Floating the River, Harriman Park and Mesa Falls

Labor Day weekend we decided to go camping up in Island Park. We didn't have to go very far when we found a beautiful little campground called River View. We parked our motor home and then headed out in our Jeep to see Harriman State Park. It was so quiet and peaceful there. Harriman was the man that brought the railroad to the west. He had a huge (and I mean HUGE) ranch retreat for the rich. His family deeded it to the State as a state park and now everyone (even us little poor people) get to enjoy it!

There were sparkling lakes.... (The lake to the left is named Silver Lake...so beautiful, I didn't want to leave!)

We didn't get to go to Golden Lake but maybe next time.

lazy winding rivers... (The picture to the right is the Henry's Fork River. There are several paths that meander along it's banks...They make for a peaceful day!)

...and all the old buildings

that leave their foot print of history on the land are fascinating to see.

(All the things I love!!)

Relaxing...enjoying the moment. Austin loves to take pictures just like we do. So, we let him use one of the cameras and now he just about knows it better then we do!

He takes great panoramic pictures. Like this one of Silver Lake...

(I have to say that he is turning into a pretty good photographer...)

Taking a rest.....................................................................................Now off to see something new....























Later that day we went to Mesa Falls. It is a beautiful place if you have never been there... go!

It starts out with a sea of yellow flowers...well, there's really just a large planter of them but oh boy they were so pretty! I love wild flowers and these just hit the spot! Warm, happy yellow :)


Then you walk down the path and stairway to the falls. But don't go alone, you have to have someone to share the beauty with! (Your so handsome hon!! :))


and don't forget your camera! Aust is taking a picture of the falls . This time he did a vertical panorama.



















It is a great water fall. When you stand there and here it roaring over the edge you can feel it's awesome power being so close to it.


It is mesmerizing to watch all those millions of gallons of water rush over and fall...down...down.... down.. then crash and splash below!



While at Mesa Falls we ran into Spencer and Jessica and their girls. It was great to see family.



After words we were pretty hot and tired so we just went back to the camp ground for dinner and relaxation. Austin road his bike with some other kids from the campground while Terry challenged me to a game of Rummy-K. (His favorite because he always wins!)



Here is the Rummy-K King in deep thought thinking about his next move...

Did he win?.....OF COURSE! (Oh brother ;))

Aust was a little boy-scout and started a great fire. It was a beautiful, quiet night. (except for the camper's dog next door...he didn't like our fire, and sure let us know it.)

The next morning I got up early and went down to the river on a walk. The boys were still asleep and I didn't want to wake them since they stayed up later then I did. The river was beautiful. Here are two of my pictures...

It was so nice to get out into nature...and just as the sun came up too. There is a peace you can't quite match any other time of the day.










I met a little chipmunk on my way. He was so tiny that I could have fit him in my hand. But boy that little guy could sure run! He got away before I could even think of pulling out my camera. Oh well.


I finally got back to the boys and they already had breakfast ready...Yippee!


Later that day we went floating down the Henry's Fork River up by Mack's Inn. It's a five mile float trip and we rented a canoe. It was a wonderful time, we really didn't have to row to much because the currant takes you down stream but we did have to row to keep it strait and off of the sandbars. A couple of times we got stuck but Ter was kind enough to get out and push us into deeper water. Here is a picture of the boys rowing. Pretty serious faces. They were determined not to get stuck on any more sandbars!



Here is the river bank. I loved the tall flowing grasses...and this bird was like a statue.



it would not move! We floated right by it and it didn't even flutter. Very strange.

Here is a panorama view of our float trip.


We had a great time! Life is wonderful when you can spend it with the ones you love!

Baby Chicks! Soft and Fluffy...

Well we finally got the baby chicks we ordered but I didn't know it would be this exciting! Aust has been counting down for days. Terry and I went into the post office to pick them up and you could here them chirping it was echoing through the entire building. The lady behind the counter didn't really want to give them to us, she had kind of grown attached. (They are very cute!) We finally got them home and Aust was so excited he just couldn't wait to hold them.

