Today is Brian and my 29th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at the Inn last night and had prime rib. We are learning to be a couple and are laughing together a lot. Lots of fun.
Brian worked last week and this coming week across the bay in Nanwalek and Port Graham. They are cleaning and painting the teachers' housing for the school district. I think they also are deep cleaning the two little schools over there - neither of them has had a regular custodian for about 3 years. The district flies them over and back every day. We've not been over there too much since we don't have our own boat. He says it is really beautiful - well, if you look at the ocean pictures Alicia posted - it is that coast line, just down on the point - about 3 miles from the pictures.
We finally have harmony between the dog and cat. It took a bit of time on the part of Scruffy, but he will put up with the dog sitting next to the chair he is in and will even allow himself to be sniffed a couple times - he seems to draw the line at 3 times before he strikes out. It is interesting to me that the cat knows exactly where to aim the claws to get the dog's attention (nose). We keep Scruffy's toe nails clipped so he hasn't done any harm yet - but does get the dog's respect.
We are having a pretty nice summer. It is raining today, but it saves us from having to water the garden, so is working out pretty good. We haven't had to water since we had seeds - it keeps raining just when we think we will have to go down and water. Brian got a pretty good bunch of radishes this week - we will have spinach this week, too, and probably some little headlets of broccoli.
I have been going to physical therapy two times a week, for about a month. For many years, the medical advice was to save my energy and not work out, but now we are trying the work out and the coolest thing happened on Friday. We had a friend come over with her babies. 2 year old Mylan would stand on the end of my recliner and jump into my arms and I would catch him with my hands and fly him over my head and he would scream with laughter. We kept doing it over and over and afterwards, I wasn't sore or tired or anything. It was such a blessing to be able to do something like that and not collapse after one or two tries.
Saturday I started scraping the paint on the deck railings - yes, we get to paint the WHOLE house this summer- YUCK. So I started the scraping, still feeling great, and then went to dinner with Brian. When I went to leave the restaurant, I suddenly could barely stand and walk - every part of my body ached and was stiff.... apparently, my old friend, sun-sickness set in. So I stayed in bed a lot today, but am still relishing in the victory of Friday... have to expect these little setbacks. Up to now, I have always quit working out when I got to this point of pain and fatigue, but we are going to keep working this time as long as we can and so far, it is a great success.
Anyway, that's probably enough blabbering. If you want further details of my health, I'll link you to my medical records at the clinic (heheheh - not really). gross.
Check out http://www.couchballoons.com/ to see the pictures of Brian's cousin flying his lawn chair . Love, Charlotte
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Sunset Flag
My neighbors have a flag their son Ron sent them from when he was serving in Iraq, the he kept in his helicopter, and they have a nice pole and all set up for it. Last night the sun was setting right behind it and I thought it was just so beautiful, so I took a couple pictures. Its a little dark, but I think the contrast is just really neat.
Monday, July 16, 2007
China Poot Bay
Just wanted to add some pictures to go with my story about going to get the fish. These are pictures I took on the way over, with Justin's camera - its a really nice camera, and I look forward to learning to use it more.
Part of the view to the right as we went into China Poot Bay.
One of the arches cut into the rock with the ocean. I love the color of the water.
Our fish. Red salmon (my favorite - not as big as others, but really good eating, and fun to catch, they have a great texture and aren't too "fishy")
The channel on the way into the bay is pretty much solid rock, with a few plants kind of clinging on the rock. Its beautiful over there. Justin and I would love to live over there, especially if we had fast boat. :)
The pointed peak just off center is China Poot peak, the land in the middle juts out, and you go around the right side to get into the river/bay area. Its REALLY shallow, and you have to go in when the tide is high, or going in, because otherwise you get stuck. We were in about 2-3 feet of water, which isn't a lot for a boat.
Just a view of how green the water was on the way over. Kind of a neat little arch there.Thursday, July 12, 2007
Mya
Alicia was trying to get a picture of Mya, but Mya kept coming closer and closer, so finally, Alicia reached out her hand to sit her down, and Mya tried to lick her hand. 
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
My new baby
We added a new addition to our family this week. Five years ago, as most of you know, our beloved dog, Kate had to be put down for kidney failure and none of us could bear to replace her. But this week, there was a dog in the paper that caught my eye and when we went into the pound, I was impressed with her personality and her desire to obey, so I brought her home. I have to say "I" because there was quite a bit of resistance from everybody else in the house - Fluffy wouldn't come out of the attic for 2 days and everybody else was giving me the cold shoulder, to boot.
But this dog is sooooooooooo sweet and wants to be liked. She is really smart and loves to play ball and any other game you can think of. She was in the pound because her owner was a single woman and she said the dog just needed so much affection, it was wearing her out. I can see -that - it takes all four of us, full-time, playing with her and petting her, but she will calm down soon. The cat doesn't care for dog games, but he has come out of the attic and can occasionally be in the same room, until the dog starts sniffing him and then, we have to separate them.
Her name is Myah, but we keep calling her Kate, because she reminds us all of our Kate, so we may change her name. She is a year and a half - bigger than Kate in the legs and body. She is half black lab and supposed to be half-retriever. Her coat is black and brown with bits of yellow. We don't know if she is half golden retriever, chesapeake retriever, or german shepard. Justin used to train bird dogs for Ted Turner (tv mogul) and Brian used to train hunting dogs, so we are in good hands. The best thing about her that we never got from Kate, is that Myah will not run off when you have her off the chain. We really like that part - she is able to walk around with Brian or the kids and play in the yard, without having to be chained up all the time. She likes to ride in the front of the truck with Brian, too.
We'll try to post some pictures of her tomorrow.
An after post to the fish post alicia put up last week - Sandy asked if we had been smoking the Reds and the answer is no. Here's the schedule: we eat kings fresh and freeze just one or two - they have a really high fat content and don't stay well in the freezer for very long; we can the reds- they are a softer fish and have really pretty flesh, but aren't really dense enough to withstand the smoking process; we smoke the silvers - they have a pretty flesh, but are dense enough to not fall apart in the smoker. Silvers come in August and September.... so never fear, the smoker will be used this summer.
Check back in tomorrow or the next day, and we will have some pictures of my baby. Love, Charlotte
But this dog is sooooooooooo sweet and wants to be liked. She is really smart and loves to play ball and any other game you can think of. She was in the pound because her owner was a single woman and she said the dog just needed so much affection, it was wearing her out. I can see -that - it takes all four of us, full-time, playing with her and petting her, but she will calm down soon. The cat doesn't care for dog games, but he has come out of the attic and can occasionally be in the same room, until the dog starts sniffing him and then, we have to separate them.
Her name is Myah, but we keep calling her Kate, because she reminds us all of our Kate, so we may change her name. She is a year and a half - bigger than Kate in the legs and body. She is half black lab and supposed to be half-retriever. Her coat is black and brown with bits of yellow. We don't know if she is half golden retriever, chesapeake retriever, or german shepard. Justin used to train bird dogs for Ted Turner (tv mogul) and Brian used to train hunting dogs, so we are in good hands. The best thing about her that we never got from Kate, is that Myah will not run off when you have her off the chain. We really like that part - she is able to walk around with Brian or the kids and play in the yard, without having to be chained up all the time. She likes to ride in the front of the truck with Brian, too.
We'll try to post some pictures of her tomorrow.
An after post to the fish post alicia put up last week - Sandy asked if we had been smoking the Reds and the answer is no. Here's the schedule: we eat kings fresh and freeze just one or two - they have a really high fat content and don't stay well in the freezer for very long; we can the reds- they are a softer fish and have really pretty flesh, but aren't really dense enough to withstand the smoking process; we smoke the silvers - they have a pretty flesh, but are dense enough to not fall apart in the smoker. Silvers come in August and September.... so never fear, the smoker will be used this summer.
Check back in tomorrow or the next day, and we will have some pictures of my baby. Love, Charlotte
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Fourth of July
Sorry I don't have any pictures to post from our fourth of July activities. We had mostly a quiet day, then Justin and I convinced dad to take us out in the boat, over to China Poot Bay, for dipnetting some salmon. I LOVE to go over there, ever since my friend Angie and her family took me years ago. Its so beautiful over there. Though I am kind of accident prone over there. Dad and I were figuring today that it might have something to do with hiking all this way up the river, then you have to pack out like 30-40 pounds of salmon in a gunny sack on your back, and it throws off your balance. Well, it does mine anyway......
So dad and I hiked up the river (Justin couldn't dipnet this year, since he isn't technically considered a "resident" until next year), to the first big waterfalls, I'm not sure how far it is, but its a ways. Then we waded across the river, and you stand about mid thigh in water, and sweep the net down river around this great big rock in the middle of the river, and the fish kind of "hide" at the base of it. Dad was dipping them out 2-3 at a time, but I only took one at a time, I couldn't have gotten more than one anyway, they were pretty fresh and wild. It only took us about 5 minutes for both of us to dip all 12 of our fish out, way longer to walk up there then get all the fish.
