December 2017 - not including the holidays

Decided to break December up into 2 posts even through Christmas will be a bit long.

Ward party, Sister Petru asked us to sing a Mary's Lullaby with her while her sister played on the harp.  Sister Petru was out of town the week before so Emily and I made Aaron sing the melody while we practiced, (he did a great job, but it was a little ironic having him sing "All mine in your loveliness baby all mine" :)) and then we practiced on our own with youtube videos.

When the time came, I couldn't find my notes and was too shaky to sing anyways.  Sigh.  Good thing the cultural hall was too loud for anyone to hear us!  Emily asked Aaron NOT to film so instead he took pictures.

The ward did the twelve days of Christmas to a needy family just up the street from us so I gave all the kids new socks (The ward counted backwards so the 9th day of Christmas = what we would consider the 4th).

Aaron was kind enough to deliver for me while Gage stood on the corner and watched.  Funny story, I accidentally drove post the house at first.  Rookie move!  Aaron thought it would be OK but then when he started to get out of the car he saw someone come out of the house and look at us. We panicked and we drove off.  Waited about 15-20 minutes at home before making another attempt.  Aaron wanted to just walk over but since Gage was coming I made him let me drive them the half a block up to the first corner.  The porch light turned on just as Aaron set the package on the doorstop so he careened off of the parked cars trying to get away fast.  I wish I had been there to film :).

Sarah came to stay with us before heading down to NM and was kind enough to entertain Joseph.  Look at those cute kids!

Alec was busy accompanying "singing by the choir" during our choir party.  He was kind enough to do it even though I asked him last minute.  I was going to ask Jared but JAG was skyping a Jenk's family FHE up in our guest suite.

People came and went... my posole still isn't quite up to snuff but... maybe 3rd year is the charm!

This year the Briganti's serenaded us with a fun song! It was so good, we might ask people to perform next year... if they are so inclined :)

I knitted some more wristlets for my coworker who brought me yarn from her grandmothers stash.  They were a little small but with the first ones I made her being too big, it evens out.  I'm pretty proud of my increasing fair isle design abilities.

Aaron and Sarah left for NM the Tues before Christmas and Emily and I left Saturday.  I thought it would be less stressful to wait until Saturday rather than trying to leave Friday afternoon.  It certainly was less stressful for us!  The poor family who got to NM  Friday night had to work all day Saturday preparing for Christmas while we were out gallivanting.

Next post - showing off all their hard work!

Note to self: that Mcdonald breakfast burrito may look good, but there is a reason Emily bought it for the dogs... and why its only 1$.  Stick with the sausage mcmuffin and greasy hashbrowns!

November Post (light parade)

More harvesting!  We've been having carrots almost every Sunday... and they are so pretty!

Brought in the squash.  This one was particularly huge.

Canning always continues (apples and cream of celery).

We were very sad to hear the owners of the orchard we get seconds from (apples, pears, and peaches) have retired.  Its really close (downtown American Fork), so we imagine they sold all the land for development.  So sad... We will have to find another orchard next year that is reasonably close... but it might be difficult with all the building going on around us. Change is hard! Especially when connected to the pocketbook.

Decided to buy a queen bed for the suite.  Been meaning to do so but just never got around to it.

Aaron was nice enough to arrange the actual purchase and then yet another trip to pick it up.  Thanks Aaron!

Second year of purple potatoes from the garden... they start off innocently enough with the expected dark skins...

But then, it looks like the next generation didn't breed true.  Purple spots!

But they looked cool when cut open!  There might have been some jokes about seeing crosses and hanging it up on the wall.  It will be interesting to see what the 3rd generation looks like.

Then thanksgiving came around so Emily and I made a list of everything that needed to happen.  A few people signed up...

We had a good group... but I didn't really take many pictures. Too busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  Emily started her pit turkey and asked the boys to keep it going so she could get enough coals.

Kinda funny, they apparently are not as into feeding fires as Emily is so it took a little longer than she planned :).

Here she is wrapping the turkey.

We did one in the roaster and this time we (Tom) watched the temperature so it didn't overbake... much :).

