State of the Yard

So a few weeks have passed in warm-weathered bliss. The sun has been shining, the garden has been planted, and the grass has been growing! I confess that my trust in the grass seed was minimal at best so I didn't take before and after pictures, thinking they'd be more like before-and-still-before pictures. But seeing the yard now...I wish I'd done it.

I did take a few pictures from mostly the same angles as in the A-door-able post---wherein some of the patchy, sad grass can be seen---in an attempt to show off our re-energized lawn. Let us bask.

Before...

After!

The lattice is preventing Magnus from jumping over the gate. I don't know why he only jumps out there, but we've found if that's blocked off he doesn't try to escape. So we'll probably make a half moon shape with some new slats to add height, just to the gate, and hopefully that will take care of the jail-breaking.
We also started to paint the fence and are loving the white picket look :) Now to get on painting the rest of it...

The grass, though! (happy sighs)

Here's our plum tree corner. Joe was a man-beast and cut all the super thick ivy out of the tree so while it looks sparser now, the tree is much happier now that it's able to breathe. And it will be easier to collect the plums.

Before...

After!

And the grass! (homeowner swoons)

We planted a garden as well. I don't know what my problem is, but I was similarly cynical about this growing as I was about the grass. I guess years of killing every house plant I've ever had has done its work on my plant-related optimism.

Here's a before....

And after. It grew despite all my doubts. 

The big leafy ones in the middle-leftish are my lovely broccoli and brussels sprouts. There are also tomatoes along the far left edge, and onions and potatoes on the far right. The ones in the middle-right that look like weeds are Joe's peppers. He loves him some peppers.

We also have a little strawberry patch and a couple blueberry bushes that aren't in the pictures. They are doing super well and are so adorable to me.

And that's all the before/after fun I've got. But just in case you've got a real "thing" for grass, I included other pictures of our improving yard. It's not perfect yet, but oh, it's so beautiful compared to a few months ago :)

Hammock Corner :

Arbor...still waiting for that to grow in. I think it took some damage from dog chewing last year. Hopefully it soldiers through!

This part of the yard was one of the worst. The area on the right of the picture is next to our patio and it was almost entirely dirt. And there's a ring around that tree-bush that is nothing but newly grown grass. The change is so crazy.

And one for the road. :)

Bleeeeeuurrghhnn! (Bagpipe Noise)

There is one weekend during the summer that I approach with as much anticipation as Christmas. It is filled with the blaring drone of bagpipes and the alarming flapping of kilts in the breeze. There is homemade root beer, there are delicious fish and chips made by the most awesome Scottish couple ever ("And haeow many would ya like, darlin'?") (Scottish accents are hard to type). And, most importantly, there are the Wicked Tinkers.

It is Thanksgiving Point's Scottish Festival. And it is amazing.

Perhaps you do not know that I am a Scotophile. I love Scotland. I want to go there. I want to live there. I love the castles and the moors, the overcast skies and the green, green land. I love the accent and the redheads (and the non-redheads too!). I love the cottages and the COWS, oh the cows! The cutest cows on this planet! Look up highland cows. They'll be your new favorite animal. I love the food! Ok, that's kind of a joke. Haggis tastes like hamburger, if your hamburger has gritty pieces of animal organs in it. It's really not bad. But it's really not good either. And I don't know of other Scottish food, to be honest, (pretty sure the English have a solid claim to fish and chips) so I can't give a fair review. I love bagpipe music and the silly old games (caber tossing, for example) and the myths and history. You get it, I think. I love Scotland.

So you'll understand why I love this festival which by most standards might be considered dull and repetitive, as it's very similar from year to year. It doesn't matter. I love it every. single. time.

