One Year

Happy Anniversary Alicia and Justin. A year ago today we were in Anchorage at the temple. Congratulations on your first year. We love you. MOM and DAD

busy, busy, busy

Sorry I don't have a picture to blog today. If you have forgotten what we look like, please look thru our past blogs. hehehe

Brian got a call a couple weeks ago from some guy who was looking for someone who could weld and since Brian is off work for the summer, he said he'd do it. Turns out they are preparing to lay some kind of cable in the inlet. They bought a bridge in Florida and trucked it up here in pieces and they are welding it together to make a barge to use to lay the cable. They didn't have any welders on their crew that were used to this kind of welding or used to welding out on the spit (their workers are from Florida and are freezing out there in that ocean breeze all day).

also they needed another welding machine... so after the first day, Brian took his welder down and gets paid for the use of him and his welder. Justin got in a few hours after his day job a couple times, but now he and Alicia are really sick so he hasn't been down to the spit for a couple days.

It is such an answer to our prayers, I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are to have this come into our lives at this time. We have a couple projects around the house that HAVE to be done this summer, like putting in a completely new septic system, and we have been scrimping and worried about how to afford it, and now we can get it done. We are all very excited...... yeah, you city folk don't have to worry about where the water goes when you are flushing your toilets - trust me, when you have a 15 year old wooden septic box, you think about stuff like that alot.

Justin sold both of his big burl bowls this week to a lady from Chicago. It was cool - she bought one for a dear friend who was going thru a rough time and when it got there today, she loved it so much so went right to our shop and bought the other one for herself. YAY !!!

It's fun to keep busy and to not have to sit out in the sun in a parking lot or danky old building on holiday weekends hoping for people to buy your crafts. I wish someone had thunk this up years ago.

Happy July - pray for me, I'm supposed to play the organ in church for the entire month. YIKES !!! I don't even really know how to play the organ. I have an electronic keyboard at home and I just push the button that makes it sound like an organ. hehehehe ahhh, small wards are great.

LOVE YOU GUYS, Charlotte

Heather tagged me...

Heather Carlos tagged me and I usually don't do these but . .

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago: 1. working at the mental health center 2. crying every day because Alicia was graduated and leaving for college 3. putting in my gardens 4. building on our house 5. taking care of 8 ducks and 2 geese and a dog and a cat and 24 chickens

5 Things on my to do list: 1. shampoo the carpet 2. plant the garden 3. finish bracelet kits for young women' camp 4. make and design all the stuff for our web shop 5. start Christmas presents 6. weed the flower bed 7. clean up the after winter mess in the yard 8 organize and paint the house 9. Redo the window coverings for the living room. (I know it was only supposed to be 5)

5 Favorite snacks/foods: 1. potato chips 2. Chocolate (I've been on a Whopper kick this summer - yum) 3. Real popcorn, with real butter and salt. 4. Ice Cream 5. strawberries or watermelon

5 Things I would do if I was a billionaire: 1. Build a dream home / artist colony compound where my family could all come to live someplace warm or tropical 2. Shop on etsy and Amazon and lots of other places
3. do Charity work
4. buy cool trucks and cars and computers
5. Help our moms and kids

5 Bad habits: 1. I eat too many treats 2. I never follow through 3. I always plan more than I can accomplish 4. I'm lazy 5. I get nervous and let my phobias get in the way of living my life

5 Places that I have lived: 1. Homer Alaska 2. Pendleton Oregon 3. Medford Oregon 4. Salt Lake City Utah 5. Joseph Oregon

People I tag: 1. Barb 2. Joanna 3 Ted 4. Marilyn 5. Nicole

No pink for me - YAY

We had a couple interesting days of poking and prodding in Anchorage, but in the end, they didn't throw me in the hospital and start chopping me up, so that is a victory. Below is the graphic details if you want them, if you don't just stop reading now and know that I won't be walking around with a Susan G. Komen pink ribbon with my name on it. YAY.

The breast lump is completely gone and there is not any follow-up planned for it. They think it was just ancient scar tissue like from a too tight bra or from pulling and tearing that muscle too many times. It is right on the rib cage and I pull that muscle all the time.

We are waiting on biopsy results for the uterus - but she didn't find anything that looked like cancer. The ultrasound showed lots of thick lining in the uterus, which is what we said all along - a condition I have had treated several times before, and after a lot of pushing and prodding, the ultrasound guy finally found my ovary. The ultrasound girl in Homer couldn't find it - but it turned out she wasn't looking in the right place. They thought it was hidden, but it was just in a different place. It still has a large cyst on it - a little larger than a tangerine, same size as the last CAT scan 5 years ago.

And so there you have it - you know everything that we know at this time. I know that most people keep this scary stuff to themselves, but I think that just perpetuates the fear of the unknown. I am a big advocate of sharing health information with each other so we can support each other in our fears and our struggles. It's just who I am and what I do.

