PS

Thanks for all the cards - Gabe's writing looks just like Blake's did at that age - EXACTLY - I can even tell that he is trying to make the letters. Cool . Also thanks for the calls - sorry I missed you - I haven't left the house in a month, literally, and we just sat at the restaurant and talked and talked and then we went to the library and the drug store and came home.

Alicia and my friend Margret took me out for Chinese food today and we made a date for next year - same time, same place - so I can't die this year, because I have a date for lunch on my 56th birthday. Margret is from Germany, you know, and as we sat there, the song, "Edlewiess" came on and we all got all misty. She is going home next week and taking her 2 youngest to visit her family and the song reminded her of a cabin in the mountains she went to when she was young and she is going to take her kids there on their visit, now. So that was fun to think of that and plan it with her.

I think I've been going out for Chinese on my birthday for about 50 years now. Amazing, isn't it? Then we ran in to a person we worked with 12 years ago - and hadn't seen since. And we saw Shannon, who has been away at college for a whole year, so it was a good day.

I also got a bunch of books at the library book sale to make into journals to sell on ETSY - and yes, all you book protectors out there - they were all poorly written, unheard of books. Alicia was overseeing my purchases and you know she won't let me deface anything close to classic. If you want to see what they look like when I'm done - you can check one out at our ETSY shop - thewindfarm.etsy.com

Then, since I was downstairs and outside, I went out to meet Gretta and Gabby and the chickens and turkeys. The turkeys are really getting big and a couple of the chickens are really large. And I was surprised how strong Gretta was - she couldn't figure out where to push me since I was wearing a dress and the wind was blowing - it was funny as she tried to push into it and the wind was there.

Okay - time for Top Chef - I have to go see who gets thrown under the bus. hahahaha Love, Charlotte

Big Day for Charlotte

Well, today is a big day for me. When I was 16, I looked around at everyone I knew and I decided that no one really needed to live more than 55 years. I mean, it was okay if you did, but it just wasn't for me. After the age of 55 it seemed to me that your body just couldn't do all the stuff that a 16 year old wants a body to do......

so flash forward a few decades and today i turn 55 and I am terrifyed that I have jinxed myself and that I am going to die this year. I keep trying to convince myself that if I change my thinking I won't die, but I'm not sure if it is too late.

So I'm trying to think lots of positive thoughts and make plans for future years and such, but in the back of my head, I'm still 55. YIKES ! ! !

Funny Birds this year

We have this funny robin in our yard this year. He has the weirdest songs I have every heard from a robin - and I have been a fan of robins for more than 50 years now.

This one has a screechy sound when it comes into the yard which is really weird and then it sits in the tree every evening and sings and sings. It can imitate the chirping/chortle of a hungry eagle (which isn't really a sound we like to hear in our yard, but it is funny that the robin makes it). Then if you sing a song to him, he only has to hear it twice and then he adds it to his song and so then every time you hear him, he will sing robin songs for a while, then throw in a couple eagle chirps and then sing your song to you. And he can learn a new song from you like every day, so it is really fun.

I've had other birds do this, but not to this extent and I don't remember a robin being this way before.

The swallows came late this year, and they are not really here in numbers and haven't even begun to nest yet. I hope that means a long hot summer, but up here, we never know what that means.... it might just mean a late, cold spring and we can attest to that. brrrrr
Brian and Alicia went mushroom hunting this morning and found a foot of snow still covering the mushroom ground.

It is almost midnight on Memorial Friday which usually means miles and miles of cars from Anchorage, but a semi overturned this morning up by Cooper Landing and at 10:00 pm, they still hadn't fully opened the road, so it is unusually quiet. YAY !!! All the traffic really gets to me on Memorial Weekend. And Mya and Heathcliff have decided that the highway is now part of their territory to defend, so they bark or scream every time a big or noisy vehicle drives by. You can imagine how restful that is. Plus of course, we have had a steady stream of boats and trailers in here this past 2 weeks getting ready for fishing season, so Mya is all distressed about the customers driving in her driveway and bothering her dad out at the shop.

Looks like they got the highway open - the crowds are starting up. Usually some of us would be down at the bridge waiting for someone to look at their watch and yell, " IT'S MIDNIGHT ! ! " and then splash, splash, splash all up and down the river as the king season opens, but the river is really high and full of mud, so nobody here is going fishing at midnight - not to mention we all have the flu and / or a cold or both in some order. Thank you Brian and Justin for bringing home different illnesses for us to all catch. hehehe

So if you guys like videos, I will try to get a sound byte of the bird singing, but if videos don't work for you, I won't bother.

