Sunday, March 24, 2013

I’ve heard fog compared to pea soup and always thought it peculiar because fog is ethereally white, not green.  The thickness is the comparator, I suppose, and not the color but the vision of green fog doesn’t leave my imagining.  As we look out tonight toward Anchorage, Beverly gives us verbal updates…..Anchorage is gone….Eagle river is dimming….only the lights of Skyline are left….we are all alone in the world.  This happens often, and I never tire of having the rest of the world screened out while we are left in our mountain fortress in the clouds or sometimes, above the clouds.  That really is the most beautiful; luxuriating in the sun with the cloud’s ceiling below us, seeing not another human or habitation.  Some might say we are spoiled at times.  We are.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I opened my eyes this morning to the shadows of broken light creeping in the window; light broken by feathery shapes drifting past the source of the light.  The curtains are pulled on all but one window, and it took me a while to realize that snow was falling.  We've had two weeks of beautiful sunshine, misplaced from it’s normal time slot in January, and yet we’re glad it came.  You see, January is known for its beautiful clear days and it cold and crisp nights.  This year we call that March.  March days are like hot taffy pulled at both ends, lengthening into picturesque sweetness, striped with snow and sun and springtime play.  March days make me alive again; the rebirth of ambition flooding over me while the snow is still too deep to make me serious about accomplishing anything productive.  Time to play.

Friday, March 22, 2013

This morning I could smell and even taste, a buttery raisin-oatmeal cookie.  Now actually smelling or tasting were really beyond the reaches of the possible because I can still only partly breathe a oozy bit through one nostril, but the taste/smell thing happens in the olfactory lobe of the brain which has already stored the experience, so I didn’t really need to recreate it to relive it.  But that spicy just-baked odor of cinnamon and nutmeg and brown sugar and oatmeal blended with butter and eggs and flour put my craving into overdrive.  I had recently seen a recipe that I was able to find without too much difficulty, and as I read the instruction, I could tell that the creator was much fussier than I.  I mean, “Grease a single cookie sheet and place it in the middle of the oven with the temperature at 350.”  I guess the oven needs to get in the mood with a dry run before it gets the chance to actually bake a cookie.  Anyway, even in my still olfactorally-compromised condition, I mixed together the ingredients  (Peculiar-no nutmeg…..) , and baked the cookies (two trays at once) and they emerged from the oven a beautiful golden brown.  I could hardly wait for a bite.  Good.  But when your sensory apparatus is burdened with the sequellae of disease, stick with the cookies in your brain.  The ones in your mouth are bound to be a disappointment.

OK.  I don't blog much.  I am therefore at least temporarily repurposing my blog.  The ordeal of coming up with pictures and text and editing them into place was more than I could whip myself to do.  After all, there was undoubtedly something more important to do.....like do you know that we are on Season 9 of Grey's Anatomy?

Anyway, I began reading a book the other day about writing.  The book advised sitting down each morning and writing for 10 minutes.  No more.  I thought that anyone could write for 10 minutes.  Another author was telling someone how to write a novel.  He said, "Write a page a day.  In a year you have a book."  I'm going for the 10 minute solution for now.

Anyway, to have a place to keep this journal, what better place than my blog?????OK, well it's not too private and now I'm writing for an audience instead of just me.  But what the heck.....So,

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Head pounding like an internal, syncopated drum.  When I went to bed, I imagined I had taken enough meds to get me through the night, but 4AM came anyway, and when the sign-off last night was almost midnight, not much healing was happening.  Expansion in my brain can’t be a good thing.  Messy.  It  would just be messy if I started to leak, and yet leaking would be better than keeping the pressure bottled up inside. Not leaking of CSF or blood; just a little every-day mucous.  It is amazing how much we make and don’t even know it.  Between head and throat and lungs and gut and even the colon and rectum, there has to be a gallon a day.  And today, my whole gallon is in my maxillary sinuses.  The ache is in back of my neck and on top of my head, but the special pressure is in the sinuses….like the old joke about the guy with big lips  having a  tattoo  on the inside; Inflate to 30 pounds.” Or maybe Goldie Hawn.  Someone stuck the hose in  and connected it up, but forgot to stop at 30 pounds…and that has me wondering, what is the maximum?  40? 50? 79?  I don’t know, but like I said, if it were to feel better, it would be messy.

