I took the day off work driving shuttle cars on Thursday August 1 so I could do something with all our apples! It's been 3 years since we've gotten a crop off our main apple tree, and it was overloaded this year! Due to the abundance of apples, I knew it would be a great year to make applesauce, which I haven't done in 8 years. It was an all-day task. Kanyon helped me pick a few baskets of them--then I quartered them and boiled them until they were soft, and I put them through the puree machine that I borrowed from Hailey (Kanyon even helped me a couple of times with that step). It automatically sorts out all the seeds and stem and peel, and doesn't waste any amount of puree, so it's a fantastic tool to use! Then I cooked down the applesauce with sugar added, and the final step is to pack it into glass bottles and boil the bottles in the canner over the stove. I repeated the process multiple times, and spent 8 hours from start to end: picking the apples to finished products in their bottles. I could've made more (because we still had so many apples!) but I ran out of half-pint jars. I made 21 half-pints and 9 pints.
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My feet were killing me after being on them all day,
so I relaxed for a bit on my hammock in the yard that night.
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Ammon and Gabbie came to visit Salmon the first weekend of August because he and Josh played together in the 2-day Quality Motors golf tournament. Ammon also looked into getting a new (used) car while he was home. He got a Pontiac G6 from his friend Maddie, and later sold his VW GTi since it continued to have issues. Since they were in town, we all went to Williams Lake Saturday evening for the first time this summer after their golfing was done.
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It was the first time we've checked out the new docks
that were installed last summer.
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| A pretty sunrise over the golf course on Sunday before the 2nd day of the tournament |
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| Josh and Ammon got 2nd place Gross score in their flight! |
Since we still had so many apples to use, I made several rounds of dehydrated apples (over the course of a week) and one round of apple pie filling. I bought an apple corer from my neighbor Camille which helped expedite the preparation of the apples before dehydrating them, which was awesome!
My favorite jeeping adventure of the summer happened on August 7. We took off after Josh was done at work for the day. He'd been wanting to head to Horse Creek Hot Springs all summer, and we finally made it happen. We drove down river, and passed the fire crew at Indian Creek, and turned off at Spring Creek. I'd never been up the Spring Creek road before! There was lots of fire crew at different points along the road, so travel was slow. We stopped at the Blue Nose lookout tower on our drive, and could see a storm blowing in and the smoke from the fire by the river in the distance, too.
We both slept so well that night, because we were so relaxed after soaking in the hot springs. The next morning we had breakfast and walked back over to the hot springs to soak in the outdoor pools below the building. Each of the pools has different temperatures based on the amount of the water flow from both the hot springs and the cold creek. Josh found his favorite one, and stayed there for about an hour! Another group of people came after we'd been there for a while, which was fine. We were glad it wasn't super busy and that we'd got to have it to ourselves for as long as we had! After we were done soaking, we changed and packed up camp and then headed back to Salmon, going a different way through roads in Montana rather than the rugged Idaho mountain roads. As we passed by Painted Rocks State Park, the clutch in the Jeep went out. It was a tricky ride after that, trying to shift without a clutch, especially as we were going through road construction over Lost Trail, but thankfully we made it home okay. As I said earlier, it was THE BEST jeeping adventure this summer and I CAN'T WAIT to go again!! I'm hoping to make this an annual trip for Josh & I.
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| Josh blends well with the landscape! |
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| Goodbye, lovely place! Til next time... |
When I went to Utah for my birthday/girls outing, Josh went to SLC on my birthday to pick up some new (used) golf carts for the golf course. He stopped back in Mud Lake at my place to spend the night, and left me some birthday surprises for when I arrived just hours after he left the next morning. He had to return to work, and when I got back from Utah, I had to work as well. It was such a sweet surprise, and was so thoughtful of him!
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I love looking at the Moon in Mud Lake...it provides some excellent views!
Josh captured this from my back steps while he was there for the night.
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He left me a sweet note along with some of my favorite snacks and
my very most favorite pie! What a thoughtful guy!
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He also left in my fridge a 12-pack of my current favorite pop:
ginger lime diet coke!
