Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Soaring Summer Flying By




WOW! It seems like it's been forever since I've posted. For those of you that don't know my hard drive on my computer crashed. I took it into Geek City in Fairbanks and had them do a data recovery and put in a new hard drive. It took a little while to get it back but they were understanding of our situation and were able to fix it in about a week and a half. We were able to drop it off when we picked up Ken's mom from the airport and pick it back up when we took her back. Soooo, now that I'm back up and running lets see if I can get you caught up a bit. So much has happened that I'm sure I'll forget to include some things. This post may also be a little light on pictures since I lost the program that I used to make my collages and loading them individually takes forever.



The month of June meant a lot of planting. Ken was working for ASRC again but this time he was running a loader across at the gravel pit. He also worked at Dart AM Farm during breaks in the ASRC job. I aged this month creeping up to 33. We also butchered all our meat birds and put them in the freezer.

Boys enjoy playing in or should I say wallowing in the dirt!

Lisa lost her first tooth
Ian along with three other teens and 2 men were baptized by pastor Earl.


One of the men not pictured Jr. from left to right  front row (Ian, Aubry, Jessica, Ryan) Back (Mike, Earl)


July has been a very busy month indeed. We moved the bees from Manly to out here on the runway so that they could take advantage of all the fireweed. After moving them and getting it all set up I didn't have on proper equipment and ended up being stung multiple times, including 6 in my right armpit, once on my belly and twice between my legs on my upper thigh. Then the following day I was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets that had nested in our old cow skull that is mounted just above the goats grain storage bin. We never stopped doing school over the summer but July marked the start of a new school year for us. So we ordered our new curriculum.






The 4th of July was a lot of fun as usual thanks to all the amazing people who work so hard to put it together. Lisa was the grand prize winner in the bike parade and we enjoyed the activities, games and social time. The BBQ was late this year so we didn't stay in town for it. We also didn't do the Pike derby as we don't have a boat and they were doing the boat races on the slough so we couldn't take the kids down there to fish for pike. We ended up fishing in Baker creek and though we didn't catch anything the kids had fun.

Grandpa Scott riding in the fire truck with Chuck leading the parade.





My mom and dad
"Uncle" Don and September

Egg race

Pushing eggs with their noses


Watermelon eating contest.


Ken's mom Kris came for a visit which was really nice. We had decided to do the tourist bit this year so we bought the pre-season tickets for the River Boat Discovery and Gold Dredge 8. Kris enjoyed both but we preferred the Gold Dredge 8 as we found the Boat trip a little boring. We all panned some Gold but Wyatt beat us all by panning $26.00 worth. We also went out to the Hoot Hot Springs which was a fun and interesting trip. We couldn't find the correct trail going in so we wasted a lot of gas. We had not planned on being gone past lunch so had not packed a lunch. It was well after lunch before we made it in. The kids snacked on granola bars and we all enjoyed a feast of blueberries. When we got there we were run off by a young curious black bear. The trip back we were running out of fuel but were at least on the correct trail. We started praying that God would keep just enough fuel in the tank to get us home. It was like the story of the widow and the jar of oil and we made it home praising God for his blessing.

Oak trying to make the I love you sign

Penned Carabou

River Boat Discovery
Hoot Hot Springs

Lisa, Kris and Ken

Kris ferried the boys to the warmer water
Gold Dredge 8 starting point at the pipeline




Gold panning area

Oak drinking Hot cocoa and eating cookies while waiting weigh our gold
We started harvesting and canning here at the end of July. Lisa started pulling carrots and we've been eating a lot of salad greens, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, beets and green onions. Also we picked one cabbage so far. I've canned 14 cans of pickles and relish and several cans of fireweed jelly. The berry picking this year is AMAZING so we have been picking a lot of blueberries and raspberries. So far I have been freezing them but I'm planing on doing some canning of them.

Turkeys Bob(above) and Larry are getting huge.

Lisa's Carrots even bigger and better than last year.
Little Greenhouse

Bee Hive


Cabbage

Garden

Pumpkins and Squash in Large Greenhouse

Cucumbers and Melons in Large Greenhouse


Psalms 148:1-14 KJV
1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.