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!!
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!
Where has the time gone? Between working snow removal (Dean) and running the sawmill for a month we’ve kept busy. A month ago we were riding snow machines and wearing the warm clothes. Now we’re digging drainage ditches, jumping on the trampoline and wearing summer attire.
Training the new guy. Feels like summer.
Also last month I started experimenting with oyster mushroom cultivation and started my first tote of substrate. I had started with a grow kit from Home Depot. I grew one out last year and we enjoyed the ‘shrooms so much I thought why not grow more?
Growing kit.
I pulled a bit of the grow block off and used it to innoculate some straw and coffee grounds. I let it sit and grow mycelium until today when I checked it and I had pinning!! Woo hoo!
Lil baby oyster mushrooms!!
Can’t wait to eat them in about 10 days or so.
The kiddos set up the trampoline today, with some difficulty. But it’s up and ready for high energy kids. While we were out a large flock of sandhill cranes flew over chattering steadily. We’ve seen several geese flocks over the last few days but these were the first cranes. Summer is here.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Dean has been in the boat every available moment. He’s so excited about the prospect of halibut fishing at will. To be honest, so am I. But I still do have a house that needs finishing…
Future mushroom bed.
The kids helped me prep our wine cap mushroom bed today. We raked it out, layered cardboard first, then straw. We added our spawn and then top coated it with sawdust. Over that I put some wood mulch to keep the sawdust in place.
Straw layer with spawn scattered about.
Next on the list is an outdoor oyster mushroom bed. Maybe next weekend? And I’ve got to get another tote started indoors. I’ve got pearl and phoenix varieties for indoors.
The Oldest has plans for gardening this year, so a few more raised beds and updating our current hillside beds.
Back to work on the rec cabin build tomorrow. Another day another dollar.
The kids have been enjoying their new sleds at home. The driveway is well packed down and they can get a pretty good run going.
Little Mister has been learning to ride Lil’ Bit’s snow machine. He’s doing pretty good. Takes it nice and easy so far. His Dad packed down a trail around the cabin so he could get some practice laps in. Then he took him out on the trail for a longer ride.
Today we started working this moose up into sausage. Our two mainstays are country style sage breakfast sausage and Italian sausage. I took some time this morning to figure out my seasoning mixes before heading to the store to pick up a few necessary items.
Country breakfast sausage blend
It took me a lot longer than planned to get my shopping done so Dean prepped the grinder and started working on the moose before I got home. What a guy! He and Little Mister we’re ready to get grinding by the time I got my two sausage mixes ready.
Italian style sausage blend
Little Mister was very helpful but the grinder was too loud for him so…
Now it’s not so loud!
He and Dad got the first grind done then he helped Mom second grind and package our breakfast sausage. We got 10 lbs.
Breakfast sausage
My country sausage blend was a tad on the salty side. Note to self to adjust blend a little for the next batch.
We ended up with 20# of Italian sausage. I think there’s about 10 more pounds of meat left to process before getting the dog food started. Tomorrow we’ll do it all again.
The high was a balmy 29° F today so we decided it was a great day to smoke a turkey.
Dean got the grill going with an indirect heat set-up. I spatchcocked our little turkey. Oiled it up and put on a a Spice Island turkey rub. And then we smoked it for 4 hours.
Naked and oily.
After four hours I put it in a moderate oven for about 45 mins while I finished the sides.
Smoked spiced turkey.
I made a potato salad reminiscent of Grandma’s but not quite as much mustard and not totally mashed. Then I worked super hard to open the can of Bush’s baked beans to round out the meal. BBQ sauce and an olive/pickle tray and bam, dinner’s ready!
Alaska on my mind... 