Fran's 90th Birthday!

Fran Johnson is a dear sister in our Branch and is really another mom to us. She is one of our dearest friends! In February she fell and dislocated her left shoulder and went to stay with her son in Kent, WA while she recuperated. we missed her so much!

April 10th was her 90th birthday. being 175 miles from all her friends just wasn't acceptable - so Jan & Shep drove over the mountains early that day to take Fran out to lunch and bring her a beautiful hand-made quilt created by her Relief Society sisters for her birthday. Each sister added special buttons from their collections and tied them on the quilt. Fran loved it!

We went to the Red Robin, enjoyed a great lunch, then the staff brought her a special hot fudge sunday and sang happy birthday for her. What fun!!!

Now if we can only get her back home again!

Company Conference - Las Vegas

I'm weeks behind on posting - sorry! Our company conference in Las Vegas March 26 ~ 28 was a lot of fun. It was great seeing friends and meeting new ones.

The fellow to the left of me in the first picture is Michael Clouse, the featured speaker all day Friday. I shouldn't admit this but I had seen articles by and about him since 1999 but just didn't do much about it. I heard quotes from him and heard about some of his books and training, but I didn't get them. I wish now that I had! Michael is an amazing teacher. Within the first 5 minutes of hearing him, I liked him and what he has to say. What he teaches about vision has vastly improved me and my business. I strongly recommend his website, www.nexera.com. Go through the website in great detail - there is a lot of material there! Get the package. And we just received notice that he will be at our annual conference in August - yea!!!

In the middle picture are all the leaders of our company that attended this event. My happy face is second from the right, next to Bob Scocozzo, the CEO and owner. Charlie Umphred, VP Marketing and owner is in the middle.

The third picture is of Bobby and his daughter Mia Bella, namesake for our product line. She just keeps growing and getting prettier every year!

this was a great conference. Meeting and listening to Michael Clouse on Friday and all the member speakers on Saturday was a lot of fun. I was the MC for both days. No one threw anything at me so I guess I did a good job.

I Love My Log Splitter!

For those that love country life but aren't that enthused about splitting wood for the wood stove with an 8-lb maul, you'll LOVE THIS!

We have a Quadra-Fire 2100 wood stove. It's the smallest one they make at 1.5 cu.ft. We love it because it's extremely efficient and it heats all of our house. When we brought in wood last Fall the stove was still in the boxed crate and all the instructions would say (in 4 languages, of course) is 'cut to 18" or less for a good fit.' Well, the length statement was true, it's the girth that ended up being a problem. We left all wood 8" or less in width unsplit and just stacked it, figuring that an 8" log would be a great night log. The rest of the wood we split with a home-made power splitter loaned from a neighbor.

It take long before we realized that all that unsplit wood, about 2 cord, needed to be split. Ugh! There just wasn't enough air flow in that fire box to get a really nice burn from larger unsplit logs. NOT my most favorite thing to do, but we've been doing it for the past 6 weeks.

Last week I started doing some research on splitters, air powered, gas engine, and electric. We only need about 4 cord so al those expensive gas powered units just didn't seem necessary - besides the sticker shock! I found a couple discussion boards where some more 'mature' guys gather to talk yard equipment. Quite a few recommended electric, especially the Ryobi 4-ton electric splitter from Home Depot. we got it last night. Tried to get an end of season price break but the manager said this was a really hot item and that there were only two left. Rats! well, we tried. Still a good price for what we got.

Today I gave it a test drive. YES! This baby splits a 12" log like a hot knife through butter. True, this is pine and alder, not hardwood, but I was certainly satisfied with the performance while that big red 8-lb maul sat in the corner, unused! I filled my 4' x 3' wood rack in 30 minutes without working up a sweat. It took that long because I had to carry logs from the stack into the barn next to my split stacker, about 75'. If it had been closer I could have done the job in 15 minutes or less!

I get enough exercise around this farm as it is, pounding steel posts, digging fence post holes, stretching fence, bucking hay, moving manure, and working in the garden. If I can save a little labor without spending too much money, I'm all for it! Now I enjoy my wood stove a litle bit more!