The little one above is a Rhode Island White and the one to the left is a Barred Rock.

I just loved to watch Aust hold them so sweetly. He has such a tender heart. The one to the left is a bit of a dare-devil. She'll peel out and speed across the brood box. (Running over the other chicks) So we called her Harley. (Like Harley Davidson) She is always in a hurry to get somewhere... quite a peppy little thing and I think she is Austin's favorite. The little white mark on her head looks like a little mohawk. You can't see her little face in the picture because she is so black but eventually she will have white bars across her feathers.

The yellow one above looks like all the other little yellow ones so I call them all "Miss cuddles" they love to cuddle! They aren't near as feisty as Harley. (None of them are as wild as her and there are 25 of them!) The yellows will eventually turn white. All of them are so soft and fluffy and only just two days old and they have already flown in an airplane!

It took a while to get the lamp to the right height for the correct temperature but as soon as it was, they settled in quite nicely and quieted a bit. They love to eat and drink and peck at anything on the floor. We have them in our unfinished basement bathroom because they are to young to go out side yet. In about six weeks we will put them in a pen outside.

The chicks are Austin's responsibility, he thinks that is pretty neat. He likes to have responsibilities it makes him feel needed and more grown up. He is such a thoughtful and very dependable young man. We are so blessed to be his parents. Well the chirping is getting louder... better go check.......ummm ....don't know what the problem was but Harley was standing in the middle of the feed mash like the "Queen of Bunker Hill". Maybe the other's wernt to happy about that.

I hope chicks sleep at night, otherwise none of us will sleep, their chorus echos loud and clear and it sounds like we have a sea of birds in the house. But how can I complain when they are so very,very cute! :)

These chicks remind me of a poem in the young women's manual. Since I have been put in as the Beehive Advisor I've been thinking a lot about this poem and it's meaning. This is a good place to post it.

Coming Out
Some hatchings hurt. … And the new learning softness is so very tender. It’s frightening to be nothing more than the palest puff that peeps. And so remember, remember clarion call to shelter:“I will gather … as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings …” A place to grow in strength.(Dianne Dibb Forbis, New Era, Dec. 1977, p. 7.)

Watermelon Rind Pickles, Little Green Zucchinis and Hawthorn Berries

Since I ruined my lovely little pickling cucumbers I decided to do watermelon rind pickles. I've never done them before but people say they are great.





Aust has been wanting to get a watermelon so bad all summer but I wouldn't until they went on sale. We Finaly got one oh it was so good, crisp and sweet!! So Aust and Ter have been munching on it every day for part of their breakfast.



The recipe said to cut out the red pulp. (I hear the red goes slimy but I know people who actually pickle the red watermelon pulp and love the taste and texture. Yuck.) After doing that I peeled the dark green rind off. (That was near to impossible to do with a regular potato peeler. Wowser! So I gave up and went to a pering knife. I've also heard that you can use a hand cheese slicer. )

When all the rinds were peeled and cleaned I cut them up and processed them like I normally do for dill cucumber pickles. They look kind of pretty but we will see in four weeks if they taste OK or not. (Hopefully they will be tasty!) I only got 4 pints with 3/4 of a large watermelon but four pints are better then none. :) We love pickles!




My zucchinis are doing marvelous.....of course. They are the only sure fire crop I never have to worry about. I just get some picked and the next day there is more of them! I had to laugh when a lady in our ward wrote a song about zucchini's sung to the tune "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree". Here it is...

Little Green Zucchinis
(Sung to Popcorn Popping)

I walked through the garden and what did I see?
Little green zucchinis growing faithfully.
Gardening has brought me such a nice surprise.
Didn't I just planted these?..Oh how time flies!
I could take an armful and make a treat
Zucchini bread or brownies made with dry pack wheat.
We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Little green zucchinis grow so easily.

I stepped through the corn and past the beans to see
Zucchini numbers rising exponentially.
Agronomy has brought me such a nice surprise.
But how am I to cook a thing of this great size?
I could take an armful and make a treat
An apple crisp or a jam oh so sweet.
We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Zucchinis grow so fast and so tenaciously.