If you are unfamiliar with the festival, its main attractions are these:
Strength and agility athletic tests for the menfolk, of course. I almost never get the chance to watch these for some reason :(
Booths for many clans where you can learn about their history and find out if you are a descendant.
Booths and booths of stuff to buy! Jewelry, kilts, knives and swords, and ever so much more.
Bagpipe competitions by groups from around Utah (maybe even further? Have not investigated).
Stage performances of Irish dances, Celtic inspired bands and THE WICKED TINKERS
A pavilion full of foods to eat. Fish and chips, turkey legs, non-cultural food and, naturally, haggis. Yum!
There are also the opening ceremonies, which involve bagpipes and marching clans introducing themselves and their motto. There are also closing ceremonies which I've never witnessed but I bet they're similar.

This year Joe and I took the beasties and had a good time parading about while people commented about how huge Magnus is. We started with the opening ceremonies.

A marching clan

We met up with my cousin Kelsey, her husby Harrison, and their
beasts. Pilot is an Irish Wolfhound, so applicable!

Magnus enjoying a spot of shade

Clan MacGregor! Represent!

 After that was over we spent a while walking around the booths and enjoying the general ambiance.

Magnus was a big hit at the festival. He loved it.
Had to take a picture of the cute little fairy!

And I bought a ring from these guys. Just one of the many awesome booths with stuff for sale crammed on every surface. It's hectic and crowded and I love it. I always wonder how much of their stuff gets pocketed though. Hmm.

We had a delicious lunch of fish and chips, as is tradition. Sadly I did not get to see/talk to the awesome Scottish woman because I had dog duty, but Joe said she was there and that he was called "darlin'," so that'll do for me.

After lunch we had but minutes to get to the Wicked Tinkers show. They say that they play "tribal Scottish music" which is really the best way I can think of to describe it. Bagpipe, drums, and a didgeridoo. It's wonderful.

The blond man on the right is my fayvorit. His hair blows in the breeze. And as
Joe found out last year during a very windy Scottish fest, so does his kilt.

A sampling:

New drummer. They sometimes walk through the crowds
as they play and it's awesome.

The Wicked Tinkers!

And then Joe made my day by taking a picture of me with them! And I'm even standing next to Luxurious Blond-haired Man! (I should really figure out his name.)

It was a successful year of Scottish festivaling. If you are also a lover of all things Scottish, I highly recommend it. It's usually in the first week or two of June. There's also a Payson one that hasn't happened yet. Count me in! Cue music:

"I just can't get enough! I just can't get enough!"

Bravest of Puppies

In addition to home decor and related things, I am also obsessed with my dogs. Thus, I feel I should warn you that I'm writing today about an outing completely revolving around them and their silliness. If you think dogs are dirty, useless animals or just boring to read about, this would be the time to stop.

Or now.

Now, perhaps.

No? Still with me?

So be it. On to puppies!

This past weekend, Joe and I went to a river with our puppies...and also four other dogs. There were humans too, our friends Doug and Cait and their sister Stacie. All of these dogs, mind you, were under a year old, so obviously it was impossible to take a picture of them all. (Well, I think Caitlyn managed it, but that's because she has superpowers that I lack.) So we'll just do a roll call instead.

Sadie! Golden-doodle. Fluffy white and oh-so sparkly clean...for now.

Red! Full-on poodle. Looks like a stuffed animal. Less old than Sadie.

Tess! Aussie-collie mix of the most beautiful sort. Smart and bursting with energies.

Ace! Collie extraordinaire. Super cute and well-behaved. Least worrisome of the bunch, and also youngest (I think? Maybe Red is. Hm.)

Magnus! Newfoundland-Great Pyrenees mix. Giant beast with no manners. Handsome and aloof.

aaaand Sawyer! Strangely-shaped mutt. Best guess: collie-newfoundland. Funny and needy.

I really wish I'd gotten a before picture of these guys. Especially Sadie, she was looking pret-ty scraggly by the time we left.

We began the escapade by loading all puppies into the back of Doug's truck with the most worrisome ones tightly leashed. It was kind of a circus. So many puppies! We had a bit of a hard time finding a place to go where they wouldn't immediately attack nearby folk, but we eventually found a pretty nice spot of river and let them free. I'm sure we were all envisioning these 6 dogs leaping with joy into the cool river waters, splashing and swimming with abandon. That didn't happen.

