Realy Cute Chicks!!!

Brooder

Mason Jar Feeder and Waterer

Americana

Red Chanteclers

Hey all our first 10 baby chicks are here. We will have 20 by next week but not all the breeds we wanted were available this week. We have 5 Americanas and 5 Red Chanteclers. We will be getting 5 Polish and 5 meat birds (cornish cross). We brought in our old Quail brooder because our Chick brooder wouldn't fit through the door. It's way taller than we need but it will work. We have them sitting behind the woodstove with a small heat lamp. They aren't day olds though their probably a week or more old. The Americanas are a bit older than the others. I want to eventually inter breed these three breeds and possibly add some Wyandotte to the mix later on. The breeds that we have now have basically no combs or waddles and no feathered feet. That way they are less likely to get frost bite and won't have issues with the snow sticking to their feet. This will be a major learning experiance for us as all past experiance was in the Arizona high desert. We will have many more preditors and more extream weather to deal with. We will have to take those things into consideration as we build their housing and yard.

Lisa's Painting

Operation Free Bird Alaska

OK HERE IS A SNEEK PEEK INTO THE BIG NEWS! A PREVIEW OF THINGS TO COME!

Ok so....We moved to Alaska for a fresh start after things in Arizona started to deteriorate. Ken couldn't find work, we lost the beautiful custom home that we made ourselves. All prospects of moving to New Mexico (like we had planned) were swept away like dust off the high desert. We had few options. Living in a travel trailer at my grandmother's with the county breathing down our backs telling us we had to leave. After some sweet talkimg from Trapper about all that Alaska had to offer we finally gave into the idea of the frozen north. Trapper had 48 acres near Manley Hot Springs that he wanted to return to. He offered that we could move up as well and he put the land in a warrenty deed, with myself and all my siblings listed on it. So, with our last bit of savings and money from selling stuff off we made the big move. Then Ken and Trapper built our duplex cabin. Trapper got phone and internet set up and at first we had open access. After we got all moved into the house Trapper went back to AZ for the winter. While he was gone we kept his side and the battery bank from freezing. We had to make some adjustments such as bringing the large battery bank inside and running off the small bank in order to keep things from freezing without spending a small fortune on gas in the generator. He returned in February and things started to change. We no longer had access to phone or internet unless we asked permission. Aside from the building of the house we haven't asked Trapper for anything. We have provided our own food in addition to the items donated from new friends. We were buying fuel to run the generator etc... Ken started working odd jobs then got a steady job driving bus for the Manley Village Council. Village Express, No thats not Ken in the picture. Here is were we commence OFBA. Our plan for a fresh start didn't include being under someone elses authority. Now that we have the means (though limited) we are taking the needed steps toward our independance.

Phase 1 OFBA: POWER - Here is were we start getting our own power set up. We already had a generator what we needed to start were batteries, a charger and an inverter. We started with 8 new batteries and a Xantrex inverter/charger. Our luck though we got a bum inverter and we are still working on getting it replaced. The battery bank however is working well with a small 750W inverter and a Carquest battery charger. Down the road we will be adding solar panels as we can afford it.



Phase 2 OFBA: Communication - We now have our own internet Hughesnet set up complete with a Magic Jack phone. All powered by our very own power supply. No more asking permission to make contact with the outside world. The Hughesnet is crazy expensive but the Magic Jack is really cheap so it kinds balances out.

Phase 3 OFBA:  Comming Soon ;) Detailes of this step are still to come as we are not 100% sure what to wrap into this phase. I can say as part of it we are building a large storage shed/work shop 10'x16'. That way Ken has his own enclosed area to store his tools and work on the Many projects that will be comming up.

I would not list any of these phases as complete as they will be under modification as time and funding allow. More details are still to come on all phases.

Planting: My little starter garden is doing well now that I have planted my starts in bigger pots. I have some tomatoes, pumpkins, onions and beets that are doing well. I will plant more according to the planting schedule.

