Rain to Snow: We Bought A House!

It has been a long time since I have had a chance to post on here, and I suppose the nature of my posts will be a bit different for awhile. On April 23rd we moved into our new home on the Kenai Peninsula about a 2-3 hour drive from Anchorage, AK. We weren't originally planning on buying this year. DH was changing jobs and we were looking for a good sized rental. When we couldn't find one I started looking into homes for sale. I never thought we would actually find a place or that we would be able to purchase right away, but low and behold we are now living on our nice chunk of land(4.7 acres) out here just 5 minutes from downtown Soldotna. We have 2 small lakes right behind our house that make for a beautiful view in the evening when the sun is setting. I am in love, and at this moment, can't see myself moving anywhere else. Noah seems pretty happy about it too. He loves playing outside, and likes to help me water the plants. He will be REALLY happy when the guys get the chance to cut the legs off of the playhouse to make it ground level.
My husband built me 2 large 4'x12' garden beds and made a cover for one, and then I dug out a large 5x12' bed for growing cool weather vegetables. We've been working hard to get this place back in order. There was no garden when we moved in so its taken most of our extra time getting things taken care of. I've never grown more than 4 vegetable plants at a time. But this year I've got planted: Zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, snap peas, snow peas, lettuce, spinach, large sunflowers, strawberries, artichoke, acorn squash, butternut squash, Hubbard squash, cauliflower, brocolli, rutabaga, celery, chives, basil, parsley, cabbage, red onions, yellow onions, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. Uhhh... yeah I went a little crazy! lol.
Now for the pictures! We didn't get internet until today so this has been a long time coming! I don't have many good pictures of the inside yet so that will have to be for another day. In all honesty I really just want the place to be super clean, and when I did get pictures, it was back when there were still boxes everywhere! So, for today, here are some photos of the outside along with some animal friends that have been coming to visit us daily/weekly.

This is how it looked when we first moved in.

And then this guy decided to visit

..and the snow finally melted..

so these guys came out of hiding and started visiting regularly..

Pine Grosbeak..

..and his mate :)

Hubby built these and filled them with dirt for me..

Then I dug this one.. and he took the rototiller to it

One night we had one of the most amazing sunsets along with a gorgeous and big full moon on the opposite side of the sky

Now that the sun has come(along with the mosquitoes) the grass is greening up fast and the trees have finally sprouted their leaves

The fuchsia is finally starting to open its blooms..

Vegetables in the greenhouse cover Seth helped me make.. growing zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumber, and then one little bell pepper plant. We are already picking zucchini.

The BBQ and fire pit hang out. It was a bit pathetic when we moved in, so hubs got some rocks and filled in the holes and made the fire pit deeper.

Cool weather vegetable garden. Everything seems to be growing well.

Sunflowers next to the sauna, oh yeah, we have a sauna! It needs a stove though.. something on our list of things to get before winter hits again!

Forest part of our backyard. We have around 3 acres of wild lingon berries(lowbush cranberries). There will be quite a bit of jam this year and I will probably freeze a lot for using throughout the year. Can we say cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving?