Anybody home? D day for pigs...

I almost forgot I had a blog. I should update this regularly and not do facebook. I haven't really been on there anyway.
So I am working hard to grow the biz with advice from Dad and Joe. Feeling very encouraged and trying to motivate myself to read the Bible, pray and rely on God every day. Not doing too well yet but still need to stay positive and ask for encouragement.
Today, Tara and I took our pig and the last one of Diana's (our friend who rents the barn) to the butcher house. I borrowed a small livestock trailer from our 4H leader and we drove into the yard behind the bard. This way we could let the pigs out and try to get them into the trailer with out them getting away into the street. I thought of this because Diana said she had a hard time with her first 3 pigs when she and her kids tried to take them out the front of the barn. So I drive back there, put the fence back up and open the trailer door. I open the pig pen and herd them out the back door. They ran around for about a minute and then saw the trailer. They went up and looked at it and then jumped in! I ran to shut the door and voila! Pigs were loaded. Yah hoo!
So we headed off to Northwest premium meats. There are a few places around to take them and the most popular one is book for months right now because they book heavy after the fair. So we go in and do the paper work and stuff, that took a while. Tara and I both had to use the bathroom so one at a time they led us to their bathroom and we had to walk through the butchering rooms! In the first room, we had to duck around a hanging carcass that may have been a lamb, and saw them cutting and wrapping. Then toward the back on the other side of the bathroom, I saw the room where they were cleaning the animals who had been killed and drained. Very strange to see that for the first time. Just a quick glance and I did not see a lot of blood or gory stuff. Unless you consider walking past ready to cut, whole animal carcass and meat bits on the floor gory.
They do Buffalo there that a group of ranchers raise in Oregon. So we bought some ground bison and jerky and some dog bones, finished our paperwork and drove the pigs around back to unload. We saw 4 buffalo in a trailer waiting to be unloaded and they were awesome looking up close! We saw some elk, cows and sheep in the waiting area already. So we drove the trailer into the corral and the guy opened the gate. I opened the trailer and Tibby jumped right out and went into the building with no real effort. Babe did not want to get out so I had to get into the trailer and push her out but they both went in with no problems. We said goodbye to our good girls and were off. Tara took many pics and some vids so we will get those up.
Tara remembered that she wanted to get some beef liver, so we went back into the front and asked about it. The guy was not sure if he had any so he went into the cooler to look. He came back out with bison liver and said it was on the house since we just dropped off the pigs. Cool!
The whole experience was very cool actually. I was not too sad about the pigs because I know they were raised lovingly and will be killed mercifully. God gave them to us to treat right and sustain us. None of the animals there seemed scared or anything and the whole operation seemed very humane to me. I'm so glad to have these new experiences and it is helping us to plan and decide what we want for the future as far as property and raising animals and such.
OK, I hope this all made sense.

US and AJ in Idaho

Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan left us this morning after a 2 night stay. I am so happy they came to see us on their Retirement Tour 2009! haha I just made that up.
Anyway, on Tuesday we visited and I took them to see the pizza kitchen and a brief drive around Kuna main street. Then we too them to the see the barn and all the animals before heading over to El Gallo Giro for dinner of course! They got to meet Enrique and we enjoyed a great dinner together. Good times, good food.
On Wednesday, we all got up and went to drop William off at camp Kristie at 9am. Then we went over to Sunrise Cafe for breakfast. Now Dad and US can talk about the sausage patties haha! Then we went over to the Harley dealer to gawk for a few before time to pick up Will. They came in and sat with us in the debriefing circle with Kristie so they could hear how the day at camp Kristie went. I'm glad they got to see that.
So then we all headed out to Emmett to pick up our milk. Will was saying he was hungry (as always) so he wanted Subway. So we stopped to get him his favorite $5 footlong which he eats in about 3 1/2 minutes! When we got to Emmett we decided to pick some blueberries first but the place we had found before was closed so we went back to Tylers to get some cherries and apricots. The cherries were much riper and it was harder to pick out good ones. US and AJ were blown away but the beauty and peaceful wonderfulness of it all. So then we went and got our milk and I took a scenic route home: East on Beacon Light from Highway 16 over to Eagle road and then south on Eagle to the 84. (those specifics are for Dad so he can look it up on Google Maps) LOL.
So we came home and sat around chattin, looking at some old pics and stuff. I took Uncle Steve with me to run a shipment over to UPS. Tara was making dinner so she asked us to pick up some worchester sauce and tabasco. She made great steak sandwiches and fresh cobbler with homemade ice cream from the milk. YUM!
After dinner we drove out to dedication point to the scenic overlook of the Snake river canyon. Very cool! Then a stop at the Pioneer cemetery on the way home for more Kuna history. Home, cobbler and ice cream and then to bed. What a busy fun day!
This morning Tara made a quiche with our fresh eggs and we had that for breakfast with coffee and fruit. Then we said our goodbyes as they left when we did at 8:30 to take Will to his last day of camp Kristie.
Thanks US and AJ for a great visit! You made you Nephew very happy and we all enjoyed your company! I hope you enjoy the rest of your "Retirement Tour 2009" across this beautiful country, and have a great visit with Bill, Jen and Tyler!

