Road Trip

Last week Chuck took the whole week off so we could go on a road trip to Dawson City.  But he also wanted to get our carpet replaced, and the contractor just happened to be able to schedule us during that same week, which was a stroke of luck for me cuz I wanted Chuck to be home when they were doing that.  So the first half of the week was spent moving furniture around.  It was three days of hard labor!  This is what my house looked like for three days:

Just a house full of furniture all crammed together.

But it was all worth it in the end, and Peeka can vouch for that.

So on Wednesday afternoon after the carpet guys left, we got the house back in order as best we could (I still have to do my scrap booking room yet), and on Thursday morning we got up at 5:00 AM and hit the road to Dawson City!  It felt weird (and nice) to sit in the car all day after three days of wrestling with heavy furniture.  I was pretty sore and felt it every time I got out of the car.

Of course it was a pretty drive with breathtaking scenery!

We made several small stops on the way to go pee and stretch our legs, but our first real stop was in Tok, and we ate at Fast Eddie's, which everyone who has travelled through Tok seems to be familiar with.  

Their special that day was "Fried Omelet".  That's what Chuck was interested in.  I asked the waitress what it was fried in and she said "oil".  So I made a face and shook my head "no" at Chuck.  I felt kinda bad that the waitress saw me do this, but I was NOT gonna eat that.  So we ate from the salad bar instead, which was actually a very nice spread with lots of variety.

Our next stop was one that I was really excited about.  Chicken, Alaska!

If you have never read the book "Tisha", I would recommend it (beware of bad language).  It is a really good (true) story that takes place in Chicken, and since I read the book twice, I was really eager to see this place.  It is a very remote place with pretty much nothing there.  Just sort of like a small old strip mall, or strip "shack" consisting of three small businesses, all owned by one lady.

A store, a saloon, and a cafe.

They have a running joke that this is their "beautiful downtown".  They also have no flushing toilets, so if you gotta go, you gotta go here:

They have a pretty good sense of humor there, with chicken jokes everywhere.

There is another store in Chicken where they have more stuff in it, and it's a more modern building, where they were able to brag about having the only flushing toilet in town.  We stopped in there on our way back home.  I was really wanting to see the old schoolhouse from the book, but it's sitting on private property so you have to request a special tour to see it.  Chuck wasn't gonna "waste" time doing that, so I had to settle for a postcard with a picture of it on it.

Here is something that was hanging in their cafe.  I don't know if you will be able to read it, but here goes:

Anyhoo, visiting Chicken was a big highlight for me.

And we were off to Dawson City.

When we got to the border, getting through customs wasn't too hard.  She mostly asked us about guns.  "Do you have any firearms with you?"  "Do you own any firearms?"  "What do you use them for?" etc, etc.  And of course she wanted to know what we were gonna do in Canada and how long.  

When we got through there, we continued on our way.

About halfway between the border and Dawson, we ran into lightning, thunder, pounding rain, and hail.  The rain and hail hitting our car was so loud I had to cover my ears.  But it was pretty exciting!

Then we got to the ferry that carried us across the Yukon River.  That was a weird feeling.

Dawson City was right across the river, so we were finally there!  This is the place where we stayed.  It was called "The Bunkhouse".

Being in Canada, prices are high.  This was the cheapest Chuck could find.  The rooms are only tiny little squares consisting of a full size bed, and a tiny little table/chair.  And they had a "shared" bathroom.

The door behind me in this photo is our "shared" bathroom.  We were lucky to get the room that was closest to it (our room was just up those steps on the left).  

The bathroom was just basically 3 tiny sinks, two showers, and two toilet stalls.

A couple times while I was standing at a sink doing my own thing, a guy would come out a shower (fully dressed), and another guy would come out of one of the stalls.  I thought this would make me feel weird and awkward, but surprisingly, it didn't bother me at all.  I suppose it's because we were all in the same situation and understood each other in that way.

We got there in the evening and the town seemed "dead".  Most of the businesses were closed by then, so we just spent the evening walking around, looking at all the old buildings, but we did find a place to eat.  I had a bowl of spinach/broccoli soup.  The streets there are paved gravel and they have boarded sidewalks everywhere, so it was a unique experience being in this historical setting.

We also took a walk along the waterfront that follows the Yukon River.

I wasn't expecting to come to the spot where the Klondike River merges with the Yukon River, but there it was!  I thought that was pretty cool.

The next morning we ate breakfast and then went for a hike.  There is a path in the woods that goes around the whole town.  It had been raining the night before, so the path was pretty muddy in some places.

 The path led up to a high place where you can see the whole town.  You can see that it's not very big.  You don't even need a car to get from one side to the other.

Also a pretty good view of the Yukon River.

 After we made our way back into town, we walked around just sight seeing.

We had seen advertisements for Jack London's cabin, so we found that first.
If you have never read the book "White Fang", I would highly recommend it (warning:  it will make you bawl like a baby).

At first I was really thrilled to think that Jack London actually lived here in this cabin, but my excitement was soon replaced with disappointment after I became more educated.  The sign is misleading. As it turns out, Jack London didn't live here.  He lived in a cabin on Henderson Creek somewhere in the Klondike area.  This isn't even his real cabin.  It's a replica of his cabin, although some of the wood in this cabin came from the original one.  I felt jipped.  But still, I suppose it was nice to know that this area has that special connection with him.

