Enjoying a Winter Day

It was a beautiful mountain out here in our slice of heaven. The sun rising was gorgeous, and gets earlier and earlier every day. It was light by 9:30 a.m. 

FOUR moose came to visit this morning. We love the moose - and they pretty much go where they want. This one, however, stepped on the sledding ramp the kids had worked so hard on yesterday. A bit of yelling and he scooted over a bit, with his two friends.  

We took a drive over to the next mountain to look at a mobile home on an acre....owner will finance....would be paid off in 5 years. Then we saw a service project in town and stopped to do it.  We headed home when we heard from Jared that the Eagle River Contingent was thinking of coming our way to play. 

Jamin sold most everything and planned to be here for the summer. Plans change and he now lives in Alaska. He's been looking for a car and this one finally surfaced. It's a Honda Accord Hybrid - it gets 55 mpg.  He won't be off-roading but it's a great commuting vehicle. 

We told them the Eagle River contingent were coming over.  They started sledding anyway. It was fun to see Arielle out playing too. Benny slept and then Cory played with him.

We had a lot of snow the last two days! Unfortunately, it was powdery - not great for sledding. The kids took the time to pack their "run" down, and to build little barricades around things like a sewer pipe, a big stump, and the tree. We were thinking a bit of a melt and then it would ice over again and be very fast. We knew it wouldn't be so fast today - but hoped it would be fun.

Larissa's mom has been visiting this week. We were thrilled they were able to work in a bit of time out here. It's always fun to spend a bit of time with our new "kids" families. Here Veronica and Larissa try out a sled. They had gone ice-fishing earlier in the day. Both were first for Veronica.

LOVE the sun on the mountain 

 Lassie must be included. ::snort:: 

Arielle, Nolan, Stacia, Cody and Lassie

Jamin, Jared, Josiah 

Each on their own saucer. We need to go buy a toboggan or something before the winter is over.

The kids and I need snow pants....

 We have three grand dogs. Roscoe fell in the lake when they were ice fishing this a.m. and they left him home. Lassie and Cody  made the trip out. Cody found a shrew in the yard and began to channel his inner wolf from there on out. LOL 

Lassie - JaRissa's dog

Cody - Cy's dog

 Bro Bonding 

Me and Larissa 

Getting a fire started....

JaRissa

If you watch the video linked at the end of this post, you will see the run that goes with this scene. They had a giant long train with all of them, added in the canine chaos factor and had a crash. LOL

Sledding, a bonfire, hot chocolate....and then a fun visit inside the house. It was perfect. 

At some point I suggested Cy throw his hot chocolate in the air.  Everyone thought it had to be colder - but we knew it worked out here at 0....and sure enough at 2* - it snowed hot chocolate.

I had a hard time getting photos - will try sports mode next time. 

 

We really are enjoying this Alaskan winter. The wood stove helps a lot! It's doable.....and has charm and fun all it's own.

If you'd like to watch and hear some of the fun - click here - for a video summary.

TGIF

This charming young man should visit after every therapy session! 

My current reading - see a theme? Greenhouses and Chicken Coops. 

Michael bought this and put it together for me today. His thought is it will be good to start seedlings and I can move it outside when the weather is warmer....the only windows with southern exposure are in the living room. I know we can't plant anything in the ground until the end of May/start of June. 

But I started these inside....and I'll let them grow inside year round...

Mint, Rosemary and Basil at this point...

All the extra snow made the kids want to get outside and rebuild their sledding run. 

The snow is too powdery to slide easily, but they packed it all down, built ramps and snow berms around danger spots...and when it melts and freezes again - it will be fast. LOL 

Stacia had icicles on her jeans and the boys had frozen beards when they came inside. The day called for hot chocolate. Stacia dolled the mugs up with whipped cream and sprinkles. Ah well, it's FRIDAY - you gotta splurge sometime.

Two Snowy Days

I turned 54 yesterday - and it wasn't a great day for me. This had nothing to do with aging a year. I'm quite happy to gain another year! It had nothing to do with gifts or plans or anything of the sort -  I just wasn't in the mood to celebrate. I didn't expect to be in a funk, but I was.

