The tent is a 3-person, but we all fit in a test run in the living room, and for backpacking, we can be squished. We'll only all 4 fit in it for a few more years, and then the kids will be big enough to carry their own tent - or else John and I will be too old to backpack in a few years. Next summer will be our first try with the kids. With fly:
Hiking trip with friends to Bergen Peak, just outside of Evergreen. Almost 10,000 feet, a 10-mile round trip hike. Phew!!!! (I wore my new boots, and only got a small blister on the back of my achilles tendon - pretty amazing for grabbing them off the shelf with no research or pre-thought, just a quick try-on.)
The views were amazing!
Fantastic color.
Lovely friends.
Downtown Denver to the east.
Pikes Peak to the south.
Mount Evans to the west?
At the top!
Our lunch view.
Right in front of my shoe, on the rock, was our little friend.
Our annual autumn photo shoot at Lair O' the bear on a sunny afternoon. I took so many pictures, that I can't even begin to show them here. I'll be sending them out for holidays and displaying them in my home soon :-)
Photogenic kids.
Tomatoes!!!!!!! This fall we had a few light frosts, during which I covered my tomatoes with tarps, and placed a shop light under to add heat. They survived 3 or 4 days of these frosts, with minimal damage. The announcement of 4 or 5 days in a row of 20 degree days, however, made me give up that plan, and do a massive harvest. The kids and I were out the snow, picking tomatoes like crazy. I figure we picked at least a bushel, or slightly more. I picked EVERYTHING, except the very smallest fruits.
Sorted out the ripe ones, chopped and made sauce.
From this:
To this:
Plus this strained sauce:
Here is what was left over after that first batch of sauce:
Just the green ones alone were completely overwhelming!
This is hard to see, but did a wonderful watercolor for grandpa's birthday. Unfortunately it got a little wet again and smeared. Watercolor paper would have helped, too :-p (Note the name of the boat!)
Posing with the fungus.
More posing.
Close up of said fungus.
More exploring.
Love it!
Oh, and don't forget the chickens. We had one day last week that we got 4 eggs in one day! Usually we get 3 eggs consistently.
(Huwiye = Hawaii)
I made more sauce with all those green tomatoes that ripened up on the counter - and here is still what is left after two more similar sized potfuls of both chunky and strained sauces!
It was a bountiful year for my tomatoes.
And after the snow melted, we still have beautiful colors around our neighborhood!
And another along similar lines, but with birds included:
The kids had a few days off school for conferences. Of course they had an adventure! In the woods behind our house they discovered a GIANT FUNGUS!
Must document the fungus.
Posing with the fungus.
More posing.
Close up of said fungus.
More exploring.
Love it!
Oh, and don't forget the chickens. We had one day last week that we got 4 eggs in one day! Usually we get 3 eggs consistently.
The deck is coming along nicely - here is framing set up (not screwed down yet).
Random artwork by Owen.
A story by Elise. I must preface this by mentioning an assignment Owen did for school in 2nd grade, where they wrote a postcard to someone describing a trip - Elise is following that theme, of sorts, with lots of similarities to Owen's.
Enlarge (click on pic) to read the postcard - it is 2 pages.
(Huwiye = Hawaii)
Our first significant snow was last week - It snowed on our framed-in deck :-)
I made more sauce with all those green tomatoes that ripened up on the counter - and here is still what is left after two more similar sized potfuls of both chunky and strained sauces!
It was a bountiful year for my tomatoes.
Here's more of that snow.
And after the snow melted, we still have beautiful colors around our neighborhood!
One of Elise's masterpieces - interesting details!
And another along similar lines, but with birds included:
On another note - we bought an SUV today!
John and his unique tastes in vehicles. We needed a second vehicle that goes well in snow (the first being my Subaru) so that I am not left stranded at home when John travels during snow storms. Plus we can use it for camping, and for bringing home large objects, or even hauling small trailers...
And finally, today we layed out our deck boards. All of the framing and blocking is done, now to decide which boards go where, and fasten the approximately 3000 screws for our fastening system. Woo hoo!!!
First board is screwed down!!!!!!
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