We’ve been especially busy working on our house, inside and out. We’ve still got work to do but we’ve surpassed a major goal, finishing our kitchen/great room floor. I told the kiddos once we got that done we’d ease up on the work load a little bit and enjoy some family time.
So in honor of a being a little less driven, here are a few things we’ve done recently…
Bear puzzleSteampunk owl trinket box by Lil BitWolf puzzleLil Bit’s first salvage and flip piece. She refinished for her bedroom.
Thing Two is here for a short stay and we’ve been enjoying doing puzzles with him. Lil Bit helps and even AK Boy (aka Lil Mister) does a few bits until he tries of it. It’s been a lot of laughs over silly voices and corny jokes and even a John Candy movie thrown in for good measure
Summer has been a whirlwind of activities for us. Mostly work activities, but still. We’ve spent most of every available day starting new projects, finishing old ones, yard work, garden work, tending our animals, renovations, new school year and little time for extra fun or adventures. Such is the life here occasionally.
The latest project that the littles and I have been working on since mid August is finishing the kitchen floor.
Our foundation is slab-on-grade and the entirety of the main floor is unfinished concrete with the exception of Lil Bit’s room being laminate. Well we did have laminate in the kitchen, but three days after it’s completion we had the chimney fire which ruined the laminate. 🥺 And we have been living with it ever since.
The main kitchen had essentially become a storage space for all our excess: tools, job materials, renovation materials, food storage and junk. Our first order of business was to empty the space out and tear up the ruined laminate. The kiddos were great at this and had it done rather quickly after the arduous task of moving out the stuff which took us a number of weeks.
This kitchen is large, roughly 17′ x 16′ floor space. There’s appliances, including two freezers, that I cannot move out so we had to do the floor in halves. Everything that can’t go outside was shifted to the west side and the eastern half was completely cleared out.
Then the prep work began on the concrete. Identifying all the cracks that needed repair, we only had two main cracks from all the earthquakes, and a few minor cracks that really didn’t need filled. I fixed those up and began cleaning the slab. Lots of sanding & scrubbing! Unsealed concrete never seems to get fully clean.
Yesterday I began the final scrubbing with the degreaser/cleaner that came with the epoxy paint kit. And two rinses with water and two hours later, the floor was ready for dry time!
Let the fun begin! My helpers were eager to get started. They edged the entire space while I roller, sprinkled and sprayed the finish. Now it’s time to dry. This is the hard part, waiting to use the space that we’ve worked so hard on!!
I started this journey as a way to keep in touch with our family & friends as we made our new life in Alaska. I felt that writing it down once instead of conveying the same message multiple times made much more sense! Now it’s been over a decade. My posts are infrequent and haphazard! But I persist.
They say time heals all wounds, but I rather think that time just passes by. The gaping hole left in our hearts is still there, but it’s hidden behind the life that we’ve lived~the experiences, the joys, and the sorrows~ that have kept us occupied since that day. It’s a little less prominent in the landscape but still there, nonetheless.
Happy birthday Dad. Miss you still.
A candle flickers out of sight, but in your heart I still burn bright. Think not of sadness, that I’m not near, think of gladness and joyous cheer.
Today is the day for in-person voting for the open primary. Since making ranked choice voting the law a couple years ago, we have these open primaries where you vote for one name out of the list and the top 4 advance to the general (the general election is ranked choice). I asked a lady if she had voted yet and she didn’t know if she could, as she had been previously been convicted of a felony and served her time. Sad to say I didn’t know our State laws concerning that issue so I had to look it up! Alaska is one of the states that automatically reinstates someone’s right to vote after serving prison, (parole and/or probation completed), if unconditionally released. One must simply register to vote again. So we both got educated today!
Do you know your State’s laws about voting and felony convictions? How do you feel about it?
Another fair has come and gone! Winter is coming!! We all did really well with our exhibits this year.
The Fair board opted not to give out fair bucks this year, much to the little people’s dismay. So I made a deal with them. For every red ribbon they get a dollar. For every blue ribbon they get $5. And for every purple division ribbon they get their choice of an ice cream cone or Italian soda. That seemed to take the sting of no fair bucks away.
They had to wait three days to find out the results. But boy oh boy, I think I got snookered.
First thing we see when we walk in the door.
First place AND division champion.
He was certainly proud of himself as well as tickled about his ice cream cone prize!
They both did well, Lil Bit had an amazing number of ribbons. She chose a specialty drink at the coffee shop.