Joe trying to guide his beast into the water.

Tess eyeing the water suspiciously. 

All dogs nervously pacing the bank and tentatively pawing
only the most shallow areas.

None of them would go in. Despite throwing them in (just the ones we knew would recover from it, don't worry), pushing them, enticing them with sticks, tennis ball, and giant branches (a Magnus favorite), they all just watched with hopeless longing as these tempting items floated out of reach in the water, which they must have assumed was actually lava.

Finally the pristinely white golden-doodle Sadie decided to forgo all that silliness and jumped in to get a stick. Hooray! One dog that isn't a scaredy-cat. (Don't you think that's probably the worst insult in dog world? I bet they'd all be giving me some major stink-eyes right now.)

Yay Sadie! Bravest of dogs!

 And for a while that was almost enough to get the rest of them in. They were certainly a little more incessant with their pawing and whining as they hovered at the river edge. But nay, none followed. They just started chasing each other around in the weeds, probably trying to hide their shame by pretending they didn't even know there was a river at all.

Some of the company. Dogs pretending they know of no
river. Caitlyn probably recording Sadie doing
what dogs do best  worst. 

I actually don't remember this happening, but there is
a picture so I guess it did. Go Sawyer! I also love Tess's head
poking in there as if to say "Well? Scale of 1 - 10, how
searing is the lava?"

Magnus finally decided he couldn't be outdone by this curly-furred
girl, so he waded in even futher than all the other scared puppies
to take away the stick she earned with her bravery.

 At one point, a super-loved stick was thrown all the way onto the opposite shore. Sadie, undeterred, went over to fetch it and got stuck after climbing up the bank and deciding that it was way too steep to climb back down. She's no fool, guys. So Magnus, hearing her wimperings for help, finally made the plunge. What would we do without damsels in distress!

The second bravest of puppies. And Joe.
Can you spot Sadie? Bonus points if you can!

Of course, once he got to the other side he helpfully started eating cow poop. I don't know what we expected. Joe made the sacrifice of swimming across to rescue Sadie after Magnus proved to not be very good at it. And Magnus just clambered down himself like it weren't no thing.

Some final attempts at puppy coercion.

After waiting an hour or two we came to the conclusion that the rest were just content to not be brave, so after they'd had a goodly amount of fun-time-scampering we loaded em up and headed home. We might have been dirtier than the dogs.

I don't know how I managed to take a half-clear, half-blurry
photo like this, but I love how it makes Tess look extremely creepy.

And Magnus took up half the truck bed himself. Creepy Sawyer.
And look, Red! I got so few pictures of him for some reason.

 Overall, not what we expected. But the dogs were exhausted when we came home and I'm pretty sure they still had an adventurous time. It was fun to watch them be all nervous around the scary water and run around outside. Ah, man, they're so cute and silly. I do love puppy play dates.

Annivers---wait, chicken? (or, Anniversary Part I)

This past weekend, Joe and I celebrated our very first wedding anniversary! Yay! Our celebratory plans were grand at first, but then we remembered we're newlyweds (or have we officially passed that description?!?) and have limited funds. The "Plans" were therefore pared down until they became the following:

Saturday (day before anniversary):

Morning: Stay at home. Build a garden fence. Plant a garden for the fence to protect. Hope the fence withstands giant dog and discourages small dog. 

Afternoon: Recover from doing rare physical work. Clean selves and try to look somewhat nice. 

Evening: Off to Park City! Overindulge at Ghidotti's, because it's delicious Italian food and that's what one does. Immediately walk next door to the theater. Commence watching Iron Man 3. Go home. 

Sunday (actual anniversary):

All day: Wing it. 

Our Plans actually worked out pretty well. We slept in gloriously late, and then got to work on the fence. About a month ago the greenhouse across the street, which has been neglected since before we moved in, got some new management and they started cleaning up the place. And then...then!...they started throwing out pallets. SO many pallets. So we sauntered over and asked the clean up guys if we could have some. We could (for $1 a piece, which I'm pretty sure they just made up on the spot so they could buy some cigarettes. That's not judgey, they told us they wanted some.) $10 and a trip across the street later, we had a stack of pallets in our backyard. 

