Home for the Hens



A few months ago Doug and Cody brainstormed and decided to build a new chicken coupe for my 19 chickens. They put their heads together and designed exactly what they wanted and built my ladies a really nice home with windows, doors, (for both the chickens and for people), a nesting area and a roosting area. They also designed a continuous feeder and waterers which will cut down on the amount of work we have to do every day. While Doug is gone we decided to paint the outside of it. I was hoping for multicolored stripes, or maybe pink, but Doug didn't care for my suggestions so we settled on a red chicken coupe and white trim. This proved to be a good project for Cody, and he worked diligently until it was finished. We all did a little bit, but Cody did the greatest part of the work. It looks great! 

Cody painting the white boarder.

Me rolling the red on.  Cody went ahead of me and got into the cracks
in between the slats.  That took a long time.

Dalyon and his friend Dallas helping for a minute.

Cami and her friend Harley not missing a chance to roll a little bit, but
it soon became boring so off they went to play. 

The front finished, now only 3 more sides to go. 
 Cody finished them after school the next week.
I think we should paint a big black "H" on it
in honor of the Hurricane Tigers. 

Good job everybody!  Especially Cody and Dad for making a new home for the hens. Thanks!!

Catching up

How time flies when you are having fun!  The past few weeks have been super busy and I realized yesterday that I haven't been updating my blog like I like to.  It was about three weeks ago that Doug left to go and move houses in Idaho, Montana and North Dakota and I guess being a single parent has taken up my blogging time.  He plans to stay up there for a while longer and work, because that is where the work is right now so I guess I had better start scheduling myself time for my blog. 

The past few weeks have been full of volleyball, football, and fun times with Halloween and other activities.  Mady finished her Volleyball season strong with the freshmen only losing one match the whole season!  Way to go!  In her last home game she played strong and was the star of the game by getting her moves and serves right on.  Her coach's Mom is a photographer and they shared some pictures with us. 

Mady has perfect form for her killer serves.

Freshman Volleyball Team
(Back left)  Mady Beutler, Ceirci Sundin, Alyssa Bohnne, Chelsi Cahoon,
Lindsay Kapcsos, Brooke Francis, Lindsay Quilter (Coach), Kelly LeBaron, Kaitlen Cooper,
 Kelsey Chesley, Shelby Copeland, MaKaylee Shea, and Samantha Stevens

We are very proud of our freshman team and their coach Lindsay Quilter.  Mady loves to play and I was really proud of her skills and precision as she played.  She is already signed up for Club Volleyball that goes from January to May.  I guess you can never get enough volleyball!!

 Mady also played in the Halloween Orchestra concert on October 27 with the Middle School Orchestra.  Everyone dressed up for the concert, and true to form, Mady out did herself and was unofficially voted the best costume.  She wore a t-shirt that said "This IS my Halloween costume".  Her dry humor never ceases to amaze me. 

Cody has also been busy.  He had an Orchestra concert on the same night as a football game and chose the concert to keep his grade.  I have learned that he is a very strong player (according to Mrs. Ferrin) and that he produces a great sound.  I could tell he really liked playing with his group, but he will never admit it to anyone.  He is nearing the end of the football season and is hoping to be chosen for the all stars.  He plays center, and lineman on both offense and defense and really likes the roughness of football.  He told me the other day that he can't wait to play Rugby, where there are no pads, and few rules.  Definitely something for me to look forward to! 

Kick off.  Cody is #66 on the line.

A very beautiful night for a football game.  Very cold, and the sunset was beautiful.

Three weeks ago Austin traveled to Dayton to pick up 220 sacks of potatoes that the FFA were selling to raise money for scholarships.  It was the first time he has traveled to Idaho without one of us with him and I must admit that I was nervous, especially because he took three of his friends with him. He took Darringer Scow, Kris Wilson, and Dan Thompson.   Austin did a great job driving and had a great time with his friends in Logan and on the farm in Dayton.  Grandma fed the boys really well and Grandpa let them take his jeep out four-wheeling and to play in Logan so they didn't have to take Dougs truck everywhere.  They have great pictures on their phones of their adventures, and got to work on Wes Beutler's potato farm sacking the very potatoes that they sold.  I think it was a good experience for everyone, and I was really thankful to have Austin return home that Sunday afternoon safely.  Doug left for Idaho/Montana the morning that Austin was coming home so they met in Nephi and had lunch together before they continued onto each of their destinations.  What a crazy weekend that ended up being.   

The Boys of Fall

I love fall.  I love the cooler air, I love sleeping with my windows and doors open, I love walking in the mornings, I love the leaves changing, and the thoughts that the whole earth is slowing down in preparation for winter. 

When I was in high school I loved it because it was football season and the drill team I participated in got to perform at the games.  Now that I'm older and have kids, I love it because I can go and cheer on the kids I know playing, and performing at the games.  Our son Cody is a football player on the 7th grade team and I love to go to his games and scream and yell for him.  Right now he is one of the bigger players on his team and plays both offense and defense line.  He plays center in most games, that means he hikes the ball to the quarterback to begin the play.  He loves to tackle and get physical.

