Monsoons are here

I keep thinking we will get some pictures to post, but we haven't yet, so I'll just fill you in by writing.

Monsoon season came a month early. It is so cold and rainy and wet - the whole state is going to need massive doses of anti-depressants by November because we didn't get to have any summer. We literally had 5 days of summer since June.

Our garden didn't grow again - the beets and carrots put on tops (that were bitter and funny tasting), but no bottoms. We still have our peas growing and hope to have some of them to eat, but we had to kill the rest of the garden because it became overrun with chickweed and pineapple weed. We decided to put plastic flowers on the deck because we just can't get anything to grow up here, but they actually all got ripped up by wind and blown throughout the neighborhood. We'll definitely get a picture of that posted soon.

Brian has done a lot of fishing in August. Welding jobs dried up and we had company, so he spent a lot of time chasing salmon and a couple halibut trips. The weather has been so foul that they only took the boat out twice. Tomorrow is the last day to use eggs for bait on the river, so he is going in the afternoon. He got a welding job for today and tomorrow. (YAY)

He goes hunting on the 8th of September - his usual spot -flying out of Tok. He is taking a friend from here and a friend from Joseph that he grew up with. I hope they all get one.

Alicia is going to teach classes at the scrapbook store. She can teach or have crops whenever she wants to schedule them. We hope they get a good turnout.

We gave a baby shower at our house last week. That was fun, we seldom have things like that out here because it is so far for everyone to come, but they carpooled and we all had a lovely time.

the next day, Alicia had to do her Master Canner duties and teach a couple hours of canning at church. She got a great response from all the ladies who went and they all learned new things. Either they were non-canners and learned the basics, or they were old-time canners that learned the new safety tips, so everyone came away feeling like they got something out of the class.

We judged at the state fair again, which we always enjoy. The fair was in the middle of a raging monsoon, but Alicia and I decided to go anyway, figuring there would be good parking and not too many crowds. We were drenched when we were done, but it was fun, and it wasn't crowded. the next day, the sun came out and it was a really beautiful summer day and they said the fair was really crowded, so we were glad we had braved the elements and had the fairgrounds to ourselves. We didn't enter anything this year....you know, some years are just like that.

Well, Happy Labor Day to everyone - have good trips all of you who are traveling and Joanna - take lots of pictures in South Africa.

Love, Charlotte

Seldovia

Seldovia harbormasters office, from the boat harbor.
Here is a picture of the walkway down to the harbor, and of a few town buildings.
Seldovia Slough, low tide. They were trying to kayak down the slough, because it was too rough out in the bay, but the tide was too low so that didn't work too good.
this is just a picture from the boat ride over of the land across the bay.
My friend Carolee as an eskimo girl.
here's yours truly as an eskimo girl.

These are just a few pictures from my trip last week to Seldovia. I went to help my friend Carolee with the traveling and teaching - we were teaching the girls camp girls to do a little mini scrapbook for their camp craft project. The project went very well - there were only 2 girls out of 14 that weren't interested, everyone else participated and did a really nice job on their books. Friday it was really nice water/weather on the way over, but that night a big storm blew in and the waves on the way home were anywhere from 5-10 feet. Good thing we were in a big boat (65ft.). They were huge rolling waves, so on the one hand it was kind of cool, but on the other an hour and fifteen minutes of that is a lot. After about 1/2 hour 45 minutes the novelty wore off. hehe. But it was still good. We got to see a few otters on the way over too, so that was fun.

Not much else is new around here. We're wishing that we had gotten some of that hot summer that everyone in the lower 48 is enjoying. Its been really kind of chilly here, and the mosqitos have been horrible (its a combination of perfect mosquito weather, and our cat ate all the swallows that usually live here and eat the bugs). But oh well! My peas are blooming this week, so maybe I'll get a good crop of peas yet.

Work is pretty slow this week. Hasn't been much going on. Hope it picks up next week.

Oh, and I was going to say, 307 people live in Seldovia - its kind of a tiny strange town. Their only marketing scheme seemed to be that "at one point Seldovia was bigger and more important than Homer". Guess you have to market what you have huh? hehe. They do grow killer berries over there though! Alicia

Alicia's raise

We got the official word today that Alicia got 6 hours more work per week from the state, so that will give her a nice pay raise. they also have changed the system so that these hours are set for a year instead of six months, so that gives her some job security and relief. We just have to say - paying tithing really works !!!

