We’re almost done with this little log tiny house build.
280′ square feet of interior living space. Equal storage space below. 4′ x 14′ of covered front porch. Full service kitchen and 3/4 bath. The customer will be doing the shower at a later date
So much finish work. The bathroom pocket door trim consists of 12 components! All custom made trim, nothing store bought. It’s all Alaskan white spruce. Local logs milled at SND’s sawmill. You can’t get more “Alaskan Made”.
Somewhere along the way he has lost his little baby face and looks like a growing boy.
Such a cutie pie.
But one thing has stayed the same, there’s always food all over that sweet face when it’s dinner time.
He has sprouted up this summer and is getting taller, soon he’ll pass Lil Bit by. He’s been learning to ride his four-wheeler, and after an initial oops moment, he’s been doing pretty good.
Helmet, check ✅
Alaska boy 💯, winter attire doesn’t require shirts or coats.
This dog tho. These two are quite the pair. There’s no stopping them when they are on a mission. Panda Bear is such the perfect dog for our family and she loves her boy as much as he lives his doggo.
What’s an Alaska summer without some mud, eh?
They may be fewer and farther between but there’s still time for snuggles with Mom. Melts my heart ❤️
Sweet snuggles.
I’m a lucky Mom, two birthday boys in the same month. Party is tomorrow so more pics to come. Happy birthday boys!!
Thing 2 has been interested in kayaking for several years now. I bought him a starter kayak about 4 years ago I think. We don’t often use it but every once in a while a kayaking opportunity arises and we must go!
We’ve been kayaking to Cain’s Head out of Seward, across Kachemak Bay out of Homer and on Arc Lake and Stormy Lake. Once again we had the opportunity to kayak to Cain’s Head with IDEA for our beginning the year field trip.
We booked a cabin for the night before at Miller’s Landing. It’s a quaint little Alaska campground. It started out as a family homestead and the campsites are named after people. There’s a Wes and a Janet among others. I don’t recommend “Matt” as he’s a muddy mess with lots of tree roots!
Our cabin was a “tree” cabin, Alder, and sleeps 4. Me, my teens and one extra: Thing 2’s buddy, since it was his birthday trip and all. Trips like this are always the best because our friends are with us.
Staying over the night before is important, a 7:30am roll call on the beach with a two and half hour drive before isn’t very fun! So overnight it was.
We managed to get to the beach on time and started out paddling at 8 am.
Our crew on the beach.
The weather wasn’t awful but it wasn’t stellar either. Overcast and light to moderate rain all day. We had a brief moment of partly cloudy skies then the rain returned. But we managed to stay mostly dry with good rain gear. There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.~ old Norwegian saying.
Five miles out to the North Beach access. A nice uneventful paddle. Lots of birds and jumping silvers. We saw a jellyfish waiting to make our landing.
All that’s left of the Army’s dock at the North Beach site.
Then a two mile hike up to Fort McGilvray. An altitude gain of 650′, a “moderate” hike on the difficulty scale.
A scenic vantage point along the trail. The Seussical trees bordering a wetland.
We saw so many berries on our way up. Thing 1 was taking photos every other step. Moss, mushrooms, flowers, berries, her boyfriend, me…. Trees and rocks and … Everything.
Me and my girl on the Fort Trail.
We made it to the top and a quick walk through the Fort and then lunch break. Thing 2 discovered that he forgot to pack his lunch in so we all shared a bit of our lunches to help him out.
While eating lunch he spotted a porcupine up in the top of a tree above us. Strange creatures porcupines. Stellar Jays we’re fussing at us the whole time. We were in their space.
Then we started our descent. The trip back is always quicker. Too quick to pick all the berries I saw. I hate walking past berries and not picking them.
Safe to say that we’re all pretty tired at this point. Five miles kayaking, 4 miles hiking. Now another 5 miles back. Oy vey
Settled into our kayaks, ready as we’ll ever be.
All the muscles fussed at us on the way back. Even those we didn’t know we had. But by 3:03 pm we were back on the beach at Miller’s Landing.
These children decided they deserved ice cream after their efforts. We headed into Seward for ice cream and coffee for the Moms. There were still some congratulatory posters and banners up for Lydia Jacoby which was cool to experience.
Looking forward to the next kayaking adventure! But maybe not so far next time? Maybe.
Sixteen years ago, on a hot humid Kansas day, in a pool full of warm water, a baby boy was born.
Isn’t he just the cutest??
Doesn’t seem possible that 16 years have passed. Now my “baby boy” is taller than I am.
He’s starting his sophomore year. He still likes LEGOs, some things never change! He has great taste in music and a wacky sense of humor. He’s a whiz at history, especially relating to WWII. And he likes to make goofy faces when I take his picture.
Goofy face number one.Goofy face number two…Number three…Finally got a good pic of him!
We figured this year would be plentiful with the Sh’mita starting this fall but we didn’t know how plentiful!
Everyone helps, even the little guy!
So far, two of our family units have gotten their desired count of fish. Three more of us are closer. We’ve shared with two other families that could come down and get fish, and have another couple of families on standby. And we’ve helped a couple young fellas fishing on their own this year navigate the regs and when they needed an extra hand.
A nice little flounder.
It feels good to be able to share Alaska’s bounty with others. There’s been many years when we just got enough to feed our own households. Sharing is caring.
Neighbor “boys” fishing for the first time on their own. Last night they had a huge haul and were a little overwhelmed. These two young men were polite and appreciative of any help. It’s nice to have good fishing neighbors.
Alaska on my mind... 