Last Day of 2016

Well, here is the last day of 2016.

Jason and I are happy we accomplished most of our goals here around the house.
We got most of the windows changed out, put in a garden,took down a tree, planted another in its place.  We didnt have to spend as much on the sprinkler system this year.

Our goal for this next year is to take down several trees along the fence line in the back and plant fruit trees, expand out the garden, make an additional garden area along the north side of the house, and replace the rest of the windows (there are 6). We also need to gut the bathroom in the basement.

I am looking forward to my other son getting his license, then he can drive himself around.
The other boys are already planning on playing football, so as soon as things defrost here (it was 17 degrees when i awoke, there is still freezing fog outside. Visibility stinks). We are suppose to get hit with more snow tomorrow thru Monday. It will be interesting to see what accrues.

trip to Ogden

Christmas Eve my oldest son was under the weather. We took a trip to downtown Ogden. It was cloud, drizzly and chilly. The streets were practically empty.

The building to the left is the Ben Lemmond Hotel. It is a historic site. The Wasatch mountains are behind the buildings.
We walked down historic 25th street towards Union Station.

This steam engine was huge! The wheels were taller than us. Union Station has a covered area for these trains to sit under, which is great considering the amount of snow we can get.
The boys spent quite a while looking at the mechanisims of the trains.

There was a small Christmas village set up, I didnt get pictures of that because my camera died. When we were done walking around, we went to Farr's ice cream It is by the Ogden LDS temple They have the best ice cream I have ever had. There was one other family in there besides us. They dont have a big eating area, so between our family and the other one it was full. By the time we left, it began to rain, and the clouds hid the mountains. We are hoping to go back this week so we can see the Christmas village at night.

Bored

Here I am at work, bored. I have all my paperwork done. There are only a handful of students here on campus. I guess it bothers me because I think of stuff I could be getting done at home. On a positive note, at least I will have a few more boxes to put stuff in to get rid of. I think I would like to move in 2 years. I want a smaller house. I am thinking a rambler. No stairs sounds good to me. There are positives and negative to both,

Purging

From time to time, I get tired of looking at crap that accumulates.

Yesterday morning, I emptied out my kitchen drawers. I reduced the amount of stuff by half. I also went through my cups, got rid of some of those too.

I went they my closet, Jason went through his. We have two black garbage bags of clothes to donate. My kids went thru their hackers, gloves and hats. I took a decent sized box to the DCFS office. They will be given to foster kids. I have a storage space under my stairs. I found a tote with tons of school supplies. The excess also went to DCFS. They were very appreciative. I work tomorrow, and am then off the next 3 days. My goal is to finish going through the items under that storage area.we are suppose to get hit with snow ( anywhere from 7-15 inches), I figure  this is a good time for this project. I just as if we have too much stuff. It felt good to get rid of what I did. I think that with some items, I will try to sell. If I can make some money off of it, that's better than nothing. 

Flooring

When we moved in here, the house had laminate flooring in the kitchen/dining room, carpet upstairs and downstairs, ceramic (smooth) tiles in the master bath, and the original linoleum in the bathroom upstairs and not the laundry room. We began changing out the flooring the first spring we were here. We purchased laminate. We installed it in our last house. It held up well, considering how hard the boys were on the floor

A year and a half later, I am not happy with how this flooring has lasted. I have been looking into other, affordable choices. I have boys, do foster care, and have 3 large dogs. My flooring gets a ton of use. I was surfing the web, looking for ideas. I found sneak diy plywood planks. I started looking and researching. I think that cost wise, it will be more practical than buying and installing hardwood flooring.  My husband would need a new table saw. It's the perfect excuse to buy one,right? I have no problems with staining and sealing. I like that I can have the floors as light or dark as I wish. We are planning on making the stairs hardwood. I feel the plywood planks will give it a better flow. I will be tearing out all the trim when we redo the floors. I have some ideas. I have lots of time to play. 

Happy Halloween

     It's been super busy here.

3 of the boys did football. They had an amazing time.

Ryan and Marc team both made it to the first round of play offs, Lolos team made it to the second round. 

     Marc and Lolo officially part of our family. The adoption was finalized the beginning of this month. 

Yes, Marc broke his arm. At football practice. The great thing, the doctor said he could play with his cast. Jason found some foam, he cut to cover the cast.  I was glad he was able to finish out the rest of the season.

