Christmas 2018

October 2018

So far, this fall has been a whirlwind. FS #2 did soccer, had a great experience. FS#1 did his first year of contact football, also enjoyed every minute of it. His team was eliminated in the first round of playoffs. He made some terrific friends, of that I am very grateful for. One of his coaches was in foster care (and aged out of the system). There was another boy who is also in foster care that was on the team, so it was really good for them. I liked that FS#1 was able to see that one can be successful even after being in foster care. The other two boys finished their 3rd year of football. I am thankful that my Saturdays are not spent running over the top 1/3 of the state.

I accepted a part time job in Salt Lake City, I have been working full time to get through my training. It has been challenging trying to balance everything. I have been trying on Saturday evenings to meal plan for the week. Its too expensive to eat out, and I want the boys to develop good eating habits. Some of them lived for years off top ramen (yuck!). One of the things on my to do list is to create a binder with recipes they can use to prepare meals.

We have a large Russian Olive tree in our backyard. they are considered an invasive tree.
This is a picture of one. Mine is much bigger. They have long sharp thorns- Did I mention almost everyone in my family is allergic to them?  The trees are also very messy.
I have a tree removal company coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate on removing/hauling/ and grinding the stump. My goal is that next spring, I want to plant fruit trees there.

We ripped out our garden last weekend. I figured we got all the fruit we were going to get. The mice were horrible this year. My chickens and dogs killed several. Next spring I am going to have to come up with something creative so the mice do not do the damage they did this year.
We are planning next spring to expand our garden yet again, and this time we are going to bring in dirt as well. Our soil is too sandy. I have added chicken waste, leaves, and yard waste the last 3 years. It is doing ok, but not as well as I would like.
the leaves have begun to fall, the trees are beautiful. the boys spent yesterday morning raking up leaves. By this afternoon, you could not tell. I am amazed how fast this year has gone by.
Hubby is still in his masters program. If everything goes well, he will be graduating in 14 months.
At that point, we will be deciding whether to stay or move. There are pros and cons to both. Developers have purchased the farm land around us, and have begun building houses. As a result, more people=more traffic/noise. The one thing that drew me here from Washington was the quiet and the farms around us. The air quality around here is poor, which is another factor in us possible relocating. I can say is that when we sell our house, at least the yard is picked up and the house is in much better condition. Next spring we plan on replacing the siding. We have aluminum siding, and it is beat up We will probably be replacing it with stucco, just so our house has a different look from the other houses down our street.

Slow and steady

Summer is winding down. School started, I started a new job in Salt Lake City. The boys are all in sports, it is hectic in the afternoons.

We went to the zoo. It was 98 that day.

We replaced our deck 

This is tearing it down

This is the new deck

This deck doesn't move. The old one most likely would hav come down on its own with a decent snowfall.

I made a pathway along the driveway

Found a marble

It's nice to get out of the van and not be in the yard.

Today I had 16 yards of 1 inch gravel delivered

This is before

Below is after

Work in progress

My goals are to finish up projects we have started.

We redid our entry way. I took down the trim, we leveled the wall,applied texture and painted. I need to replace the light fixture. I'm happy with how it looks.

This is before

This is before texture/painting

This is now

See that amazing light fixture

It's next :) I just need to buy a new ladder so hubby can reach it. Not sure what I will put up there yet.

I picked up some chicks the beginning of March. They are tetras. 

They have since been moved and are doing well with my other chickens.

We have been replacing the doors on the closets. 

This is the linen closet before 

After

We have been working on the bedroom downstairs. We painted, did the trim around the window, and replaced the light fixture.

We put doors on the room where the furnace/AC fan/water softener is

 The doors that were on there were broken,we're like that when we moved in.

The bathroom ceiling still needs to be taken care of.....

 

The picture below was when I was still painting....

Since its spring here finally, I have been tending my flower beds. We spread cedar mulch. I am hoping it will help hold in the moisture in the summer heat.

The tree stump above, I am hoping to burn with briquettes. We want to put a walking path along the driveway. That stump was from a river birch, so there are several trunks. We put stump rot in the beginning of March. I am hoping it will be gone by July.

Awaiting Spring

The beginning of the month we had temps in the 59s. I figured winter was over, planted seeds. 

Mother Nature had other plans. I woke up to 3-4 inches of snow, and it's still coming down

That was at 5 this morning 

It's now 0815

Meanwhile these guys will just have to wait

Snow

the weather men got the weather forecast correct. We got snow, quite a bit of it. I was getting ready to leave for work Sunday night when it began to fall.

When I left work there was a couple inches on the ground but the roads were clear.

Yesterday morning was ugly, good thing I had 4 wheel drive as getting to work was crazy. Not sure my minivan could have made it.

This morning we got another dusting

My dogs love it. They roll,dive, and bite at it.....

My hens don't like it. This spring i plan to expand the henhouse (plus I want to get more hens)

These guys will be transplanted into bigger containers today.

Awaiting warmer weather :)

Note: it's now 18 degrees out......

Plans

This winter has been pathetic for sure.
We have only had snow twice, which makes me sad. I love the snow. It was one of the things I was looking forward to when we moved to Utah.

I am working on planning my garden for this spring. We are going to plant peas,lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and zucchini. I may plant sugar pumpkins, i have not decided. We plan on expanding out the garden to produce more for us. Going to the grocery store is painful with a large family. I would rather grown and can my own food, thank you very much.
I am going to look into building a green house so i can start my own plants and extend the growing season here. I love to garden, so this will be beneficial to us.

We spent the weekend tearing out and replacing the flooring in the main bathroom. I noticed this smell (only one of the six boys could smell it besides me). The flange was rusted away for the toilet. We replaced part of the sub floor (thank goodness it was 3/4" plywood), replaced the linoleum and purchased a new toilet. The boys had told us afterwords they noticed at times it was leaking between the tank and the pedestal. We still have to caulk and replace the trim. I am happy with how it turned out.

We spent one weekend cleaning out the back yard. The boys did an amazing job, worked very well as a team. We have most of the leaves cleaned up. My goal is to get the rest cleaned up this week, as the weather will be mild.