Thanks for your prayers and support. I'll post again as soon as we hear the test results. Charlotte

HAPPY Birthday, Allison

Happy 4th Birthday Allison. We love you. Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Brian

Happy Father's Day

I have been thinking about fathers and grandfathers this week and I think that I have been singularly blessed with such a great father and grandfather and husband. It is very rare for someone my age to still have a father AND a grandfather in their life and not only am I thankful that they are both still around - I am so thankful that they are such kind, loving, intelligent men. They have taught me so much about how to treat other people and they have taught me how to live life --- with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. THANKS GUYS - I love you more than you can know.

Brian is such a great father and husband. I think as the kids get older they appreciate more how much he has taught them (it's probably that way for everyone, I guess). He is such a hard worker and a great provider. He was so patient in teaching the kids how to work. He is so kind in taking care of me and no matter how tired he is, he makes sure I am taken care of before he sleeps or before he goes to work. I'm glad I drove that rickety old U-HAUL over those treacherous mountain passes 30 years ago and married this guy. I love you. Char

Cranes

This afternoon, when we were out splitting wood, two cranes lit in the neighbor's yard, and then nine more started circling and circling the house, then they landed also. We had 11 cranes just outside our windows, feeding. It was very cool. Went fishing this morning, salmon are very late getting here, but caught two nice steelhead. Brian

Choke

I have to say that not since Cliff Claven choked on Final Jeopardy have I seen someone go down so quickly and in such flames as poor Richard did tonight on Top Chef. As I was counting the dishes and realized that Stephanie and Lisa were tied I could actually see my blood pressure rising. THEY CAN"T GIVE IT TO HER !!!! I kept yelling over and over. Whew ....... in the end talent and class won out and the best person won. Now on to the Battle Royale - also known as the reunion show and then ON to Project Runway. YAY for summer TV. Char

Chicken Run

Heathcliff lets the turkeys know he is the boss.

Nobody wants anything to do with these grouchy guys - good thing they have each other to hang with.

the solid black ones are black sexlinks like we raised in Joseph. The speckled ones are barred rocks.

Saturday was also the first day of yard time for the chickens and turkeys. Heathcliff, the goose, knows that he is responsible for the safety of all the smaller fowl and takes his duties very seriously. He keeps that big white bucket there next to their gate (he thinks the bucket is a fellow goose, but that's a little personal for a public blog, so we won't go into that)..... to appreciate this story, you just need to know that he has "sacred" areas - the white pole, the fire barrel, the bucket. Nobody is allowed to touch them.

He prefers the chicks to be inside their fenced area where he knows they are safe and he will often sleep outside their pen at night to be sure they are safe. But when they enter the yard, he has trouble letting them explore. So these pictures are of the yard and everybody trying to make their way in the world. In the videos he finally left his bucket and went over to defend his barrel and then some chicks got too close to the bucket and he had to go back over to defend it.

On a funny note that we didn't get recorded, the turkeys are pretty mean this year. Some of the chickens were in Gabby's yard and she was cool with that - the goats and the chickens get along really well. So when the turkeys wondered over to Gabby's fence she went over to meet them and one of the turkeys bit her ear and she pulled back in amazement and then leaned back to the turkey to see why he had done that and then the turkey took a nip at her nose. She didn't care for that at all. So far, the turkeys have bitten everybody, I think. They aren't even afraid of the goose (I'm afraid of the goose, for crying out loud). So I can pretty much guarantee that the turkeys will not make it thru the summer. Nobody likes to get nipped by a turkey.

First canned fish of the season

King salmon are the biggest salmon and are the most tasty fresh, but they have the highest fat content, so they don't freeze well, especially for long periods of time. This year, as part of our goal to be self-suffecient, we decided to can our kings instead of giving them away. We think the high fat content will be good in the canned fish. We always get a good feeling when we think about having a larder full of canned goods and especially in hard times like these, we need to have that security of having food put up for winter.

Cranes on the pond

Yesterday after the fish were caught and canned, Alicia and Justin hauled firewood and Brian worked on somebody's boat. While I was waiting for the canner to cool so I could unload it, I noticed something out on the pond. It turned out to be our cranes. It was so sunny, I couldn't see what the pictures looked like until later in the evening. One is just what the pond looks like from the deck. You can see that it is getting more grown over every year. We don't get to see as much of the pond as we used to, but it is much safer for the ducks to have places of retreat when the eagles attack. Charlotte

We have a pair of wild ducks - maybe 2 - that are nesting on the pond this year. I don't know where the cranes are nesting, but it is somewhere in the neighborhood. On Alicia's blog, you can see closer views of the cranes. My dad asked me which was the male and which the female, and I don't have a clue. I would assume the brighter colored one is the male. In these pictures, they are too far away to tell the difference.

