Big Day for a Little Man

We had a rather momentous occasion recently, although it's nearly been 2 months ago now.  Our second born started his first day of formal schooling.  That's right, the little man started preschool!

The first week was a little rough each morning.  He really enjoyed school and was always very positive about it when I picked him up.  He even made confident plans each morning before we left home about how I could just give him a hug and then go.  But each morning of the first week went the same way.  He got cold feet just as we entered the room and then cried when it was time for me to go.  Although the crying did work it's way down to whimper by Friday.

Then suddenly the second week, everything clicked.  No more tears just excitement about heading off to school with his new friends.  Actually, he likes school so much that when the first couple of Saturdays came he was genuinely disappointed that couldn't go to school.

We are all SO pleased with how he's doing and of course with how well he enjoys school.  We're also very pleased with his teacher.  She is a very kind and gentle lady with a fun and pleasant personality.  Pretty much the ideal preschool teacher. :)  And she's a great fit for our little man.

Homemade Graham Crackers

This summer I had the opportunity to try making graham crackers.  We had a small group over to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday around a campfire in our backyard.  Since my sister-in-law was bringing over the bulk of the food for the party, I offered to make graham crackers and have some s'more ingredients.  I at least am really glad I did because I enjoyed the best s'more I've ever had.  Hands down!  And I know it was the softer, delicious homemade graham cracker that made the difference.   

Since the backyard party I've made these crackers a few other times and we've always enjoyed them.  I'm even planning to make them next week for the little man's pre-school class.

The Backyard Flock

It's been quite a while since I posted last about our backyard flock of chickens.  That's in part because we've had a lot of changes to our pecking order.  In other words, some "bock-bocks" are no longer with us.  And with all of that, I feel there's some explaining in order.  However, for this post I'd like to focus on the positive and save the grim reaper side of things for another post. :-)

First of all our new group of mail order chicks are doing well.  They have grown SO much and are now basically full grown.  (Remember this post from when they were so cute and fluffy?)

In the photos below, the chicks were 7 weeks old and had just moved out from their large box under a heat lamp in the shop.  We partitioned off a section of our shed for them to live in while they grew and matured.  They did pretty well during their first night in a new place, but it was the second night that we discovered they  were young escape artists. 

We were watching TV after the kids had been put to bed.  We hopped up during commercials to look for a munchie in the kitchen when we noticed two chicks walking up to the back door at nearly 10 PM.  (Remember this was late June so it was still light, but starting to get dusk.)  So we rushed outside and found most of them rather quickly.  They hadn't gone too far...except for Muffy.  That's her below.  She's the quiet one.  And with her coloring and the darkness fast setting in.  We were soon using flashlights to search our yard and then a good area of the neighborhood.  We eventually gave up looking for her that night.  I was just sick to my stomach that night wondering what would become of a poor defenseless baby chick.  Dogs, bears, eagles, ravens, plenty of predator hazards.  I got up a few times during the early morning hours and checked the backyard and again a few more times after Shawn had left for work.  Then finally in a defeated "well, I guess I'll at least go check on the big girls and the garden" attitude I tromped out the backyard again.  That's when I heard a distinctive cheep in the distance.  When I heard it again I started moving towards the sound.  I kept hearing more cheeps so I picked up my pace.  Then I finally got a view of what I knew was her--three houses down the street!!!--in a neighbors yard being pounced on by another neighbors puppy.  I scared that mangy thing off her and was really worried I was too late.  But as soon as I picked her up I could tell she didn't have any major injuries.  She was lucky to escape with just two mild cuts and some missing feathers.  I'm pretty sure her attack had started just before I first heard first peep.  So yeah, I save her life.   And that dog is definitely on my bad list. 

But that lost chicken episode seems like so long ago.  Especially since the same one, Muffy, has now spent 2 other nights away from home because she wandered too far, got disoriented, and couldn't be found in the darkness of the night.  Fortunately, each time we've found her unharmed and quite easily compared to her first runaway attempt.  Muffy, like our other young chickens is doing well and has blended with our older chickens.

For one reason or another our little miss has decided that the barred rock chickens are hers. Not sure why, but she really likes them and so do I.  Lately she's gotten really good at catching them to love on them a bit.

But the best and most recent news from our backyard flock is that we had our long awaited first egg from one of the young chickens today!  Wohoo!  We were all so excited.  It's taken 23 weeks of hard work and care to get this egg so we're enjoying it for sure.  Hopefully it is just the beginning of a bounty of fresh eggs in the coming few years.

Blueberry Pickers

First of all, I must confess that the pictures in this post are not recent.  They were taken at the end of July on a very hot summer day for SE Alaska.  It seems like such a far cry from the weather we're experiencing now.  We're practically done with fall already.  In fact, the near permanent dusting of snow on the mountain peaks around our house are telling us that winter is not far away.

