The Moose are back

I slept in this morning ... if you can call it that! I set the alarm for the ridiculous hour of the morning that will be yelping my name come Monday. And then hit the off button. Did a great job of it too! Have a few quick minutes before I need to get ready for work. Probably should quit taking that 30 minute nap after dinner ... keeps me from sleeping at night. Frustrating!

Bronte was patiently waiting for the moose to make an appearance over the weekend. They've been absent for months. Either we've been gone as they tromp through or they've been tromping elsewhere. Anna said she walked out the door yesterday to find Mom Moose and 2 babies standing there. Yikes! It was a bit of a surprise! My garden has been safe from them for months.

Not anymore. Looks like they are great fans of broccoli ... not of green beans.

New growth on trees is a favorite as well. The tops of the little trees are chewed off. The little trees need to be all the way chewed off. Do you s'pose if I hung a sign on the trees that they would do the rest of the job for me?

They must not like potatoes either. They chomped down the broccoli sitting right next to the potato plants ... left these alone. And miracle of miracles ... the greenhouse door was open ... and they left it alone!

The Annas and Tia went over to Jolene's for a sleepover last night. Wonder if Jolene got any sleep at all! I have Tait over here for the night. The boys were busy riding go-peds and doing boy things. :) They must have been hungry sometime last night as well. The waffle iron is on the counter this morning. The gridde is on the counter. What do you s'pose they were up to last night? Will have to wait to find out.

Got a few cd's of the book listened to in the quiet of last evening. Computer room is mucked out. This family likes to print paper. Oodles of it. Reams of it. Kindling I call it. Discs to straighten out and figure out ... other than that ... I'm glad to be done with that! Wish I could paint in this room and add some cutesy things. Just not worth it. I hope the room is going to disappear sometime in the not too distant future.

Time for work! Have a great day!

I think I'm nuts

After working all day today and coming home to make dinner ... the canning stuff came out again. The cukes are all picked from the greenhouse. Mind you ... it isn't like there was a major cuke fest going on in there. But I wanted to try and make some pickles. Should I happen to grow a new crop of them ... I'll try a different way next time. In the meantime, it was fun to experiment!

Then I settled down with a bunch of card stuff ... plopped a cd on book into the player ... and started making a few cards. I had all these left over card kits from our Cardmaking Evening in June. They were still sitting on the counter. Not anymore! They are done and tucked in with all the other cards in my card stash. YES!!!

Now if I could get graduation cards done. They are dismally late. Figure that by the time I get them done and in the mail ... the recipients might be needing a tank of gas or something. Then there are the weddings. Am behind on a few of those as well. Ugh. I'm not forgetting. I'm just late. With a capital L.

Jari is still in Dillingham and should be home the end of this week. I won't get the projects done before he gets home. I just know it. I did manage to get several of my Ikea purchases up over the weekend. Back to that June thing again. I went to Ikea in June and the hardware I bought still hasn't left the bag it came home in. I got baseball caps hung up. Let's see if my contraption works or not. I can just see Jari grabbing one real quick like ... always in a hurry that man is ... and the hook goes flying. Will see. Then I (with help ... thank you!) hung up the magnetic knife holder thing. No more big knives in the kitchen drawer. They now have a place. And ... I realize just how paltry my knife selection really is. Does the job ... yesiree it does.

Well ... I think we've met our medical deductibles this year and we're going for broke. Spoke with the surgeon who I want Blayde to see. He doesn't seem to think this will be any problem at all. Just need to schedule an appointment and get that rolling. Also need to schedule him to see the orthopedic surgeon. He's been wearing a brace for ever on his ankle. May as well fix everything at once, right? Anna went in on Saturday for x-rays of her spine. Scoliosis. The referral for an orthopedic visit was sent today ... will schedule that one tomorrow. I finally did the mammogram thing several weeks ago ... and get to go back for more. I'm telling you ... this nesting thing may not be turning out to be what I was dreaming of. We may be nesting at doctor's offices instead. Do you think I ought to take up knitting ... and do it real soon? Have been wanting to learn how to make socks and mittens. My previous experience with mitten knitting has not gone well ... I should have plenty of time to practice!