First Kings of the year

Whoo Hoo!!! Spring is here, the Anchor River fishing is great! I caught these two on Saturday morning before work. I am going again in the morning, before work. Alicia and Char canned these up, in jars, and we grilled part of one for lunch. Umm good! Alicia is going to can some moose from last fall tomorrow. Brian

PS

Thanks for all the cards - Gabe's writing looks just like Blake's did at that age - EXACTLY - I can even tell that he is trying to make the letters. Cool . Also thanks for the calls - sorry I missed you - I haven't left the house in a month, literally, and we just sat at the restaurant and talked and talked and then we went to the library and the drug store and came home.

Alicia and my friend Margret took me out for Chinese food today and we made a date for next year - same time, same place - so I can't die this year, because I have a date for lunch on my 56th birthday. Margret is from Germany, you know, and as we sat there, the song, "Edlewiess" came on and we all got all misty. She is going home next week and taking her 2 youngest to visit her family and the song reminded her of a cabin in the mountains she went to when she was young and she is going to take her kids there on their visit, now. So that was fun to think of that and plan it with her.

I think I've been going out for Chinese on my birthday for about 50 years now. Amazing, isn't it? Then we ran in to a person we worked with 12 years ago - and hadn't seen since. And we saw Shannon, who has been away at college for a whole year, so it was a good day.

I also got a bunch of books at the library book sale to make into journals to sell on ETSY - and yes, all you book protectors out there - they were all poorly written, unheard of books. Alicia was overseeing my purchases and you know she won't let me deface anything close to classic. If you want to see what they look like when I'm done - you can check one out at our ETSY shop - thewindfarm.etsy.com

Then, since I was downstairs and outside, I went out to meet Gretta and Gabby and the chickens and turkeys. The turkeys are really getting big and a couple of the chickens are really large. And I was surprised how strong Gretta was - she couldn't figure out where to push me since I was wearing a dress and the wind was blowing - it was funny as she tried to push into it and the wind was there.

Okay - time for Top Chef - I have to go see who gets thrown under the bus. hahahaha Love, Charlotte

Big Day for Charlotte

Well, today is a big day for me. When I was 16, I looked around at everyone I knew and I decided that no one really needed to live more than 55 years. I mean, it was okay if you did, but it just wasn't for me. After the age of 55 it seemed to me that your body just couldn't do all the stuff that a 16 year old wants a body to do......

so flash forward a few decades and today i turn 55 and I am terrifyed that I have jinxed myself and that I am going to die this year. I keep trying to convince myself that if I change my thinking I won't die, but I'm not sure if it is too late.

So I'm trying to think lots of positive thoughts and make plans for future years and such, but in the back of my head, I'm still 55. YIKES ! ! !

Funny Birds this year

We have this funny robin in our yard this year. He has the weirdest songs I have every heard from a robin - and I have been a fan of robins for more than 50 years now.

This one has a screechy sound when it comes into the yard which is really weird and then it sits in the tree every evening and sings and sings. It can imitate the chirping/chortle of a hungry eagle (which isn't really a sound we like to hear in our yard, but it is funny that the robin makes it). Then if you sing a song to him, he only has to hear it twice and then he adds it to his song and so then every time you hear him, he will sing robin songs for a while, then throw in a couple eagle chirps and then sing your song to you. And he can learn a new song from you like every day, so it is really fun.

I've had other birds do this, but not to this extent and I don't remember a robin being this way before.

The swallows came late this year, and they are not really here in numbers and haven't even begun to nest yet. I hope that means a long hot summer, but up here, we never know what that means.... it might just mean a late, cold spring and we can attest to that. brrrrr
Brian and Alicia went mushroom hunting this morning and found a foot of snow still covering the mushroom ground.

It is almost midnight on Memorial Friday which usually means miles and miles of cars from Anchorage, but a semi overturned this morning up by Cooper Landing and at 10:00 pm, they still hadn't fully opened the road, so it is unusually quiet. YAY !!! All the traffic really gets to me on Memorial Weekend. And Mya and Heathcliff have decided that the highway is now part of their territory to defend, so they bark or scream every time a big or noisy vehicle drives by. You can imagine how restful that is. Plus of course, we have had a steady stream of boats and trailers in here this past 2 weeks getting ready for fishing season, so Mya is all distressed about the customers driving in her driveway and bothering her dad out at the shop.

Looks like they got the highway open - the crowds are starting up. Usually some of us would be down at the bridge waiting for someone to look at their watch and yell, " IT'S MIDNIGHT ! ! " and then splash, splash, splash all up and down the river as the king season opens, but the river is really high and full of mud, so nobody here is going fishing at midnight - not to mention we all have the flu and / or a cold or both in some order. Thank you Brian and Justin for bringing home different illnesses for us to all catch. hehehe

So if you guys like videos, I will try to get a sound byte of the bird singing, but if videos don't work for you, I won't bother.

