Coop Cleaning Day

Michael and I took advantage of the warm weather to clean off the poop shelf in the chicken coop, shovel out all the shavings, and put new shavings down. They seemed appreciative of our efforts on their behalf. 

 We dumped one load in the compost bed and scattered the other over the ice and mud in this sheltered part of the chicken yard. They finally came outside. They've been inside since it started snowing.  The first two years the chickens were outside most the winter, but these are content to stay in. These haven't had any frostbite even when we were down to -16*. We don't like the freezing rain and ice...but it IS nice to have warmer weather to get out and do a few of the animal chores. 

Stacia and Millie must have been up late last night. I thought it was funny she was sleeping with one arm around her laptop and the other around Millie. 

WSA CGO of the Quarter

 Every quarter across the Air Force each base gives out awards for the best performance in a multitude of categories.  Each group's winner will compete at the wing (base) level.  

Today, Krista was notified she has been selected as the Wing Staff Agency's (WSA)  Company Grade Officer (CGO) of the Quarter. Her package will now compete against all the other CGO winners across the base. 

Krista has presented 61 suicide prevention trainings and another 40 that she oversaw. She has done 38 sexual assault prevention response trainings.  She has lots of counseling hours, written a zillion religious exemptions, led a service, planned and executed many resiliency events for the med group, coordinated and helped lead funeral training for both the Air Force and the Space Force, planned and executed a parenting retreat and I know there are many details I have forgotten. 

I asked for a photo....

We are proud of Krista! This is quite an accomplishment for a new chaplain. She's been busy the last 7 months. 

A fun side note - Krista is well known and loved in the Med group. She spends quite a bit of time in her unit and at the hospital. One day a volunteer at produce co-op asked me if my daughter was an active-duty chaplain.  She had noted the same last name before Krista got married. It was fun to see Krista through the eyes of one of med group. 

Septics, Produce & Coco Bombs

I'm sure this was not the best day for this...but it's the day they scheduled for us two months ago.  It is said one should pump their septic every 2 years. We've had several families living here and we haven't pumped for 4 years. It was time.  I think we're safe to do this every 3 or 4 years. 

The poor man got stuck trying to climb out of our icy driveway. Michael and Alex had shoveled, but when it rains, melts, freezes....there is only so much that can be done. 

It would have been interesting watching him climb to the top of the driveway and slide back...except I needed to be at produce co-op and had to wait until he cleared the driveway. 

Michael drove me to the next town over. I haven't had to have him drive me anywhere in 2 winters, but I don't like ice at all.  Michael and Dad went out to lunch, ran some errands and then drove out to Big Lake to buy FIREWORKS for New Year's Eve. 

I spent four hours with lists of produce, sorting, bagging, labeling, delivering... when we got home Arielle and the boys were here! 

Broccoli Cheese Soup tomorrow

We visited. Michael immediately ran out again. Cy found an ice auger for sale from a man north of us. Michael went to pick it up.  

I made soup and biscuits while he was out. It was tasting good, but a bit blah. The girls were retelling their afternoon adventures to me while I cooked...I just kept putting salt into the pot. I lost track of how many spoonsful of Better than Bullion I put into the pot. Too many.  Even Dad said it was salty. ::snort:: 

Allie update: She was up once last night due to pain. She has settled into Tylenol and took the normal dosage of it. She was up, out and about most of the day.  Her appetite is returning. She was sore tonight but feeling good about her improvement. We're proud of her. 

It's raining outside. It will freeze. We've already decided we will stay in tomorrow.  It seemed like the perfect night for hot drinks. We opted for coco bombs made by CoCo (Krista). 

We settled down to watch something on Netflix. I fell asleep halfway through it. Oh well, I tried. 

Another Lazy Day

It's a four moose kind of day! Two of them weren't even memorable enough to take photos of. LOL  I've been seeing lots of tracks in the yard, but we haven't been seeing them until the last few days.  When Cy and Michael were shoveling the path out to my compost bed they mentioned the tracks went right up to the bed. They said it appears I've been serving a buffet to the moose population. They may have a point. This little one was cute. 

Snow! I opened the door (this is 9 a.m. BTW) to go to the chickens and rabbit and was met with a wall of snow.  It didn't snow overnight. It warmed up yesterday, it rained yesterday afternoon and evening and the snow had begun sliding off our roof. It makes an amazing noise when it does this. I had to dig out a path to the chicken yard and then shovel out the door as the snow had piled against the coop. We've learned to park my car away from the house, so it doesn't get buried....

At the back of the house there isn't much we can do to avoid the mess. This was a clear path on the 25th. Today it's a pile of snow. LOL 

Remember that clearly defined path to my garden/compost bed? It's still there, after the hill of snow is navigated. LOL  It was 31* this morning...things are going to melt and be a mess. I much prefer snow to ice. 

The sunset was beautiful this morning - 9:41 a.m.

An Allie update - For the first night she and I slept through the night. I woke her at 7 to get some Tylenol in her as it had been 9 hours. She was happy to take the Tylenol and get ice for an hour before she got up and showered. She kept her Tylenol OR Ibuprofen down to every SIX hours...this from alternating meds every three hours. She was up more today, but still spends quite a bit of time sitting with an ice pack. Her throat feels better.  Her appetite is returning. She's getting bored. She insisted on making lunch today. Slow and steady. She's doing great. 

I got a late work out today...and as I trudged away on the elliptical this gal jumped right over the retaining wall and headed down the nicely shoveled path to the compost bed. Yep, she enjoyed a leisurely lunch before moving on. 

Michael and I filled the day with shoveling. He also worked on a puzzle and we both helped Grandpa. I wrote several September blogs and linked a couple which may still be of interest on Facebook. My goal is to be current with 2021 on January 1st.  The girls spent hours on the couches writing. They are both working on novels. Grandpa took a long nap. He's paying a price for his Christmas sugar indulgence. 

