Saturdays!

 Krista suggested Stacia and I ride our bikes along the river trail, while she ran. She is working her way back to her former fitness level.  We have wanted to ride this trail for two years, but couldn't seem to get it together. Mainly, getting the bikes to a starting point because we did NOT want to ride up our hill. Krista has a bike rack that fits on the back of her hatchback. Off we went.

It is a beautiful ride along the Old Glenn Hwy...but one barely notices the hwy. The River, ponds, mountains, interesting property capture your attention....it was a great ride.  We stopped to get a close look at an old RV park, an interesting house?, and a cemetery. The bike Stacia rode was giving her trouble. I think we need to get her a "real bike" of her own. 

Matanuska River

 The fireweed bloom is at the top - it will soon die out. Six weeks until winter? 

Back at home we set up the disc golf goals and played a round...Michael was getting ready to butcher a chicken or two (a long, frustrating, sad story), Krista helped in the garden a bit and then headed out for dinner with a friend before the baby shower....Dad, Alex, Stacia and I cleared chickweed and started a lasagna garden (another post coming).

Dad called a couple of his grand kids....and then hauled weeds to the chickens. Even the new ones know to come to the corner of the fence and wait when they see us go into the garden. LOL

In the midst of clearing I grabbed onto something. It HURT. Bad. My hand swelled up. I felt like I was being stung over and over, all over both hands, for hours afterwards. 

I do think they are going to ripen. Yay! 

The chicken received a reprieve but her days are numbered. Josiah came by for dinner. Stacia, Krista and I went to a baby shower. The guys had dinner here and played games.

Josiah said he was going home. Everyone but Michael and I headed for bed. Josiah stayed two hours talking - love connecting.

New Appliance

Michael is a researcher. He researches what he wants to purchase. He watches the for sale lists for the item to show up. He is content to watch for months (years even - ahem - a hot tub) for a good deal. He also scans on-line sources and local ads.

Last fall we saw how useful a vacuum sealer would be. We knew we wanted one before we began putting things away this summer/fall. I was content to pick up a Food Saver. Michael wasn't happy with the consumer report reviews and purchases reviews.

I froze 25 lbs of blueberries (in Ziploc). We smoked and made jerky salmon and put it into Ziploc bags.  I noted things were already getting ice crystals.

I told Michael we needed to figure out what we wanted. He said he KNEW what he wanted. I asked him to please buy it now - it was time.

I came home today to THIS on my kitchen counter. ::snort:: 

It's a home model, much like the commercial ones we use in Seward to process salmon. It comes with great reviews all the way around. It's a chamber seal....I don't understand the difference, but I DO know that the chamber sealer we use in Seward does a GREAT job.  The bags are FAR cheaper than name brand bags (like 1/4 of the price) and we can use the bags we bought for Seward.

This thing seals WATER. I'm not sure WHY we'd want to seal water...but it does. ::snort:: I've now sealed all the blue berries and salmon for long term storage.

I plan to make the downstairs kitchen (CoRielle's kitchen) a "Preservation Kitchen" when they move out. I'll do the canning, dehydrating, sealing down there....leaving a clean kitchen to use upstairs. This will not stay on my counter forever - AND it will match the tile downstairs. :snort::

Fun-filled Friday

Our plan was to go with Arielle and Benny to the park. We would then take Dad to Freddies, and I would work on fulfilling Michael's wishes to "fill the freezer." This will help with energy efficiency. We have emptied the chest freezer into the new one and still have ample room. 

We headed to the park.  This is a fun park with lots of shade. Stacia and I diligently looked to find some hidden rocks - alas - nothing. 

Benny discovered a squirrel. 

He is a bit unsure of the SOUND it makes.  

"YayYa!" He seemed to think if she was with him they'd be able to get close. 

Benny and G.G. came to an understanding. G.G. said, "Oh, my hat," and took Benny's hat.

 "No! My hat, not G.G.'s,"  he emphatically replied! 

Stacia got a call asking her to babysit.  We decided she'd play a bit longer and I'd deliver her after we left the park. I love Benny's expression in this photo. Such trust to do it anyway - if his hand is in Stacia's. That'll preach.

A Challenge

In the end it's a bit too much of a challenge. He'll save it for another day. 

Snack time! 

Dad and I dropped Stacia off and headed for Freddies.  They are having a GREAT meat sale....Buy one Get one on steaks, ribs, and pork loins, fresh Chicken at 1.29 a pound, ground turkey cheaper than hamburger. I stocked up. They were out of steaks.

