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What else has been going on around here…
- Twenty-One January 29, 2026
- Nostalgia January 8, 2026
- We Made It! December 22, 2025
- We Make Do, So Can You! November 2, 2025
- Twice in 3 Days October 31, 2025
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Category Archives: Family
Food self sufficiency is something any good Alaskan Sourdough knows a good deal about. And you use what you have to make your garden work. We’re not buying a bunch of fancy stuff, just making do with what’s around the place.
My first summer in our home (2015) I had high hopes for a bountiful harvest from my new (to me) garden plot. We even constructed a small greenhouse to help extend our season a little bit. I planted all sorts of things like potatoes, tomatoes, okra, herbs and squash. I was so excited! I mean, what could go wrong, I’ve been gardening most of my life and usually pretty successfully at that. Well, Alaska throws a mean curve ball.
Besides planting most all the wrong things, I had no concept of Alaska’s surprise hard frosts nor her relentless sun beating down day in and night too. And exactly how much water one needs to apply to soil that really never gets enough of the stuff. Neither did I appreciate how fast grass and weeds grow here.
To say that my first Alaskan garden was an epic failure is an understatement. It was so devastating, all that work, time and $$ down the drain, that I haven’t really gardened since, with the exception of a container here and there and cold hardy flowers. (I mean petunias.)
This year we’re giving it a full-on go again. Mostly because my oldest daughter wants to do it. It’s her project and I’m offering a little support along the way. At least she’s starting off with a little more experience in Alaskan summer weather cycle and what’s really best to plant here. And no, there’s no plan to grow okra.
She’s started out with measuring the garden fence to get an idea of how much electric fence we need plus square footage to plan out her scheme. She’s plotted 5 raised beds, hugelkulture style, and a variety of tire towers and containers around the perimeter. Plus an update to the greenhouse which needs a new skin.
Her planned crops include potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs, peas, radishes, blueberries, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and flowers, some edible.
There’s the existing compost pile (that Thing 2 made years prior for a science project) that she’s expanding to double the capacity. Plus she’s already made her strawberry bed with tires and shared plants from Nancy, our neighbor up the road. Nancy is the sweetest. She’s taken the girls under her gardener’s wing and been bringing them plants and sharing information (and ice cream too apparently) with them. This relationship I approve of, not sure about the ice cream tho. Lol
With each passing weekend we try and do a little more work on the garden prep. We are still frosting at night here in our little low spot at the bottom of the hill. So waiting to go to the greenhouse to buy plants, but soon we’ll take out a small loan to make the trip.
I’m very excited for Thing 1 and her goals of gardening and am trying to support her as much as possible but she really is doing most of the work so far. Plus she is carrying on the garden tradition of her Papa Alaska. Who certainly had it figured out with his two massive green thumbs.
We’re doing what we can to produce food for ourselves, in that old sourdough spirit.
Long ago before the advent of TVs, radio & Internet, folks had to do things to keep themselves busy. The idea of just sitting around doing nothing was quite foreign to most. Whilst reading books is always an admirable past time, making useful or decorative things was as well. From knitting to crochet, sewing and needlepoint to tatting, many things could be made over the course of a long cold winter.
Knitting and crochet could provide one with some warm socks, cozy sweaters, scarfs & blankets. Sewing certainly was a necessity, repairing garments and making new ones. Needlepoint, tatting & beading were definitely for embellishments and gussying up one’s home. The time honored Alaskan tradition of beautifying garments with beadwork is beyond compare.
For hundreds (thousands) of years these handcrafted arts have survived. I imagine most folks know someone (or they themselves) who can knit or crochet. Especially after the long COVID winters of the past two years, handicrafts have seen a resurgence. Hand sewing is an art not seen too often with the advent of machines but still around. Sewing, no matter the manner, remains a very useful craft to know. Even sourdoughs could appreciate the beauty of a pair of beaded fur lined mittens or a bit of tatted lace on a blouse’s collar.
As a child I learned to crochet from my Great Aunt Arta. She was left-handed and I learned by sitting in front of her on the floor and copying her hand movements. Thus I hold my crochet hook underhand and interesting enough, the same way my Great Grandmother held hers (according to my Grandmother, all three of blessed memory). Many of my fondest childhood memories involve making something with her.
My Great Grandmother tatted but none of her daughters learned the craft from her. I wasn’t even aware of it’s existence before meeting a lady by the name of Althea Barth while living in Idaho.
She was older than my Grandmother but younger than my Great Grand would have been. She had an enormous library of handcraft books. Lady’s journals from the 50s & 60s that I swooned over. I made copious copies of all the lovely things I wanted to crochet! Althea taught me to tat using a shuttle. Upon gifting some pieces to my Grandmother she informed me of the link to my Great Grandmother. Serendipity!