Cody is getting ready to hike the ball. 

  A few weeks ago we were playing Enterprise on a Saturday afternoon and Cody's team was winning.  The defensive line was joking that it would be so great if they could make a defensive tackle, and not too many plays later that is what they did!  They were so excited!  We were all cheering and jumping up and down.  That is something that doesn't happen very often for sure.  During that same game Cody was on the defensive line, the other team was at the 10 yard line (their 90 yard line because our defense kept pushing them back) and their quarterback went to pass the ball and Cody jumped up and caught the pass.  He looked over at his coach to see what he should do because he wasn't supposed to run the ball as a defensive lineman, and then ran to the side hoping to get it the 10 yard to the goal.  Unfortuately, he got tackled before he got there, but the play was super exciting non-the-less!  Cody was walking on clouds the rest of the day from realizing what he could do.  

 He plays on the Hurricane black team and so far they are undefeated.  They have a lot of good competition this year so all the games are close.  They played Desert Hills last week and had to go into overtime with the score of 0-0.  Finally Hurricane made an overtime touchdown and won the game.  It was so fun!  Way to go Tigers!!  Woot!  Woot! 

Homecoming 2011

After having such a fun vacation it was hard to jump back into the business of my life, but whether we wanted to or not, we jumped with both feet because the next week was Homecoming for Hurricane High School. The kids dressed up nearly everyday for spirit week and I was surprised when Austin decided to dress up for pajama day. He and Jake Nielson, and Kris Wilson dressed up the cowboy way.

 They are funny guys.  Friday and Saturday were the two busiest days of the week with the homecoming parade and game, and the dance.  Because Austin is the president of the FFA he was very busy.  Their officer team decided to be involved in all the activities this year as well as with lighting the H the night of the game, which the FFA does every year.  They outdid themselves with the float, and lots of people wanted to ride with them, which was really good for membership recruitment. 

This is Chris Wilson and Clint Gubler in the bucket, I'm not sure who the farthest one is, or who the
girl is.  KC, Clint's sister is sitting on the hood in her Volleyball shirt.  Austin would raise them and lower them
while they were driving the parade.  It was very funny!

Austin was pretty happy to be surrounded by girls, and cheerleaders too!  This is KC Gubler on the hood,
the cheerleader standing are Shelly Stirland and Tonda (she clogs with Mady but I don't know her last name),
Natalie Bjelland is sitting on the right fender, and I don't know the girl on the left. 

To light the H the FFA had to gather #10 cans, get diesel donated from Interstate Rock, and
sawdust from Woodcarver Cabinets.  They cleaned the H earlier in the week, and set out the cans and filled them
with sawdust earlier in the afternoon on Friday.  During the football game they filled the cans with diesel
and at halftime they lit them on fire.  It was really cool to see the H forming, and then to see the little 12 on the side for the 2012 graduating class. Way to go Austin for putting it all together!!

Austin and McCarty Amy, Jake Nielson and Jessica Stratton.  Jake and Jessica rolled their four wheeler into a barbed wire fence during their day date and spent the afternoon in the instacare.  Jessica ended up with 6 stitches in her wrist and both had a lot of scratches.  I was so glad they were OK and still able to go to the dance!

Darringer Scow and Keisha Howard.  Both look very nice!

This is Chris Wilson and his date (to the left of him) and in front is Coy

Gubler and his date (to the right of him).  I wish I could remember the girls names.

They were funny because they didn't know how to eat a fancy place setting, but

we helped them out with which fork to use and what to do with the cloth napkin.

The whole evening was very fun.  I was grateful to all the moms who helped put the dinner together at the last minute.  We had apricot chicken and vegetables (me), Britta Nielson brought salad, Chris's mom Liz bought the chicken and vegetables, Coy's mom Marvene brought desert and drinks, and Darringers mom Cindy did the appetizer, all of which was really yummy!!!  Doug put the lights up for me around the veranda.  I was hoping for a single string of white Christmas lights, but he didn't want to dig that deep into the light box so he found three strands of icicle lights that only half of each strand worked.  He kind of threw them up around each table and it looked hideous in the daylight, but at night it seemed OK.  For not having a lot of notice, it turned out really well.  Chris's mom and dad also took their pictures in our back yard.  I hope to get copies of them soon. 

Alaska!!! #4

Friday and Saturday of our trip we stayed on the ship and the ship took us to some wonderful places.  On Friday we went into Glacier Bay, a national park that has beautiful glaciers and used to be the home of the Native Americans who now live on Huna.  (I think they are called the Tlingit).  We had a national park ranger narrate our passage through the park, letting us know when he spotted animals, glaciers, or whatever.  There are only 5 growing glaciers in Alaska and we got to see 2 of them.  They are constantly moving and progressing and they pop or crack, which sounds like a gun, and moan which sounds like thunder.  We were also able to witness the glacier calving, which means large pieces of ice crack and fall into the ocean.  It makes a very loud sound when this happens that you can only experience by being there.  It was very cold, but very interesting.  It was amazing to know that a whole population of people lived there at one time. 

