Another BIG change!

Kurt had a surprise for me when I arrived home from Denver. He had removed the ceiling above our kitchen. What a change to have a 12 foot high ceiling instead of the barely 6.5 foot ceiling...
Here is the kitchen with the old ceiling still in place and before our remodeling efforts of this spring....

Here is the kitchen before the new floor but with the new window (on the left) in place.....

Here is the kitchen today.... new floor (which Kurt did in May) and the raised ceiling and new beam overhead.

Taking out the lowered ceiling exposed the original ceiling boards-- and some of the old blue wall paper.

I really like the look of the boards in the ceiling- but there is no insulation above them so they will have to be covered when we put up insulation.

OUR TURN to visit the Grandkids

It has always been our plan to wait several weeks after Lilly was born to make our first trip to Denver. Then she was born a week earlier than we thought and waiting those 4 weeks to meet her was so hard. But finally our time came....and of course we are ecstatic!
Here is my first look at Lilly.....

Here is Kurt making a big lap for Lilly and Mark.

Later it was my time to share my lap- what a beautiful handful!

A big part of our onsite job is to keep Mark entertained so mom and dad can spend time with Lilly and/or get some rest. Mark and I spent an hour one sunny afternoon burying him in his sandbox. (It was fun for both of us--and not too messy since I was right there to brush him off. I imagine his folks won't be so happy about this game the next time Mark tries to recreate it himself!)

Kurt went hiking with Mark and Tim and they found some great climbing rocks....(also notice Mark and grandpa in their matching "grandpa shirts")

All too soon it was time for Kurt to say goodbye to Lilly as he went back to KF before Joanie. Here he is giving her his last big cuddle. Lilly LOVED sleeping on Grandpa's chest. They both are missing each other already!

firewood cutting

Today was a first for Joanie- I cut down a tree with a chain saw! Woo-Woo! It was a good day- I only cut what I was supposed to (like wood only- no flesh!) ... and now my wood is in the wood shed-- along side the tree that Kurt cut today.
Here is a picture of our wood shed, my baby chain saw and my little logs......

Garden update

It is SO much fun having a garden again after 10 years! We are amazed everyday at how well and how MUCH everything has grown from those tiny seeds planted in May and June.
LOOK at this sun flower- it is 10 feet tall!

Here is the middle of the gardern- zucchini in the foreground, flowers in the middle and the pumpkin patch off in the back.

Here is what the tomato patch looked like this morning before I hacked back the growing tips and harvested everything that was red..

These are our pole beans. We put strings up to a wire and the plants have grown up and created a wall of green that is 6 feet high. The beans are just coming on...

This is what remains of our corn patch. We have been cutting down the stalks as we harvest a row. Right now we are in the middle of the patch where all the stalks were knocked down a month ago. This looks pretty bad- but we actually managed to salvage most of the crop and have been eating corn on the cob 3 to 4 nights a week for 3 weeks. Tonight we harvested the bulk of the remaining ears and froze the kernals for winter.

And here is why we can't be too unhappy about the corn-- because the rest of the garden is so beautiful. This is our gate- with morning glory in bloom and climbing across the top of the gate. (Did you know that morning glory only opens its blooms in the morning?)

We have another patch of morning glory on the side of the fence facing the house...

And, of course, the harvest of wonderful vegetables and flowers is the other reason we love having a garden. These were all picked this morning- Cucumbers, tomatoes, a watermelon and a cantalope and several bunches of flowers. (Later in the day I picked a bag of zucchini and dozen peppers of 4 different varieties that went right into salsa. )

Do bears sh-t in the woods?

This morning when Kurt went outside- he noticed that some time during the night or early morning a bear had done his business-- IN OUR FRONT YARD!

Guess I won't be going outside much after dark!!

We have been canning

Not to be outdone by our Denver daughters :) Here is our recent canning output:

6 jars of dill pickles on the top shelf. 3 pints of tomatillo salsa on the bottom left. 7 qts. of peaches, 2 pints of sweet pickle relish and 6 pints of mandarin sweet and sour sauce on the right. So fun!!
Update 9/4/09- We canned 6 more quarts of Peaches on Wednesday night. Then made 13 pints of Peach Chutney with the left over peaches on Thursday night. Then 7 pts of tomato salsa on Friday afternoon! Hope to do a small batch of spicy green beans this weekend (you know- perfect swizzle sticks for Bloody Marys!)

Reunion, birthday, anniversary Celebration

Much of the Matter Nation gathered on Aug first - a combination reunion and celebration of Maureen's 65th birthday as well as Susan's 50th and Jim and Susans 25th wedding anniversary.
Maureen seemed to be having a good time...

The "entertainment" for the day was watching Anthony, Matthew and Evan cavort around the yard. The wading pool was a great hit.....

As for the adults, we sat around and chatted....Jim, Tim and Bob

Jerry and Molly

Aunt Dolly and Margaret..

Kurt...

Susan, Jim and Grady....

Elizabeth and Kateri spent much time getting ready for the party and helping out....

Garden Tragedy!

Our garden has been spectacular this year. Everything has been growing like crazy- here is our corn patch in the middle of July- the corn stalks are half way up the water stand pipe- which you can see to the middle left in this picture.


Fast forward to August- We have been eating peas, beans, kale, salad greens, strawberries, raspberries, herbs and we have zucchini coming out our ears!
Here is our garden gate.....

Here is our over zealous squash and pumpkin area...

and here is just one tomatillo plant- it has hundreds of blossoms and stands about 5 feet tall....

Pole beans, calendula, basil and salad greens in this shot....
and here is the corn patch. The late variety of corn reached over 8 feet tall by this weekend- you can just see our white water stand pipe to the middle left in this picture- it is 6 feet tall and the corn towers over it....

here is another more close up of the corn

But this weekend tragedy struck.....half our corn patch was knocked over......

we think the stalks were actually pushed over by our irrigation spigot.... most of the stalks are broken and likely won't set ears. VERY SAD for us as corn is our favorite fresh-out-of-the-garden treat. :(

Parting shots from Chile

Here are a series of pictures from our travels in Chile.
The Spectacular view from the apartment...

A beautiful tree speciman in a Santiago city park...

A major pedestrian street near the center of Santiago-teeming with humanity it seemed to us...

A quaint side street in an older part of the city

Many buildings have massive wooden doors - this is just one example

We spent a weekend in the Elqui Valley-a prime vegetable and grape growing area about 500 km north of Santiago. We stayed in the town of Pisco Elqui at a hotel on a one lane road. We were amazed to see this truck negotiate the lane outside our hotel....

Leaving the valley we took a 60km dirt road over the Andes-quite a scenic trip...

Some folks live along this desolate road- and use solar energy...

A blooming cactus along the road...

Something you see A LOT of....stray dogs....they are everywhere and will walk along side you for several blocks to see if you have any treats for them....

A shot of the fertile Elqui Valley (it is winter here)

more cactus

A poinsettia tree!!!

The sun setting on the Andes above Elqui Valley