The boys have been working on their scout ranks and advancements. They all enjoy doing outdoor activities. Yesterday they got most of the leaves raked up ( an acre lot=lots of leaves). They did an amazing job. The wind of course, picked up this afternoon, now you can't really tell.

The picture below was taken Wednesday

The picture below was taken today

Last year the trees didn't turn all the colors they have this year. My neighbors apple trees have been very productive. He gave us lots of apples. I made 13 quarts of applesauce and canned it. I have another box on my dining room table. I am hoping to make apple pie filling. The walnut tree that is on the property line has been quite bountiful as well. I purchased 150 pounds of potatoes. I canned most of one 50 pound bag. I got 36 quarts of potatoes canned. One of my friends asked if canning potatoes was a Midwest thing. I replied it was to keep mice from eating my food. We haven't had any mice yet, several of my neighbors have. I am hoping they don't venture in. They are tearing up fields to the east and north of me. We have had several skunks and raccoons. One morning a raccoon was in my backyard, the dogs almost caught it. One of my other neighbors lost several hens to one. I have been locking mine up since the middle of September. 

My son worked for the same farmer this year. I scored lots of free tomatoes. I was able to make 13 quarts of tomato sauce. I used an attachment for my kitchenaid mixer to separate the skin and seeds. That made the process so much quicker! I will probably not can whole tomatoes in the quantities I used.

We have replaced almost all the windows. We scored on their purchase. They were on close out. We saved several hundred dollars. It has made a significant difference already. We have had a few light frosts. No huge change in the inside temperature. I figure the snow will begin falling soon, that will be our biggest test. The sliding glass door opens so easy now! I am very happy with them.

     We are already making plans for the front yard next year. I want to build up the flower beds in the front. I would like to add low water shrubs, preferably with colorful foliage. We are also planning on taking grass out next to the street. We have a 5 foot easement. It is a hastle to water, we will be removing it and put down gravel. We have talked about several ideas, we just need to get them on paper and see what us practical.

Nature

Snow last weekend

The sky this morning

At a park in Kaysville

Happy Thursday

Here are some cute pictures

Progress!

Little by little, the backyard is finally coming along this year. We got the garden put in, and planted some seeds and plants.

We did put a fence around it, to keep the dogs out.
I had the river birch taken down out front as well. It stinks because it did shade the house. It was dying. The last wind storm we had, it was moving at the base. Growing up in Washington, I've seen too many trees come down. I figured it was better to be proactive. I will plant some new trees next year.

The boys and I made several trips to the dump this past week, we got rid of all the limbs. My boss will come by this weekend and take the rest of the wood.
I then proceeded to weed under the blue spruce, and planted some lilies.

My blueberry plants are thriving

 I'm excited that I have blueberries!
We worked on clearing out the back corner of our lot. It was full of branches and old pieces of wood left over by the previous owner.  We cleaned it up, and then began spreading out the compost from the compost pile I made last year. Truthfully, I didnt think the compost was going to break down. I figured it wasnt wet enough here. I was delighted to see that it did work. We used to to fill in the holes that we had. Our next project will be to take down some trees this weekend. The trees in the back were planted too close together, and several are not doing well. My goal is to next year, plant some new trees (probably fruit). I am not sure what type yet, I have time to plan it out. My goal is to try to get this yard to produce as much fruit and veggies if not more, as I had in Washington. This lot is 5 times as big, so I shouldn't have too much of a problem. The biggest obstacle to to plan, so that everything is functional.

This week

Got a lot done. The weather warmed up. Our riding lawnmower is broken, so I used the push mower to mow the back forty. Our lot is an acre...

It only took 4 hours..that was just the back.

I finished the dresser, I will post pictures of it later. The basement bedroom looks good. We are happy how it turned out. 

Jason and the boys helped the neighbor take down a tree. As the boys were helping clean up, the decided to pull out the stumps. Some were from last year.

As they were pulling the stumps,they pulled up the sprinkler line

See the white line in the middle of the picture...oops! Easy fix..

Thomas decided to try our the lawn mower the neighbor gave them. It's wasn't running when they received it. The neighbor that gave it to them is excited they got it running. 

There is still quite the mess. They boys volunteered to clean it up tomorow.

This picture is just because...rough life

I was in the mood to cook today

Dinner

Who doesn't love homemade bread?!