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I got my classroom ready in between training meetings on Thursday and Friday, August 15 & 16. When I'd picked up the twins and their friends from EFY the previous weekend, we stopped in Mud Lake on the way to Salmon for about a half hour and they helped me move the furniture in the room from the big pile it was all in on one wall, which was nice and saved me a lot of time and energy. I worked on putting all the smaller things in their right spots and completed my bulletin board in the hall so it was ready for when the kids came to school the following week:
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My classroom theme is "Rise Up". I made these new cardboard letter cutouts
when we were camping at Twin Lakes the previous weekend.
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| BEFORE -- as you walk into the room |
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| BEFORE -- the closet wall |
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| BEFORE |
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| AFTER -- as you walk into the room |
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| AFTER |
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| AFTER -- the kiva corner |
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| AFTER -- my desk corner and the closet wall |
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| AFTER -- my small group table & library corner |
I particularly spent a lot of time on organizing this library corner before school. I didn't like how my books were organized into shelves that were all over the classroom before, and wanted to put them all in one area. I added some new stuff: I purchased another 9-cube shelf for the books (I already had one 9-cube shelf and two 6-cube ones that were elsewhere in the room), and obtained a magnetic board for my blank wall from another teacher who's room was getting revamped.
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The shelves without baskets are sorted into book collections.
The shelves WITH baskets are books sorted by reading level.
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The magnetic board was originally broken into 6
sections separated by wood strips. I added black tape to
segment it further for math facts getting passed off,
and the middle section is for books read. I love it!
It's been easy for the kids to use and see their progression.
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Amanda and Ryan stopped by to visit me in my classroom
on Thursday night on their way to Salmon.
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When I got home on Saturday night, I celebrated my birthday a little late with friends and family, and it was awesome! My birthday felt like a week long celebration: I'd gone to Utah earlier in the week to see some plays and go to temples with friends, and then when I came home, Josh & I went out to dinner a couple times and surprised me with several gifts! I felt so loved!
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Micah surprised me with this chocolate cheesecake that he made!
Josh got me some strawberry rhubarb fry pies from the Amish
store, which are my absolute favorite!
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My friend Heather sent me a package with these books.
I've been wanting "Skypig" for a couple of years, and was so excited
to finally get it for my classroom! The "Hot Air" book was a fun surprise
for me, and I read it to my class the 2nd week of school!
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I've been wanting some bottle trees for the front of my house since March when
I saw a small one on display in Washington DC. I have so many bottles collected
above the cupboards in my kitchen, so I thought it would be a nice way to
display them better and also add another feature to the front of the house
that doesn't have any water accessibility which makes it hard to grow plants.
All 3 are different, and Josh created them all by himself! He used rebar and
welded them and painted them, and did a great job! I absolutely love them!
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On Saturday the 17th, we had a pretty full day. That morning, I worked on arranging the bottle trees in front of the house and moving around the previously-placed big rocks and potted plants and then I added the bottles to the trees from where they were in the kitchen. It's hard to see the full effect here, but I love the new look!
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I picked up that antique faucet from the wrecked mail truck
we found on a jeeping adventure a year ago, and I placed it
closer to the front door while I was rearranging.
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As I was working on the bottle tree project, Josh was working on burning the large burn pile near the Triple S area from all the branches and trees he cut down in July. The fire burnt hot and high REALLY fast and it caught the nearby tree on fire. Josh yelled at me for some water, and I ran around trying to collect extra hose we had and connected them to the water in the back. By the time I got it all done, it had been about 5 minutes, and the fire started to go down and he no longer needed it. Later, I realized I could've grabbed a bucket to dip into the ditch that was RIGHT next to the burn pile rather than the water faucet that was 200 FEET away!! We'll have to wait until next spring to find out exactly how much of the tree is dead...
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Our wood storage pile used to be in this area too, so after the fire burned down and
it wasn't so hot to be close to it anymore, we threw in all the extra wood scraps that
were laying all along the fence. It really cleaned the area up and looked so much better!
