Purely Pumpkin Pics

I had to do another pumpkin post. I couldn't help myself!

I told you I had way too much fun!

We had pumpkin bread, soup, cookies, brownies, pies...you name it. I'm excited to try new recipes next year and plan on freezing even more too.

This is the hillside where it all began. You can see where the dirt is bare, that's where I grew hundreds of pumpkins! There are still a few there that I left for the chickens to peck at.

Jake and Elwood love Pumpkins! They ate every last one!

Can you see the orange pumpkin hue on Jake's face?

Ahhh, Sunsets at the Villa are the BEST!

Landscaping

We rented equipment to landscape the yard.

We also used it to mow down all the suckers

from the new acre we purchased.
We got our beautiful view back!

We pulled out loads and loads of concrete from the old garage foundation.

We also decided to pull out the old barn floor.
What a dusty mess! Olive is in heaven. So is Arron.

Skye helped put in a new pathway down to the goat pasture.

We still have a few days before we have to return the loader...
I wonder what else we could use it for?

I always planned on moving the coop to the new piece in the backyard.
Arron threw a chain around it, wreath and all!

I love the new location.
I can see the chickens out the kitchen window.
It has really kept the chicken poop out of the yard too.

Those chickens free-range all over the back hill.
I love to watch them march back and forth from the pasture.
( I think the goats enjoy watching them too )
Occasionally, I will open the slider door and call them
'Chick, chick, chick' just to watch them run up to the house,
then I will throw food out to them from the second floor window.
I feel like a real red-neck when I do this, but it's so fun.

...Then There Were Eight

We started out with ten chickens.
We realized right away one of them was a Rooster.

The Cock-A Doodle-Do was a dead give away!

What we didn't realize was that we had a late bloomer.

Dude looks like a lady...

Well, not in this picture of course, but we thought for the longest time that

"Gigantor" was just big boned and beautiful.

Then we began to notice changing tail feathers and hackle feathers.

After the first proud Cock-a-Doodle- Do

 we knew for sure she was definitely a he.

Then the fights began.

Two roosters together fight. Boy, do they put on a show.

I can see why cock fighting is so popular,
it's all we could do not to place bets.

But we knew it had to stop.
Two roosters are pretty hard on the hens.

Arron found a way to make them get along.

We had chicken dinner that night.

Peace has been restored to the coop.

Our eight hens are as happy as can be.

Here is a quick update as to the rest of the Villa.

Jake and Elwood are getting big. We had to take Jake to the vet for a badly sprained leg and he weighed about 85lbs. That means Elwood (lardo) is probably tipping the scales at 100 or so. We can't wait to pack with them this summer!

The rock on the house is done.

We need warmer weather to finish the stucco.

Maybe when we get back from Hawaii we'll be pleasantly surprised? (at the time of this post our Hawaii countdown is only hours away, not days)

Backpacking in the Sawtooth Wilderness

Eric and Amy drove down from Vancouver to hike with us in the Sawtooths. I think our last big hike with them was Loon Lake and that was before Lili was born.

The goats got a trial run on this hike. They will be great packing partners, they stayed right by us and only stopped to browse when we stopped. This meadow was pure heaven for them.

The first day was probably the hardest day of the hike, most of it was uphill.

 I was very impressed by how well Lili and Zayah did. They can hike five miles in a day...no problem! I loved how they kept calling Laiken a "Rockstar"

The scenery was beautiful. We made several stops just to enjoy the views.

It rained on and off every day of the hike. Each night we had some pretty intense thunder and lightening. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees sounded like waves on the ocean. The rain was coming down so hard at one point I thought a wave was going to drown us all.

This was our camp site near Alpine lake.

Lad and Skye were going to sleep in their hammocks under a tarp,

but they got washed out and had to join us,

our three man tent quickly became a five man. (plus two dogs)

Don and Suzanne met up with us on the second day while we were playing in the lake.

The sun came out long enough for some swimming.

Olive was so funny! When she "doggie paddled" her paws came

 way up over her head and out of the water.

Artex, is Eric and Amy's dog, he wasn't too keen on the water either.

Alpine Lake was so clear and refreshing.

A great place for a snack.

So then we were off to Sawtooth Lake.

 It was a short enough distance from our camp that we could

 make it there and back without our packs.

Doesn't the mountain backdrop in this photo look fake?

It hailed on us while we hiked back down to Alpine Lake.

At least Skye was prepared for the wet.

The best part about hiking, is there are no distractions.

You can give all your attention to the ones you love.

We stopped for some time on the way back down,

 had lunch and talked with  the other hikers on the trail.

We got several comments on Olive because she was carrying a dog

pack. She had to pack in her and Maggies food.

Of course, we also had to answer many questions about the goats.

Are they tame? - yes.

Why do you bring them backpacking? - they can pack 1/4 of their weight.

Do you have to bring food for them? - no.

Do they stay close to you? - yes
Do you milk them? - they are male dairy goats.

Can I pet them? - sure.

 The goats were a blast to watch.

 Even when they are just sitting there we got a

kick out of watching them chew their cud.

They are so sure footed and love to climb.

Sometimes I think Maggie wishes she was a goat.

Elwood wasn't always too sure about crossing water.

Skye got tired of him trying to make up his mind.

I hope before too long they will be too big to pick up like this.

Maybe on our next backpacking trip we can put packs on them.

We had a wonderful trip!
I love that the Shore family likes to hike and

camp together.I can't wait till our next trip.

We'd like to backpack Seven Devils before it gets cold.