Fast forward to this weekend. The pallet plot came into play! We saw this video on how to make reasonably cute picket fencing from pallets without having to pry them all apart. Then we realized we have no power saws and that would take forever, so we decided to just throw that whole plan out and use the entire pallet. Then we planted our little garden. It's no masterpiece, but we're mighty proud of our morning's work.

Quaint, isn't it?

It's definitely not the most beautiful fence,
but it has a certain..."rustic" charm. 

Our little garden! It's mostly peppers. Joe likes peppers. 

We also spent a lovely chunk of time lounging on our new hammock, enjoying the view of the fence/garden and watching our ridiculous dogs.

The Hammock, and Joe.Also featuring bright sunlight.

Here they are. 

Want to see what silly dogs do with a spraying hose? Ok! 

Magnus is my favorite, so slow and methodical. Especially pawing at it at the end. Also, forgive us our weird laughter. :)

One more view of our lovely garden. 

The crooked piece is our temporary door. We don't know what to do about a gate so we just keep that piece loose and prop it back against the fence to keep out the dogs. So far it works. 

Speaking of dogs and fences, here's a story. We went out yesterday to check on the garden and admire our handiwork. I was looking at my (sad, wilty) tomato plants when I spied a chicken by that purpley tree! I suppose I should explain that this wasn't really that surprising, as the mechanic behind us keeps chickens on his lot and we hear/see them all the time back there. I don't know how that chicken got into our yard but for a brief moment I saw that chicken and was just delighted to have him visiting our yard. And then I remembered we have dogs. 

Magnus and Sawyer didn't immediately notice the chicken, but when they did they were extremely excited. They'd been staring through the fence slits for weeks at their feathered "friends," in a way that seemed friendly but I now believe it was decidedly more ominous in nature. The two pups charged at the fence, but stopped when they couldn't get in (it works!). Then Sawyer realized that, wait a minute, he could get in, and the chicken FREAKED OUT. Chickens can be really squawky, guys. Not that I blame him. 160 pounds of puppy were chasing him down after all. Then the not-so-bright bird fled the relative safety of the garden. Sigh.

Our dogs took off in earnest after that poor, dim animal. They were going to EAT that chicken! In seconds they had trapped him against a fallen branch as I watched, hopeless and horrified and certain we were about to witness fowl murder. Miraculously the chicken escaped, unscathed except for a few lost feathers (one of which hung from Magnus's mouth as a nice, horrifying touch). That's about when Joe and I realized our backyard was going to become a crime scene if we didn't do something. So I caught Sawyer (50 lbs) while Joe literally tackled Magnus (110 lbs) and had to lie on top of him to keep him from lunging after the chicken. We muscled the beasties inside...and the chicken disappeared. It was a bit mysterious, really. I was relieved that he was out of our dogs' reach, and not a little disappointed that our pups turned out to be violent, chasey, chicken-craving carnivores. Darn.

A few hours later I was placing my most recent project in our kitchen window (post to come!) when Joe said "the chicken! the chicken!" Sure enough, there he was, sauntering around our frontish/side yard. We ran outside and for a good thirty minutes we chased that ridiculous animal through our yard, our neighbor's yard, in and out of bushes, and finally he sneakily "hid" himself in a small flowery plant. He was plainly visible, but obviously thought he had been very clever and would never be found, because he didn't budge when I stood over him and picked him up. Silly chicken. We released him back over the fence to his home.

And that was our adventure with the chicken. 

Well, this is much longer than I expected. I think I'll post about our actual anniversary celebrations another time so you don't have to read too many words all at once. How exhausting that would be! Til next time :)

Little Baker Woman

Here and there I try to be crafty, homemakery, and generally fill the mold of a good ol' lady housewife. Who also owns a dog. So a few months ago, I snapped these photos of the delicious and (obviously) adorable dog treats I made for Magnus. He practically inhaled them, so I am clearly an expert treat maker. Just pretend with me that he doesn't also eat plastic and other animals' waste. Thanks. 

