A little update

So, as you can see, posting has become much more sporadic. I will make no promises or pledges of regular posting, since it never works anyway...

However, upon popular request, here are a few pictures of what's been going on around the house. Said pictures are not exclusive, but mere snap shots (ha ha, get it?) ;-) of the Ferderer homestead.

My low-budget grill top container garden!

Decided to give line drying a try (maybe this will offset the cost of running the heater all morning!)

I turned this...

Into this! (Pinterest inspired project)

Moo-Cow wanted to say "hi"

After we woke him up of course... ;-)

Memories of a lovely visit with mom and dad!

Now I will go lay around and generally feel sorry for myself until this fluish cold-like thing is over. (Grandma, the rum apparently did not work...) Hope everyone is doing well! 

How does my garden grow?

It's September in Santa Maria, and you know what that means: Planting Season! Actually, it's almost always planting season here... :-)

I've decided to try my hand at gardening. I love the idea of growing my own food, especially lettuce. Paul and I go through lettuce like half starved rabbits, and the stuff isn't cheap...

I've been checking out lots of gardening books from the library, and on Sunday, Paul and I finally made the trip to Orchard Supply Hardware and came home with a small army of different soils, seeds, and pots.

On Monday, I mixed up several different soils and planted bush peas, mesculin mix, romaine lettuce, thyme, basil, and spinach. I then sealed the pots with plastic wrap and set them in a warm spot in the sun. It sounds (and looks) bad, but the book said it was the thing to do before the seeds sprout. I go out and assure them every day that this is happening because I love them and want them to grow, but they just sit there looking soggy and suffocating...

According to the seed packets, we should start seeing some germination action in a few days. Then we will discover whether this is the miracle of new life, or horrible plant torture and death. Stay tuned to find out!

My future garden

Yum!!!!

The baby compost pile :-)

Hmm, come to think of it, those look like blue thumbs...

Book Blog Bit

If you get a chance, take a look at my "Yams and Yeats" post in the book club blog. Even if you're not reading Things Fall Apart, I have posted a wonderful classic of poetry that you may enjoy. The link to the book club blog is:

http://passingthroughbooks.blogspot.com/

Hope to see you there!

Extreme Makeover- Grill Edition

Paul and I got a grill! You may be wondering how we could afford a propane Weber grill when we are always complaining about being broke. Well, the price on this one was right. We got it for free from Craigslist! The people said it was still in good working order, they just switched to a wood burning grill and never used this one anymore. I was the first person to respond, so they the grill was ours if we could pick it up that same day. Paul had to go in for youth group, so it was up to me and our trusty little CRV.

I had my doubts when I saw the grill. Don't get me wrong, it looked like a lovely (if rusty) piece of equipment. I just wasn't sure how it was going to fit in the car. I started trying to haul my mammoth prize out of the yard and toward the car. The nice grill-people (I never got their names...) must have seen me struggling, because they came out and offered to help.

I am happy to say that after much disassembling, pushing, pulling, and praying, we did manage to fit the grill into the CRV, close all the doors and windows, and not break any glass in the process. I made it home safely with 0% rear window visibility, and only got honked at once! WIN!

The grill will need some tender loving care before it is cook-out ready. It's pretty rusty and dirty from several years of disuse. However, once we have it fixed up, you are all invited to our place for a BBQ!!! I'm sure you can make it, of course. ;-)

Here are some "before" pictures:

Ain't she a beaut? =)

Grimy grill guts

So it's a fixer-upper, but at least it's ours :-)

Well, I'm off to clean a grill!

Bloggin' Book Club

The other day, I had a chance to go check out the Santa Maria library for the first time. It's a beautiful, well set up, well stocked library, and I definitely spent more hours than I had planned just looking through their shelves and shelves of tomes. Throughout the library, they had stacks of little booklets titled "Recommended Reading List." I picked one up, and found a new life goal: I want to read every book on that list (Except, perhaps, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"...) The booklet is a comprehensive list of all the world classics. It has everything from children's classics such as "Where the Red Fern Grows," to very heavy lifting such as  "The Brothers Karamazov."

I want the challenge and the joy of reading through the best literature our world has to offer, and I'm inviting anyone who is interested to join me. I am adding a tab at the top of the page for the blog book club. For each book, I will post a read-by date. Starting at the read by date, I will post my thoughts, impressions, and questions about the selection that was just read. Anyone who has done the reading is welcome to do the same. Maybe we can start a cool little community of quiet classics readers. And maybe, just maybe, we'll learn some interesting things along the way.

The first book on the list is called "Things Fall Apart," by Chinua Achebe. It is light, easy reading, but an intriguing story. The back doesn't give anything away, so here is a brief description:

"A simple story of a "strong man" whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all time and places."

Sounds pretty good huh? :-)

If you're interested in joining me in my classics quest, take a look at the new page at the top of this blog. Hope to see you there!

Catching up!

Hi everyone! Beginning to wonder if I was ever planning to post again? So was I! I got trapped in that terrible vortex of feeling like there is so much to say, that there is never enough time to say it. So I would put off posting till I had more time, but then there was even more to say. So here it is, my re-entry post. It's going to be mostly pictures, because I am too intimidated by the thought of re-capping an entire month filled with multiple, profound life changes. Small doses, and breathing... that's key.

So here are some pictures of our wild adventures, and a short tour of our beautiful new house in California. Pardon the mess in some rooms, we're still getting organized...

A beautiful overlook in the Beartooth Mountain Pass

Entering Yellowstone!!!

Hiking in Yellowstone (thus fulfilling a dream I've had since I was 8!!!)