A added comment about stove installation. At first we couldn't keep a fire going and what fires we did get going were poor to say the least. Bob Brown, the manager at the Big R in Wenatchee went to work trying to get answers for us. hte solution was a total surprise. You need to add 5' of pipe above the roof for every 90 degree turn in your pipe. We have two bends, so spending a couply hundred dollars on 6' of new pipe on top of waht we already had seemed really spendy, but we did as directed. Wow! The very next evening the temperature gage on the exhaust jumped to almost 500 degrees, allowing us to damper down the fire for hte very first time. This little Quadra Fire was been a top performer ever since. More pipe - I would have NEVER guessed that answer.

Spinning...Country style, that is.

This past Saturday was a happy hallmark in the Big Red Barn. Our new sunroom was the location for a meeting of the Shear Creative spinning guild. Several of my "guild sisters" arrived, fiber, wheels, yarn ,needles, and food in hand or basket in order to enjoy what Shep calls "spinning fibers and tall tales".

If I could have put in an order, I could not have selected a more lovely, sunny day or a more enjoyable group of friends to christen our sunroom. Most travelled over a hairpin mountain pass and an hour or more on the road to have the chance to do what women do so well...listen, share life stories, joys, recipes and encouragement. How happy I am to call them my friends!

So, Diana, Di, Dianne, Teresa, Carol, and Ingrid here's to many more hours of being together, spinning, munching, and most especially enjoying the blessing of your kindness and friendship.

Hi to Ben, Christine & family!

Just got off the phone with some new friends who are looking at moving to our be-u-ti-ful valley.

Thought I would post some photos for them to enjoy. (Don't send them to Time magazine or they might make us one of their "best" places to live in the US! We like our little secret. :-)

Next Friday night is the "nightglow" downtown Winthrop, with the hot air balloons lighting up for all to enjoy, along with special activities for children. The next day is the hot air balloon festival and Shep and I will show up to help crew a balloon-LOVE it!

Shep is standing on a mountain top and behind him is Lake Chelan. We love to snowmobile, x-country ski and snowshoe. The winter sports and outdoor activities are great. Our fav x-country skiing area is in the National Forest up on the Loup Loup pass. Quiet, pretty, and rarely see other skiiers. We do have lots of eagles, ravens, and other types of birds. Our mule deer herds are the largest in the state. A traffic jam is having to stop and wait for 8 or 10 deer to cross the road.

We get our Christmas tree in the National Forest each December. Price: $5.00 Time together as a family: Priceless!

For lots of great images go to this link: http://suncountrymethow.tripod.com/images/ and of course for tons of information, go to: http://www.methow.com/

All the best to you!!

Sunrooms Are Wonderful!

Two years ago we began a project to build a sunroom on the southern face of our home. For one, we would now have a real front door! The steel roof slants to the south which means in winter all the snow that gathers on that 32' x 60' roof comes sliding down and dropps 18' to the ground, piling up in front of the door. We could only use our front door in part of the year!

Last fall we completed a 12' x 42' sunroom, as you can see from the pictures above. There are 12 4' x 5' windows which bring in massive light - even in winter! The floor is stamped concrete. Jan stained the floor and I put the sealer on it. At the east end is a beautiful natural river rock wall behind the wood stove.

Jan is in love with this room! She practically lives here. It's warm, sunny, cheery, and the couches are very comfy. We also moved our Italian dining table out here and this is where we eat most of our meals. The stove keeps the room about 75 degrees during the night and heavy overcast days while the sun makes it about 75 to 78 degrees on sunny days, even when it's below zero outside. An added plus is that the stove and solar gain heat from the sun are heating the rest of the house! We are using our propane heating system a lot less, which is saving us hundreds of dollars in heating bills.

All day we enjoy the incredible views of the hills and down valley. we watch eagles soaring and ravens (Jan's favorite bird) passing by. At night we can watch the stars or the moon shadows during the full moon.

Living in a barn gives us great joy. Having a sunroom attached has brightened our lives even more! It's a grand place to have friends over for tea, a serene place to read scriptures or a book, and a wonderful place to have dinner with friends. We do hope you will stop in and join us on your next trip through the valley!