Jared called. 

Nolan, the girls and I watched "Arsenic and Old Lace." 

Another lazy day drawing to an end. 

Relaxing Days of Christmas

December 26th was to be our annual Christmas Adam Tea.  This is a tradition Mom started in 2015.  Obviously, a Christmas Adam Tea SHOULD be on Dec 23rd. Both Carrie and Krista had to work and so we set the tea for late this afternoon....and then we got FREEZING RAIN today and the gals from Anchorage can't drive out to the valley anyway. 

All that to say the girls and I had made some pigs in a blanket for the tea. Yes, I said girls. Allie insisted she could roll some up and she really wanted to be part of the prep. While we were rolling, we heard our phones going crazy...and by the time we were done baking them the tea had been rescheduled for the 30th. We were supposed to go into town on the 23rd to hang out with Krista and maybe get some shopping done. Allie was sick and we opted to change the date to the 30th. I have been thinking a full day in Anchorage would be pushing Allie's recovery...so switching the plan to a tea here at home where she has the ability to join in and sit down with ice when needed is a good plan.  We put scones, cookies and 2/3 of the pigs in a blanket into the freezer....  I got out a tray and filled it with goodies from a friend at church and some pigs in a blanket. I hoped the sausages would draw out the men folks.  Michael was game. Alex sat with us for a brief amount of time. Grandpa opted for a nap and Nolan was at work. Ah well - we had a mini-tea. It was good to quietly sit together. We're all still processing the past week. 

Pill cups and water are the newest rage in tea parties

We deliberately slow our pace for the "12 Days of Christmas," from Christmas to Epiphany (Jan 6th). We plan things to connect with each other. We don't do quite as much extra running or even entertaining. We take off, or lighten, school. We prep to finish the winter strong! This afternoon was very relaxing. Michael spent hours on a complicated puzzle. Grandpa napped and talked to Nate and Heather (my brother and his wife). The girls and I sat down to relax in the living room. We watched Beauty and the Beast (most recent version). 

I have found if I edit photos or blogs while I watch t.v. I can stay awake.  I'm usually up at least once a night with Dad. He actually slept last night, but I was up a couple of times with Allie...down from every three hours! She is feeling better. I've asked her to get up and do a lap or two around the kitchen every hour. 

Millie takes guarding GG very seriously. She hopes he will slip her some food - unfortunately, he does. 

Christmas Fun - Part 3

Today is Christmas. There are 12 days left of Christmas, and we feel no rush to open gifts on the 25th. However, Michael and I couldn't resist giving the girls this gift tonight.  Allie read it first, followed by Stacia...their reaction was fantastic.  We shopped local for our household gifts. We wanted to support our town's businesses, but that meant we didn't have the selection we are used to having, we don't have a big box store in our town. I saw this sign and thought it would be perfect for the girls. I would have missed it if I was at the big box store. LOL 

Laughing hurts Allie - in hindsight should have waited

The backstory is Stacia runs around our home speaking Japanese and Allie runs around signing back.  They are teaching each other, and we are all learning a smattering of both Japanese and ASL. 

We originally thought we'd do a family gift exchange today. Stacia was shocked. This would have been the first time she could remember opening gifts on the 25th. BUT THEN....we couldn't all make it at the same time on the 25th. We shopped around for another day to host our family gift exchange - the one where we draw a name and share gifts. We "plan" to have the family gift exchange on January 8th.   We "think" our household gift exchange will be on the 10th day of Christmas. Our odd ball practices saved our bacon this year as the past week was simply not conducive to shopping. snort:: This year we filled kids' stockings and didn't fill the adults' stockings. We bought the adults a gift. 

Wood stove is off when grands visit so we could
hang the stockings

We also filled stockings for the who live at home: Nolan, Alex, Allie and Stacia. We need bigger stockings. 

There is so much fun and giggles over these little gifts. Danny loved his monkey....belly giggles. 

Danny & Arielle

BreZaak - Gideon, Bre & Jojo, Izaak and Annie. Bella sat over with  Carrie and Jamin. 

An Uncle win!

Jamin and Bella

Bre and Jojo

Annie got down to business.

Livie

Livie and Benny help Danny open his package. 

Back Story...Jamin had a Taz when he was younger. He loved the thing. Jared eventually loved it too and he gave it to Jared.  During one of our moves Taz disappeared. I promised them Taz would show up when we unpacked. He didn't. 

I've looked all these years to find a Taz and keep my word....it turns out Taz is now a "vintage toy".  I wonder how that makes them feel to know their toys are now vintage? Anyway, I bought the "boys" a Taz....

The girls got these wearable blankets. They're not wildly attractive but they are cozy and fun for Alaskan winters.  They even have a big pocket for snacks. 

Sometimes, for brief moments, I wish we were in a place to be able to wildly spoil every Gherkin and Grand-Gherkin. Watching the fun and laughter over simple stockings makes me realize simple may well be best. 

Happy Birthday, Jesus! - Part 2

Birthdays mean cake creations. Stacia did not disappoint for Jesus' birthday. Many things "flexed" this year, but this tradition carried through as planned. Well, sort of. 

Stacia baked a couple of yummy 8-inch chocolate cakes. She has a recipe that's moist and beats any boxed cake I've tasted. Millie must agree, as she ATE THE JESUS CAKE.  Stacia determinedly made another cake, cooled and froze it. She added a crumb coat and then began the decorating. 

This fondant stable is darling. 

She went simple and cute!

Livie put the sparkling candles on the cake when it was time. 

It was beautiful. 

We gathered around and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus - Gospel Service style... it was a sweet moment.