Cider Bend-November

 Lots of exciting things happened on the farm in November! 

Donkeys:

The donkeys are still as cute as ever! I just love them so much! Sometimes when things get too stressful, or I just need a break, I go hang out in the barn. If I sit down in the stall, Clover tries to climb in my lap. In the video below, I have my legs crossed, and one of her legs is in my lap. 😁

Willow is still the best at exploring, or being nosy; just call it what you want. 😅 We had sprinklers put in, and Willow had to sniff (and try to taste) every sprinkler flag on the driveway. We have a long driveway, so it made for a slow walk.

Shortly after the sprinklers went in, the sod arrived! This was extra exciting for Willow. The pallets of sod lined the driveway, and she stopped to sample every single one on our walk. Again, it was very slow going!

Cutest little inspector.

I got the perfect picture of the girls napping. They are so stinking CUTE!

There is a rubber chicken trend going around social media with donkeys. I happen to have a rubber chicken in my Halloween box, so I decided to give it a try. I put the rubber chicken in their corral. After a couple days, I noticed it in different places. Then I finally saw them playing with it. Now they LOVE it. It's their favorite toy. Willow even tries to whack Clover in the heads with it.😂 So funny! Below is the reel I made for Instagram.

Here's some more rubber chicken fun!

One of the most exciting things to happen on the farm in November is that we bought a horse trailer! It's so cute and charming! It's from the 70s, and needs a lot of TLC, but we love it, and it will be a fun project for Mark to work on. I'm so excited to finally be able to take the donkeys places.

Don't you worry, Willow. inspected the trailer too!

She approves!

I was walking out to the barn one evening to feed the animals, and Willow gave me what I refer to as a 'half ass bray.' So funny! 😂

Willow is still on a diet, but she sneaks trail snacks whenever possible. 😅

Goats:

The goats are still hilarious! The most entertaining part of my day is hanging out in the corral with them.

I made a couple reels of their awesome dance moves. 😂

😆😆😆

Miscellaneous:

Still love the sunrises and sunsets on the farm.

We've been cleaning out the barn, and everything is so dusty from sitting in there for over a year. Reeses was helping us, and this is what she ended up looking like. 😅She looks like the lab version of Petey from the Little Rascals.

And the most exciting news of all.....we FINALLY moved into the farmhouse! What a journey it has been! It's still not 100% done, but done enough to live in!

Once they turned on the electricity, we could try out the jellyfish lights. I love them!

As I mentioned above, we had some landscaping done. We got the sprinklers and sod down along the driveway, and in the front yard. We'll finish it up and do the backyard in the spring. We cut it pretty close getting it done before winter.

It looks so good! I was so glad to not have to deal with mud all winter.

One half of the driveway.

The other half.

I've been so excited about having a big front porch. That was the very first thing I put together.

We frantically got some of the main floor put together on Thanksgiving weekend, because we were hosting the dinner at our place. It's still a work in progress, but here is a sneak peak of some of the rooms. Hopefully there will be more to share in the next couple months. We are loving having space again, and are really enjoying being in our house.

Looking into the kitchen from the dining area.

The dining area.

The dining area from the other direction. We still have a shattered sliding glass door. 😐

The laundry room.

This is the area that comes in from the backdoor, and the garage. This picture is taken from the kitchen, and that hall is where our lockers are, and leads to the laundry room.

We feel very blessed, and are looking forward to a nice Christmas season in our house.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was extra crazy this year, and also just what I needed. 

We were a few months behind schedule for getting into our house. Based on what we had previously been told, I had planned to host Thanksgiving with a group of friends. Our builder was having a hard time getting subs to come finish up, and two days before Thanksgiving, we still didn't have our occupancy permit. I was DONE! I had reached my limit with the house, and I started moving in anyways. I knew some painting still needed to be finished, so I was only putting stuff in closets and cupboards. The permit was finally issued, but the whole house was still masked off, and a huge dusty mess! The painters finished the inside the morning before Thanksgiving, so Mark and I frantically set to work cleaning, and getting the kitchen and crucial rooms set up. We got the main floor put together, now we were just hoping all the kitchen appliances actually worked. 😅

Jenn, Dale, and RJ came over early on Thanksgiving day, and helped us move our beastly bedroom furniture from the barn to the house. Oh, and it was raining while they did it! They were serious lifesavers, because there is no way we could have moved it on our own. 

We cooked a turkey and a ham, and our friends brought everything else. We had a delicious meal with my favorite people! No one even complained about the paint smell. 😅

Mark and I aren't the kind of people who like to ask for help, and we haven't really had to very often in our lives. This year was definitely the exception. We needed a lot of help, and our friends came through in huge ways for us. Actually, I need to rephrase that. We needed a lot of help, but most of the time we didn't even have to ask, they just offered. And it just so happens, that the people that were there for us the most, are all the people we shared Thanksgiving with. These truly are the people I was the absolute most thankful for this year, so to be able to share Thanksgiving with them, was so perfect to me.