Charlotte

The Street Fair

Well the street fair has been and gone. We didn't sell as much as we had hoped, but we did pretty good. We sold 4 cranes and 2 fish. Plus we handed out all of our brochures and a ton of business cards, so it was GREAT advertising. We have a couple people that have projects they want us to make too, so it was a good experience. We were worried the weather wouldn't be good, it was supposed to be a huge storm, but we had great faith that the weather would clear up, and it did! It was a little gray in the morning, but it cleared up and was sunny and beautiful all afternoon. Mom and I got SO sunburned, I look like a tomato. :) But we are good.

We didn't get to go fishing, duty called, but we will this coming week instead. We've had a good week, and are glad the fair is over so that we can relax!! Anyway, just wanted to let you know how it went. :) Alicia

good news

Just a quick addition to what Alicia wrote last night. We got a call that my Medicaid Waiver was approved for another year. DOUBLE YAY!!! We haven't got the paperwork to verify how many hours Alicia gets to keep, but those can always be reworked and added to, if we need to. thanks for all your prayers. Charlotte

Street Fair

Well the street fair is coming up this saturday and I'm getting kind of nervous. We have a bunch of different stuff to take to the fair, but its just so hard to know if we have taken enough, too much, not enough, the wrong stuff.. . . . You just never know until its time. Tomorrow should be a busy day, we've got to finish getting everything ready that we are going to take with us. We've got metal garden art, a fish cleaning table, 2 gates, rod holders, and some wooden garden people I made a couple of years ago. I hope it goes well, but its scary! :)

The picture here is our bear gate. I also made up a cool brochure to hand to people if they are interested and I printed up a bunch more business cards, so I think we pretty much have the bases covered. As well as we can anyway.

Tomorrow I've got to do a bunch of finishing touches, so that we are all ready by saturday morning, because friday we are going fishing. Our friends from Canada came up, and they are staying in Kenai/Soldotna for a couple of weeks, and while they are up there, they left us their boat! YAY! We're pretty excited. So dad and i are going to take it clamming across the bay, and salmon dipnetting, and halibut fishing. Should be really fun. Dad is going to spend some time working on it tomorrow to make sure all is well and its running good.

I'm hoping to plan a roommates reunion for this fall, for me, and my friends Stephanie and Molly. Steph and I were talking about it tonight. Haven't decided where really, but want it to be somewhere with great shopping that is reasonable to get to, with good places to stay. Any suggestions would be appreciated! We're thinking November, so hopefully somewhere warm. Any suggestions would be appreciated. We're kind of spread all over. Molly is in Maryland, Steph in Arizona, and me up here. Anyway, not sure what will come of that, but fun to think about and plan for.

Other than that, not much is new. We're just doing our thing, and worrying about the street fair! Hope you're all well. Alicia

Still waiting

We are still waiting for the long hot summer all the experts promised us. It has rained every day but 2 in June. Today it is supposed to get up to 60, but we'll see. It is at least sunny. We don't have much planted in the garden, but what is there is very, very small.

Dixie has been sitting on her nest, but she has realized they aren't going to hatch, so she is getting restless and is spending more time on the pond or in the yard. We usually take the eggs away before now, to protect her health, but we had real hope this year that she would have some ducklings, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

Brian stays busy every day with one welding job after another. We have been very blessed. As soon as he is finishing up one job - someone will call him with another one. It is pretty cool. He is liking the variety and the flexibility of his schedul. He and Alicia are working on lots of lawn animals for us to sell at the Street Fair on the 15th of July.

We are having a block party at the neighbors for the 4th of July. On Sunday, they had their 50th wedding anniversary party and all their kids that can be here, are here. We were all thinking of Ron over in Iraq and missed having him here, but he is in all of our prayers all the time.

We still haven't heard if my medicaid is renewed and if Alicia still has a job. We are pretty sure it is renewed and the reviewer suggested more hours for Alicia, but the state has a mind of its own so we'll see how that turns out. I'm not too worried - more annoyed that it is taking them so long to let us know.

Alicia and I joined Joanna's getting healthy group and are working on improving our health and losing weight. Wish us luck.

King salmon fishing is over for now - waiting for the silvers to come in. We don't do the red salmon fishing anymore because Alicia is allergic and we really don't need to can up a bunch of fish that she can't eat.

