Swing sixteen!

Skyler is 16 months old as of yesterday!!  It's amazing to see how fast he's growing up.  A little sad too...  For his 16 month birthday, Skyler got a SWING!!  It's just like the one he has at my parent's house but now he can swing anytime he wants to.  Which is all the time!  I should have bought one earlier this summer, but I think he knows this was a present and appreciates it more.  He even helped to open the package and watched me install it last night.  So adorable!

Happy birthday!

Swinging through the jungle!

I installed it on the trellis on the west end of our patio.  The trellis does triple duty now, shade, swing, and decor.

He swung for 30 minutes straight last night, then again after dinner, and once already this morning!

Looking a lot like me!

It's almost creepy to see how much Skyler looks like me when I was his age. I need to scan some of the photos from my mom's photo album to prove it. In the meantime, here's some enhanced pics of Skyler to look like they were taken 35 years ago.

The mighty Saturn V.

Since Neil Armstrong passed, the History & Science channels have been playing a lot of the Apollo shows and one was about the Saturn V rocket.  Quite possibly mans greatest engineering achievement!  You have to leave the blog to view this video but it's 8 minutes well spent.  Skyler even managed to watch the entire video on the iPad without trying to destroy it!

Tobacco.

I have some volunteer tobacco plants growing by the patio. Last year I grew some in a pot just to see what tobacco looks like. This years plants are big enough to roll cigars! I don't smoke, but it may be fun to try a home grown cigar!

Huge leaves!

No bugs will eat the leaves because of the nicotine.

Last night's sunset seen from our yard.

Slurry and dinner?

Saturday our street was closed for slurry sealing.  I seriously doubt it will last one winter with any kind of snowplow traffic.  The stuff looks like black paint and sand!  Skyler didn't get to see it this time, he was napping.

1st pass.

It looks nice!

See what I mean about black paint and sand?  Seriously though, it's made from asphalt, emulsifier, aggregate, Portland cement, and water for "workability".  Mostly water...

Getting ready for the next pass.

Here it comes.

The crew is by far the hardest working bunch I've ever seen.  They are based out of Las Vegas and work 6 days a week around the hot, stinky, sticky material and they do it in the heat.  Side note, the slurry machine uses John Deere power to power the slurry mill.  :)

Nice and black and new!  For a few months anyway.

Saturday evening we went over to a friends place for dinner.  Skyler went to my parents' house (thanks mom and dad) and we had a nice time!  They made pulled pork, and some delicious green beans.  I made home made fresh salsa and potato salad.

My salsa.  Complete with hot pepper smiley! :)

Potato salad and the green beans.

Slow smoked pulled pork.  I should have eaten more, it was delicious.

The peaches are almost ready on our tree!  Yum!

R.I.P. Neil...

Neil Armstrong, August 5, 1930-August 25, 2012

Supporting the riders.

Skyler and I watching the Tour of Colorado bike race yesterday.  You can hear Phil Liggit in the background.  Free Lance!

Sorry for the late post, I had to go into the dealership and WORK today!!  Mostly updating John Deere's parts software on the business system.  And BS'ing! :)

More cowbell!

Skyler's latest favorite thing to do is put on the cowbell from the Tour of Utah and run around the house or the yard.

This is actually a good thing,  when he has the cowbell on, I know where he is! :)
Where did the more cowbell come from?

Birthday help.

Helping grandpa open his presents last night!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday.  Thanks for all you have done and taught me Dad, I couldn't ask for a better father.  Happy Birthday!   (My father is riding a century on his road bike today.  That's One Hundred Miles!!)  Way to go Dad!!!!  :)

Skyler swinging with Grandpa last night.

Last night while Altair was wrapping my Dad's present, Skyler found the wrapping paper tube!

Even the pets were helping to wish Dad a Happy Birthday!

Corn and cowboy boots.

I spent a majority of my time yesterday processing sweet corn.  It's true, I try and pretend I'm a BTO (big time operator) and always plant way too much sweet corn every year.  It's just so fun to run the planter in the spring!  Anyway, I processed some in the morning, then some in the evening.  50 ears total making 10 quarts of delicious, fresh, sweet corn goodness to be enjoyed this winter!  I still have 5 more rows to go, probably another 200 ears or so of corn, but that was planted later (with the planter) so I've got something to do the next in the couple of weeks.  It's so worth all the watering, weeding, and side dressing (fertilizing) the corn when you take one bite.  Just one bite.  Better than Lays potato chips!  This is an S2 variety of corn and it's super sweet when picked early.  If you wait too long it turns into dent corn real fast.   Skyler and I also made a trip to the local farm store where they had his JD "Johnny Popper" lil' cowboy boots on sale.  Red letter day all around!

Golden goodness!

Stripping all the kernels in the morning.

Post blanching.

"Houston, we have a winner!"

So good!  He ate 2 ears for lunch.  I'll pay for it today I'm sure.  Poop!

Mmm, mmm, good!

"Look at my new boots!"

He wouldn't take them off.

Kicking the shit out of the stair gate with his boots last night!

So naughty!

Blanching round 2.

Waiting for blanching.  Look at those ears!

The magic "de-kerneling" tool.  It even has a smiley face!

Back side, showing the knife portion.  This is the next best thing to owning a cannery.

The aftermath of de-kerneling.

Last night's spoils.

I gave the neighbor behind us the cobs to feed her chickens.  We can't wait to have chickens next year!

Bagged heaven!  It almost makes winter worth while...  Almost.

Moose!

We went up to the Brighton ski resort boardwalk last night with a couple from our birth class.  They had never been up there before and it was Skyler's first time too.  We ate an improvised dinner, then proceeded to walk the boardwalk where we saw some MOOSE!  The male was a young adult and the female looked to be full grown.

Chasing Easton!

Skyler's reaction to the moose: