Geocaching FUN!

Well just let me say that this is FUN, FUN, FUN!!! No matter where you look you will find folks telling you its time to get active. Well if you have kids this can be a real challenge I know. Especially if they are young and rambunctious. Try Geo Caching it is a fun activity, free to do and simple to participate. You can have loads of fun making a cache to hide. A cache can contain all kinds of things from magnets, pens, lures, compasses, rings,  lapel pins, thimbles, hats just use your imagination. They can also be themed like, batman themed cache with all batman stuff. You get the idea. The object is to get the coordinates of a cache find it, sign the book in the cache and then go online and log your visit. Most caches require you leave something and take something and some of the objects are traceable online and you can watch their travel around the world by tracking the objects number. The website is geocaching.com and its free to join and if you have a GPS or a smart phone which allows you to use the geocaching application or compass your set to play. You will need a GPS to locate the treasures or caches. So go check out the website.Give it a try.

A Week Of Forty Below

Wow, its still forty below, I think to myself as I log on to double check what my yard thermometer is telling me. You would think that after all these cold winters I have under my belt that one more wouldn't be a problem but I spend a lot of time thinking about what I could be doing if we lived in a warmer local where I could grow food year round. I sometimes dream of those unreachable things all Alaskan gardeners must dream about. You know things like fruit trees, I could really go for some fresh pears, apples and oranges. I read at the co operative extension service has grafted an apple tree onto the roots of some sort of cranberry bush. So far these precious graft-lings have survived in a cold tunnel which protects them from high wind and snow.We have had extreme cold as you know to 60 below and their survival is promising. I have planted a crop of tomatoes this winter as I just cant wait until spring. I expect to be eating fresh tomato sandwiches by my birthday in March.

Forty Below

Alaska has dipped into her first cold spell of the winter season. Minus 40 has been the temp for a few days now and we have broken several cold day records this week here in the interior. The animals have been coming around our little cabin on the river. Today coyote was trolling the river bank looking for food, a cross fox and a silver fox have been frequenting the scrap pile we have seen them a few times and they are really looking fat and sassy. The bald eagle flew south towards Haines last week just before the cold weather arrived. The White Rabbit still is alive and kicking out there, which is good we didn't know if a tame bunny would make it. He seems to do well eating the sunflower seeds we put out for the birds and I throw him a couple of carrots and grapes everyday which is devours. So I guess life in the Alaska wilderness is going fine just chugging along. I got myself a treadmill for this winter and have been walking everyday. The weight loss has been wonderful for me and I am feeling spry..Should have bought one years ago. Happy Thanksgiving !

Our Eagles

Here is Jr eagle who had just caught the fish he is standing on and mama eagle who let Jr have about half of the salmon and then took the rest from him. She is a huge eagle! Jr. is now 4 years old.

Alone at Last?

 Could it be? Is our little cabin on the river that has been bursting at the seams with 8 folks 3 of them little ones, finally going to be just dad and I? Our quaint little cabin has been packed through the events in family life that sometimes you can't do anything about but protect your kids, or give them a leg up. I am not complaining at all, its has been wonderful every single day. Maybe a lot of projects were put on hold, but they were replaced by sweet little faces and warm hugs!
Today the daughter and her 3 girls made their move to a new apartment. I pray for her it isn't easy raising a large family alone.
Son and his girlfriend are moving out next week and starting college YEAH SON!  I hope it doesn't sound mean but I am already planning a total interior makeover. I will be making a big move on organizing and lightening the load of stuff that has magically appeared here and no one seems to know who's it is or where it came from. Believe me I will not have any problem donating it to someone else. I'm going to paint the wood floor cranberry zing, and buy some of those oval old fashioned braided rugs and a round table or two. Finally I will get the new appliances and the wing back chairs I have dreamed of for decades. Life is good. I see flowers popping up everywhere and I smell a wind of good fortune coming my way!! 

Getting Old

Woke up coughing, mentally I was thanking my 21 year old son for bringing home another virus from his work! Argh! I hate being sick! The older I get the more stuff goes wrong, first its the aching muscles, then the joints, the spine, the shingles(virus that causes chicken pox) arthritis and asthma. Wow really. WTF? I am not quite 50 and falling apart here. Time to get serious and fight back before my hubby gets to live the life I always wanted on my insurance money!

R.I.P. Chicken

 

It is with  a heavy heart that I impart to you the fact that the afore mentioned birdy has well went to Birdy heaven thanks to the Great Horned Owl  pictured above.

First Day of School

Miss Gabbie on her first day of kindergarten.

There was much excitement about the cabin this morning as  Gabbie and her mom ran about like two chickens looking for everything they needed to get miss Gabbie out the door for her first day of school.

One Crazy Chicken

If you have read my blog at all you will know that chicks were purchased with the dreams of one day eating some eggs we in a round about way GREW. Well the best plans of mice and men and women I guess. Here is the rest of the story.

I got the chicks and brought them home with the best of hopes. All was going well on the sunny little farm and we were all enjoying watching the chickens grow and hoped they would soon be as fat as the dogs. Well much to my dismay the dogs decided to eat the chickens. They have never killed before and I was in tears when I came outside that afternoon to find the chicks dead, dogs with feathers in their mouths and shaking with the thrill of killing.
 OH, I worried about what my precious granddaughter would think. After much worrying and talking with others we decided that our loved hounds would have to be put down and our hearts were broken. The deed done, and hearts sad we were trying to get back on track and my grand baby was playing outside. Grandma, grandpa she screamed.. come out here I hear  a chick she squealed. My hubby went out only to comfort the child he thought the chicks had all bit the dust. However to papa's surprise one little yellow chick had not only survived the dogs but two days outside alone as well. What a little survivor the chick was. Well now she is a little red hen, we call her Birdy and I am afraid she does not know she is a chicken. We are however hoping she will at least give us an egg one day soon.

July

Well here it is in the heat of July, my potatoes are growing well and my one little laying hen hasn't. There were 10 chicks in the beginning but thanks to some very bad dogs, well lets just say I am down to one chicken who has no clue that's what she is. Poor thing.
My best layed plans for a garden were stomped out by arthritis I hate it. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy if I had one. My poor body hurts so much of the time I cant even go shopping without much pain.
Then when I make it home I am pretty much laid up for a couple of days.

We have been getting stuff done though. The new lawn is in and about 1/2 acre in size. We've already mowed it a couple of times. The siding has been removed from the house and tyvek that wonderful invention now snugly wraps the little cabin.

Bunny rabbits enjoy the new lawn and so do the folks who come by on their way down river.
More later.