Berry Picking!

Freshly picked blueberries & strawberries

Last week I went with some friends, Ben & Brooke to the Berry Ranch. I picked 9lbs of strawberries and 7lbs of Rocky Mtn. blueberries! I forgot my camera when we went picking, so I didn't get pictures of the fields. The ranch is north of Nampa and you could see the Boise mountains on one side and the Owyhees on the other. It was beautiful!
My grandma Hunt always made Strawberry freezer jam, so I thought to keep the tradition going, I would make some too! I made 2 batches of jam, and only lost 1 jar (so far) to Brian sleep eating :-) It's apparently as tasty as my grandmas! I made a blueberry cobbler and then froze the rest for later snacks.
Idaho has a wonderfully fertile valley here that with the help of irrigation growns tasty fruit and produce. Cherries are in season now, and soon blackberries and red rasberries. Hopefully we'll get to go peach picking in late summer!

Grilling out with friends

The grill master at work, what's for dinner: curry chicken & asparagus.

We have really been enjoying out backyard, patio and grill. More often than not Brian and I eat outside at the picnic table. We've had friends over a lot for dinner lately. It's great to have the space to hang out with friends outside.
Recently our friends Tom and Erin were surprised that we have an ancient lawnmower. Tom thought it was such a novelty, he mowed half of our backyard!

Tom couldn't resist using our 'ancient' lawnmower!

Thanks for reading, come on over for dinner, you're always invited!

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Recently Brian and I got to experience the famous "Niagra of the West", Shoshone Falls. The spring rains and snow melt off were not disappointing! Matter of fact on the drive down we experienced some rain and hail! It was so bad, I pulled the car over and we waited it out. While we were waiting, a motorcycle pulled up and we got to share our car with the couple so they could have some relief from the pelting hail.

What's happening out here....?

Brian wanted to experience the rain first hand, or test out his rain jacket to make sure it's water proof, I'm not really sure, but he was hamming it up for the camera anyway :-)

The falls are natural, though a dam was made there in the 1900s, so that is were a lot of our electricity comes from. Interestingly there was an influx of Chinese who came to work in the Twin Falls area in the gold mines and Idaho had the highest number of Chinese immigrants, but that has since dropped.

The view south of the falls

This summer we are hoping to explore more of the Idaho that we haven't yet seen, and this was on the list. Of course all the photos were taken with my new camera, which I love! It's compact, yet still has the manual functions that are classic to the SLR. Hopefully it will see more use on some trips this summer when my buddy Paula comes to visit!

Gotta love digital, first try just guessing if we were in the viewfinder!

Hopefully Waiting

Tomatoes blooming! Looking healthy and strong.

That goat manure is paying off. The garden is thriving! I've got 15 tomato plants, 8 zuchhini, 5 cucumber, lettuce, carrots, green onions, 2 poblano peppers and lots of different herbs. We have had some nice 70 degree weather, rain and clouds to help them get established, so hopefully they will survive the July heat. I am getting addicted to this gardening thing, I go out to water in the evening and am out to check on them each morning!

Ran out of room in the raised bed, so the zuchhini is in the yard!

Hammock = summer!

We are getting all the use we can of our awesome shaded back yard and patio. Thanks to the English's we have 2 hammocks to hang up! One from Guatemala and the other has been in my car since Cornerstone! Do you remember that dde?

Brian and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary, thank you all that sent cards, it was nice of you to remember. I took these pictures with my new Canon Powershot G10!