High Falls Park

Easter sunday we went to High Falls Park, about an hour and a half south of us in Alabama. It was a beautiful day to be outside. We hiked to the bottom of the falls and enjoyed a picnic lunch.

Grandma visits Alabama

Grandma came to visit us with mom and dad March 10-15. We took them to Green Mountain for a picnic lunch and stopped by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center on the way home so grandma could see the Saturn V rocket. She had never seen one before so she was excited to see it. We had a great time, playing plenty of card games, playing guitar hero, going to a movie and planting flowers.

New Bed

We got our headboard finished on Saturday right before mom, dad, and grandma got to our place with the bench that dad made for us. Here are the before, during, and after pics. We sanded the old finish off the door, stained it, finished it, and built posts to hold it up.

Thanksgiving/Christmas 2011

This year for Thanksgiving Ken and Arlene came and stayed with us. It was nice celebrating with family. We made a feast and ate leftovers for days, yumm! They helped us find a Christmas tree at the tree farm that Saturday. I can't believe that this is already our 3rd Thanksgiving and Christmas in Alabama, but our first in our new home this year.

2011 Garden Totals

Here are the total counts for how many of each vegetable we picked from our garden in 2011.

Okra: 684
Tomatoes: 159
Zucchini: 21
Yellow Squash: 56
Green Pepper: 27
Eggplant: 16
Yellow Pepper : 4
Salsa Pepper: 13
Beets: 3
Lettuce: 19 salads
Spinach: 3 salads

We figured that we saved approximately $190 on groceries. Not too bad. We learned a lot this year and have ideas on how to improve next year. We definitely will not plant as many Okra plants. We were sick of Okra by the end of summer. They were the easiest of all the veggies to grow. We will try some new veggies next year.

Walls of Jericho

We went hiking at the Walls of Jericho this Saturday, Nov 5. We had been wanting to hike there for over a year and finally made it. It was a great hike but the most challenging one we have done yet. It was a 7 mile round trip hike with over 1,000 feet descending elevation to get to the Walls of Jericho, which meant we had to hike 1,000 feet back up to the start. The Walls of Jericho is a limestone gorge with waterfalls and a natural amphitheater that is 50 yards wide with 200 ft tall cliffs on each side. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside.

Camping and Hiking

Last weekend Jesse and Teresa came down to visit us and we had a great time. Friday afternoon we drove to Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee and camped overnight. Saturday we spent the day hiking. It was beautiful there and we had sunny weather in the 70s. Couldn't have asked for a better day. We first hiked to the cascades and nature center crossing over a hanging bridge. We then went to Fall Creek Falls which is 256 feet tall, the tallest waterfall east of the Rocky Mts. We enjoyed the view from the top and then hiked to the base and ate our lunch. After that we hiked to Pikey Falls and then to Milikens Overlook.