Push It Back... Here We Go!

     Ok, I have been horrible about keeping up with this blog.  I can come up with a list of excuses but I won't.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I will do a better job going into 2013.  Until then here is a quick recap of the last several months....

Caleb put up a new fence up front.  That day happened to be hot so the boys did a lemonade stand.  Believe it or not they made about $35!  All from people driving down Carmel Valley Rd.

Our first vacation of the summer in Yosemite.  

A highlight of summer vacation is the Rodeo in July.  Love this picture of Colton and Kai.

Our second vacation of the summer was in Pine Crest.  

This summer the boys turned 7.  Both have become incredible swimmers and excellent divers.  

The day before Thanksgiving we added a new member to our family.  Our new puppy is Finn.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Side Job

Caleb's job has him working out of town so he will be gone over the next few nights.  The boys decided to take up the slack around the house and work on a new "side job".

As always Tess keeping watch.

The job sight.  They are building a dog house .

The sign Colton made.  "Do not walk here because there is work."  For the record he wrote this by himself.  No help with the word "because".

What is a job sight with out the signs to direct traffic....

Mixing concrete for a rock wall.
These two are just like their dad.  Always finding a job to do somewhere around the property.

Easter

Last weekend we had a busy 2 days out here.  

Saturday we colored our Easter eggs.  We used the eggs from our chickens.  The eggs we get are either brown, light blue or these tiny light brown ones from the banties.

The boys had fun experimenting with the different color eggs in the dyes.

This is how we do our Easter eggs out here at Piney Creek Ranch.

The famous hunting boots.

The end result.  The tiny eggs were my favorite.  They almost don't look real.

Easter day we spent the afternoon over at my parents house.  My mom and dad decided to do a treasure hunt for the boys.  They were given a map with a clue which lead them to the next map.

My nephew Garhett stopping to take a look at the map.  He is the smart one out of the group and wanted to make sure they were staying on course.

Have to say that the team work between these three digging up the treasure box was quite impressive.  Inside the treasure box were all of their Easter baskets as well as Kai's.
This was a day that I'm sure all 3 boys will look back years from now and say "remember when Grandpa and Grandma had the Easter treasure hunt?"

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

Day 2 of Garden Continued

My hard working boy.  You can see the layer of dirt building up on his face.

My other hard working boy.  Not only was there a thick layer of dirt over both boys, my floors were down right gross.  I tried in vain all day to keep the floors swept but finally gave up and decided that I'd mop the floors after everyone was in for the night and showered.  Of course that never happened because at about 8:00 the main water line to the house broke.  Putting the boys to bed with only a wipe down with a wash cloth after a day like that was about the hardest thing I've ever done.
Caleb was able to fix it by 9:30 and believe me I was SO tempted to pull them out of bed and into the shower.

Even Tess had a long day following everyone around.

Son like father.  

Both checking to see where more gravel needed to be added.  

Last load of the day.

Here it is at the end of the day.  There is still quite a bit to do but it's starting to look more and more like a garden.

Garden: Day Two

Saturday started bright and early.  Caleb hired two laborers for the day.  With all three working just about non stop and a little help from the twins, they were able to get most of the garden beds in and the paths in between compacted.

The ground out here is horrible.  It is full with what we call "Greenfield potatoes".  You can't dig without picking up rocks.  Ton's of rocks of all different sizes.

I took hundreds of pictures over the past two days.  As I was going through them two really caught my eye.  As you all know, the twins look nothing a like, in fact most things about them are completely opposite.  Recently, if my back is turned and they are talking I can't tell who is who but other than that there are really no other physical similarities.  That is until I saw these pictures....
Here is Layton chilling out on the backhoe.

Here is Colton taking a break on the dirt pile.
See it?  They both make the same face when they are sitting back watching something.  I noticed it again the other night when we were all watching Frozen Planet on the Discovery Channel.

 Layton hard at work digging up "Greenfield potatoes".

Slowly coming together.

Listening to his dad telling him where to dig next.

Up to this point they were all about half way through the day.  I'll post pictures of the rest of the day hopefully tomorrow.

Breaking Ground: Day 1...

We have dreamed and talked about starting a garden since we moved out here which will be 8 years this May.  Last year we got as far as marking out a spot and digging up the ground but like always stuff happened and it got put on hold.

This time around our inspiration was our recent purchase of a vitamix.  We have been making smoothies and soups with it several times a week.  We absolutely love trying out different drinks especially if they have broccoli or spinach in them because tasting it you would never know.  

Between Caleb working towards a big climb in Yosemite this June and myself training for another half marathon we have been trying to incorporate more fresh foods versus processed foods into our daily meals.  So the more we talked about our goals we thought, wouldn't it be great to have a garden with fresh produce?  

Friday night was the beginning of our garden.  It was also the beginning of a lot of work which hopefully we will reap the benefits from over many years to come...

The before picture.

Breaking ground!

 

Colton always makes me smile when he watches his dad work.  You can see his little mind taking everything in.

On the way home the other day he told me that the older girls at school really like him.  I asked him how come he thought that.  He said "I know they do because they stop and smile at me and sometimes they say hi".  Layton started to give him advice.  "You should talk to them.  Start by asking them what their names are and then just start talking to them.  Maybe ask them what grade they are in".
My 6 year old twins having that conversation in the backseat of the car just about gave me an anxiety attack.

I remember a long time ago stopping and smiling and sometimes saying hello to this boy at school.

This is another face that makes me smile.

Friday evening Caleb dug the footings for the garden.

Wait till you see what it looks like by Saturday evening....

Day in the snow

Last Sunday we got a lot of snow down low so we decided to take the boys on a quick trip to play in the snow.  We met up with my brother in law Tim, my niece and nephew on Cachagua  road which is about 25 minutes from the house.  We probably drove another 20 minutes up and found a great spot for the kids to play.

All my boys

Colton



Layton

They had so much fun playing in the snow.

After awhile there it started to snow.

It started to snow harder and harder.  Crazy that only a 45 minute drive and we were in the snow.

This is at the peak of Carmel Valley road last week.  It was pretty while it lasted.