Stacia Rocks Dinner

Stacia has taken an interest in learning to bake and cook. She's noted if she can learn to cook some of the dinners, I can rest when we get home and she will cook.

This week she made brownies, which we took to the ocean and munched on.

Tonight she made dinner - veggie pot pies. The deal was I had to lounge on the couch and be available to answer questions. She did great.

She also made freshly squeezed lemonade. 

If she continues to love baking and cooking, I may work myself out of this job. LOL

Hi Ho - Hi Ho.... (Weeks 2 & 4)

It's off to work we go..... A summary of the missing weeks.

This poor neglected blog. We're not used to full days of manual labor - day in and out. We've had to realize this job isn't going to be "done" in a week or two....and we have to find a pace that takes family life, health and more into consideration.   However, most days, we've worked....either in the yard or in the house.

Evenings are for eating  dinner, visiting around the fire and climbing into bed. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed, sometimes we feel hopeless, and sometimes we feel empowered. ::snort::  We decided to focus on the outside. Our hope is this gives Mom G a bit more time to consider the projects which need to be completed on the inside. It became apparent, near the end of the first week, we were moving too quickly with the inside projects. She said, "I wish people would leave me to go at my own pace."  We took that as a clue it was time for Stacia and I to join the men outside. We continue to do daily household chores - but we'll leave the "projects" until a plan materializes. Working outside has the advantage of seeing quick changes. LOL

See all the brush in the yard - we seem to create this much brush each and every day. We were trying to burn it in a small stove the folks had.

ONE root of a cork elm - and it  puts out trees all along the root. Pure Evil! You can see the neighbor's house peeking over Michael's shoulder. 

There are two things to note here - there is now a clear path free of elm and berries...and we pressed Yuuki into service. She has a branch tied to her leash and is pulling. ::snort:: 

A word about the burning  - it was a hard and hot job. Michael and Nolan cut things down. Stacia and I dragged them to big piles and then lopped them down to size to fit in the stove. Alex manned the stove - green wood can be tricky to burn.  On the third day of burning a neighbor came over to see the progress. He suggested we make a big pile in the yard and burn it IN THE YARD. I was a bit taken aback.  Turns out HE has four or five burn piles on the lower portions of his property. While Mom G really doesn't have a place to burn - the neighbor does. AND he has a burn permit. AND he was happy to let us drag our brush to his piles and burn. 

The first try at moving brush - now we use rope, tie a bunch together and drag it down. 

Preparing a load for the burn pile, see the little stove in the background?

Every once in a while one of us gets a second wind. This happened to me this day. I began to take out elm and loved the light it was letting into the yard....and we found things....

Michael and Nolan focused on a corner of the yard.  I looked at this section and just kept taking out the elm. Most the darker, tall stuff is cork elm.....here are a couple of before pictures....

Here are some things we "found" - the same corner without the elm - a greenhouse. I need to do some fine tuned weeding....but we're still focusing on big picture items. 

We found a "pie cherry" tree that no one remembered being here. LOL 

Lilacs planted years ago  - once we cleared away the brush....

Even Yuuki is tired. 

A perk of working in the yard at Mom G's is the free fruit buffet. The plums came in last week and were good! There for the taking....

Our first day we'd trimmed an apple tree that was pulling down power lines. We knew we'd need to tackle the rest of the lane -  lots of tall trees in the same shape. This week we took a break from the corner of the yard and worked on the driveway. The hedge had grown out of control.  Hedge, cork elm, berries and fruit trees were tangled together and some in power lines. Michael decided we needed to tame the lane that leads to the house. I didn't take pictures...but we're getting there.  I'll grab photos "soon." This is a sneak peak....

See the lowest level - that was the first "trim" and you can see how tall the stuff in the back still is....

Today, I needed to see something finished...so the kids and I did some fine tuning around the first apple tree at the end of the lane.... got the branches out of the power lines and propped up a really low branch laden with apples....

While we were clearing berries, elm and such from around a tree we "found" a pile of old boards - FULL of rusty nails. It turns out it used to be Michael's favorite bench. What WE saw was a hill of ivy, below a plum tree.  We didn't realize it was anything else until Alex stepped into the ivy to conquer an evil patch of cork elm.  He screamed, pulled his leg out, and began yelling for Michael. I tried to pull the board off the bottom of his foot....I couldn't. He and I were both pulling on it and got it off his foot as Michael came to see what the excitement was about. This was our least favorite find.....

...but it led us to find the Sutter Coast Hospital ER.....Alex and I ended our workday and made the drive through the Redwoods to the ER.  We couldn't get pre-authorization to go to the urgent care clinic in town - but they approved the ER??? I'm sure it has to do with which one will accept $47 for their services and one won't. ::sigh::  We found out civilians give Tetanus boosters at 7 years. I was told on base, last July,  year we didn't need them until it had been 10 years. ::snort::  The ER doc finally agreed the recommendation is 7 - 10 years, but most give them when it's been  7 years and he was surprised Alex hadn't had a  booster at 12. I had Alex's immunization records with me to show what he'd been given. LOL 

We also found C C's Diner....an ice cream shop in Crescent City. I guess we don't have to drive to Brookings or Cave Junction for Dairy Queen.  The ER nurse gave us the name and directions. LOL 

This summarizes the past three weeks. 

