Springtime in Alaska

I need to take some photos, I'm not sure how many posts I have started with that phrase, but I really mean it this time. hehehe

We didn't have a garden last year - it never dried up enough to till the garden so we grew a couple things in the little greenhouse Justin built up on the deck, but that was all. So the ground rested and got covered with a foot of goat bedding and manure. Plus the volcano ash that fell on it.

We have had a perfect spring. The ash really did melt the snow early and then it has just been warm and blue skies and perfect weather. I think this is the second time in 16 years we have had this kind of spring.

So our backyard got all dug up last year putting in the new septic system and Brian didn't want to plant it to grass - he hates to mow - so Alicia got the idea to put in a berry patch inside the fence where we can water it and tend it and hopefully it will grow. So they put manure in and tilled it a couple times and begged raspberries from everyone we know and then it rained for 4 days -a warm, light rain - and the berry plants look marvelous, darling, simply marvelous. At our other house in Anchor Point, we had excellent raspberries, so they do grow really well here, we just haven't had them in a good spot. keep your fingers crossed for us.

Anyway, back to the big garden. I had a physical therapy eval last week in Soldotna and it was a perfect spring/summer day so we stopped at one of their nurseries and got our standard 144 plants of broccoli, 2 zucchini, some celery, dill, pok choy and cabbage and seed potatoes. The seed potatoes at our nursery would have run around 150 dollars for the amoung we paid 18 dollars for in Soldotna. It is so frustrating to shop in Homer.

We had been buying seeds for the garden for months - it's how we get thru the winter. So Brian and Alicia went out one beautiful day and planted and planted - they got everything in except the peas which we couldn't find. I have cucumber and tomato seeds to start and grow in Justin's green house, but i haven't started them yet.

the little plants got a little beat up in the wind we've had for the past couple days, but they still look cool out there. I love watching a garden grow.

The mama and daddy crane are back - we see at least one of them almost every day - sometimes they are out together, but usually just one at a time, which means they are nesting again. We are so excited they came back this year. Last year was the first year they fledged a chick in our neighborhood.

A new mama moose had her baby in the neighborhood. She looks like one of the twins that was born here 2 years ago. She is small and this is her first baby. Hopefully the first of many that she will have here.

We are overrun with eagles this year. As near as we can tell, we have 6 pair nesting on the bluff below us. That's a lot of hungry chicks to feed. And they make no secret of still using our yard as a McDonald's drivethru. Poor kitty cat can't go outside until it's dark (from midnight to 3 -- no self-respectable cat thinks that is long enough to be out chasing tweety birds - not to mention that the tweety birds sleep during those hours as well. It is driving him crazy - he can hear his tweety birds singing in the day time, but no one will let him out -- and then when he does get to go out, there aren't any birds singing).

Alicia had to put netting over the goat pens so the eagles wouldn't take the baby goats. She ended up with the nanny, Gabby, who had a boy and a girl. One girl baby survived from the batch that died and she bought a billy goat baby that isn't related to any of the girls so we will have 3 nannies and one billy. The billy that Gabby birthed will be sold. We decided to not name them after TV characters anymore - we don't know how their story lines will go. So Gabby is still Gabby from Desperate housewives, but her kids are Mr. Tumnus, the fawn and Lucy - the characters from Narnia. Our favorite new book of 2008. Oh, so Susan the other nanny baby is still called Susan, but instead of being Susan from Desperate Housewives, she is Susan from Narnia. and the Billy we are keeping is Billy Bob Thornton... which has nothing to do with Narnia but it seemed to fit him. hehehehe

A girl from our ward in Pendleton when we were girls found me on facebook and she has a bunch of friends from the ward there that she is on facebook with. Her name is Cathy Udy - her dad was so nice to always try to keep that stupid blue car of mine running. It's strange to be in touch with someone from my teen years - I miss having contact with people from my past. It has been so hard the past 30 years because Brian has been surrounded by everyone he ever met and I haven't had anyone to be in touch with. Especially losing 5 friends this past year, I am very aware of how much those people from our past meant to me.

Have you see the pics of the eagles on Alicia's blog?? they are incredible