Blessings to all our friends, family and readers,

Sarah Sue



Finally A Bit of an Update

A Sketch I did of Lisa From a Picture Taken When She Was 2

Sorry again for the long period between posts. We ordered a new inverter and when it came it was defective and wouldn’t even come on so we have had very limited power supply therefore limited time on-line. Therefore I decided to start typing this post in MS Word so that I can latter cut and paste into the blog and hopefully add some pictures. For those who don’t know an inverter takes the power stored in the battery and allows you to use it for household aplications.


So lets see since last I posted:

Garden project: My garden project has been a successful failure lol. Most things sprouted and took off much better than I expected which is a good thing showing that my seads are still viable. The bad thing is that I didn’t plan well enough for such rapid growth and most died from being root bound before I could transplant them into larger contrainers. Not everything died however I do still have some little tomatoe plants doing very well. I found a resource that gives an idea of when and how to start certain plants. It didn’t have everything I want listed so some I am still experamenting with. The ones on the list I will follow as best I can. For those planning a garden here in interior Alaska I will show you the time line that I found.

March 26th – Seed start cucumbers and tomotoes intended for a greenhouse.

April 2nd – Seed start Pansies, petunias, and peppers

April 9th – Seed start dahlias, cosmos, calendula, and most herbs

April 16th – Seed start marigolds, head lettuce, and corn

April 23rd – Seed start cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and broccoli – Order AK certified seed potatoes

May 1st – Seed Start leaf lettuce, swiss chard, squash, sunflowers, sweet allysum, zucchini, and zinnia

May 7th – Put up greenhouse or a hoophouse.

May 14th – Rototill and mix in fertilizer to your garden as soon as snow melts and soil dries.

June 1st – Plant carrots, potatoes, radishes, spinish, turnips, peas, poppies, bachelor buttons, and nasturtiums directly in your garden.

June 4th – transplant your plants outdoors starting with your cool season vegetables first.

June 10th – transplant your warm season plants outside

July 10th – Add additional fertillizer if needed

August 1st – Harvest time. Time to start preservation.



There are a lot of materials available from the UAF COOP Extension that I would love to get at some point on gardening, preservation , wild harvest etc…. Go to http://www.uaf.edu/ces



I now have all my seeds sorted by month and will try to follow this time line and keep experamenting with the plants not listed on the timeline.



Music Lessons:



The school had some teachers come in to teach the students guitar and violin. Lisa had so much fun and got to check out a guitar to bring home and continue learning on. They had a performance were all the kids got to play and sing and then they did some square dancing. It was so much fun to watch and the kids had a blast. Lisa looked like a professional and had everyone talking about her proffesional pose. The guitar teacher was from the proffessional group Barefoot and the Violin teacher was from a Native group. If I can figure out how to do it at some point I’ll post the video.

Valentines Day:

Nothing too special I wrapped up a few pieces of left over Christmas candy into some paper with hearts on it and gave it to the kids they were thrilled. Ken gave me a new coffee cup with hearts on it just before he headed out early to go and drive the bus. Lisa made some valentine heart cards out of construction paper to take into her class the following Wednesday.



The Kids Birthdays:



The kids birthdays were a real simple affair this year. The Wednesday before we took Lisa in to school and brought cupcakes for the whole school and goodie bags for Lisa’s class, Lisa also passed out her Valentines. There are 12 kids in the entire school PreK-12 and three kids in the preschool class. All three kids in the preschool class turned 4 in February. On the boys birthday that Friday Ken was gone on the bus so we didn’t really do anything accept sing to them and talk to them a little about when they were babies. I still can’t believe they are already 2. All the kids started to show signes that they were getting sick. Saturday we had our friends/neighbors over and had hotdogs (a real treat for the kids) and cake and Icecream (a real treat for all of us ;). Then they opened their few gifts that mommy wrapped up in last months Bush Shopper mailing. They were happy with it, they got some new Veggie Tales videos, puzzles and toys. We gave our friends the gift of the Crud sickness that the kids had. On Sunday for Lisa’s birthday again not much we just sang talked about when she was little and had some leftover cake after dinner. This turned out to be a pretty wicked little bug that we all picked up running the boys up to 103 fevers. It hit me later and I am still fighting it and the caugh seems to be hanging on for Ken and the kids.