Gorgeous

Stunning

Gorgeous and stunning

Bubbling mud pots

I love the geo-thermal stuff

It's like you're getting a little peak into the inside of the Earth

We visited our friends, the Wendts in Billings, MT

And learned to shoot

And to catch grasshoppers (That one is named Samuel-Marie) :-)

We visited our friends Al and Gale Borcher in Salt Lake City, UT. That's us drinking Polygamy Brew in Olympic Park. Yes, the beer is actually called that. It's slogan: "Why have just one?"

Utah is way more beautiful than I realized. I didn't even get pictures of the prettiest stuff!!! (I was driving...)

We visited my godfather Ron and his wife, Yvonne in L.A. They took us on a tour of some fantastic wineries. Those shot glasses? Made out of chocolate and filled with almond champagne. Yeah, California is Awesome.

Some highlights: An outdoor musical in the mountains with Paul's supervising pastor and his wife, Markie. The show was great!

The food line at a Spanish baptism dinner. I didn't speak spanish, and the server didn't speak English, so we did the whole point-and-nod bit. ;-)

I learned to bake bread!

Grand tour of our humble abode: Here is the entryway. Exciting stuff huh? ;-)

The dining room, which is connected to the living room and the den

The den, with a hobo (A very cute hobo, who is reading Aristotle) ;-)

Please pardon the mess, it's laundry time... But here is the living room!

And the kitchen :-)

Paul's office

 

My office/craft/guest room :-)

Part of ourbackyard. We actually have a rather sizable yard, but the whole thing is a rock lawn. I'm hoping to start a container veggie garden soon. :-)

 So there it is! Things are going wonderfully, and I will be back with more updates soon, I promise.

In addition, I'm thinking of starting a blog-book club. More details to follow, so stay tuned if you're interested!

Heading West

*This post was written Friday, August 10

Yesterday, Paul and I left North Dakota and began our trek toward California. We went from Linton to Billings, Montana. Some family friends from my dad’s time at Seminary graciously offered to give us a place to stay. We set out early, since we had some business to take care of in Bismark, and we weren't sure how long that would take. As it turned out, it took hardly any time at all. (A modern day miracle in my opinion, since we were working with the DMV. Well, either a miracle or North Dakota is just way more awesome than Mississippi.) ;-)

We got out of Bismark so early, in fact, that we were on track to arrive several hours early. Too early, the Wendts weren't even going to be home when we arrived. And so, when our route took us through the beautiful North Dakota Badlands, we decided to make an adventure of it. 

The Badlands are a beautiful range of buttes that have been eroded away to reveal their stunning layers of color. The park provides a ruggedly beautiful terrain for campers, hikers, and anyone who has an appreciation for the beauty of nature. 

With several hours to kill, Paul and I decided to check it out. We took a beautiful, scenic drive through a section of the park, stopping often to admire our surroundings. We found a nice hiking trail that lead to a clif overlooking a huge river valley. I loved the smell of the fresh, untainted air, the brush of soft sage on my skin, the stony path, and the geological wonders all around me. We saw hosts of prairie dogs and herds of Bison, and I knew I wasn't in Mississippi anymore.

Bison

Antelope? Less sure on this one...

What a view!

Cool geological formations :-)

Our winding windy trail

After our hike, we drove into Medora, a small town on the Badlands outskirts. We had a realxed lunch at a cozy little cafe, and chatted over pie and coffee. After all that, our time was sufficiently slaughtered. We arrived at the Wendt's house a little later than we had planned, but one experience richer on our journey West.

Life of the Party

Last night, I got a taste of small town tavern life. It was an absolute blast- for an evening. I definitely could NOT make a lifestyle out of it.

I mentioned before that Paul's best friend, Chris has been in town for the past week. They were best friends all through elementary and high school, and now Chris has asked Paul to be in his wedding next September. Chris is heading out of town again today, so last night we went out for one last hooray.

A note on the injustice of weather. Chris recently got a new boat, and he's been wanting to take us out on the river all week. We are in the middle of the biggest drought since who knows when, with not a drop of rain in recent memory. However, this week, there has been rain forcast every single night! The worst part? We kept cancelling due to weather, but the weather never showed up. The forcast was wrong every single time.

We still wanted to see the boat, so Paul and I visited Chris at his parents' house. We sat in front of the house, completely grounded, but in the boat nonetheless. The watercraft was outfitted with a nice sound system, so we listened to music and pretended we were sailing on smooth waters. Eventually we tired of our stationary outing, and we decided to go into town for one last drink.

When we got to the bar, it became readily apparent that a single drink was not an option. Being Friday night, half the town was in, and it was a party. We found Chris' family, and ordered our drinks. No sooner had we ordered than we each had two more set in front of us! People were buying rounds right and left, and the house was giving complementary drinks and popcorn at far too regular intervals. I had to cut myself off for health reasons, but Paul so generously took my extra drinks. What a guy. ;-)

As the night went on, more friends and family came pouring in. There were stories of good old days with lots of laughing, and there were sentimental, heartfelt stories that ended in lots of hugging and nary a dry eye. I loved the sense of community, and the cheerful atmosphere of a small town bar. Although it was tempting, Paul and I opted to leave at midnight, and not to stay till close. Our decision proved to be a very good one. While we are reaping some consequences from last night, at least there is no puking.

It was an absolutely wonderful evening, and I'm so glad we went out for a night on the town. At the same time, it's definitely something I only want to do once in a very very long while. 

Here are some pictures from our evening of fun and abandon:

On a Boat!!!

Best Buds

Navigating the treacherous... concrete

Paul, Chris, and Lenny (Chris' dad)

Me, Paul, Chris, and Emily (Chris' fiance)