Bluergh!

The last couple of days I am feeling totally blah, bluergh and ick! I don't really know why and can't really put my finger on it but I just don't feel 100%. My back hurts and my stomach is icky so I have been taking it easy this afternoon.

On Friday we left town to go camping for the weekend. I was really looking forward to getting away and also for some cooler weather. It had been far too warm for little ol' me and I was starting to feel a little wilted. I needed some cooler temps!

Dear hubbie loaded up the truck on Thursday evening and I did the last few bits on Friday morning and then I jumped in the truck to go pick him up from the field and we hit the road. We headed just south of Bend to a place called La Pine but as we pulled into the campground we were greeted by the 'Campground Full' sign. Uh oh, this was bad news. We hit one other campground and saw the same thing so we decided to head up to Paulina Lake.

We had wanted to camp up there but I was a little nervous because of the lake and the mosquitoes, but since the other two sites were full it was a sign so we headed up the road to Paulina Lake. Neither of us realised it was so high up and it seemed like the road just kept on going and going... at 6350ft we entered the campsite and it wasn't full. Infact, it was only about half occupied! YAY - I was excited!

We found the perfect spot and jumped out to start setting up camp and WHOOOSH, the mosquitoes were on us like crazy! I could even feel them biting me which is a first, usually the first I know that I've been bitten is a few moments later when it starts to swell.

Ugh! Cory was willing to leave and go find another campsite somewhere else but I didn't want to, it was so pretty there and it was an adventure after all.... a few painful bites later I was starting to feel like I was going to go crazy, so I got inside the half erected tent while Cory set up everything else and got a fire going.

A few moments after the fire got going they started to leave, they really didn't like the smoke so we kept the fire really smokey!

We walked over to the lake and it was just beautiful, it was as if we were on top of the world. There was no other point of reference that we could see from where we were and at over 6000 feet we really were up high!

After that we went to find the host and paid for the night... he warned us that it would be cold (and it was) and that hopefully we had enough blankets to keep warm for the night. I was actually looking forward to it being a little cold, and already had my beloved beanie hat on! ;)

We went back to the campsite and fixed up a yummy dinner and chilled out by the fire before hitting the hay early.

It was pretty cold that night, it hit somewhere in the low 20's and we felt it but we were very glad for lots of warm blankets and a blow up mattress! After breakfast and a walk to the lake we packed up our stuff and hit the road.

Saturday evening we stayed at a campground at Detroit Lake and it was substantially warmer than at Paulina Lake (it was also substantially lower in elevation) and had next to no mosquitoes. I didn't get one bite that evening nor did I even see a skeeter lurking nearby.

We camped close to a little beach on the far side of the lake and it was quiet and calm. We had a fun & very relaxing weekend... laying on the beach, relaxing strolls, throwing rocks and just not having to do any of the stuff waiting for us back home.

ooooh, and I almost forgot to mention that we had the first smores of the year and they were perfect! :)

Harvest

Harvest is an especially beautiful time of year in Oregon. There is so much to see, so many textures, colours and the landscapes are just highlighted by the farm machinery and all the activity buzzing around.
I couldn't help but try to capture this.

Some recent photos (photo heavy)

I have always loved to take photos - and as you can tell, sometimes my posts are a little photo heavy (sorry).

I've really been enjoying taking photos in and around the farm and where we live this summer... here's a few of my favs :)

A couple more photos

The other evening we drove to Salem & back in a mad dash to pick up the rest of the flooring we needed for our rental house project. The lighting on the drive home was just beautiful. I tried to capture it with our camera, but it's no way close.
Here they are anyway:

Few pics and quick hello

Not much to report from us, except that we have been working on our rental house this weekend and we are sore... and when I say sore, I mean really sore. I could hardly walk yesterday and when I did it was definitely more than a waddle accompanied with "ouch, owie, ugh...." etc type moans with every step. Not so attractive!
Yesterday was our second, first wedding anniversary. Yep, you heard it right, our second, first wedding anniversary. We had two wedding's right....?!?!?!? Therefore two wedding anniversaries! ;)

We had a fun day, went out to lunch at GVB after church which was really nice, and after that we went up to Tualatin to Erik & Krista's place to say a quick hello to them and Cory's parents since it was also Father's day.

Anyway, here's a few photos from around the Fast household recently... yes, a random collection!
Over & out!The Grosbeaks seem to have left us now, which is kind of sad since I'd gotten used to them and their feeding habits, oh, and not to forget their noise... But here's one of the last pics I took of them. I love how the two far birds have 'locked beaks'!
Our daffodil bulb 'crop'. We sat digging and dividing daffodils out of our yard so we can move them around next spring. There was so many - we left at least the same amount in the ground!

We had two pair of black headed grosbeaks feeding at our house towards the end. This is one of the males. I love how orange their colour is - they are really pretty. The females look different too. They were fun to watch!

Our niece (step-niece if you want to get technical) received an award at school, it was the 'Love one another' award. So I went with her Mom and brother to watch her receive it. Isn't she adorable?!?!

So, I did say it was a random selection of pics, right?!?!

Well, I love the lillies we have in our garden and I am so happy that we have so many too. We spent a lot of time this spring moving and separating out the tubers, but I was impressed that we still got so many with super large flowers.
Yes, Cory's hands are dirty - comes with being a farmer I guess ;)
River walk, Salem OR
"The Mountain's Out"

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a very lovely Easter weekend. We had a fun and 'interesting' Easter Sunday.

We started our day by getting up early and making some things to take to lunch at Cory's parents house. I made Cornbread casserole and some Yorkshire puddings to go with lunch. After that we got ready and headed out to Church here in town. It was really busy, but was a fun service and the choir did a good job. The message Charlie gave was really good too, he's a good speaker. If you'd like to hear that or any of his other messages you can listen or download from the website which is here (f you click on audio archive then 'launch' you'll get the complete list).

After church we headed out to the farm and got the lunch ready to serve. It was so yummy! We had lamb, potatoes, yorkshires, hot cross buns, crab salad, cornbread casserole, jell-o salad, stuffed eggs (and the list goes on).

Cory's Grampa and aunt Donette came for lunch too, so it was good to be able to visit with each other and share stories. Cory's Grampa tells the best stories, he has had such a wonderful life - I could sit and listen to him all day.

After a little while Doug went out to check on the Momma cows that were down in the barn. A few moments later he called us and said two were really close to giving birth and that we should wrap up and come down there. So, we did exactly that. Thankfully I'd brought a change of clothes and there was some rubber boots in the garage that were perfect for me. So we bundled up and headed out.

We climbed up on top of the hay bales in the barn so we could watch over both cows and not spook them too much. One of them was really nervous about the whole thing and any little noise we made seemed to make her more anxious.

After about an hour the blonde gave birth to a pretty big calf. I could feel the pride well up inside me as I quietly cheered her on through the hole process, she did such a good job!

The other one was having a harder time of it and didn't seem to be making much progress. We decided to head up to the house and warm up. We were both blocks of ice!

The next time Doug checked on her she had given birth to the calf and it was healthy too. YAY!
One more was looking pretty close to giving birth last night, but news this morning was that there was 7 born last night! YIKES!

Anyway, that was pretty much our Easter in a nutshell. We came home and tucked into the Easter eggs that we had got from the British store in Lake Oswego. Cory's first ever one, and it seemed like it was a hit. Looks like that'll be another sure tradition in the Fast household from here on out!