Outdoors Weekend

Another trip to Knik Glacier.  Last time we attempted it, we only went halfway, as you might remember, but this time we went all the way to Knik Glacier because we had a bigger group, and it was our INTENT to go all the way.  Especially since we had Bob and Jason with us.  They know how to get there and back without getting lost.  This time we made a convoy of 8 ATV's.  The bigger the group, the more fun you have, and the safer you are.

You've been "on this trip with me" in the past several times on this blog so, even though I took a ton of pictures, I don't feel the need to post a lot of them.

The weather was so gorgeous that day, so it was hard not to take a ton of pictures with all that gorgeous scenery all around me.

This part was really steep!  Chuck got mad at me when I was screaming.  I got scared because I thought we were gonna tip over.  After some of us got through it okay, we waited for everyone else, but they weren't coming, so Bob got out and walked back there to check and see if everyone was okay.  They were okay, they were just being very cautious and analyzing how they wanted to maneuver through there.  We must've taken a different path this time, cuz I certainly don't remember going through this part before.  Yes, this time we did take different paths cuz there was a lot more mud this time, and Jason wanted to avoid getting stuck, so we took our chances on different paths.

I've been waiting for Jason and Bob to choose somewhere else to go for an ATV adventure, but I am glad we went to Knik Glacier again because we got a nice surprise when we got there.

The glacier was evidently going through a lot of calving because the lake was FULL of big ice bergs floating around.  It was so COOOOOOOOL!!!

Everyone always brings their own lunch, but everyone also always ends up sharing what they bring.  We brought a pack of brats and roasted them over the fire.  We gave one to Gary, but he dropped his in the fire, which was funny cuz he's such a goofball anyway.  So we had to give him another one.

We stayed there for quite a while, longer than usual because the lake was gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous, and our group was big enough to make conversation fun and interesting.  But eventually, we knew we needed to start heading back because it takes at LEAST an hour and a half to ride back to the parking lot, and that's if you don't get stuck in the mud.

At one point, Dave tipped over so Bob helped get him out.  This is why you go on these trips in a group - not by yourself! You can see in this picture how deep the ruts can get.  If your tire gets caught in them, you can tip over pretty easily.  This is why I get scared and Chuck gets mad at me.  As long as I keep my arms in, I won't get hurt, but it still scares me.

I liked this tree, so I took a picture of it.

So that was that.

Then on Saturday we went back to the cabin and picked 5 more gallons of blueberries.  We were gone ALL DAY, a lot longer than I had wanted to be there, because some friends of ours went there too, and of course we ended up visiting, so after they left, we were able to finish our mission.  We didn't get home until 7:00, by that time the chicken that I had put in the crockpot was getting overcooked, but at least we had some dinner waiting for us when we got home.

So this week is another week of cleaning, sorting, and freezing blueberries.  I want to make at least one more trip to pick 5 more gallons, but last week we noticed that some of the blueberries were already past their peak, so maybe I won't pick as many as 5 gallons next time.  We'll just have to wait and see how they look when we get there.  Even if I don't pick very many, I still have plenty already, even if I give some away.  But if the berries are still good to pick - WHY NOT?!  I hate letting all those good berries rot!

Hm.... now that Fall is practically here, I do wish I had some pumpkins.  Hopefully next year I will be harvesting from my own garden again.  Chuck better get on the ball and start building some beds!!!

We are planning to go to Fairbanks in a couple weeks to visit Steph, so I probably won't post anything between now and then because well,......it's just too boring to write about my normal humdrum.

Until then........!

Blueberry Bounty

I don't know what happened to my last post, but I hope it doesn't look all goofy on your screen like it did on mine.  The blog people (whoever that is) changed the format of blogging, so I probably wasn't doing something right.  Why do they always have to change the format on technology every time I get comfortable using it?  Grrr..........Hopefully this post will turn out right.

 So last week we went to the cabin again, this time for the sole purpose of picking blueberries.  We got there on Friday night so Chuck could mow the lawn.  That way we could get right into picking after breakfast on Saturday.

So after breakfast, Chuck went outside and took care of that fallen tree that was blocking our winter snowmachine path, while I washed the dishes.

