Looks like I am behind, again

Thought I would post on the blog today, especially since nothing has been posted for months and months.  This is old stuff, but I had a number of good times in 2012 and want to document them so I can look back and remember what I did.  This blog is my diary.

Since July, the garden has been harvested, some of it cleaned out and now it is time to start ordering seeds for this year's garden.  I would say the hoop house was a success due to the brutal growing conditions we had last summer.  

The stewed tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, salsa, dill pickles, pickle relish, cabbage relish, zucchini/jalapeno relish, sauerkraut, green beans, onions, garlic, salsa w/black beans and roasted corn, and roasted corn relish (the corn came from the field, but the other things came from the garden) are in jars or the freezer.  We have been enjoying them this winter.  


We managed to get away for another camping trip in August to a ranch near Walden.  It is an interesting area.  Dry, with sage brush on the hills and then you can be right up among the aspen and pines in a second.

 
Grandpa and our oldest grandson had a good time fishing.  And there was some different equipment on the Ranch that our grandson had not seen before so that really made the trip worthwhile.  He had a million questions about all of it as well.  

The end of August rolled around and friends Ricky and Don from Winnipeg came for a week.  Ricky and I had a great time dyeing, while Don was roped into helping Joedy, Cory and Rodney build the "Sky Fort".   

We celebrated my mom's 85th birthday party the evening they finished it, so it was thoroughly tested by a number of her great grand kids during the party.  It held up well, thanks to the great construction crew.  It does actually set level.   My grandson refers to it as "Grandma's Park".  Works for me.

Ricky and I traveled to Steamboat Springs the next week to take an applique class from David Taylor.  We stayed at the The Steamboat Grand .  It is a very nice place, but quite a hike from our room to the classroom.  We decided that was our exercise each day.  

One morning when I was admiring the beauty of the valley, I saw this bushy, tailed fox searching for breakfast on the path below our hotel window.   His photo showed up in the local paper on Friday.  

It was a great class!!!  We had a good time, meet some very  nice women, with a great deal of talent.  There were 25 of us and we came from all over the place.  Sheri took very good care of us, too. 

 David is an excellent instructor and is shown giving us some tips on quilting.   I learned a great deal and hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get back to working on the piece I started.  It is a  photo of Vixey, our little Pomeranian we had for a number of years.     

Joedy and Don came over to meet us after the class was over.   While Ricky and Don headed west, we headed east.  We went home the back way, stopped by the Ranch near Walden and through Winter Park.  The aspen were starting to turn, something we seldom see since we are busy with fall work most of the time.    

That takes care of the third quarter of 2012.  Will get another post completed about the rest of 2012.   Then I can start on 2013.