WOW!  I can't believe we've almost been here a whole year already.

 

Ok, well, the last update was during the beginning of the summer.  You know, I've heard people refer to the Midwest as hell, but now we fully understand that meaning.  It's not because in some parts its desolate, it's because it is HOT!  With the heat factor, we hit near the 110 degree mark.  So much for getting outside landscaping done huh?  NEVER!  We were out when it was cool, but it did take a good month out of not working...we had fun with other things though.

 

Shall we walk through the pictures?  Great idea, I know, I know. 

 

The first is of Glenwood Lake (more like a really big pond).  It's just a few miles from the house.  There are about 20 lakes with in 1 hour of the house, which is pretty cool.  Sometime, we'll take Miss-c out to one, just before we're ready to bathe her.  Once it cools down more, we'll be spending the day with our friends the Pierce's, as we'll be canoeing down their river they have on their land.  Miss-C of course, will be swimming along next to us no doubt.  She's a water dog after all!

 

While at the pond, a HUGE butterfly came swooping into view.  The wing span alone is probably 5 or 6 inches.  One of the largest I've seen out here.  Everything is bigger here it seems....and usually in a bad way, though (crickets, grasshopers, flies, spiders, land, corn, butterflys, veggies). 

 

The next two photos are to give you a glimpse of some work we've done.  While deciding not to make our paths in the yard concrete (due mostly to cost) although we wanted to make them accessible, we were able  to do some, but not all.  However, we lined all our paths with original brick from the house.  This brick from the NorthWest patio was in really bad shape (not flat at all) so we pulled it all up.  All 900+ pieces and distributed them by hand all over the estate to make the paths that would be filled in later with rock.  So, these are the before/after shots of that project.  Probably the most fun part of this was seeing the moss from over 100 years of growth.  I took some incredible texture shots from these!

 

:) and of course we couldn't go without a season of crops without having some of our neighbors' famous sweet corn.  And trust me, you haven't had sweet corn until it's picked off the stalk and boiled that minute.  It's absolutely incredible.  The Zanders (previous owners of our home and awesome next door neighbors) hold the status for the best grown sweet corn around.  These pictures are both of our first time picking corn off the stalks less than 40 yards from the house!

 

We've learned a very valuable lesson out here:  The soil really is made for growing.  These are some of our peppers, tomatoes, squash and cherry tomatoes.  Compare them to the keys!!!!  ORGANIC too!  Totally amazing.  We've been giving away veggies just as fast as we can eat them.  We also grew some incredible rosemary, lemon basil and other herbs too.....massively aromatic!

 

This beauty (often referred to as our dog Miss-C) was entered in the county fair for the fun of it.  She one first place out of lots of dogs.  The award was based on obedience, patience, calling, tricks and overall happiness.  She walked away with Kimmy with a large 1st place trophy for the entire county!  We're so proud of her.  We have her trophy in our Curio Glass Cabinet in the main social room for all to see (well, we couldn't get it to stick to the refridgerator!)

 

Next is a large 5 foot x 5 foot mural one of my interns painted for his senior project.  This was painted in the SE corner room, better known as the Earth room.  So we wanted a cool, social justice themed mural.  We left the design up to Neil, and we loved the outcome.  We also gave him some monotary love too, to keep him moving in his direction of art.  The earth is made up of different quotes from our hero's.  Very cool.  Definatly a eye pleaser!  I'm happy to refer Neil if you need some cool abstract art done!

 

The next two pictures are before/after shots.  The first is the 30x30 foot area we xeroscaped.  The little plants in the middle are what size the grasses started as.  They came from all over the globe and are arranged in a fabulous geometric figure that looks good from both the ground and the roof.  After only a few months, they've already grown incredibly large.  We seem to keep forgetting we have magic earth here, not crappy Utah desert mud.  This was then watered by drip irrigation, layered with mulch and is a completed project.  To the west of it will be the large pond and pondless waterfall system (put in next year).

 

And what would we do without our most valuable purchase.  The Roo (Subaru) and our trusty trailer.  We've really worked both of them quite a bit, but they've both been a huge help. 

 

The next four pictures are one large story.  We had 16 tons (YES, TONS) droped off at the south end of the estate.  This was a bad idea, as we learned we should have spread the piles all over, but oh well, good exercise.  This rock was then transported all over the acreage for the interior lining of the walkways.  We wanted to keep it as original looking as possible, so we used the bricks from the patio (previous pictures) and had local lime trucked in from the local quarry (since Limestone was used during the time of the original building of the house).  The end result are beautiful pathways all over the yard, connecting small santuaries, and after it rains the lime glisens in the sun...nearly surreal.  We also found a place selling old 100+ year old bricks that had awesome stamps from the actual origin brickyard, so we hand picked 400 of them, put them in the trailer and hauled them home to add to the design of the pathways by the front of the house.  It's neat to have brick from all over the world on one estate. 

 

Ok, Ok, so perhaps it's gross, but I'd never had squid before.  Well, squid cooked by my sweetie in our own kitchen.  I can't say it was the most fun of her cooking, but it was different.  I didn't like the chewy part that much, but because it's one of her favorites we cooked up some serious squid.  Now, at least if I'm ever stranded in the ocean, I may be able to survive with fire and a bunch of squid...what a way to go.

 

To our surprise, lillies (by the hundreds) came up in a place just west of the old servant quarters (now the shed).  So that was a nice surprise.  We'll be pulling them up this year though, because the driveway will be going right over them next year!  This picture even caught a little friend on the leaf!

 

The next few pictures are from our well needed vacation.  Kimmy surprised me by getting these rediculously priced airline tickets that would have just been stupid to say no to.  So, down to Atlanta we went.  It was awesome.  We spent two days  in their state gardens where they have the nations largest collection of orchids...over 120 different species and we have the pictures to prove it.  We also made a day at 6 Flags doing what we do best...riding coasters!  It was a blast.  We also spent a day touring the nations largest aquarium, CNN world-wide studios, downtown Atlanta, the UNDERGROUND (an underground mall) and spent some well deserved time chilling out in the pool.  More so, we spent time with a long time friend of mine, Rachel, who managed Marriott hotels with me.  It was so good to see her as we've been seperated for years.  We also got to fly to/from Atlanta on Midwest Airlines where they have all first class seating and serve fresh warm chocolate chip cookies...now that's the way to go! :)  We also toured the SWAN HOUSE, an old estate that puts ours to complete shame, but it was fun to see a home built only 50 years earlier, with lots more money!

 

Next is one of the bigger projects we started at the house.  Our master bathroom, made from an old bedroom (as you'll remember in previous updates).  We just finished adding the tile and it is officially complete, minus a few little things here and there.  We're so proud of ourselves...not to mention it saved us nearly $5,000 doing it ourselves. :)

 

Along the far East side of the property (nearly 150 feet in length) is our soon to be wind screen and semi-fence of trees.  You'll see the tree's when they were first put in, and just last week in Aug, as they've already grown nearly 4 feet.  Those hybrids really are cool!  We're keeping them trimmed so they grow deep rooting systems too, without branching out too far.  These will eventually be a 15 foot tall fence, that will eventually be nearly a solid fence.  Deep Purple Orchid vines will be placed about every 20 feet in containers to break up the color of just green trees too, so this will look awesome once done.

 

And that's about it.  We were going to put pictures of Creighton and my office building, but we'll save that for next time. 

Hoping everyone is well, and appreciates the update!

We love you!  Thanks for your love and constant support while we're here.

Spence and Kimmy