We began the day early with therapy. It began snowing. I love the snow. The snow is a great thing about yesterday.  We came home to Cory clearing the  driveway. He's a blessing.

Michael had a meeting and left after dropping me off. I went to "bed" and I gave in to the ugly cry. Sometime between getting up in the morning and seeing so many messages on facebook, and coming home from therapy, I realized in a deep, gut-wrenching way that I would not be hearing from Mom on my birthday. I'd not had a good ugly cry since Mom died, and it was time. I socialized as little as possible and the tears fell.

It was time for dinner and church and I was in no shape to go. I stayed home, and that gift of solitude is what I needed. I needed to be alone, to cry, to mourn, and to move on.  Stacia had made a lovely chocolate peanut butter bar which we ate, and then we watched an episode of Father Brown when they returned.

We woke to cool weather (2*) and snow. It's been snowing all day. I didn't realize it snowed when it was this cold - but it's beautiful. Have I mentioned I love snow? ⛄

Today was busy confirming speaker and getting ourselves out the door to homestead club. Our speaker spoke on livestock. I'm overwhelmed. Do I build a greenhouse first or a chicken coop? Do I order chicks NOW, before I have a coop? Where can I find a place to buy hens like a year old so we can have some eggs this summer?????

 

While we were in club, Michael visited Alaska Cheesecake. Do you see where this is going? He bought a 6 in White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. What a treat! Stacia and I have visited before - it IS right by the IDEA office after all...but we usually get a muffin size one and share it. LOL

It was foggy and snowy...and it got deeper as we neared our mountain. We were happy to find the boys and Cory out clearing the snow when we got home.  Michael joined them. I've got the best snow removal team in the valley.

Maria, that housewarming, wheelbarrow gift is an all-season gift! 

Stacia has been asking for Stir Fry for dinner. Tonight was the night to make that happen. I do love my new stove and the POWER BURNERS. Michael thinks I really should read the manual.

Any day which begins with snow and ends with stir fry and White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake has to be a great day! LOL 

The Box and This and That

A box arrived for me last week. My sister in law and cousin had set aside Mom's wedding dress for me. She had talked to me about giving it to me before she got so bad. I left a sweater behind and so Lorri (cousin) was going to send the dress when she sent the sweater.  She had room in the box and asked if there was anything else I wanted. I suggested filling the box with Mom's shirts. I told her that I wanted to make a quilt for Dad. 

The box arrived and sat in the entry way for the rest of the week. I finally brought it upstairs today and opened it. 

I suspected it would be hard to see the clothes. It was. I'm not sure how inanimate objects can convey so many memories.  I have no clue HOW to make a quilt. I had thought to cut out squares, sew them together and back them.....then I realized sometimes you put the rectangle borders on them.....Tammy, a friend, sent me this photo when I mentioned on Facebook  that I was going to make quilts with mom's clothes. I like that it's smaller than I was thinking - but it is considerably more involved than I was thinking too.  I may wait to work on this until I make another to see how it's done. 

I wanted to surprise Dad quickly, but I think maybe I should take a bit of time on this.

In other doings today.....Michael helped me with the scary pressure canner and I canned 16 pts of turkey broth.

We also ran to the Burrough office and discovered the way most military arrive back in state and simply begin getting their in state waivers and such is they "lie" and "no one catches it." We told the truth and so it will be until 2019 before we can get a partial property tax exemption due to Michael's VA disability. Seems you have to be a resident (all agree we are), but you have to reside here a full calendar year before you can claim the exemption....and most military just fudge, according to them. They also said if we'd continued to take the PFD all these years we would have gone under the radar - but the rules are still the same - just you don't get caught doing it.  So.....we did what we thought was honorable and didn't take the PFD as we weren't contributing to the economy of AK while we were active duty.....and now it is biting us. ::snort::  If we'd taken the PFD for these 15 years and saved it, I would have my hot tub and sauna now. ::snort:: They kept the application and said they will process it on Jan 2, 2019.  At least we have the application in early. 😊