Don't have any pictures to post - the yard really hasn't changed any since the pictures Alicia posted. Maybe a little greener from all the rain. Love to all, Charlotte

I forgot

I also wanted to say that dad and I went fishing monday afternoon and caught a really pretty chrome king salmon out of the Anchor River. Beautiful fish. He hooked it but let me reel it in - it was a fun afternoon.

Garden Art

Here are a couple up close pictures of the garden art that dad and I have been working on. So far we make Sandhill cranes, bears, a bull moose, and fish (halibut and salmon). The patterns are ones that I have drawn based on pictures and animals that I have seen. The bear that we make is from a drawing I did of the bear that dad killed a few years ago (Booboo) out on Unimak Island. The moose is one I drew off the horns that dad brought back last year, the body I recreated off pictures of moose from our yard when we lived in Homer and made to scale with the horn drawing. The salmon was drawn by Kyle - our friend Margret's son. The halibut was just drawn off one of our many halibut pictures. Today dad and I spent the day working on in the shop cutting more of them out. We cut some out of aluminum, and some out of steel. The aluminum ones are polished up really pretty. Then the steel ones are more rusty looking, except one of the salmon, dad polished it up really nice and shiny, then he took his torch to it and "colored" the steel with the heat, so that it changes color like a real fish. Cool stuff. I have a new appreciation for how hard dad works - metal working is tough! Its hard on the back too!!

Other than that, not much new here. My peas are up in the garden, along with the radishes too. And the rhubarb of course - we've even made pie from it too. Yum, rhubarb strawberry pie.

The cat is having trouble with all the rain we've had lately. He's just sure that if its raining out on the deck, it won't be raining out on the front porch. So he just goes from door to door trying to find the magical door that doesn't have any rain. Poor guy. :)

We've been doing some work for a ward bake/rummage sale this weekend. I'm making 2 decorated cakes and mom and I made a big batch of million dollar fudge. The boy scouts need money to go to camp, so we're all banding together as a ward to help them get what they need. Oh, and they're having a car wash too I think. Should be an all day activity saturday.

Hope you are all well. We love you. Alicia

Our newest garden spot

Here are some pictures of the house and yard. We planted the plants mom got for her birthday today, so thought I'd post some pictures. The tree in the middle, is a weeping Caragana, then we have 2 lilacs, 5-6 roses, 2 blueberries, a low bush cranberry, and a mock orange. We're going to be getting some more landscaping stuff to fill in the gaps and keep the weeds down, but we'll have to wait until we get up to Home Depot or something. But we are really pleased with how it turned out so far. I don't know if you can see them well, but dad and I cut 2 sand hill cranes out of a piece of rusty steel, and welded them a "leg" so they can stand up in the garden. They look so cool! Really realistic. I drew the pattern, then dad cut them out, ground off the sharp edges, and welded the leg. They turned out super cool. We're going to do some more tomorrow. Then I think we're going to cut out some other shapes too, like fish, moose, etc. Fun! If all goes well we'll put them in the farmer's market over the summer.

Happy Memorial Day Everyone! We love you all. Alicia

Oh, the gate up there is one that we made last year, me and dad together.

Here come the big fish

We'd like to welcome you to fishing season, with some cool shots of dad's first king salmon of the year. It was HUGE! He got it out in the ocean, trolling on a boat with a new friend of ours (Mark). Mark is friends with the neighbor, and now friends with us. Dad's been out fishing with him twice already. Mark is from Anchorage and comes down a lot in the summer with his boat to go fishing. They've been fishing in the ocean out in front of the house here, and that's where dad caught this fish today. They also got cod and halibut. So it was fun!

Then mom and I went to a special nursery today and picked out the plants for her birthday. We got several rogosa type roses, a weeping tree, and a couple other fun things. We'll have to put pictures up once we get them planted and landscaped. Fun!

Summer Visitors Begin

The sweetest thing happened last night. We went out to watch the birds and Heathcliff and Dixie were just outside the gate and we thought Dixie had a duck following her up the path, but it turned out she had a male and female following her.

They were a pair of green winged teals and she had invited them up to the house for some dinner. They came into the yard and were looking around. She was very gently cooing - trying to coax them up to the house to eat corn, but they were a little shy about being inside the fence and then the cat saw them and decided they were small enough for him to tackle so we had to chase after him and they flew off. They are a beautiful bird.

