Pumpkin pies & Cranberry Salad & broken arms

Well it is almost Thanksgiving again. It sure seems like times flies. As I was making my pumpkin pies today I was reminded of other Thanksgivings some long ago. I remember when my grandma Bennett made her pies. They were almost black she had so much spices in them. Boy were they yummy. I remember my mom's pies. I remember her making so many of them. We always ate them all. I try as hard as I can to make mine taste just like hers. Wayne was laughing at me when I put the spices in, I just kept putting more in. I kept telling him it would be okay. As I was making my cranberry salad I tried to remember who brought the recipe to us. We have made it faithfully every year since that fateful Thanksgiving. We love it. I remember Thanksgiving at mom's house forever, even after I was married we ususally made it back home. Mom would give us all an assignment to bring, but she always did most of it. Of course, we were usually there all day to help fix it. What memories it brings back. It was all different after mom was gone. We tried to hold it all together, but it never was the same. I love my mom and dad. They are not here with us anymore, but that doesn't stop us from thinking about them all the time, especially during the holidays. Now most of us have our own families that we have Thanksgiving with. I am happy because of the ones I get to have it with, and sad for the ones who are somewhere else. Dusty called us today and said Cody fell down some stairs and broke his arm. They spent 5 hours in Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake having it surgically put back together. He is home now, but won't get a real cast until the end of next week. He is an accident waiting to happen. He alone has had more stitches and bone breaks than all my kids and grandkids put together. He is a wild one. We love him. Chelsea is scheduled to have her baby on Dec 11, unless she goes into labor before that. They say she is huge. Mark mowed the lawn today. It that dumb or what. Our lawn is still nice and green and still growing some. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow and put them into a new post of Thanksgiving day. Happy Turkey Day

Flooding and Salmon in the Skok Valley

We had about 9-12 inches of rain in about 36 hours that caused almost major flooding. We were okay, but there was major flooding and water all around us.
We were really blessed because we really didn't get any water. There were times when the road probably had about 12 plus inches of water running across it. We did have some under the house again, but the sump pump kept it down. We have Salmon in our fields and all up and down the roads in and out of our place.

The road leading out from our house

A mile or so from our house

Water from the Skok coming across the road in a big way

Salmon on the edge of the road (They try to swim back to the river)

Water in the front yard. The ground is so wet.


I am taking this picture out of my bedroom window. The water on the road is actually running all the way down the road. Luckily is flows to the right and away from our place. If it had of went straight down it would have went right through our barn.

Halloween and Apples and Pumpkin

I'm a real procrastinator. What can I say. Halloween was a zoo, but the kids had fun. We have also been canning. So far this year we have canned peach jam, blackberry jam, and now pumpkins and apples. The pumpkins we never got around to carving for Halloween and the apples grew in our yard on about 3 old ancient trees that are barely still alive. The apples are to die for. Almost as good as the ones we used to eat when we were kids. We have also been drying apples and a few other things.

These are some of our canned apples. They are so yummy

Wayne, Penny, Adelaide and ?

Wayne in his rat hat

Penny and Adelaide

Adelaide (Tinkerbell)

All the kids in Peter Pan costumes

Nevin in a grocery sack

Penny at work