Just a Day

The blind in our room got left up last night. The fresh breeze was wonderful - the sunrise at 4:29 not so much. 

Stacia, Millie and I ventured forth for a walk. As is my practice, I kept walking after Millie and Stacia went home....I discovered a LOT of maro polos from my sister friends to listen to.  I had thought to go another 1 1/2 miles....down to the mailbox and back....but I decided to keep walking so I could listen to all the chats...and respond...and then listen to their response....and then chat a bit with my cousin, Lorri....and before I knew it I was in front of my favorite farm....and it is shorter to just press forward at that point....

I walked 7 miles this morning. Today was the first time I noticed cow parsnips in pink. Is this normal? Google tells me these are in the carrot family and you can eat them. 

These are lilies right at my front door....I don't think you can eat them. ::wink:: 

I CALLED and they wanted Dad to come to his appointment - even though he's been sick. I think Dad was happy to get OUT.  We masked up and went out.

Millie loves to torment the chickens....Honestly, Phoenix has tormented us all so much it doesn't bother me to see her make him sweat a bit.  She just lays there and stares at him....though she'd turned her back on him at this point...

I'm not sure if you can see the growth - but this puppy is GROWING. She is 9 weeks old today, born on May 5th.  We love her blossoming personality. Here she brings us a present....right to the door.  When no one responded she set pretty and waited - with the tiniest of barks.  

Looks guys - I brought you Nolan's priceless sandal.....isn't that worth a treat????

Michael planted an Aspen Tree. I scrubbed dehydrator trays. The boys worked long shifts. Stacia trained Millie. Dad kept busy preparing for his appointment.

Dad, Michael, Stacia and I played a round of Farkle;  Michael and Stacia had a piano lesson.  It feels like it has been a long day, but we sure didn't do much. LOL

Update - I needed to unwind. I went for a walk around the block....another 1.68 miles for the day. Who AM I? I used to unwind with chocolate and tea at bedtime - not a walk at 9 p.m. at night.  Total walking today - 8.68 miles.

Great Monday!

I sit down to blog and try to think of what I did today.....walk and garden. Sleep. Repeat. LOL

Millie wasn't feeling the walk thing  this morning. We remembered Zak George says to use the walks for training...Stacia went back and got the clicker and Millie managed a mile.

Would you believe we ran into another moose? This wasn't even up in the boonies. That makes 7 moose in the last 3 days. 

Stacia and Millie headed home after the first mile. I walked on for a total of 6 miles. The fireweed is showing up. I love to see it - and I hate to see it. I'm not ready for the summer to be anywhere NEAR ending....

Back at home Mike was heading out to meet with Alex for their father/son Bible study.  Stacia was practicing piano, Japanese and training Millie. Dad and I visited a bit and then he took a nap. DAD IS FEELING MUCH BETTER TODAY!!!!!

I made myself a brunch of sautéed mushrooms, kale, spinach, onions and eggs - all grown or raised by us! Michael has informed me not to eat any more mushrooms until Izaak checks them out. I guess I figured they were IN the garden - they were meant to be eaten. 

I went out to the garden again after brunch.  I picked chickweed, weeded the squash hills, and  thinned out beets and radishes. I knew the beets were too tiny to pick,  but the bed is overly crowded. I decided to just boil the beets even though they were tiny...and then I remembered some had said you can eat the tops.  Hmmm.... 

Most the radishes were tiny; a few were jumbo size. We are going to have a zillion radishes. I discovered, after planting, that most my crew do not like radishes. I'd only had them in salads and veggie trays.....We're going to have lots and lots of them so it's time to get creative. 

The first zucchini is on.

WHAT is this? The row over....what should I do? 

Woot! A blossom on the spaghetti squash! 

Yes, moose and chickweed - my workout tools for the summer! LOL 

I decided to make beet top pesto. It is surprisingly good. I'm not sure how I'll use it as I don't want to chow down with chips...but it is yummy. I did add twice the garlic, used pecans instead of walnuts (which tear up the roof of my mouth), and threw in some basil too. 