Balsamic Steak Sauce

Ingredients:
3/4 C Balsamic Vinegar
2/3 C ketchup
1/4 C honey
2 sliced shallots (used onions)
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp allspice
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Simmer until thickened, about 15 min. Strain if desired.

I found this on Food Network  - Porterhouse with Balsamic Steak Sauce

For more yummy eats click the tab under the header. 

Alive and well!

I realize I have not blogged in quite a bit of time. We are alive and well, and have fully lived week 2 and 3 since becoming stationary here in Northern California.

Our cell reception for Verizon is terrible here. This means my phone and our jet pack are  not working. In other words, we have no reliable source of Internet. We're looking to resolve this issue this week.

We have been busy. We have pictures we'll share when we can. Mostly we're living each day fully present, running errands, doing yard work and housework, visiting with both sides of our family and helping out as we can.

I'll update as I can get the laptop to go online.

This is my first post via my phone.  I'm happy that though I get no cell service, this seems to be my only device that reliably picks up the campground WiFi  signal.

Let's see if this will work!

Oregon Interlude

In the midst of our time here in NorCal....we made a trip Eugene, OR.

Michael had a few VA appointments.  All our girls were out of town (Mexico trip and pastoral conference).

Michael & boys played Good Samaritan 

It turned out to be a mini-family reunion. My brother and his wife, Heather, are home from Timor.  Mom had received some health news which we were able to discuss together.  This is so much easier than trying to talk via email/skype etc.

Unfortunately, it was a rough week for Mom. We girls were going out to breakfast and she had a big seizure. It was so violent she fractured her ankle.  We stayed up a couple of extra days to spend time helping out and loving on her.

We also got to love on Bella before they left for Anaheim, CA. 

The only other picture I took all week is this one of a rousing game of Dominion. 

Wedding Fever

Yes, it's Wedding Season in our humble home again. This is Stacia hamming it up. She knows when a family member is getting married, and you receive a REAL LETTER....it means you're in the wedding party. 

THIS is Stacia really excited as she read the invite. 

First a Flower Girl, then a Junior Bridesmaid and this time she'll be a BRIDESMAID for Arielle. 

Yes, we have wedding fever. CoRielle have set a wedding date of 17 December 2016. We have found a venue, they've selected colors and a theme, they've invited friends and family to be in the wedding party, chosen a pastor (Um - Michael is thrilled) and they've found a "nearly sure" photographer.  Things are moving along.

Town and Country Adventures

These Gherkins rock. They school in the a.m., help out at Mom G's in the afternoon, and always have the energy to clean up the dinner dishes and build a fire back at the Caboose.  Michael and I feel our age. Seriously, even my elbow aches and I can't lift my Bible. Seems I have more to learn about how to properly swing an axe.

We knew it was coming after the pace of last week. Monday was a hard day for Michael, as was this morning. We simply need to take things at a pace we can handle...slow and steady.

Monday afternoon we took Mom G to the doctor (a beautiful 13 mile drive through the Redwoods), unfortunately severe motion sickness dampens my enthusiasm  a tad bit. ::wink::  Michael and Mom G visited and I ran in with her shopping list. I had talked with the park management earlier in the day and they agreed to let us use the lounge/kitchen past the normal hour so we could have dinner in the lounge. Mom can't climb into the Caboose and it was too cool to eat outside for her.  The lounge has a big pool table and we enjoyed visiting while the boys sharpened their skills. I considered it a personal success when we tempted her at dinner with salmon, salad, asparagus, french bread and quinoa.

A highlight of the trips to town is CELL SERVICE - and a chance to receive and respond to text messages....I continue to search for spots up here in the woods where our mifi may work.  I'm wondering if a cell extender may help - or may not if there is no signal to extend. As for my phone - it continues to say I'm roaming - though Straight Talk says on their website they have no roaming - what is going on? I need to find time to call them.

Today, we visited with a park neighbor, Jim. He's amazing. He's older than Mom G - he didn't tell us how old he is, but at least 88....travels around in a trailer....teaches...he's a retired pastor. We enjoyed a touch of  church at the picnic table. I also made a few calls for a wedding location. Arielle and Cory have set their date at 17 December 2016.

We headed over to Mom G's to continue our project of reclaiming the yard from the evil Cork Elm trees/roots/sprouts, blackberry vines etc ... The boys continued working on the dead apple tree, Stacia moved a woodpile from the back porch to the upper garage, I spruced up inside and did some laundry,  Stacia and I continued cleaning the back porch and she hauled brush to the brush pile, and together we cut a huge pile of  cork elm sprouts, trees and roots down to burning size. Alex and Nolan took turns feeding the fire....I impaled my bum on an apple branch - a fact the kids noted with great humor.

We worked in a visit with Mom G and it was time to head across the river to make dinner.  I didn't have the energy to walk down the bank to the river - but it's too pretty not to at least take a picture or two.

I nearly cried and cheered when the pastor of the church we visited Sunday called to talk to Michael. He asked why we were here and where we were living on Sunday.  It's always interesting to watch reactions when we say we live in a trailer in an RV Park. ::snort::  We'd simply told him we were here to help Mom G and we weren't sure how long we'd be here, but it would be months. He called to tell Michael if there is yard work to do, when we figure out what needs to be done, the church has a team of men that would like to help. WOW.....we may not take them up on it, as we aren't sure if we should go to Mom G's church or continue in town....and we don't want to be guilty of using a church....but just the offer meant so much today.

Michael tells me we are now 8 feet from reaching the fence.....