Love you guys - have a good weekend. Love, Charlotte

Another day, Another kick in the pants

Two items to report today - 3 if you count Blake's XBOX dying again - but you'll have to go to his blog and read his story and the comments about his story to get all the details. (For those that don't know - Blake is our son that lives in Seattle).

Anyway, the saddest of the two events is that Brian's Uncle Roy died this weekend. Thank goodness for the Wallowa County paper being so timely in reporting these things....... No one from the family has called or written to let us know, even now. Uncle Roy had been very sick for a long long time so his death was not unexpected - we just worry most about Aunt Leona being alone now. They were so close - like my grandparents did, Aunt Leona moved into the nursing home to live with and take of Uncle Roy and to help him to not be afraid while living there. May we all be so blessed to have that much love in our marriages when the end nears.

Secondly, Brian called this evening and said that because of lower enrollment figures, his hours will be cut to half-time in August when they start back to school. Major bummer. It isn't that much money, but it is steady and has great benefits. Major, Major bummer. It is still possible that it will work out - but they won't know until August and who wants to sit around for 4 months while they decide if you will have a job or not. GRRRRRRRR I am so bummed, I can't even put it into words. Just the idea of trying to support all 4 of us and knowing that one of my other kids is in job flux as well, is overwhelming.

Now what do we do???

I was looking forward to naming one of our Desperate HouseGoats after Edie. Now she has left the series I don't know what we'll do..... I guess we will name one of the next ones after Ben (although I think that is a weird name for a nanny goat, but since Ben asked us to name one after him, we will). I guess Ben and Bree sounds good when you hollar it across the yard. We have two "G" names now. hehehehe

Desperate Housewives News

Will Edie ever return to `Desperate Housewives'?
When Edie packed up and left Wisteria Lane at the end of Sunday's "Desperate Housewives," viewers were caught by surprise.
The sudden exit of the neighborhood's blond troublemaker has fans wondering how this plot twist will affect the ABC hit series, and whether Nicollette Sheridan, who has played Edie during its four seasons, will be back.
For weeks, rumors swirled that Sheridan was out of the show. Both ABC and Sheridan's publicist, Nicole Perna, have been tightlipped in response to inquiries about her imminent departure.

But creator and executive producer Marc Cherry was slightly more forthcoming. Yes, Edie's gone, he told The Associated Press on Friday. Then he added: "She won't be back for a few years."
What could that mean? Hadn't Cherry already announced he will bring his series to a close at the end of the 2010-11 season, just three years from now?

How 'bout those Lakers

All 8 of them that are on the floor at once.....

I watched the middle of the night rebroadcast of the Laker/ Jazz game tonight. And in the middle of the overtime, I remembered why I quit watching NBA.

If I couldn't win a game without buying off every ref in the league, I would be too embarrassed to show my face in public - especially, if I was always going around claiming to be the best player ever in the entire history of the game... past, present and future.

In other words, if any other team or player had backed into another player and forearmed them to the floor, it would have been called as a big foul, but not Sir Kobe or his lackie.. I think it was fisher. Ticks me off more than I can say.

Thank Goodness that Boozer and Kyle Kover saved the Jazz. Stupid Lakers, I just cannot stand them. Char

For all Moms and Kids

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=7769235


You'll have to watcha couple times to get all the words. But it is Hilarious ! ! !

what is Festevus???

Denae asked about Festevus and I realized that maybe others weren't up on TV or movie speak like our family is... well, we aren't "up" on it, we are obsessed with it.. I don't think we have any original conversations anymore, we just do a bit from some TV show or movie. There is one for almost every situation when you watch as much TV as I do. That's actually an interesting story, too. When I was young, TV was new and I literally grew up and old along with TV. I was very active as a child, but i LOVED Tv and my parents always said I watched too m uch. I guess they can take that back no - I have put it to good use.

And actually, I used to do bits from TV when I was a kid and a teenager and drove my mother crazy with my antics. but that is another story. ON TO the explanation of Festevus. OH, another side note - if you google Festevus, my blog is like the 8th entry that shows up. hheheh

Festevus comes from the Seinfeld show. I didn't realize until I looked it up today that it is actually part of the Christmas season. I was thinking it could be any time of year. George worked for this company that let you have off for religious holidays and he wanted an extra day off for something, so he told his boss he needed Festevus off. and his boss wanted to understand, so he makes George bring him to the family Festevus celebration. so they throw this together.

The part I remember is before the meal, you have the : Ceremonial airing of the Grievances.. and everyone goes around the table and airs their grievances for the year and then you have feats of strength and then you wrestle to see whose grievances get to be settled.... so it ends up like all family dinners - a giant screaming match and people punching each other out.

The holiday begins as all are seated around the table and the head of the house says, "Let the airing of the grievances begin..."