Alaska State Fair 2015, Plus other so-so happenings

So, this year we decided to hit the Alaska State Fair again.  We don't go every year cuz it's mostly just  ol' same ol' thing every year, with slight variations.  So every year we basically decide at the last minute whether or not we want to go, depending on if we have time to go, or if we are just plain in the mood for it.  This time we went because Chuck had the day off work and because the weather was nice.  But we could only stay for a few hours cuz Chuck had to go to a church budget meeting that evening.  So we got there when they opened at noon, and frankly, it was more than okay that we had to leave when we left because, by that time, we were pretty much ready to leave anyway, although there were a few shows that I wanted to see but didn't have time for.  We both regretted that we totally missed the rhubarb demonstration, but luckily the lady was still there when we got there, and we got to talk to her.  She was giving demonstrations on what to do with rhubarb besides making the usual pies and jams and she had some rhubarb pilaf made up, which was pretty good.  She asked me what I do with my rhubarb and I told her "the usual pie, jam, rhubarb crisp, and parfaits".  She never heard of rhubarb parfaits before, so she gave me her email address so I could send her the recipe.  Anyhoo, it was fun and interesting talking to her.

Anyhoo, after entering the gate, this is the first thing of interest I saw:

The Haunted House maze

It's nothing new; it's there every year (no, I have never been in there).  But I liked the skeleton.  Plus, I'm in "Halloween mode".

BTW, I forgot to bring my camera to the fair, so I had to make Chuck take this picture with his phone, as well as some others.  Since he sighs and snaps his tongue every time I ask him to take a picture of something, I didn't get very many pictures.

Then we walked past something new:

These kids were playing inside these huge balls over a pool of water.  It looked like a lot of fun. That would be a great fun way to burn a ton of calories!  Wish I had something like it at home!  I wonder if they got hot inside those balls?

Then of course, Chuck had to get some "joe" at the first coffee joint he found.  While we were waiting for his order, this "life form" appeared out of nowhere:

This picture doesn't do him justice, and we only got a picture from behind him because it would've been rude to take a picture of him if he saw us doing it.  But anyway, he was wearing a hat with big sheep horns on it, no shirt, and his "pants" were made by wrapping a fleece blanket around his legs.  And he was walking around with a cane/staff.  I shudder to think of what might (not) be under that blanket and hoped I wouldn't be around if it should slip and fall off.  As they say, for some reason, the Fair always brings the weirdest people out of the woodwork.  Some people seem to think the Fair is a free license to bring their weirdness out in public.  And anything goes.  But on the other hand, some people have another perspective, and that is that some people just like to have fun and try to make the Fair more interesting.

We saw plenty of "interesting" people, but I just tried to ignore them.  

One of the yearly variations is what they put in the Exhibition Hall.  This year they had reptiles.  I was interested to go in there, but I knew that reptile exhibitions ALWAYS come with spiders.  I don't know why.  Spiders are not reptiles so why do they always insist that they go together? Can't they ever just have a reptile exhibit, with just reptiles (for people like me)? So at the entrance, I asked the ladies if there were any big spiders in there, and she told me exactly where I could find them.  And we decided to forego the reptile exhibition. I don't wanna see the reptiles THAT bad.

In another building they had some exotic birds on display.  They had some pretty cool ones.  I was particularly interested in this vulture:

.......especially since I've entered the Halloween mode. He's beautiful and ugly at the same time.  I've never seen a vulture before, except for the ones in the Looney Tunes cartoons (does that even count?).  I really wish I could find some fake ones to use for Halloween, but I can never find any.  And I wish Stampin' Up! would come out with a vulture stamp!  (hint-hint for Tammie!)

Let's see, what else?  Oh yeah, Chuck wanted to see the antique tractor pull.

He was mostly interested in the Allis Chalmers tractor cuz that was the kind of tractor his dad had.  (Chuck's brother is currently refurbishing it and getting it running again.)

Then of course we went through the usual animal exhibits (cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys) followed by the vegetable displays, where you would find the giant veggies.  Here is a giant cabbage weighing 107 pounds:

I was hoping to see some giant pumpkins, but typically people that enter their pumpkins wait until the last few days of the Fair to enter them, in hopes of their pumpkins gaining as much weight as possible.  Since we were there in the first week of the Fair, there weren't any pumpkins there yet.  :-(

Here is a picture of a big sasquatch carved out of wood.  I did not ask Chuck to take this picture.

