Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Eve at our house


We've been having a lot of fun with relatives and friends the past few days. Lots of delicious food, lots of laughter, and the warmth of people we love. Ben has such a wonderful family and I feel so lucky to be a part of that circle. We've also been blessed with a lovely and caring community of friends, many of whom came home to Newton this past week.
However, these are some pictures I took when I was having fun with our camera on our quiet, yet special Christmas Eve at our house.











Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Spiders & Sweet Girls

Above: Camera stealers! I found this picture on my camera after a week of VBS. Erin and Joanna were in my drama team and did a great job! They were also fun to be with.

I really don't mind spiders that much, but I just don't like the poisonous kind. In my bathroom.


(and yeah, apparently, I have a bunch of spider webs to clean up on the bathroom ceiling, too.)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Rain Barrels and More Music

I've finally finished some rain barrels that I've been half-heartedly working on for several years. At the beginning of the summer, I'll get fired up to work on them for a couple of hours. But then something goes wrong and I lose all motivation and abandon them for another year. This year I just bit the bullet and finished them. I think I may have set the world record for longest time taken to build rain barrels.

With a little more than an inch of rain, we can collect 300 gallons of water that we can easily use to water our garden using a normal hose. And I built them in such a way that if I want to add more barrels later it can be easily done.

They're not pretty, but they get the job done. I have them tied together at the bottom with hoses so that only one needs to be under the downspout but it will fill all three equally because of the water pressure.

Exciting times.

I finished another song for the poetry CD. This one is for a poem written about the Sago mine disaster. I tried to take a different tack and not just write another "sad" song, but instead focus in on the hardness of the mine, the rocks and the miners. It's called "Coal and Granite"

Here it is:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io


And here's a teaser! The Book of Jebb CD is one step closer to being released! It will probably still be several months, but it's coming along. This is one of the songs I wrote for the group:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Garden: May 31, 2010


Blue Chairs. Check out purple Clematis growing for the first time.


We added sulfur and manure compost to our garden this year and it's taking off! Tomatoes are way taller than usual. Beans and peppers are all growing very nicely.




Notice the snap pea make-shift trellis? (below)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Graduation Party

So Andrea has graduated with her Master's Degree after two years of hard work and summers spent at North Dakota University. She managed to find time to do all her coursework and work 80% and still had time to host sushi nights and play volleyball and volunteer way too many places and just generally be everybody's favorite person.

Our friend Marathana just graduated as well, so we decided to have a joint Graduation party in Marathana and Brett's backyard.

This is Brett. And me. And 9 gallons of sweet, sweet lemonade.
This is Marathana.

The party was a success. The cool people showed up, there were burgers and tons of other food, including three different cakes, there was a fire and a jam session, and our good friends Ruth and Foort came down from Winnipeg and hung out with us (and stayed with us for a few days afterwards, also. We had all manner of fun).

Andrea asked me to take some pictures to document the party. I'm not much of a photographer, but I did my best to capture the important parts.






Saturday, May 15, 2010

Lazy Saturday

In the craze of May, Ben and I enjoyed a surprisingly relaxing Saturday at home. Here are some home developments...
I painted the livingroom again. I painted it Ansonia Peach and the woodwork white. I really like it. It's bright and fresh.


Today we deep cleaned the sun room. One of the things we had to move out of the sun room that had not been touched in a long time (in over 4 years) was Ben's dulcimer... We were taking a break from moving furniture, when I heard a sudden burst of long-forgotten melody coming from the living room. I'm not sure it's a full revival, but it was cool to see him play after so long. (He gave me permission to post this.)




And here are some pictures of Newman and me having a love-fest. Newman just got groomed so he's extra cuddly these days.





Saturday, April 3, 2010

Garden/House Pictures (mostly for mom)- Easter 2010


Above: Rose bush (not yet blooming)
Below: Hyacinth



Above: Pansy
Below: Quinz bush blooming



Above: Front East garden bed (pansies)
Below: Red Door (house is not crooked---it's the camera....and the birdhouse)



Above: Blossoming branches
Below: Easter tree


Happy Easter (almost!) Christ has almost risen! Risen tomorrow!