Love you guys - have a good weekend. Love, Charlotte

Another day, Another kick in the pants

Two items to report today - 3 if you count Blake's XBOX dying again - but you'll have to go to his blog and read his story and the comments about his story to get all the details. (For those that don't know - Blake is our son that lives in Seattle).

Anyway, the saddest of the two events is that Brian's Uncle Roy died this weekend. Thank goodness for the Wallowa County paper being so timely in reporting these things....... No one from the family has called or written to let us know, even now. Uncle Roy had been very sick for a long long time so his death was not unexpected - we just worry most about Aunt Leona being alone now. They were so close - like my grandparents did, Aunt Leona moved into the nursing home to live with and take of Uncle Roy and to help him to not be afraid while living there. May we all be so blessed to have that much love in our marriages when the end nears.

Secondly, Brian called this evening and said that because of lower enrollment figures, his hours will be cut to half-time in August when they start back to school. Major bummer. It isn't that much money, but it is steady and has great benefits. Major, Major bummer. It is still possible that it will work out - but they won't know until August and who wants to sit around for 4 months while they decide if you will have a job or not. GRRRRRRRR I am so bummed, I can't even put it into words. Just the idea of trying to support all 4 of us and knowing that one of my other kids is in job flux as well, is overwhelming.

Now what do we do???

I was looking forward to naming one of our Desperate HouseGoats after Edie. Now she has left the series I don't know what we'll do..... I guess we will name one of the next ones after Ben (although I think that is a weird name for a nanny goat, but since Ben asked us to name one after him, we will). I guess Ben and Bree sounds good when you hollar it across the yard. We have two "G" names now. hehehehe

Desperate Housewives News

Will Edie ever return to `Desperate Housewives'?
When Edie packed up and left Wisteria Lane at the end of Sunday's "Desperate Housewives," viewers were caught by surprise.
The sudden exit of the neighborhood's blond troublemaker has fans wondering how this plot twist will affect the ABC hit series, and whether Nicollette Sheridan, who has played Edie during its four seasons, will be back.
For weeks, rumors swirled that Sheridan was out of the show. Both ABC and Sheridan's publicist, Nicole Perna, have been tightlipped in response to inquiries about her imminent departure.

But creator and executive producer Marc Cherry was slightly more forthcoming. Yes, Edie's gone, he told The Associated Press on Friday. Then he added: "She won't be back for a few years."
What could that mean? Hadn't Cherry already announced he will bring his series to a close at the end of the 2010-11 season, just three years from now?

How 'bout those Lakers

All 8 of them that are on the floor at once.....

I watched the middle of the night rebroadcast of the Laker/ Jazz game tonight. And in the middle of the overtime, I remembered why I quit watching NBA.

If I couldn't win a game without buying off every ref in the league, I would be too embarrassed to show my face in public - especially, if I was always going around claiming to be the best player ever in the entire history of the game... past, present and future.

In other words, if any other team or player had backed into another player and forearmed them to the floor, it would have been called as a big foul, but not Sir Kobe or his lackie.. I think it was fisher. Ticks me off more than I can say.

Thank Goodness that Boozer and Kyle Kover saved the Jazz. Stupid Lakers, I just cannot stand them. Char

For all Moms and Kids

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=7769235


You'll have to watcha couple times to get all the words. But it is Hilarious ! ! !

what is Festevus???

Denae asked about Festevus and I realized that maybe others weren't up on TV or movie speak like our family is... well, we aren't "up" on it, we are obsessed with it.. I don't think we have any original conversations anymore, we just do a bit from some TV show or movie. There is one for almost every situation when you watch as much TV as I do. That's actually an interesting story, too. When I was young, TV was new and I literally grew up and old along with TV. I was very active as a child, but i LOVED Tv and my parents always said I watched too m uch. I guess they can take that back no - I have put it to good use.

And actually, I used to do bits from TV when I was a kid and a teenager and drove my mother crazy with my antics. but that is another story. ON TO the explanation of Festevus. OH, another side note - if you google Festevus, my blog is like the 8th entry that shows up. hheheh

Festevus comes from the Seinfeld show. I didn't realize until I looked it up today that it is actually part of the Christmas season. I was thinking it could be any time of year. George worked for this company that let you have off for religious holidays and he wanted an extra day off for something, so he told his boss he needed Festevus off. and his boss wanted to understand, so he makes George bring him to the family Festevus celebration. so they throw this together.

