A proposal at Hush Valley Lodge...

Such a busy week! We welcomed a young couple from Colorado last Sunday. They were super. And so interested in the farm... they wanted to learn more about medicinal plants so we hooked them up with our friends, Seidy and Danilo, where they operate a sustainable, organic farm, including a medicinal herb garden. They were thrilled. When they came back from their tour at Seidy and Danilo, there was a beautiful rainbow welcoming them back to the guesthouse. They decided to take a walk down to the river. Nick, who apparently had been planning on finding the right place and time to propose to his lovely girlfriend, decided under a rainbow by the river was just the place. How awesome is that!! It's so rewarding to know that Hush Valley Lodge will be forever part of their journey, and hopefully will always provide fond memories. We send our most sincere congratulations to both of them! We don't have a picture of the two of them, but here is a picture of Nick having caught his dinner.

Go read their comments in our guestbook here.

Then the day Karissa and Nick left, I did a quick turnover as we were hosting more guests the same day, Carissa and Bill (I know, what a coincidence to have two back-to-back guests with the same name - except for the spelling). Carissa and Bill are from Arizona. Bill is the teacher who brought his students to the Copey last May, and came up to our place for a tour. He's also the nephew of  a couple who stayed with us two years ago. He liked the area so much, he wanted to share it with his wife. More great people (how lucky are we?). You can read their guestbook comment here.

We said goodbye to Carissa and Bill on Thursday morning. It was great to see Bill again and meet his lovely wife.

A few more tidbits and updates:

The road improvements were completed over a month ago, but I keep forgetting to share a picture of the cement road, all finished. It starts a few yards from the community centre down about 100 metres/110 yards down the winding hill. The road is smooth and easy. Yay!

 PhewAnd last week, Clara (Martin's wife) picked some blackberries from our pasture and brought us a bucketful. I decided to make a pie and custard, since my hubby loves pie and custard as much as he does. It had been several months since I'd made pie crust, so I had my fingers crossed that it would turn out and be tasty. When it comes to cooking and baking, truth be known, I'm always crossing my fingers!!! It turned out well an Kevin gave it the thumbs up! Phew.

Kevin and the boys have a busy couple of days ahead, cleaning ponds and transferring fish. One of the tools that is most useful to clean the ponds is a de-thatching rake. We've never used it for it's intended purpose, but it's brilliant to scrape the gunk from the bottom of the ponds. Unfortunately, we only have one of those rakes. So, my resourceful husband decided to make another one. He made it out of strong sheet metal (the same that was used to build the trailer) and he cut out teeth and bent it to curve it just so. What's that saying "a picture is worth a thousand words"... so here are some pictures of his handiwork... the one on the right is the original rake an the left is the brand spanking new one!