The Pancho was her Birthday Preasent From Mommy She Wanted One Like Mine So I Made her One.

What better gifts for boys than Hamers, Monster Trucks and Blocks of Wood.

As requested by Lisa a Dino Cake

Serum Run:



On Thursday 2/24 we went into Manley to check mail and run errands. At the post office we ran into some mushers taking part in the serum run from Nenana to Nome. They were passing through and decided to stay an extra night to give way to the Iron Dog snow machine race that would be coming through in the opposite direction. They said that the school kids were going to be going over to meet the dog teams so we headed over to the school. The mushers were all staying at the school. We walked with the other kids over to the staging area for the dog teams. They got to meet some of the dogs and the mushers and got to ask questions and learn some about the health of the dogs and the run. Lisa and Oak enjoyed petting the dogs Wyatt who is not into animals didn’t want anything to do with the dogs and had to be held the entire time. It was fun for all of us and a neat learning experience. It’s been so fun to learn about the different culture of this area. Things that are so everyday here but fascinating to new commers like us. There are so many things that are unique to Alaska and so many things unique to interior Alaska and to the Manley Hot Springs area in and of itself.

There have been a lot of goings on here behind the scenes that I will just have to tease you with since I can not go into anything in detail at this time, but I think we are in for many big changes over the next few months . I will try to post on these BIG changes as soon as they can become common knowledge and are set more in stone.

Blessings to all our friends, family and readers :)

Yes this is me bundled for outdoor play. I almost match my car lol..

Sarah Sue

Post-poned

Hello All just a fast note to let you all know that we have been experiancing internet related issues. Will post as soon as we get the problem resolved.

Winter Projects Challenge and Our great Alaskan Garden Project

Boys Peaking Down the vent from upstairs

The kids and I are taking the winter project challenge from http://www.education.com/. You have to do 5 of the projects from their website before Febuary 28th. The first we did was baking bread. No big deal since we do it often. After that we took a magic Carpet ride. Each kid sat on a little rug and we pretended to fly around. That turned into a recue game trying to save eachother from falling off. Then Lisa and I made paperplate puppets, one for each member of the family. Three projects down 2 more to go.



Lisa and her Puppet Family



I am unsure of what to expect for this summers growing season so I'm planning ahead and starting some seeds really early. Ken put up a large shelf on the handrail that goes around the staircase. The kids and I planted some seeds and hopefully by the time the ground thaws we'll have some desent sized started plants to put in the ground. I also have three indoor hanging sets that I'm going to use for tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers. In the larger of the pots that I had I planted some herbs that can stay inside durring the cold weather and be put out in the summer. There are still alot of other things I would like to plant later but I'll have to get more seeds and soil. The kids had some pupkin and sunflower seeds that they planted. I had a few others that were old leftover seeds and threw a few into different containers not sure if their still good or not. I used a cut up plastic bottle for markers. I'll post periodically about what grows and what doesn't and keep updating as I start to transfer them outside in a few months. My friend Emillie in Arizona is sending me some seeds and we're looking into getting some through the tribal council. Not sure if we can get the ones from the council or not since we're not natives. We might be able to find someone who would be willing to order them for us for a small fee (they get them for free). We also heard that they can get animals up here too such as chickens, goats and pigs so thats something else I need to look into. Again not sure if we could get in on that or not since we're not native.

