Dear Deer!

Behind the house we have a very tasty bush
 which this young fella seems to enjoy.

 These 2 fellas have been hanging around our property this summer, helping themselves to a few of my flowers and our horse shed.  I enjoy having them here, but wish Zoey, our dog, would stop thinking they need to be chased off!  Today, I sat behind the house with her while we watched this young one nibble on leaves from a bush only 20 feet from us.  The deer kept and eye on us, but didn't seem to be too concerned.  Eventually, he wandered off down the hill, reappearing a little later in front of the house.  This little guy has spikes that are different lengths.

Making himself at home in the horse shed!

Stretching!

Life has been a bit too full for me lately.  3 months away cooking at tree planting camp, home, away to karate camp weekend, home, away to daughter's lovely wedding, home, trip to California, home, away for 1 1/2 months on our trapline on the Yukon border....then Christmas!!!  For someone who has gotten used to not much happening, this is exhausting!  Not that I haven't enjoyed doing it all....it's just not having had much time to just relax and enjoy the great weather we've been having and the do the 'puttering' things I enjoy doing.  Oh well....
There has been even less time to work on this blog, which I had hoped would be a daily pleasure, where I could include projects, recipes and ideas.  But, as it has developed, there has been absolutely not time for any of those things!  Hopefully this winter, things will settle a bit...but as I peer into the near future, I don't see a whole lot of it!  After Christmas we will have some down time until February when I have the delight of going to take care of my adorable granddaughter while my daughter and SIL go on a much needed and deserved holiday.  After a year of dealing with Taylor's leukemia, which as you can imagine, involved a lot of stress, worry, and hospital time, they need some 'couple time'.  Then we are almost to the next tree planting season in May!  Over the long, cold winter days we are hoping to make some head way in finishing the basement.  The shack's basement was completely unfinished when we moved in and is still pretty much that way, aside from it being divided up into bedrooms, laundry/ bathroom, family room and craft room.  It needs ceilings, real walls, floors, wiring, and a whole new layout to boot!  Once the sunroom is insulated we can begin to move basement stuff out to it and have the room to work we will need without tripping over furniture, boxes and junk! That's the plan anyways.
The kids and I head out Thursday for our trip south, which we are all excited about.  I've been spending computer time mapping out our route and where we will stop to camp overnight, and a few places to stop and explore on the trip down.  Zac is anticipating a stop at Lava Beds National Monument in California.  Looks amazing!!  Once we've been to Disneyland for 4 days, our itinerary is open for whatever we feel like doing or seeing!  We have a few places on our list of 'must see's, but other than those, we are going to wing it!  This is a budget trip, so we won't be doing anything too pricey, but it will still be a lot of fun and I know the kids will get a lot of great memories from it.  Who says fun has to cost money??
While we are gone we also begin our homeschooling year.  We are going with a new school this year, which we are all really excited about.  SelfDesign has a wonderful approach to learning, and is very much the way I view how children should learn.  We will begin our school reporting (a weekly requirement) while we are on the road and will have plenty of learning experiences to share.
Well, after spending the morning helping our neighbours with their first time at butchering home grown meat birds, ( I can't eat chicken now for a while!), I'm off to help Trev with some firewood.  Winter isn't far off and the woodshed needs to be topped up.  TTYS!

Planning our Road Trip!

Now that Jordan and Daniel are off on their honeymoon, the wedding is all done and we are back home at the shack, it's time to make some serious plans for our road trip to Disneyland!  We will be heading out on the 7th, right after most kids are back in public school.  One of the many joys of homeschooling is being able to take advantage of quieter holiday times!  I booked 6 nights at an economy hotel right outside of Disneyland...I would rather not pay $15 a day to park there, on top of all the other expenses!  Our hotel may be economy, but has great reviews, serves breakfast, has a pool, queen sized beds and we can walk to the park!  I still have to order our passes, which I will be doing later today, and then I'll be looking into where we can camp on our way down.  We will be tenting it, unless rain forces us to find something less soggy.  We have decided to take as little as possible to keep it simple...sleeping bags, air mattresses, pillows, a one burner butane stove and refills, a kettle and a pot.  We'll use disposable plates and utensils and travel mugs, which can be washed where they are refilled. We each have a duffel bag to fill with clothing for a week.  Our plan is to take snacks and drinks into the park with us in a cooler backpack, and out of the park, we'll eat buns with sliced deli meat and cheese, fresh veggies and dip, and anything else easy to prepare.  We will be avoiding the fast food joints and stick with stops at grocery stores where we can keep a continuous supply of fresh food in a little cooler in the back of the car.
I found the best deals on hotels at this site....Get A Room.  I spent a lot of time looking at the same hotels on different sites and found this the cheapest.  I also found that getting the 'deal' with a good neighbour hotel for a room and passes, was NOT the best deal.  Looking for a hotel that suited our needs and ordering the passes separately is saving me several hundreds of dollars!
We are all looking forward to out trip and have lots to do before then.
Right now, my brother in law and his wife are here visiting on their way back home from the wedding with their adorable twin girls, Daisy and Emily.  They are 10 months old now and so fun!  Alley is loving cuddling and playing with her little cousins!
I'll be sharing some of the pictures from the wedding as they are available.  It was a stressful week prior to the big day, but in the end it was a huge success and everyone had a great time!
Back to the planning!

Bridal Shower!

My oldest daughter, Morgan, mother to my darling granddaughter, Taylor, worked very hard to throw a bridal shower for her sister before the wedding.  I was so impressed with all the neat things she did to make it special for Jordan, the bride to be.  One of the decorating ideas was so simple and yet so effective I just had to share!  These are made from coloured tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  They are big pom poms or flowers like the kind you make to decorate wedding cars.  Only these ones are really BIG!!  She hung them from the trees and grape vines in my Mom's lovely backyard and they looked amazing!  Here are the directions...Pom Poms
And here are some pictures of them at the shower!

Hanging from the old apple tree.

From an arbor.