Seasons

We feel so blessed to live some place where we get to experience the changes of the seasons. It's energizing. Yesterday we had a nice bath of fresh rain poured over us. So wonderful for our thirsty yard. The mountains were dusted with snow and our deck shivered with the white stuff. I spent the day organizing wool, cleaning the house, visiting an antique shop and cooking up a hearty batch of soup!

Here is the "basic" recipe I put together...

Garden Vegetable Tortellini Soup

1 package of cheese tortellini
64 oz. chicken broth
1 large can pureed tomatoes
2 -3 cups diced assorted fresh veggies such as: tomatoes, zucchini, onions,
carrots, new potatoes, kale, garlic etc. Whatever you have on hand.
1 -2 cans white beans, drained

Boil the tortellini as package directs. Drain. Meanwhile saute veggies about 5-8 minutes. (I chopped a large leaf of Kale to throw in the pot later) In a large pot combine all ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes to allow flavors to marry.
I seasoned with S&P, Italian Seasoning and some cayenne pepper.
Such a yummy meal served with some nice crusty bread!

One last thing per request from our friend Hilary and ANYONE

else who loves Cafe Rio's Pulled Pork Salad ~

take a lookie over here at this blog.

Good Byes to August & Summer

It's Honey Harvest Time!

Their new baby.
Spinnerific! This sweet little gem spins 9 frames of
honey at the touch of a switch. Dean and Mark's backs and
arms have never been more grateful on a honey spinning day.

It so exciting to see the honey pour out the bottom.
You can hardly keep your fingers out of it!
{Although we do enforce very strict hygiene codes}

Sometimes you have to wrangle the spinner
to keep her on her toes.
Dean, Grandpa Garlick and Jake steady her.

Camber & Lisa are cutting of the cappings. Let me tell you
how wonderful the smell is when that hot knife heats
up that golden honey. Heaven.

Here the honey is being strained into five gallon buckets.
Just look at all of that sweet honey :)
Our harvest this year from two hives was about 16-17 gallons.

One hive we adopted from neighbors was
naughty and produced zip.

• Every year each hive produces a unique flavor.
• The honey will vary in its color and consistency as well.
• Its so exciting to try them all.
• The Garlick's had five hives and there were so many flavors to taste!
• Bees are remarkable little critters.

Glad we get to bee their caretakers.

Cache Valley Century


Mark was able to ride a good portion of the Cache Valley Century!
Saturday morning, bright and early he and his biking buddy, Eric, left from our hill.
They were planning on doing the 60 mile loop as Mark had only fit in 4 rides
this summer {read Achilles injury/surgery} but they stretched
it to 85 miles! Way to go biker guys!!
He looks forward to this ride every year.
We live is such a gorgeous valley!



Wool

I have been dying lots of wool and organizing all the bits and pieces
I have accumulated over the past seven years of this little
business/hobby venture of mine.

I have decided to host an
*OPEN HOUSE*
for Black Sheep Woolens

The preparations have been a lot of fun and I am hoping
to share some holiday magic with others who love to

*create*

we seem all do a little better and smile a little bigger when we get our creative juices energized with each other

I am passing out these fliers with the info.
The local quilt shops will also have them.


for directions to our home send me an email
deer-hollow[@] comcast dot net

Hoping for good weather that weekend~
should be a blast!

Home Grown Goodness

We patiently wait for months to taste the sweet treat
of a fresh tomato.
Last week end we had out first tasty sandwich!
Our shady yard doesn't produce much . . .
But we get some pretty tasty tomatoes.
Thanks to a wonderful farmers market, our favorite corn
growers in Tremonton and neighbors who
share their harvests all summer long,
we relish in the goodness of homegrown food.
Hope you are enjoying the bounties of summer as well!





Cache Valley Gardner's Market

Don't you just love people who go for it!
This cute family is from North Logan and
had all kinds of great honey based products you could purchase.
(I will join Mark shortly as we are harvesting our honey today!)

I bought the cute little zipper flower from
Apostrophy Designs.
I liked her creativity and energetic personality.

And for lunch today. . .
Roasted Beet Salad

Roast beets for about an hour in the oven, leaving on the tail and about an inch of the greens.

(Or pierce with fork and microwave for about 12-15 minutes)

Let them cool a little and carefully cut off hot skins and slice.

Serve over a bed of spinach and fresh garden greens with toppings of your choice:

Blue cheese crumbles, bacon, red onions, orange slices, nuts, etc.

For the dressing:

Combine 1/3 cup orange juice, 2 T white balsamic vinegar (or the regular), a sprinkle

of sugar and salt and pepper to taste. It is the most beautiful color when it picks up

the juices of the beets in the salad bowl.

Enjoy! And beets are great for your heart!

Beginning & Ending Together

"I'm a SENIOR!"
"I'm in High School!"

Body language says it all...




How fun! Sisters in the same school. It's been about seven years since they were
together in school. Wow ~ time flies and now our baby is in High School.
How do Mom and Dad feel about this? Pretty excited for her. She is a blast.
We sure did get a good crop of youngins!

Good luck this year!
XOXO

The Tetons Have Our Hearts

To spend time in the Tetons is always such a treat. It's a little gift we like to give ourselves at least once a year. We spent four days soaking up the beauty with Camber, Emily, Dean, Shaura, Melece and Sasha. This was the one and only trip we saw very little wildlife. The birds were plentiful but everyone else was hunkered down due to all the crazy thunder and lightening storms. It was an adventure non-the-less and we really enjoyed each others company and beauty around us. The skies were absolutely enchanting with the dramatic cloud formations.

Our traditional float down the river turned out to be a "paddle for your life experience"! But still a great adventure and worth the effort to be on the river. When we put in the skies were sunny and blue and within about twenty minutes with dark clouds were gathering and a huge thunder and lightening storm was coming at us very quickly. We learned we could paddle very quickly and hugged the shoreline with towering trees. Our beautifully packed picnic lunch was devoured in the suburban as we drove back to the hostel. (Great little find by the way - it's located in Teton Village.)

We also enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Nora's Fishcreek Inn, lunch at a yummy little place in Jackson (I have forgotten the name - will research that!) and hiking around Two Oceans' Lake, the hike up to Phelps Lake and exploring the river south of Jenny's Lake. We were able to take in some of the beautiful galleries and stop my personal favorite ~ Wild Hands. And we can't forget the yummy fudge and treats from the candy store :)

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~John Muir