Aloha! #1

I wasn't sure how I wanted to post our trip to Hawaii.  Should I just mention the highlights? Or should I risk being a total bore and giving all the details?  I tend to get kinda chatty, which would result in a very long tedious yawner, so I think I'll try to divide it up into several posts, one post = one day.  That would be kind of a happy medium between "not enough" and "too much".  Our trip was cut short sorta unexpectedly, so we were there only 4 days, so I will divide it up among 4 blogs.  See?  I am already getting too chatty.  (don't yawn already, it's contagious!)

This is my daughter Kayla.  By habit I call her PeeWee, so if I type in PW, you will know who I'm referring to.  She just graduated from high school, AND she's turning 18 in a couple weeks, so we decided to combine the two celebrations and do something "big" for her and take her somewhere where she's never been to before.

We arrived in Honolulu on Friday night.  It was DARK and very HUMID, two things that we are not used to this time of year.  I knew right off the bat that I was gonna HATE my hair the whole time we were there.  Anyhoo, after we got our rental car, we raced to the commissary on Hickam AFB to get some vittles before they closed (we barely made it). We knew that Oahu was a tourist trap, so we figured eating CHEAP was one way to save us a bit of excessive spending.  We lived on PB&J as much as we could.  Ate cold cereal for breakfast.  A little note here:  I found out that I was no longer used to consuming regular milk (...stomache ache!)

Okay, at Bellows Air Force Station, this is the cabin we stayed in:

The background is  not the sky; it is the OCEAN, and it provided a very soothing sound at night to lull us to sleep.

When we settled into our cabin on Friday night, we found our cabin counselor right away:

He was there to reassure us that we could sleep well because he had us covered, as far as bugs go.  After we went to bed we could hear him calling "gecko!"  which means "another one bites the dust".

Every morning I thought maybe I could sleep in a little bit, but no, those loud birds woke me up around 5:30 every morning.  So we'd lay there for about an hour (trying to sleep) but always ended getting up before 7:00 because those birds were just too loud.  But it was all good because the  morning is the BEST time to go for a stroll on the beach.

After eating our "stomach ache" cereal, we decided that we would go horse backing riding at the Kuaola Ranch where they had these "roosters" and "chickens" running around all over.

And some mangy-looking cats that looked like they needed some food and vet care.

So here we are on the horses.

My horse was named "Blue".  Chuck's horse was named "Hercules", and PW couldn't remember the name of her horse.

I really liked those trees they had there.  I guess they are "monkey pods".  

When we came to a fork in the path, our guide wasn't sure if we were allowed to go the way they usually go (on the one-hour tour), so she called back at the office and asked them.  They said we couldn't go "that way" because they had some movie sets down there and weren't allowing anyone in there.  So we had to take a different route and wonder what movie they were making down there.  

We opted to take the one-hour tour, but if we had taken the two-hour tour, this is what we would've seen (for all you "Lost" fans out there):

We were SO CLOSE to the site where they filmed Hurley's golf course!!!!  Cool, huh?  BTW, this is actually a picture of a framed picture that they were selling in their gift store.  

So after we got done with the horse tour, we drove around for awhile and then went back to the cabin to eat, and then me and PW played in the ocean.  In the evening, we went for a walk on Bellows AFS where they had some trails.  They had this nature trail with different kinds of trees in it that were pretty cool to see, like this banyan tree:

Does this tree look familiar to all you "Lost" fans?  The banyan tree is the tree that you can hide in when the smoke monster is chasing you.  The interesting thing about the banyan tree is that the roots grow from the branches downward into the soil.

So that was Day 1.

Plant Progress

This was an incredibly busy weekend, but all with fun stuff!  It feels so good to be outdoors using up my storage of winter fat (still got more to spare!).  We've been doing a lot of physical labor getting the garden ready.  Lots and lots of shoveling - I wish I had a picture of the mountain of dirt that we had delivered.  On Thursday we finished building the beds, and then we spent most of Friday filling them up with dirt.  We had some dirt left over, so I suggested we use it to plant a raspberry bush.  So we went to Lowe's to look for one, but they didn't have any.  What I really wanted was an apple tree, but the hubster said "no", and maybe that was for the best anyway.  We didn't want to waste any time hunting around for a raspberry bush, so instead, we bought some strawberry plants on a whim.