I thinned out spinach and so I have a bag of spinach and two of beet tops. How else do you use beet tops? Can I saute them like kale and spinach? Use them in smoothies?

Stacia liked the beet top pesto. 

I cut the radishes up and tossed them with a couple of Yukons and spices. I popped it all into the air fryer and they were really good! Really good.

Our little taste of beets...I KNOW they are small but I had to thin so either the chickens or us would eat them. LOL The kids can't stand them so this was good for Michael, Dad and I to have a taste.

I'm excited to start eating from the garden. I was jealous when some of you were eating from your gardens in May and June. We didn't even plant until the end of May/June....but with 3 days worth of sun every day - things grow fairly fast. The heat of the past few days really helped.

Both Bre and Arielle had ultrasounds today. But those are not my stories to share until I see them on Facebook. Check their timelines or keep watching here. ::snort::

Josiah went "facebook official" with a lovely gal.

CoRielle stopped over...Michael and Benny had a great time on the trampoline. I joined them as Benny wanted me to help him bounce papa.

He nabbed Papa's flashlight and proceeded to examine his eyes. I have no clue where he saw that done before, but he was quite sure what to do with the light. 

Michael and I ended the day with a walk down to the mailbox... I was able to add another 1.35 miles to my day's walking total. 7.41 miles! Go me!

It was a great Monday.

Adventurous Walks

The adventure continues.

I had just begun walking when we found the bear in our yard.  I walk with bear spray - and a phone....you know so I can call for help if being mauled?  Anyway - I was asked to walk with both - and I do....

Then, I wandered upon several homeless individuals coming out of the woods one day - and I added pepper spray to the arsenal.

It was still cold enough the first two months to walk with a sweatshirt. I had a big pocket to stash everything. It warmed up. I walk with full hands. It got old. I decided to get a fanny pack (or bum bag if you wish)...to carry safety essentials. Jamin said he'd bring me one. We haven't seen anyone since as we moved into a new period of isolation.

I found an old string AWANA back pack...I threw all the safety things in it, slung it on my back, and have continued walking.

It's worked.

I have been looking for a new goal to try for...to exert myself. The hills around here which used to be a challenge are only mildly challenging now. I can easily go 5 miles and have added  distance, but I don't always have time to add distance. I decided one of my July Tries (#justtryjuly2020)  would be to walk up this street.

It doesn't look steep in the photo - but.it.is. I shared my goal with Krista and she said, "That's steep." In other words it's not just a "middle aged" woman saying it's steep. BTW when does middle age end and old age begin? I mean do I really think I'll live to be 112? I do believe so. ANYWAY..... July 3rd - I figured it would take several tries to make it to the top. My plan was to start up and then get further on the next try. Sound plan.... I was feeling strong at the end of my walk - why not give it a shot? Up I went....I was 2/3 of the way up the hill when I saw this....

Mama and a TEENY tiny baby. About the size of a lab. Um....I was glad she was in the bushes and I could turn around and walk off, briskly. It has been my experience  if  one simply moves away - they leave you alone. But I've heard stories....

I was committed and couldn't go forward....sometimes detours are odd that way....and so on July 3rd I walked 7 miles. Every little jog you see off the "square" is a result of animal encounters.

4th of July began early with a trip to McDonald's to deposit Alex.   On the way home, I decided to run up the hill and clock how far it is....so  I could work it into a 3 mile walk.

What is that up ahead? Yep - two moose. These are NOT mama and baby. I slowly progressed and they moved into the woods on the side of the road.

They are much bigger up close. 

I decided to keep going - have never driven to the top - and just wind around home. I got to the top and realized it's a dead end. I got out and took a photo from the top of the hill. See the landing about midway in the photo....that's the road I turn off of to walk up this...

I started back down and ran into the moose again. One of them ran into the woods. This one turned and RAN AT MY CAR. What in the world. I know you do not want a moose to land on your car.  I sped up - she paced me. She ran beside my car down the road.

