Fall = Busy, busy, busy!

I haven’t written in a while. In the past that would have meant that I had nothing to write about. However, that is currently the opposite of reality. I have had so many great things going on since the end of August I haven’t been able to write about it. So due to the laps in time this may be a bit shorter than most but probably still much more lengthy than necessary. As Dusty would say I don’t have a very good sense of economy with words. If I could say something with three words I will most likely still use ten!


The 25th of August I had an interview at Brentwood elementary for a second grade job share. It sounded like such a great opportunity to get my foot in the door to the Mead school district, even if it was only a half day position. A day later I found out I got the job! It was so perfect for me since my main teaching areas would be math, science and social studies with second graders. Wasting no time at all, I met my awesome teaching partner, Tracee, at school to look at my new materials the next day. The next week consisted of meetings and a few last minute preparations before the kids arrived.

School started on September 7th and things continued to pick up pace as I was offered another teaching opportunity in Brentwood. Mead district does this great thing when they have a combo class and I get to be a part of it. There is another teacher with a 4/5 combo, instead of making her go through two totally separate math lessons, one for each grade, they hire someone part time to teach one of the grades. That part time person is me! I have the fifth grade half of the class for their math every morning. They are a great bunch of kids and I love the individuality that shows in the older grade. It works well with my afternoon positions and I have some prep of time in between “shifts” to stay on top of everything. The only slight down side is that I can’t sub around and get to know teachers in other schools. Another positive note about it is that financially this situation is better than subbing so that is exciting for our savings account.

September is also busy because it is a birthday month around our house. This year was a big year as Tim turned 50 and Dusty turned 25! So of course we had to have a party. Originally Dusty and I had planned to invite Tim’s sisters from out of town to the normal family gathering. Then we thought it would be fun if we invited some of his really close friends too. We had though to try and surprise him but didn’t want to miss anyone important on the invite list so Dusty and I decided we better ask Tim even if it did ruin the surprise. Well let’s just say the guest list discussion went from about a dozen invitations to over sixty! And I just kept thinking “I am going to need more food!” It turned out to be a great party. Tim and Dusty were really glad to see so many of their friends. Among other September birthdays my grandpa Tom turned 80 and my Grandma Bev turned… well, she had a birthday!

In the end of September and early October we has a few semi-relaxing weekends, going to the lake with my parents for a boat ride, visiting with friends over dinner and working in our garden. We even opened our garden for U-pick flowers. The pictures speak better for these events than I can so I will let them do the talking.

 
  Before I knew that I had a job, Dusty had said he would take me on a vacation to Cannon Beach. Since I (thankfully) have a job now that plan didn’t work out as well as we once thought it might. When I realized I had an extra day off from school last weekend, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to sneak out of down for a short trip. I have been to the Oregon coast once before but don’t remember it very well which made for a great new adventure this time. We left right after school Thursday and drove mostly in the dark. Friday the weather was about as perfect as you could get in October on the coast. I loved exploring the tide pools and searching for shells. Saturday started out drizzly and proceeded to turn into torrential downpour, but it was perfect for exploring the shops in Cannon Beach and Seaside. Sunday was overcast but not a hint of wind, which was actually disappointing since we bought a kite the day before. We went for one last walk on the beach and I played in the waves like a little kid then we grabbed our stuff and hit the road.

 

Sunny enough to make a shadow!

This is the view from our hotel balony

Low tide

Yesterday, we were worried about the frost warning and cold temps predicted. Last night, my parents came over to take a few pictures of us in our garden. I love having photographer parents because they always get great pictures. We also harvested most of our pumpkins, even though they are still not quite orange. Looking at the leaves in the garden this morning, I think that we made the right choice about getting our pictures yesterday. Today, the leaves of everything are shriveled and brown from the frost last night. Not so photogenic! Here is what they looked like before the frost. *please note that the next set of pictures was taken by my parents :)

 

Now we are gearing up for other fall activities like apple picking, pumpkin carving, my birthday, and Halloween. Could September and October possibly be any busier? Sometimes I wonder why we do it to ourselves to be this busy, but I love the fun that each activity brings and couldn’t imagine getting rid of one!

 

 

Seattle Weekend Trip

Here is a mini diary of our mini vacation. I am very glad Dusty made time to take the trip before he had to start wheat harvest.

Friday Day 1: The 5th Wheel made it with no problems or suprises. However, I do not want to do the math on the fuel milage to get here. Driving over the pass I could almost hear the truck rumbling "gulp, gulp, gulp" as it sucked up the fuel. After unhitching, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo and I got to feed a giraffe. Then we went to the Ballard Locks where we saw big salmon and a seal. Tommorow is going to be even more fun because I am NOT going to mistakenly think that my good walking shoes were in the truck when in actuality I had left them in the camper... Stupid Sandals!