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We decided to pick up a puppy from Darcy & Phil to take home and see if it would get along with Tiki. We picked Groucho, a chubby little one with a sweet face. He was adorable and the boys instantly fell in love, too! We went to Murdoch's and got it some chew toys and took it home. Tiki was a little unsure at first, and then didn't want anything to do with the puppy!
The boys went to a youth activity that evening, and Josh and I went out to eat at 28 Club with Amanda, Ryan and John. While we were gone, we put the puppy in the laundry room and closed the door. We left it with food, water, toys, and if it peed/pooped it wouldn't be a big deal to clean up. When we got home, the puppy had clearly been whining the whole time, and Tiki felt really bad for it, and after that she didn't mind the puppy as much anymore.
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| For the first time, I ordered prime rib at the 28 Club instead of coconut shrimp. |
The puppy whined and didn't sleep good all night, and as a result, I stayed up with it. When morning came, I realized the timing wasn't right for our family to get a puppy--I was back to work full time in Mud Lake, and the boys were starting school, and nobody else was going to stay up with it or help it at night, so we decided to give the puppy back after church. It was sad to see it go, but it was a necessity: it wouldn't have been a good fit to leave the puppy all the time.
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| Goodbye, Groucho! |
On Sunday night, Josh took me on a jeep ride up Kirtley Creek and over to Carmen Creek. It was a pretty drive, and a nice way to end the summer. It was our first jeep ride since Horse Creek; the jeep had been in the shop getting a new clutch. I was glad to have it back in time for one more ride before summer was over.
I had another teacher work day on Monday the 19th, and then school started officially on the 20th. Kanyon is now in 7th grade! I have 17 students this year--a male predominant class with 11 boys and 6 girls!
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His assigned locker is on the bottom this year, but his
friend Jackson is right above him which is so awesome!
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| My class on the first day, with all their new supplies ready to go! |
I went out with my Terreton friends on Wednesday the 21st to celebrate our friend Lidia's birthday. We went to a new place I'd never been to before called Smokin Fins: it has smoked meat, seafood, and Japanese food. I decided to do something on my List of 40 Things and order a food item that I would never normally get. I got a ramen noodle bowl with a whole bunch of vegetables and seared jumbo shrimp. I didn't really like it--ramen just isn't my thing, but at least I can say I tried! However, I ordered their bread pudding for dessert and it was divine! I love hanging out with these lady friends of mine! We hadn't been together since July, and we talked and laughed and it was great to be reunited with them again!
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| It was a giant bowl! |
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| Angie, Tanis, Lidia, Rosalba, and me. We missed Val! |
The next weekend, Josh and I raked the area we'd burned the prior weekend and leveled it all out. The entrance to the Triple S (Secret Sitting Spot) was now wide open and it looked so good!
Josh took a beautiful photo of the sunrise over the golf course on Monday morning the 26th, so I sent him one that I took of the beautiful sunset that night from my house in Mud Lake.
I made a goal to drive home once mid-week this year, and on my first mid-week drive back to Mud Lake, I encountered a bull elk near Leadore early in the morning. He ran out onto the road; it surprised me because I hadn't seen him approaching. I slammed on the brakes, and thankfully he veered back off the road and ran alongside it for a few yards before jumping over the fence and running away. It was a shocking experience, and one that I haven't previously encountered on my drive the past two years, but it was also a really cool experience and I'm so grateful I didn't collide with it!
One of my co-workers turned forty the week after school started, and since I was a fresh 40-year-old myself, I wanted to give him an indictment of sorts into the 40 club, so I made this gift and wrote this accompanying poem for him:
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| It's ice cream with toppings! They did a good job making it look just like a potato! |
On the very last day of August, Saturday the 31st, we had our final friend get-together of the summer. We invited the Deschaines, Oliversons, Judys, and the twins invited a few friends, too. The twins had XC practice and had to leave for part of it. We ate a simple BBQ dinner, played games, had the ditch and the yard full of activities for the kids, and we made a fire in the pit and cooked smores, too. It was a fun night and a great end-of-summer party!
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