I decided several things all at once. Maybe I won't try to walk up this road...and having bear spray on my back may not be the best safety measure to take. Before someone suggests packing...yes, that's an option on the table. I have agreed I may need to learn to shoot....BUT....from what I hear a gun big enough to deal with bear and moose will have quite a kick back and I'm a wimp. I'd like a cute pink gun....one that doesn't kick.

Stacia and I went out to walk on the 5th of July. Would you believe as we came off a trail and into our neighborhood we saw the baby moose by a neighbor's car? Mama was right there....and that reminded me...moose don't STAY where you see them...so maybe walking up the hill is o.k.?

Honestly, I'm blogging about this instead of walking...because I'm a tad bit unnerved...never knowing where a big animal may pop up....and I barely bother worrying about dogs these days.

BUT I am not going to cower inside...I am going to get out in the sun and enjoy summer.

Give it a Try

The end of the movie “Castaway” features the main actor, Tom Hanks, standing in the center of a four-
way intersection in a rural part of America. He is pondering his future which looks nothing like the one
he envisioned before being stranded on an island in the Pacific. I find myself in a similar place pondering
memories of the past, but I do not have four roads leading away from my intersection; instead, I have
dozens upon dozens of roads each leading to memories of camping trips in Rocky Mountain meadows,
fishing trips over Music Pass, spelunking in old caves in the Sangre De Cristo mountains, bicycle rides
through the Redwoods in the black of night, spearfishing expeditions for the dreaded white-nose
sturgeon, raging rivers at the edge of flood stage, accepting the challenge of swimming White Horse
rapids through its savage currents and unseen dangers hidden its churning, foaming roar, flashlight wars
and rowboat wars, rock-skipping contests, a porcupine and a bear and a dog with far more fight in him
than size, campfires and stars, the thundering crash of falling Redwood trees, wind storms and rain
storms, thunder and hail, flash floods and the sweet scent of rain-cleansed air… Where to begin? What
to say?

I think I will need to change the prompt slightly. This is “a” fond memory growing up. To begin with, this
will be a short event but full of the life of the family.

I have two older sisters. The one closest to my age was always, well, precocious. My oldest sister is what
we now call “special needs.” This is an odd little title intended to be more genial, but it is also much less
descriptive of the person’s real struggles. There is nothing defined except that the person with the title
is wrestling with some sort of life problem, but we, now in this enlightened age, don’t care enough
about the person to give them a label that is descriptive enough to be helpful. Inevitably, to be helpful
to the person, more questions must be asked with the lingering awkwardness as the person has to now
explain what use to be plain by the now much-maligned terms of the past, but I digress. Even more than
that, my oldest sister does not even play a part in this story. So, where was I?

Sometime in mid-1972, my next oldest sister, Rebecca, had received a new three-speed bicycle. This is
an odd invention to add some gears to a bike without actually adding gears to the bike. The entire
mechanism for the gears is encased inside the hub of the rear tire. There was a cable than ran from the
shifter – usually a twisting kind of contraption built into one of the handles – directly into the hub. When
the cable pulled on that hub mechanism, it would change gears allowing the rider to either go faster or
ride up a steep hill in a lower gear. The now ubiquitous 10, 15, 18, 21, 465 geared bicycles were just
beginning to show up in the consumer market. This three-speed was a transition between single speed
bicycles with coaster brakes and the now multi-geared bike with caliper brakes. Coaster brakes operated
through the rear hub of the bicycle. You merely had to “pedal backward” to stop the bike. Actually,
there was only a little bit of pedaling before the pedal stopped and you were actively braking. This was
standard on all bikes since the dawn of, well, my time. Apparently, this was standard for many, many
years prior to this, but with the advent of the three-speed hub, the brakes had to move to the handles.
Like modern multi-geared bicycles, pedaling backward does nothing on this new-fangled bike of my
sister than to fan the air.

