Klondike

We had a warm spell come through just before the Klondike so there wasn't as much snow as hoped for. Still the boys had fun. Tony's group tied for second overall. They were forth in the sled races. The snow did come after we left around noon. I had to get back to Reno for a union meeting. The next day at church I was talking to the leaders. They said it started dumping snow 15 minutes after we left and there was 2 inches by the time they got the gear loaded on the trailer and left.

Did Al Gore make unexpected stop in the Reno area?

We enjoyed a pleasant day Saturday, February 20. Pruned the trees in the orchard. Had some friends over for a visit. . . and then the only thing we could figure is some wacko leftist environmentalist tree hugging global warming idiot must be in the area as temperatures dropped and the snow started falling. A quick check of Accuweather confirmed there was only a chance of rain predicted. I wish those warmers would stay home, I've had enough winter already. By Sunday morning we had over 5 inches.

Sunrise

Mom likes her sunrises and loves to photograph them.

Pre Klondike

Tony's scout troop enjoys a winter camp out every year in the High Sierras. To get ready for the cold they go outside Fallon for an overnight to get the boys ready for the big camp.

The other boys were setting up the tent as

Tony helped out with the dinner.

They survived the night and struck camp at noon.

Christmas 2009

Season Greetings

I'm late getting the Christmas photos logged but here are a few. We had a quiet Christmas this year, just the local family. It was a white Christmas for a change. We went in and saw Grandma Kling at "The Arbors". Tony got a LARGE Legos set, and then rode his sled.

We had a family Christmas dinner with Grandpa and Tonya's family.

Dec 7th

We had received about 4 inches by 3am when Jeff went to work. When I went out to feed we had 6 inches and decided to take these shots. It continued to snow all day and into the next, by Tuesday afternoon we had 9 inches.

The horses are having a hard time with it and the chickens don't even want to come out of their house. The ducks thought it was great.

Too much snow for the old tractor to plow so it'll just....

.......rest.

snow, snow and more snow.

OK, Jeff's sick of snow but I love it and it does make for some neat photos.

the new Fernley flag

The Fernley Youth Theater group put on a play called "Rumor has it" about the founding and growing up of the Town of Fernley. At the end of the play the new city flag was presented along with a cake for the cast and crew. Tony is in the middle holding up the flag. His cousin Mathew is at the right side.

Last of the honey for this year.

We gathered another gallon of honey from the girls before putting them to bed for the winter. That makes 4 and 1/8 gallons for this season. Next year we are going to try our hands at splitting a colony and set up a second hive. We should have enough next year to sell. The jar on the left is late season harvest, mostly clover. The jar on the right is from the summer harvest and is mostly an orchard blend.

Tree House of Sorts.

Tony has bugged his dad for several years to have a tree house. Well, Jeff started on it Oct 24th with Tony's help. The floor had been up for several months. By the end of the day they had three walls up.



Over the next two weekends it has been coming together.






Eventually
there will be another roof to the north side (door side) that will cover over the rest of our hay shelter.

Apples, apples, and more apples!!!

This year with the bee's help we were blessed with our largest bounty from the Lord yet. We estimated 600 pounds of apples harvested and probably another 200 pounds that had dropped to the ground before we got to them. (They went to the compost). Our kitchen was filled with apples for several weeks but we finally got caught up.

These are not the same ones in the previous picture. We used Christine's old bedroom as a overflow storage coldroom. Each tub is approximately 75 to 80 pounds.

The press arrived after some delay but we quickly got started on the cider. So far we have made several gallons of cider. Joyce has been putting up cases of apple sauce, apple pie filling, apple butter and sliced apples. Also the pastry shop (Joyce's Kitchen) has made apple pie's, apple cake, and apple donuts.
o

Tony was busy after the harvest, painting the trees to get ready for winter.