Great Neighborhood

I've decided that I can't always wait to have pictures to go with every blog post. Once in awhile is great, but I've been avoiding blogging until I have pictures and I just don't have time to always get to it. So I'm ending the guilt of picture-free blogging.

We had a great housewarming BBQ over the weekend. I knew we would have most of our family come and I had anticipated around 30 people. By the time it was all said and done, we had about 50 people and it was so much fun! We've been boarding some neighbor's horses in our back field area and they were so nice to come over out of the blue and give all the little kids a ride around the field. They loved it and it was so much fun to watch the kids play and run around. We live in such a great neighborhood. It's just rural enough that the boys play outside constantly without fear of much traffic. There are about five houses between our side of the street and just across the road that the kids play all over the yards together. It's cute to watch this pack of about 10 kids running around together. We live just around the corner from a great park and on Friday the herd of friends all rode their bikes down for a primary activity. We have neighbors two houses down that raise homing pigeons. Their youngest son is 14 and is so good with the younger kids in the neighborhood. He took some of the kids over and showed them the pigeons. He took a couple out and let the kids touch them and check them out and then showed them how the pigeons fly right back to where they are supposed to be. Our boys thought it was amazing. Carson and Davis know that they have to be able to hear my whistle and they aren't allowed to play inside anyone's house without coming to check with me first. They always come running when they hear me and I haven't had to hunt them down yet. I'm sure that will come soon, but for now, it's wonderful.

Jason has done such a great job with bringing the yard back. I wasn't sure we would be able to have any grass this year and was convinced he should just let it go until next spring. But he was determined and the yard is really starting to look like....well, a yard. I want to extend our backyard quite a bit and tear down an old shed that has seen better days. Then, we'll fence in the larger backyard. Just behind the yard will be our garden and fruit trees. We'll leave the back .40 acres or so as a pasture area for horses or beef if we decide to raise one next spring. Jason wants to get the chicken coop built before winter hits, so hopefully we'll have some fresh eggs daily before too long! It's so rewarding to watch our boys blossom in this house. I think when we have a few more animals and can teach them about caring for and raising them that they will thrive even more.

I found I've gotten used to the quiet in our neighborhood. It really is pretty far west (about 1 mile from the shores of the Salt Lake) and so we don't have a lot of traffic. There is still quite a bit of agricultural land. It's so nice to wake up in the morning and just hear the occasional rooster or cow and enjoy the peace and quiet.

A neighbor that lives kitty-corner from us has some migratory bats living between the brick and interior walls of his house. They come in through the attic soffets (sp?) on the outside at the top of his house. Apparently they used to nest a few houses further down, but those homeowners put up screens in the winter after the bats left and so the bats found a new house. We'll be putting up screens about the time the "bat" house does so that we're not the next nesting ground. The owner of the bat house called some wildlife experts to find out how to get rid of the bats. They told him that he shouldn't try to block them out until they have migrated to New Mexico for the winter because he would trap some baby bats inside and then have rotting, smelly bats in his walls. So for now, we get to watch about 300 bats come out of his house every night around dusk. The come out 3-4 at a time for about an hour straight. The wildlife expert said that each bat eats around 1/2 pound of mosquitoes each night. I am glad for that!

All in all, we LOVE where we live. I feel so fortunate that we found this place for such a great price with the land we wanted and plenty of space. We've got a couple of extra bedrooms, so if anyone is ready for a trip to our place, we're ready to have you!