Spring Dreaming

This 2014 has been absolutely GORGEOUS! Everyday has been super warm (for January, and for me) and super sunny. We get SO much sun here, I love it! There's hardly ever clouds in the sky.  With these gorgeous and summery days, it just makes me want spring. Right now. Unfortunately, it will likely snow or get cold more yet.
I realized just last week that I can almost be ordering chicks! I don't know where I first got the idea in my head that I want chickens, but it hasn't left. I have been pinning away chicken coops, ideas, etc on Pinterest for who knows how long. I've been talking to Jed about a chicken coop long enough that he knows it's not just a spur of the moment idea.
If you look on Pinterest, you will see some absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, and over the top coops. Because we know we aren't going to live here forever, we aren't going to make it super fancy. I am settling for a basic 8x12 coop with about 4ft of it being for a 'storage' area, and access to the eggs, without going Directly into the coop. I really like the idea of having a door into a storage area where you can keep the feed, cartons etc, and in this case, it'll be my little garden shed as well. Plus, that way you don't have to take dirty shoes right into the coop. Brilliant. Jed says chickens are gross and dirty regardless. Pfft.
My parent's are coming in a week and a half, and i'm hoping that I can annoy motivate Jed enough to have the building materials by then so my dad can help make this coop! I can't believe how excited I am to get little chicks and then FRESH EGGS! I'm going to get the chicks that lay the blue/green/pink eggs, of course.

I'm currently dreaming about my garden for this year. Ordering seeds, and just hoping things grow good this year! I hope to grow lots and lots of 'juiceable' vegetables; kale, spinach, beets, carrots etc. I told Jed he will be getting a fresh juice every morning if things work as planned! Jed has a list of 7 peppers he would like me to grow. I don't eat peppers, so if we end up with too many, i'll just let them dry out and grind into powder!
Now to hurry up and get through these next few months, and hope that no more snow comes!

2013 Recap

2013 went by in a flash. Like it does to every person, each year.   I can hardly remember that I was back home at this time, attempting to plan a wedding with no date yet!
The one thing I've learned this year is that there are some things in life that we have absolutely no control over, no matter how hard we try.
Recap (and a TON of pictures, sorry!)
January: Jed came up and surprised me for Christmas! We spent the holidays relaxed, playing games and avoiding the cold. I went back to Edmonton with him, K+D and spent a day there before he flew out. That was the hardest thing because I didn't know when we would see each other again! So glad there's no more of those!

Built a tunnel on the deck with the snow that dad shoveled off the roof!

Sunday Best

And now she has a boyfriend!

February:

Our dearest friend Dale passed away so a bunch of friends from FSJ bused to Terrace BC! Was a quick trip.
The winter had warmed up a bit so looking back I realize that I spent a bit of time outside playing with Deja. And of course, when you're re-living back at home, after having to buy your own groceries, you now realize just how nice it is to be able bake/cook with your mom's ingredients! I spent lots of time baking, cooking and trying out new recipes! I also had been working since Nov at the post office, mainly during the Christmas craziness, so by Feb. my work was ended and I was temporarily unemployed! I helped my parents renovate their rental house to help pass time. February was also the month when we first heard something from the USCIS (US immigration) for the first time in 6 months!!

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In Terrace 

March: 
I worked full time for the month of March back again at Booster Juice. LOVE that job! My visa FINALLY got approved as well! We waited 220 days for the approval! My paperwork had to go from USA to Canada, and then I had to send MORE forms. But nonetheless, we had been waiting 7 months for this approval. While I was back home puttering around, keeping busy, Jed was helping calve and between that he was building our little 400sqft house!

That much snow! (Taken out the kitchen window, where the deck is hidden!)

Jed's hard work!

April: 
April was an extremely busy month! I drove down to Vancouver for my medical+interview. I met Jed there and then from there we drove back to Montana! We had a month, more or less, before our wedding. We finally had the date finalized (May 6th) so that meant crackdown time! Calving was just coming to an end down at the ranch so I did manage to witness one birth!  We made the concrete counter top just before we left for our wedding. It would have to sit and harden for a long time. We had got some old glass bottles and shattered them in hopes that we could have glass pieces in our counter top. It didn't quite workout the way we planned, but we know for next time! We spent as much time as we could finishing our house so when we came back from the honeymoon it would be completely liveable! 

