I love Christmas!

The other day we went to our neighbor's house and she had a big tree in her living room. Mom says it's a Christmas tree. I wanted one too. Daddy cut one from the forest on the old railroad at Grandpa Harry's ranch. Mommy put on the decorations (and took this horrible fuzzy picture - the lighting was all wrong).



Mommy keeps telling me I have to be a good boy so Santa can bring me presents. I met him. I told him I want two small swords. When I was meeting him, someone made me a balloon sword and I was fighting... Alice didn't like Santa.

We got all dressed up and my sister looked so grown up!

I like to see all the Christmas lights too. We went to a big park where there were lots of lights and I climbed the mountain to see all of them.

Christmas is so fun. I hope I get lots of toys!

-Clyde

South for the Winter...

No photos because it's been a crazy week and the camera's still in the bag...

While not as long a migration as most birds, we have made our now annual migration south to the Treasure Valley. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with bits and pieces of both our families. Now for the unpacking -- arg! If you're in or around Boise, come see us! We had a great summer and a cold fall and we're ready to be back in civilization.

It's Officially Winter....

You know it's officially winter when:

New snow falls on top of old snow before it melts....
All the leaves are gone...

There are icicles....
The temperature barely gets up to freezing...

But how do you really know it's winter??? This is when you know:

When it takes 4 men and a tractor to get you unstuck, that's when you know it's winter!

In other amusing snow news, I was certain we had a prowler last night. I kept hearing these noises around the house and then when I woke up all the way at 2 a.m. I realized it was just snow falling off the roof and not a prowler.

Shipping Calves

So it's getting cold up here and now is the time we take all the baby calves away from their mommies and ship them off to sunny California where they can get all fat and happy (until they're sold again and wind up as T-bones). Mommy was in charge of weighing them this year. She got nominated for her penmanship, which isn't all that great but better than cowboys and old men. Here's one of our days...

The first truck, loaded and ready to go, with Jughandle Mtn. in the background.

Mommy's domain, the scalehouse:

Our daddy the cowboy on the white mare:

Now the mommies will stay here a few more weeks until there's too much snow to get to the grass. We're moving back to Boise in time for Thanksgiving. Our 6 months in the mountains is up for this year!

Halloween

Mumsy brought Clyde the kimono jammies from her Japan trip, so I decided to make him a panda mask. Total cost less than $1.00 and turned out pretty cute. Alice was given the darling bunny outfit by a family friend. Clyde was pretty excited about dressing up but still didn't get the concept of Halloween. We dressed up most days that week. They both of course loved getting treats. The photos were taken at a friend's place on Payette Lake. I tried to get some of both of them, but they're squirrelly these days!

Messy Eater and Other Food News

Alice loves to eat almost anything, but she doesn't always get it into her mouth...

Clyde is a kind of picky eater; this week he loves red meat and isn't as in to chili macaroni. The one thing he always loves? Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese (yah, I'm that kind of mom). I tried making it, but he wanted "the orange kind." Oh and yes, those are his jammies and that's lunch. What can I say, they're comfy and fashionable, so why put regular clothes on?

One of the guys that works with Ben gave us some venison (pictured) and some elk. So we've been enjoying that this week. I have to admit that I really don't find it appetizing until it's not recognizable.

-Laura

A night with Mumsy...

We got dressed up and went to visit Mumsy. She said we were so pretty and so handsome. She really liked my cowboy boots. She gave me my cowboy shirt. Alice was so pretty. She even had a bow. Daddy says bows are for girls. Mommy and Daddy went away and we stayed at Mumsy's house all by ourselves. I got to look at my playhouse and play a big drum. We even got to take a bath and sleep at Mumsy's. She read me so many books! It was fun, but I was really happy when Mommy and Daddy came to get me the next morning.

-Clyde

Auntie Shelley's house...

Clyde and mommy built two houses today. Mommy designed the bottom one and Clyde directed the design on the top one -- it's for Auntie Shelley!

Snow!!!

We were all pretty excited to see the snow this morning, but I'm awfully sad about our two previously beautiful cottonwood trees. The leaves hadn't even turned yet, let alone fallen, and the super heavy snow just ripped them apart...

Clyde was pretty excited and helped build a snowman that his dad named Peanut Butter. Clyde didn't like that one bit, "It's not peanuh butteh, it's noman!"

Alice was a little less enthralled with the winter wonderland.

Since it's gotten colder, we're running the wood stove most the day. It's obviously somewhat of a hazard. Clyde gets it and stays away, but Alice didn't understand, so Ben and Clyde built a "gate" - it's not JPMA certified, but it's working!

"Maybe we're going on a date..."

Mumsy was coming for dinner and mommy put Alice in a dress and me in my tiger overalls and shirt. We looked good! Mommy told me I was so handsome and Baby looked pretty. I told her, "Maybe we're going on a date!" She was so surprised... she thinks I don't know about things, but I do....And this is my idea of a fun date... chainsaws and shovels...

-Clyde

Eggs and such...

We get eggs from the ranch and they can be all different colors. Sometimes they have yucky dirt and chicken poop on them.

Mommy made them into something yummy:

A day off...

Ben took Clyde and Alice to the ranch today.  It's so quiet, I just don't know what to do.  I thought about nothing, but after sleeping for an hour I got up, read about 100 pages of grant applications, vacuumed the entire house, dusted, did 3 loads of laundry, fixed a chair, picked up all the stray toys, revamped the blog (check out the labels), and now I think I'll watch a movie, try to read some more and make some flan.

Shipping Sheep

The other day we picked Daddy up at work and went to Sater Meadows north of McCall. There were so many sheep! I got a cane so I could help tell the sheep where to go. They loaded some on trucks and the others they sorted. Mommy didn't have her camera, but Marg took these with her phone. It was so fun! Daddy couldn't believe how quiet sheep are compared to cows. They can jump really high. Sometimes they tried to jump the fences. We put the girls in one pen, the boys in one pen and the old ladies in another.

I like sheep!

Look what Mommy Made...

Stuck up in the woods without many sewing resources nearby, Mommy was thinking what can I make for this baby shower. Her friend is having a second baby girl. So she made both girls little homemade purses. One is made out of part of a pair of jeans and the other a stained sweater, and they both include 3 extra quilt squares from a quilt she was making for another baby that's coming. She's also including some diapers and a baby toy in the package. The purses are reversible too. Check them out:

Back Yard

One of the best things of this summer has been the yard. Good for mom because it's got wire up and no one can get out. Good for Clyde because he can run around and beat on things. Both kids really like being outside (and the house stays cleaner too!). We'll miss the yard as it cools down and we get ready to move south with the cows.

The Last Huckleberries

It's cooling down in the mountains. We took a road trip over Lick Creek Summit down the Secesh River to the Salmon River to Warm Lake and back home. It's a beautiful drive if you're ever in the McCall area and have some time.

But the best thing happened, we found more huckleberries!!! It was September 6th and they were totally done in the valley for weeks, but we got high enough that they were perfect. And, as Clyde would say, there were "So many!!!" Clyde always asks for so many of everything. Not more or a lot, but so many.

And, they were gigantic! For those of you not familiar with huckleberries, these were probably double the size we're used to:

Luckily, the Smiths were planning on coming the next day (Labor Day) so we took them up to the same place. Some berries had succumbed to the frosty night, but there were enough they got about a pint and a half to take home. And we had huckleberry pancakes for dinner, mmmmm.

Here's some of the other cool scenery we saw on the drive:

Cool dead tree.

Fungus growing on burnt tree.

Tree growing out of a rock.

Mossy tree.