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What else has been going on around here…
- We Made It! December 22, 2025
- We Make Do, So Can You! November 2, 2025
- Twice in 3 Days October 31, 2025
- Processing Day October 26, 2025
- Raspberry Saskatoon Mead October 18, 2025
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Daylight savings time has finally ended. I’m thankful for waking up at a normal hour without struggling to wake that extra hour early.
Most folks know how I detest the time change. I’m sure it’s nice for some but it doesn’t work so great up here. At least the sunrises a tad earlier.
Now it’s time for a cup of tea and catch-up day stuff.
#thankful #grateful #blessed #dst #akst #timechange
Another soggy day. If I can’t go to work and make money I might as well make food! More canning today, this time for the doggo. Expanding her food choices to include some chicken, and a lot more salmon.
I also need to get caught up on paperwork. Oy. I need a home version of the paperwork reduction act. Why is there so much paper??
I really appreciate these catch up days. I’m thankful to have the energy and drive to get things done, and thanks to Old Man Winter, the time to do it.
Weather forecast says more rain tomorrow before it turns colder and brings wintery mix. Oy. Maybe I’ll get my tulips and daffodils planted tomorrow?
All this rain has played havoc with our highway. Mudslide near Cooper Landing yesterday. Glad I don’t have to drive to Anchorage any time soon!!
#blessed #grateful #thankful
Coffee is our drink. Without it we cannot think.
We brew a pot in the morning & drink it up. Stop on the way to work for another cup.
We drink it blended, hot or cold. The flavor never grows old.
Thermos, travel cup or disposable, we drink it wherever we go.
At home, the cabin or on the beach, There’s no place brewing is out of reach.
Coffee machine, french press, brew bags, or jet boil, build a fire do the work, it’s worth the toil.
When fishing buddies need a treat, it’s Irish Cream in their cup you sneak.
At work when tempers flair, a coffee break always clears the air.
Every corner here a coffee stand, we have the most in the land.
There’s Allen Sisters, Kaladi’s, & True Blue,
Amore Mocha, Ammo Can & Brew 602.
Coffee snobs, café queens, call us anything you please.
We drink it black or dress it up, it’s always coffee in our cups!
#coffee #drinkofalaska #gojuice #cupofjoe #caffienenation #coffeesnob #cafequeen
Just a little gift from Jake this morning. His friend grew it and left it on his deck, a “little” cabbage. So he sends it to me and asks for a jar of sauerkraut. Okay!
I forgot to weigh it before I started cutting but the best guess is it weighed about 20 lbs. It wasn’t a very tight head so not as much there as you might think.
Then I sliced it all up and started mixing salt and beating the daylights out of it. It’s a great way to work out aggression! I also used some whey to jumpstart the lacto-fermentation process (WAP method, adapted from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon).
BTW, to get the whey I strain out some plain organic yogurt in cheesecloth. The resulting cheese will be used like cream cheese, it’s delicious. It also makes the BEST cheesecake.
After it was all said and done I got about a gallon of kraut. Jake gets the little jar. 😜
#aklife #preservingtheharvest #healthyfoods #lactoferment
Spruce bark beetles are ravaging our trees, everywhere. At home we have dozens dead but at the cabin they are more noticeable. Three lovely big spruce by the cabin have died and either us or the wind have taken them down. Cutting these trees was certainly bittersweet. I love these big ole trees. But they were no longer safe and had to go. Definitely a down.
It opened up the yard tremendously and let in more sunlight. Also less privacy, win some, lose some I guess.
Jake came out with his mini excavator to help take down the trees closest to the cabin as well as pull some stumps for us. While there I had him dig a test hole in a consistently wet spot of the driveway. After about half an hour we had a pretty good seep of clear water so it looks like I’ll be developing a spring house for fresh water!! I’m so excited! Up for sure!
We still have several downed trees to turn into cord wood. And a deck to finish. And another coat of sealer to get on the cabin before snow flies. Our last two weeks of moose season will be filled with chores during the “not hunting” hours. Here’s to having a successful and productive moose camp! Hoping for a big ole up!!
#aklife #drycabin #beetlespruce #beetlespruce #bettlespruce
Finished!! The building that is. There’s still plenty of clean up to be done this weekend. On to another waiting project.
#alaskabuilt
#cabinlife
#lakelife
#whitespruce
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.
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.
Then a two mile hike up to Fort McGilvray. An altitude gain of 650′, a “moderate” hike on the difficulty scale.
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.
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
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.
#aklife
#kayaking
Alaska on my mind... 