The recipe for this is super easy. In case you're wondering, here it is!

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup milk

2 cups flour*

1 tablespoon baking powder*

Mix wet ingredients in a bowl, and mix dry ingredients in another, separate bowl. Then put it all together, knead, roll it out to about 1/4 inch and cut shapes! Put on a baking sheet. Bake 20ish minutes in a preheated, 375 degree oven, until they are brown and ready for canine consumption! Voila!

(*I have become aware from comments on the site where I originally found this recipe [found here] that many dog owners object to using flour and baking powder in their dog's treats, because they aren't good for them/are poisonous. After some research, I have found that indeed, baking powder is poisonous to dogs in large amounts, but won't affect your pup in the small amount that is spread throughout these treats. Likewise, flour is not the best for dogs but wouldn't have any bad effects once baked/cooked. BUT, if you are among these hesitant treat bakers, just omit the baking powder and use gluten free flour. The result is more or less the same, although the dough is a bit stickier. My dog ate both versions quite happily.)

So easy! I dutifully spread out the dough, rolling it with a bowl due to lack of a rolling pin (a situation which has now been remedied. Thanks mom!) Then, I used my handy dandy dog bone-shaped cookie cutters to make cute treat shapes! I got three for 6 bucks on amazon. 

Rolled out dough, in bone shapes! Yay!

Here are my cut out treats and the cookie cutters I used. Totes adorbs, amirite?

Yum. Did I mention these make your house smell like
peanut butter cookies? Bonus!

Joe wanted to help show off the finished product.

A natural-born model if ever there was one.

All my creations!

Magnus was at my feet the en-ti-re time I was making these. He even sat patiently while I took this torturous picture of him waiting! Aww, good little guy.

I should mention that these treats went fast. We used them for everything, because Magnus would immediately obey if he knew his peanut butter bones were involved. So the next time I made them, I did much smaller pieces so they would last longer. Like, ya know, normal treat size. It makes sense, really. 

Anyway, now you know how to make peanut butter dog treats. Yum! I wouldn't recommend eating them yourself though. They are definitely not Joe-approved for human use. 

Little Blue House

We bought a house. A little blue house, with a red brick driveway. How quaint is that? It is just over 1,000 square feet. It has a sprinkler system and AC. It has a dishwasher and a washer and dryer. It has arched doorways. ARCHED DOORWAYS, you guys. I am disproportionately delighted by those. It has hardwood floors in the bedroom. Actually, probably in all of the rooms, but the other ones are covered by carpet...FOR NOW. It has a beautiful backyard that is almost as big as the house is. Maybe bigger. Seriously, it's beautiful. And it has a garden. It has an awesome 76-year-old neighbor lady named Lola.

We love it!

Here are a couple of pictures:

Living room! Remarkable, truly. 

Other side of the living room! This is my favorite part right now,
because we just painted that blue wall (note the arched doorway!)
 and the baseboards, which used to be the same color
as the walls. It looks so good! Ah!

Kiiiitchen! It's like 4 times the size of the apartment one.
So great. And we have a TABLE!

The backyard. Sigh. Amazing. And leafy. 

That's all the pictures you get for now, because the other rooms are in a non presentable state. The office, in fact, will probably stay that way for a good many weeks(/months...)

Also, I got this amazing wingback chair for FIVE DOLLARS! For real! KSL is fabulous sometimes. I am going to recover it with no help whatsoever. What. So. Ever.

I am a chair!

Lies. Mom is going to help me. 

We also got this little terror. He's a (currently) 23 lb newfie-pyrenees puppy named Magnus:

Actually, he's pretty ok. I mean, just look at that white-tipped tail! 

Ah. Adorable, isn't he?

And to finish off, here he is cuddling with Joe. You're welcome.

Puppy likes him some tummy rubs