Sledding season begins!

Perch, on, and go!

Believe me, it speeds up!

Gentry looks very graceful, arms out to steer....

And then there is me... Craaash! It takes real effort to do

what I did, any ole body can sled down the whole way! BORING!

Just a-swingin'

Gentry works hard at playing,

and the (according to his children, but what do they know?) stinky hat is left in the dust,

and he soars! Well, pretty close. It is quite thrilling to swing out over a bunch of snow with rocks and sticks poking up out of it.

A snow filled playground

Sliding on Huckleberry Pond.....


"You have to try this, it is delicious!"

I hope everyone had a happy Turkey day. I sincerely hope you ate too much, took a long nap and woke up very thirsty, ate more because you knew you needed something, and then finished it off with a very large glass of water. Wow, that can hurt.

After we ate too much we went up to Vertical Ranch to see if there was snow yet. And Happy Day there was! What was weird was that there was one spot in the fire that was still smoldering, all after 3 weeks, a few inches of rain, and several inches of snow. Ironically we had a tough time getting a little fire going in our fire pit..... with dry wood! It was as temperamental as a man who gets a meal presented to him with mashed potatoes but no gravy!

A week later.....

Well, since you folks weren't beating down our door to have your piece of tongue, we ate it without you. I maybe should have waited until Grant was finished chewing before I took the picture, and as you can see Gentry wasn't quite ready either, but this picture was so tasteful I had to post it. Gag! I have to say though we have had a lot of fun with this gift. Favorite dinner quotes, "This makes me have a light appetite" (Grant) and "Like, I am so not eating any of this" (Victoria). Proudly I can say we did all have some. It was.....well, I am not telling, you will just have to try it yourself.

Funny thing...Liane called and said the Todd had taken Kaitlyn out for appetisers at a very nice, posh restaurant and they had.....you guessed it.

Gentry's Tongue

Gentry had a fabulous birthday! Not only did he get a special gift from some very generous donors (a cow.......and Troy and Beth) his own son and daughter coughed up their own hard earned money to buy presents for Dad. Victoria's was a "value" deal with quantity in mind (2 insulated coffee mugs) and Grants gift to Dad was a fishing manual, so we can better know how to reel in some big boys! Grant could not wait to give the gift, specially wrapped by himself....but the best part was getting to tell dad how much it cost him. Hey! He has worked hard for the dough, and he knew Dad would appreciate that as much as anything.

The gift from Troy and Beth came with cooking instructions: boil, peel and slice. Sounds easy enough, I guess.....Anyone hungry? We are having a lovely dinner of boiled tongue soon. First on my guest list? Troy and Beth!

What are the odds? Couple nearly killed by falling cow | KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington | News

What are the odds? Couple nearly killed by falling cow KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington News

Later in the day....

OK... I know I did this all wrong, pretend you are in about 2nd grade and have to do a sequencing activity. Which picture comes first?
They don't make this easy to change do they?

Fired Up!

We finally got around to getting the slash pile burned up at Vertical Ranch. Gentry went up on Friday morning and spent some time getting everything ready, putting wet tarps on the camper cover and wetting the ground around the pile to be burned. It was about 12-15 feet tall at least and 30 feet long, 20 feet wide. There were a lot of branches, some logs, and all the stumps from when we cleared the road and the camp site. Gentry put straw soaked in diesel fuel on it...with a ladder....sigh. He lit it at about 10:30. The kids and I came up at about 3:00 and most of the big fire was gone. We were all a bit disappointed by that but relieved that he hadn't started the forest on fire. We had originally thought that we would wait until snow. Gent said it only took a couple of hours to burn down the bush part of the pile. Monday it was still smoldering- some of the stumps were actually very deep in a pile of coals and Gentry has been digging them out to get them to burn faster. Some of the pictures show him throwing the stumps on the fire. He came home with a huge load of dirty smokey clothes (about 12-20 feet high, 30 feet long and 20 feet wide) but he is back safe.

Happy Halloween!

Auntie Beth finds the newest periodical....

Little Bugs slept through the whole event, it is easy to do when you are the only one who is not on a sugar high! Sous Chef Joe taught us all it is very serious business to be the chef....for one thing you have to deal with all the critics! But his chili was awesome and the mummy dogs were, if not delish, at least humorous.

October 31

Happy Halloween! We had a fun party here with all the wrappings...mostly toilet paper! The kids had fun with the mummy wrap and then the little kids played in the tp after....so it was a hit "all around".

Looks like Lisa is really getting into character.....