    

After the dishes were all washed, we got busy!

We started in some smaller patches that were hidden away from the big obvious patches.  We decided to save those two common patches for later, or for our friends if they come to pick, cuz those two patches are easy to find and easy to get to.

   

So we walked through the woods until we came to a patch and it took us about an hour and half to clean it out.  We were going to keep going to another patch that we knew about, but when I walked back to the bins to empty out my berry picker, I took a wrong turn and stopped dead in my tracks.  I looked down and there was another patch that we didn't know was there, just loaded with berries begging to be picked.  We spent another two hours cleaning out that patch.  And then our bins were full, so we had to quit.  We didn't even touch any of the patches that we knew about.  These two patches were just accidentally found.  So, we are telling our friends at church to please go there and pick some, cuz we can't pick them all, and I know that I will be picking more than I can use.

I also picked some rose hips as I saw them, because they make a great tea!

After about 4 hours or so of picking, we ended up with about 5 gallons, with some rose hips mixed in there.  So this week I am busy sorting and cleaning them so I can get them in the freezer.  I am already going to give some away today - to the guy that's remodeling our bathrooms for us.  Next week we are going to go and pick 5 more gallons.  And after that we'll probably make one last trip to pick more before they get overripe.  I will be giving away a lot of berries.

In my last post I told you that I was trying to get the curtains the right length.  Well, I lengthened them, and they are still a tad shorter than we would like, but they are at least below the bottom of the window, so I am going to just leave them.  The main thing is that we don't want any peeping toms coming along trying to peep in our windows while we're not there.  We know that some cabins get broken into, and thankfully so far we have been pretty lucky as far as that goes.

While we were there, the weather was absolutely PERFECT for berry picking!  It was at least 75 degrees out, and sunny.  We actually felt hot, so we were glad that it was also kinda "windy".  There was actually a burn ban because of the dry weather and the wind.  As much as we relished  that perfect weather, so did the flies!

When I went back into the cabin to get lunch ready, I walked in the door and all I could hear was a buzzing noise.  Flies everywhere!  Especially on the windows!

I've never seen them that bad and it was too much for me.  I emptied out the used water bin, cleaned up a little, gathered all my stuff and took it outside and told Chuck "I am not going back in there."  Chuck tried to vacuum them up, but it was like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a snowstorm.

After we ate, we hopped into the ATV and went for a ride on some paths.  Good thing Chuck had his chainsaw along cuz we came to a fallen tree that had fallen across the path.  After Chuck cleared it out, we kept going, and there was a moose in front of us running along the path.  It was interesting watching his long spindly legs running from behind.  I didn't have time to take a picture cuz he veered off the path and disappeared into the trees.  And then a minute later, we came to another block in the path - this time two birch trees.  So we got out and Chuck sawed it up into manageable pieces, and it took both of us about an hour to get it all off the path.

Anyhoo, about 5:00 we decided we should probably head back home.  So we went back to the cabin and Chuck went in there and did everything we normally do before we lock up.

I wasn't gonna go back in there!

So next week we are planning another ATV trip to Knik Glacier, and then more blueberry picking the day after that.  So next weekend will be fun and busy!

2 Da Cabin

Well, it's definitely August here.  August is typically what I call our "rainy month", and sure enough on August 1st, we got rain.  As if the weather knew exactly what month it was.

I don't mind rain too much, especially if we need it.  But one thing that gets annoying is that the kitties can't seem to make up their mind if they wanna be inside or outside, so it seems like every 5 minutes I am interrupted by scratching noises on the screen door and I have to open it so they can go either in or out.  I could just leave the screen door open, but I don't want the kitties bringing in their hunting trophies.  I've had enough of those.

So last weekend we had an opportunity to spend the night at the cabin and do some maintenance there, like mowing the lawn, which Chuck did.

And then he fixed the caved in roof of the outhouse (from all that winter snow).

