Stephanie's Moving Day-Weekend

Most of you know that my daughter Stephanie lives 6 hours north of us at Eielson AFB, but she and her hubby Isaac just bought their first house off-base in Fairbanks.  So we went up there over the weekend to help them move.  I was really glad to see Mica again (my "grand"kitty).  She is a really nice cat.  I would love to trade Kiska for her, but of course that's not gonna happen.

It didn't take very long for me to witness some sibling rivalry between Mica and Charlie:

Charlie likes to pick on her, but Mica has gotten used to it. (and Steph says it's good for her)                

We arrived there on Thursday night, and got busy right after breakfast on Friday, which BTW was my and Chuck's 28th wedding anniversary.  Steph felt bad about making us help them move on our anniversary, so she treated us out to breakfast.  Although, she didn't have to feel bad - she wasn't MAKING us help her (we wanted to).

Getting them moved really wasn't as big a job as I thought it would be.  I guess it makes a huge difference if there's no kids.  Plus, they've only been married for 5 years, which isn't a whole lot of time to accrue a bunch of stuff.  

Their house is really cute; a perfect starter home for them.  It's a small ranch style house with 3 bedrooms.  And the kitchen has a few upgrades in it, like a really nice stove and tiled walls, and she really loves her "island" counter.  Here is Steph cooking her first meal in her new kitchen - after we put enough things away to allow her to do that.  She was frying up some eggs with the zucchini and tomatoes that we gave her (yum!).

Lucky for her, they have in-floor heat so she can run around barefooted without freezing her feet off.  I don't have that luxury.

So Friday was basically moving stuff in there and unpacking, and putting stuff away - it took two trips, which wasn't too bad.  Although we did leave some unimportant things behind that they still need to go back and get.

For some reason they were having nicer weather than we were having here in Wasilla.  The temps were in the 60s there, and sunny.  Perfect for planting her rhubarb.  So on Saturday, we spent a lot of time outside.  Here is the rhubarb plant I gave her.  I hope it will be happy there.

Little did we know that there was another rhubarb plant hidden deeply in a patch of thick weeds and wild roses.  Steph and Chuck discovered it when they were looking around the yard.  So, after Chuck dug it up, Steph and I moved it out of there and planted it by the house.

There's no way to tell how long it was buried and forgotten in the weeds, but rhubarb plants are amazingly hardy plants. So I think once this thing gets a full dose of TLC, Steph will have another really nice rhubarb plant.

For their housewarming gift, Chuck insisted on buying them a new lawnmower.  But really, I think it was more for him than for them.  The lawn there was getting pretty long, and Chuck just cannot stand a neglected lawn.  It drives him crazy.  Even if it's not his lawn.  Steph and Isaac didn't own a lawnmower (they didn't need one on base), and Chuck couldn't bear the thought of that grass not getting mowed, so he bought them a lawnmower, and of course Chuck went to work mowing their lawn.....

...and Steph started digging around in her garden area in front of the house, getting the grass clumps and weeds out...

...while Charlie Doggins took a break from running around.

Charlie absolutely LOVES his new yard!  There is a lot of room for him to run around, which he did a lot of on his first day there.  He was SO EXCITED and he looks so cute when his ears are flopping up and down! When evening came, he was a very pooped pup and fell asleep on the living room floor.

Here is another small garden bed that is set away from the house, overrun with weeds of course.

I don't know what Steph will do with it, but I know they get a lot of moose in their area, so planting veggies is probably futile.  Unless she plants something that moose don't like.

Here is the back of their house:

They talked about expanding the back deck, but I'm sure that won't be anytime real soon.  The house has other minor issues that need to be addressed first.

I really like their yard.  They are surrounded by trees all around, so they have lots of privacy, and you feel like your "in the woods".

And another bonus is that their property (the back yard) goes right up next to the Little Chena River.

Steph has tons and tons of wild roses on her property, so I was kinda hoping to bring home some rose hips with me, but for some reason the rose hips were all kinda mushy, so I didn't bring any home.  But I don't know, maybe rose hips are supposed to be mushy?  I need to do more research...

So that was about it for that.  I'm sure as I type this, she is still trying to get settled in.  I look forward to seeing all the changes that she makes whenever we go up there again.

On our drive up there and back, I really enjoyed seeing all the fall colors.  We saw way better scenery than this picture, but Chuck doesn't like to stop to take pictures.  I only got this one cuz we had stopped to stretch our legs.  (Actually, I'm surprised that he even stopped just for that!)

Also, on way up there, passing through Denali Park, I happened to notice this little store tightly squeezed in the middle of a strip of other touristy stores.  I noticed two words as we whisked by:  "Fabrics" and "Scrapbooking".  All in the same store!  Yeah, that's my kind of store.  I knew I had to stop in there when we came through again on our way home.  And Chuck actually stopped for me!  Sometimes he's a pretty nice guy.........

Usually when we go through this part of the trip, these stores are all closed and dead because we always drive through out of tourist season.  But this time there were still lots of tourists in the area, so everything was open and the area was hustling and bustling with activity.  They did have some nice fabrics in there with moose and bears and things like that, but most of the fabrics were "batik" fabrics which I don't really wanna mess with cuz I hear that they bleed.  (why on earth would they sell mostly batiks?) They had some fat quarters for a pretty decent price that weren't batiks, and I kinda wish I had bought some, but I guess nothing stuck out and screamed "buy me!" As for scrap booking, they didn't have a whole lot, mostly bear paw stamps and some paper, and a few other odds and ends.  I ended up not buying anything, but it was fun to just look and see what they had.  At least now whenever we drive past it, I won't be longing to see what's in there.

Cuz now I know.

So what's next in my life?  Oh yeah, it's time to start thinking about taking down the greenhouse and putting it away, and then figuring out what to do with all those green tomatoes.  I think I might try "Fried Green Tomatoes".  I hear they are pretty good.  

I would love to let them sit on my counter and ripen, but we still have fruit flies all over the place.  And those things LOVE tomatoes, so I really don't want to have tomatoes sitting around all over, otherwise those pesky things will NEVER leave!  And they say not to keep your tomatoes in the fridge cuz they start to go "funny" sooner.  Plus, I don't think they would ripen in the fridge anyway, would they?

So, I'm sorta in a dilemma.

Maybe I'll try putting them in paper bags and sealing them up good?  But the flies might still find a way to get inside the bags.

I hate fruit flies.  I can't even make any bread anymore cuz they are attracted to the yeast when I'm letting my dough rise.  

Stupid fruit flies. 

They are infringing upon my constitutional right to pursue happiness and prosperity.

Maybe I need a lawyer.

okay, I'm getting dumb now

time for me to close this out