The Bedke Girls

We threw a baby shower for my sis-in-law Brooke who is due in May. We took this picture while we were all together and I love it!

Left to Right: Mom Bedke, Harper, Me, Brooke, Grandma Bedke, Addie (ryan’s sis)

 

Crazy Hair

 

This is what static electricity does to Harper’s already crazy hair!

Love it!

patty cake, patty cake

I’ve been baking a lot lately. Here’s a few of the things I’ve made:

• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Brownie Covered Oreos
• Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread
• Bread – picture below is prebaked
• Rolls – still working on perfecting these
• Cherry Pie – came out PERFECT! I’ve mastered the art of crust making – SO FLAKY!
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries
• Ganache Truffles
• Buttermilk Pie – SO GOOD and so fattening…crust made with lard; pie filling made with butter, sugar and milk {and if you’re not playing close enough attention like me, you’ll double the butter content…even better}. YUMMY!

What have you been baking lately? Any good recipes for me to try?

 

Giggles

I finally caught Harper’s giggling on camera. It hasn’t been a frequent occurrence, but is becoming progressively more frequent. Today she laughed more than I’ve ever heard her laugh.

WARNING: The cuteness in this video is excessive. Proceed at your own risk!

 

pure cuteness

You might think I’m bias, but I’m pretty confident Harper is the cutest baby EVER! No offense…

{picture on right is with Harper’s crazy Aunt Addie}

Holy Mice!

We have a mice problem at the ranch house. we’ve known it since we’ve moved in when we found little mouse droppings EVERYWHERE. I promptly cleaned the entire house and set some traps. For weeks we had NO evidence of them. I would look everyday to see if there was poop, but there was nothing. I was about convinced we had gotten rid of the problem… until we were sitting in the dark one night when the power went out. All of the sudden we heard a little mouse scurrying and squeaking in the kitchen. I ran over with the flashlight to hunt it down, but could not find it anywhere. We promptly declared war! I put d’con and traps EVERYWHERE!!!

When I returned from Canada, Ry told me he had been hearing mice quite regularly in the wall {it sounded like an army of mice!}, but one of the d’con trays was half empty. I was thinking “score! they’ve eaten it and those little rascals are all going to die. take that!”. but I quickly discovered that the half empty tray of d’con had been moved to our dirty clothes hamper and was buried within our clothes. That’s right…the dirty little mice carried all of that d’con into our laundry basket upstairs and left a little fur as well.

GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

homemade root beer

Ryan’s family has a tradition of making homemade root beer every summer when they are up here at the ranch. We decided we’d try our hand at it…

I was surprised at how simple it was to make. What’s in the root beer? It’s just water, sugar, root beer extract and yeast (to make it carbonated).

However, it does require some careful measuring. One thing we learned the first time we made it:

There are 128 oz in a gallon not 64 oz. And if you don’t get that right, it tastes like medicine and doesn’t carbonate.

The bad part: 12 bottles of root beer were dumped down the sink.

The good part: you can always try again! and when you do it right, you get 24 bottles of yummy root beer.

Answers

~Wyatt~Brittney~Brecken~ said...

I SO want to know what your doing with your time! Especially in the winter! Do you have movies you can watch or no TV at all?! I would go nuts nuts nuts nuts nuts without internet or phone!

You’re so funny! Well, we do have a tv and xbox. I use it for doing workout videos and Ryan and I will occasionally watch a movie. Ryan uses it mostly to play video games. So…what do I do? Before noon I try to have scriptures read, workout in, do a little blogging and/or journaling, and some cleaning done. I listen to a lot of music. Feed Harper. Play with Harper. Bake A LOT, like pies, bread, rolls, cookies, etc. (which is having bad consequences) I make 3 meals a day which can be time consuming depending on what I make. We’ll go out to work with Ryan in the afternoons a couple times a week. Sometimes I get distracted playing angry birds, fruit ninja and/or spider solitaire on the itouch. I just took some of my craft stuff up last week to start some projects as well. The days really go by quickly…but they’re so relaxed and peaceful. And I get SO much done in a day compared to when I’m in “civilization”.

