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!
Last January (2020) my Loc Lady was back home for a visit (she moved out of state a while back) and I happily made the trip up to Eagle River to meet her for maintenance. Mo rode with me and we had a good time on the drive up. It’s quite the drive, about 3 1/2 hours.
Since COVID hit my Loc Lady hasn’t been able to come back and we’re not sure when she’ll be able to. So I’m stuck with unruly, messy locs that I keep covered up for the most part. A year and a half is way to long to go between maintenance me thinks!
Fast forward to a friend of a friend knowing a gal that does Loc maintenance in Wasilla. So I’ve got an appointment for maintenance, day after tomorrow, and decided that I needed to do a deep clean. Gosh it’s been too long since I did the last one. 🤔 Even though I wash my hair weekly, I’m not exactly sure when that last deep clean was to tell the truth.
So I settled into my shower basin and started soaking my locs in a baking soda solution, (for those curious creatures), for about 15 minutes
Then I rinsed with an ACV solution.
Then a good rinse with fresh water and finally a lemon juice-essential oil rinse.
It will take a day for these babies to dry thoroughly. However, I feel better already.
Now I’m all ready for my new Loc Lady to work her magic! Can’t wait for beautiful locs that I don’t have to cover up.
Thing 1 is riding up with me this time. We had planned this road trip for her birthday but we had to reschedule. We’re looking forward to the mother/daughter time and I have a special surprise for her birthday!! Shhhh, don’t tell!!!
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.
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!
We’ve been working on our upstairs bathroom. It’s been partially out of service (the toilet) since early March when we had a smallish fire in the bathroom trash. Thank goodness for keeping fire extinguishers in our home! And for being home due to covid-19 shutdown!
Trashcan fire damage.
We had some drywall repair to do and let’s face it, neither one of us likes to do drywall. So it has been waiting on us to finish it. And finally we’re back to it. I’m tired of only one toilet in the house with 6 people!!
The meantime I’ve been sourcing materials as they go on sale or clearance. So when we were ready we could do the reno for less $$.
Beginning the drywall repairs.
Dean started sanding & applying more mud while I started to strip down the map decoupaged vanity top. I scored the surface and used some fabric softener mixed with water to loosen the paper. Most of it scraped right off after soaking for a while. The rest got a light sanding and then I wiped down the surface with a damp rag.
Next was fitting the tile to the vanity top. I rough cut the tile to fit, now I need to trim the edge pieces to fit the tile into place. I had intended to use penny tile, since it would be easy to fit and no cutting needed. The colors Home Depot had just weren’t right though, and this hex tile was perfect. Plus it was on clearance so I got a bargain deal on all the tile for about $13. Now I’ll be learning a new skill, cutting tile! Yippee!??!?
Rough fit tile.
Dean never has been fond of the dark taupe colored walls so we opted for a sage green color. With accents of beige tile, sable grout (bought on clearance for 10¢ a box!!) and one wood accent wall we hope to add interest to this unusually long, narrow, odd shaped bathroom.
Thing 1 is a junior this year and we decided to try something a little different for her Language Arts. Instead of some boring composition program she wanted to try blogging. This way she gets to do a lot of composing and writing practice.
Plus she shares her creativity in art and her budding culinary skills. Go over and check in on her at Sketchbooks & Dandelion Jam.
Alaska on my mind... 