I came home for a couple of hours and then headed for the church. Lindsey, our sweet Pastor's wife, has been out of town. I met to help her set up for an upcoming baby shower. Stacia walked to the church after baby-sitting.

Stacia and I stopped at Freddies again as they were expecting a delivery of steaks. We stocked up on steaks. The freezer is respectably full.

Dinner was grilled steak, accompanied by one lone pizza.

We played a few rounds of Farkle, rather than watch a movie. There will be plenty of watching  movies and such in the winter.

Tomato and Freezer

We worked on projects around here all week. Piddly, nagging projects which need to be completed before winter. I neglected to blog on Thursday (back posting now) so I honestly can't remember WHAT we did. ::snort::

My camera reminds me we had our FIRST tomato from our own garden at dinner. This is one of the green ones that I've had under the grow lights. 

Dad pronounced it good. 

DAD WON THE GAME TONIGHT!  The Game being - Farkle.

Our garage is FULL. It is going to get fuller before it clears out -more about that later. HOWEVER, I do need a family size freezer. I currently have two small chest freezers and BOTH were packed to the very top. We hope and pray to get a moose to round out our fish catch. I have been running to the store every day for  meat for the day (if it's not a salmon day), because there is NO room for ANYTHING in the small freezers.  This was on sale.....and now it sits in our garage.

It's the biggest one we could find up here, and it's by far cheaper than any we found anywhere else. It was nearly the same price as freezers the same size in like condition on Craig's list. Michael ordered it earlier in the week and it came in today.  Note the boxes are the edge of our recycling set up. LOL  We moved CoRielle's freezer up and it will be fine until they are able to move into their new home.

I'm remembering that moment you look online and tell your husband, "We can get the same model $450 cheaper at Home Depot!"

"What zip code are you using?"

Ah....CA zip code. I enter the  local zip code...and BAM....add $450 to price. Lowes is cheaper. LOL

Lots of Little Jobs DONE

I interrupted my morning routine to work on the kids' ILP's for the upcoming year. I KNOW. The summer got away from me - BUT I have 80% of the curriculum we need already. I just need to file the paperwork and order the other 20%. We have an upcoming road trip Outside (as in outside of AK), in our near future. We need to pick up things we left at my brother's home from mom and Mom G. We won't start school until after Labor Day.

Krista, Stacia and Alex ran a couple of errands this morning, then sequestered themselves in the RV (Krista's current living space) to watch a bit of Netflix.

Dad, Michael and I had a nice talk. Eventually, it was time to run errands. I dropped Dad off to get his hair cut. I told him to call when he was done and I'd pick him up. I planned to check out a couple of thrift stores while he had a haircut.  I FORGOT I turned off the phone during our talk. He called and left a message. He called again. Finally, he called Krista's phone. I said, "Why didn't he call me?" Then discovered the phone was off.  😏😃 I'm taking the teasing with grace. I deserve it.

Michael and Alex had done a trash run while we were in town.

I decided to wash my car. It was another beautiful day up here. This spread to washing Michael's truck, Nolan's jeep and Krista's car. The girls got in on the fun. I really do work - I don't just stalk around taking photos.

 See the brown Spruce trees? Spruce trees are everGREEN. Michael put a chain saw yesterday. He and Alex began taking them down today. Alex cuts them on the ground with the smaller chainsaw. It didn't smoke the whole time  - only for the camera.  

  

I volunteered for this job, Michael preferred Alex do it. 

Go, Alex! 

 Alex also beat back some of the "wild" threatening to take over our yard. The red dots show how far out it had advanced. This is not GRASS in there - but at least it feels more open and we CAN walk up there again. I had planted berries in this spot - the moose got em all.  Michael has talked about moving the garden up to this spot....I don't know that I have the heart to dig out another garden. I may put some lasagna beds up here and see how they do.

We are not focusing on the birch leaves turning colors. 

Did I say I could ALWAYS spend more time in the garden? The squash has held it's own against the invasive chickweed. 

I took a moment to try out Stacia's hammock. I stayed a while. 

It's magical. 

Krista brought hers out too. I think I need to get one so we can have reading parties under the birch. 

GG Scores!

GG (Great Grandpa) scored a home-run today. The doorbell rang and he went to get Benny. 

"Benny, come see! Come see the truck."

Benny said, "No."

Arielle picked him up and said, "GG wants to show you something." 