The part I remember is before the meal, you have the : Ceremonial airing of the Grievances.. and everyone goes around the table and airs their grievances for the year and then you have feats of strength and then you wrestle to see whose grievances get to be settled.... so it ends up like all family dinners - a giant screaming match and people punching each other out.

The holiday begins as all are seated around the table and the head of the house says, "Let the airing of the grievances begin..."

EEE - EYE -EEEE -EYE - OOOOOOO

Well, We have done it. We have finally and completely lost our minds. Today the kids went and bought 2 milk goats. One is milking now - Gretta. She is 2 years old. The other was born in Feb. or March - Gabby. And she will have to grow some and have a kid before she can give milk. We had them out in the pig pen, but we couldn't see them out there and it was too windy.

so Justin quickly put wire around the lean-to at the bottom of the back stairs, where the goose usually eats. It is still pretty windy today so he is going to put some plywood up to enclose them in a little. Gabby is shivering from being too cold. She keeps trying to nurse on Gretta, but Gretta wants nothing to do with it. She isn't Gabby's mother.

I didn't realize they would bleep bleep that much. Gabby's sounds just like a baby crying, but Gretta sounds like a goat.

So, within a couple days, we will have goat cheese and goat yogurt and butter and milk to drink. I hope we like it. We also can use it to make soap. Alicia makes really good soap and the goat milk makes a really really nice soap. I guess we will be spending our Saturdays down at the farmer's market this summer after all.

When we first moved to this house, I planted about an acre to 5 kinds of clover and about 7 kinds of grasses/ grains. We will be staking the goats out to graze on that and also on the weeds in the front by the highway. We just traded our neighbor last fall for possession of the land right on the highway so we can keep the weeds trimmed down now and keep it looking better.

Also, thru our etsy site: thewindfarm@etsy.com, we are going to be selling alder chips for BBQs and smokers. Blake gave me the idea on his birthday because he puts hickory chips on his BBQ and I was thinking how many acres and acres of alders are here and going to waste and they make a wonderful BBQ smoke so we are going to harvest them and sew little cotton bags and sell them. Hopefully, we will sell some in town, too, especially to the tourists. AHHHH, you have to love an economic recession. It's really keeping us on our toes.

Look for pictures and a video of the goats and the chicks on Alicia and Justin's blog later. Also today, we moved all the chicks and the turkeys out of the green house and into their newly expanded chicken house. The poor turkeys had grown so much they had to walk all slunched over inside their coop. Our corn is almost 2 feet high, so Justin wanted to get the chicks out so there would be room for his corn to keep growing in the green house.

Busy Busy fun times. Brian is thru building the foundation for the oyster plant. They are waiting for a grant for the money to build the building part of it. So for now, he just has the school and all the boats and tractors getting ready for the start of fishing season. on some days, he gets to sleep 6 full hours before going to work (and one day last week, he slept until almost 8 0'clock. WOW). Of course, now the dog is used to getting up at 6, so by 7 she really has to go out and comes to wake Brian up anyway. No rest for the wicked, I guess. hehehe
Charlotte

Happy Festevus, Blake

Actually, It is Happy Birthday Blake - but as I was typing, the computer offered me Happy Festevus, and I am such a fan of the Festevus holiday, I thought I would offer it instead of a Birthday.

Let the airing of the grievances begin.........

If I was in Seattle, I would bake you a cherry chip cake with almond flavored, cream cheese frosting and vanilla ice cream.

But I'm not in Seattle.... The cake still sounds good though, hmmm brb




hehehe sorry . I'm back
I don't have a cherry chip mix. I wonder if they still make them.
Anyway - Have a Happy, Happy Birthday and know that we love you and will be with you in spirit all day. LOVE YOU SON, Mom and Dad

Fourth of July Salad, For Barb Gulley

Justin breaking the rules by adding Cool Whip to the salad on Easter ! ! ! !

This is the salad we made for Thanksgiving. It has such a wonderful Sunshine look and taste to it.

Fourth of July Salad was traditionally served in my " home of origin" at the height of summer, since that is the only time that fresh peaches are available. We always had it at the Fourth of July BBQ.

My dad invented the recipe and always makes it. The only change that has ever taken place to the recipe is something I learned as a 4-H leader to protect the bananas. I'll give the recipe and then tell you the rules.

The recipe is adaptable depending on how many fruits you start with. This is the basic recipe that fits a 20 oz. can of pineapple (or whatever size they make these days that is close to that).

