The Garden

It's the middle of summer, and harvesting has begun.  This is my first year doing potatoes, and they are doing great, as are the peas.

I've also probably picked close to 50 strawberries.  They aren't huge ones, but they are very sweet when you eat them--nothing like strawberries right off the vine.  I've also picked some broccoli, carrots, and lettuce.  Everything is still in the growing phase.  I took some pictures, and I'm very pleased with how things are going.  First is a shot of the whole garden.

 Lots of green in there, which is wonderful.  Below are the tomato plants and potatoes.  I've had a couple tomato plants die, and I'm not sure why.  One is growing beautifully, so I'm befuddled.

 Next is a picture of the beans, which are going crazy.  Some nice bean-buds are forming, so in another four weeks, we'll be eating fresh green beans.

 I grew more potatoes in this spot, as I didn't think the soil was very good and I heard potatoes will grow just about everywhere, which turns out to be true.  You can also see my carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and onions.

 In the upper right are the raspberry plants.  These things have gone crazy this year--we planed two little plants last year, and now they are taking over.  Note also my owl, which does wonders with birds.  Finally, you can see some honey-dew melon and cucumber vines in the foreground.

 What is a garden without corn.  I started all these stalks inside in April.  Each has one or two corn cobs growing on them, and we still have ~50 days of growing until it gets cold again.  I'm thinking we'll be eating corn in late August.

 Pumpkins just go crazy--all those huge leaves in the below picture are from a pumpkin vine.  The aggravating thing is for all that greenery, there isn't a single pumpkin growing yet.

I didn't take a picture of my trees, but my apple tree has six apples growing.  I'll be curious if the apples taste like apples :-)

Ok, now for some bad news.  Harley has been limping on and off for the past few months.  We took her to the vet in mid-May, and he gave her some steroids to see if that helped.  Well, she's been limping again, and this time, the vet x-rayed her knee.  She has a tumor on her knee bone...which is bad.  The only treatment is amputation, so she will be having her back-left leg removed.  It's also a possibility (probably even money) the tumors have spread, which means she might only have six months to live.  Of course, if they haven't she could live another five years (fingers crossed).  If you have any input with the Big Dog upstairs, we'd appreciate some positive thoughts for our pup :-)  I'll post some pictures and an update on Tuesday.

July 4th

We spent a few days up in Breckenridge over the holiday weekend.  Breck's a tourist town, which means it gets very crowded during these times.  Fortunately, we live a few miles out of town, so even though the town is packed, it feels like we are roughing it.  We didn't spend much time in Breckenridge because of the crowds, but we did go down for lunch on Sunday, and stopped for some neat photos on the river walk.

   

We did some work around the house, and also spent some time just sitting and looking at the mountains.  In a 48-hour period, we went from paddle-boarding on the Gulf of Mexico to hanging out at 10,000 feet above sea level.  Nothing like shocking the lungs at our age.

On Independence Day, we decided to hike up the Continental Divide.  We've done this hike before, and it's not too difficult, but it is challenging for an eight-year old.  We also brought Joey for the trip (we didn't bring Harley, and I'll address why next post).  Here's a cute shot of a boy and his dog at the start of the hike.

The hike went well.  We brought plenty of Gatorade and water, and even remembered to bring a bowl for Joey.   At one point, we even had to go through our version of the ice falls (I watched the movie Everest the other night).

At this point, we are above tree line.  We trudged on and eventually made it to the top.  Ashley's phone said we were at 12,217 feet above sea level.

The hike was wonderful, as was the time up in Breckenridge.  I left early in order to get home so I could go to work on the 5th.  I wish I had stayed, because two huge moose decide to walk right in front of our house.

   

   

   

Bode was impressed with their size, while Joey was going bonkers trying to get out of the house.

Overall, the 4th of July was pretty tame.  The hike wore us out, and we all ended up going to bed just as fireworks were starting.  It's just wonderful being back at work :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Fort Walton Beach

We spent close to a week in Fort Walton Beach the last week of June.  We had a wonderful time at Ashley's parent's house.  The worst thing about the trip was I forgot my camera--can you believe that?  Of all things to forgot.  Thus, I had to rely on Ashley taking pictures with her phone, which is simply hand-wringing awful for a photog such as myself :-)  Therefore, there's no real rhyme or reason of what pictures we have and don't have--sometimes we remembered to take a picture and sometimes we didn't.  Thus, you'll have to allow my silky words to paint the images for you.  We were lucky enough to time our trip to partially coincide with an FWB visit by Dave, Teddy, and Charlie.  We decided to spend the day together and go out to lunch...to Waffle House (yes, really).  Here's a cute shot of Teddy and Bode at the Fort Walton WH.

After lunch, we headed out to the Gulfarium, which had dolphin shows and a sea-lion show, and all sorts of marine animals.  It also has a good place to take pictures, and we managed to corral the three Rankin-side cousins for a nice picture.

I'm not sure what Charlie is doing--looks like he's getting ready for a trip to Muscle Beach.  Bode and I also took a nice picture at the same spot.

Sadly, we went to the Gulfarium on Sunday...and the next phone pictures are sometime on Thursday, which makes me wonder what Ashley was doing those three days (I was sitting in the sun and paddle-boarding in the Bay--it was soooo warm and humid. I was a pig in slop :-)  Well I guess that answers that.  On Thursday, we went out to The Track and met up with Brantley and Dave Cook and their two boys, Mac and Hudson.  There were go-karts and bumper boats and other pseudo-carnival rides.  Here's a shot of Bode and me getting ready to race Daytona.

