesting box on the floor so they can lay their eggs there.
John, my chicken buddy, and I have been reading a lot about our new hobby and found a graph that tells about the breeds and their eggs. I found out that the Brahamas and Wynadottes are average, medium egg layers. John and I are into the egg production big time as we want to sell eggs to pay for our feed. I have 7 hens because I gave 2 to my friend Ellen who lost all but one of hers;and here I am looking at those 9 pound Brahamas thinking I made a mistake in choosing that breed. I am actually thinking of naming them noodle and soup and next year when they begin molting help them to fill the measure of their creation.
After that I will have 5 hens in a coop that holds 10 so I will bring in some new ladies. The will all be heavy layers; I'll get Brown Leghorns, Black Australorps & a Golden Sex Link. They will give some serious eggs to the layers I already have. Enough about the girls; yesterday my friend Michelle told me I talked about my girls like they are grand children. It appears I've pulled a Patricia in turning my pets into family with the exception that the girls will never step inside my house.
Chuck and I do have more things going on besides our chickens, we've been busy with our real estate investing and loving every minute of it. Chuck of course can't put the time into it that I do because of his work schedule but we are working on that. He was asked by the Boise Highlanders to try out for their band and he's pretty excited about that. The director of the Highlanders told him he would have to give up something to be a Higlander as it takes such a time commitment. He's looking at setting aside his woodworking and projects like that so he can pipe in a skirt; then there is always the job that gets in the way. I believe he has set a goal of being ready in January, though I think he is ready now. I would love for him to do it now so he could play in January at Robbie Burns Night.
I'm missing my children and grand children and looking forward to the holidays when we'll see hopefully all of them, not at the same time I suspect. Ben & Shaunie are going to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving as they only have three days off school and it just doesn't make sense to spend all their holiday driving. Dan & Elke haven't made plans yet and I'm assuming Nate & Michelle will come her for dinner as they were with the Nippers last Turkey Day. We'll all be discussing it as the days to the holiday get closer.
Our mild summer is on it's way out and I'm praying for a late freeze this fall. I still have a ton of green tomatoes and have only had two pickings. We got our first tomato towards the end of August this year, weird goings on on the farm. My purple grapes aren't even turning but the white ones are doing well and I was thinking I wasn't going to have any grape juice until Patricia told me her neighbor has tons of grapes he can't do anything with. I haven't put up any salsa, peaches, pears, or anything this year. This has been a weird crop year and I've been way busy! I do plan on taking a morning at the cannery to do applesauce, we have a pig in the freezer and you've got to have applesauce in the pantry to go with him.
The sunrise is about to happen, the girls are bocking loudly in their run and I need to get on with my day.

Primary Songs Are The Best

The music chairman in our ward, Kim Larsen, asked Chuck and I to sing in church a few weeks ago so we were on the schedule for August 24th. We decided that we should sing what we know. Since we are the nursery leaders we sang a medley of primary songs. We chose the ones that we sing in nursery starting with Here We Are Together. In nursery we sing the names of all the kids and they love it. The next was Quickly I'll Obey, then When Were Helping, I Am A Child Of God, and we ended with Don't Ever Forget To Pray because we always close singing time in nursery with that one.
Now if you have ever been in an LDS Sacrament meeting you know there are a lot of little kids and it can be kind of noisy at times. When we started to sing every little person stopped making noise, of course most of them are in our nursery class, and it suddenly became very quiet. It was quite to reverent little phenomenon.
Barbara Wallace played for us and wrote the transitions between the songs, while Chuck harmonized and I sang the melody. That is the first time we have ever sung in a church meeting and it wasn't even a bit scary. Actually it we both really enjoyed singing together.

A Long But Rewarding Weekend

Last weekend was Emmett's first American Cancer Society Relay For Life. Relay is a fund raiser for the ACS in which they enroll community members into helping them raise money for cancer research & education. I had a bit of a bad attitude going into is because I had so much else to do and determined that I wouldn't do it again but I was caught by the bug and had a really great time.
The best part was working with my friend and fellow Mae-Ma, Lyleen Jerome. She and I co-chaired the food committee. Which means we catered a dinner for 35 cancer survivors and their caregivers in the park (70 people), it included a fruit appetizer and dessert. We also provided dinner for one team of 20 who met their team goal of raising over $2,500 and provided midnight snacks of cookies, yogurt, fruit & coffee for all the teams...I'm not done, then there was breakfast for everyone. We were lucky to get the Gem County firemen to cook pancakes for us at 6:00 a.m. Between all of this we sold pizza for $2 a slice all night in the park.
I did finally crash on the air bed in Lyleens tent about 1 a.m. and tried to get some sleep. However it was so cold and I froze all night, until 4:30 am when I drove home to warm up. I took a hot shower and headed back to the park to help with breakfast and clean up.
Lyleen and I had a blast figuring out all the details then putting it all together. We found lots of time to visit between tasks and when we would walk the track together. The track was lined with luminaries, many of them decorated in memory of those who had lost their lives to cancer, and when the sun set the track was lit up so beautifully all night long until morning. There were about 17 teams who had at least one person from their team walking all night long because cancer never sleeps.
Speaking of sleep, when I got home after the clean up was done, I slept and slept and slept. I woke up when Chuck made some dinner then ended up sleeping through the night. It was fun, the only thing I'll do different next year will be to probably come home to the warm house for a cat nap then back to park.
If anyone reading this has an opportunity to be involved with a Relay For Life I recommend it. It was wonderful being involved with every part of the relay but best of all was working with all the great people in Emmett.

