4 Little Crosby's come to visit...part 1

Bret & Becki's kids, Kingston, London, Dempsey and Ivory all came to stay with Gma & Gpa for a week. We had a good time, they helped cook and do chores, they played in the irrigation ditch, we went to the library a couple of times and watched a few movies.  I think they all had fun!

 Most mornings they just wanted cold cereal, but some mornings

we had a good, big breakfast.  

 They like to help!

What's french toast without whipping cream?

Gpa gave Kingston this little 'leather-man' and he thought

it was pretty cool.

After breakfast chores. It seems like yesterday when

his Dad was doing the same thing!!

 The first few days it was HOT, so the kids loved playing on

this little tire swing, but we definitely needed an upgrade!

Gpa just hadn't had time to work on a new one!

 I guess I didn't tie Dempsey's swimsuit up very good!

The kids would play in the ditch awhile, then come into the house for awhile, then back out to the ditch. That's always fun, lots of clothes changing, wet towels, wet swimsuits all over, etc.  Then they would be hungry, of course! 

More to come in part 2.....

PART TWO!

Grandpa brought home another project!  He plans on getting this neat little thing all fixed up for the grandkids!  Should be FUN!

His next project was the tire swing. Kingston was his little helper. An hour project took all day! 

He had trouble getting the welding to work right and his helmet stopped working right too! 

 Now to hang it in the tree!

The bridge wasn't quite wide enough, so Gpa added another board!

After all Gpa's hard work, I made him move it so it would swing more over the water!!

Cute Ivory! 

 The ending to a great week!  S'mores at the fire pit!

And to top off a great week, we got 10 new little bunnies!!

Lots of 'stuff' going on....

It seems like we, especially LaVerl, have been so busy lately. Last week we got a lot done. The 11 baby rabbits LaVerl has been feeding and feeding and picking lots of greens from his garden, and alfalfa growing all over town, (who knew rabbits ate so much!) were finally old enough to butcher. We originally started out with 14, but Blake took 3 home back to Utah with him, those were 3 very lucky little bunnies.  

 Yep, they are/were pretty cute. We had white ones, spotted white and gray ones, gray ones and black ones.

 LaVerl's good friend (Floyd Penrod) and expert on rabbits came over to show LaVerl how its done. 

 Its pretty quick and easy, when you know what you're doing.

 We had some really pretty rabbit pelts, but didn't really know how to save them.

I decided to put them in a pressure canner and cook them. Then I de-boned them (they have lots of little bones) and ended up with 4 big cookie sheets of meat. 

It smelled just like chicken when I was cooking it and it looks like chicken. I bet I could use it to make enchiladas and my kids would never know!! We put it all in the freeze dryer, and then sealed it all in mylar bags. We saved some leg quarters out and fried them up for dinner, pretty good, just a little more tough than chicken. 

We got all these tomatoes from Uncle Bryan's garden and I canned 14 quarts. 

We've been freeze drying peas too. LaVerl's green house is doing well. He has his tomatoes, cantaloupe, cucumbers, green chili peppers, lettuce, watermelon, broccoli, beets, cilantro, carrots rhubarb and bell peppers in there. He's also trying some artichokes this year. 

 There is also a huge fire going on by Show Low on the Apache Indian Reservation, they are calling it the 'Cedar Fire'.  It has burned 45, 977 acres and it only 60% contained! The smoke just kind of settles around us, sometimes we can smell it, and it seems pretty smoky.

 LaVerl has now planted 10 grape vines, lots of different

varieties. He said he will have grapes before he dies!! He's using

the front fence for his trellis, which will work out great!

 His asparagus plants are doing well.

 He wishes his strawberries were doing better.

 His corn and raspberries are doing good too. He has put

everything on a drip system with timers!  Lots of work. This

is only one grow box, he has another one down below the ditch where we have always put our garden. There he has potatoes, more corn, more peas,  green beans, onions, more carrots, yellow crook neck, zucchini, anasazi beans, spinach, and more peppers. 

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH ALL THIS FOOD?

It was sooo... HOT the last couple of weeks, but we are so lucky it doesn't last long. Now it has been clouding up and we got one really good rain on Friday, so it has cooled down. I LOVE this time of year when its cloudy and rainy. The rains will help ALL of LaVerl's gardens grow and also help put out the fires!!