My father was an absolutely amazing man. Gregarious and joy-filled, he made friends as easily as
nightingales sing. He was pleased as punch that he was able to give Rebecca this new-fangled bicycle.
She rode it to the top of Cadillac Ave to give it a try. Cadillac Ave was located in what was then a newer
subdivision of Colorado Springs. Our house was about half-way down the hill. Cadillac Ave was steep.

The street ended at the bottom with Constitution Blvd running left and right. Constitution was and is a
major traffic thoroughfare in the part of the city. The other side of Constitution brought you to a curb, a
ditch and railroad tracks – in that order. If you did not stop before the bottom of Cadillac, you,
therefore, had cars, curbs, a ditch and railroad tracks to contend with. None of these was in any way
appealing. As I said, Rebecca rode the bicycle up the hill and then rode it down the hill neatly braking
with the caliper brakes and coming to a smooth stop in our driveway. My father was intrigued with the
bike. He wanted to “give it a try.” So, he pushed it, as my memory recalls, up the hill for his ride on the
new bike.

The ride down appeared to be exhilarating and accelerating. Rebecca and I were wondering why he
wasn’t slowing down. Just trying to show off, I suppose, but the look of terror on his face and the fact
that he was frantically pedaling backward made us think otherwise. Without a single drop of
gregariousness and a total lack of joy, he shouted to us as he was racing past, “WHERE’S THE BRAKES?”
It is amazing how quickly the mind works when there is a rush of adrenalin in the system. No doubt, his
mind, as was ours, was contemplating the conclusion of the ride which would shortly bring cars, curb,
ditch and railroad tracks into his life at a time when he only wanted to give this new bike “a try.” In that
flash of a moment as he zipped past us, it dawned on both of us that he had never heard of caliper
brakes on the handles. Apparently, we had neglected this bit of the pre-flight check. It also occurred to
us that he should have realized that there could be no coaster brakes because the shifting mechanism
occupied the hub, but maybe he was so caught up in the new-fangledness of the bike that the
importance of this detail got lost in the excitement of the moment – which is ironic considering the
excitement coming in the next moment. We were both struck by the humor of the situation, umm, my
sister and I, that is. My dad was not interested in humor at that moment nor any moment involving that
bicycle until the day it left our home, but we fully grasped the humor. Shrieking past us, furiously
pedaling backward, face gaunt with the terror of car, curb, ditch and railroad tracks – “WHERE’S THE
BRAKES?” Well, we almost started laughing too soon. “They’re on the handles,” we yelled as the blur
that was father and bicycle disappeared on down the hill.

It was a few minutes later that he came pushing the bicycle back up the hill and into the driveway. We
had plenty of time to get the last of our giggles out before he arrived. This was probably for the better.
The bike appeared to be in good working order. It did not appear to have had any encounters with cars,
curb, ditch or railroad tracks. He gave the bike back to Rebecca, kind of staggered and teetered his way
back to the house, and, to the best of my recollection, never rode another bicycle for the rest of his life.

For Father's Day this year JaRissa purchased a subscription to Story Worth for Michael. Each week he receives a prompt and writes a story. It is sent back to JaRissa. He suggested I may want to post them in the family journal as well. This was one of my favorite stories to hear Dad G - Earl tell! 

Another Quiet Sunday

We are not camping - again. We have decided NOT to even TRY to fit a camping trip in before dip-netting now. 2020 - the year we planned a zillion camping trips we didn't go on.

The truth is Dad is not feeling well. He may have eaten too much sugar. He may have a flu bug. He may have a cold. The exhaustion could well be the result of a poorly functioning heart - which we are set to take care of on July 28th.  He doesn't have a fever and isn't in any respiratory distress and so we are simply treating symptoms and he is resting. We don't know what is going on.

Nolan slept 14 hours yesterday, a lot of hours today,  and is fighting his own cold symptoms.

Michael woke up in a sweat and chilled...but felt fine all day.

Alex has a headache and Stacia and I are avoiding them all. We managed to avoid the last bug that raced through the house a couple of weeks ago.