I've never had strawberry plants before so don't really know if there's any tricks to success, but I will be very glad to have the strawberries if we get any!

So this is a picture of two of our beds all ready to go!!!!

Filled them up with dirt, added some manure and phosphorous (after testing the soil), raked it all in, although I was disappointed that the manure didn't smell like manure - I know I'm weird but I LOVE the smell of cow manure!!  Anyhoo,  now all they need is plants!!  I was going to plant what I had growing on the windowsill yesterday, but after talking to a few gardening "experts" at church, I learned that the plants needed to be "hardened" first.  I was already sorta doing that with the pumpkins and cucumbers, but didn't know that it was recommended for all plants.  Since they've been pampered on my windowsill all this time, I suppose it makes sense, and even though I'm anxious to get them planted, it might be worth it to wait a few more days while I get them "hardened".  This entails putting them outside in the mornings, and transferring them into the garage at night.  This gets them used to the elements of different temperatures and cool breezes.    

These are the plants that were growing on my windowsill.  There are so many of them so I just keep them sitting in the wagon during the day.

I knew I wanted to plant the cucumbers in buckets, hopefully to give them a better chance of success, so I have them lined up for the day to soak up some warmth and sunshine.  These buckets are very heavy, so it's kind of a pain to have to keep moving them, but hopefully the extra effort will pay off.  This morning it was kind of a cool morning, so I waited until the temps got up to 50 degrees before I put them out, just to make sure I didn't shock them too much.  I saved one cucumber plant for the bed, just to see how it would do in there.  Also I saved one pumpkin plant for the bed; that is why this pumpkin plant isn't in a big pot.

However...

This pumpkin plant that I put in the pot, I kept outside all night, instead of putting it in the garage because I was afraid that if I kept moving it, I might snap the vines off.  So I set it on the south edge of one of the garden beds where I plan to leave it all summer.  And I went to bed worrying about it, thinking that the cold night air would kill it.  This morning I went out there to check on it, and was pleased to see that the leaves were still green, and new flowers had bloomed.  So far so good.

So, this will be my daily (morning and evening) routine now for this week.  They say to do this for a week, but we are leaving for Hawaii on Friday, so I am going to get all these plants in the dirt on Thursday.  My hubster keeps telling me it's time to get the seeds planted too, but I don't know how many ways I can tell him what a big mistake that would be to put seeds in the dirt and then leave for Hawaii.  As Pete would say in "Oh Brother....", "that don't make no sense".  

Lunch with a Glacier

Today was such a GORGEOUS day!!  What a perfect day for a 4-wheeler ride!  This morning we met up with some friends from church, who brought some of their friends along, and we had a "convoy" of 8 4-wheelers.

Since it was a "hot" dry day, the trails were very dusty, which is why you would wanna wear a scarf over your face, like a cowboy.  Otherwise you will be blowing black boogers out of your nose.  Also, we tried not to follow directly behind someone else, to avoid the dust as much as we could.  

In some places we had to go through water, which gave us a break from the dust, but in one place the water was so deep, our 4-wheeler was starting to float!!  And that was kinda scary, but still really fun.

It takes about two hours to ride to the glacier, so we took pitstops every now and then.  At this pitstop, Bob discovered that he "lost" his boss and his wife.  So he stayed behind to wait for him, and/or look for him.

While we were there discussing the "crisis", we noticed this sheep on the mountain:

After riding another hour or so, we reached Knik Glacier.

And ate lunch:

I really love going to this place cuz there aren't very many places in the world where you can eat lunch next to a glacier.  It's really cool!!  And we had the perfect weather!  The sky was deep blue and there wasn't a single cloud.  It wasn't too hot or too cold, it was JUST RIGHT!  You might even call it a "goldilocks" kinda day.

Anyhoo, after eating, we got some target practice:

Our friend Jason brought some guns, shells, and clay pigeons to shoot at.  I've never done any skeet shooting before so I was totally surprised when I actually shot a few of them!!!!  I would never in a million years think that I could ever possibly hit a moving target, but I did it!!!

