Big Changes.

As usual I have been MIA from the blog (here's the blog post you've been asking for mom.) Lots of news and changes going on around here. Eric and I got engaged on Oct. 12 (opening day of pheasant season). He'd been waiting for a special day and since we typically have run of the mill days up here, planning an extra special day would be very obvious and a dead give away. He decided opening day of pheasant season was a special enough day and happens to be one of his favorite days of the year. Once we got our first rooster and Turk retrieved it while it was swimming across a river, Eric popped the question. All in all it was totally unexpected, very us, and of course memorable. The celebration in the moment was short lived however, because as we were hugging Eric looked over my shoulder to see Turk kick up two more roosters and we had to keep walking. Typical.

A few weeks after that I had a job interview for a position in Colorado and got the job. We are currently in the process of closing on the sale of our beloved little green house, packing up, moving home, and figuring out the next adventure. So, to join the bandwagon of facebookers out there listing things they are thankful for and making me read them every day in my feed...I am thankful to be engaged, to be engaged before thirty (barely),  and to know that I will not be spending that milestone birthday or the next ten years of my life in the state of North Dakota.

Still here, don't stop reading..

We're still around with the yearly case of the winter blah's. I usually do well until the end of January then the blah's set in.The Christmas season and New Years resolutions keep me going till February then the last 3 month's of Winter (yes I still consider March, April, and May Winter up North) are pretty tough. Luckily we have a vacation planned this year and garden fever will hit me soon (I like garden fever, I should start calling it something more positive.) I think I will start plants here inside at the beginning of April and need to get the seeds chosen and ordered ASAP. I plan to try some new things this year, scale back a little more, and do a lot of soil work in the plot.

The other thing Eric and I have been up to is some training. If you haven't heard of the tough mudder  then it's worth a look on their website. I have agreed to do this race/obstacle course/team building exercise and have been trying to train for it daily (although I am not there yet). I feel that it may be the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have attempted in a long while, besides sticking it out in ND the last 4 years. I will admit I am weak in both these areas and trying to gain upper body strength, consistently make it to the gym after a full day of work, and push myself during a cardio circuit training routine is taking a lot of determination. I've lost about 10 pounds and have to watch the inspirational clips of the race to get my butt to the gym otherwise I drive home in the freezing weather, put on my sweatpants, and park it on the couch for swamp people on the history channel. Hopefully it gets easier once it starts warming up and my perrenials make an appearance. I say every year how I never truly appreciated spring until I lived in North Dakota and it still holds true even during the mild Winters. Watch for an increase in blogposts. Garden season, branding time (not sure if we're going), and vacay are all coming soon. Also fam and friends if you happen to be in the Colorado area mid June and would like to come cheer Eric, myself, and our team on while I get my butt kicked by the tough mudder you can purchase spectator tickets on the website link above. I think they are $20 bucks and you get into the party, can watch me attempt to run through fire, get shocked by electrical wires, fall off ascending greased monkey bars and maybe take some photos for us.

New Bed

With a little help from Ana White plans and inspiration from Bower Power, Eric successfully constructed his first piece of furniture with my recommendations. We build our own bed and upgraded to a queen size (yes we used to fit two people and two springer spaniels on a full size bed).

We pretty much just followed Ana's plans for the farmhouse queen with a platform option and Bower's glazing suggestions and it turned out fabulous. It was a much better option than the thousand dollar platform beds at the local furniture store. We estimate for all the materials our bed was around 200 bucks. Can't beat it.

One of the reasons I love you....

I thought this post was appropriate since it is almost Valentines day.

Eric decided to secretly purchase this for "us":

It's a little giant extreme. If you haven't been sucked in by this infomercial then don't click here or the video will make you want to buy one.

We already own a nice ladder. Apparently it is necessary we have two. I don't completely disagree with this, since there have been many times throughout the course of our house overhaul we could have used another ladder (painting exterior window trim, installing crown moulding, putting up Christmas lights etc.). So when Eric announced his already purchased ladder was on it's way I made him promise we would never need another ladder ever (since this one comes with a lifetime guarantee and all....and a cup holder, and a polymer coated paint tray that dried paint peels off of, and a magnetic area for screws...seriously watch the video).  He did agree would would never ever need to buy another ladder but refused to sign a document so I could have proof.

