To the Top - First time this Season

 Jamin sent a text out to the Gherkins early Saturday morning. He wondered if anyone would like to hike up the Butte. The girls took him up on the challenge.  I was tempted but knew it would be good for the girls to go, Michael was working outside, and I spent the time with Grandpa. 

The first hike to the top this season! Well done. 

Jamin, Stacia, Allie 📷by Jamin 

Garden Work Begins

Michael was outside today working on extending the footers on the greenhouse foundation. I enlisted the girls to watch movies with GG and headed out to see if I could shovel snow away from the garden beds. The beds were covered in black plastic last fall.  I removed the plastic and began shoveling. 

Nolan's desk looks out the window. He decided to come join us outside. He helped shovel snow. I pulled the few weeds starting to pop up in the bed. Nolan brought over a load of the home grown compost and we spread it on top of the bed. Then, we added a load of the organic compost we purchased last year.  

This one bed is ready to go.  The planting chart for our zip code says I could start carrots, spinach or beets outside - 6 weeks before the last frost. I'm debating what to start, if anything. 

At this point I covered the bed with corrugated plastic. I'm hoping it will warm the soil up a bit. I did find a few spots that are still icy as we turned it over. BUT we found worms and that's a good sign. 

Nolan went on to taking apart the compost bed. It's now totally moved and a flatbed trailer will be able to back up to the foundation Michael is finishing. Michael's tooth is still not feeling great, but much better than it has been. 

Some are saying summer is here. I'm not sure about THAT, but spring is certainly here. I am hoping for green in a couple of weeks.

I am brainstorming how to turn pallets into a garden fence....

And so it Begins

 The male Gherkins have enjoyed hiking over a local pass each summer or fall. They seem to always encounter snow, wildlife and mishaps...but they ALWAYS make great memories.  On Tuesday night, Jamin began to talk to everyone about a fall hike. It appears Nolan and Alex are planning to join him on the forced march. I'm not sure about others at this point. 

Today, all four at-home Gherkins took off for their first long walk of the season. The guys loaded down packs and slipped them on their backs. 

They walked 4 1/2 miles at a fairly crisp pace. It's fun to see them getting out and enjoying the nice weather together....and yes, they DID head to Dairy Queen afterwards. What's with that? 

Dental Woes

You may remember Michael back when Michael had a toothache which started on March 9th and the VA couldn't get him in until March 21st. Then he tested positive for Covid on the 18th and couldn't be seen. The urgent care gave him meds and told him to be seen in 5 days. The VA wouldn't see him for 14 days.  By that point the antibiotics had tamed the pain and they decided they didn't need to do anything urgent, they would write a referral for him to be seen by a specialist off base. 

We waited. We were never called from the civilian dentist. 

Michael's tooth began to hurt again on Saturday, the 16th of April. Of course, he had to wait until Monday to call and then he discovered they HAD NOT SUBMITTED THE REFERRAL. WHUT?  At this point he'd already had sleepless nights with ice and round the clock Tylenol and Ibuprofen. 

He couldn't be seen until the civilian dentist got the referral - he finally drove to Anchorage Thursday 21 April to see the civilian specialist only to find....

"Oops, we can't deal with this. It's bad enough it simply needs to be pulled now."

Michael stopped in at the VA clinic and they are submitting another referral - this one to an oral surgeon.  He just got a call (Friday, 22 April) to go to the local hospital on MAY 3rd for a consult with the oral surgeon and will schedule the extraction after that appointment.   

 This is Michael on anti-biotics and OxyContin....still in pain...7 days later...I am not sure who to speak to, but this is simply a local fail of the VA dental clinic. I do note the VA clinic offers no help other than, "Suck it up, we can see you in 3 weeks," while both times it's been civilian practitioners that give him antibiotics and this time even pain meds. 

I totally understand the bad timing of the tooth and covid. BUT if the VA had submitted the referral  the end of March this would have been dealt with already and Michael wouldn't have had the past week of pain....maybe they would have saved the tooth, maybe not. 

AND WHY does every referral go to Anchorage when we don't LIVE in Anchorage?????

GG's New Teeth

 One year of dental visits...several thousands of dollars and FINALLY - DAD PICKED UP HIS LOWER PARTIAL PLATE today!  I told him to show off his teeth. LOL 

We are hoping this will make it easier for him to chew and therefore, cut down on the choking episodes we deal with around the table.  

"No, Dad, you have to open your mouth for me to see your teeth." 

Dad keeps telling me stories about my grandpa who said the dentures hurt and refused to wear them....went toothless the rest of his life. I wonder if maybe, he doesn't want to wear them. LOL  I keep encouraging him they'll feel better when he gets used to them.

He tore up the inside of his cheeks at dinner, biting himself....but all in all...we think it's a good step for him. 

Moving the Compost Bin

 Michael made this compost bin for me in 2018. I usually scoop out of it to fill 2/3 of a new bed and top it with topsoil. The last two years I've made lasagna beds and gone with layer composting.  We've talked about another compost bin....I'm torn.  I'd like it close to the garden for ease of moving compost, but I'd like one near the house as the walk out to the garden in the winter seems long. In fact, there comes a point every winter when we have a wall of snow out our back door and can't walk directly out to the garden. What to do? 