It's a good thing we are self-isolating. Who knows what is going on - but it ain't fun at all! Frankly, enough is enough. We are ready to get ON with summer 2020.... We thought we'd head out camping this afternoon, but decided to just stay put, focus on getting well, and hope for dip-netting on the 18th.

That doesn't mean we did NOTHING today. There are many things one can do without coming into contact with others.....

 Stacia has been looking for the opportunity to put her learner's permit to use. Michael agreed to take her to the fair grounds for her first driving lesson. She drove home. All were smiling when they returned.

Can you believe we are starting to teach our BABY to drive???? Yeah - those little old men and women were right - time does go fast.

Our baby is trying to teach HER baby to quit biting! Millie was in a talkative mood today. 

It's harder to be quarantined/isolated from church when church is meeting and no services are queued to watch on Sunday morning. We have missed them the last couple of weeks.

Instead, we watched a puppy training video. We watched a British cooking competition Stacia had run across.

I baked the Doubletree Cookies again - this time sugar free.  The "loaded" ones (i.e. normal recipe) are my favorite. I used Lakanto Monkfruit classic and golden. They are the closest I've come to an ooey goey chocolate chip cookie since going sugar free. Most sugar free cookies are DRY. These DO require a cuppa tea, but they're not Sahara desert dry. ::snort::

Krista called. She'll be coming home Saturday, the last day of our current 2 week quarantine. She'll be tested at the airport when she arrives and required to quarantine until she receives her results - typically 3 to 5 days. We had planned to simply keep her here at home when she returned...however, dip-netting is getting close and she said if she is positive and has been around us we'll ALL miss dip-netting....she suggested she stay in  a local hotel. We settled on her simply coming home and staying in the RV.  Grandpa will have a hard time with her out there - he still doesn't fully get why we didn't go to church today, or why the kids didn't come over on the 4th.  We surely don't want to end up having to quarantine another 2 weeks if she tests positive, and Alabama has more cases than Alaska, so we'll follow all the rules and isolate until the results are back. Shoot...with our 9 kids doing this one at a time we could be quarantined into 2035.

Papa's Project

Michael put his new Father's Day pressure washer to work prepping Baachan's Treehouse for a facelift.....quite frankly this is Papa and Baachan's Treehouse....

Nolan climbed up and gave Michael a hand. They primed the roof and other "green" areas of the wooden parts.

Michael painted the roof and the window trim. 

Millie was not a help - she moved too fast for me to catch her green tipped paw. 

Michael set a goal to have the green done before Benny dropped by in the evening.

We need to paint the brown (or is it red?) parts and it will be all freshly painted. 

Millie at 8 1/2 weeks

4th of July Treats

It was sort of a SAD HOLIDAY! There were only the six of us here....and Grandpa kept asking if the kids were coming by. I kept reminding him we were exposed to "the virus" and he is sick...and we aren't going out or having others come in....and Nolan was sick today too.

ANYWAY - we didn't have a big crew...it was quiet and a bit sad - but it was also VERY RELAXED...and that was nice too.

Everyone had 4th of July treats.....

This is a pitiful laying crew - but we treated them anyway. 

Millie likes watermelon

Stacia wasn't happy with this cake - but it TASTED yummy. 

We are giving Millie lots of biting options other than OUR FLESH....her favored choice. 

Everyone loves Jordan's Skinny Syrups

It was a beautiful Alaskan Summer day - 80*!  We burned some burgers and brats and sat around in the yard... the corn is not knee high by the 4th of July...

Some of the potatoes are

Michael's new invention is working well. 

The carnations have started blooming in the garden. 

Dad and the boys had gone to bed by 7 p.m. Stacia, Michael, Millie and I were sitting outside "watching the corn grow," when the S family showed up! We all assume they have antibodies...they had the same bug a week or so ago.  It was fun to see them all - though I seem to have focused on Millie and Kimber's interactions. Millie has a little aggressive streak. 

It was funny how she always ran back to Stacia or Arielle when she'd had enough from Kimber. 

All in all - a good day. It still seems impossible that it is JULY.