Can you believe they were charging $1 just to stand next to it so someone can take your picture with it?  Sheesh.  Um, I think we'll just take a picture of it by itself.  For free. 

Not that $1 is a lot of money....

Another thing I like to do at the Fair is look at the quilts that people enter (saw some pretty neat Halloween ones!), but I didn't ask Chuck to get any pictures of those. It just wasn't worth enduring the sighing and tongue snapping. I also didn't get a picture of the food we chose to eat.  Normally we bring our own food, but this time we were too lazy to pack food, so we ended up buying something.  I had a reindeer hot dog, piled high with sauerkraut, onions, and peppers.  I felt like "blech" after I ate it.  I guess I'm just not used to eating that kind of food anymore.  And then we chowed down a whole bag of Kettle Korn.  Luckily we brought our own water, so that alone probably saved us about $4000 dollars.

Anyhoo, other than the Fair, just the same ol' boring stuff is going on.  We woke up to our first frost already a couple days ago, so I harvested the rest of my rhubarb.

After getting it all washed and cut, I had enough to make 4 pies, or 12 batches of parfaits (my new favorite).  Steph wants me to bring her some rhubarb, but I think I might be too selfish to give her any.  We are planning to go visit her next weekend, so I'll do better than bring her some rhubarb.  One of my rhubarb plants desperately needs to be thinned, so I'm going to bring her part of my rhubarb plant.  Then she can grow her own. Not only to help ME out, but to also present her with a housewarming gift (they are buying their first house and we are going to help them move in - that'll be another blog post for sure!)  Although, I SUPPOSE I might bring her enough to make at least one pie - to hold her over for this winter.  How generous of me!  :-)

So, now that my rhubarb is out of the way, I still need to pull all my carrots, even though they're  not finished yet - but I'll get SOMEthing out of them.  And I think I'll have to pull all my tomatoes, even though 80% of them are still green.  Sigh.......!

And then there's my corn, which also still needs more time.  I don't think I'm going to plant corn next year.

My acorn squash:

...is just now starting to get squashes on them.  Really?  Just now when the first frost is here?  See what the frost did to the leaves?

all wilted

I don't think I can count on those baby squashes growing into anything large and edible.  But I shouldn't be too disappointed.  After all, those plants were given to us second-hand, and they were obviously planted too late in the season by whoever started the seeds.  Yeah, I'm disappointed, but I really shouldn't be.  Maybe next year I can try planting some again.

Here is something else that happened this week:  an older retired couple from my hometown congregation (Marshfield, WI) were traveling up here, just as a fun trip, and they were coming through Wasilla, so we invited them over for lunch after worship services.  I have to admit that I didn't really know them very well.  We've briefly met them in the past, but when we went home last time, they weren't there, and I couldn't remember who they were when people were talking to us about them coming up here.  So when we heard that they were gonna meet us in church on Sunday, I had to call my mom and ask her "what do they look like"?  Anyhoo, we had them over and got re(acquainted) with them over lunch, and next time we go home, at least I'll know who they are.  After we ate, we took them to Hatcher Pass.

Here they are in Hatcher Pass with the Valley in the background:

Peggy and Ken

It felt very cold up there, as would be normal, since it was a high elevation.  But while we were up there, it actually started to SNOW!  Peggy was smart enough to bring her winter coat.

Here is a picture of me and Chuck.  I was freezing and silently anticipated hiking back to the car.

BTW, today is Chuck's birthday!  He is 48!

Happy Birthday, my love!

So this week I will be busy "wrapping up" my garden, and getting ready to go to Fairbanks.  I don't think I"ll have anything exciting to blog about until after we get back from that exciting trip.  Unless I catch one of my cats doing fancy cartwheels.....but I doubt that's gonna happen.

See ya next time!

Just a Conglomeration of Whatever

This is just going to be a rambling post, much ado about nothing that has been going on here.  If you get bored, feel free to click to me away.  First of all, last week we finally got a new sliding door installed.  Before, we had a French door that opened into our dining area.  It wasn't that bad, but I don't know why we didn't have a sliding door put in when the house was built.  I guess the French door was considered an "upgrade", but what good is an upgrade if the standard sliding door is more practical?