Autumnal Somnolescence

There are those who might say that I don't post often enough, but I counted and I have 12 posts. Many would say that is plenty. Like me. But I suppose that for the interested....or bored....it is time for another. Since the excitement of our camping trip, we covered a lot of territory. Dip netting, for instance. We made two separate and only somewhat productive trips back to the Kenai to harvest the bounty of the Red Salmon run. We try and do it every July 18 or so. This year the fish didn't choose to return in large numbers overall and certainly not on the days we picked. We did wind up with in the neighborhood of 50 fish which we hauled home, processed and froze. We even ate a few.

It seems that I can't get enough of concrete work. Two years ago I had built a set of concrete steps that stepped up the hill that the steps out of the back door of the garage emptied out on. Last year I decided that I didn't need to go all the way down the steps from the garage and then back up again, so I poured a slab that connected the two and eliminated the bottom two steps. After examining that again, I couldn't figure out why I had missed the fact that I wouldn't need to go down at all if I just eliminated the steps and poured the slab all the way across. And then once I got that poured, I realized how nice it would be if there were a patio extending away from the house at the same level as the slab that eliminate the steps altogether. As you can tell, there were several episodes of form-building, concrete mixing, pouring, and finishing. And now that it's done, I can't see why I didn't just do that in the first place. Its a learning thing.





I've continued my Baldy adventures. I pretend that I climb twice a week. Realistically, I probably do get up the mountain once a week, and the views have been beautiful this fall. As the blueberries and high bush cranberries have turned pink and red, the hills have been alive with color. The clouds rolling in and out have been dramatic. Our home is often masked by the clouds for a short time, and then is on top of the clouds while the rest of the city is beneath them.

My constant companion for my Baldy hikes is our old dog, Raisin. A friend gave her to us about 12 years ago, and she is a little the worse for wear, as we all are. She doesn't necessarily climb at my pace, but she is always not far behind. I don't even always go get her, but she knows. Last week, Robert and Curtis and I went to hike a 6 hour loop up to the mountain tops and down to the depths of the valleys. We didn't go get her because I was a little concerned about her making the trip. We stopped for a break about 1500 feet up and 2 miles or so away. As we sat there eating, she showed up ready to help us eat. She is deaf and doesn't see well, but her nose still works very well. Here is the Google Earth link, by the way, to our hike. If you click on the link and open it with Google Earth, and then execute the path, you will get an automated tour of the mountains and valleys along our hike. Pretty cool.

The termination dust (snow on the mountain tops for those of you not from Alaska) is coming down the mountains. We have had snow here twice so far and it won't be too long. I still have a lot of winter preparation to do, so I wouldn't complain if it were a while, but I'm afraid it will be here sooner than I am ready for.


Our garden has produced well this summer and we just harvested everything a week ago. Beverly has been trying to can and dehydrate and freeze the produce. We made 39 quarts of applesauce and canned 79 jars of green chili that Beverly's parents brought up from Arizona. We have been eating the salads and potatoes and the grandkids ate the strawberries all summer long. Beverly made blueberry syrup and jam and strawberry jam whenever the kids picked too many.

The Lord has wonderfully blessed us with health and happiness and the bounty of the land. May you have his choicest blessings upon you.

Beautiful Summertime

This has been the summer to remember. Our daily temperatures have been 70's and 80's since the end of May, and that is unheard of here. Last year we never really got a summer, but we are making up for it now. My biggest worry is that all the visitors will think this is normal and will all want to move up here and the next thing you know......California. Pretty soon we'll have even more people from outside telling us how to live and what resources we should use and how we should treat our animals. It would seem to the logical mind that having bears in downtown Anchorage is not a good idea as they tend to kill and eat things smaller than they are...like children. Those who know better than we however, preach the live and let live philosophy. They are willing to sacrifice injury or death to an innocent jogger on a bike trail than try to control the bear population. I deserve the bears; I live on the border of Chugach State Park. But those who live in a neighborhood should be able to expect the protection of their governmental authorities.

OK, enough politicizing. We have been ever busy. Beverly's brother and his children, all of our children and grandchildren (except Jonathon who is still on his mission) and two of our Sons-In-Law who had to work joined us on a mega-expedition to Homer and then across Katchemak Bay to Right Beach where we camped for 4 nights. The weather cooperated and we had a wonderful time. Everyone got along and we got in a little sea kayaking, hiking, campfiring, cooking, eating, and resting. We set up a large camp consisting of a Yurt (already there), a screen tent and canopy, a Costco carport, and 5 tents. All 24 of us (8 six and under) kept each other company and just played together. We got water from a spring and brought the food with us. General Beverly who planned and executed the whole endeavor like a military operation planned for every eventuality. Except that this was the day and time of the lowest tide of the year. The tide changes 23 feet in a day, and we had to haul all our gear down this ramp, and back up again when we returned.