Here Chuck and Jason are competing against each other:

So after the shells and clay pigeons ran out, we indulged a little longer in our surroundings, just visiting, and then headed back.  What a fun day this was!  Day trips like this really make me feel so lucky to be living up here in Alaska!  I hope I never take that for granted!

Before I close, here is a picture of Chuck spoon-feeding, yes spoon-feeding! the fuzzy rat:

It was peach-blueberry cobbler.  Of course, Chuck has no reservations about going ahead and finishing his cobbler with the same spoon.  Gross.

Summer Day?

It is about 72 degrees out today!!!  Whew!  It feels too hot to stay out there!!  So NICE!!  So I took advantage of it and started weeding and raking out my flower beds, eager to check on the progress of my perennials.  As usual, my chives were the first to come in whole and hardy!

I really like that I never have to do anything to get these things going.  They are always already growing before I even get out there to clean up the bed, as if to welcome and encourage me back to the garden.  And it's nice to know that I don't have to buy any green onions now for awhile.  I've been trying to figure out how I want to harvest these so I can enjoy them all winter.  One year I tried stuffing them into freezer bags, and that was okay, but they got kinda mushy.  Then I tried growing a "stray shoot" in a pot inside the house.  It lasted for a while, but............well, I'm a plant killer, so it didn't last very long.  I've done some research on drying them, but I guess they lose a lot of flavor and volume that way.   But it sounds interesting enough to try so, since I have three chive plants, it's not like I'd have a lot to lose.  So I might try drying some, but I think I'm gonna try freezing most of them a different way.  Instead of stuffing them into freezer bags, I think I'll try freezing them the same way I freeze my blueberries:  in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  See if that works out better.

Anyhoo, onto the west side of the house:

My rhubarb is starting to pop up.  Over by the driveway we have another rhubarb plant which we intend to move next to this one.  I've been suggesting we do that for the past several years now, and we're finally gonna do it.  But first we're gonna buy a 16x16 raised garden bed kit from Fred's.  I hope we don't wait too long.  This would actually be the perfect day to do it, but Chuck's too busy painting the second coat of stain on the wood for my garden beds.

Since it was so nice out today, I took my pumpkin plants out for some fresh air:

I hope all this back and forth movement won't hurt them, but I don't see why they can't go outside if it's warm enough.  I'm hoping that will help them get incrementally used to being out there, and maybe it will help lessen the shock of transplanting them when the time comes.  Besides, I'm hoping some bees will find it cuz they need to be pollinated in order to produce pumpkins.

And here is a picture of Chuck's new toy:

He just picked it up today, and I know he's wishing his painting was done so we can go riding.  Bike riding seems to be our new thing now, since he just sold his motorcycle.  Now that he bought this one, I'm sure he's gonna think he has to buy me a new one too, even though I told him it's not necessary.  I took this thing for a spin around the block, and it is pretty nice.  But I am  happy with mine, as long as he doesn't expect me to keep up with him.  The most annoying thing about mine is that everyone within a mile's radius can hear whenever I apply my brakes.  What an annoying sound that is, echoing from the distant hills.

And Chuck got a JURY DUTY NOTICE in the mail today!  BWAAHAHHHAHHA!!  It's about time!!  It's always ME that gets those things!!    Oh, happy day!!!!

Well, it's time to get another glass of lemonade and sit outside to watch Chuck grill some chicken.

Enjoy your weather!!

Latest (non)Happenings

Here is a non-happening if I ever saw one:

 Every mid-morning Kiska lays behind the couch because she knows the sunny patch will be there.

 She lays there until the sunny patch moves past her, but if she loves the sunny patch so much, I don't know why she doesn't move along the carpet with it. I suppose she's probably too lazy, or she's in a deep doze and doesn't realize the patch has moved on.