1 20 oz. can of pineapple slices or chunks, in own juice

5 or 6 bananas

5 or 6 medium size oranges

5 or 6 peaches

about 1 cup Sugar, depending on the sweetness of the peaches

Drain the pinepple juice into a really large bowl. slice the bananas into the juice and swish them around to be sure each slice is coated in the juice. Peel the Oranges and separate and tear each segment into bit sized pieces into the bowl. Peel the peaches and slice into pieces that are about the same size as the orange pieces, into the bowl. Cut the pineapple into the same sized pieces, into the bowl.

Adjust the amount of sugar according to the sweetness of the peaches and sprinkle the sugar over the top of the salad. Mix GENTLY, by hand, cover, and refrigerate until cold. (preferably over night).

NOW the RULES: Originally, only fresh peaches were allowed. We have tried experimenting with frozen peaches, with mixed results. the Carpers have to use canned peach slices, drained...because we have always lived in places that didn't carry fresh peaches and oranges at the same time. So for Carpers, the salad became a winter food because that is when oranges are available. (Obviously when using canned peaches, a much smaller amount of sugar is used... some people don't put sugar in at all, but we find sugar makes a better juice).

When the salad is setting, NO ONE is allowed to eat it until it is time to be served. (at Carpers, the cook is allowed a small bowl, for quality control purposes)

The mixing has to be done WITH YOUR HANDS. No exceptions, BRIAN ! ! !

So there you have it. My sister, Sandra, who lives in California and has access to all kinds of funky fresh fruits, tweaks the recipe except on the 4th of July. I know sometimes she adds raspberries or strawberries or other kinds of fruit. I imagine she uses less sugar because she eats healthier than some of us.

THANKS DADDY. We love you and love your salad and your BBQ's.

Taste before serving

Our fav show right now is Top Chef. We usually blog about it on Blake's blog, but I beat him to it this week.

All I have to say is : TASTE your food before you serve it ! ! ! I don't know how hard that is.

And I don't know that Dale needed to attack Lisa like that. Talk about sour grapes. If it had been up to him, they would have made deviled eggs.... so I'd say she did more than just make the bacon.

And as someone who eats salmon a lot, I can tell you they needed a lot more than just butter in those baggies. Not to mention the scales. YUK ! ! !
Charlotte

Prophet of God

For a couple months, I have been wanting to watch General Conference of our church on TV instead of listening to it on satellite radio. It was always our intent to be able to watch Conference (and BYU TV) when we got this satellite system, but they sold us the wrong satellite dish, so we have just made do with listening.

But for some reason, i really wanted to watch this one. I had been praying that we would be able to afford the new satellite dish in time for conference, and then I decided that it was just my vain desire to have a new satellite and more TV channels and therefore, I probably shouldn't be praying for something like that. On Friday morning, Brian did get a new boat job and I could have used the money for the new satellite, but there wasn't time.

So I set the DVR recorder to record the radio version of Conference that started at 8:00 Saturday morning and we intended to listen to it later. I set my alarm to get up anyway, but just as I leaned over to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep, the Spirit whispered to me that they would be sustaining the new prophet in the morning session and I should get up and participate.

for those of you not of our faith, we are asked to "sustain" all new workers in each area of our church. Twice a year, we "gather" in a world-wide conference and there we can raise our hand in the sustaining process to show support of our prophet and apostles. It isn't a vote, it is a covenant to show that we will follow them and help them.

Because our prophet, President Hinckley died this spring, this would be our first chance to sustain our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I met Elder Monson when I was 10 years old. My mom and sister have met him at other times since then and he has been a great blessing to our family and I fully support him being the new prophet. And I wanted to be able to raise my hand with everyone else, in real time, to promise my support.

We have tried many times to watch conference on the computer, but it is always broken up and it freezes and is no annoying, it just can't be done. I decided to turn on the computer to conference so I could see the picture and then turn the sound on with the radio version. It turned out, we didn't need the radio as the computer, somehow, played all 4 sessions of conference without a blip or a beep. So I got to watch conference after all. My prayers were actually answered. WAY COOL ! ! ! But there was more.

Only 15 times have we had a new prophet. And the session when we sustain the new prophet is a very special event, called a solemn assembly. I had forgotten that would be the case when I got up to watch. No one else was here and I couldn't contact them to share the news and have them come watch with me. So it was my own special experience.

When the session started, President Monson seemed to me just the same as he always had and I was a little disappointed. I wanted to see him as the Prophet - not just the nice Elder Monson. Then the process of sustaining him came. In a special session such as this, each quorum or group of the church stands to vote, world wide, so by the end, he has been sustained 8 or 9 times. The camera would pan out on the audience and show each group rise and then would close in on the face of President Monson.

