October 2020

 Josh and his employees at the golf course leveled Tee #2 at the beginning of October. It's the most-abused tee since it's for the short Par 3 hole. 

Josh went to the fall IGCSA meetings in Boise while I was gone to Florida visiting Kimi. Josh is on its board of directors again, and has to go to additional meetings when they meet bi-annually. On the final day of the meetings, they usually golf. This time, they golfed at Hillcrest Country Club. It was beautiful weather and he had a good time. 

On the way home, he stopped along the highway to check out the Pine Flats Hot Springs to see what was visible from the road, and found an additional soaking spot from the one we went to last summer!

My spud harvest break was a little earlier this year, and instead of having two full weeks off, we had a partial week off, then a full week off, then another partial week. Kanyon and I had to return to school on Thursday the 8th. On Friday the 9th, Kanyon had a XC meet in Arco, so I took the afternoon off to go watch him, and Josh came to watch him too. After his race, we caravaned back to Salmon, and I went in to the golf course with Josh and watched as he worked to prepare for the Door Closer golf tournament the following day. The weather was gorgeous and I was happy to get to spend additional time with him, since Spud Harvest break felt shorter this year and I was gone to Florida for part of it and missed out on my time home with him. 

That same night, I went to the Eagle's with Darcy to do another Paint & Pint night. I loved spending time with Darcy, but didn't enjoy the event this time as much as I did the previous time we went together. I was kind of disappointed in how my picture turned out this time, too...

Darcy's rainbow waterfall is on the left and mine is on the right.

We had such a beautiful fall! Last year, the weather turned so cold so quickly that the leaves all froze and we got hardly any color. This fall was the exact opposite--it was so warm and the nights were cool, and the colors were vibrant as a result. I loved watching each stage of the leaves' color changing process! 

I wore my new souvenir shirt to school. It says: "Just a RAY of sunshine!" 

My sister Lisa made me this sweet sign for my birthday--it was a belated gift, but was such a happy surprise to open up the package when it arrived in the mail! She painted it, and every pattern on the block letters has to do with something we saw or did or ate on our trip to Washington, DC last spring. I love it SO MUCH! It's thoughtful, creative, homemade with love, and fits the space perfectly--I had been wanting to put something on the corner cupboard in the kitchen, and this fits the space perfectly and also matches the decor on the fridge with all the magnets of places we've visited and vacationed to. 

Opening day for deer hunting season was on a Saturday this year--which made me nervous because I knew more people would be out and about since it was on weekend day rather than a weekday. I also worried that with all the people out, it would lessen the chances for the twins to get anything. However, the one nice thing was that I was able to be home for it for the first time in 4 years! I had no reason to worry, thankfully--since both Jonah and Micah were able to fill their tags that very morning! While they were out shooting (I could hear their gunshots from the house), I heard a loud popping sound that I thought was someone shooting the house. When they got home, I told Josh as much, but he said they were far enough away from the house, it couldn't have been them, and he didn't see anybody else hunting that close to the house. I looked around on the exterior walls where it sounded like the popping noise came from, but couldn't see any markings, either, so I forgot about it...until the next morning when we had no hot water. Josh and I went to check out the water heater, and it was leaking--apparently the element had broken the previous day, and the water heater was busted when I heard that sound! Josh replaced it a couple of days later, and figured out how to take out the old one and install the new one all by himself! 

We worked as a family to process the meat the following weekend after the carcasses hung up in Grandpa's shop all week. Josh and the twins worked on cutting off strips of meat, and Kanyon and I grinded the meat and packed it into freezer bags. Their deer were a little smaller than last year's, so we got less meat overall, but we also got some nice-sized deer roast, and made some jerky with some of the back straps, which was nice. I made a new marinated blend, and we soaked the jerky meat overnight before dehydrating it. It was SO delicious! 

Our first round of jerky!

Josh and his employees did the annual task of blowing out the sprinkler lines the week before Halloween. It's a full-day process!

Salmon had to move their Homecoming week from the last week of September to the third week of October due to an outbreak of COVID in the community and school. Originally, I was so happy that I would be home to see all the Homecoming festivities because it was during my Spud Harvest break, but then when it was moved, I sadly didn't get to go to any. However, I was originally going to miss the Homecoming dance pictures due to being gone to Florida, but after the dance got changed, I was able to be there to see the kids and their dates prior to the dance, so that cheered me up. Their date plans changed multiple times as a result of the schedule change, and they ended up just going to dinner at the Oliverson's after pictures, then to the dance and to Tyler's house afterwards. Jonah took Robyn Chaffin and Micah's date was Beth Davidson. 

The girls unknowingly matched! They looked very patriotic!

Boaz, Erik, Hunter, Micah, and Jonah

Both boys made the newspaper the following week after Homecoming--Micah for going to state with the XC team, and Jonah on the band float in the Homecoming parade. Micah rode on the XC float that Josh was driving. 

Halloween was different this year with all the COVID restrictions. The Terreton church canceled their trunk-or-treat that we go to every year, the school changed their costume parade to outdoors to allow for parents to view kids safely, and there was a lot of news and hype about how people didn't want kids coming door-to-door due to fear of spreading the virus. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but I didn't enjoy it as much this year as a result of all the changes. However, I did still have a class party at school, and my students and I still wore costumes, and Kanyon's junior high still had a dance, so that was nice. I dressed up like a witch, since I'd been reading the book "The Witches" by Roald Dahl to the students all month. Kanyon dressed up in the hot dog costume I got last year, since he wanted something easy he could get on and off that didn't require makeup, because his first hour class at the time was P.E., and he didn't want to wear the costume for P.E. class. 

Three third grade girls also decided to be witches, and we all
matched, too, which was such a fun surprise for us all!

October is one of my favorite months of the year! I love the cooler, slower days, the changing colors in the world surrounding us, the Halloween decorations and holiday, and the smells and sights of fall. It was a beautiful month this year, and every time I was feeling frustrated, I just had to look outside to remind myself of why I love it so much!