He was AWESTRUCK! 

"Wow."

"Wow!!!"

 What captured Benny's attention? The DUMP TRUCK! GG knew Benny would be fascinated to see a truck like his in action - even as Benny resisted coming to GG. That'll preach!

He froze. He didn't move once during the whole transaction. Arielle said he was so excited he was shaking. We got 10 Cubic yards of gravel for the driveway and 2 cubic yards of pea gravel for under the play structure.....except he brought me a bonus of an extra 1 1/2 yards of pea gravel. I've been wanting to define some flower areas....maybe we'll get to it before winter. 

Stacia began to shovel gravel into the wheelbarrow and Benny was right beside her. 

Benny insisted on carrying the gravel in his shovel too when Arielle and Stacia moved the wheelbarrow to the back . 

Priceless! Benny and his great-grandpa working on a job together. 

These two spent some time playing when the job was done. 

A big day is coming up for both....in just 10 days Stacia turns 14; and Benny's Daddy and Mommy will sign for their first family house (they've had 2 homes, but this will be the first house and the first one they purchase). 

Benny climbed  straight up the rock wall without any assistance from any of us...though we did do a tad bit of hovering. 

Pure joy at his accomplishment! High Fives all around! 

I spent a bit of time weeding in the garden. I will always need more time out there. LOL  I heard rustling. Look at this! Lucille scratching up carrots and eating kale. I had quite a time getting her out. She's getting quite plump.

We harvested a couple of rows of beets. 

The corn is tasseling....we shall see.  Maybe we'll get a few ears yet. 

Beets are pretty. I've never cooked them and haven't liked them, but Michael asked for them. I boiled one and he said it was good. I boiled two more for 10 min, and then skinned them and tossed them in with the other veggies I was roasting for dinner. 

These carrots were also tossed in to the roasting mix...bit of olive oil, garlic, salt...

I was thinning out the carrots and these were big enough to eat - so we did. I also picked some baby red potatoes and a zuchinni to roast.  YUM! I was pointing out everything on the table from the garden...salad, roasted veggies and someone pointed to the chicken and said, "Is this from the garden too?"

"No," I replied, "But if Lucille keeps getting into the garden you may end up with chicken from the garden."  I would never. I couldn't. It was a yummy dinner. We didn't have a single bite left. I was satisfied with the veggies...and they all enjoyed adding the air fried chicken to the mix. LOL

A salad for the chickens - they love all the garden left overs. 

The green tomatoes are starting to ripen. We had visions of making salsa when this started. I don't know what I'll do with them now....I expected to have all the tomatoes at the same time. LOL 

I like the purple carrots. Sweet. 

CHERRIES and a Parky Update

Today was neurology day. We used to hate this day  - which arrives like clockwork every few months It's the day we are forced to accept Michael's diagnosis.  I think we're moving along the acceptance plane, today it all seemed rather, "Hoo hum."  No big, new developments.  They're adjusting some meds at night with the hope of a better sleep pattern for Michael...but that's about it. And we're o.k. with a hoo hum neurology appointment. 🐽 

We redeem neurology days by trying to catch lunch with Josiah while in Anchorage. He suggested Burgerfi today - great choice. I tried an Impossible Burger yesterday  - I overwhelmingly liked Burgerfi's quinoa/veggie burger over the IB. 

Michael pointed out the cherries needed picking as we drove in the driveway. I kept hoping they were going to get bigger and sweeter. It appears they are made to be  tart!  Krista, Benny and I picked the cherry crop. Not bad as we weren't expecting any produce for another 2 - 4 years. 😏

Someone ate a cherry or two while helping

Stacia and I  set out to  make a pie after Michael and Dad made their opinions on cherry usage known.  We only had 1/2 the cherries we needed; I used blueberries for the other half. I made it sugar-free.  Did you catch that? A sugar-free cherry/berry pie! I hoped Michael and Dad would like it.  They did. I am wondering if I can do the same thing with an apple pie.

We were excited the crust worked. AND it tasted great. Next time I'll cover the edges - but for a whole-wheat, sugar-free cherry pie - this couldn't be beat. 

Dad "felt lucky," tonight so we agreed to a round of Farkle. He was pulling ahead until Stacia rolled SIX ONES in a turn. She ended up winning. 

BTW - that's 9:00 p.m. behind her

 HOW can it be August already? I can't wrap my mind around this fact! Oh, Michael bought a chainsaw off Craig's list....he and Dad came home with stories.