Trout Beware!

This is the fella who says:

"If you want to catch a fish, 

stand by me.

I'm always the guy standing next to the guy catching the fish."

Last night he changed the trend.

I wish I got a "before" picture, because there were two big boys with rain gear, fishing gear, and bear gear, heading out of the driveway in a hefty white truck, and carrying a bucket of worms - in a backpack no less.

Two recently purchased fishing licenses and a pantry full of bulk rice, beans and canned food inspired this evening jaunt.

Isn't it nice that a guy can get out for a hike in the woods and some man-time with a buddy all in the name of providing for his family?

It's a win-win situation if you actually bring home the bacon fish!

I am still in awe that Uncle Char and AJ were able to drive up the hill, hike in to a lake minutes from our house and CATCH fish.  I am dubious about the part where they fished in the rain, but what do I know.  Uncle Charlie didn't catch fish this time around, but I believe he was responsible for the fish that my children caught reeled in the other day.

Poor AJ.  When he showed me this beautiful Cut Throat Trout, I teased"

"Awe.  That was nice of Charlie to let you reel it in!"

We laughed together.  Thankfully he's secure in his manhood ;-)

A little slab of butter in a hot cast iron pan, some salt and pepper and a few good fish stories later, I reaped the full benefit of being a fisherman's wife.

Well done Love!

Behold! Another post!

There were four full days of sun over the weekend, which meant that blogging was far from my mind except as pertains lots of good blog-posting pictures.
It was a delightful week past with our friends and family - there was simply no time to be bored.  "Bored" is not an Idaho word!  I will regale you with a photo documentary of the goings-on, but first:

Our garden...
...was extremely happy about the sunshine and our seeds all decided to germinate - finally!  Among those to make an appearance were peas, radishes, cilantro, carrots, beans, borage, beets, and nasturtiums.  And while some of our herb starts withered up, our 5 little tomato plants look great (the same size as when we put them in 6 weeks ago, but "alive" is a good thing!)
I would take pictures, but there's really not much to see at this time.  The weeds stand out more than the cute little seedlings, and even though we had a few days of sun, there has still been buckets of rain, which means...
mud.

Projects...
...yes.  Projects there are, and in ever-abundant supply (with no end in sight).
Lately it's been a challenge just to fit regular chores and AJ's work into the mix of company, but actually there comes another spurt of beloved friends to grace the guest shack, so we must get a ladder on the bunk beds, and maybe a shower (do y'all really need a shower?), and perhaps a pic-nic table and camp stove for cooking breakfast.


Oh yeah, another thing; since we are moving all the wood out of the lean-to to make room for that shower, we need to build a wood shed.

 In the words of king Monkut:  

etcetera etcetera, etcetera. 

And since you were wondering...   TOILET SCHMOILET!!!

Seriously though, the composting toilet design we are building requires some solar electricity for the exhaust fan and you know how that story goes:  if you give a mouse a cookie...  Which means that in order to get that fan going, we need to tinker with the solar panels, and finish out the commode with mud and paint.
And a toilet seat.
Details, details! ;-)
The good news is that it's not the dead of Winter.  Yet.  So we don't mind an excuse to get us out of doors - even if that excuse is a tiny little walk to the Ace port-a-potty.  And just so you will believe that we are indeed moving UP in the world,

we rent 2 when we have out of town company.

(just be glad they don't rent a two-seater 'cause we might have been tempted.  -Grace?)

The children...

...have been reintroduced to the lake nearby, and while I personally, am not ready to jump into that COLD water, they have no such scruples.

Add to that the novelty of fishing this year (and dad just picked up his license as well); now it will be harder than ever to leave the lake in the evenings!  I'd better plan to pack dinner.

Both boys are making me pretty nervous these days with their tree climbing.  They could use a few lessons about what a dead tree branch looks like, but realize that they are getting 40 feet up before I stop them.  It's getting harder to come up with plausible reasons when they ask WHY they can't keep going UP.  I think it's common sense to stop going up when the tree is swaying, and the trunk is now  6 inches in diameter, or hey, if that's too conservative - how about coming back down when the tree is bowed like a rainbow and you need both hands AND legs to hang on!

There IS such a thing as common sense you know, but somehow I ended up with common boys in stead.

Not really a bad deal and I'm not complaining, I just want to see them live to grow up.

The girls are not far behind - especially Lina this year and I hear a lot of "ME TOO!" and "ME ALSO!" and

"I DO!"  She is not to be left out!  

Bryce is mobile enough to pick up every dust bunny in the house, and that's what he does.  He's my cute little baby-mop!  One of these days I'll teach him to do the laundry too, and then I'll  REALLY be gettin' something done:-)

So.

That's the short version.  Now for those pictures.  If you're not a picture person, I warned you in advance, but if you ARE, these are mostly of my sister Em, and our cousin and his lovely wife.  We sure enjoyed their visit!  All the hiking pictures that were not taken at the lake, were all on our property.  It is just AWEsome.

I can't believe we live here!

Love to you,

me

Wild Ginger

The Lake

There!

Are you worn out now?

You now know the REAL reason why the weeds are taller than the veggie seedlings HA!

No one can accuse us of being dull though:-)

Throw in a sister and two cousins...

 And you have a house-full of party!

The big Boys went out to look at property (and saw a grizzly bear and moose along the way), and the big girls went to the used book store and then picnicked here:

There was a gazebo:

Gazebos are good for dancing in.

And trees.  There were a few brave trees.

Then we decided to leave while the trees still had limbs.

:-D

It was a very nice day!