Nevertheless, I wanted to share our little family's love for picking wild blueberries.  Each one of my children had their first experiences with berry picking while they were nestled into a baby carrier of some sort.  So I guess they've never known a summer without berry picking of some kind.  In the Juneau area blueberries are the most easily available of all wild berries.  We've tried picking in several different spots and each spot seems to be more fruitful :) than the last.   This year we seem to have found the perfect spot.  So perfect in fact, I'm not sure I can bring myself to publicly identify it's location.  The berries are in such abundance there that we picked that location a total of 3 times this year.  One of those pickings was a final fall harvest in September that I took the little babe on while the other two were in school. 

These photos are from our first picking this summer.  You have to walk along a pretty decent trail to get to the alpine berries, so we were hiking along for a while hoping the berries would be as amazing as we were told.  Notice my doubting comrades in the photo below.  They both took turns be the party poopers of the the group and requesting that we turn back.  But we pushed on and found a berry pickers gold mine.

The little babe was all business on this outing.  He was a really productive little berry picker.  I thought I would be using the bucket he's got in this picture, but you can see he was determined to fill it himself.

We used these berries in some delicious recipes this summer and had plenty to put away in the freezer for future blueberry pancakes, muffins, and the like.  I hope to share some of my favorite recipes to use these lovely wild berries in.

A few years ago, we got the kids these berry pickers for Christmas.  They are called a child or hiker size so they are easy for them to handle.  They both had a good time seeing how quickly they could fill their pickers.

And it didn't take too long to fill the pickers since most of the bushes were loaded with berries.

Soon it was time to head back.  It's hard not to notice the happier faces on these two on the way back compared to the way in.  Just something about a successful day of berry picking to lift your mood.

What local food do you make sure you harvest each year?

A Lovely Lady

In my last post, I mentioned the recent passing of my grandma.  It's been just about a month since she passed away and yesterday would have been her 86th birthday.  Even before her passing, I didn't know what to say or write about her in a post like this.  In fact, I wasn't completely sure what to say about other things either...thus a break from blogging.  

A month later, I still don't think I can adequately describe what she meant to me.  Although, I'm sure you can imagine. She was my grandma, and who doesn't LOVE their grandma?  I loved being with her, learning from her, watching her, loving her.  I know several of my traits as an adult are linked to hers, especially my "always have to be doing something" nature.  She could never sit still and neither can I.  And coincidentally many of the things I am interested in as an adult, are things she was skilled at: sewing, gardening, cooking, canning and teaching bible class.

(both of my grandmother's at my grandpa's funeral--summer 2011)

Aside from the industrious tasks that she always kept busy doing, I learned a lot about caring for others by watching my grandma.   Before my grandpa passed away during the summer of 2011, I watched her care for him like no one else could. His decline was slow and difficult with added elements of dementia.  Despite her own physical limits, she cared and loved for him continually.  

She also cared for her family.  She and my grandpa went out of their way to be at so many of our events growing up.   Lots of games, meets, concerts, baptisms, high school and college graduations and of course weddings.  My grandparents were even the second pair to make it to the hospital the day our little miss was born.  And they probably would have beat my parents to meet their first great grandchild, but they had farther to drive. :-) 

She also made sure that as much as possible she could direct her family toward God.  Of course, she did a lot through her example because it was a big part of her life. But she also wasn't shy about sharing her opinion...on anything really.  When the little miss was born, her first gift from them was a tiny pair of shoes.  My grandma's instructions were that the little miss was to wear them on her first Sunday at church.  And so she did, at a week and a half. (photo below) My grandparents also gave the Little Miss her first Bible which she still uses today.

Her passing wasn't easy, but it wasn't all sad either.  It was actually full of a lot of warm memories, some laughs, and a special time for our family to remember her together.  Just following the graveside service for her, we took this picture of all my cousins and a few spouses.  A special gathering indeed since the last time we had all been together was 11 years ago.  I just know my grandma would have liked to have been there too.  I'll miss seeing her here.  But in a way that's a blessing, because it means my life was so positively effect by hers.  And I can confidently look forward to seeing her again in heaven.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Re-Entry

Well here I am...re-entering the blog world again after much longer than I had anticipated.   Naturally several things have changed since I last blogged. There are lots of pictures, stories, delicious food, and experiences to share.  In the coming days I plan to share several of those items here.  

After a SUPER busy summer, I think I was nearing burn-out on this blog.  It was starting to feel like a chore and unnoticed.  Then our family got some news that sent my heart spinning.  My grandmother became ill and passed on to her heavenly reward within about a week's time.  While I wasn't sad for her, I also didn't really know what to say.  My desire to write about other topics was also temporarily quenched.  There just weren't any words flowing from my heart to the keyboard.  Sometimes those things take time.

And any other mother out there will agree with me that after a big emotional event like that, there's always a time of readjustment to get things back to normal.  Well, I think I've finally found a way to re-enter the blog world following our readjustment.

If you're one of the folks who came by to visit us on this blog and found "no one home", thanks for not giving up on us/me and continuing to swing by.  And if not and you just randomly came by and have notice we've been  "home" (on the blog) for a week now, no worries ( I deserve it!).  I'm glad you came by.  Either way...welcome!  Would you like a glass of sweet tea?  Make yourself comfortable and let's chat. :)