Leftover seeds from AZ

Planting

Shelf over stairwell

Shelf over stairwell and Dozer in his bed

pots on the shelf

pots on the shelf

Now is a time for research. Research into planting and looking into finding our own piece of land up here. This 50 acre piece is a family piece that my dad bought a long time ago and while it is a warrenty deed with myself and all my siblings and dependants listed on it we are still in search of more independence. We want our own little chunk of Paradise we're we can build a small cabin for us and one for my mom and step dad so that they can move up and be closer to us. They are also raising my niece and nephew who are now 10 and 11 and they have had them since they were 3 and 14 months. My mom and I are very close and it would be the best for all of us to be closer and I think this is such a wonderful place to raise kids away from all the push and shove. The school up here is wonderful and there are several other kids their age.  Anyway if any of my readers catch wind of  a 20+ acre property up this way please pass the word. There are a few that we're looking into but they arent for sale yet and may or may not go up for sale.

Thank you to all of my Family/ Friends and Readers. Blessings to you all!

Sample Projects/A Winters Day

I've had alot of people ask what we do all day in the winter. I can tell you one thing for sure we are not sitting around on the couch watching movies and eating bonbons..lol...

So here is a glimps into a normal routine day and and some samples of special projects we've done.

Our morning starts at 1:00am the alarm is set and either Ken or I get up go down stairs and stoke the fire, then we crawl back into bed and try to go back to sleep. The twins still wake up several times a night so I'm up with them tucking them back in, taking them to the potty or finding their teddy bears in the covers. We're usually up anytime between 5:00am-7:00am depending on when the twins decide their up and not going back to sleep. Then I head down the stairs with the boys and Lisa. We the stuff we put on the couches to keep the dogs off them then I stoke the fire and start getting the coffee and the kids cereal going. On rare mornings when the boys do sleep in until 7:00am Ken gets up ahead of them and he and Lisa go down get the fire going and play cards until the rest of us are up. After that it varries a bit if the batterries need a charge Ken will put on the generator and thats a big treat for the kids as it means they can watch a movie on the TV. Breakfast is usually cold cereal or sometimes oatmeal. Eggs and Bacon or sausage is a special treat that we enjoy every once in a while after someone (either us or the neighbors who are nice enough to pick stuff up for us) go into town. Another treat is sometimes we make pancakes, muffins, coffe cake, doughnuts or something, however as this is a bigger undertaking and requires getting the stove nice and hot it's often more of a brunch and Ken and the kids still eat a bowl of cereal while I'm cooking.

CAKE DOUGHNUTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons shortening

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoons vinegar and enough regular milk to make 1/2 cup


Into a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Cream shortening; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Stir in vanilla.

Add combined vinegar and milk alternately with dry ingredients; stir just until well blended.

Roll small quantities of the dough at a time, to about 1/3-inch thick. Cut doughnuts with a 2 1/2-inch cutter (we used Lisa's little cookie cutters from her baking set. They were a perfect toddler size and bite sized for us big people) and let stand for about 10 minutes. Fry in hot fat (I used Canola Oil) at about 365° to a nice golden brown. Turn once. Fry only 3 or 4 batches at a time to keep fat from cooling down. Drain on paper towels. Makes about 18 doughnuts.

We then rolled them in powdered sugar.

