Alaska on my mind…

I seem to have been caught in a time warp! Holy smoke’ms its November 1st! Wait? What? Where has the time gone. It seems like only yesterday I was out at the cabin putting on some new sealer… or stuck in the snow trying to drive out (not a good memory!) or waiting for break-up to finish and the snow to melt away. And look, now we are cutting wood and burning in the stove, waiting for some white stuff to accumulate. Time does fly here, guess that means I’m staying busy and enjoying life.

November brings some fun stuff for us. *First, don’t forget to set your clocks back tomorrow.*  There is a fashion show coming up that Thing 1 is going to participate in. It is a recycled fashion show where the clothing has to be fashioned out of items destined for the landfill. She has to design and create her outfit then model it runway style! We will keep you posted on the progress of this exciting project!

November is a month full of birthdays… the Twins, Macadoodle, Me, Myself and Mom, some old friends and a few others, and an anniversary thrown in for fun… Plus the food & fun of Thanksgiving! A lot to keep us busier!

What a busy day! Our first day free of rain and available to get some work done around the place. A good frost this morning was a reminder that we need to finish our firewood cutting and hauling. Spent some time harvesting garden goodies like peas, squash and rhubarb. Still have more peas and rhubarb to harvest, and turnips, beets and who knows what else! Not much time to sit down at the computer!

Spent the day thinking about Dad.  Today is his birthday. This time last year, we had just spent a chilly night ‘camped’ out under a dilapidated cabin due to being lost in the woods near Dad’s cabin. We learned a lot about make-shift shelters and building a fire in the drizzle/rain. Also about staying warm and being careful about not getting lost again… things like that!

Having some friends over tonight for dinner. We’ll enjoy a toast of some sweet rhubarb wine in honor of Dad, of course!

Circa 1997

Happy birthday Dad!

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon processing a big bag of rhubarb that was given to us. I put 1 1/2 gallons in the freezer, made a batch of rhubarb syrup, prepped a gallon for rhubodka (rhubarb vodka) and Thing 1 and I made a Pineapple Rhubarb crisp for dessert.

Dad’s garden with rhubarb in the foreground.

Rhubarb does exceptionally well here. We are planning a nice rhubarb patch here once we get out to divide the plants in Dad’s garden. Besides the usual, rhubarb cobbler, we try to use it in other ways. I made some rhubarb salsa a while back, it was pretty good! Did you know that rhubarb has many health benefits? Of course one doesn’t want to overload it with sugar, but cup for cup, rhubarb has as much calcium as milk! And easier to digest. It is high in fiber. Also a wonderful source of folate, vitamin C and believe it or not, very high in Vitamin K! 45% RDA in one serving of Vit K. Wow! As far as minerals go it is high in manganese, potassium and phosphorus.  Add some rhubarb to your diet today!! Check here for stats and a yummy rhubarb salad recipe to boot!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Wishing all Mothers everywhere a special day, but an extra special one to my Mother.

Mom and Roscoe

My Mom and her tiny terrorist dog, taken a few years ago back when Roscoe was sorta cute…

Be with you.

Corny Star Wars joke. Hope you enjoyed that!

Today makes 11 months, one more to go until that big one year mark!

Had a quick overnight trip to our friend’s cabin at Ninilchik. The weather was gorgeous. Took some pix of the awesome sunset.

May sunset beyond the trees.

Almost gone, but still beautiful.

The Good Friday Earthquake, aka The Great Alaskan Earthquake began at 5:36 P.M. AST on Good Friday, March 27, 1964. The epicenter was in Prince William Sound and produced massive tsunamis that reached Hawaii and US mainland coastlines and as far away as New Zealand, Japan and Antarctica to name a few.

This earthquake changed our understanding of Plate Tectonics and how mega-quakes are caused.

Wow, we are at the end of the month. Seems like this month just zipped by. Probably because we are rushing to finish this cabin we’ve been working on since July (well, since August for me).  But wow, tomorrow is November, then we are on the count-down until the end of the year.

Time seems to fly these days.

Add the end of Daylight Savings time on Sunday, and the days will really seem short for us.

Our daylight hours are slipping away fast.

But the good news is that when the winter solstice arrives, we will be back to adding minutes instead of subtracting them. 🙂