Last weekend we had another opportunity to go to the cabin, so this time we spent the night there.  I woefully regret that I didn't get a picture of that beautiful rainbow that we passed when we were on the 4-wheeler.  It was really bright and we had a full view of the whole arch.  It was so pretty, and I wish that I had taken the time to stop and take a picture of it.  But at the time, my camera was inaccessible, - I would've had to dig through several layers of bags in the bed of the 4-wheeler to get it out, and Chuck is never happy when I ask him to stop for such things.  Now I regret that I can't share it with you.

Anyhoo, last time we were at the cabin, Chuck took down these old birdhouses that have been there for years, put there by previous occupants.  The birdhouses were looking pretty beat up, so Chuck took them home, cleaned them up, primed them, and then we took them back to the cabin, and he set me to work to re-paint them.

They look so much better now, but they still weren't dry yet when we went home because the weather was damp.  So for now, they are sitting on the cabin porch.  Next time we go there, we should be able to hang them back in the trees.   I kinda wish that I was creative enough to decorate them more.  They look a lot nicer than before, but they still look kinda plain-jane.

While we were there, I took another peek at my blueberries, even though I knew not to expect any change from the previous week.  I did manage to pick a handful, but that's about it.

While walking around through the woods, I noticed lots of big patches of these plants:

all with these black spots on them.  For awhile I thought these were my blueberry plants, with a fungal disease, but upon closer inspection to my real blueberry plants, I realized these were not blueberry plants (thank goodness!)  I can't find these plants in my "Alaska Flower" book, I suppose because they don't produce flowers.  So I have no idea what those plants are.  I need to get me another Alaska plant book.

However, these are my blueberry plants:

all covered with these red spots, which I think is still some kind of fungus disease.  And there's nothing I can do about it.  So I don't know if I'll ever get a freezer full of blueberries again.  What a bummer.

After Chuck was done playing with his chainsaw, we took a joyride on the 4-wheeler, just driving down some trails that we've never been down before.  I was really interested in finding and identifying some new plants.  Here is a devil's club.  We passed through a whole patch of them.

In this area, there were some logs in the way, so Chuck got out of the 4-wheeler to move them.  Later he discovered that his phone was missing.  He figured it must've fell out of his pocket when he was moving those logs.  So we backtracked to the patch of these devil's clubs where he moved the logs, and thankfully he found his phone there.  That is the second time he lost his phone in those woods and found it again.

On Sunday (yesterday), we got to watch Dominic again for a couple hours so his parents could clean the church building.  

"This window is too clean.  Let me put my finger prints all over it!"

I just love him at this stage!  He is at the fun age where he is learning new things, and he's so fun to play with!

Then I had to make this week's oatmeal for Chuck.  A few years ago Chuck discovered "steel cut" oatmeal and fell in love with it.  He likes to make a 4-serving batch and then eat it all week.  He used to make it himself, until one time he didn't have time to make it, so I volunteered to make it for him.  Ever since then, it's been one of my Sunday chores.  I like to add extras to it, like flax seed, chopped almonds, raisins, zante currants, or blueberries (if I have any).  So I stick it in the fridge, and in the morning he cuts out a portion, wraps it up in plastic wrap, takes it to work, and eats it like a snack bar.  Cold.  With no added sugar or anything.  Yuck.

I prefer mine heated up with brown sugar, cinnamon, and almond milk.

Here is a question for you all:  does anyone out there ever get visited by fruit flies?  We get them every year about this time, and I HATE them!  I don't know if we bring them home from the commissary, or if they are just part of the normal cycle of seasonal pests (like mosquitoes and carpenter ants). They are SO ANNOYING!!!  Here is what I do:  

I put a little vinegar in a small bowl (this is apple cider vinegar, but I think any vinegar will do).  Gently whisk in a drop or two of dish soap, and just let it sit on the counter.  And viola!  you will have your own little growing collection of dead fruit flies.  The vinegar attracts them, and the soap traps them.  BWAAaahhhhahhahaaa-hahah!

It's not an instant fix and I don't think it gets ALL of the fruit flies, but it does help to control them somewhat.  I suppose the more bowls you set out, the more you will trap.  I like to set the bowls where I see the flies concentrated more, like in the corner where I store my bananas, and around the garbage pail.

Well, I just got a phone call requesting me to watch Dominic again for a couple hours this afternoon, so I must say good-bye for now.