 Here is another non-happening:

Sometimes when I go to the commissary I like to pick "novelty items" like this coconut, just to try something new.  I have never bought one before, and I don't know how to open it.  This coconut and I have had a "stare-down" for the past couple weeks now, as I figure out what I'm supposed to do with it.  I know it's not going to open itself, so I did a little research and got some idea on how to end this game.  I will deal with him later. (heh, heh, heh)

But this is something that I happened to finish today:

It's a little early, but that's a switch for me, since I tend to run late on getting these kinds of things done and sent out.  I finished my mom's package.  Made some little envelopes for some Ghirardelli chocolates.  I forgot how to spell it, but you know what I mean.  And I wanted to share some really good Tazo mint tea with her, which are not in individually wrapped packages, and I didn't want them to dry out or lose any of their potency, so I slipped them in little plastic gift bags and wrapped some ribbon around it, and also added a tag that I made.  She likes mint, so I know she will like that tea.  It's really good!  (my hubby bought a tin of it for me at Starbucks and I am trying not to use it all up too fast)

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but the yellow things are little tiny shopping bags.  I found a "Memory Box" die for them at the Stamp Cache in Palmer.  I thought they were so cute so I added them onto this wrapped candy bar to dress it up.  They are just big enough to put a wrapped lifesaver in.  (I wonder if my  mom will think to look inside them)

And this is a picture of a pillow box that I made.  It has chocolate covered pomegranates in it.  I know I shouldn't send my mom so much chocolate, but the holidays are really the only time she eats candy, and I know she won't eat it all in one sitting.  Besides, I only bought her "sophisticated" chocolates, which isn't quite as bad, right?

Since I'm on here, wanna see how big my pumpkin plants are getting?

As you can see, they are "happening", but I'm getting concerned about the bottom leaves turning yellow.  I read that it could be a number of things, I'm mostly suspicious that they are deficient in nitrogen.  But I don't know.  Maybe they are getting too big for the pots.  I might have to transplant them soon.  But, since they are probably the most finicky plants on the planet, I don't expect them to live anyway.  I read that pumpkin plants are "teasers".  They grow really good at first, giving you a lot of hope, and then they die.  I read on someone's blog that even in North Carolina they are extremely tricky to grow.  So it's nice to know that the problem isn't just me.  I find it very unfortunate that the vegetable that I want the most, is the one that is next to impossible to grow.   Why is that???

But, spring is definitely here now and I am glad for that.  The temps have been in the high 50s, forecast is calling for low 60s this weekend!  Me and hubby have taken up bicycle riding, which is fun, and it feels good to get some exercise again.  I'm sure we will be looking for some good bike trails to ride on soon.

So....until the next thing happens...............have fun, enjoy your spring weather, and take care!

Spring Happenings

I don't have anything big or exciting to share, since nothing's been happening, but I really hate when too much time goes by between posts.  So this is going to be a post about little things that I have been busying myself with.  Warning:  you might get bored.

One of my hobbies that goes under the heading of Scrapbooking, is making treat boxes.  I run into a few minor problems with this.  I don't know too many people (in my generation) who appreciate getting candy anymore, so I always do this with hesitation.  But I have so much fun making the boxes, and giving them away is part of the fun.  I am still trying to find other ideas to put inside the boxes besides candy, but candy is so festive and fun to play with, so that is what I end up putting in them. I can't resist buying the seasonal candy when the store shelves are so full of them. I figure, whoever doesn't like the candy can do what they want with it.  For me, it's all about making the boxes and giving them away.

This year my Easter boxes didn't turn out exactly like I wanted them to.  But here goes:

I start off with making these bunny things with Spree candy in them.

 Then I made these pouches with sour patch bunny candies.

Then I made these boxes from the Stampin' Up! Candy Wrapper die.

 The ones on the left were made from the Stampin' Up! Matchbox die (I'm not overly proud of those - my creativity mode was apparently shut off that day)  The ones on the right were made from the Stampin' Up! Mini Milk Carton die.  

Then I knew I was running out of time to make any more boxes, so reverted my attention to food.  Like these cupcakes that I saw in a magazine.  They looked so cute, I had to try making them myself.

They were really easy to make.  The sourness of the sour punch straw handle clashes with the sweetness of the cupcake, so if I were you, I would eat that first by itself before digging your teeth into the cupcake.  My kids won't eat coconut so guess who will be eating all of these?  Luckily for them, I made only 12 cupcakes and used the rest of the cake batter to make a regular small 8x8 cake, with nothing but chocolate frosting on it.  Plain jane - just how they like it.