The glacier looks small from here, but it is three times the height of our ship! 

Six seal lions were resting on their backs and floated passed the ship on a large piece
of ice.  They were really fun to watch.

The glacier from a little closer.  It is unreal to hear the sounds it made as it moved towards the
ocean.  The pops sounded like gun shots and thunder.  When it calved, even the slightest
breaks off the ice, made huge waves in the very still water.

Doug and I in front of the glacier.  Why do I always close my eyes when I have a picture
taken?  There wasn't even a flash this time.  lol

This is a picture of a growing glacier.  The ship wasn't allowed to go up into the channel, but it was
neat to see it from the binoculars.  The water was so still and peaceful.

Our cute little cabin stewards left us this cute monkey hanging from the lamp.
Everyday we got something different that was fun.  They  were really good to us!!

Twenty minutes before this shot this was a huge block of ice.  Now it is a standing fish.  It
was really fun to watch him carve it with chisels and files.

Finally I got to go dancing!!  Doug and I went up to the "Crows nest" and this is me doing
the Macarana with a group of other lady's.  This cruise was mostly elderly people so the men were
watching from the surrounding chairs and the women were line dancing.  At ten o'clock when the real dancing began
the room cleared except for only a few of us because it was bedtime for the elderly.  Doug and I had a great time anyway! 

Sunday morning we disembarked the ship in Seward and headed on a bus to Anchorage. 

It was sad to leave the ship and all the new friends we had made, and the fact that I never had to make my bed, clean my room, or cook for myself.  The bus stopped several times along the way to stretch and the scenery was amazing.  We have lots of pictures to share, but I narrowed it down to just a few. 

Jeremy and Bobette being cozy on the bus.  Jeremy was more than ready to get home. 

Finally on the plane.  Five hours later we will be in Las Vegas!! (We flew into Vegas at 11:00 Sunday night).

Our parting shot of Alaska from the window of the airplane was of the glaciers of College Fjord.  They
are beautiful from any angle. 

What an amazing trip we had.  I find myself daydreaming about it frequently and having a hard time getting back into the swing of things again.  We didn't get our land legs back for a few days, so we were swaying or loosing our balance everywhere we went.  It was worth it though.  Definitely the vacation of a lifetime! 

Alaska #3

Wednesday we ported in Juneau where it was raining and raining and raining. We had hoped to take a float plane up and see Alaska from the skies and possibly fly over some of the glaciers, but because of the rain and fog we wouldn't have been able to see anything so we signed up for a whale watching adventure instead. It turned out to be a great day for whale watching because the naturalist told us that the whales like to play in the rain.

There are only a few humpback whales left in Juneau this time of year, and we were very privileged to see this guy and a mom and her baby.  You can see its hump in this picture.

When the whales dive deep they will flick their tails out of the water.  It was about 20 minutes before we saw him again and he spouted about 30 feet in front of the boat.  It scared me because Doug and I we standing on the bow (the front) of the boat in the rain waiting for him to surface.  It was really neat.  The captain of our boat and our naturalist who taught us about the whales were both return missionaries working up there for the season.  It was fun to be in such good hands. 

In Skagway we took the short train ride into Canada on the historic White Pass Train line.  The cars are all old time and occasionally the old steam engines pull the train, although now they have diesel engines that pull us over the original tracks made back when the Yukon gold rush was in full steam.  Skagway was the only sea port for the gold miners. 
The following pictures are of our ride up the pass to Canada.

Bobette and Jeremy, Doug, Lynne and Cliff waiting for the train to pull out.

Bobette, me and Jeremy walking to a less populated car. 

We were in a car near the back so we could see the rest of the train as it progressed up the beautiful mountain.  Alaska in September is beautiful with all of the color changes.  I couldn't get enough of it!

This is another train crossing an old bridge and entering into a tunnel above us.  We went through it a few minutes later.

At a short stop in Canada before we headed back down to Skagway.  This is our very nice conductor.  The narrator for our train ride was also a return missionary from Orem Utah. 

This is a beautiful picture of a bridge that is not in use anymore, but was the original track.  I love all of the colors!

Doug and I standing in front of the plaque and statue of the earliest prospectors
 looking toward the hills in hopes of gold. 

This is a snowplow they use to clear the track in the winter.  They said they used it last winter because
of the need to keep the track open to haul the ore down to the dock for the increasing mining now going on
in the Yukons.  It hadn't been used for years prior but it still worked!! 

Doug standing on one of the first steam engines now on a side track.  In WWII they had to bury
many of the engines to hide them from the Japanese.  This one they dug up to use as parts for another
engine they were trying to fix.  They left it on the side track.  Doug was fascinated and climbed all over it!! 

Seeing Alaska in the fall with all the changing leaves and colors was so enlightening.  Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and seeing the beautiful country of Canada and Alaska has made it even more so.  Both cities are a must see!!