Happenings for the family

Let's see, the last post was in February so what has happened since then? With a lot of research, we found another Airedale breeder that wasn't TOO far away and contacted them about puppies and with luck on our side some were going to be born very soon.

There was a lot of snow, and Calder and Jeff were able to get a few more ski trips in before the spring. Jeff had his birthday in March, the big 31 and we had friends over to our house to have dessert like usual. Jeff still loves being a firefighter, but has added to his resume a substitute school bus driver and a substitute teacher. Phaelen has enjoyed his classroom time at preschool, loves to count and 'do homework', and is enjoying the last month because it's all field trips.

 Calder is loving first grade and is getting good grades in his academics and behavior. Oh, we got a very generous gift from my mom, Kris, a piano! It was delivered and tuned and I have been practicing and getting experience substituting as a primary pianist.

We just took a long family vacation to southern Utah and had a lot of fun. Jeff got to go backpacking for 5 days in the Canyonlands National Park with some of his friends from college, while the boys and I got to hang out and explore the Salt Lake City  and Alpine areas with my brother, Brian, and sister-in-law, April, as well as my mom. We met up with Jeff for 3 days and 'car' camped, hiked, biked and had fun in Moab, Utah. Oh, I also got a major haircut from April and I really like it, even though I haven't ever had a short haircut.
On the way home from our family trip, we were able to pick up our new Airedale puppy. She was 3 months old when we got her, so there's a lot of work to be done. We decided to name her Ember, and she has a different personality than Gachet was so we have to adjust to that as well. I do wish we had hard wood floors though...our carpets weren't nice to begin with but after two puppies and two outdoor loving boys it will be trashed by the time we replace it.

We also have been working hard at keeping our chickens alive, but we have lost 4 this last year. One died in the fall b/c it got sick. One was eaten my a bald eagle in our front yard. Two were killed recently by a dog/dogs, we think. But we have added to our flock already and although we will be down to 5 eggs per day, come fall we should be back to our 8/9 eggs per day and then in spring, we could be up to 16/17, if we don't lose any more. We are also adding a cow to our little farm in early June. It has been raining a lot this spring and we pray that it continues so that our summer isn't filled with wildfire smoke again.