After breakfast things varry widley there is always wood, going out and cutting it, splitting it, brining it into the house, stacking it inside or outside. Inside the fire has to stay stoked, the ash tray emptied, the dogs fed and taken outside to do their business. Then we can work on other projects before lunch that is often when we do cleaning up, craft projects, etc inside and Ken works out in the breezway on his own more Manly projects. We take a break for lunch around noon, usualy peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Sometimes leftovers or shells and cheese. After lunch the boys go down for a nap and Lisa and I move on to other projects usually upstairs while we have the light. She works on her pre-K workbooks, puzzles, painting or other homeschool projects that are more difficult when her brothers are awake. While she does her thing I clean up upstairs, fold laundry etc.. while helping her. Sometimes she helps me durring this time to bring in wood when daddy is gone. If I get everything I had planned done adn Lisa is still busy sometimes I get a few minutes to pop online or do some reading or chrochet. Most of the time I get online in the morning while everyone else is eating breakfast. I get on a bit more on days when I run the generator to take advantage of the power supply. Often this time when the boys are sleeping is when Ken will work on projects outside or wander further back on the property to cut wood. He always has a million projects of things to fix, things to improve or things to create. Sometimes their for us or sometimes for other loacl folks. recently he has made a set of cabinets for Connie, tinkered with Tannis' trash compactor. Made triangle dinner bells for us and our neighbors, made a larger sled for hauling wood out of a steel 55 gal drum, the list goes on and on.

FARRIE HOUSE PROJECT:

We made a Farrie house for Lisa's farrie dolls that she got for Christmas. It's made out of a cardboard box with construction paper sidding, ribbon trimmed windows with packing tape glass. Lisa took the photos and Oak Modeled it..lol..

After the boys wake up we usually spend time playing and doing projects upstairs while we have the light. Then we go downstairs and start getting things ready for supper. This can be anything from opening a can of spam or tuna to hacking up a Salmon. Either way the stove has to get stoked and heated up so that it's at a high enough temp for cooking especially if we will be using the oven. Sometimes I'll do something in the dutch oven ion which case I usually start it between breakfast and lunch and have it cooking over the low fire all day, then come evening I just have to make whatever we want to go with it. I've been really into making deserts lately for after supper.

DESERT:

About 4 cups of either frozen or canned fruit(drained)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 c either real maple syrup, or honey or brown sugar
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
 I heat these on the stove until they boil
In another bowl I mix:
about 1 c of oatmeal
1/4c real maple syrup, or honey or brown sugar
1/4c butter
1 tbsp Cinnamon
Then I take the fruit mix and put it in a 2 qt casserole dish and spread the oatmeal mix on top. I bake it @ anywere from 200 - 350* while we eat supper. The kids and I like to eat it with a little milk on top. I bet it would be real good with whipped cream or ice cream.

Then we settle in for a little family time before bed. If the generator is on we might watch a grown up movie otherwise we just play. We might build a caslt out of blocks, play uno moo, make an obsticle coarse whatever. Then I clean up the table and we all brush our teeth, wash up and get ready for bed. The kids are in bed usually at 7:00pm or a hair after. Many days they are so tired they start asking to go to bed at 6:00pm. We stay busy so everyone gets plenty of excercise and gets pretty worn out durring the day. I tuck in the boys and sing them a song then I tuck in Lisa and read her a story. Most of the time Ken and I follow and go right to bed too. On a rare occasion when we have the energy we'll stay up and watch a movie on my computer or just lay in bed and talk for a while.

Then it all starts all over again come 1:00am.

I hope this helps a little to give you an idea of what we do durring the day. I'll try to remember to take more pictures and write more about some of our little projects. I get so caught up in the day in day out that I forget that it might be of interest to someone looking in from the outside.

Thank you to our family, friends and readers for stopping by. Many Blessing to you all!

Long Awaited 2010 Wrap Up and Intro to 2011

Full Moon Winter Solstis As rising before Eclipse

Aurora at the edge of Moonshine Winter Solstis

We had a nice first Christmas in Alaska. Thanks to our friend Susan the kids got a letter from Santa that really made Lisa's day on the Wednesday before Christmas and really got her excited. Christmas eve and the day prior were spent getting stuff preped so there wouldn't be as much to do on Christmas Morning. I did alot of cooking and mixing so that things could just be tossed on the stove or in the oven. I didn't cook a thanksgiving dinner so this was my once a year huge feast. Before bed on Christmas Eve we read the nativity story and "The Night Before Christmas" Lisa put out a snack for Santa (rice crispy squares & M&M's) and they were tucked into bed. Ken and I put out the gifts from Santa got the muffins that I baked earlier and the computer upstairs so that we had everything up there and ready to go for the morning. Neither Ken or I could sleep. We were too excited to sleep..lol...I was the first one up and out of bed. I went downstairs stoked the fire, put the turkey in the oven and made some coffee. By the time the coffee was done I heard the kids stirring so I brought all our drinks upstairs to settle in for some unwrapping. We opened stockings first.