Tonight while I was sitting on my pea plant and flower infested porch ... I saw a leaf falling from a tree. Yup. A yellow one. Fall is around the corner. Actually let the truck (I'm driving it while hubby is gone) warm up this morning for 10 minutes before I left. Not that it needed warming ... but it felt good. :)

Shucks ... still not done.

The room still isn't cleaned. :( Monday? Let's hope. I'll have to share a few other things I found in there. I knew they were there ... just had a chance to treasure them all over again.

Bronte called as I was leaving work on Friday. He's here for the weekend. Warning: don't show up at my house when I'm on a mission to accomplish something. He, in shorts and shiny white tennis shoes, helped pick the rest of the currants I needed. This time I mixed a bit of left over blueberries in there, left over raspberries, some very juicy watermelon berries ... and currants. Got the jelly done Friday evening!

Got to talk to Jenny for quite a while on Friday evening as well. Time zones and busy lives make some connecting incredibly hard to do. That was super fun. Got some good calorie burning laughing out that one! Blayde even got a haircut while I chatted. :)

Saturday a trip to Palmer. Mind you ... that's big. Haha. The usual. Bank, library, post office (skipped that one tho'). Found several books on tape to listen to while I clean. Makes cleaning so much more fun and it flies by. Then home to do some putting up of food. Amber spent the afternoon over here with Nolan and brought me her jar picker upper for removing jars from the boiling water. You should see how creative I was before that contraption!

First time for peach canning!

Then on to pulla for Jari. I've been making braided pulla for quite a while. Decided that if I was going to make pulla on my day off ... was going to do it the fast way. Then I ran out of baking paper and I don't like to clean brown sugar off of cookie sheets. Alyx picked up some the other day to do cookies ... so I made the yummy pullas!

Also needed baking paper for this bugger. I bought my dehydrator at a yard sale and it didn't come with the trays. Can't manage to find them to fit this bugger so I cut baking paper. Kids absolutely love apple leather ... so once in a while I make them this treat! 10 or 12 hours later ... they chew it down quite quickly.

Many visits to the porch to enjoy the flowers ... or whatever else it is that I do out there.

Peas are still climbing and blooming. Even Nolan likes the peas picked straight from the plant. I've not harvested any of these to save for winter. They don't last. I actually went and bought 10 pounds of shelled peas for the freezer last weekend. These we just enjoy like candy.

What more does one need on a sunny day? A rest with your drink and pulla. Nolan helped me pick green beans in the green house ... and they went into the freezer. We pulled out the peppers that looked like they were aphid infested. Moved one tomato plant outside because it isn't doing anything fruit wise and looks like a bit bug eaten. Will see if it does anything outside or not. The other tomatoes are finally filling up with fruit ... slowly!!

Do you think I lost it by the end of the evening. Had a thumping headache and was a bit tired so took a wee 30 minute nap. Must have woken up energized, 'cuz someone got this picture of me. Not sure if Nolan thought I was nuts or what ... probably was!

Not too nuts tho'. We hooted 'til 1 a.m. after playing Settlers. Which I won. Just in case you wanted to know. We kept playing after I won ... and found that you can actually hit 18 points in that game!

Friday ... aaah!