I drove some to my neighbors but I could plainly see
They had little green zucchinis just like you and me.
I got back to my porch and found a nice surprise
Little green zucchinis just might be my demise!
I could take an armful and make a treat ?
Or give one to the bishop - he'd think that was neat!


We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Zucchini season grows on through eternity.




We took a walk on the nature path and found some Hawthorn trees so we picks some berries. While Aust watched ShyAnner. These berries arn't to dye for. They lack conciderable flavor and are quite bland. Their texture is a bit different from other berries but they are great for your heart, lowering blood pressure, arthritis and a whole bunch of other things. So we picked some to store. I actually got used to snacking on them while we were picking. But watch out! Their name is for the terrible 1 1/2 inch thorns that scar your hands when you pick them! Ouch!!

Last days of summer vacation and garden thoughts...

Signs of our summer vacation coming to a close have been found in our back yard. Aust has spent every day in the canal by the tree house playing his heart out with all his friends. It has been way to hot lately so he and the neighbors have found this to be their favorite spot. They swing on the rope and splash in the water nearly all day. You can tell by the look on his face he is serious... serious about having fun that is!I remember when I was his age, feeling the panic that summer vacation was almost over. You just go into desperation mode and try to fit all the 'FUN' in that you can!... it looks like they are trying to squeeze every last drop out of their summer vacation in typical boy fashion ;)

I love boys...they always find ways to enjoy themselves!

Terry and I have been focused on storing food even more this year then ever before. Especially from our garden. (I hope that is not a sign of extremely tough times ahead...although there very well could be...) We found a fun Farmer's Market that the city holds on Friday evenings. They had some wonderful things there! We were able to get 15 lbs of fresh honey from a local Bee farmer to add to our growing stash of sweeteners. We also got his location so we can get more. I have never tasted honey so fresh, it is soooo good!!
We also bought some lovely herbs to grow...

Dill, Oregano, Basil, Chives, Mint and Lavender from the students at BYUI. Most of them are perennials and will survive the winter so they will be back next year. (Hopefully. If, I don't kill them before they get established!) I had to put an old rusty metal mesh over them so that ShyAnner-Bananer wouldn't dig them up. She loves digging in the most unfortunate places.

I have had a better gardening year this year then last. Granted...I still have many weeds but the garden is producing much better. I decided to not do all the garden in the commercial weed fabric like last year. This meant more work at first but the root crops all seem to be doing much better than last year's so I do believe it is a better choice. I have larger carrots and my onions are fantastic as well as the beets. Terry planted heirloom Italian beets and they look like a big red onions (except they are more pink) when you cut into them. My, they are wonderfully sweet and they don't bleed like regular beets. But don't eat the ones that don't have their rings yet...they can be bitter.

I think flooding the rows this year as compared to last year's sprinkling irrigation might have helped. My neighbor boy mows lawns and had leftover grass clippings and I learned that if you put 8 to 10 inches the areas you don't want weeds that you can control them pretty good. I just put an 18" wide border around the three sides of the garden to prevent quack grass and weeds from creeping in. It sure takes a lot of grass though and unfortunately animals love to play in it. Well, at least ours do. I went out several times only to find spots strewn all over the rest of the lawn like a tornado hit. It did...a little one...named ShyAnn. She loves the piles of grass and tears through them like a little maniac. Lilly doesn't tear through it but will dig in it looking for bugs and grass hoppers.

I do like to line some of the areas of our garden with commercial weed fabric. The pumpkins, squash, zucchini and tomatoes all love it! (Watermelon does too but I didn't grow any this year). I think the black attracts the heat and they thrive. I have them on a drip system and it does a great job.I have learned some things that you should not do in a garden.

#1 Don't plant small skinny pickling cucumbers next to zucchini or giant pumpkin plants. They cross pollinate and you get this...

a pickling cucumber blown up to the size of baseballs! Yup...I ruined the pickling cucumbers really good...they cross pollinated and now my mini cucumbers are giant base balls and my giant pumpkins are mini! Well not quite mini but let's just say they are much smaller. So instead of cucumber pickles this year I guess I'm doing watermelon rind pickles and dilly beans this year.