We don't know what we're gonna do yet about the cabin roof.  You can see how it's bowed now.  It could be a lot worse, but we should probably do something about that.  If it were up to me, I would get rid of that loft and put a whole new roof up there.  We never use that loft anyway.  All the heat goes up there in the winter time instead of staying downstairs where we wanna stay warm, which also makes it WAY too hot to sleep up there.  The only thing we use the loft for is to store our sleeping bags in a big plastic bin (we don't want any critter squatters making a nest in our sleeping bags), and also we go up there every spring with the Shop Vac to suck up all the dead flies.  That loft is more of a liability than an asset.

Anyhoo, another thing Chuck did was pull the wood stove away from the wall a little bit.  It was highly suggested by a friend of ours who went to check on the cabin after we had that big earthquake a couple years ago. We never had a problem with it where it was, but he wasn't feeling good about it, so we pulled it forward a few inches.

You can see how ugly the inside of the cabin is.  It's fully functional, and I know it's only a cabin, but it would be nice if the cabin was nicer.  I'm still waiting on Chuck's verdict as far as what we're gonna do about this cabin.  Are we going to build a new one? or fix this one up?

One nice thing about being at the cabin is that Chuck cooks me breakfast.

This time it consisted of sausage and scrambled eggs.  I made the toast by frying the toast in the pan before he got the pan dirty, so the toast was cold before everything else was done, but, oh well!

This coffee tasted crummy, but I think it's because I made it too strong.

After breakfast and cleanup, we went back outside to look for blueberries.  

Yup, we found some!

                      

Most of them were still kinda small, but we plan on going back in a couple weeks just for the sole purpose of picking them.  They should be more ready for picking then.  But we did find some that were ready, and I managed to pick this much.  Luckily, I had a container with me - it was small but better than nothing - the one I used to pack our eggs in.  When we go back in a couple weeks we will be more prepared with berry pickers, AND I already bought some new containers to fill up, so....I am ready.......

Now I just have to hope it won't rain when we go back.  We have rain gear, so rain won't stop us, but it is always nicer to have sunshine for berry pickin'.  Also, when the weather is cool and wet, the mosquitoes get hungry.

         It did start raining while we were there, traipsing through the woods and checking on our blueberry patches, but that didn't stop Chuck from clearing our paths to the patches, which became overgrown with weeds.  We have cleared paths to three different big patches, but there are still other "hidden" patches we can go to after our invited friends come and help us clean these out.

               

So anyhoo, after lunch we walked around in the woods some more before we went home.  After that rain, everything was wet, so I was wearing the only pair of frogg toggs that we had with us.  They kept my legs dry, but not my feet.  Next time we will probably wear some waterproof boots.  Chuck was pretty wet and took his socks and shoes off for a while to dry out.

Walking around in the woods is pretty good exercise because the ground is so uneven and there's always fallen logs and whatnot to step over, so you have to pick your knees up really high when you walk like you're marching, unless you prefer to fall on your face.  So I always enjoy walking around in the woods, not only because it so peaceful and I love being surrounded by all that nature, but it's also good exercise.

Now this is another little tidbit that isn't very exciting, but it's part of being at the cabin.

These curtains. 

A lady that I never met made them for me (the mom of Chuck's friend who was using the cabin). Anyhoo, I like the curtains and it was nice of her and everything, but she made them way too long, so I took them home to shorten them, and as you can see, now they're too short, so I took them home again and will bring them back next time after I'm done lengthening them.  So when we were getting ready to go home, Chuck told me "don't forget to take the curtains home".  But before we went home, the sun came out, which warmed everything up, which always brings out the flies - and the windows became COVERED in flies!  I didn't take a picture of it because I didn't want to see a picture of it. That's how bad it was! I can handle a few flies, but this was just ridiculous and was getting beyond my "squeamish level".  So Chuck was a little annoyed with me when I begged him to take the curtains down for me cuz all those flies were freaking me out.

I wish there was something we could do about all those flies. Even in the winter time when we go there, the flies start coming out after we get the cabin warmed up enough.

So there you have it.  Our weekend at the cabin.  Not too exciting, I know, but it's better than sitting around at the house in Granger, IN.

In a couple weeks I hope to show you our bountiful blueberry loot.

I hear scratching on the screen door.....again......