June Snipppets

Alex graduated. He and Nolan are both working hard this summer. This is clear in that Stacia and Benny become the star of the photos. Arielle and Benny came to visit most days in the summer of 2020. 

 Walking with Benny is filled with a bit more advenutre and lots of stick gathering. 

    

Michael is working on the RV - Dad is "helping."

Lori, our hen is still brooding. 

Stacia made this quilt for Arielle's birthday. Each square features a character trait Stacia sees in Arielle. 

Stacia is interested in photographing her world.  

G Dog and Michael put up Stacia's "new" bed. Stacia had a loft bed she loved, but with Grandpa moving into her room, and sharing a room with Krista she needed to downsize a bit. 

Here's the curbside story book I wrote about in an earlier post. I love our local library. This was a great thing to do with kids during the shutdown. We walked along the sidewalk and read the story. 

Supply Disruption 

Walking through the spring and summer of 2020 was great for my mental health. The flowers still bloomed, the seasons changed...regardless. 

One study morning....all studies should be so sweet. 

Walking in the rain...

Still brooding....

Rainy days (yes, we get a few in the summer) are great for impromptu tea parties. I "enjoyed" the sugar free cookie while Stacia had the goey bars. LOL 

One day we drove into Eagle River. Check out this used book store. It was OVERWHELMING. 

Still walking...I love this farm in every season. 

Stacia brought in a Bunny for GG to enjoy. I note not only GG's wild attire, but the fact that he had gone out and got his paper. So much changed after his heart surgery a couple of months later. 

June Garden Update

 As I post from the vantage point of August 2022 it becomes CLEAR much of June was over-taken by gardening. Here is one big post of a few weeks in June 2020. 

The tomatoes are doing well inside the new greenhouse Michael constructed over two raised beds. 

Finished - and working as predicted. 

We've tried four different years and simply can't seem to grow corn here. 

These two are great helpers. Here we prepare tires to plant flowers into. 

I loved the flowers in the garden this year. I did not love the expense. In future years I will try to grow flowers from seeds. 

Broccoli to come

Time to start eating some lettuce. 

Beets

Potato patch 

Looking good. 

 I don't believe the battle of the weeds in this plot will ever end. 

We Almost Went to Denali!

 We hit the road after church. We have been wanting to go camping - and it's a bit of a challenge with church schedules and Grandpa...but we decided to just do it. 

Krista and a friend were going to go up and spend extra time. Allie was invited and her parents agreed to let her come. The girls would stay with us the first night or two and then Krista, Brittany, Allie and Stacia would go on to Talkeetna.  We were excited. 

This is as far as we made it before Michael pulled over....

One of the dual tires blew! It didn't take long to realize we wouldn't be on the road any time soon. 

Grandpa waits in comfort 

Krista and Michael pick up pieces of our tire

The girls loaded into our van - with the food and clothes from the RV and headed down the road. We had the tent in the RV so they took that and went off for an adventure.  I took Grandpa home. Michael slept in the RV and the next day we began the repair process. 

Allie, Brittany, Stacia, Krista

Krista, Allie, Stacia, Brittany

Allie & Stacia warding of skeeters

Allie, Stacia & Brittany

Allie & Stacia

Krista, Allie, Stacia, Brittany

cabin in Talkeetna

And that is how we almost made it to Denali and the girls DID go to Denali.  Looking back at these photos from 2022, I can't help but note how one never knows when life is about to change. These are the first pictures I have of Allie and Stacia together...when they didn't know each other well... I never would have guessed how that relationship was to deepen and how dear Allie was to become to our family. 

A Month?

A month since the last blog! Oops.

The last blog was about bears - oh my.

We are fine.

I will back post some blogs in the upcoming weeks....basically....it's finally really summer (sort of like spring in the lower 48).   This means projects and gardening. Our growing season is VERY short....and so we live and work hard until we get it all in. I have photos, I have thoughts....I'll post later.

When I look back at the notes and photos from May a few themes emerge.....re-entering life after sequestration, gardening, projects, lots of appointments for Dad,  family - lots of time with grandkids...playing at Baachan's treehouse, watching sick kids, babysitting....and WALKING.

We are heading out this afternoon for Mt. Denali...there will be things to report....and I may get over my aversion to posting "out of order" to post Denali and then work on catching May up.

All that to say - how kind you are to notice we've been missing. Thanks for all who reached out to see if we were o.k. We are doing well.