[Posting a year late, apparently I saved all my last posts as drafts instead of publishing?]
Tree roots.Looks like the perfect location for a little fairy village or a gnome home!Near Jackalof Bay.Tree creatures.Each one teach one session.Huge tree stump from selective logging.Forestry hike
This was the first part of the journey, a little forest ecology field trip. We learned that there are naturally hybridized Sitka-White spruce trees here in this temperate rain forest. And they grow huge!
Tree roots bleached from the salt water.The remains of an urchin, the test.A sea cucumber me thinks.Hermie the Crab.So many barnacles.Lil Bit walking in the deposits of broken shells. ASMR esq.A boy in the cleft of the rock.So many sea snails. AK Boy found a skeleton of a sea star with muscles and barnacles attached There’s a tiny little sea star right in the center, on the kelp. Tide pooling adventures.
Afterwards it was back to the bunkhouse for some much needed rest. Walking miles in mud boots is not advisable. But we were ready for the next adventure come morning!
AK Boy at the microscope 🔬Lil Bit zooming in.What type of creatures we might see.Alexa explaining how the plankton samples are taken.Lab time!
Lab time was quite eye opening. 🫤🔬🤢 Remember that time at fish camp when pulling nets and a bunch of sea water splashed on your face and some got on your lips and you licked them… Yeah, you ate plankton.
Big chunky sea star.Color stripes on this sea star.Lil Bit stuck to the net.This tank was full of sea stars that are in the stage 3 (super low) tides. Not usually seen but sometimes.He finally worked up the nerve to pick one up. The basic bish of sea stars. 🤩There was a large table of readily found beach combing treasures. Labeled neatly for identification purposes.A crusty crab! I think this one is a “decorator crab”.Touch Tank & interactive lab.
That’s it for our end-of-year field trip. Lots of learning and fun was
List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
Being limited to three is somewhat of a torture I think, but here goes.
Books were an escape for me as a youngster. I could go anywhere, to any time. I remember reading many huge (by teen standards) books but a few stand out to me. Clan of the Cave Bear, Gone With the Wind, Pet Cemetery. Limitless numbers of horror books, King and Koontz being my two favorite authors. Oy. None of them hold the same meaning for me that they once did. I doubt I would read any of them again, but they were perfect for a certain place in time.
The assortment of books collectively known as the Bible, specifically the Book of Esther “for such a time as this“, Daniel, Ezekiel & the Revelations of John, and the Psalms & Proverbs are all full of meaning.
Once my Dad told me if I wanted to understand him and his philosophy on the world I should read Atlas Shrugged. I did. It is still on my shelf.
Although not a specific title, my assortment of do-it-yourself, how-to resource books are probably my largest topic section! From herb, tree, flower and fungi identification books which are timeless & well loved resources. Then there are my cookbooks… The Sourdough Bible, cheese making guides, Gluten Free Gourmet and Canning books. Animal husbandry, gardening, hunting and home repair manuals. Oy. The list goes on and on.
I suppose every book I’ve ever read has had some sort of impact on me. Little snippets embedded into my psyche.
But the three that I would pack into my last bag would be The Bible, Atlas Shrugged and Edible Mushrooms of Alaska! 🧐
It’s been a decade +1 now. Looking back over some timeline photos with gratitude and admiration for the many wonderful people in our lives and glorious experiences. And for the young people (grown-ups?!?!) my oldest two have become (the first becoming the “Legal” for sure grown-up age today!)
I’m often scratching my head in wonderment of how, exactly, the time has gone so quickly. The business of life steps on the gas when you’re not looking.
This summer is getting underway and we are trying to take advantage of every single moment of decent weather! (Two summers of rain and dreary days has us in a deficit !) We’ve got a to-do list a mile long to get done and life moments to pause and celebrate. Which of course leads to the aforementioned warp 9 speed of life.
Near Jackalof Bay, Alaska
I hope you take a moment today to pause, breathe deeply, walk barefoot and be grateful.
Ahoy mates! We’ve shoved off and we’re underway to the Kasitsna Bay Research Facility to explore our marine and forest ecology! This is an overnight trip across Kachemak Bay. Seas are mostly calm, overcast skies, it’s supposed to rain but so far it’s just cool and overcast.
Aboard the Discovery with Captain Victoria!
I’ll be sure to post more about our adventures when we return home! You can see our adventures here!
Alaska on my mind... 