The GREAT Outdoors!

I love being outside! 

Growing up, we had a large very nice yard with lots of grass and flowers and trees.  We also had animals - dogs and goats, chickens, ducks and geese, a calf and bummer lambs.  Oh, it was such a great place to be a kid.  Dad would come home and we would do chores in our garden, or with the animals.  I have lots of memories of being that good bone-weary tired after a great day outside feeling like you were important. 

We would plant a garden, weed it, harvest it.  I loved picking the fruit and making it into all sorts of great things - I remember bottling peaches, making apricot nectar, and fruit leather.  I remember feeling so cool after washing up after a good day outside and watching all the dirt run into the white sink. 

I remember goats being born and taking care of Shasta's pups.  I remember bottle feeding the goats and breaking the ice in their watering bathtub so they could drink.  I remember taking off my shoes and loving tilling the ground in the Spring, the dark earth feeling so cool and nice between your toes.

I remember making bird nests out of grass clippings, and making "soup"  a little of this and a little of that - berries here, some of this interesting leaf, flower petals, etc.  The outdoors is a glorious place.

I love mowing lawns.  Perhaps one of my most treasured teenage memories is mowing my grandpa's lawn.  He also had a very nice lawn that I absolutely enjoyed mowing.  I loved mowing our lawn too.  There is nothing quite like taking a green lawn and making nice neat lines in it with the mower.  Smelling the fresh cut grass and getting grass stains all over your shoes, socks and pants - Yes!  That is great!  Colt has been working hard every spare weekend he has had to get us a nice lawn planted.  We laid the sprinkler pipes, cut trenches, and made it flat.  Then we added some grass seed and fertilizer. 

It only took a  little over a month to go from above to below!

Water Balloon Fight!

We were playing "Celestial Companions"  with some of our married friends.  It's a game in answering how you think your spouse would.  To the question:  What is your wife's most treasured possession?  Colt answered:  Grass!  Right On!  I debated between the piano or the grass, but right now, our grass brings much happiness to my heart. 

I doubted that seed would turn out as good as sod, and wondered how many hours I'd have to pull out weeds...but it has come in green and very thick, and with almost no weeds!  With the puncture burrs that we have so bad in our yard, I thought it would be a continual struggle, but the girls are able to run around in bare feet and totally enjoy the yard!

Above is what it looks like today, below is shortly after we moved here:

We spend most afternoons/evenings outside once the day has cooled off.  We love running around, having water balloon fights and watching the stars come out.  Beautiful memories!

Water Balloon Fight!

All Wet!

Which way to run?

I told Colt if he moved me down to the desert, that he would have to make it green for me.  Oh, he has definitely kept is promise.  That was a pleasant surprise after we were married - Colt loves to be outside and in the yard as much as I do.  We have around 50 trees planted, with nice grass growing in the backyard and beautiful plants in the front.  I got my Green thumb (well I'm still learning, so I don't think I could qualify as having a Green thumb yet!  Let's call it a love for green things!) from my Dad and his parents, Colt got it from his Grandma (Dad's Mom).  She runs a greenhouse and sent us down some beautiful plants that bring so much color and life to our front flower beds.

We have a lot of fun with our Snap Dragons.  River calls them her "talkers".  We tell stories with our "talkers"

These are the kids flowers.  They can pick any of them they want to.  It's amazing with how many are picked how many blooms we always have.  They pick them for Mommy, Daddy, Neighbors, Friends and Family.  Sharing a flower is a wonderful thing!

This is a really fun ground creeper.  It has beautiful purple flowers in the late Spring.  It is very drought tolerant and covers the ground in a thick green/purple carpet. 

Iris do really well here:  Heat Tolerant, Rabbits don't touch them, Drought Tolerant (I'm not the greatest at consistent watering), green in the summer and the winter, and have beautiful blooms: 

View from our Front Room Window

Before Above.  After Below. 

Lilac on left,  Strawberries in the middle, Raspberries on the Right.

River loves going out to check her berry plants.  Most of what Silver eats is still green :)

More before and after:

Ornamental Peach 2007

Same Peach 2010

I love this tree!  He is SO cute and has the greatest bright pink blossoms in the Spring.

The one behind it and to the left is an Aspen:  This is my favorite tree - the leaves dance in the wind.  The slightest wind will make this little beauty dance, while the leaves on the other trees are still.  The leaves also flash different colors in the sun with the wind.

When we first moved in in '06.

Those big red rocks were the first things to go.  They are now in the culvert to build up the bank and look very nice there.

The next year Colt put in these great flower bed planters for me.  And the big steps down the front. 

Today!  We've had a lot of fun over the years adding a plant here and a tree there.

I love to water plants.  There is something healing to my soul and spirit - not to mention attitude :) when I'm out giving my precious green plants a drink.  Oh how I love the imagery of the Savior being called the "Living Water"  Water brings life to all it touches. 

How I love our little Oasis!