Moments old

Making the concrete countertop

glass

The little calf

The calf-saver

May: 
The wedding! May 6 in Moscow ID. We drove to Moscow the Friday before the wedding and picked up Christie, met my family and did as much as we could! We rented a b&b for Sunday+the night. A lot of our guests stayed there and that's where we prepared all the food! We had a tremendous amount of help. I'm still not over it.  It was a busy, but unforgettable weekend. Aside from the wedding+our honeymoon to Hawaii, we just got made ourselves a little life. I didn't have a kitchen sink for about a week, nor a countertop. That made life difficult and challenging.

B+B we stayed at

Making a real fruit cake out of fruit

Mr+Mrs Smith

Our wedding

Kauai, Hawaii 

Our living room (which has since been rearranged with a couch now in it)

closet/pantry/storage room/mudroom

bathroom 

June: 

I planted my first ever garden in June! (This year i'm planting WAY earlier) Not a whole lot went on in June. My mom came down and visited us for a few short days, so that was very special! I just kept busy in the garden. June is also the month that I discovered my fear of snakes. Not a bad fear in the fact that I'll run away if I see one, but just enough fear to keep me super cautious and no more flip flop wearing in the long grasses! I saw 11 total snakes this year. Jed saw 2. Something is wrong with that picture! We have a lot more summer storms down here than we do back home. Big thunderstorms, and the odd hail storm! However, it seems that for as many thunderstorms we got, it rarely rained, and if it did, it soaked into the dry ground immediately!

Cody WY

Corn! 

Out our upstairs window

Putting my mom to work hoeing my garden!

A bull snake. A "good" snake

At the river 

July:

 We pretty much have no life.  However, my sweet niece Sophia was born! July 9th, and she is as cute as ever! I kept busy keeping the weeds out of my garden. We took a day trip to Rapid City SD (I had to get some fingerprinting done there for immigration) and spent the afternoon at Reptile Gardens! And yes, I still hate snakes!

Little corn tunnel 

for the love of sunsets (and sunrises)

Favourite time of day

Jed finally painted again

Outcome

August:

We got a nice hailstorm with about 1-2" size hails. It shredded up my garden. I thought my garden was doomed, but miraculously enough, most things came back! Just a bit slower. The corn never did develop good. I still got a mountain of zucchini, pumpkins, the odd tomato, and a few potatoes. I think the soil was too rich but it's hard to know if it was the hail, soil or deer that made my garden not the greatest. My inlaws got two pups, so I spent/spend a lot of time with them! 

Saw these zebras when we were heading to a nephews birthday!

Our couch! 81 year old body, 8 month old facelift (to date!)

Big hails!

Wreckage 

I think the hail made this deformity!

First corn picking! 

 

                                     

Pups the inlaws got!

Progress

September: 
September wasn't much. Just eating as many zucchini's as we possibly could! I started sneaking them into food (muffins, cookies, meatloaf etc) but then Jed caught on so that ended quickly! I pulled the most of my garden out mid-end September. The pumpkins were the only things really worth going to check on was the pumpkins! I had far far too many zucchini's (like everyone else) so Jed and I used them as target practice!

Gorgeous fall day

       

So many, so heavy!

Before&After

Home made salsa, chicken tortilla soup and tortilla chips!

                      

October: 
We harvested some pumpkins! I made so much pumpkin stuff, froze some puree and then just chucked the pumpkins later on. Not a whole lot happened/happens in our life.  We went out to the middle of nowhere (worse than where we live!) and brought some cows in. It was this month however, that I decided it was time to bring out the flannel shirts and alpaca blankets! Jed also went and painted a painting one evening.

November: 

Looking back at pictures, I realized that it was this month that I made TONS of soup, made granola, yogurt, canned some tomatoes (not from my garden :( )  and just enjoyed the extremely warm fall, at least to my standards!

December:

 The inlaws were gone for a week, so that left Jed and I in charge of feeding all the cattle. During that week, it got COLD! We would spend the greater part of the morning feeding cattle.  He didn't work then (as it was so cold) and then never really worked steady since. Off and on. Jed's sister+family came down for the holidays, and we spent Christmas afternoon splitting firewood. And then Keadran, Denise+Sophia came down to visit us! It was my first time meeting Sophia. She is such an absolute sweet heart! 

Eggs Benedict!