Thursday, June 25, 2020

Millie, Gardening and SUMMER

Thursdays are usually Bible study with Stacia - but today we had dental appointments, and Stacia was leery of being away from Millie...

I managed a 2 mile walk before I had to jump in the shower to make it to the dentist office. It's still odd to call from outside for medical check ins - but it does speed up the waiting process. It appears I will finally have to have my wisdom teeth out. I'm not even thinking about it yet. Would you believe both the dentists at our practice have Labradoodles? As well as several of the others there!

Leaving Millie for an hour
How could you leave me? 

After the dentist, we picked up Millie and headed to Reflection Lake. This gave me another mile ....and it was Millie's first walk. We're also trying to acclimate her to car travel. We hope she'll love rides, walking, running etc. She did pretty well with the leash...though we need to look up some youtubes on leash training.

She is only 7 weeks old. She was done! That's o.k.  She actually walked further than we expected. 
Millie - 7 weeks 

Time for an Alaskan Selfie
Millie, Stacia, Me

This pup wanted IN the water. My Word. She was NOT happy when Stacia wouldn't let her go down the bank....

Michael took the RV to a welder today. Then he spent time replacing the water heater in the RV. Our 3rd camping/RV trip for the summer is planned for Monday-Friday. We've had to cancel the other 2 trips - a tire blew on the way to Denali and then Michael simply crashed (physically not in an automobile) the day we had planned to leave for Kesugi Ken....but we're hopeful to get out of town on Monday.

Some have asked about my weight loss journey. Yes, it continues. I'm havconsciously focusing on the daily habits and practices I'm working into my life, rather than a number on a scale. I'm having fun moments along the way and this morning when I stepped on the scale I discovered I'm 10 lbs from the WW goal. I cancelled WW and am living the lifestyle, but using another app to track things.  The new app counts bites as well as calories, carbs, protein etc...and it's only $36 a year.  It fits our budget much better than the WW app or workshops did. I can choose from 6 plans...straight calories, WW clone plans, or keto, and it will track them all. It had a learning curve - but I'm enjoying the extra data. I had plateaued. However,  when I started tracking with itrackbites I noticed my calorie consumption was REALLY low quite often...I WAS eating in the WW point range, but I was most often on the low end of the daily points I was allowed and never used all my weekly points - this meant my calorie intake was lower than recommended. I was averaging about 600 calories a day.  I began eating enough to stay in the point range while ALSO eating at least 1000 calories a day -  and I began losing again.  Walking and gardening are daily activities; movement that I love.

My goal in the garden today was to plant the bed which Michael and Alex finished setting up yesterday. I had options....In the end I transplanted some bean starts into 1/2 of the bed and did beets and one line of carrots.

I hit on the idea of using panels from the OLD GREENHOUSE to cover rows of seeds. They germinate really fast in this humid environment.

OK - I know it's not cultured - but it's what we can do. It's a JOB trying to turn this pasture to a garden...and to keep ALASKA outside the fence. ::snort:: Here are the potatoes. There are 3 rows of Yukon Gold, 2 rows of red potatoes, 6 cauliflower, 6 broccoli and 4 dill plants in this plot.
Yes, I do have cardboard, plastic and old carpets down to block chickweed. 

These beds are doing nicely. I've been thinning and it's time to thin a bit more. The first bed has asparagus on the left. There are spears up!!! Romaine lettuce, some green ballish lettuce, red leaf lettuce, green and red cabbage. The nearest bed has kale, spinach, sweet peas, beets, and Brussel sprouts. 

All the lettuce

Asparagus

Kale - I've thinned it twice, but it's time again. 
 We have four new beds this year. Michael made a frame and we covered two of them. This is working GREAT as the greenhouse from Costco blew away. I have cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes in here.  The bed in front  has onions, radishes, carrots and spinach.  The tires are full of flowers.


This was the lasagna bed I started last year. I know some were skeptical - but it's working well. We have used the same principle with the new beds this year. We've got a bed that we're putting clippings, scraps, straw, chicken litter etc into now. It will cook over the winter/spring and be ready to go next year.  There are odd growing patterns in here as the CHICKENS LOVE THIS BED. I clipped their wings. We didn't want to - but I was DONE with them digging up the tiny plants. I replanted twice and then Michael clipped their wings. 

Six rows of corn. 

The first blossom 

This is the foundation of the old greenhouse. Michael plans to rebuild. When it is done, I have hopes to make it a melon house. I needed more beds faster than the guys could get them leveled and in place. Last Saturday I weeded, added compost, forked, added some soil....and planted my sad starts. They needed dirt much sooner - I'm praying they perk up and do well. There are beans down both sides, 6 kale plants in the front and 2 butter cup squash in the right corner. If the moose find it - they'll destroy it...but so far, the moose are staying away.  They've tangled with the electric fence around the garden often enough to stay away? I hope. BTW, *I* tangled with the fence tonight. OUCH...but I had wanted to confirm it was working - and now I know.  

Millie came out to visit. 

This may be a problem when she gets bigger...at this point she wants at them, but can't get at them. Phoenix has been terrorizing us all, it's funny to watch him nonchalantly saunter away when she lunges. 

So many things to explore!

Um...yeah. That's MINE. 


Grandpa loves Millie. Ignore the Covid hair - Michael and Dad are getting haircuts tomorrow. 

Stacia's a great puppy mommy. She took Millie to the swingset and played to make noises that she will hear when the kids are here. Working to get her used to as many things as we can in the next month. We've heard puppies can go through a fearful phase at 12 weeks....



Other family tidbits....the boys worked, Dad was able to talk to my baby brother Nate. They made it home from Kstan for the summer.