Hiking in Northern Utah as a family and beautiful wildflowers

Part of "The Family - A Proclamation to the World" states: 

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

Hiking as a family is definitely a wholesome recreational activity and when I see my children helping each other like this, I see more and more why these kinds of activities are important.

And the beautiful mountain scenery makes all of us happy.

And the added exercise from keeping up with the little ones.

Always love seeing pretty butterflies.

Some sort of wild pea plant.

Hallway Signs - Home decorating fun!

This project was really fun.  I saw the idea on pinterest and tweaked it a little.

Both of the following were purchased at Hobby Lobby 

Iron works - $6 each  (50% off sale - normally $12)

Wood Plaques - $2 each

I tried other shapes of wood plaques but this one just seemed to look the best with the scroll work.  Use whatever suits your fancy.

So I painted the boards just like she said - almond for the base coat and a dark brown for the outside edge. It's just spray paint so it went on quickly. Give it time to dry - like at least 24 hours. You don't want to peal the paint off when removing the vinyl.

Then I created custom designs using Adobe Illustrator and then put the SVG file onto my Silhouette Cameo.  And yes, my parrots have their own room.  When building our 6 bedroom home I was diagnosed with cancer, so 2 children are it for us.  Now we have birds, very well trained birds!

Instead of putting the vinyl onto the spray paint, I wanted a little more of a rustic look. I did the opposite of what APlaceForUsBlog did.  I pulled the letters out and discarded them.  I put the transfer plastic on - I prefer using the plastic over the sticker paper from Silhouette because I wanted to see through to the board.  It just adds a bit more control. 

 Carefully peal the plastic away.  

And you can see that everything looks just perfect and ready for more paint. 

Out to the garage I went and used some left over spray paint.   

After they dried I added a little brass hook to the top and they slide right onto the iron work.

I really have to thank APlaceForUsBlog because this was the most fun I've had while decorating my home. I love it.  My son is upset that there is not one for his room - his sister has one and he doesn't - so I purchased more iron works and more wood plaques and I will making 4 more.  

Today's Harvest

We've been shelling peas like mad today. I put these in the freezer on a piece of parchment. Did you knowI Love to Cook at Kitchen Kneads has parchment precut for cookie sheets? My husband went and bought us pizza. Maybe that defies the purpose of gardening which is healthy eating. But it made it possible to get more done. We found out Pizza Plus has a gluten free crust so that was nice. The cheese might do me in. It seems like my milk allergy is getting worse. 

I picked a head of broccoli and some green onions today. I can't wait to eat them! And I pruned the tomato plants too. I got rid of all the leaves and branches touching the ground. They are just reaching the tops of the cages and just starting to bloom. 

Time to thin carrots

I let the carrots grow up a little bigger than normal because I have a difficult time just throwing away the thinned carrots. This way, my parrots get a tasty treat and I don't have a lot of waste. My daughter broke the tops off and they went into the garden, right now as mulch but eventually they'll make great compost. 

I did save the biggest carrots for me, because who doesn't love carrots. Little finger carrots are not as bitter as other carrots when they are small. 

After running them through the food processor, I gave some to Kiwi and Mambo right away and the rest I put in these small bags and they'll go in the freezer right away. 

Close up look at the plants in my garden

orange asiatic lillies

 hostas - on the north side of the house

I received 20 new day lilies for Mother's Day - these are the large orange type with blooms larger than 5" wide.  It will take a few years to fill in but I plan on really fertilizing this area more this year and adding some humate to break up the clay.

I planted 3 of these asiatic lilies last year.  I bought them on clearance at Walmart and now I am surprised to see so many plants already.

The clematis is really growing up the drain pipe this year and covering the sprinkler box.

I planted 2 new Dwarf Burning Bush - which grow really well on the side and west side of the house.  They can handle the sun.  They look so small compared to the Purple Salvia.  But I've already noticed a difference in the shade in the basement window.

Red day lilies - these only get 18" tall and the blooms are smaller - perfect closer to the edge.

This sedum is looking great and will have the prettiest blooms soon.

The echinacea has all sprouted and they will bloom mid- summer.  I love how the plants are starting to rotate fairly well, with something always in bloom.

A lone yellow columbine

And we are seeing a few yellow day lilies starting to appear along the driveway.

Vole damage is healing

After a serious power raking, three large bags of Natural Guard (humate), and some fertilizer high in iron the VOLE damage is starting to heal.  This doesn't even begin to show how bad it was.  There is a large spot out from that had to be re-seeded.

Again, you can see the lake from up here.  Kind of take my mind off the vole damage - somewhat.

Up here it's really looking better!