Then we loaded our fish into our bags, and started back out. Dad went a lot faster, so I was kind of plodding along behind, as I'm prone to do because I'm not big on balance when I'm hiking, its like I lose all sense of up and down, but anway, I'm walking along yesterday when SLIP down I went crossing the river, and before I could even think I was up to my neck in water, one hand gripping the 35 pounds of fish hanging off my back, and my other hand gushing blood from where I cut it on the rock.
Later then I thought about it, this was almost EXACTLY the same spot where I mashed up/broke my leg a few years ago. But anyway, I kind of scraped myself out of the river, and hobbled the rest of the way across, then had to try and maneuver my way down the river and back to the boat, over big slippery rocks and boulders, and some fast, cold water. By the time I got back to the boat I was NOT happy, my hand was still bleeding, and my other one was still carrying all the fish, and was so tired from not being able to switch back and forth between hands. It took me forever to get back to the boat, the guys were wondering what had happened to me, but I finally got back, and Justin and dad helped me rinse my hand, and put a bandaid on it. So today I've got it all butterflied together, it was pretty deep at the beginning. Then we decided to go halibut fishing to kind of cheer me up a little bit. :) It was pretty fun, no halibut, but I caught a pollock (pollock are what they use to make fish sticks, fake crab, fish sandwiches at McDonalds, etc.), and an Irish Lord (totally useless fish that have no purpose that anyone has yet discovered). So we ended up with 13 red salmon, and 1 pollock.
Today I've been canning the fish we got yesterday, two canner loads so far (30 pints), and still have some fish leftover, and dad went to get more today, so might have to do 2 canners tomorrow too. I did some special fish for Justin and dad, and put a dried chili pepper and garlic salt in a few jars to kind of mix things up a little. Should be good on sandwiches for them.
Other than that, not much has been going on around here except fishing, working, and getting settled into married life (well Justin and I have been getting settled anyway, I assume mom and dad are already used to being married after 30 years, hehe). Hope you're all well, and I didn't bore you with my bloody hand story. :) Love you all. Alicia
So dad and I hiked up the river (Justin couldn't dipnet this year, since he isn't technically considered a "resident" until next year), to the first big waterfalls, I'm not sure how far it is, but its a ways. Then we waded across the river, and you stand about mid thigh in water, and sweep the net down river around this great big rock in the middle of the river, and the fish kind of "hide" at the base of it. Dad was dipping them out 2-3 at a time, but I only took one at a time, I couldn't have gotten more than one anyway, they were pretty fresh and wild. It only took us about 5 minutes for both of us to dip all 12 of our fish out, way longer to walk up there then get all the fish.
Then we loaded our fish into our bags, and started back out. Dad went a lot faster, so I was kind of plodding along behind, as I'm prone to do because I'm not big on balance when I'm hiking, its like I lose all sense of up and down, but anway, I'm walking along yesterday when SLIP down I went crossing the river, and before I could even think I was up to my neck in water, one hand gripping the 35 pounds of fish hanging off my back, and my other hand gushing blood from where I cut it on the rock.
Later then I thought about it, this was almost EXACTLY the same spot where I mashed up/broke my leg a few years ago. But anyway, I kind of scraped myself out of the river, and hobbled the rest of the way across, then had to try and maneuver my way down the river and back to the boat, over big slippery rocks and boulders, and some fast, cold water. By the time I got back to the boat I was NOT happy, my hand was still bleeding, and my other one was still carrying all the fish, and was so tired from not being able to switch back and forth between hands. It took me forever to get back to the boat, the guys were wondering what had happened to me, but I finally got back, and Justin and dad helped me rinse my hand, and put a bandaid on it. So today I've got it all butterflied together, it was pretty deep at the beginning. Then we decided to go halibut fishing to kind of cheer me up a little bit. :) It was pretty fun, no halibut, but I caught a pollock (pollock are what they use to make fish sticks, fake crab, fish sandwiches at McDonalds, etc.), and an Irish Lord (totally useless fish that have no purpose that anyone has yet discovered). So we ended up with 13 red salmon, and 1 pollock.
Today I've been canning the fish we got yesterday, two canner loads so far (30 pints), and still have some fish leftover, and dad went to get more today, so might have to do 2 canners tomorrow too. I did some special fish for Justin and dad, and put a dried chili pepper and garlic salt in a few jars to kind of mix things up a little. Should be good on sandwiches for them.
Other than that, not much has been going on around here except fishing, working, and getting settled into married life (well Justin and I have been getting settled anyway, I assume mom and dad are already used to being married after 30 years, hehe). Hope you're all well, and I didn't bore you with my bloody hand story. :) Love you all. Alicia
Monday, July 02, 2007
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