Halloween

Halloween wasn't that exciting this year. I wish we could have gone to Boise, but I had a big race on November 1st I needed to be here for. Mark and I handed out candy to the few groups of trick or treaters that we got, and spent a relaxing evening working on a puzzle. I loved getting pictures of all my crew though.

Amanda was a gamer, and her class thought that was pretty dang cool!

Charlie was the cutest little pig on the planet!

OMG!

Oh wait, maybe Nora is the cutest little pig on the planet. We'll call it a tie.

The three little pigs and the big bad wolf! So cute!

Cider Bend: October

Fall is always a great time on the farm!

 Cats:

Stormy has been around a lot more this month, and she really looks good. I'm hoping the winter isn't too hard on her, but if it gets super cold, she would probably let me bring her into the barn. Floof and Michem don't have a care in the world, and have no idea what it would be like to live the hard life like their mama does.

You can often find Floof like this. 😆

Stormy missed dinner one night, so she came to the back door and meowed at us. She visited with her babies, and had some dinner.

😁😁😁

Chickens:

The chickens have had a good fall. Mark made a new roost for them in the covered area of the chicken run. They have been getting lots of treats from the garden, because we just can't keep up on all the fruits and vegetables. They also got to carve their first Halloween pumpkin!

The new roost going in!

While the other chickens carved their pumpkin, Freda just wanted to snuggle with me.

I processed all the pumpkins from the garden, and I gave the chickens some of the extra pumpkin puree. They loved it in this form.

Tillie and Fern got to try pumpkin too!

The chickens did a great job carving their very first pumpkin. It's a fun process to watch.

Donkeys:

My cute little donks are my absolute favorites! They are such good sports! They were clowns for Halloween, and were a big hit on social media. 😁

Clover had to have a hat change part way through because Willow ate the flower right off of her headband! 😅

Perfect costume for Willow! She is a bit of a clown!

Playing with toys as it was getting dark.

I spent some time raking all the leaves out of the corrals. I got lots of help from Clover and Willow.

Then they became a lot less helpful!

Cows:

My sweet little cows are approaching their first winter outside of the barn, and I'm very stressed about it. They have a nice shelter that blocks the wind, and I put lots of bedding in it for them, so they have really enjoyed the fall. I hope it's enough for winter, or else I'm gonna have to squeeze two very big cows into one small stall.

They enjoyed all the corn husks from the garden.

I love them!

Ace and Opal were a big hit for Halloween too!

Random Stuff:

I'm outside in the mornings as the sun is coming up, and I'm usually finishing up chores in the afternoon when the sun is going down, so I get a lot of good sunrises and sunsets in the fall.

We had a huge harvest super moon in October. It was stunning coming up over the mountains. My phone just couldn't do it justice, but I tried to capture it.

Someone photo bombed my picture! 😅

We had tons of visiting critters on the farm in October. The first and most shocking was a badger! We weren't expecting that! I hope he was just passing through and doesn't have his den near by.

We have a herd of deer that hang out on the property, but we had these two just wandering around all night long for a couple of nights. I saw them on all the cameras, at times when they are usually sleeping.

We had a mama moose and twin babies hanging out last week. The garage camera caught them in the morning while I was out in the barn feeding the animals.

Then the front door camera caught them in our front yard. Watch the last one run right across our grass in front of our porch.

Then the moved over by where I saw them. I was cleaning up poop, and saw them in the field along the property line. This is the time of year we start seeing them come through, and it never gets old. 

I was in the corral with the donkeys and saw an eagle flying around. I watched it for a long time, and then another one showed up. They stayed around the farm for a long time, so I put the chickens away. It was really cool watching them.

The next day Mark sent me this video, and the pair of them came back. They must be nesting close by. I love having them around, but I worry about my chickens when they are out in their free range area.

We got an early freeze, so we had to harvest the garden a couple weeks earlier than we were hoping for. We made a haul!

So many watermelons! Some of them weren't quite ripe, so I want to start them a few weeks earlier in a green house next year.

My pumpkins did amazing this year!

This was my first time growing pumpkins, and it was so fun! I have been processing all my pie pumpkins. I have 9 cans worth of pumpkin puree in my freezer now. We can have yummy pumpkin treats all year!

I made these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. So good! Also on the menu for November is pumpkin Alfredo, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin butter. I can't wait!

We have a row of giant cottonwood trees on our property, so the amount of leaves that fall is insane! We like to stay on top of it as much as possible, because we want to keep them cleaned up in case it snows. We worked on leaves for a few hours on Halloween day. We finally started using the tractor, and it made it go by so much faster! Worked like a charm!

October was great, and hopefully the nice fall weather holds out through November.

October Adventures

 October is always one of my favorite running months. I love fall in Idaho!

 Ashlee found out about a really hard 50K in the Fall Creek area that was on November 1, and got some of us ladies to sign up for it. I had exactly 4 weeks to get my butt in gear. I had been hiking a lot, but my running game needed some work. I love that feeling of it being crunch time, and really gearing up for a big challenge!