So... no pictures of the final product but lots of marco polos :). We had all the Parkinsons (Alec, Jalyn, and Joseph; Megan, Adam and Lincoln; Carly and James; and Jenny, Tom, Sarah, and Jacob) and Jared, Amy, and Gage.  Carly had to leave early to go to work but that was good because then we could use her fork.  We were 2 short!

It turned out pretty good but we hope to do better on the timing next year.  This is what I learned remembered this year.
Pies the night before are a must.  Too bad if you are tired... do them then!
Stuffing shouldn't be left in the oven for 3 hours... it burns.
Yams and apples and green bean casserole however is just fine.
Make as much gravy as you think you will need... Then make more.
Similar for mashed potatoes... especially if you plan on making soup.
Remember, leftovers are perfectly acceptable for pretty much the whole weekend... don't need to make soup until Sunday night!
Sarah sometimes brings pestilence to your house.

Friday I bought a new big tractor battery so we could...

Run the lights for the tractor parade!

We decided after the last tractor parade we had to really up our game and decided on a New Mexico Christmas.

Emily came up with the bales of hay for Mary and Joseph and a sheepy (so cute!).  I bought the chili lights by wandering around a couple of craft stores until I finally asked a store employee.

Emily also brought me an old table cloth and asked me to sew a star... So I did!

Later I decided I should have cut it out of cardboard and covered it in tinfoil... then it wouldn't have looked like a lumpy starfish :)

We had lots of helpers and Jared was excited to drive the tractor.

And I was excited to ride with him!  We couldn't go very fast because the steering in the front is too wobbly..

Here we are.. chugging along! I was supposed to make sure nothing fell off.


And here it is all lit up! Jared was worried about the battery running out so didn't run it much until the actual parade.

Tom found a bunch of Mariachi Christmas Music which played it while along the parade route.


Funny story, Jared jumped the tractor with his truck battery and then took the batter with us to jump it again.  Unfortunately, the battery only had one good jump in it so Emily had to quick bring her car over while the parade went around us.  I hopped on the back again and we raced to catch up... never did but lost a couple of chili's to the branches scraping the trailer :)

And here is our prize! (Pictures taken after we got home.. we didn't stay long because the pestilence was still ravaging through the household) I was the only one who would go up to the stage when our name was called as 2nd place...

Pretty sure last year it was cash :( Ah well.  Emily already has visions of grandeur for next year.

I don't think the judges saw the wonderful New Mexico flag Tom had made for us out of a scrap of material... because they called us the Jesus float. Tom wanted to ask them if they thought giving Jesus 2nd place was a good idea!

Sigh.. At least we have pretty chili lights now!

And a really ugly marshmallow man star :)

October post

October started off with more bringing in the harvest...

Emily found a cheap you-pick place for grapes so I helped her get 9 or 10 boxes of grapes.

They were mostly Concords...

Emily was really good at filling buckets because she moved around picking the big bunches.

I stayed in one place and picked it clean.  So she got about 70% of the total grapes gathered... but I think I helped the grape place clean out their grapes in a few spots.

So I forgot to mention in the September post early in that month we woke up to this... dead and dying bees from a pesticide kill off.

A very sad morning.

We waited a couple weeks to see if the hive could recover but it was so late in the season we didn't have much hope.

In oct Aaron opened up the bees to check on them since we might as well get the honey rather than the robber bees we were afraid had been at work (see the reducer on the landing board in the picture below ).

Gage "helped" (by watching!)

He cleaned out the hive, we took some honey (quite a few quarts actually) and Aaron said he was surprised at how many bees were there.  So, we will continue to feed them and hope they make it... there are still some alive so we assume the queen made it (they may have made another) but not sure there are enough of them to keep the hive alive through the winter.  Bees need to keep the hive quite warm to grow baby bees. We've got a heater on them now but... we shall see.

Mom and Dad stayed for a while with us and we put them to work... Dad worked downstairs and Mom canned all our grapes! So many quarts... and a couple half gallons.

 And then she cut peppers for the freezer.. Hardworking Mom.

We didn't get as many peppers as in times past because I hadn't been out there picking them.  Kinda a fail in that department this year.

We got a free gate off of KSL to put in the back.