• All the kids are registered for school
• Long johns are in the bottom drawer
• Have to figure out where I saw a dry cleaner ... haven't used one since I moved here ... have a few things that could stand a visit
• Silver polish is added to the list
• Walking around the house looking for a place to hang white plates and can't find a wall I like
• Should I paint a wall?
• Do I put them in a box and send them to the basement?
• No rain this morning but it sure is humid
• Tonight/tomorrow I'm spending time with canning jars again
• House was sparkling clean when I got home from work yesterday :)
• It also smelled like delicious peanut butter cookies
• Alyx goes back to work today
• Anna & Tia are off to Anchorage shopping for the day ... always fun to see what they come home with ... hmmmm
• Brock is doing some work today as well
• Those tomato plants surprised me last evening ... found a few more tomatoes on them
• Will probably have to put a heater going in there sometime soon
• Is it worth canning 2 jars of pickles to see if they turn out?
• Some kind of bug has decided that it really likes my green beans outside
• Dear hubby is off in Dillingham working for a bit .. no cell phone service ... no internet
• I do get to call HIM tho' ... we have a planned phone date every other evening :)
• By the end of this evening I am going to be finished with my room
• ... and on to the next one!

Have a great Friday!

Spring?!?

I'm feeling like spring cleaning ... otherwise known as Winter's Coming Want to Nest Syndrome.
I started yesterday. Set the timer for 30 minutes and started on the laundry room. Timer rang and I was done in there for the day. Figured it might be a way to get some things accomplished without it being too incredibly painful. 30 minutes at least 4 days a week.

Tonight I started on my bedroom. Oh. My. Goodness. How does it happen that one ends up with an entire dresser drawer being a "junk drawer". The BIG drawer. Not a little one. Undeveloped film. Film? Heaven only knows where that came from. Tarnished silver jewelry. Receipts from Lowe's. Tia's picture frames. A tea set? A traveling iron. I'm telling you ... it is a plain ol' disaster. I wouldn't dare take a picture of the room in its current state. It looks like I'm moving or something. Pitch. Pitch. Pitch. Our bedroom is small. The closet is nice size, but there is no room for a dresser. Hence ... the dresser moved into the closet ... and the bottom drawer probably still held all the things I parked in it when we moved up here. Do I really need 4 winter coats/jackets hanging in a closet that is too small to begin with? Not. I'm On Call tomorrow evening so I may or may not have time to putter in there. Hopefully by Saturday evening I'll be done. Everything will have a place. The donation box will be overflowing. Jari won't find a thing when he comes home. :) Bad, hey? I have to clean that junk drawer out. You see .. he has so many long johns that they won't fit in a small drawer ... and that season is on the way.

Probably a good thing he isn't home right now. He'd never find his side of the bed if he was. 'Cuz this spring cleaning is in full swing!

Fireweed Jelly

This is a fireweed plant that is nearly done blooming. The jelly is made from the blossoms. We did pick a bunch of blossoms on Saturday and had some nice plants to pick from.

I'm quickly learning that this is all an experiment. Try once. Try again.

Test #1 gave us a good tasting jelly that is difficult to describe. It was just a bit on the jellied side. Nearly impossible to spread ... more like glob it on your bread.

So tonite (after working a full day and finishing up the broccoli) I tried again.

Test #2 so far looks like it isn't going to gel at all. Argh. Maybe by morning it will miraculously do something in the jars that are sitting on the counter.

If not ... then I'll do what I remember doing with failed chokecherry jelly many years ago. It made the best ice cream topping ever!

Need to stop and get some more sugar for the next experiment!

Today I took the camera along

when we went on a 4-wheel ride with Amber, Ryan & Nolan. Took the trail around Eklutna Lake and it was absolutely gorgeous. The weather couldn't have been better. The trail didn't have many folks on it when we went in ... plenty on the way out.

Our fun rides. I thought of Jeff & Mona many times today as we were meandering.

Serenity Falls

Jari and Nolan investigating what was under the bridge.

This is actually the river. Looks like a mud bog that I wouldn't want to be swept away in at all. Was moving at quite a clip.

Alongside the raging beast of nature ... the beauty of Fireweed.

We found a hint of color on our way. Must mean that quilting and scrapbooking are around the corner.

And today I thought of Mummu and her favorite trees. Seeing them made me want to just grab a couple of chunks and make some candle holders for her.

What a fun time!