And there was what I had needed to see - I could see on his face that as each group stood, President Monson was given the charge by the Spirit of God to take care of that group and I could see him "becoming" the prophet. The mantle of the office literally fell on him as I watched. It was the great need that my subconscious had been wanting and needing to see. Others in the conference, and even President Monson, mentioned that they felt and saw the same thing.

I did not doubt that President Monson should be the new prophet. I did not question that at all and I didn't understand why I would need to see him accept the mantle of the office until later in the Conference and I realized that I was given this gift to share with others, so here I am sharing this with you. I saw with my own eyes, the hand of God creating a new prophet to guide His church here upon the earth. I know President Monson is indeed a Prophet of God. I know if we follow him, he will lead us where we need to go. Love, Charlotte

Whose idea was this? ? ?

Who decided that the world needed to have Cancer in it? Isn't there enough pain and sorrow and sadness in the world without Cancer?

Cancer has touched our lives a lot lately. There are some things in life you can look at and say, okay, I can see how we will grow from this trial or that, but I think cancer is just the straw that breaks every camel's back.

It is just the experience that is too much for anyone to bear. So, here are our prayers for all those who have been destroyed by this ugly machine ... the patients as well as the family and friends that have been drug thru hell by the big C. We love you all.

funniest video

This is the funniest video - please be patient with the breaks in buffering - it is so worth it. I remember watching this the first time on SNL and laughing myself silly over it. Ahhh, how funny when life imitates "art".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4122944961711350389

Okay, this is the final straw

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=62964


http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7095154&ch=4226722&src=news

China, et al.

I feel kind of bad because when I first mentioned boycotting the Olympics because of Tibet, it really wasn't an issue. Things in Tibet hadn't really begun to escalate and I hadn't heard of any Olympians who were actually thinking of boycotting.

I have a childhood friend (Heather Mitchell McLean) who has met the Dali Lama and is one of his disciples, so I don't take the issue in Tibet lightly. But I also didn't mean for my blog to become a great political debate.

Earlene and I going to the Olympics is sort of a joke/ fantasy - okay, it is a total joke/ fantasy, but I want those who are interested to know that we don't take the situation in Tibet lightly or as a joke..... so I just want to separate the two issues here and now and let everyone know that:

1. We aren't going to the Olympics --- unless President Bush intervenes and asks us to represent our country in the event.
2. Personally, I respect the people in Tibet and Taiwan and wish them the best of luck in gaining and maintaining their independence from mainland China.

Love you all, Charlotte

Olympic official: athletes mulling Beijing boycott

Olympic official: athletes mulling Beijing boycott
Sun Mar 16, 4:04 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - International Olympic Committee vice-president Thomas Bach said a number of top athletes were considering boycotting the games in China over the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tibet.
Bach told Bild am Sonntag newspaper he understood the athletes' concerns about the situation in Tibet but said he was advising them to participate.
"They will realise when they assess the situation that it is better to make an appearance than to stay away. That is a symbol that will be noticed by the public," he said.
Asked if human rights had been a concern when Beijing was selected to host the August Games, Bach said the IOC believed the intense focus on China would have a positive effect.
"We are of the opinion that the Games will help China open up. But we cannot solve the problems that UN secretaries general have not been able to solve for generations," he said.
"The Olympic Games can foster change and be a catalyst for a solution but they are not a panacea."

check out our shop

We set up our shop on etsy today. You can find us at : http:// thewindfarm.etsy.com

Charlotte's New hobby

Now that we have DSL, we spent the money to go wireless with the other computers in the house, so I have been using Alicia's computer in the evenings to entertain myself (Brian works nights, remember).

So I was checking blogs, and our friends in Missouri - Ben & Denae Katzoff - have all these links on their blog and I thought it would be fun to go blog jumping and that was really fun and I thought that would be my new hobby - just randomly reading blogs of people I don't know. Then one blog led me to a really interesting blog that led me to another and then to another and i finally ended up at etsy.com

It is the coolest site - all handmade stuff. It is all the rage right now. They have all different categories and it changes, literally, every minute because people are always putting their stuff on there. It only costs 20 cents per item and 3.5 percent when you make a sale, so it is much more reasonable than most galleries or web sites.

So now my new hobby is just spending hours and hours going thru all the stuff on etsy. It is great. We are going to put a bunch of stuff on there really soon. I'll let you all know when. Justin just finished a really beautiful burl bowl today. It is our first official item ready for sale. Check it out. I find it really inspirational. I've made pages and pages of notes of stuff that the entries on the site have inspired me to try to make. Happy Crafting.... Charlotte