We were debating and then Michael told Alex he needed to empty and move the compost bed, now.  Hmmm...

Our greenhouse will be delivered next week. We thought they could unload it from the side, but it appears they have to unload it straight off the back of the trailer.  See the little compost bed at the back of this old foundation. Yep. It has to move. Michael is frustrated he's been out all week with pain. He had planned to make more progress on extending the footers.   Alex tackled this part of the project. 

He and I untangled the snapped frame from last year's lasagna bed. I put compost in here through the winter.  There is space in it...I suggested we just put all the compost here and I not use this bed this year to be sure the chicken manure has aged a year. Alex liked the idea of leaving it here rather than unloading it and loading it all back into a new bin. LOL 

The above set up worked well. Michael says he can rebuild it. We'll take it one project at a time.

And here it is....It's too full. The stuff on top is over 2 years old and so we'll use it to go into the other beds we are planting in this year. They've composted and need some top fill. That should take this down to a good level....I'll cover it with black plastic so it stays hot this summer and it will be the compost we use next spring. 

This compost was on the bottom of the bin. It is not all broken down, but it will be fine to go into the other beds. It will cut down on the volume of soil I need to add to the beds. 

The beds are thawing out. We still have significant snow in some of the garden, it's clearing in other spots. I bet you wish you had a self-fertilizing garden. 😅😏😁

The Moose left payment for raiding the compost

I am thankful for Alex' work today! I'm going to dig out all the charts and figure out which seeds I want to start. I'm actually thinking I'll start some lettuce in one of the beds... even though there is still snow around the beds. I can cover the planted beds with corrugated plastic and they should be fine. Maybe next week as the nights should be getting above freezing....and the plastic would keep it warm.....

Allie is 18

 Allie turned 18 today! 

Yes, the celebrating began early with gifts and cake on Sunday, gifts arrived on Monday for Allie from her parents...and today is IT...another full day to celebrate Allie. 

 We began with a zoom between Allie, her academic advisor at UNCO and myself at 0745.  It was good to talk to Kate and get her input on the course we've charted here for Allie and ASL. She agrees we should continue with the one on one tutoring through the summer and fall semester.  She said passing the SLIPI (Sign Language Interpreter Proficiency Interview) was an excellent goal. 

We also discovered there is a hold on Allie's account and have plans to take care of that tomorrow. 

We finished the zoom and began our celebrating. Allie had requested Sticky Toffee pudding for her birthday dessert. Stacia made it a day early so it would set a bit before she began shaping and decorating it. NO, you do not usually frost nor decorate this rich dessert. Stacia, however, was determined to have it be a bit more special than the normal "pudding." She wanted a cake in the shape of an 18. 

Allie is excited about the process. 

The moment of truth arrived.  Stacia managed to keep it intact and carve an 18. 

This was one RICH dessert. I think the plain sticky toffee pudding may end up on her cafe menu. 

Allie and Stacia stayed up until midnight last night, visiting, doing school and watching a show.  They thought that would allow them to sleep in as they wouldn't have school. Except for the 7:45 zoom.... They didn't regret last night.  They spent the day visiting, Allie fielded a lot of wonderful text messages....and we drove over to BreZaak's to share some cake with them. 

Alas, Jojo missed out on the fun. 

We opted to have Allie open her gifts from the household Gherkins when the boys arrived home from work. 

A journal from Alex

Sweatshirt with a joke from one of her favorite shows

Panda Express card from Alex and Nolan
Bag of Ghirardelli Chocolate from Nolan

"What's the worst that could happen?" 

A tote bag from Michael and I...I found it at the vendor market the girls and I went to with Carrie and Livie. It says something to the effect of, "Wake up and go outside - worst case scenario you get eaten by a bear," with a funky bear on the front. The UNCO are the bears. Bear jokes have become commonplace around here.  

And...um...we also got Allie a rather obscure gift, but it was meaningful to us and we hoped it would be meaningful to Allie.  I mean seriously, don't you think one needs to remember to always be a bit of a child at heart? No matter how old they are?  

It was fun to think about what Allie might like. Allie is an amazingly thoughtful gift giver. She's motivating us to up our gift giving game... ::snort:: 

Next on the agenda was a family trip to Eagle River.  Our birthday celebrant always chooses if they want to eat out or in and what they'd like to eat. Allie chose Chinese. Panda Express has had their dining room closed so we weren't sure if we'd be able to go there or if we'd go to Kim's Asian Fusion (which is another yummy place we love). It turned out Panda's lobby was open.  We were about to seriously increase their business for the dinner hour. All those in line are our people. 

All 7 of us drove in. CoRielle and the boys came. Krista drove up from Anchorage. Carrie had to work, but Cy and Livie came. Jared and Jamin were also there.  It was a treat for us to watch everyone interact, laugh and truly enjoy each other.  A lot less rushed than Easter. 

Arielle, Danny & Uncle Nolan

We took over this section.

Benny loves chow mien

Benny, Livie and Auntie Allie

The drive back to the valley was VERY quiet, and everyone headed to their rooms when we got home. 

Allie is 18. Her heart for God amazes us. She pursues Him hard. We look forward to watching His plan  unfold in her life as she follows him day by day. Allie is incredibly empathetic, a trait God is sure to mature and use even more in her life. We love you, Allie.