Winter fun

Make a Smilebox photobook

**to escape from the album when finished viewing, click the ESC button on your keyboard**

The Sourdough Bread Journey

About 14 years ago I began a quest to create a bread similar to our favorite bread from Naples, Italy. Jan & I met there in 1987 and food was a passion for us, especially the crunchy bread found in the Campania region of Italy. While Jan was stationed at the Naval Hospital on Adak, Alaska 1994-95 our neighbor, and Jan's long-time friend Melinda Cornwell, gave me a very old sourdough starter. When we returned to Bremerton, Washington I began experimenting with a variety of recipes. Finally, in 1996 I discovered the right recipe to create wonderful Neapolitan bread! We served this bread at a number of dinners to the enjoyment of all.

In 1997 Jan retired from the Navy and we prepared to move to Nephi, Utah. My starter was in the moving truck, safe - or so we thought! Unfortunately, there was a heat wave, the key to the door lock was lost, and . . . oh well, through some bad fortune the starter was lost! I just didn't feel like trying to begin all over again, so soon stopped making bread.

In a farm magazine recently I happened to read about starting a wild yeast sourdough starter. Could I try to do it all over again? Why not! For the uninitiated, getting a successful wild yeast starter is not easy. Often you get a bad tasting yeast, through out the mix, and start again. the recipes called for store-bought white flour. Once wheat berries have been ground, in about 3 to 4 days all nutrition is gone. For 6 years now Jan has been using frsehly ground wheat. this is what I decided to use in my quest for a new starter.

A miracle happened! The very first try we got a very nice smelling yeast. After feeding the mother every day for a week I altered the recipe found in the Mary Jane's Farm Journal Magazine, changing the measures to what I thought would fit using freshly ground whole wheat. As the sweetener for the rise I used honey harvested from our own hives. The first bread was a total success!

The next week I decided to use the Neapolitan recipe I had perfected in 1996. Hmm, not enough salt and didn't rise as well as it should have, but successful enough to eat. Wonderful.

Last week I tried the same recipe again, adding more salt and still playing with the water ratio. Sad to say, it was a miserable flop - the horses loved it!

Yesterday I altered the recipe again, let it rise an extra 2 hours, and this time we got a successful bread! Light, salted just right (course sea salt, of course), and just enough water to balance the flavor. Still not exactly neapolitan crunchy or a large crumb, but a satisfactory bread all the same! Jan says I have to keep practicing until I get it right - she says we'll eat all hte failures until I get it right. :-)

html what?

"Big Bertha" made a mighty fine omlette.....
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You know there is an old country saying that goes like this: "A good fisherman knows what to put on the hook." When my husband and best friend Shep asked me what I thought about starting a blog (realizing full well that I LOVE to write and express myself artistically) he knew that I'd jump all over the opportunity. He also knew that it would, um, "encourage" me to stretch my mind in a direction I have diligently avoided for years: html protocol/editing.

Ugh.

Thus the great space in time between my first two blog posts. Believe me, there is no such thing as a "free" horse....or blog design. :-) Tonight, however, was a breakthrough. Barring unforseen circumstances I should have this show on the road by Monday. It IS Valentine's Day tomorrow, after all!

May your every kiss be a chocolate one :-)

+Jan+

It's tomorrow ALREADY??

( 0030 hours) If you are still up when this is posted, you should already be in bed! Trust me....I can't believe I am up this late. Does not jive with my mental capacities or physiology. Both are headed downhill and I am headed upstairs.

I have been working on perfecting this blog for about 12 hours give or take. I am NOT a html linguist. Wish I were. Things are slowly progressing. Reminds me of the 2 weeks Shep, Lew and I spent in Greece. When we first arrived, driving off the ferry in Patras, heading south down the Peloponnese Penninsula the signs were all in...Greek! After a week or so, we started understanding the Greek. It was an amazing trip and exploration but we'll save that for another day.

And since it is another day maybe html code will begin to look more like English if I go to bed.

G'night!

Jan

Welcome to our home!

Welcome!! We're glad you're here! As you enter our door you might be wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to live in a barn or perhaps what kind of people would willingly and happily choose such accomodations. Maybe you're interested in what the lifestyle of barn dwellers is like.

Come by frequently and you'll discover just that! From horses helping themselves through the front door looking for Jan to Shep doing "blazing saddles" in the snow on his ATV, from bees in the garden to "chicken tv", you'll undoubtedly find exactly what you are looking for in country livin' and down home fun right here in our big red barn.