#2 Never have your dog around when your planting blue berry bushes...Let me explain. We got four lovely blueberry bushes about 12 inches tall through Gurneys Nursery. When they came we were all excited (since blueberries are one of our favorite berries) and went out in the garden to plant them...including Shy-Ann. She was happy that we were digging holes but what fascinated her even more was when we filled the wholes with a plant. She found those plants irrisistable and a little while later we came out to find the leaves on one of the end plants almost completely gone! We were not sure but we had our sneeking suspicions just who might have done the dirty deed. Yup...moments later she came up to the next blue berry plant and stripped off the leaves with her teeth on one branch. I screamed and that was the end of that. We banned her from the blueberries and not a moment to soon. Now we have a fence that surrounds them so that Shy-Anner can not harass them!

Luckily she doesn't do this as much to our raspberry plants and they are growing pretty good. Whew!! (These were transplants from the year before so they are getting a new start in this part of the garden. I put Amonia Sulfate as my brother and brother-in-law said to do and they sure have done well.)

#3 OK, so our winter apples aren't part of our garden but I am learning that if you don't put out these little fertilizer spikes down into the ground around the base in the spring then the fruit only grows small. But oh they sure look yummy! I can't wait until the first frost so that I can pick 'em and can 'em.

Because of the wet and extremely cold weather we had in June our 18 tomatoes are very late to blush (turn red). They are growing good. (only because we put a plastic dome over them or they would have been goners when it hailed those several times in June!) I talked to one guy at the extension office and he said that if we don't have a couple of good weeks with steady 90 degree weather then I'll have to find a recipe for fried green tomatoes. Um...Yuck! So Terry is very worried. These are his babies. He loves...and I mean LOVES tomatoes!

Well, gardening is a funny thing for me. I usually run out of steam by now but I'm actually getting excited to can and store the produce. Terry is going to make a root cellar in our garage...we are not sure how it will work but we hope it does a good job of storing winter apples, potatoes onions, carrots, beets, winter squash and cabbage.

I am so grateful the garden has produced this year. We have all been working so hard and Heavenly Father has blessed us abundantly.

Fun at the park...Enjoying our time with Aust.

Almost time for school! Needless to say, Aust is pretty happy to see all his schoolmates again ...he is such a social bug! I have to say I'm pretty sad to see him go. This summer has been different from those in the past. We have had many heart to hearts and I have enjoyed it so much. Although I put on a happy face for him he knows I'm a bit sad. In his tender hearted way he lets me know he'll be right home after school and we can spend the rest of the day together. ;) I love that tender heart of his.

Just as much as he loves to be around other people, they want to be around him. This summer we have had to run around the house every morning trying to hurry up and get the chores done because by 11:00am Austin's friends are calling him to come play. Well last weekend we were despirate to have him all to ourselves so we wisked him away early Friday before any phone calls and went to a beautiful park in St. Anthony. We had a great time playing on the lava rocks...Austin found a tiny cave,

It had some beautiful waterfalls, trees and rocks...so we explored and took some pics.

Wow hon, your so handsome!

Oh, If I only had a video camera at the time! Off the screen to the right Dad is doing a crazy dance and some extrordinary singing. You can see by Aust's reaction that he is quite talented :)

You can't see them very well but there are some beautiful water falls behind me. Terry likes to zoom up so they are nearly cut out of the picture.

Austin wanted to take a picture too.

My two favorite people!

A beautiful day to go round and round...

Doing boy things.

There were alot of fun trees to climb and explore. Climbing seems to come very natural to the both of them.

We took a walk along a nature path and ran into this little guy along the way. In the picture he looks rather small but standing he comes to about 8 inches above my knee. You can't see his tail here because it is slid around back of him but he is an American beaver. He just stood very still when we happened upon him but finally he scurried off.

It was a great day with our little guy before he has to go back to school.