We had Joyce and Phil, Steph and Eric, Jen, Dale, and RJ, and our cute neighbors Larry and Karen here for our first meal in the house. It was perfect! When we finished eating, they didn't even sit down and relax, they went downstairs and got my whole gym put together. They built all the exercise equipment, hung the fans, set up the TV, etc. It saved us hours of work!

Moving in!

It was raining, so that made it extra fun!

Everything worked great!

Jenn made the desserts, and they were so yummy!

We had so much delicious food!

Our Thanksgiving gang!

I sure love all these people!

Setting up my gym!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did!

Friendsgiving

 Amanda and Paul hosted their annual Friendsgiving again this year. It's a crazy- fun gathering of all their friends, squishing into their house, for an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. Amanda makes a turkey (and lots of other yummy stuff), and everyone else brings the fixings. There always manages to be the perfect combination of delicious food! It's loud, crowded, and chaotic in all the right kind of ways. Amanda and Paul really are the salt of the earth kind of people, and I'm so grateful we became friends so many years ago, when she started the Women's Runs. This activity always reminds me just how kind, fun, happy, easy going, love everyone kind of people they are. It's so fun, and I look forward to it each year.

We sat at the end of the table with Georgina and her family.

Happy Birthday Bailey

Bailey turned 24 on November 6th. This might be the first year ever that I didn't see her on her birthday. I have been working on her present for almost a year. I got her 12 books, and wrapped them individually with craft paper. I wrote a month at the top of each book, and then a teaser quote from the book on the craft paper. She can open and read a book each month for a year. I figured since she would be graduating soon, she will hopefully have more time to read again. Most of them are books I read the past year and really liked, but I also threw in a few that I've been wanting to read, so I could get her opinion on them. Happy birthday Bailey!

Bean Kitty

Sawyer and Amanda's cute little Alby (we call him Bean) is doing great! He's a bit naughty, but hopefully it's just a kitten phase. He's so cute, and is already losing his little kitten look.

Cute little Bean!

Naps on his mama.

💙💙💙

Sweet little guy! He loves his Grams!

Cat nip drunk! 😅

November Adventures

 November was a fun running month. Lots of running in the dark, which I enjoy.

Palisades Night Run:

Mark, Jenn, Steph, and I did a run in the dark to Lower Palisades Lake. I loved it! I love trail running in the dark, as long as I'm with other people. It's usually very peaceful. Sometimes it's a little creepy, but if you know me, you know I love that as well. 😆

We took pictures in all our usual spots. 😆

The lower lake was right behind us.

The lower lake from the bridge.

Trial Hollow:

Mark, Steph, and I have been going out on Tuesday evenings and trying to get a trail run in to help build Steph's knee back up for the 2024 running season. 

Trail Hollow never disappoints when it comes to sunsets.

The Butte:

We put together an early morning run on the Butte. It was a great morning!

Fun group of people!

Jeff-Carney-Eli-Steph-Amanda-Tricia-Jenn-Mark-Ashlee-Brent

Little Kelly's:

Mark and I had a Friday night date night up Little Kelly's to see how the conditions were. We wanted to run there with Steph on our Tuesday night run, so we were just checking it out.

We went back and did it again with Steph. It was a little creepy this time. There was a tent, unzipped, with a pile of bedding in it, that looked like it had been roughed up a bit. No cars or people anywhere. I listen to way too much true crime, so of course I had to go investigate to make sure there wasn't a dead body in it. At one point I said, "What if a Mountain Lion got the person?" Mark promptly responded with, "And then what, drove off in his car?" 😂

Runs like this keep the adrenalin high!

Love these adventure buddies of mine.

Rigby Turkey:

David organized our Strava turkey run again this year. I love it, and I hope it's an annual thing now.

Jeff-Carney-Mark-Tricia-Greg-Jenn-David-Matt

Isn't it the cutest turkey!

Sidewinder Sunrise:

I tagged along on an early morning Sidewinder run. I love this trail!

Going up in the dark.

We were treated to a great sunrise.

Jeff-Jenn-Tricia-Carney

Jenn and I came back down before the guys, because I needed to be back.

Wolf Flats:

Jenn and I did a turkey 10K on Wolf Flats to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Dizzy Horse Preview Run:

We did one of the Dizzy Horse Preview Runs with IFTR. We didn't do Dizzy Horse this year, but just wanted to get out and be a little social on a run.

Bigalow's Beast-Little Kelly's:

Steph finally got to climb Bigalows! It was in the dark, so she didn't see much, but it was still super fun! We had a big moon rising over the trees and mountains as we were climbing, so that was cool. This is a fun loop. I enjoyed it in the dark.

Moonrise. I wish the pictures could do it justice, because it was really cool.

We made it to the top of Bigalow's.

Women's Runs:

Our first Women's Run of November was the Sunnyside Canal. Always a fun one!

Amanda organizes a food drive run every November, and invites everyone to the Women's Run. This is the one time the men can see what it's all about. 😆 There was such a great turn out, and we were able to gather and donate tons of food to the local food bank. They even did a cool news story on the event! It's growing each year, and it's so awesome to see that! 

Check out this amazing turn out!

So much food donated!

We also did our annual reindeer Strava run at the end of November. So fun!

Such a fun route for the holidays!