Idaho Jan

This is Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park . We stopped by there on our way the Coeu d'Alene Resort. It is the oldest standing building in all of Idaho. The confessional was locked up but where I was standing is where one would kneel and ask for forgiveness. Good thing Dale couldn't get into the priest's spot! There was NO heat in that little building and it was crazy cold. Made me appreciate where I worship and for modern conveniences (even though our chapel is quite chilly on some days).

The Before~ Lori helped me pick out some colors to update my living room. I really like turquoise and I thought maybe yellow would be another good accent color since my furniture is brown and I have tan walls. She came up with the great idea of using placemats and picked these out for me. The top left fabric is actually a napkin set. Napkins were $9.99 and placemats $3.99 each The After~ Walla! I recycled the innards from my old pillows so that didn't cost anything. The little round green one is actually a creation with some of my scraps. It was supposed to be a ball shape but ended up looking like a squashed pumpkin! I added a ribbon rose to decorate it up. The "W" was embroidered by a company here in Rexburg ($6.24). The pillows were easy to make-I just unpicked one edge, stuffed it with batting and stitched it up again. It has been nice to have time to sew since I've been off work for the last week with Spud Harvest. Cool days make for a good sewing time.

When my children were young, I read to them a book called Apple Pigs . about the wonderful apple tree that produced so many apples the family did not know what to do with them all. We don't have huge trees, but we were very surprised to see how many apples were on our two semi-dwarf trees this year! We picked about 6 bushels! They are hard and tart...great for eating or baking pies and cobblers. In our case, it is applesauce for our food storage. I swore I would never can applesauce alone again but here I am! That was about five years ago when I didn't have a "system" yet and I made a huge mess! It still is messy but this year Dale had to work and I was home for spud harvest so I was elected to start the all-day project. What really helped is using my Playtex gloves. I didn't have sticky hands to distract me all the time. It also helps to have a heavy duty large pressure cooker, a Victorio Strainer (don't try making applesauce without it!) and sufficient jars...

The last time my daughter Mandy saw this trunk in our yard it was just felled by Dale because it was rotted out. She asked Dale, "How long is that going to be there Dad?" Well, it has been about three years. Finally, we found a chain saw to borrow and he got it chopped up. Now it is sitting in pieces between the fence and the canal. Dale said it is too wet to burn yet. Any wagers on how long the wood will sit there? (Just kidding honey.) The yard does look a lot better now although we'll have to find a new place to sit for family pictures...

I was checking the other day for zucchinis. . . This is what I found under a big leaf! I went our almost every day to pick them small as in 4 inches long so I wouldn't get one of these. Good thing the newspaper just put out an article on recipes to use zucchini squash just in time. I passed on the recipes and the squash to Lori. Was that mean of me? :)

Well, Cole turned 25 on September 4th. We had a little gathering over at Lori's home. Holdem kept saying, "Where's your birthday!" It turned out to be a pumpkin chocolate-chip loaf from Great Harvest, if that's what Holdem meant. Happy Birthday Cole!