House O' Sullivans

 We've introduced "the chicks" into the big chicken coop several times, but each time the three older chickens have a peck-fest on them and we break down and mercifully remove them to the temporary backyard cage.  This week, when "the chicks" started laying eggs, it was time to merge the herds.  Little Black Bill and Candy moved into the big coop with the old ladies--Toe-zy, Rainbow Lacey, and Bunny Wailer (recently renamed "Tootsie Roll" by Hal).  The poor little things stayed huddled high on a wooden 2 by 4 ledge though, rarely dropping down to eat or drink for fear of a good pecking.  I decided to remove the alpha female to see if things got better.  We put her in solitary isolation in the front yard and decided that her time had come.  The three big chicken look identical (to ME at least), but Sophie and Hallee claimed the main offender (the one in the isolation cage) was Zeke's--Toe-zy.  They didn't want to think of...

Five years ago, some of our friends started a boy's ranch modeled after the Lowell Bennion Teton Boys Ranch.  The boys spend two weeks living at an incredibly beautiful ranch in Weber Canyon working hard, serving in the local community, and adventuring. Casey's helped out each year, usually in small ways, since he is so busy.  For the last three years, Casey's dad and mom have come up with us with their horses.  Doug talks with the boys about his experiences training and working with horses and we all have dinner at the ranch.  This year Doug, cousin Jessie, and Megan came up and went on a trail ride with some of the boys.  Hallee wanted to go, so grandpa took her on his horse Pecos.  They were out on the trail for a couple of hours, and when they came back Hallee announced that her stomach hurt.  It was a hot afternoon and they were out in full sun, AND she hadn't eaten any lunch, so I just thought she was probably hungry and dehyd...

Hallee, Sophie, Zeke, and Grandma on scene I took the kids to the Days of 47 Parade last year on a last minute whim.  I had a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a barely one-year-old and I was working alone.  The kids LOVED it and it wasn't a big deal, like I'd envisioned.   We parked a couple of blocks away and walked down to the parade route just as the first police motorcycles whizzed by and got great seats.   Hallee This year I invited my Mom to come with us.  She loves parades and has lots of fond memories of this one with her family when she was a little girl.  We pulled a repeat this year.  Parked a couple of blocks away from the route, walked onto the scene right as the first of the parade came by.  Got 'em.  This year we scored some sweet spots under the trees and in the shade of the Leonardo.  The ground slopes up toward the building, so we had stadium seating even though we were a few layers back in the...

Last Thursday I drove all the way up to Albion Basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon with Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke and our friends Ginny and Lorena (and Lorena's kids Marquis and Amanda).  I haven't been up to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon for a while and it is gorgeous.  The wildflowers are in full bloom and the weather at Alta was perfect for a hike.  Our goal was modest: Make it to Cecret Lake. Hal Pal by the trail head Beautiful Sophie Marquis and Hal, hand-in-hand, hiking the steep section right before the lake Right as we crested the final rise before we came to the lake, there was MY MOM.  I didn't know she was up there hiking that day.  She's joined forces with a local "Live and Thrive" group and they hike all over these here hills multiple times a week.  I was happy to see her happy and enjoying good company on a spectacular day. Hallee found this piece of glass and wanted me to take a picture of it for her....

CBS, staging before our hike Last weekend we went up to a church-owned property on the South Fork of the Provo near Woodland for our ward's camp out.  Since the weather was looking a bit sketchy, only the truly dedicated came.  Our family and a few others.  We cooked up some barbecued chicken in the dutch oven for dinner, roasted some marshmallows over the coals, baked cookies in an over-turned foil-covered cardboard box with hot coals under it, and went to sleep to the soft sound of lightly falling rain.  Our tent leaked in a few places, but after some body repositioning, we hardly noticed.  Saturday morning, we hiked up the Noblett's Creek trail with our neighbor, Debi Johnson.  It was ridiculously beautiful.  The creek is fed by a spring so the water is extremely clear and the vegetation thick and lush.  I kept looking for leprechauns, unicorns, and fairies, because if they exist, it would be in a place like this. Ze...

This week was a good one.  Casey captured two gigantic rats in the mongo rat traps that I picked up at the local Home Depot.  Somehow the fellows decided that our yard was the goods and moved in a couple of months back.  When I do the dishes (which is often since we no longer have a dishwasher) I look out the window above the sink and survey the backyard.  I usually spot at least one a day running along the back fence.  Totally disgusting.  Unfortunately, they like our composter and the chicken feed.  I first borrowed my sister Mary's raccoon trap to try to capture them.  Casey and I set it a few times and caught a bird, then a cat, then gave that idea up.  Casey has stealthily opened the back window, pushed out the barrel of a shotgun, and tried to snipe them several times to no avail.  We are totally redneck, I know.  Our last ditch effort was the giant old-school traps.  The first day we caught...

Casey turned 41 last month (June 3rd) and to celebrate I made four pies of his favorite persuasion--strawberry rhubarb.  Yum!  I remember visiting my Grandma White in Lemont, PA during the summers when I was a little girl and she'd make this pie too.  It is one of my best childhood summer food memories because it was always so good and "rhubarb" sounded so exotic.  (We never had it at OUR house.) Uncle Dewey's birthday is the day after Casey's, June 4th.  Dewey turned 61, and we were lucky to share a dinner of homemade pizza and salad harvested from our garden on his birthday with him and with my mom.  His "cake" was a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. At least once a summer, we end up at Sugarhouse Park with a bucket of greasy KFC and a picnic blanket.  I think this is another replay for me of good childhood food memories.  We spread the blanket out by Parley's Creek (the stream that runs through the park) unde...