Closet re-do

The first project inside our house that we tackled was the entry closet. We figured we'd start small and move our way up from there. We didn't get a very good before pic, it used to have metal wire shelving in there and it wasn't very functional. The first picture is after we ripped out the shelving and filled in the holes in the wall.

Below is the finished closet! We painted the walls "Dusty Miller", it really is the same color as the plant that is light green/blue and sort of fuzzy called Dusty Miller. Dusty liked it because they share the same name. We added some shelves for our shoes and the buckets hold our gloves and hats.

We have a lot of wildlife here, this is a frog that was outside our window the other night.

And this is one of 2 bunnies that we saw in our yard near the garden! I hope they don't eat anything!

This is what our garden looks like as of late. Sadly, we have already had some losses, something (we think birds) came and plucked half of our corn out of the ground and left them there laying down. You can sort of see them if you look close on the left. Here is what we have so far: pole beans, corn, sunflowers, radish, zucchini, dill, rosemary, squash, peas, lettuce, beets, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, walla walla's, basil, peppers, jalapenos, and fennel. We tried to grow things that we already eat and buy from the store, we still have to plant cucumbers and pumpkins. We will see what we get food from, hopefully everything! We also have wild strawberries and green onions that grow in our yard ( and everyone else's) but we haven't tried them.

Here is a little tomato!

Life in TN

Okay.... so I guess we are an "update the blog once a year kind of people". Between our last post and now we moved to a new place and so far we really love it! The house we found was only 3 minutes from where we were living so it was a pretty easy move. Here are some updates.

We planted so little planters on our front porch. Don't worry, the planter boxes are attached to some pre-existing fastiners that were already in the porch so our plants don't go flying around when it gets windy, and it does get REALLY REALLY windy. Like, blow the neighbors 4ft diameter tree out of the ground, roots and all.

We have also been working on a garden. We made these raised garden beds that should hold up for awhile. We put weed blocker stuff on the bottom and also chicken wire to keep the moles out.

Above is our yard pre-garden and below is our yard with the garden beds in place. The tall thing with the string is for our pole beans to climb up.

The Move

 

Ok, so I know we moved a while ago. But we had a fun time getting from Utah to Tennessee in August. We drove for three days, listened to lots of music, ate lots of food, and saw lots of cows and corn.

All packed up.

We saw LOTS of these oil things.

Who knew there was a castle in the middle of the U.S.?

Yes, that is OUR last name! This by far was the coolest part of the trip, our road! We were just driving and looked up and we both said “What?!”. Then we got off the freeway and right back on so we could drive past it again to get a picture.

We went over some cool bridges.

Overall it was a really fun trip! We only had one tire blow out one time, so that was pretty good. Every time I see a Penske truck now though I say, “ Glad that’s not us!!”

Halloween

This year for Halloween we went as a beehive and bees (Chelsea) and a beekeeper (Dusty). We had a lot of fun at our ward party! We are the activities committee in our new ward so we got to help set up all the decorations and stuff. We had a little carnival with games, a door to door trunk or treat around the church and lots of fun music. The Elders thought it was awesome because they got to hear some Michael Jackson and Owl City. I knew there was a reason they came to these activities, just kidding!

Harpeth River

Last weekend we went with some friends from our ward on a boat trip down the Harpeth River.  We had fun looking at the fall colors and spotting blue herons. Afterwards we went to a new restaurant called The Stable where we tried catfish (for the first time ever!) and steak and biscuits.

Music City…

About a month ago we moved to Nashville, TN. We decided to start our own country band, Dusty on the guitar, Chelsea on vocals. Just Kidding! Dusty found a great job out here with a company called Hayward Baker. He works in an office with 2 other guys and has gotten to do lots of  fun things like go on site visits. Most of their projects are underground, their slogan is “You never see our best work...”.

Lets start from the beginning. In May Dusty had an interview with the company and in June we went out to spend a few days in Nashville to see if we liked it. We had no idea that they had just had a huge flood, one that supposedly comes once in 1,000 years. The places we went to were all cleaned up and we couldn’t even tell they had been full of water. Some places are still closed like the Grand Ole Opry and some historic buildings downtown, hopefully they will open up soon. There are about 11 families in our ward that are rebuilding their homes because they were close to the river. Here is a video of the flood which also gives you a great sense of the pride people take in Nashville.

 

Athens of the south:

Did you know there is a full size replica of the Parthenon here in Nashville? We didn’t! It’s pretty cool!

 

We have learned to plan all outdoor activities as though it WILL rain. We have been caught in many rainstorms. It’s sunny and then BAM! rain and lighting and dark clouds. Here we are driving on the freeway during one such rainstorm.

 

 

This is how Nashville looks, trees, trees, and more trees. It’s really green out here. Dare I say, as green as Oregon.

 

You thought Utah had a lot of church buildings, here is one of Nashville’s 800 church buildings.

 

 

We went to this museum called the Frist. They had a Chihuly exhibit going on which was pretty cool!

 

They give you a little sticker that you put on your shirt to show that you paid. Everyone puts them on this pole outside the museum, Dusty’s is there somewhere.

 

We spent about three days in Nashville. After that we went back to Logan, saw family and friends and then packed up our truck. More to come on these pre-Nashville events…

Grocery Bags

I found this neat tutorial a few days ago about fusing plastic grocery bags together to make reusable grocery bags. We had tons of plastic bags so I decided to go ahead and try it. It was so fun and easy. You stack 4 bags together and then put them between parchment paper and iron them until they stick together. Then you chop them into squares or rectangles and sew them into a reusable grocery bags. We tried it out at the store the other day and it didn't break, so that was good!

 

The bulbs we planted  in the fall have really started to grow. We are glad that the winter is most likely over for sure, and spring is here to stay!