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.
We drove the truck to the cabin last weekend. The trail is fairly smooth and it is so much nicer being able to drive in comfort and warmth!
There are so many things to be done, we got started on some of them. I spent Sunday morning and afternoon cleaning the kitchen area. All of the cupboards need de-cluttering and cleaning. I found a new roll of shelf liner that Dad had bought and I got started on cleaning out the cabinets. I started with the dishes, what a hodgepodge of stuff! Alaska glassware at its best!
Once the dishes were organized and new shelf liner installed, I started on the food storage areas. No wonder Dad hadn’t done this yet, it is a little difficult to get way back in there to clean the shelves, especially on the bottom. Being a contortionist or a small child might be helpful for reaching those hidden areas. I found some interesting icons from another era… fruit preserves and jelly from as far back as 1993! I went to visit Dad in ’94, so in theory, this stuff could have been there when I first saw my Dad’s place. Wow!
The kids spent most of the time outside playing.
Girls swinging.
The temps were in the thirties, sun shining, no wind to speak of, it was glorious. Dean got started on finishing the outhouse. He added corner trim and bats on one side and a handle on the inside of the door, next time we’ll finish the rest and hopefully if it is warm enough, put on some stain and sealer. The outhouse is a “two-seater” and is designed for a center wall separating the “pointers” from the “sitters”. The second door still needs to be cut out and the dividing wall finished.
Adding corner trim.
We cut and peeled some Alder and smoked a turkey in the smokehouse for a few hours to give it a nice smoke flavor, then finished it in the over. We ate well that night with coleslaw and potato salad on the side of our barbecued turkey. Pealing Alder was a new experience for me.
Cut and pealed Alder, ready for the smoker. And a Camp Robber looking for a morsel.
Smoking!
I also spent some time working on the braided rag rug that I’m making from Dad’s sweat shirts. It is a work-in-progress. Each time I’m out I get a little more braided and stitched together. So far I have 6 sweatshirts involved. Dad has a couple more out there that I can add to it. It wont be huge, but it will add some color to the floor and a nice place to put your little footsies in the morning! 😉
I have two braided rug projects going on at once now. The other is a T-shirt yarn braided rug that I started last year back in Kansas. Teresa mailed it to me a couple of weeks back and I have started stitching it together. The T-shirt yarn is already braided together, so I’m just stitching the braid, but still it takes time!
I decided to make the braided rug out of Dad’s clothes since some of them weren’t worth wearing, and he had so many, I thought it would be a good way to re-purpose the clothes without sending them to the landfill. Thing 1 has also been up-cycling some of his T-shirts into pillow covers and covers for the chair pads on the metal chairs at the cabin. Waste not, want not!
Gives new meaning to the nickname Kansas Jayhawk….
Thing 2’s new do.
It was time to cut Thing 2’s hair, he was looking like Shaggy only without the facial hair. A couple of weeks ago he had spiked his hair up after taking a shower and thought he was pretty cool. So without telling him what I was doing, I cut him a fauxhawk and he was very happy about it!
Proud of his hair.
You can see how long his hair was, I didn’t cut any length off of the hawk! Gg-ma & pa would have been calling him “Sue”.
Hang dead critters on the wall of course.
Well, first I had to refurbish my small moose rack.
This is one of the racks that Dad had hanging outside, it was bleached and had some lichen growing on it.
I wanted to make it look as natural as possible and not “painted”, and I had only a shoestring budge… which is not as easy as it sounds!
I found some brown paint and corduroy pants at the local thrift store for $1.50. I already had some black shoe polish and a board to mount the rack on.
First I brushed off the mossy stuff and then painted the rack with diluted brown paint. After that was dry, I mounted the rack on the board, which I had also painted brown. I used the corduroy pants to cover where I mounted it so it would look a little nicer. And then Dean helped me mount it on the wall.
I think it turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself…
the finished refurbished moose rack
I also decided to put my bear rug back on the wall. The kids were just too hard on the old boy and were tearing up his hide terribly. He was lonely so I gave him a friend and hung a beaver pelt up with him.
It looks like Alaska around here.
Bear and beaver
Part of the wonder of living here in Alaska is the wildlife. I enjoy seeing moose and eagles regularly. Once in a while I get to see a caribou or a bear. Today I added the wolf to the list of sighted animals. We were driving down the Kenai Spur Highway and saw a few cars pulled over to the side of the road, this usually means there’s something to look at. As we drove by I spotted the “something”, a lone wolf. I wish I had my camera handy at that moment. Once I got over the initial excitement of seeing my first wolf, I thought of my niece, she would be thrilled. 🙂 Now, seeing one a far off from the comfort of my truck is the ONLY way I care to see a wolf, thank you very much.
When I first decided to come up here, I wanted to spend a few months in the summer living in Dad’s cabin. That didn’t work out for a number of factors. Now that I’ve been here for a while and spent several days out there, the longing for living there returns. When I think about, all that is necessary to do so for a family, I think to myself that I must be crazy! The logistics and all. But I can’t shake it. It draws me like a beacon on a dark night.
I have no definite plans about being able to do so yet, but the thought is there, revolving in the depths of my mind. Maybe… just maybe… one of these days.
Well we have the cabin roof decked and tar paper on, then we put in windows and insulated around them yesterday. Shingles are going on today. Once we get the gable ends enclosed and doors on we can put HEAT inside and work in comfort! 🙂 There is much sanding to be done. I finished one wall up yesterday, only 6 more to go inside and then the entire outside of the house. Yes, lots of sanding.
Plus I was able to see four moose yesterday from the job site. I love moose. I don’t think I’ll ever grow weary of seeing those large goofy looking critters!
A funny thing I’ve notice lately, how I still refer to myself as a “girl”. I guess I always have, and maybe always will. Does anyone else do the same thing? Is it human nature? Or wishful thinking on my part? Will I still be a “girl” when I’m 60?
Maybe it is because I still like to play and have fun with the little ones. Maybe it’s because I never really grew up on the inside, the female Peter Pan perhaps? nah, not likely, just ask my sister. 😉
Truth is, I’m just a big girl now. Taller, older, a little wider… er, I mean wiser. 😉 but I’m still a girl.
Seeing my first volcanic activity today on the way home from work. Mt. Redoubt had a small plume of smoke/ash. It seems that there was a 2.0 earthquake this afternoon over there and the result is some venting.
Alaska on my mind... 