A SPECIAL DAY

Today is a special day for me and yesterday was a special day for pdxkatie.

Today is day 150 for not smoking and that translates to a savings of about $727 so far. And I quit smoking in time for the gas price to continue to go up. You just can't win!

For PDXKATIE, yesterday was day 150 without a diet coke.

So we are both feeling quite smug about our accomplishments.

Leaving Alaska

A view of Anchorage from the highly modernized air transportation provided by Spernick Air.

I have been trying to think of something snappy to use as an excuse for not blogging.
I got nothing!!!!
So this is the bush plane that is used to shuttle me back and forth from Chugach Electric.










This is the view of the north shore of the Cook Inlet. The tide up here rises and falls about 18 feet.

Another sure sign of spring at The Farm

The story behind these two fawns is as follows.

A guy we know asked if he could turkey hunt at The Farm and we said sure. The first day out he met up with the neighborhood tom turkey. Tommy was in his roost when Mr. R walked into the woods. Tommy took one look at him with his gun and flew away.

The next day Mr. R was back in the woods a little earlier this time and no turkeys flew out of the trees - a good sign. As the dawn of the morning was rising, Mr. R started calling. Tommy would gobble back at him and they kept this up for the next hour or so until Tommy had had enough of this game. He flew out of the tree and landed in our yard. I was in the garage and witnessed this, Tommy with a smug look on his beak he turned east and walked into the sunrise looking for the ladies.

So Mr. R decided to pace off the distance between him and Tommy. As he was walking thru the woods he almost stepped on the first fawn. He was so startled at seeing the fawn he just starred at it for awhile. It then dawned on him to go get the camera. On the way back to the first fawn he almost stepped on the second fawn.

Was turkey hunting a success for Mr. R? In my eyes it was a tremendous success. Not only did he get to see the fawns and turkey, he also had several deer walk by him, he could hear the geese honking at each other in the pond plus he got to enjoy all of the spring flowers and witness the woods waking up for summer.

Springtime at the Farm

Some sure signs that spring may very well be on it's way to The Farm.
These are the first wildflowers that come up around the house and back in the woods. You will have to ask Nana what they are, I just enjoy the way they look.

Martha Stewart and minions eat your hearts out!

Jonesie used these spruce cones for garden row markers. His creativity delighted Nana who usually says that Jonesie "does not have an aesthetic bone in his body". This is worthy of "a good thing".

Our six small raised garden beds are easy to manage and they produce a surprising variety of fruit, herbs and vegetables. Big changes in the 2008 garden plan...we eliminated cantaloupe and potatoes in favor of more varieties of tomatoes. Also, Jonesie has a rogue garden he dug out of an old blackcap bed. His big experiment this year is buttercup squash.

Boating Season

I'm ready for boating this summer with the kids. I couldn't resist getting Emme her first "Flotation Device".

Mushroom Time

If it's the first weekend in May, it must be time for mushroom plugging.
Every year Mr. And Mrs. T have a get together at their farm. Mrs. T calls it a party, the rest of us call it work.

The photos show some of the process that goes into getting shiitake mushrooms to grow. First fresh hardwood logs are cut to about 2 feet long. Then Mr. T drills many 3/4" holes in the logs.


The logs then go to the stuffing table where the
workers have to take the sawdust/mushroom
spore mixture and stuff it in the holes of the logs.
This is very hard on the fingers and thumbs after
a while.














Then it is off to the waxing table. All of the stuffed holes now get a coat of wax to seal them.
The logs are then placed in the woods and nature does the rest. If we have a wet year we get a lot of mushrooms sprouting from the loaded logs, a dry year is not as good.
It is truly luxurious to be able to harvest fresh shiitake mushrooms in the morning and add them to the scrambled eggs. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. T.