We don't think they left permanent - when we got up this morning something had eaten more than half the duck feeder, so Dixie definitely had someone over for dinner last night.

Our Busy Pond

Well, our pond has been the place to be this spring. If you're waterfowl that is. :) We've got at least one wild pair living on the pond for the season, and I think we've got a couple more too. The pair living on the pond is a pair of mallards. Then we also have had a pair of green winged teals (which are the smallest of the pond ducks) that have been around a bit too. Other than that we have a pair of wigeons that seem to be around a lot too. Altogether we have had mallards, american wigeons, a pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes, 3 full size sandhill cranes, yellow legs, plovers, and green winged teals. Plus the usual bunches of swallows. So that is fun. We've had a lot of sandhill cranes flying over, but the 3 are the only ones that have stopped to visit. They stayed in the yard for a couple days, and they fly over a lot, but haven't stopped again that we have noticed. So that is our fun with the wild birds.

We really don't have a lot of news other than that. Mom had to go to the hospital this week for chest pain. After they put her on oxygen for a couple of hours, she was feeling better, so we're pretty sure it was her usual pleurisy, just more intense than usual.

Today at midnight started the King salmon fishing season, so dad went out bright and way early this morning, but the water is running really deep, muddy, fast, and cold, so the fishing was bad. He said no one was cathing any. There's still lots of time to catch fish though. He was going to get to go halibut fishing this week with his friend Steve, but he had to work instead, which is good and bad. Good for the money, bad for not getting to go fishing.

As for me, I'm not really up to much. I cleaned my room today, that was pretty exciting let me tell you. :) But it looks nice.

Mom and I went to a scrapbooking crop at the local scrapbooking store for a few hours last night, and it was really nice. We got a lot done in just a few hours, and it was really peaceful and nice. There was supposed to be 3 other people there, but they didnt' come, so it was just mom, me and Tracy the woman that works there. At the store, when you pay to crop, you get to use all of their tools, and die cutting machine, so that was really fun. We dont' have a die cutting machine, so that was fun, we cut out all kinds of letters, shapes and such. It was just a nice fun time. We are working on an album, mom and I together, about our family vacation to Las Vegas/Capitol Reef/Bryce/etc. from 1992. Lots of fun.

I guess that is everything about us. I took some pictures of the cranes hanging out on the pond, but you'd need a magnifier to find them in the picture, so guess I won't post them. Oh, we also have wood frogs on the pond, and they croak and call all afternoon until late at night, so that is fun. They are really funny. Everytime the duck quacks, or the goose screams, the frogs answer back. Funny. Ok, well we love you all. Alicia

Juneau Pictures

I just had a few minutes tonight, and I've been thinking about my mission, since it was just a year ago, and I thought maybe I would start putting some pictures up for you to see. This picture is downtown Juneau, from Douglas Island. Behind the lower hill, just about the back row of houses is where the old gold mine is. My last monday in town, my companion and I did a quick hike up there, to the Silverbow basin - it was so BEAUTIFUL back there. I could have spent hours and hours back there just trying each of the trails and checking things out. I'll try and post more of those pictures later. But for tonight, i better get to bed, going to Anchorage tomorrow, just a quick trip up and back. Love you all lots. Alicia

WE MADE IT

THE SWALLOWS RETURNED TODAY. WE ACTUALLY MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER WINTER.

Volcano #2

Mt. Illiamna - the one directly across the street from us - the one Alicia took the sunset pictures of below - has come to life. It usually will steam a little in the spring, but the last couple days it has gone bananas. The usual vent on the north side is about 10 times larger than normal. The vent on the front that we only see every couple years has been venting non-stop and then today, she started venting right out of the top, just like a real volcano. We checked the censor report on the internet and they don't have her listed as active yet, but the censors are off the chart for activity levels. We'll keep you posted !!! Pretty exciting for us.

Brian is doing well in Nikiski. It is crazy up there - one of those stand around and hurry up and do nothing companies, but the pay is good, so we can't complain. It should only be another week or so there, then they should go to another town and do the same thing. We don't know for sure. Love to all, Charlotte

Sunset in Anchor Point

Spring is full of birds!