Getting to the title of the post...the ladder came in this:

It's not the best picture, but this box is about as tall as a person with some cut outs for handles on the side. I know it's about as tall as a person because Friday at lunch time I drove home to find Eric inside the box laying down in the yard with his feet sticking out and the puppy nowhere to be found. Chops was hesitantly creeping toward the box and then running away, and this guy:

was inside the box with Eric playing. I guess instead of walking up to park for a lunch exercise break Eric thought it might be more fun to wear the cardboard box and chase the dogs around the yard before letting them crawl in and out of the box. Turk is consistently fearless, even of a giant cardboard creature chasing him. He has no problem checking it out. Chops was himself and is terrified of everything. It's a wonder he didn't turn out to be gun shy. I wonder what the neighbors thought while watching Eric wear a cardboard box and run around the yard growling at his pets.

Toby and Julie Visit

Early October Eric's parent's came to visit for a few days. We really like having company come, even thought we feel like there isn't a lot of options to entertain them. While they were here we hung out, cooked, went pheasant hunting, and enjoyed the time. They also helped us fix our sewer that backed up and install some of our new windows. Hope we get company again soon.



Lately

Lately...the garden has been in full swing. Beans, peas, cukes, tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, etc. Here is our average weekly cucumber yield.

We've been making fridge pickes, cucumber salad, and giving some away when we can't eat them all. We have made friends with an older couple, Walt and Sharon, who drive by weekly to check on our garden and chat. We went to their house too, and boy do we have a ways to go with the gardening. I should've snapped pictures. Older couples around here have root cellars and grow their yearly supply of potato and onions. They make their own sauerkraut out of harvested cabbage, and can their own relish, pickes, tomatoes and everything else. It is seriously impressive the things they accomplish.

Mister Baby has been doing a lot of this:

He 's been very tired lately since he has daily visitors. The new neighbor kids come over almost daily to see if he can play. If they don't, he waits until our next door neighbors come out for a campfire, then he goes to hang out with them. He is the most popular dog in the neighborhood. We have people who walk by our house to go to work who know him by name and stop to see him. The other day he was inside and saw one of his friends walking by so he started whining to go out to see her. I've also been trying out the new camera on chops.

I have been documenting my favorite parts of his face. This is one.

Finally, and most exciting we had our first visitors since Thanksgiving. Eric's sister and her boyfried came up for a week or so and it was a blast! We encountered danger in Medora.

We worked in the steadily growing garden, and ate amazing food cooked by Gus.

We also gave Chops a lot of attention when he cued us he wanted some (like this). I think he is getting a little spoiled. Oh, and there are the new floors too.

"Will you rubby my tubby?"

It was awesome to have visitors. I wish we had more, more often. We have finished putting up crown moulding and are going on VACATION! Ohio, PA here we come.

New Camera

The camera that I got late high school/maybe early college finally died. I went out and bought a new one, realizing that megapixels have come a long way since then. I upgraded from three to 16.2 and the picture quality is obviously way more amazing. Here are some shots with the new set up. Summer is finally underway up here and we had our first day over 100 degrees.

Life Update Since Last Post

It is now the time of year in ND when you can be outside for extended periods of time without getting frostbite. Guess where we've been? Definetely not inside writing blog posts (oops). I need to get back to regular posting. We are just taking advantage of the motivation we have while we have it. In no particular order here's what's been happening

1. Planting flower beds and garden

2. Transplanting lilac in front of house and making new flower bed



3. Lots of rummage sales (yes, I used to call them garage sales, but I have switched to my new regional lingo)

4. Installing hardwood floors in the living room

5. Painting and putting up door trim, baseboard, and crown (still in progress)

6. Painting the exterior doors red (and failing miserably with oil based paint) multiple times....redoing them this weekend. Stay tuned....

