Today just feels like one of those days…
Hope your days is roses and/or humor!
P.S. This photo is a Facebook timeline photo, feel free to share if you like!
Way back on May 6th we went on our first official home-school field-trip here in Alaska,to the Anchorage zoo! The trip was organized by our home-school group IDEA and was focused on Alaska’s nocturnal animals. We got a behind-the-scenes look at several of the zoo’s exhibits and a good show by the brown bears!
Wolves
Brown bears. The zoo has one Kodiak, one Grizzly and one “brown bear”. Although they are all officially “brown bears”.
The younger male decided that just lying around was boring, so he got up, sauntered over to the female (who was laying on this log) and bit her right on her rump. To which she responded by getting up and giving him a good show of teeth and growls. The larger male Kodiak came over to see what the ruckus was and they all swayed around for a bit before the young male plopped down on the aforementioned log. It seems that all he really wanted was this wooden pillow. The kids were all rolling with laughter, as if the show was choreographed especially for us! Thing 2 was especially enthralled as the brown bears were his favorite!
Learning time!
The kids learned a great deal about the habitats and habits of nocturnal animals. They even got to participate in making a treat for the red fox! They made a huge tub full of straw and little goodies for the fox to dig around in and enjoy, called “enrichment”, and included things such as quail wings, fur, spices and feathers. They also made little treat balls for her to eat, these were quite messy and much to Thing 1’s dismay, smelled horribly bad, she had to wear gloves in order to participate. 😉 Besides this minor set-back, her favorite part of the zoo trip was seeing the pretty foxes and her most favorite, the snow leopards.
Mr. Pickles, he was quite a ham.
The biologist who gave the lecture brought in Mr. Pickles for the grand finale`. He is a young porcupine and all he wanted to do it seemed was to climb out of his enclosure and get to the kids sitting around, he wanted to play. We all had a good laugh over his antics! Mr. Pickles won the heart of Little Bit, she giggled so much over his antics! Her version of “porky-pine” is too cute!
Fun at the Alaska Zoo!
The weather was a bit dreary, some scattered showers and cooler than we expected, but we still managed to have some fun. After-all, this is Alaska!
The best part for Mom was the fun of getting to know new friends and getting to go shopping at Costco after the zoo! Ha!
I made this photo collage of my 2 Dads back in 2012 and it is still appropriate for today!
And here’s a new video wishing my Richie a very Happy Father’s Day!
So thankful I have a great step-dad!
Missing Dad still…
To all of you guys out there who are good Dads and Fathers, have a great day… one filled with fishing, backyard barbecues, funky ties that you will never wear and most of all love!
There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.
— John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994
Today is our one year anniversary in Alaska!
This was our first glimpse at the beauty surrounding Homer last June.
June 2013 overlooking Kachemak Bay
We’ve seen all four seasons cycle, bears, moose, a wolf, a few caribou, and so much beautiful scenery. One never grows weary of it all! We’ve been awed, inspired, stuck in the mud, stuck in the snow, on adventures we never even dreamed of… Alaska is a good fit for us. Being surrounded by nature, learning, exploring, living and loving…. a great way of life!
We are looking forward to new adventures this summer! Spending time at the beach searching for treasures beyond measure, maybe doing a little fishing… who knows??
To all of our loved ones, we miss you and send you lots of loves!! XOXOXO
Happy Anniversary to my Seester and her wonnerful hubby John.
On their wedding day.
These two are the goofy-est and well-suited for each other!
Claire & John
And I love them and miss them!
Here’s to many more fun and fabulous years together!!
An abandoned camp fire turned into this:
The smoke cloud as seen from the north side of Kenai.
The fire started on Monday, Tuesday morning (when this photo was taken) the fire had grown to 2,500 acres. By Tuesday afternoon the fire was estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000 acres.
Taken near Soldotna, Tuesday afternoon.
By Tuesday night the fire had grown to 20,000 acres. It reached Tustemena Lake yesterday and started burning around the lake moving more westerly then east.
We really need some rain. Today the wind direction changed and blew that huge ash cloud over the top of Soldotna clear up to Anchorage even. We worked outside in a eerie overcast and ash fall.
This fire is near Soldotna but burning south and so far hasn’t been a threat to structures or humans. Some folks near Kasilof are getting nervous and voluntarily evacuating. Evacuation procedures are being given to Funny River residents in the event of a change in direction of the fire but no evacuation has been ordered at this point.
During March and April we spent three weekends going back and forth to the cabin, when we could actually drive a vehicle out! We spent lots of time working on the outhouse and have very little left to do. We added bats to finish out the front and sides, only have about 3 more to add to the back (we ran out!). We also put shingles on the roof and insulated the inside roof and walls. It is nice a cozy inside!
Adding bats to the door.
I think Dad would be pleased!
The last weekend out we started sanding on the cabin. The kids helped and actually did most of the sanding.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 sanding the logs.
Then together we put a coat of sealer on. Wow, what a difference!
A fresh coat of sealer!
Dad had started the front of the cabin so we only have to finish the gable end on the front, then the rest. One side down, the second side started sanding (we started putting sealer on the porch/sunroom part) and then the back-end to do.
And for our valiant efforts (mostly on the kid’s part) we had some awesome pizza for supper!
Homemade pizza!
Seeing this picture circulate on Facebook made me hungry…
Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/alexissalyers07
Included with the photo was a recipe for making this scrumptious looking dish, which included a wheat based fry bread. So I decided to try something made with cornmeal for more of an authentic south of the border flavor (not sure where this concoction originated to be honest).
I found this recipe for fried cornmeal bread which I tried out for my wheat-free version. It was okay, needs a bit of tweaking, but everyone loved them! A nice change of pace from Taco Salad!
Many a year ago I made my Dad a crocheted rag rug. I thought it was pretty awful, I told him to put it in the outhouse! Fast forward to last year and I found that same rug in the sauna, he still had it and it was still in one piece!
So back to today, I have all of these clothes out at the cabin that are well-worn by Dad. Not really worth giving away and besides, I’m such a sentimental sap I would rather keep them. So I decided to make a rug out of his sweatshirts, he had so many of them!
Three sweatshirts worth braided and stitched together, working on the next set of three now.
I love the look of a braided rug. And this one is so thick and comfy to stand on! The only drawback is that they take a long time to create. I’ve got several hours and trips out to the cabin invested in this rug already and I’m only half done at this point.
I decided that I didn’t want to wait for a rug and opted for a woven rag rug made from T-shirts like this one that Dad has had for 20 years or so…
A blast from the past!
And I made a simple loom from a piece of plywood I found out in the shed and some paneling nails…
My simple loom, laying out a pattern with T-shirt loops.
Then I went to work wrapping and weaving, and in about 3 hours time I was ready to finish the ends….
Crocheting the edge of the rag rug.
And then I had a finished rug for my little kitchen floor!
All done! 6 T-shirts worth in this rag rug.
Now if I can just get my braided rug finished….
Alaska on my mind... 