Funny story, when going to pick it up, Google tried to send us down the canal road behind the house we were trying to get too.  The road was blocked off of course!  It was a little weird. I was blindly following the directions and should have noticed we were going the wrong way (Emily was driving since I don't do standard).

One Sunday Carly used our glue gun to make a pretty wreath.. which she forgot so I sent a picture to her.

And Alec forgot his backpack.  I guess our nieces and nephews feel right at home!

Emily and I chippered up the corn stalks to store as feed for the goats.

It was very loud.

Emily rigged up the board so the chippered up stalks wouldn't blow away.

Unfortunately, we laid the corn out to dry in the garage but apparently didn't turn it enough so it still molded.  Sigh.  Still learning.

The sunday before Halloween I made my nieces and nephews make halloween gingerbread houses which I had seen on Mel's kitchen cafe blog.

Aaron took pictures when asked.

Forgot to get pictures of the participants..

But the houses sure were cute!

I had made the frosting a little too runny but... live and learn, right?  And I do like the burnt sugar for putting the houses together. Quick and strong.  It was a little dangerous working with that hot sticky stuff (might have gotten some blisters to prove it) but was way better than trying to stick the houses together with my runny frosting :).

OK, October done!

September Post

September, we start bringing in all the harvest.

Late in the summer, I started spending time in the bean patch (part of the corn, squash rotation) trying to get ahead of the weeds. This patch is out in the field so I didn't think about how quickly the weeds would take over... In other words, this wanna be farmer is still learning :)

Anyways, I came home one evening and saw the goats in there. I Marco Poloed all my sisters to show the bare stalks and trampled destruction, and then took pictures of how they got in.

Pretty sure it was Spots babies who enlarged a small hole then exploited by the adults.

I read somewhere that Farmers are not "experts in their fields" because they only get to try new things once a year. So in a farmers career, his experience consists of 50 tries. Compare that to an expert who has practiced his craft 100s of times in just one year.

So we should figure this out in about 50 years.

September also includes the annual trek to Heber to watch the sheepdog trials. I guess I decided a selfie with Emily was called for...

This year Joseph joined us...

And those are the only pictures I took there... It is always way fun. We got to see a lot of classic runs as well as the ones where the dog doesn't listen. Jared came for the morning with Gage and is cousins... They liked the easy access to fair food.

Labor day Emily and I canned peaches and pears. See Marco Polo :) I think we did 4 boxes.

Here's a trapped skunk picture... See previous post for the full explanation.

Jenny came to visit us for a couple weeks in between taking Sarah up to Idaho for school and waiting for Megan to pop Lincoln out :)

So Aaron used her piano playing skills to accompany his alto recorder.

She was a great help to everyone while she was here. Babysitting grandkids, calming expectant mothers, canning, cleaning garages, accompanying, vacuuming, and cleaning kitchens. Perhaps most especially helpful to us :)

Another skunk... Aaron covering it before putting it in the back of the truck and relocate it.

Woman's conference! Nice to live in Utah where we can watch it at home.

Aaron had gone to get the takeout Emily had ordered so we wouldn't miss anything. I had wanted to go to the stake center to watch because instead of watching I knew I would find other things to occupy myself at home. And they were serving pie :) But we just ran out of time.

Because this is what we had been doing all weekend... Canning! Applesauce, tomato sauce, and beans.

Funny story, tried to go buy pie/ice cream afterwards at Weatherbys but forgot we were in Utah. Everyone else had the same idea! We ended up at Kneaders for a shake.

Nathan and family came to visit Jared for conference. It was so fun to have everyone there!

Emily and Jenny canning corn during the session..

So happy to be here and to be a good helper! :)

We do always have a good spread.  Emily says the Word should be sweet!

Jenny found a bunch of different types of M and M's to share... I think we still have the nasty ones in our pantry :)

Sunday Emily and Gage came with me to take the dogs out and Gage showed off his jumping skills.

Its funny how they keep digging the place up, place pipe/cable, bury it, and then go do it again right next to it.  It won't be very funny when they have big ol' apartment building us there. Sigh.

I really do need to take more pictures.  I just get too busy having fun!