7. Getting rid of old appliances with online classifieds (WOOHOO)

8. Running an impromptu plant business from the greenhouse when people pull over asking to take pictures (of the greenhouse, water barrel, etc.) and buy plants.

9. Doing some side projects for friends like trim work and closet organizers (I am working as eric's assistant). Getting pretty good at sanding, routing, and using the jig saw).
***Why are we taking on side projects when we have a giant list of our own, one of which is washer and dryer? I don't know, ask Eric and then tell me what he says.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

There are few things changing around the green house. It's too bad one of them isn't the weather.

1. The old fridge finally got moved out of the family room and into the garage. We ended up moving it the week after it was in the 20's and instead moved it in negative degree weather. Oh well, it's done though.

2. Our walls are slowly getting decorated. We hung things in the family room, bathroom, and office area. There are still some bare spots, but we took care of a good chunk of  naked walls.



old ikea prints and frames

antique skis from an auction

ebay map and walmart canopy frames

3. I got my haircut short. I alternate between chopping my hair and growing it out. It's been about two years of long hair. It was time.

4. We are considering finishing the garage and adding another bedroom/bathroom. I am excited and nervous about it. Two contractors have come to look at things and we are waiting to hear back.

5. Garden planning has begun. I chose 7 tomato varieties and Eric has limited the pepper selection to 12 or something like that. It will be ridiculous.

many months of veggies and entertainment (priceless in ND) for under 30 bucks

6. It has slowly SLOWLY been warming up. Today was our warmest day yet in the thawing season at around 50. When the warm weather begins Chops looks at us like this all day because he can stand it outside for longer than 15 minutes before freezing and wants to be out there constantly. If we ignore him he starts barking and growling at us. We have labeled this look the death stare. We get the same look at bed time when he wants up on the bed to say good night.

he really needs a haricut

7. We installed and aprilaire humidifier that hooks onto our furnace and keeps the humidity constant in our house. This was mainly so our new cabinets stop cracking in winter. A positive side effect will be less dry horrible winter skin and static hair. YAY

People Watching

Funny thing about small towns. The people you watch when "people watching" usually resuface in multiple locations and catch you off guard. This is a very important reason to keep a low profile when partaking in this activity. For instance: while at the bar noticing someone in a tazmanian devil t-shirt that reads "real american bad ass" it is good form not to point, stare, or ask where the individual got their shirt. You never know when you might be at the deli counter in Wal-Mart buying pastrami and have your boyfriend say "Hey look, the real american bad ass is here." 

Update: Another real american bad ass sighting last night at the gym.

The Beast

    

....and he grew big and he grew mean. So he could protect the junkyard with only one thing on his mind KILL EVERYONE THAT BROKE IN. And he did, and he liked it. (Seen Sandlot?)

Besides the four thousand cars our neighbor has next door (ok so it is realistically about ten), and the regular parties he throws where people get into fights outside the bedroom window at 4am, and the giant flood light in the backyard that is on like ALL the time, and the fact that he is not social and has never actually been neighborly, there is a new GIGANTIC black Newfoundland dog that has been hanging around. 

     Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, but this one is annoying me. Probably because he may belong to our next door neighbor and looks like he can eat a person. I don't know if he is nice, but I don't plan on finding out. One day we hear Chops yelp outside and look out our window to see a strange HUGE dog in our yard peeing on everything. After checking on Mr. Baby we look around and check the dog to see if he has tags. At that point our neighbors mother (I think) calls the dog over into her car. Situation under control right? Nope, two minutes later we see him run past the window again. First thought is that it isn't their dog, so I go outside and go to see what he is doing (he was again peeing on everything.)

I guess it's not normal for everyone to talk to their dogs like they are people, but I do it, and apparently I do it to strange dogs as well. While I say out loud to this dog "Where are you from, who's dog are you?" My neighbor, who probably heard me, walks around the corner of his house and is like "Did he hurt you?" WHAAT? Seriously, I felt like saying "Um if your 200 pound dog is dangerous then you need to keep it away from people and other dogs  But, as is normal with me, I never actually say what I think about saying. Instead I said "No, I'm not sure if he hurt my dog though. He seems ok. I'm just trying to figure out who he belongs to."