Saturday Day 2: Today was awesome! The Seattle Underground tour was so great. Our tour was followed by a crowded walk through Pike Place Market to find some lunch. Then it was on to the Aquarium where we saw all kinds of creatures. After that we went on an Argosy Harbor Tour. It was neat to see a different perspective of the Seattle skyline and catch a little breeze. Next we went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was SOOO good; I wish we had one in Spokane. But then again, I don't because I would want to go the way too often. Lastly we squeezed in a bit of shopping before finishing our day by going up the Space Needle at dusk. We even watched some fireworks off in the distance.

Sunday Day 3: Our Space Needle tickets were good for two trips up in a 24 hours span, one day/one night, so today we started with another view from the top. Then we went to the Pacific Science Center. I absolutly loved the butterfly house. I could have stayed in there all day. Next we went to the Boeing Museum of Flight. They have some cool exhibits about the history of planes. It felt like we went back in time a bit. Last we went to visit our friend Nick where he lives in Mukilteo where we saw an adorable little light house, ate seafood for dinner on the beach at sunset and I found a huge sea shell. We went back to our 5th wheel and went to bed for a few short hours before getting up hitting the road so Dusty could make it back to work Monday morning bright and early. The End!

Whew! When we take a vacation we make it count. I do think it is funny the weekend we ended up going to Seattle (partialy to get out of the heat Spokane was getting) there were record high temps on the coast... but it does make me feel a bit less wimpy for saying "gosh it is HOT today!" about a thousand times on Saturday while we were walking all over downtown.
P.S. As soon as we got back into Spokane Dusty had to jump right into the combine and start cutting. So to clarify the last few pictures in the slide show are from the first day of harvest.

Yellowstone Again

Last week I had the opportunity to sneak away from Spokane for a week with some great friends. Our friends Craig and Michelle had planned to take a trip for their one year anniversary with a bunch of friends. They had invited Dusty and I to go along weeks ago and we had to say no because Dusty would be too busy farming at the time it was planned. Friday, just two days before Craig and Michelle were due to leave, Dusty got the idea that I could still go on the trip even though he couldn't and called to see if that was possible. Since our friends are so amazing and incredibly flexible they made it work for me to go along on their trip. So Saturday I started to throw my things together and coordinate what I would need for the trip... and then proceed to throw in a zillion other things which I would most likely not need but still felt compelled to take along, just in case. Then Sunday morning after some swift (and slightly frantic) packing I headed off to Wyoming with the rest of the traveling gang. It was a great trip and I had so much fun. The only bad part was that Dusty couldn't come along. Hope you like these pictures, it is a beautiful place to visit!

Dusty Drives the Boat

This summer haying season has been pretty intense; we got a very late start due to the wet and rainy June. Three weeks and 20,000 bales later, Erin and I headed to the lake for some fun in the sun last weekend. We loaded up with our stuff Saturday morning and were about to leave when Coby jumped in the cab of the truck and looked so ready to go that nobody had the heart to tell him he had to stay home, so we all, Erin, Coby, Moosey and I headed for the lake to cool off and relax.

I can’t say much about what went on Saturday afternoon because once we arrived at the cabin and got unpacked… which involved a fair amount of packing stuff down the trail… I was forced to catch up on some much needed rest. Maybe not forced, but I was tired enough that the 4 hour nap seemed impossible to fend off. Saturday evening Erin’s sisters arrived and so the whole Price side of the family was at the lake.

Sunday was another beautiful sunny summer day, and I slept in till 7:00am then went out to hang out with the dogs for awhile. I had informed Steve that I wanted to enroll in Steve’s Captain in Training program, so early in the afternoon we went out on the lake with the Velocity to start teaching me about the wonderful world of watercraft. After a cruising around the bay for awhile, Steve coached me as I brought the boat in to dock. After a couple attempts I think I am starting to get the hang of boating.

Erin enjoyed the day sunning on the dock, swimming with me, and trying to convince the dogs to like water. Moosey just isn’t sure about the wet stuff and defiantly would prefer to be on dry land.

Here is a update on some of our recent highlights.

I have been having a great time “working” at having a relaxing summer. I tell you it is a rough job trying to think of ways to keep yourself busy all day.


Moosey’s training seems to be benefiting from me not working. Her attention span is finally getting long enough to listen to commands I am trying to teach her. She is growing so fast, at 13 weeks she is a solid 29 pounds! Her latest accomplishment is learning to roll over. Sit, lie down, come here, and fetch are mostly mastered but stay and walking on a leash still need some work. Oh, and she figured out how to get things off the top of her kennel/the kitchen table, not sure how I feel about that new trick.

My garden is growing very well too. I have even gotten some pretty bouquets from the perennials Jane gave us from her farm. Everything else is a good sized sprout but no blooms yet because they got started so late. We should have some great flowers the start of September! I had hopes of selling some flowers at the farmers market. That is looking less promising at this point in time but maybe in the future will work better. Oh well, this was supposed to be a learning experience after all. We are going to have plenty of variety once they are all up. I think I am most excited about the sunflowers and pumpkins. I planted seven kinds of pumpkins and 4 kinds of sunflowers. I am also excited that the water system Dusty built for me is working out great; it makes it super easy to move hoses from one row to another.

Dusty is a crazy farming machine and he can be all the time now that he is completely done with grad school. I am considering calling him Master Dusty from here on out. We went to Pullman this Thursday for his defense of his research. He did great passing all required elements and now can say he is totally finished with class work at WSU. He is so thrilled to “just” be a farmer. While most people might take this as an insult, Dusty has wanted to get to this point since he was about ten years old. Now that Dusty is on the farm full time he is working more hours than I can count each week. I am glad when he keeps his work day under 12 hours. I don’t know many other professions besides ag. where people put in 12-16 hour work days for a month or more straight. I know if my dad reads this he will tell me “Deadliest Catch does that!” I have put in my fair share of long hours grading or getting school stuff ready, but like most jobs it doesn’t go on day after day like farm work. After watching the guys work I can say I fully understand the phrase “make hay while the sun shines.”

The guys are excited because the crops are looking more hopeful than recent years past. They have also picked up more leases on land which will help support the addition of us to the farm. Some of the new land is very hilly, so the guys are looking into buying a new hillside combine that will be safer and handle better on the steep terrain. I can tell Dusty is very excited at the thought of a new toy to tinker. Now if you ever thought cars were expensive go look up the cost for a brand NEW combine, it will blow your mind! Once you see the tag on one of those you will understand why the guys are looking at well used machines.

I won’t encourage you to look at the costs of farming for too long though, if you do you may end up frustrated for farmers. Sometimes it just makes me so mad thinking about how hard the guys (like most farmers) work for pennies in return, costs are ridiculous and returns can be so low. Sometimes the media portrays farms in the worst way. They makes it seem like farmers are all out there spraying chemicals on anything that moves just for fun, not thinking about the consequences at all. There is the added perspective that farmers are all trying to steal money from the government and take unnecessary subsidies. If you know Tim and Dusty, then you know that is not at all how they live. All the while our culture (myself included) is paying millions to people in the entertainment/sports industries. When I really think about things, it just doesn’t seem make any sense to me. Dusty doesn’t do his job for the money and I am willing to support him in doing whatever he loves regardless of finances, but I do wish that it would be easier for him. I am very thankful to have a husband that I know can work that hard and persists through challenges of broken equipment. Dusty’s work ethic is impressive on any scale. But I am glad that he doesn’t work ALL the time so we have can make room in our calendar for fun too. 

 

We spent last Sunday at my parents’ cabin! I had gone out to the lake with my dad Friday afternoon and spent the day at the new big boat. Then Saturday we took dad’s other boat across the lake to our cabin. Lexi and her boyfriend Chris were already there so we hung out on the dock until the clouds rolled in a bit too much for our sunning desires. I was very excited to see Dusty Sunday morning but I think my dad was even more appreciative to have his help. While I sat on tried to get my little lab Moosey to swim (she hates it, how weird is that? But my mom's one  pound puff of a puppy loves it!) Dusty helped my dad build a boat lift. Dusty did take a break to get in and swim, he likes it just a little bit more than Moosey. Maybe we should get her a little puppy life vest so she can match Dusty. Then I won’t have to worry about either of them swimming like a rock. I don’t think it will be too much of a problem as both of them would prefer to have their feet on the land rather than in the water. All in all it was a really fun day at the lake.

 

 

Summer has started out as a season of change

So many things have changed for us in the last month or so, I can hardly keep track. Some have been exciting, others have been sad and all have been quite stressful at some point. Here is a rundown of some of the happenings as of lately.

May 30th my little sisters, Alli and Lexi turned 21. This event was exciting for the twins and maybe a little sad for me because when I went to buy them a nice bottle of wine the cashier didn’t even look like he was considering carding me. I was a bit surprised, maybe it is because I am used to Pullman where they card everyone. Either way, I didn’t like it because I felt very old all the sudden.