Time With Dominic (again)

First of all, is it just me?  or are the leaves turning yellow already?????

Last week we spent three nights and three days taking care of this little guy again:

"You have to spoil me because I'm cute!"

The smiley faces are nice to see because that means he got enough sleep.

And that's a good thing.

As I've mentioned before, he's not a good sleeper.  At night he fidgets and squirms all night long, and during the day time, well, he pretty much hardly sleeps at all, no matter how tired he is.  When he gets tired, he fights it with everything he's got.  Sometimes the only way to get him to sleep is to take him for a walk in his stroller:

And when he does go to sleep, that's the time to take care of all those little things for yourself, like go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, check your e-mail, etc.  Don't even bother starting anything that you can't put down cuz he will wake up.  For no reason at all, oh yes, he will wake up.  Too soon.

So I spent three days playing with a happy baby, trying to put a crabby baby to sleep, and watching classic episodes of "Sesame Street".

In my opinion, the classic episodes are the only ones worth watching, but maybe that's just me being sentimental.

Of course I know that Dominic is a little young for Sesame Street, but he did sometimes stop what he was doing to look at the tube whenever something interesting came on.  After Chuck came home from work, he would put UTube videos of "Metallica" on, and for some reason, Dominic was totally mesmerized by them.  I guess he prefers hard rock bands over Sesame Street.  Yep, he's definitely a little man.

As I mentioned, his lack of sleep was the cause of MY lack of sleep, so I was pretty tired most of the time, but his happy moods are worth it.

We will have him again next month, and if all goes well with his "mom"s" eye problem, it should be our last time taking care of him.  Unless they decide to go on more fishing trips.

So, after we were relieved of Dominic, we had a restful sleep Friday night, and then yesterday we finally drove up to the cabin. 

When we got there, we found a hole in our gas can. What kind of critter would chew a hole through a gas can? How could the critter even stand the smell of the gas?  Whatever it was, it must've gotten quite the "high" from sniffing it!  (The can was empty, but it still smelled like gas.)

After Chuck swept the creepy crawlies out of the outhouse so I could use it in privacy, the first thing I did was check on my blueberries.

There were a few here and there, but still nowhere near what they should be.  It's going to be slim pickins again this year. I only found just enough to throw into a bowl of oatmeal.  These will definitely not make it to the freezer.

I know it's still a little early for them anyway, but by the looks of things, I know now not to expect a freezer full of them this year.  But we will go back and check again in a few weeks.

So I focused on high-bush cranberries and rose hips.  Here is my loot:

After I got home, I did some research and read that these are best picked after the first frost.  So I don't think I'm gonna use these.  Actually, I learned that last year, but in my excitement to harvest something, I forgot about that.  I'm glad I didn't pick buckets full.

I had my "Alaska Flower" book with me, so I took the opportunity to educate myself on some of the other things I found.

I think these are Bunchberries.  The book says that their edibility is "questionable".  It says that the Pilgrims made pudding out of them, but some complained of stomachaches after eating large quantities. Even though these berries won't kill me, it doesn't sound like something I want to take a chance with.

Here is a wild geranium:

And here is a watermelon berry: 

Yummy!

Watermelon berries are few and far between, so whenever I find one, I eat it on the spot.

That flower book comes in pretty handy, but I think I need to find another book that focuses specifically on berries.  It does an okay job helping me identify some berries, but I think I'd like a book for that specific purpose, since I want to make sure I know what I'm picking.  High-bush cranberries can be easily confused with baneberries, which are deadly poisonous, so I'd like to find a book that does a good job showing the comparison between the good ones and the poisonous ones.  From what I have seen on the internet, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any baneberries on our cabin lot, but still, I want to be careful.

Here is something I learned about fireweed:  On our drive up the highway we passed these charred trees on both sides of the highway.  They were charred from that big fire that we had up there a few weeks ago.

And I noticed that in the midst of all these charred trees was what looked like fresh new fireweed.

Here is what that flower book says about fireweed:  "Its common name is derived from its ability to revegetate quickly after a fire (due to its deep roots that escape damage)."

How interesting to see living proof of that!

Since fireweed is so prevalent up here (they are EVERYWHERE!), I always wonder why fireweed isn't our state flower (instead of the forget-me-not).  Is it because it's considered a weed?

So that is pretty much all the news I have from my world.

Alistair Cookie Monster says "Adieu"