      After that we didn't see the Newfie for a while and thought his mom just brought this dog over and he wouldn't be back. But now he's over there every once in a while chained up marking his territory. This has turned us into the creepy neighbors because now every time we let Chops outside we peek through the bathroom window blinds to see if the dog is there. Sometimes people are out there and have probably seen us peeking. Besides that, we have to watch Chops like a hawk because most times he wants to run over there to say hi right away. Just another reason why spring can't come soon enough. Then we can put up the electric dog fence among other things.

Who are ya?

Here is a confession. I am a little blog addicted. Besides the live traffic map (which I check a lot), and the new pageview counter I added today, there is really no way for me to know who reads this besides my mother. I admit I am curious. So...if I know you or if I don't and you want to share, comment below to say hi or introduce yourself. Nice to meet ya. In other exciting news...it may get above freezing in Dickinson today! woo hoo.

 

Update

It's a busy few weeks and blogging has taken a backseat. Our never ending to-do list now includes putting up some new blog posts. I'm working on that but in the mean time here's what we've been doing (in bullet point form because it's just easier).



* After the kitchen plumbing we tried to clean and organize for some of Eric's friends from Colorado to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving.

* Pheasant Hunting south of town with little luck and a sick baby chops...again. We are waiting for some genetic testing from the vet to see if she figured out what's wrong. He's doing better now.

* A giant snow storm the week of Thanksgiving changed our life from fall to winter instantly and it hasn't melted or stopped snowing since so we've been shoveling, digging out winter clothes from the basement, and figuring out the propane garage heater. Winter smacked us in the face and we weren't quite ready.

* Eric's family visited for Thanksgiving and we tiled the kitchen floor and cooked a lot. I had to work almost every day they were here (sad face) so that I will be able to take time off at Christmas to go home. We had a great time and were sad to see them go. I also tried my first deep fried turkey and it was goood.

We are getting the Christmas stuff out, heading back to the gym, and have decided to relax for a while (hard wood floors will wait until spring.) I will get some pictures up soon and hopefully get back to some crafting hobbies now that the house project is on hold.

List



for a while it is looks like this where I live

 but soon...

It will look like this. It will look like this for a long long time.



Except, it doesn't yet. We have recently had some awesome fall weather and things have been pretty good. Maybe it's the kitchen/remodel being almost complete, or the holiday decorating, or the excitement about having hobbies again and being able to go to the gym regularly that have me in a good mood. Whatever it is, I thought I should probably document the things I like about where I live before the frigid, freeze your spit, -40 below before wind chill makes me forget them. Let's hope this list doesn't take a negative turn mid-blog (it's likely while thinking of what's ahead.)

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT WHERE I LIVE

1.Livestock Auction Eve - falling asleep to a symphony of mooing cows is actually quite peaceful if you don't think about where they will be heading (feedlots) in the morning.

2. Knoephla Soup - you can't go wrong with cream and dumplings in one recipe. If I didn't move here I would have never learned about this soup or how to make it.

3. Yard/Garden - I was fortunate to buy a house with a huge yard in an area where growing things is a piece of cake. I love my yard and garden and will miss them for the next six months.

4. The Mall-yeah, this sounds crazy but shopping at only a few stores with reasonable prices with things I like is so much simpler. This does not mean I prefer the Dickinson Mall over others, but I like it so it makes the list.

5. Pheasants-I know it's just a bird...but they are gorgeous and I love when I see one. It honestly makes me sad they are hunted really.

6. Steak- I miss the seafood. I would choose the seafood if possible. I want scallops very very much. That being said, living in an area with Angus beef ranches, good steak is more obtainable. I never liked steak before living here. Never ate a steak by myself. It was always chewy and too much work. I stand corrected. Good steak is GOOOOOD.

I almost made it to ten (if you round up). I think six is good for now. Maybe I can add some things later if I find any like-able things this winter.



Jean Dominique is that you?

Did you like the movie? Blink once for no, two for yes.