Lisa, Oak, Wyatt On Mommy & Daddies Bed

In the stockings they got some leftover Halloween candy, a little 2nd hand stuffed toy, a new headlamp, candy canes and Pez dispensers courtesy of our friend Lori who also furnished several gifts under the tree. After that they put on their headlamps and went to work on the gifts under the tree. Santa brought them each a new ball, Lisa got a big excersise ball. As usual they made out like bandits even though there were no real gifts from mom ann dad.

Using head lamps Oh the joy of no electric

The boys favorite toys were some take apart trucks from Grandma the sat for a long time with their little power tools working on them. After opening everything the kids each picked out some new clothes to wear. The boys picked new jammies and Lisa put on some jeans and a sweater from Grandma. Then they got to Skype with Grandma and their Aunt Dani and Uncle Dan.

Fixing vehicles: From Back Ken, Oak, Wyatt, Lisa



Wyatt In Thomas the Tank Engine Jammies - Oak in Cars Jammies



Skype with Grandma and Uncle Dan

After we were done and had played for a while we went downstairs. Ken and the kids watched the Newest Tinkerbell movie that Lisa got. I talked with my mom on the phone and then got to work on lunch. Our neighbor/friend came over and helped get the last minute stuff pulled together. When it was about time to eat she went and picked up her husband and we all sat down to a huge Turkey and Ham dinner. After dinner we put the kids to bed and played a couple of games in which Ken and I royaly got our bums whipped lol.. Over all I would have to say that it was a nice day.

On to the New year!

From the traditional Yule Log to the traditional Bringing in of the new LOGS!

The Wood wagon Choo Choo

On new years eve around 6pm we had our little fireworks display wich lasted about 20 minutes. The weather was warmer about +10 so a little more comfortable for the kids. By 8pm we were all in bed.

Lisa had her first shooting lesson. She has been around guns since she was a baby and we have been teaching her about gun safety. She knows better than to ever touch a gun without mommy or daddy. We went out with a kids .22 rifle and .22 pistol that were Ken's when he was little. They are both still a bit big for her but she did very well. The Targets were her rotting Halloween Pumpkins. We also took out the shotgun and my 9mm glock just to show her what they could do to the pumpkins and to hammer in the danger of guns.

Forget BOB we have Oak the Builder

The new year has found us already imbarking on our new begining here in the Alaskan frontier. We have high hopes for the comming season and the new benefits that will come with state residency such as hunting and fishing. We're hoping to have some visitors from AZ come spring if everything goes well. I would like to do some exploring of our area and the state if time and money allow. Ken has started a job that will hopefully provide a steady income and allow us a little more security. Lisa has signed up for pre-school at the Gladis Dart School in Manley hot springs and will attend class with the other pre-k kids, but only once every couple of weeks when we make our trip into the washateria. Other than that we will continue to do homeschooling. We'll sart doing regular bible studies, learning Japanese along with my sister Rebecca which should be fun. I would also like to start learning to play my guitar that I've had sitting for several years ...lol.... I look forward to all of the learning and new experiances that this year will bring and hope to meet them with joy and childlike wonder. I will do my best to share those experiances with all of you.

Again I would like to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to our family and friends who made 2010 a wonderful experiance and showed us support and love through all the stages of our move as well as helping us to get established in our new home. I look forward to spending time with loved ones either in person on the computer or on the phone and I wish you all the best and brightest this year.

May you be as blessed as we. Love, Hugs and Kisses to you all!