Here is a picture of our house rat enjoying some Easter sugar:

When you give her a foil wrapped candy, she likes to shred off all the paper with her teeth, and then she walks off and leaves the candy.  She took a couple nibbles of this Dove egg, but I don't think she's much of a chocolate fan.  She mostly just likes ripping off the foil.  She would probably unwrap all of them for us if we let her, but I'm not too keen on eating candy after the fuzzy rat had her teeth on it.  I don't know how Chuck can do it.

With tomorrow being Easter, I think I'm going to leave the Easter mode and move on to the next thing.  Mother's Day.  I started making this card yesterday:

I still have to figure out what I'm gonna do on the inside yet, but I like how the front turned out.  I copied the design from another card that I saw in a magazine and revised it a little bit.  For some reason, every time I make a card for my mom, I think of roses.  I guess it's because her name is Rosemary, and also because she said she likes roses, especially in February, which happens to be her birthday month.  I know February is behind us (yay!) but I still always think about roses when I make anything for my mom.  I didn't send her an Easter box this year, so I think I'll probably make some Mother's Day treat boxes for her, using "upgrade" chocolate candies instead of the cheap stuff.  If they turn out good, I'll post pictures.

I know I didn't want to write about plants in this post, but just for a quick status update, my cucumbers look like they are gonna croak.  I might have to start over with those.  Everything else is looking okay, but I still think I started them way too early.  We still have another 6 weeks before we can transplant anything outside.  My pumpkins are doing amazing though!  What a shame that they will die when I put them outside.  Yeah, that's me the pessimist.  

So that's about all that's going on in my world. I will wait for something else to happen so I'll have something to post about. I hope you all have a very nice Easter!

Another Boring Plant Post (sorry...)

Too much time was passing since my last post so I wanted to sit down and write something, ANYTHING, while I inhale the aroma of my dinner rolls baking in the oven.  Mmmmm........

I really didn't want to have three posts in a row about my plants, cuz, after all, they don't do anything exciting like do a dance or anything like that, but it is very exciting (to ME) that they keep getting bigger and taller.  So far they are looking really good.

Here are my pumpkins:

I love the bright green color - reminds me of summer!  According to the instructions, when the plants get to be 2" tall, I'm supposed to clip off all but the healthiest two stalks.  These are well over 2", but they look so good, I just can't bring myself to kill one of them.  Especially, since I'm having a hard time deciding which one to execute.  The plant on the left only has two stalks so I don't have to touch that one, but the one on the right has three.   I will have to get my hubby to choose the one that "deserves to die".   Awww.........why does this have to be so painful?

Anyhoo, let's move along through this tour of my botanical garden in front of my kitchen window.  Here is my row of cucumbers:

So far so good.  These were getting too tall for the Jiffy box and some of the leaves were even starting to get "burnt" from getting too hot in there, so I moved them into little Jiffy pots.  So far there's no sign of death or dying (whew!), but these are the ones I'm worried about moving outside when it's time.  I noticed when I was replanting them, that they actually smelled like cucumbers already.  :-)  It'll be a big shame if these things don't make it, but I know I'm taking a big chance, not having a greenhouse, so I have to just enjoy watching them grow as much as they are willing.

Wanna see my cabbage?  

Not too bad.  The one on the far end is one of my lettuces.  These were all getting too big for the Jiffy box, so I moved them into little Jiffy pots that I can supposedly plant right into the ground without disturbing the roots. I just hope they are big enough to sustain them for another two months.  I'm quite sure that, in my excitement, I planted the seeds too early.  Live and learn, I always say......

These are some beets and dill plants that are still waiting to be put into little Jiffy pots.  I ran out of them, so I need to go buy some more.  Some of these are already starting to look a little bit "wilty", so I am keeping the cover off of them.

Here is the lumber for my future raised garden beds.  My hubby picked it up today.  Woo-HOO!

I don't know when he's gonna get to work on that project, but it's probably wise to wait until mid-May cuz I doubt that we are out of the snow season just yet.  Seems like the Spring months of March and April and even May can drag on forever.  So hard to be patient...................

I guess I'll eat a fresh hot dinner roll (or two) smothered with butter while I wait.

I will TRY not to bore you with my plants in my next post.  For all of you in the Lower 48 that are already enjoying your outdoor gardening and other outdoor activities........I am SOOOOOOOO jealous!!