We also took the obligatory photos with Brantley...

and Dave...

and the boys (the fourth boy is a friend of Mac's who was spending the day with the Cook's).

It was great to see the Cook's again, and if anyone is heading to the Fort Walton Beach-Destin area and needs a place to stay, Brantley and Dave manage a large number of short-term rental properties :-)

JoAnne and Frank's neighbors let us swim in their pool and ride their wave-runners, which was simply awesome.  They let us do this the last time we were down there, but I think they upgraded the wave-runners.  These were much more powerful--and even had a speedometer.  I got up to 53 miles an hour, which doesn't sound fast, but when you are bouncing over waves and lack any type of suspension it's quite scary...and a literal pain in the rump.  Again, no pictures, other than this cute one of Bode and me in the pool.

We had an incredibly relaxing time in Florida.  Ashley and I worked out, I ran over the Brooks Bridge, which is probably my favorite run in the world, and we paddle-boarded in the bay.  As Ashley put it, "I sure could get used to this."  We even did some house hunting (yes, really).  We did find the PERFECT home...but it's a little pricey.  Google 225 Beachview Drive in Fort Walton Beach if you want to see where we will be two seconds after we win the Powerball :-)  When we got back to Florida, we didn't spend much time in Colorado Springs, as it was the 4th of July weekend, so we headed up to Breck--stay tuned!

Pleasant week to all.

Breckenridge Weekend

We could not have timed our trip to the mountains better.  Temperatures were in the 90's all week, and the forecast was the same for the weekend.  Thus, there was no hesitation when we realized we had the mountain estate booked for the weekend.  Temps were far more reasonable--it even gets a little chilly at night, which was wonderful.  We relaxed Friday night, watching TV and playing games.  Saturday, we got up early and were at the Breckenridge Fun Park at the base of Peak 8 shortly after 9:30.  We bought our tickets and headed up the alpine slide.

Bode and I tried to race, but I don't think he's quite as daring as me.  However, we did see someone wipe out when we were riding the chair lift up to the top, so I think that tempered our risk taking.  Next up was some tubing.  It wasn't quite like snow-tubing, but Bode did like it.

It was a gorgeous day--I don't think we saw one cloud.

Next, Bode did a confidence course a couple times--I think he's getting too old for this, and is probably ready for American Ninja Warrior.

Next we all tried our hand at the rock wall.  None of us are any good at climbing, although Ashley did get to almost the top.

We had to pose for some quick pictures.

We didn't do too much else on Saturday.  Bode and I kicked the soccer ball, and Ashley and I did some work around the house.  Today is Father's Day, so we came home early and went to lunch at the Waffle House, which was lovely.  I then finally gave into Ashley's pleas and turned on the air conditioning.  I was hoping to wait until July, but it's 96 here today, so I figured it was time.  Pleasant week to all :-)

Soccer Camp

For the past week, Bode did soccer camp at the Air Force Academy.  I dropped him off every morning at 8:15 and picked him up at 4:15.  Eight solid hours of soccer, although they did take a significant lunch break.  Still, it was a lot of hard work Bode, and we think he enjoyed it (at least he says he did, and it got him off the computer for an extended period of time, so I guess it's a win-win).  I didn't hover around the camp and take pictures, as I do have a job for a little while longer.  But the sports camp had a staff of photographer that took pictures and posted them.  I was able to take a screen grab of the pictures with Bode.  No real action photos of Bode, but there are some nice pictures.  I won't bother to try to comment on what was going on in each, as I've no idea.  In a couple pictures, Bode has his hands on the ball, so I hope he was disciplined accordingly :-)

I was able to attend the "closing ceremonies" with Bode.  If you look closely, you can see us at the bottom right.

Soccer camp was a great success, although the US National Team isn't really beating down our door.  He has another "British Soccer Camp" in July, which should be a ton of fun.  This week, he has chess-and-video-game-design camp.  Should be fun :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Bode in the ABQ

Bode spent seven days in Albuquerque to kick-off the start of summer vacation.  Uncle Pat and Aunt Dana are kind enough to host the little dude, and they budget accordingly so they have a large surplus of funds to cover Bode's 5-pint a day blueberry habit.  I don't know much about the events--we talked to him every night and Uncle Pat was kind enough to send photos.  Usually, all we could get out of him was that he was having fun...not the most talkative kid on the phone, but I guess we were cutting into his play time :-)  Below are some photos.  I think they went to a movie--looks like they had some nice snacks to help.

 There were the obligatory night backyard soccer games.  Note Bode's aggressive defensive stance.

 They are went to a mini-amusement park and rode all sorts of rides and played games.

 And here's a cute one of Bode and Devin.

I went down on a Sunday and picked Bode up.  It was nice to see Pat and Dana again, as well as the nieces and nephew.  We might try to head back down again in early August when I go on my terminal leave.  I did take a movie of the backyard fun, but it was nothing exciting.

Bode didn't put up too much of a fuss when we left, but I'm sure he misses having all sorts of playmates in the house compared to the two furry companions he has here, who, while fun to play with, have a hard time operating the Xbox controls with their paws :-)  Pleasant week to all.