Disclaimer: this blog post is most likely inappropriate and discriminatory

Last Valentines Day I gifted Eric and I netflix since our video stores here suck and one of the two has since gone out of business. Eric has the password and is able to choose movies to add, but often doesn't and therefore my movies are the ones that arrive in the mail. Recently we watched "The Diving Belle and the Butterfly" about Jean Dominique Bauby, the French Editor of Elle who had a massive stroke in his 40's and could blink one eye only to communicate. His amazing speech therapist devised a way for him to choose letters of the alphabet by blinking to spell and he wrote a book while in the hospital, which got turned into a movie, which we rented, which I liked, which Eric hated, which in turn made him imitate Jean Dominique post stroke, which resulted in this lovely photo. Please enjoy. I believe I may be going to hell for posting this.

Little Harry Pecker Makes A Big Mess

Pecker Nest

Pecker Mess

Woodpecker's are good birds. They eat bugs. Don't shoot it.....Yeah, wish I wouldn't have listened to that. I was ready to give chops a taste of the Harry Back woodpecker that's been living in our tree all spring but I took everyone's advice and let it live in our tree. Had I known that 50 mph winds and a pecker nest right in the "v" of our tree would cause the above picture by weakening the tree and leading to this mess, he would have been gone as soon as we found him. Anyway, here is a glimpse of out lastest yard project.

A little bird chirped in my ear that there are more people than I had thought who check up on my blog. To my surprise and delight I thought...I should really do a better job of updating if people are actually reading. I know I say this every time, but I think if I write shorter entries, it won't be such an ordeal to update. I also won't have my mother asking for updates every time I talk to her on the phone while at the same time have Eric in the background screeching "I need an update, I need an update." So here is the quick and dirty of what is going on in our lives with pictures to go with it.

1. Our tomato plants are growing. We are on our second transplant and Eric has built a lovely greenhouse out of our old windows. Today was the first day we got to compare temps and it got up to 84 inside with only 55 outside. Garden plans continue to progress, get more complicate, and take more time and money. In the works we have tilling a plot, starting new seeds, maintaining greenhouse plants, and of course monitoring the perennial bulbs outside in the front yard that are peeking through. I am probably more excited about them than I should be, but it's the small stuff right? Check out the picture and help me guess what will be blooming. I am hoping for irises, iris', a bunch of iris?

2. Chops continues to grow. He is just over 20 lbs. We took him out into the field last weekend to kick up some birds and didn't find any. He sure does love to run though. Since the weather has been nice and Eric has been outside Chops has gotten to run all day long nonstop. It has worked out well to have him conk out at 5 and sleep through the night. I like that he still has some qualities that remind us he is a baby. Wish he could stay this size forever. His newest trick is to play dead. He does it most of the time, but sometimes gets dead position confused with roll over.

3. Eric starts his job next week. We have been through the ringer, but he will be starting as a personal banker with Wells Fargo. He is also excited about the opportunity to not only use his finance degree, but also his newly acquired insurance and investment licenses. There is a guy from Bismarck who travels to our area once a week to handle those things in Dickinson and it sounds like he will be training and helping Eric to get up and running here. My job is going well also. It has almost been a year and I recently got my first review and first raise. I have learned a great deal of patience and tact as well as how to be a good nose wiper, tantrum solver, social worker, behavior specialist, and psychiatrist all in one. Never learned all that in grad school.

4. House is still on hold and we are still procrastinating about the crown moulding. It WILL be done before the next demo though. We plan to start the back half of the house once the weather holds. Last year there was a snowstorm June 5th which seems to be a fluke occurrence but you never know. It hasn't been seriously discussed, but we may start demo in May sometime.
Eric says mid April.