On the way to Homer, Jennifer and Tyson's family and Mon's family left a day early to try clamming at Ninilchik. Unfortunately, after clamming, Tyson's truck got stuck in the sand. After a nailbiting experience for everyone, the tow truck showed up and pulled them out. Sadly, the tow truck wasn't so lucky.

Several of us decided to hike to a glacier and it was amazing. The raw energy of that incredible piece of ice moving down through a valley since ages ago has carved the rock and moved the earth like you wouldn't think possible. We ventured out onto the glacier a ways weaving around crevasses and dodging a stream on the ice that looks like it could have been a water slide out of a water park....except that it was 32 degrees and ended in a vertical waterfall that would have proved fatal for most adventurers.

Rebecca, Tyler, and Curtis kayaked back across the bay where we got loaded into our vehicles and headed north for home. All in all a great trip.

We have worked hard getting the garden into production and it finally is. We are eating our own lettuce and spinach and radishes and broccoli and whatever else looks like it should be eaten. The strawberries are starting to ripen and the carrots and cauliflower are growing. Squash has been a disappointment. It just likes hotter weather. Next year we hope to have a greenhouse to grow the hard-to-raise stuff in.

Fourth of July we stayed home and I built a barrel train for the grandkids. My brother-in-law, Kent Larson, built one for his grandkids in Safford, AZ and I was so jealous that I spent two days getting it together, but the kids seem to like it. Now we just have to deal with taking them for a ride every time we see any of them.

This past weekend, Beverly and I put aside all our guilt feelings of selfishness and went out to the cabin Thursday night. We hadn't been there since January and it was overgrown a bit. The bear had clawed through one corner again so I had to do a little repair work, but generally we stayed completely unoccupied for two days and got home about 11:30 PM Saturday...just in time to prepare for Sunday.

The Lord continues to bless us and we pray that he will continue to do so as we serve Him.

Mid-June With Summer Racing By.......

Here it is. My irregular catch up on what is going on in our world. In our last episode, you remember that Beverly had gone to help Sarah have a baby. That worked out and now Sarah is coming to visit this week. In fact, Beverly's brother, Mons and his sons are also coming to visit along with Rebecca and Sarah's husband, Chris. If you hadn't guessed, Beverly has engineered a Family Vacation/Reunion in Katchemak Bay out of Homer. Including the outsiders and those that live here, we will have about 24 souls to haul to Homer, get across the bay to Right Beach where we will camp and kayak and hike and fish and whatever else we feel like for about 5 days. We hope to get in a little clamming as well as general sight-seeing. We are feverishly working on all the details including getting the gear in shape for the trip.
Carolyn and Curtis had a birthday party here for Cayden that was described by the mothers as "brilliant". They had me dump a couple of loader buckets of dirt in a pile and then invited the boys to a Tonka Truck Birthday Party. The kids brought their own Tonkas and dug in the dirt pile for hidden Hot Wheels. I was recruited to give loader rides to the kids, and afterwards they had cake and ice cream served from a dump truck in the garage. The perfect no-mess party.

Besides partying, there is still the gardening, earth moving, manure collection and compost building, working, vehicle repairing, and today camera repairing. We have most everything planted in the garden now. In fact, it was planted in mid-May but it gets off to a slow start here. Beverly has been working on her flower garden and it looks beautiful. My neighbor has horses and I inquired about their poop, because as you might imagine, horse manure makes good fertilizer a year or so later. They told me I could have all I wanted so I took the equipment down there and brought home 3 dump truck loads and should have brought more. And it is good poop, too. Well composted and ready to use. I thought I would be able to mix it with the leaves and grass my friend Jeff brings me from his lawn service, but I was too greedy and started to put it right on the garden. The leaf and grass pile has grown huge. About 12 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter. Our strawberry beds have greened up nicely and I got the rest of the culverts in the side of the hill for apple trees. Unfortunately, mice invaded the apple trees I had grafted over the past three years and stripped the bark off of all of them, so this week I plan to buy some from some friends that have some extras to sell.

My old faithful Fuji Finepix 602 Zoom camera was injured a while back and quit working, but I found a website with great pictures and explanations for disassembly, so I have taken it apart into little pieces, repaired the defect, and now am ready to put it back together. Wish me luck.