March Catch-Up

Things are just staying busy, busy, busy here on the property, despite the fact that it (finally) snowed several times, keeping us indoors. I've been doing a lot with the Master Gardeners here, preparing for spring, and of course, just keeping up with the everyday stuff!

We've taken a few trips to Portland, though, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the lovely hotel we stayed in on the river.

Living room fireplace

View from the living room picture window

Balcony view

As you can see, we were right on the River Walk, and the weather was remarkably beautiful for our entire stay.  It's not a bad drive up there at all, as long as one takes care going over Mt. Hood - which can be treacherous even when it's not snowing.

Otherwise, we haven't been getting out all that much - mainly because I've been dieting hard.  In November, I lost 15 lbs on the HCG Diet, and now I'm working the Medifast Plan (Ted was supposed to start with me, but has put it off until he heals up from a recent minor surgery).  All told, I'm down nearly 35 pounds since January of 2011.  I wasn't going to put up any before and during pictures, but my niece Jessica inspired me (again - she also inspired me to create this blog) so here goes:

This is me eclipsing my granddaughter Megan in the Summer of 2010, at about 220 lbs:

Here I am at 203:

And today at 192:

Go Ducks!

One fifty, here I come!

Earlier this week, Ted and I attended the Living on a Few Acres Conference, put on by the OSU Extension Service/4H.  Ted attended classes on pond management and water rights, and I went to the sessions on Honeybees 101 and Fruit Orchards in Central Oregon.

Tara and Shannon's Bantam Lane Farms booth - a great business with wonderful products, now specializing in beer soap!

I've determined that honeybees are a bit more than I care to tackle right now - mainly because our speaker told us to get used to being stung!  Not me, ha ha!  I also learned that for fruit trees, I'm pretty  much stuck with apple and cherry.  I love apples and cherries, but I miss my little orchard at the Vegas house, which had peach, nectarine, almond, fig and pomegranate.  Oh well.

Last but certainly not least, yesterday was my 29th wedding anniversary.  Here's a pic of the lovely Red Intuition roses my sweetheart bought for me:

I love the variegation - even better than the Fire and Ice roses he would  buy me in Vegas.  I love you sweetheart <3

Finally, I have bought all the seeds I wanted for the front of the subdivision this year, and for our own place - I'm just a little slow getting the seedling pots made.  Since I can't put them out until late June, I'm not in that great a rush....