From One Home and Yard to Another... - 2009-05-16 18:10:08
We will be leaving our Boise home and yard in 3 weeks!
I wouldn't have considered picking these wisteria blossoms or tulips if we were staying here, but I thought it would make me happy during this week as I continue to pack up our belongings and take down pictures in the house. I've enjoyed making bouquets from the flowers and shrubbery in this yard, and have found interesting things to work with year round...
The same will be true in our new Montana home! I recently received a note from the folks living there now (the recent owners). She says, "We have really enjoyed living here and we hope you will as well. There are quite a few plants in the yard."
1.) Macintosh type of apple tree
2.) Thorn-less raspberry plants along the fence in the back yard with rhubarb behind the raspberries.
3.) Honeysuckle bush on the thatch fence by the apple tree.
4.) Lilac bush/tree in the side yard.
5.) Possibly some other immature fruit trees...apple? plum? pear? apricot?
6.) Perennial flowers along the split rail fencing with drip hose water: Oriental poppies, galardia, black-eyed Susans, lily, daisies, larkspur, delphinium, columbine, lavender , veronica/salvia, wild rose, tulips, hollyhocks, lupine, flax, money plant, peony, butter & egg plant, and various grasses.
7.) Perennial flowers bordering the house: lily, veronica/salvia, daisy, flax, Peace rose, lily of the valley, vinca, clematis, money plant, strawberries.
All of the plants survived minimal watering, with only periodic weeding. Also, we have never sprayed any chemicals on the property...
Enjoy! Yes! I know I'm going to enjoy this yard!!! Sharon says she has often walked by it and wished it were hers...
Today we went to Lowe's and ordered wall to wall carpet throughout the whole house, and laminate oak design kitchen flooring to be installed as soon as we move out. That will make our Realtor (and Sharon) very happy, and give the new owners a bargain for their money! So, we're leaving our Boise home with a huge storage shed, new roof, brand new carpet and kitchen flooring, new automatic awning, landscaped garden, double paned vinyl windows and sliding glass door, newer water heater, and furnace and air conditioner serviced twice a year...
However... We're gaining a wonderful yard, tri-level home 2 blocks away from our family, easy access to outdoor activities, rivers, ponds, parks, and wildlife nearby, less traffic, and "the Montana way of life"!!!
And we'll be able to celebrate holidays together AND cook for each other!
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My Last MOTHER'S DAY in Boise - 2009-05-10 19:31:29
Leading up to this Mother's Day today, we've been continuing to pack and work in the garden after having a LOT of rain over the past week or two...
We moved the cars out of the garage and have them parked in our and our neighbor's driveways so that we can use the garage space to pack and store packed boxes.
Beginning around Easter time our garden has been greening up, and is probably the prettiest I've ever seen it. I took this picture of an Easter bouquet I picked from my yard along with my Christmas present from Sharon...
As I walked in the garden after all of the rain I was reminded of the "forty shades of green" in Ireland...
The Sand Cherry bush
and flowering crabapple tree have never looked this good... Probably because Bill has really worked hard all of this past year pruning and cutting trees and branches in preparation for our move to Montana.
So not only did I take close up pictures, but I also have a beautiful bouquet of crabapple blossoms and pink tulips on the bookshelf.
I even have THREE wisteria blossoms coming out on the small bush in the back yard.
The picture of Sharon holding Morgan this winter as they picked out their Christmas/Birthday tree reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of my mother holding Jon in front of their flowering Wisteria tree when Jon was about the same age as Morgan was this winter.
The minute I saw it I recognised the expression of love on Sharon's face as being exactly like the expression on my mother's face as she held my son many years ago. The expression on the faces of our sons is also quite similar...
The pink dogwood tree in front of Woody's house is also spectacular this year.
I never would have thought of picking any of the pink dogwood blossoms before, but I have to admit that they make the most beautiful bouquet I could ever have imagined along with the "alley lilac" bloom from a neighbor's yard...
And so, after a Mother's Day Brunch taken from this article in our local paper and calls from Jon and Sharon, I'm feeling happy and contented along with my mother and my daughter...
Mothers all three...
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The Swirling, Stressful Breezes of Spring... - 2009-04-23 18:49:06
This will be just a short one... Bill is about to barbecue lamb chops for dinner which we'll have with scallopped potatoes and a green salad with avocado. Dessert will be a banana cream pie with a graham cracker crust (another easy, healthful dessert a la Gramma Evelyn and her mother). Yes, soon I'll get those good recipes up for you.
We're treating ourselves very well today because we think we deserve it... Yesterday a great deal of stress was relieved when I was able to help our 92 year old neighbor make the decision and sign up to move into an assisted living facility nearby.
For the last year or so, and especially over the last 6 months, his short term memory is declining rapidly and he isn't able to live alone any more. He is very independent and wants to stay at home, but that's no longer possible. So it was a big accomplishment for me to be able to help him decide to move into a place where he'll be comfortable and happy. It will be easier to say "good bye" to him when we move...
Now... on to packing boxes, etc. after we have our open house this weekend...
