Happy Anniversary to my Seester and her wonnerful hubby John.
These two are the goofy-est and well-suited for each other!
And I love them and miss them!
Here’s to many more fun and fabulous years together!!
An abandoned camp fire turned into this:
The fire started on Monday, Tuesday morning (when this photo was taken) the fire had grown to 2,500 acres. By Tuesday afternoon the fire was estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000 acres.
By Tuesday night the fire had grown to 20,000 acres. It reached Tustemena Lake yesterday and started burning around the lake moving more westerly then east.
We really need some rain. Today the wind direction changed and blew that huge ash cloud over the top of Soldotna clear up to Anchorage even. We worked outside in a eerie overcast and ash fall.
This fire is near Soldotna but burning south and so far hasn’t been a threat to structures or humans. Some folks near Kasilof are getting nervous and voluntarily evacuating. Evacuation procedures are being given to Funny River residents in the event of a change in direction of the fire but no evacuation has been ordered at this point.
There’s nothing like a 5.5 to wake you up early on Sabbath… 6:16 am. Initially it was recorded as a 5.8 but those scientists always have to downgrade things.
We were in Ninilchik at a friend’s cabin and so were pretty close to the epicenter. It was a moving experience, not scary at all.
During March and April we spent three weekends going back and forth to the cabin, when we could actually drive a vehicle out! We spent lots of time working on the outhouse and have very little left to do. We added bats to finish out the front and sides, only have about 3 more to add to the back (we ran out!). We also put shingles on the roof and insulated the inside roof and walls. It is nice a cozy inside!
I think Dad would be pleased!
The last weekend out we started sanding on the cabin. The kids helped and actually did most of the sanding.
Then together we put a coat of sealer on. Wow, what a difference!
Dad had started the front of the cabin so we only have to finish the gable end on the front, then the rest. One side down, the second side started sanding (we started putting sealer on the porch/sunroom part) and then the back-end to do.
And for our valiant efforts (mostly on the kid’s part) we had some awesome pizza for supper!
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.
Seeing this picture circulate on Facebook made me hungry…

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/alexissalyers07
Included with the photo was a recipe for making this scrumptious looking dish, which included a wheat based fry bread. So I decided to try something made with cornmeal for more of an authentic south of the border flavor (not sure where this concoction originated to be honest).
I found this recipe for fried cornmeal bread which I tried out for my wheat-free version. It was okay, needs a bit of tweaking, but everyone loved them! A nice change of pace from Taco Salad!
Many a year ago I made my Dad a crocheted rag rug. I thought it was pretty awful, I told him to put it in the outhouse! Fast forward to last year and I found that same rug in the sauna, he still had it and it was still in one piece!
So back to today, I have all of these clothes out at the cabin that are well-worn by Dad. Not really worth giving away and besides, I’m such a sentimental sap I would rather keep them. So I decided to make a rug out of his sweatshirts, he had so many of them!
I love the look of a braided rug. And this one is so thick and comfy to stand on! The only drawback is that they take a long time to create. I’ve got several hours and trips out to the cabin invested in this rug already and I’m only half done at this point.
I decided that I didn’t want to wait for a rug and opted for a woven rag rug made from T-shirts like this one that Dad has had for 20 years or so…
And I made a simple loom from a piece of plywood I found out in the shed and some paneling nails…
Then I went to work wrapping and weaving, and in about 3 hours time I was ready to finish the ends….
And then I had a finished rug for my little kitchen floor!
Now if I can just get my braided rug finished….
I wanted to do something special to mark the one year anniversary of Dad’s death. Going out to the cabin seemed like the most appropriate but with my schedule this week I couldn’t make that work. So I planned a cook-out at Captain Cook Discovery Picnic area. We had a fire and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. The sky was clear, just a bit hazy across the inlet. The tide was coming in.
The kids got to play and roam around exploring. We took quite a few pictures!
We enjoyed a fire, a hot meal cooked over an open flame, and then for the grown-ups, an extra special treat:
Jake gave us a special gift, a bottle of Dad’s rhubarb wine. Dad had spent time showing Jake how to make his famous wine and Jake still had a few bottles, so he gave us one. It was the perfect toast!
The sunset was beautiful. A perfect ending.