Watch Tara blog and you tube for vids and pics.....

Model T tour

There was a cross country race reenactment that stopped in town today. Read about it here. It was cool to see.

There were several local folks who brought their cars down to show, only 3 of the cars in this video were part of the trip. I didn't catch it all on the video but as a local guy was telling us about how he bought his car for $50 when he was 18, Will pulled out his play money and tried to buy it from the guy for $50 in toy money! lol

Side note: I don't spend a lot of time editing my videos. I try to cut out some of the excess so they are not too long, but since I am posting them just for family I don't spend a whole lot of time. Plus I know some of you who don't mind seeing so much "extra" stuff!

Happy Mother's Day!

A very Happy Mother's Day to the all the mothers in my life. Thank you for all you have done for us kids and husbands! We took Tara out for Japanese food and sat at the teppan tables when they cook in front of you. The cook was really good! When he did the part where he tosses a piece of shrimp in your mouth, Autumn missed hers. So he came back around to her and told her to open mouth and hold still. Then he quickly shot it into her mouth like a Wayne Gretzky slap shot! It was too funny! Then we got Tara her fave drink at Dutch Brothers...all Mom's get any size any kind for $1! Such a deal. Here is my girl with my kiddies before we left:

On a separate note, please pray for me as I now have my motorcycle endorsement and am officially comsumed with Harley fever! I caught Jeff with his bike out today and he let me crisue it around the block. 2003 100th anniversary Softail Night Train. oh man was it smooth and comfy! It just about rode itself! Oh what is a man to do without a Harley Davidson......

Tis plowin time again...

Hello all, we have been working a lot to get a garden spot order ready and hope to ship it next week. In the meantime, the sun is shinin and the birds are chirpin! Neighbors rented a rototiller today and let me get in on it so I tilled up the garden area today. Added a bunch of steer manure bags and I think the soil will be much better this year. We had started a compost pile about 6 weeks ago too and that got tilled in also. I think we may be done with freezing temperatures soon so we can plant. Yesterday we all went out and pulled weeds, trimmed trees and mulched around plants in the back yard so everyone can get water and be happy! Now I need to mow and feed the lawn as the irrigation water got turned on this week. Gotta love that yard work. I miss winter already.....

STAR couse day 1

For my b day Tara enrolled me in the STAR course so I can get my motorcycle endorsement. I don't plan on buying a bike anytime soon, but then we can rent or borrow friends bike and its fun any way! Basically they put you through training and then test you and you can use their certificate in lieu of taking the skills (riding) test at the DMV. You still have to pass the written test to get your permit at the DMV first which I have not done yet. The only helmet they had that fit me was an XXL (there were only 2 of them and one did not fit) with a full face shield that did not pull down to my chin. I felt like a fool wearing the thing all day! LOL But it worked. Here is 82 seconds of your life that you will wish you had back. I'm in front in the tan jacket. It was breezy and about 45 out but mostly sunny. Just a bunch of idiots riding in a circle playing "don't hit the cones".

A Happy Birthday Indeed!

Last night Tara set up a time for Bob to take me shooting. I have been interested in learning to shoot and do it safely for a while now and after we visited Impact Guns the other week I decided it was time to take a class and get my CCW permit even if I never carry a weapon. So Bob came and picked me up and we went to impact to shoot a couple of his pistols. He brought a S&W 40 cal semi auto and a 357 revolver. Wow! Very cool and powerful feeling. Kind of a healthy nervousness in there for me, you really feel the respect for the weapon. Some guys were in there shooting some type of military assault rifle and each time they started firing it we jumped. It was 10x louder than all the other guns! But I had fun and look forward to starting this new hobby. Here we are at home with our targets. No the guns were not loaded at this point!

So this morning Tara takes me to Sunrise Cafe for a breakfast out with corned beef hash. Yum! Then we went to the Tilted Halo salon which is a new place over by the Harley dealer. They were advertising a bunch of Friday the 13th $13 specials so we went to check it out and wound up getting tattoos! I will be going back to get my old one touched up so the whole thing looks new:



We have so much fun! I love my wife! So then she made me a lasagna for dinner with a very decadent cake for desert! OH YA! I been eating big today! I got some nice gifts too. Tara enrolled me in a class to get my motorcycle endorsement so we can buy a Harley!!! ..... in ...about....10 or 15 years... but hey! Its something to look forward to! Also got some cool gifts from CA folks! THANKS ALL!