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Waiting... - 2009-04-15 17:19:47
In looking forward to moving back to Montana we've been thinking about how life will be different for us there than it has been here in Boise... For one thing I'll have to change the name of my blog - or actually Jon will have to do that for me! "Hello Jon; how about 'MONTANA on Mom's Mind', or simply, 'Mom's Montana Blog' with a picture of Glacier at the top like one of these?"
Come to think of it, you take much better pictures than I do, so we probably should use one of yours! And while you're at it maybe you can teach me how to put up the permanent links on one side or the other, or just do it yourself when you change the picture...
Another way life will be different is that we will be doing more cooking at home rather than going out to favorite eating establishments like we do here. I've been thinking about how I used to try to make desserts "the old fashioned way" just using a wooden spoon rather than an electric mixer, and using healthy ingredients, more like the "old timers" did. So, here are some of the recipes I've made lately:
From The Kim William Cookbook and Commentary with it's chapters organized by season... "Spring is Wild and Green", "Summer is a Salad Bar", "Fall is Harvesting the Sun", and "Winter Is An International Kitchen" comes Family Carrot Cake. It's so easy and fool proof that anyone can be successful.
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 cup raisins (I used Golden Raisins)
3/4 cup sugar or 1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup shortening (I used 1/2 stick of butter [1/4 cup] no trans fat)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/3 cups water
1 egg beaten until light
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 cups sifted flour (1 cup whole wheat & 1 cup white)
1 teaspoon baking soda & 1 teaspoon cream of tartar (the old fashioned way of making 2 teaspoons of baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1. Cook the carrots, raisins, sugar, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg in 1 1/3 cups water for 5 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool for 2-3 hours.
2. Stir the beaten egg and lemon rind into the cooled mixture.
3. In a separate bowl (or on wax paper), sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar (or baking powder), and salt. Stir into the carrot mixture, and add the nuts.
4. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan (I used a bundt pan). Bake 35-45 minutes (or until done) in a pre-heated 350 degree oven.
This cake does not not need frosting. If you must adorn it, sprinkle lightly with confectioner's sugar.
Those of you who were priviledged enough to know Kim Williams, or know of her through her weekly National Public Radio broadcasts from Missoula, Montana, know that she was a feisty, no-nonsense, wonderful person who we all loved for her down-to-earth wisdom and fun-loving grin. While we were "downsizing" the cookbook shelves preparing to move, I was THRILLED when Bill found her cookbook that had been missing for a long time!
Here are a few more pictures of our "cleaned up" house, as we look forward to fishing in Montana again....
I moved one of the Indian cabinets into that desk/daybed room to make the family room look larger to the prospective buyers; and now I'm about halfway through sorting and throwing away most of the papers in the desk and file cabinet. My sister thought our spirits might need lifting after we'd done so much hard work, so she surprised us with this beautiful bouquet.
More musings to come...
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Montana On Our Minds... - 2009-04-09 21:53:33
For those of you who know us or have been in any of our homes over the past 47 years, you know that having a clean or uncluttered house hasn't been our strong point...
Since we listed our house with John L. Scott Realty we followed the agent's advice and cleaned up and stashed a lot of "stuff" so the place would look good to prospective buyers... We even bought some air freshner to mask cooking smells, and now it's so clean and bare that our voices echo in the rooms!
Bill started it off by cleaning up around his chair...
Then he took down the Indian rugs and painted and patched the the walls behind where the rugs had been hanging. We worked together on taking over half of the books out of all of the bookshelves, removing everything including the speakers from the top of the shelves, and lowering the bookshelves in the eating area. We stored about 300 pounds of books and a chair in our neighbor's garage. This is the result:
Our agent said it was important to have empty kitchen counters, so we complied and have even been able to develop the habit of cleaning EVERYTHING and putting it away as we use it. Sometimes it's hard to remember where we stashed things like the oil and vinegar, or the mini chopper, but we're getting there...
Bill washed all of the windows inside and out, and then cleaned his bedroom and bath. Sharon will remember that when we moved here 6 years ago there was a wooden box that had some of Bill's "stuff" in it. She asked where it should go and Bill said, "Just put it down in my bedroom." It stayed in the spot where she put it down then with the goat skin on top of it until a week ago!
I even uncluttered and de-piled my room and sewing machine, my bathroom, and cleaned off my desk and the shelves in that spare room!
We had a big wind storm come through that blew down parts of the back fence, so together with lots of muscle power and ingenuity we pounded in posts and put the fence back up.
Bill mowed the lawns and cleaned up tree branches and around the patio. He even patched some cracks in the cement patio...
I spent about 5 or 6 hours over two days cutting back and removing 5 garbage bags full of evergreen shrubs that had prevented the big back RV gates from opening.
We also moved the new freezer, that we brought from Montana and stored in the shed all these years, out onto the lawn to clean it; then we moved it into the garage where we transferred food from the old freezer into it, cleaned out the old freezer and put it out in front for a charity to pick up.
So, with all of that work behind us and a few house showings under our belt, we're ready to let the agent take over selling the house;
and we're heading back home to Montana to stay for good!!!
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