She told me that during the Great Depression when tatting thread wasn’t available or affordable, Great Grandma would tat with sewing thread. Now that’s some dedication and fine detail work!
I enjoyed learning the art and besides the wonderful friendship I had with Althea, it brought me a new connection to my Great Grandmother. I encourage everyone to make friends with some of your elders, sit with them, learn from them, share your life with them. The rewards are many.
I can imagine many an old sourdough man or woman knitting besides the warm stove in the dead of winter. Donning a snuggly scarf when going out to haul in wood. Or cozy socks in worn old leather boots. And maybe a tatted lace doily under the one prized little knick-knack sitting on the shelf.
Carrying on these time honored traditions brings me great joy. I hope one day my kids will want to learn some if not all if them!
This post is dedicated to my Mother, her Mother and her Mother, my ancestral mother’s. Who’ve handed down much to me both genetically, historically and relationally. Happy Mother’s Day! ❤️🤍🤍
Today marks the ninth anniversary of my Father’s, of blessed memory, passing. As is our custom, we spend this time at the cabin to remember the man the best way we can, in his element. We will lift a glass of rhubarb wine around the bonfire and tell tall tales. Hopefully a friend or two of his will stop by and join us.
I usually plan some sort of project to do while there. Two years ago it was his memorial scrapbook. This year, I’ve got a couple of projects in mind. I’ll put a new wreath up too, of course.
My memorial project is a memory box for Fritz. Dad kept his collar and of course lots of pics of his best friend. I made a dog tag for Fritz and bought some pet themed scrapbook supplies to finish the shadow box frame I picked up for this project. I’ll be able to display it on the wall. Something that was important to Dad, in honor of both of them.
My other special project is going to be updating the 12v lighting. I purchased some light sockets to convert the 3 propane lamps to battery/solar power. Everything I do will be reversible as I don’t want to permanently alter them. If need be, I’ll be able to pull the sockets out and replace the mantles and use the propane again. I also got a switch so these will be able to easily turn on/off.
Over the years I have installed a hodge podge of 12v lighting, over the sink, stove and sun room. I’ll be replacing the lights over the sink and stove with these nice RV lights. Easy single or double light switches for adjustable brightness. Then I’ll update the sun room with one of the lights I took down. That way the kids will have a light over their bed. Every light downstairs will have a switch instead of alligator clips! 👍🏼
In addition, I want to make a hanging light for the center of the cabin. It will be something like the one I made for Jake’s cabin. I just have to finalize a design. I want it to be dual power, AC & DC so either way we can have the light on. But this project will probably be done at a later date.
We started this lap book the first week in February. For this session we watched copious amounts of YouTube videos about desert biomes. Lesson enrichment included crafts like mask making and sand art. And we planned to prepare some prickly pear cactus to eat, if we could have found some locally. We incorporated lessons about sand and silica and glass as well. So this module was heavy on the crafting and very hands on.
Since my kiddos were sick during this beginning of this lesson plan, we relied more heavily on videos. Even when your sick you can still watch a video. 👍🏼
We also spent a fair amount of time discussing sand. What is sand made of? We learned that sand is mostly rock particles but can also contain glass, bone, shell or coral fragments and more commonly in today’s age, plastic particles. (Of course this includes beach sand in addition to desert sand.)
So after a series of sand composition, construction use (desert sand does not work well for construction purposes) and magnetic sand experiment videos we made some sand art!
There were lots of writing practice sheets, some math and endless desert fact sheets! Lap books are a lot of fun.
Apparently it’s too much to ask of these northern grocery stores to stock cactus in the fresh produce dept. So we’re going to have to be satisfied with pickled nopalitos. Which the entire family approves of, to some degree.
And that’s it for another fascinating study of our amazing planet’s diversity. What’s up next? Good question.
Purim 5782.
We had great fun at our Purim Party. Our theme this year was The King’s Garden. Thing 1 won the prize for the Mushroom costume that she made, I was runner up as Mother Nature. Everyone had a lot of fun.
As is our congregation’s custom, the children & teens performed a reading of the story of Esther in play form. It was a grand performance to all of our delight!
With half of our group being some percentage Irish we may also have had some corned beef & cabbage, in addition to hamantaschen and other festive foods. Quite the cultural culinary dining experience.
The drive home was full of discussion for next year’s costume ideas! We enjoy the creativity of making our own costumes! The hard part is always picking just the right one!
I’ve been wishing for a flea market locally for about a year now. We have pop up markets in the summer but nothing year round. I decided that instead of pining away for a nonexistent local market I could use my dormant Etsy shop for my creative outlet.
Oh and a new addition to the shop: Thing 1. Known elsewhere as The Lowest Pickle, she’s got some of her stickers and jewelry listed.
Head over to Bearthangel on Etsy and check it out. Sign up for notifications when we post new items!
Alaska on my mind... 