Another thing that happened that day, was Dusty’s mom passed away. It wasn’t exactly expected, but with all of Debbie’s health conditions not much surprised people. For about a month she had been having massive amounts of pain because of torn tendons, muscles and rotator cuff in her shoulder. The night before she passed away, she started having more pain in her leg as well, likely from a broken bone. The stress on her body was incredible and her breathing, which already was labored from lung issues, began to become even worse than normal. In the morning it had gotten so bad that she could not even talk. At that point Dusty’s dad Tim called for the ambulance. Once at the hospital, they put her on straight oxygen and tried to get her hydrated. This was difficult because her veins didn’t take well so it was tough to get an IV line started. Once they had her somewhat stabilized she was able to talk a little and seemed to be in less pain. The nurse took Debbie to get some x-rays to check what was going on with her leg and lungs. Shortly after she returned to the room from x-ray, Debbie began to have serious breathing problems. Because Debbie had a DNR order in place there was not much anyone could do at that point. The doctors said it was probable she had blood clot move from the injured shoulder into the lungs making it so she just could not get any air. Although this has been a HUGE change, especially for Dusty, it is also a comfort to know that she is in a better place and is not hurting like she was right before she died.

May 31st was our two year anniversary! This was definitely exciting, but given everything else going on we decided to wait and celebrate sometime after life slows down a little bit. If that ever happens, I will write another post in the future about what we decide to do.

June 1st Dusty and I headed back to Pullman so I could teach and try to get my class ready for the end of the year. I ended up using most of my time after school Tuesday and Wednesday writing sub plans so that I could take a Thursday and Friday off to help get things ready for the funeral.

June 3rd we went back to Spokane to help with arrangements and getting everything organized. Our parts in this included scanning old pictures and creating a slide show, printing pictures for memory display boards, putting together a playlist of Debbie’s favorite songs, and arranging bouquets of flowers to be used on the tables during dinner at the farm following the funeral .

June 7th Early Monday we drove back to Pullman for the last time (for a while anyways) to finish up my very last week as a teacher in Pullman. The week was so busy! Thankfully Dusty was a huge help, I don’t think I would have gotten everything done without him, since the week/weekend previous had gone so crazy, I was running a bit behind. During this week (in addition to packing up the rest of things in our apartment) I had to get my end of year assessments all graded, and everything put into grade book format so I could use it to fill in the students report cards. Once that part was done I had to inventory things in my room and get it all cleaned out for summer. Wednesday night we had a great dinner at sangria with some of our small group friends.


June 10th was the last day of school. It was so much fun but I will surely miss my class and fellow teachers in Pullman. After school was out for the day we went to a get together at my master teacher’s house to celebrate the end of the year. It was a tough day for me packing up the last of my school things and saying goodbye to all the friends I had made in the last two years teaching at Jefferson. Later that evening Dusty and I started cleaning our apartment hardcore. We had some wonderful friends come a help us out for a bit. Dusty and I cleaned late into the night and got up to start again Friday morning.

June 11th we finished up the last little bit of cleaning and packing in our apartment. Our land lords came over to check the place in the afternoon. We were glad to see they were pleased with our cleaning job, and even happier that we got our whole deposit back. Most rental places in Pullman people are not so lucky. On that note we loaded the truck and car and hit the road.

June 12th originally we had planned to go to the Combine Derby in Lind. However, many of our friends that we had made tentative plans to meet there ended up not being able to go for one reason or another. Dusty and I talked about it and realized that although we like the Derby we were mostly going to visit with friends. We skipped the stop in Lind and went straight to Prosser to pick up my new puppy, Moosey. Once we had her we drove back towards the Tri-Cities to eat dinner at our friends Grant and Andrea’s house. They have a cute little dog named Milo, who is just a little smaller than my puppy. I am very glad Milo was such a good host to Moosey by giving her the full tour of the yard, about ten times at top speed. This made for a very sleepy puppy on the ride back to Spokane.

June 13th LET THE UNPACKING BEGIN! We started to sort things out and arrange stuff into the single wide where we will be living for… awhile. We jokingly call it the “tin box.” I wish I could report that we got it all done in one day but that is far from the truth. After high school Dusty lived in the tin box while he was home for summers and there is plenty of stuff that was in the tin box prior to Dusty even moving in, we each had our own fully furnished apartments in college, then we got a bunch of new stuff from our wedding for our apartment together, don’t forget about some of our “growing up” stuff that we can’t seem to part with anytime soon…. So basically we have stuff and things coming out of our ears! Lucky for us the farm house has a big basement Tim is letting us fill up, for now.


June 14th Dusty started work and the crew is busy cutting hay already... so it can get rained on of course, ugh! I am hoping to get going on our garden soon. We sort of put it on hold when things got so busy, and now it is a bit muddy. I am very much looking forward to not having a job this summer and being able to try and catch up on some of the projects on our infinite to-do list.... but who can get anything done with this little furball around, I just want to watch her and take pictures of all the cute things she does!