5. Here is an event to add to the "Never Until ND" list of life experiences. Recently went to the local hardware store for dog supplies and heard some "peeping." After investigating I found live baby chicks and ducks for sale in large bins in the back of the store. You can just walk right back and pick them up and hold them. As you can imagine I spent a lot of time and Eric did a lot of coaxing to get me away from them. The next day I had to go back and take pictures, but it had gotten even better. They had gotten in American Pullet chickens that lay blue and green colored eggs. If only I had the means to raise chickens. How cool would multi-colored eggs be. It was very "animal, vegetable, miracle" of me, but realistically it just wouldn't work. It you didn't get the reference, look up the book title by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a great read. While we were there the lady supervising the bird operation started chatting with Eric about how she raises chucker partridge and is willing to sell them for training purposes. Sounds like we have fixed the issue of not kicking up birds in the field. Apparently there is some trap you can buy to release the birds as your dog approaches it so the dog can learn to jump up and grab the birds. Eric is pumped and I am wondering where to keep the birds, how to get them to the field (i.e. not in my car), and what we do with the dead/injured ones.

Think that is all for now, keep watching the blog and hold me to regular updates.

Garden Plans

As is usual, our Saturday activity consisted of trips to Ace Hardware for house "parts" and Walmart for groceries. We have been cooking a lot as there is limited activity options in southwestern North Dakota in February. Recent food success includes stuffed peppers, banana oatmeal cookies, and home made ravioli. Julia Child's beef bourginon on Valentines was good too, but we thought not worth the effort it took to make. Sorry Julia. We have big plans for this week and are planning to make CPK thai chicken pizza, and Tyler Florence's ultimate bacon mac and cheese with vermont white cheddar. I was really wanting some chocolate chip cookies so I attempted that feat last night. Please see included picture. These were the WORST cookies I have ever made. I followed the recipe on the chocolate chip bag and it may result in me writing a letter to Hershey. I am not happy about it at all and am still searching for a good recipe. I ended up throwing away the cookie dough after baking three trays with no success.

In other news, out Walmart/Ace entertainment resulted in us buying forty packets of seeds, yes 40! Also, keep in mind that these seed packets do not include the potatoes or onions we will plant, but do include the flowers. We may have gotten carried away, but have good intentions for our garden. It seems weird to be starting seeds when there is three feet of snow drift in our yard, but it is 10 weeks or so before mid may and it says it's time so I am listenting to the Livingston seed company and beginning the garden now. I used to get upset when I went to stores and they had seasonal merchandise out way to early, but after yesterday I understand that it may be because people in this part of the country need to be reminded the end of winter IS going to happen and spring is coming soon, so buy some seeds. It really did put me in a good mood to think "the melt" is just around the corner. When we first moved here in June people would always ask "Why did you move to North Dakota?" and we would tell them all the great things we loved (and still do) like the gardens, the people, fishing, etc. We listed things that all happened in warm months and were confused as to why we kept getting asked. We understand the question now that it is frigid, and people are choosing to watch NASCAR races over the Olympics (no offense NASCAR fans).

At a recent dinner to the new pizza/bar restaurant we asked the waiter "do you think Ohno will win again?" as he was standing under a big screen tv showing speed skating. I wish I could have taken a picture of his face because he looked at us like we were from another planet. Of course we referenced the giant tv right above him, but it made no difference since he did not know what we were talking about or who Ohno was. On that note we ate our pizza and did not ask him anything else. Luckily we were bailed out when a group of people walked up and asked us about short track speed skating. They bought us a drink and we chatted about their last season's safflower crop. Needless to say we have been a little addicted to the Olympics and have been parked on the couch the last few weeks. That is all going to change tonight after the closing cerenonies when we will head back to the gym regularly.

In Chops news....He is continuing to grow and outgrew his puppy collar yesterday (sad). He is a really good dog most of the time. He is becoming more energetic (see crazy dog pictures) and often we catch a photo of him looking like a psycho. Eric has him retrieving pheasant wings and Chops loves it. Eric is the favorite of course. After I take him out in the morning and feed him he sits outside the bedroom door and whines for Eric to get up and play. He is doing excellent on the leash, and is meeting some doggie friends in our neighborhood on his walks. We can't wait to get him in the open field to really see what he can do.

We hope all is well with everyone. Please keep in mind there is always an open invitation to come up to ND. We will be tearing the bathroom/kitchen out in May and you are welcome to join in. While you are here, you could help us plant those forty packets of seeds and then come back in July to eat a crap ton of veggies and watch the demolition derby.