I'm so happy to be able to say that the spring birds showed up last night! I was passing through the kitchen last evening, and looked out on the pond and there was a pair of wild ducks there. Of course, there was only about an inch of thawed water, but still that's neat. Then a little while later we heard the sand hill cranes passing over, so went out to see them. It was a huge bunch, they had lost the air current and were circling trying to find it. Then today when we got home from church and got out of the car, we heard another group of cranes go over. We ate lunch, and went out on the deck, and another set of cranes went over. So we've probably seen at least 200 cranes in just the last 24 hours. The last batch to go over were so low and right over our heads that we could even make out the darker wing patches on them and stuff. Its so cool! The swallows should be showing up soon too. They usually are here by my birthday, which is in about 2 weeks, so anytime they should be here. It is still a little cold for them I think, not many bugs have thawed out yet, but we love when they come.

My bulb garden has mostly thawed. I went out yesterday, and about a third of it was snow-free, and I saw one little plant starting to come up (I think it was a daffodil), then today a lot more snow is gone, but no more plants yet. Still its exciting.

That's pretty much all my news. The cat is worried about dad being gone. Also, the cat is having some troubles because usually at night he throws a big fit and wants to go outside just as you turn off the lights to go to bed. So, when dad is home, we usually spend a little more time trying to entertain the cat, or staying up so that he can go out one last time before bed, because he gets really LOUD when he wants out, and he just walks around crying and yowling. But when dad isn't here we just ignore him and go to bed, because dad goes to bed earlier, and he will wake dad up, but mom and I just tune him out. So the cat was a little upset because not only is his dad gone, but his usual tricks aren't working. :)

Well we love you all. Sorry I've been too lazy to put some pictures up lately. Now that it is spring, I hope to have more pictures to put up. Even is they are just of little plants trying desperately to grow. :) Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and week ahead of you. Love you. Alicia

ps: Brian's trailer

I forgot to tell you about poor Brian's trailer. It is about 60 years old or more and smells really really really bad which is kind of weird because it is so rotted your can see through all the walls and around all the doors and window so he can't see how any smell can stay in. It is really tiny. He took up a TV - they provide the Anchorage channels and the utilities and he took up a twin mattress and a sleeping bag for a bed. He didn't think a queen mattress would fit in the room. then he bought a cheap microwave and he's all set.

Brian is off

Brian is in Nikisiki for his new job at the refinery. He called them this morning about something and they said, Oh Yeah, you start in the morning, so we all jumped out of bed and ran around, HEAd less chicken style, and packed up all the stuff for his trailer and he drove off like a maniac and went shopping for all the cleaning supplies and groceries he needed and got settled in and they called and said he needed to come over and take another class tonight and he did and then they said he is going to be working nights instead of days, so he could have spent another night at home with us, but he's already up there, so it is too late.

He ran into a couple kids from Anchor Point he knows and a kid from Wallowa county that he worked with on the ice hockey rink last year so that will be good he knows some people already, so even though he knows absolutely nothing about his job, at least he knows some of the people.

So far, we have heard that the job will last 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 6 months, and 18 months. We figured out how much money 18 months would be and got all excited about getting out of debt, but Brian was gone about 2 hours and I was blubbering about being apart and thinking it wasn't worth any amount of money, boohoo boohoo, etc. Then tonight after we had family prayer via the telephone, I really started to cry and fall apart .... and of course, on the other hand, if it is only 3 weeks, we won't have enough money to pay any bills and we won't be able to be solvent, etc., etc., so I'm just a mess and don't know what to do.

I started a new medicine and it is really hard on my system. Another one of Dr. Burgess' plans for me to lose 100 pounds. And I am teaching a lesson in Relief Society tomorrow for a woman who is out of town for a couple months for a wedding.
Keep me in your prayers, please, I really need them right now.

I'm kind of embarrassed. I promised Alicia that I wouldn't fall apart this time - that I was beyond that and that we needed the work and I was way too mature to let a little separation get to me. hehehe, boy is my face red. Oh well, nothing wrong with loving your spouse.

We got our first spring birds today. A pair of ducks tried to stop at the pond, but there is just barely an inch of water around the edge thawed so they landed and then left. Then a flock of cranes circled for a while and then we heard spruce chickens calling. YAY. The shore birds should be here this week or next, but the water is just thawing, we really need it to thaw quicker, so they have something to come back for.

Love you all, Charlotte