Bees, greenhouses, romantic drives, and tracks...

 It has been a busy week.  We worked on our new greenhouse, went on a romantic drive, and of course enjoyed the flowers.  The flowers are blooming like crazy.  This makes it hard for me to focus.  My husband will look up and I'm wandering around the yard taking photos.  Chasing down some bug, butterfly, or in this case a monstrous bumblebee.  It has been a wonderful summer.  We were getting pretty dry, but tonight we got an inch of rain. 

 We have been super busy on the weekends building a new greenhouse.  Since my sweet husband is now retired, he has also spent most of his weekdays putting together the greenhouse. The old one was a trooper, until the big hail storm two years ago did enough damage to begin it's demise.  I got a little misty eyed taking it down, but the new one is much bigger and taller.  It took two weekends to get it put together.   My husband did most of the work.  We got the roof on this afternoon.  Just in time for a big storm.  The roof didn't blow off and it didn't leak.  I was happy to transplant my tomatoes and cucumbers into the ground.  Hopefully it isn't too late.  The tomatoes were pretty good sized.   We still need to put on the door and set up the fan.

 My husband took me on a romantic drive Friday night.  We took our little Roxar and drove way up behind Deadwood.  In the photo to the left you can see the Lead Homestake mine tower at the top and Deadwood at the bottom.  The photo below looks back at the road we took to the top.  It was amazing how well sound travels.  You could actually hear people talking down on Main Street.  It was a great adventure and nice to get out.  I have lived here twenty 28 years and always wanted to go up to White Rocks.  I am so happy to mark that off my bucket list.  

We've heard a female mountain lion calling at night.  Today when I took Ella for her Sunday walk I saw it's tracks in a mud hole.  You can tell they are lion tracks because there are no claw marks.  Only cats can retract their claws.  It isn't a very large cat.  On a less serious note, because we have been working on the greenhouse in the garage we haven't been able to shut the garage door.  In the dust a few mornings ago I saw the cutest set of tracks.  Our pine martin is still around, because he took a tour of our Jeeps.  He was in and out of everything.  I'm glad he is around, because our squirrel population has been diminished.  

That was our week in as much of a nutshell as I could put it in.  It is good to keep busy, but not so busy that you don't enjoy the beauty around you.  The fireflies were out last night.  They are not out for very long here.  I hope your week has been as productive.  Did you make anything?  Did you go anywhere?  Have a great week.

Flowers...

It was a busy weekend.  We are moving towards putting up the new greenhouse.  It is going to be a two or three weekend project.  I'm just so happy because suddenly and finally things are blooming.  I wait all winter for this.  I have to say this year it is looking good.  I don't have any further comment.  I will let the photos do the talking.  

It was almost impossible to do yoga on our upper deck tonight.  The sunset was amazing.  I thought I got a bunch of photos, but alas, doing yoga and taking photos doesn't work.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.  Next week I will have the grand unveiling of the new greenhouse. Maybe.  I hope your gardens are as delightful.  

Good times and good food...

Time flies and before you know it is time to spend a week at Aunt Bonnie's.  We always manage to keep quite busy.  There is always giant jenga, bean bag toss, football, and the girls love to dance.  We went on lots of hikes around the cabin, in Spearfish Canyon, Mount Roosevelt, and Devil's tower.  We fed the fish at the Spearfish fish hatchery.  There is always a craft and baking day.  This year we made dream catchers and as always pies.  The oldest two proved to be hard to catch with all of their summer activities, so my sister brought out the youngest three.  This was my nephew's first time at Aunt Bonnie Camp.  I would say he enjoyed the week.

One of highlights of the trip was when I took the middle niece for a ride in our little jeep, because she didn't get one earlier in the week.  We went to get the mail.  Lo and Behold, my brother knew she would be at our cabin this week and sent her a painting.  The look on her face when she realized she had a letter was worth a million dollars.  It couldn't have worked out better if we had planned it.  Which we hadn't.  

We tried the Devil's Tower hike again, despite warning texts from the older nieces.  I told the kids we were going to climb the tower.  The younger two were all over it and the middle one just sat quietly.  She knew their excitement would fade. The closer we got to to the tower the less adamant they were about climbing to the top.  When they saw two mountain climbers halfway up the mountain, they wanted nothing to do with seeing the top.  In fact, the youngest proclaimed he was going to buy the mountain and make a rule that nobody could climb it because it was too dangerous.  This time, instead of taking the long route with no trees in 100 degree temps, we chose the shorter more shady trail.  You could say we took the road more traveled and the trip was much more enjoyable.

 We did a little mid-baking stretching.  My nephew made a phenomenal smoked apple pie under the careful tutelage of his uncle.  He was on a cooking roll and even helped make a macaroni salad.  The middle niece made a delicious rhubarb crumble pie. The youngest niece followed her Aunt's love of S'mores and made a S'mores pie.  My husband smoked some venison and we had a fabulous Sunday dinner, on Wednesday.  As you can see below, it was hard to say patient with so much good food around.

 Pie smoking lessons.

 Water was the theme on Monday, as we went to the fish hatchery for fish feeding.  Then we had a picnic by Spearfish Creek.  We drove up Spearfish Canyon and took two hiking trails to various waterfalls.

 After four days packed with picnics, hiking, baking, and crafting, they headed home.  The cabin is suddenly very quiet.  I think poor Ella slept for two days.  I admit we also took a couple of naps.  It sure was a nice time.  It has been forever since my sister stayed and she has never stayed during Aunt Bonnie Camp.  It was wonderful having her here.  

Do you have memories of a week with family during the summer?  What was the most fun?  It is a tradition that I look forward to every year.