My Love Affair with Cars & Cruise Night

I love cars! I will even admit that I dated several guys for thier cars. I married the TR 4A with over drive! Chuck had a Triumph and it was sooooo much fun to drive. We have a lot of memories in that car, they make me smile.

I remember driving up Provo Canyon to Sundance one time with my cousin Jill. She was in the fetal position stashed in the luggage space behind the seats. She started screaming when she saw Robert Redford following us up the canyon. she tried to get his attention and he was not amused; finally passing us, kill-joy! I found this photo on the web of Chucks car, it was dark blue and had a black interior with a black convertable top. I still remember the smell of the TR-4, Loved It!

Cruise Night comes to Emmett about the 15th of July every year and it is so much fun. It is the largest car show in Idaho. This year Patricia and I went as our hubbies didn't want to go. That was fine with us, had a blast meeting new people and talking to our friends that were there. There are actually two events; in the park in the morning is the Swap and Shine put on by the Lions Club. The park is full of cars, food, a swap meet & FUN!

One of my favorite cars this year and I didn't get a picture was a late 60's Cougar. It's body reminded me of my first car a 1970 Ford Torino with a 351 Windsor 4 barrel engine. It was a powerful V-8 engine and a few days after I had the car I got it up to 127 mph on I-15 in Centerville. Dad, if you're reading this I admit to a lie of omission becuase I never told you. Glade Johnson made me do it, grin:) I loved that car! It was green with a darker hard top, The first photo shows the color and the gold and white one is 1970 model that I had.

Back to Cruise Night: That evening Roeanns, Emmett's best Drive Inn sponsors Cruise Night where you will find a 50's band in the parking lot, plenty of people, awesome cars, more people and if you have a cool car you can cruise the main drag in Emmett all night long. People set up BBQ's and parties in parking lots and on the lawns of business then watch the cars till around midnight.
Patricia and I only went to the Swap and Shine, next year we migth be on the main drag having a party, who knows? Either way, it's a fun Saturday so if any of you readers like cars and are going to be in town next July around the 15th, you are invited to cruise with me!

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Kung Fu Panda & The Man Party

Tonight is Steve Wallace's "Man Party." By the name of the party you can guess that it is only for men and their mutual age sons, no women or babies are allowed. He was bummed out that the women seem to have all the nice parties so he planned this party totally from a man's point of view. There are no table cloths, in fact the only table is a ping pong table, no flowers and froo-froo decor. He simply hung a chain saw in a tree, gathered a box of cow chips to throw, found the biggest grill in town and fired it up. Each man brought their "Hunk-o-Meat" to grill and he baked potatoes provided ketchup, cake & ice-cream. Chuck took a ice chest full of root beer and it was party time.
I just got off the phone with Barbara, she stayed to help Steve at his request and they are sitting around laughing and telling stories. She says they are having a great time but doesn't really know what is going on out there as she is staying in the house.
Several of us ladies decided we should do something fun so a group of us converged on Emmett's Frontier Cinema and saw the only show in town, Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black does the voice of the Panda and they also use his facial expressions. He makes the movie absolutely hilarious. Other voices in the movie come from Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Lui & Jackie Chan. I rate this movie 5 stars as it is entertaining, fast moving, funny with some surpises. It is definitely a buy for your home collection. Below is a picture of the group after the movie.
One funny story that happened at the theater. As I went outside to see if anyone else was coming in and Roy, the theater owner had just come in and said, "Sorry I don't see any more of your group outside. There are just some kids." I opened the door and there was Carol and Mary! They were some of the younger of our group & Mary had her hair in french braids like a young girl might wear, I guess they looked a little teenagerish. I would have relished if a comment like that were directed towards me; rather, I obsessed over the old turtles neck in the movie. I thought it looked like mine with all the bags, wrinkles & sags in all the right places.

Here we all are after the movie, still having a great time. Thanks goes to Steve Wallace for his "Man Party" for a fun filled Friday evening.

Back Row L -R: Renae Walker, Me, Heather Gregory's kids & nephews then her, Mary Thompson & Susan White

Front Row L-R: Louise Manwaring, Jessie Ellis, Jessica Ellis on her lap, Carol Kaskell (sorry Heather I can't tell which of your sons is sitting on Carols lap but I know Brianna is the last one on the row.