Gnarly Club X2:

Mark and I climbed up to the top of the Gnarly hill and back down twice. It's a beast!

Tis the season to finish by headlamps.

Palisades:

We did a 14 miler to the upper lake with the Blackfoot ladies. It was fun running with new friends! Palisades is beautiful this time of year. We had a gorgeous day!

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The upper lake looked so blue!

Cute Ella was a little bit afraid of the waves hitting the shore. 😆

Deadhorse/Echo Canyon:

Ashlee, Ashley, and I did an early morning run on part of the Beast course, to get as familiar with it as we could. We covered 12.5 miles of the 50K course, but did it in the reverse direction. We got treated to a gorgeous sunrise over the Tetons.

Starting in the dark.

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The Tetons 💙

Lots of fall leaves hanging on!

Greenblet Speed Work:

We've been trying to get a speed workout in each week. I love them! They are always challenging, but I always feel so good when we're done. This was a 6.5 mile speed pyramid around the river.

Sidewinder/Tower Loop:

I was kind of dreading this one right after the speed work day, but I ended up feeling pretty good. Ashley, Ashlee, Lindsey, and I climbed all the way up Sidewinder. Ashley and Lindsey went back down, but Ashlee and I continued on to do the Tower Loop, for an 11 miler. It was so pretty in Kellys!

Climbing Sidewinder.

The Tower Loop.

So pretty!

😍😍😍

Ririe Home Loop:

My knee was killing me, so Mark and I did an easy 4 mile loop around our block. 

We had the cutest audience.

Mount Manning & Horseshoe Creek:

Jenn had a Friday off work, so we did a long run in a new place. These trails are in the Driggs area, and we loved them. So fun to find new places to run! This was my farthest in a long time; we went 22.5 miles. I felt pretty good!

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Two of Jenn's friends came and did the first trail with us, but I don't remember their names.

Bear tracks!

The fall colors were amazing!

The Tetons were clouded over on the first loop, but we got great views of them on the second loop.

Ashlee-Ashley-Tricia-Jenn

Heart Loop & Biting Goat:

Ashlee and I had a beautiful 10 miler on the Heart Loop & Biting Goat. The colors were perfect, and we had a gorgeous sunset. We finished our last couple miles in the dark.

Rigby Lake Tempo Run:

Ashlee and I did a tempo run at Rigby Lake. We did a mile warm up, 3 miles of tempo, and cooled down until we hit 6 miles. The fall trees were so pretty, but we left our phones in the car.

Bryce Canyon:

Tonya planned a trip to Bryce Canyon for the Under the Rim Trail, and I'm grateful she invited me to tag along. So fun!

Kodachrome State Park

On Thursday we drove to southern Utah to our Airbnb. We unloaded and then headed the short distance away to see Kodachrome State Park. I will definitely be going back here with Mark. 

Under the Rim Trail:

The Under the Rim Trail is about 24 miles, with 4500 feet of climbing. Tonya and Cris had their daughters, and it would be the girl's longest hike. It was a cold start, that led into a lovely day. We finished with climbing out of the canyon after dark by headlamps.

Starting out at Rainbow Point.

A cold, crisp morning with a great view.

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I love these ladies!
Tricia-Joyce-Tonya-Cris

Cris and Britta
Britta did so good! She trained all summer for this. The last few miles climbing out were a struggle for her, but she gutted it out and made it!

Tonya & Cassidy
I love seeing mother-daughter duos doing cool stuff together.

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My last picture before it got too dark. 

We finished in the dark and missed seeing the good part of the park, so we made a quick stop to a couple viewpoints before heading out the next morning. Bryce is one of the most unique national parks. I love it! I've been there a lot, but this made me want to go back again with Mark.

Panorama Hill:

Ashley, Ashlee, and I did a hard hill workout on Panorama Hill. No pictures, because I was busy dying. 😅 We did a 10 minute warm up, then ran 10 minutes up the hill and back down. Then 8 minutes up the hill and back down. We continued this pattern for  6, 4, and 2 minutes. We ended with a cool down to get us to 6.5 miles. It was quite hard!

Pritchard Creek Loop:

We did a 13.5 mile loop that was mostly new to us. We ran part of the Beast course that we weren't familiar with. We went up Fallover, through Pritchard Creek, down Porcupine, and back on Fall Creek Road. It's a really pretty trail, but happened to be a muddy mess when we ran it. The course for the Beast isn't going to be marked, so I felt much better about it after we did this loop.

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I loved this canyon, and can't wait to take Mark up there in the summer.

So muddy!

Greenbelt:

Ashlee, Becky, and I did a nice easy 6.5 mile loop on the Greenbelt.

Gnarly Climb to Cranky Cowboy:

I ended the month with a snowy 9 miler up Gnarly to Cranky Cowboy. Ashlee and I were shocked at how much snow there was. It was cold too!

It was a great month of running! I feel like I put in the work building my base back up, but I'm just hoping I can handle a 50k distance.