 

Poulsen Family said...

When can I see you? :)

Well, you can come visit whenever! In a a month or so, we’ll be in civilization a little more often for a few weeks so maybe we can plan a date to meet half way and go for lunch or something? I want to see you!!!

 

Lindsey said...

Um, how many potatoes do you harvest in a year? HAHA, jk...Ryan already answered all my dumb questions : )
Oh, I guess one question: Do you ever get nervous about medical stuff out there in the middle of no where? Like what happens if someone gets hurt?
And a challenge: Can you please have you and Harper be wearing pioneer clothes and be sweeping the floor with a homemade stick and grass broom one of these days when Ry gets home...PLEASE?!?!?! And be sure to take a picture of his reaction.
I can't wait to take pictures of the ranch when we come, I am totally getting accustomed to my camera!

First off, you always make me laugh. If I had pioneer clothes I would totally do that!

When Ryan first presented the idea of moving to the middle of nowhere I did have a lot of anxiety about medical emergencies and stuff. But, I just pray everyday that we will all be kept safe and healthy. So far, so good! My biggest fear is if Ryan got hurt and I had to drive the icy roads back to “civilization”. They require some great skill to drive and I’m not sure I possess that great skill. So let’s hope I never have to worry about that! But I don’t really think about it too often. Maybe I should be more prepared…

 

Aunt Hama said...

I'm a little out of the loop, so I want to know what took you to a ranch in Nevada?

Ryan’s family owns a cattle ranch. It’s been in his family for several generations. They operate in Idaho and northern Nevada (about an hour away from the Idaho portion). Ryan decided that he wanted to come back and work with his dad doing what he loves. It’s also such a great place to raise a family. So he’s been put in charge of feeding the cattle through the winter on the Nevada side. We come back home (Idaho) on Sunday for church. The rest of Ryan’s family will join us in Nevada in June when school is out and haying season starts.

 

Kristina said...

I've wondered how you survive without internet and phone, and how much discipline it takes to only go to the store and do all your other errands once a week. Is Harper just a really good, patient baby? I'm lucky if I can get a good half hour of shopping out of my son, so I end up taking multiple trips a week (and using a lot of gas). I really have been thinking of you (guiltily) when I go somewhere twice in two days!

I’ve decided that I LOVE not having the internet and phone. They are such distractions and keep me from doing anything productive! It’s way easier than I thought it would be. As for shopping, I do a menu plan every week and make a list of everything I need. Mondays we’ll go shopping and get it all done. Depending on what I need (and how much of a shopping mood I’m in) and what other errands I have to do, it will take anywhere from 15 min to 3+ hours. I go to the Super Walmart if I need groceries and other things. If I just need groceries, I just go to Smith’s. I’m all about one stop shopping. Harper has been AMAZING (so far). She seriously sleeps from the moment we leave the driveway until we get back home. I really don’t think she’s ever been awake. I’m sure that will change though. But’s it’s nice right now.

But basically I just have to be prepared. I know that I can only go once a week, so I just make it work. If I forget something, it just goes on the list for next week.

another year older?!?

This year I spent my 27th birthday flying home from Canada to Idaho.

Left: Pointing to the sign that says Feb 6 – my birthday!

Right: My sister bought me a funnel cake at the Chicago airport for my birthday cake.  It was very yummy!

Since we got home so late that night, Ryan and his family celebrated my birthday the next day. They prepared a delicious dinner for me and Ryan’s sister made me an incredible chocolate cake.

Here’s to another year!!

 

ask a question, any question…

I’m going to try something, but it requires your participation. We’ll see how it works.

I know that the whole ranch lifestyle is foreign to a lot of people. {It was to me up until recently} So this is your opportunity to ask me a question you’ve been dying to know as you read our blog. Maybe you’re wondering how many acres we’re on or how many head of cow we run? Maybe you’re curious if I get bored with no phone/internet/tv? Or what I do with all the time I have?  Or perhaps you have a question completely unrelated to the ranch?

Just post a comment with your question and I will answer them throughout the week.

Ready, set, GO…