The next cabin we saw was that of the poet Robert Service.  I'm not too familiar with him, but at least this seems to be his real cabin.  

By this time we were getting hungry so we looked for more food to eat.  It is very nice that there were no fast-food joints anywhere in the city.  All of the restaurants were high class fresh-food cuisine, which was expensive, but it was SO easy to eat healthy. They get all their ingredients fresh from local farms and also from Whitehorse. For lunch, we stepped into this little quaint cafe and the cook/owner came out and personally greeted us and with a French accent, and showed us what he had to offer.  We chose the granola.

I didn't capture the whole thing, but this should give you an idea.  The French guy said they roast their granola with maple syrup, and it's topped with apple, nuts, and rhubarb/raspberry sauce.  It was SOOOOOOOOOO good!  They even had almond milk just for me!  (That cake was Chuck's idea.)  Their coffee was really good too!

After eating lunch, we walked around town some more.  Here are some pictures of some buildings:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the "tower" of this church building was leaning.  Obviously this building is no longer used.  The whole town is embellished with old dilapidated buildings like this, many of them  became deformed on account of the permafrost.  Nowadays they are building their structures on blocks or stilts to keep them off the ground.

The whole time we were there, I kept looking for evidence of "Klondike Kate" and was wondering why she wasn't heavily advertised as one of their prominent historical celebrities.  The only thing I could find was this restaurant:

We didn't go inside there so I don't know if they have anything in there that portrays her.
After I got home I did a little research and found out that she used to perform in this theatre:

We walked past this building many times, but there wasn't anything that indicated she had been there.    If we had known that, I would've paid more attention to it. This building is still being used today as a theatre.  There were posters displayed that showed what was going to be showing and when.

Then we got in the car and drove up this steep hill where you can look out for miles.  Here is a good view of Dawson City and you can also see where the Klondike merges with the Yukon.

Then we walked around some more.  We were gonna go in this general store, but Chuck was wearing a backpack, and they don't allow backpacks in the store.  It was okay though, cuz it just turned out to be a grocery store.

Then we went to this museum and spent a couple hours there.  There was a lot of stuff in there about the gold rush.  It was pretty interesting.

Then we got hungry again.  I was in the mood for pizza, so we went here:

It's hard to see it very well from where I was sitting, but they actually cook the pizzas in a fire-heated oven.  It was pretty neat.

And of course it was really good!

I'm tellin' ya!  The food in Dawson City is awesome!

By the time evening came we were running out of things to do, and businesses were closing down, so  we went for another walk by the river and then retired early cuz we wanted to get an early start the next morning.  Unfortunately, whoever was sleeping in the room above us had a rough night.  Somewhere around 3:00 we heard all kinds of thumps and loud noises, and pacing back and forth, and heavy things dropping on the floor (our ceiling).  This went on for about half an hour and Chuck was not gonna get any more sleep after that.  We  had planned on getting up at 6:00, but got up at 4:30 instead cuz that was it for Chuck and he couldn't lay there any longer.

So we got back on the ferry, but after we got to the other side, we passed a sign saying that the US Border doesn't open until 8:00, which meant we were gonna get there WAY too early.  So we drove the whole way at only 30 mph.  This was okay cuz we were pretty much the only ones on the road.  Even driving that slow we still got to the border about 45 minutes too early, so we pulled over and took a half-hour nap.

Getting through the border at Poker Creek was pretty easy.  The lady was friendly and didn't ask as many intimidating questions.  She mostly just wanted to know if we had any purchases to declare, and if we had a good time.

 We stopped at Chicken again, and then ate at Fast Eddie's in Tok again.
Made it home around 5:00.  Not too shabby.

So, it was really fun, interesting, and educational.
I would definitely go there again!

Now.......to get my scrap booking room back in order.........!

That is gonna be a huge project.

Peeka's 1st Birthday

I can't believe a whole month whizzed by already since my last post!  Where does the time go?

Since I last posted, Peeka celebrated her very first birthday on April 21st.

We know this is her exact birthday cuz that's what it said on her adoption records.

We opened up a can of soft food and stuck a candle in it.  She was curious about the flame but not all that excited about her birthday "cake".  Weeners helped her eat it.

We have been seeing a LOT of Weeners' boyfriend these days.  This is pretty much what we see looking in our back door almost every day now.  He just sits there waiting for someone to notice  him.

Sometimes he comes into the house and we give him treats.

But he's usually too nervous to stay very long.

As you can see, he got himself a very sophisticated haircut!!

Perhaps he did it for Weeners, but she didn't seem too impressed by it.

Now he just looks handsomely ugly and Peeka tells him so.

"you're still ugly"

Anyway, he seems to be growing on us; we always enjoy his visits.

Apparently we are "cat magnets" cuz here is another face that we see every now and then.

This one doesn't come around very often, but just stops by to say 'hi' once in a while.

Hm....that makes me wonder.....whatever happened to that white cat that used to come around?

Besides being hospitable to all the cats in the neighborhood, I'm starting to get busy playing in the dirt.  We went ahead and put up the greenhouse, which we learned was ripped, so it's being held together with quilting pins in some areas.  I think after this year we will probably have to throw it out.  Anyhoo, a lady from church gave me a bunch of onions and the beds in the greenhouse were the only ones that were ready for planting in, so I put the onions in the greenhouse.

I also transplanted all my tomato plants into bigger pots, but turned out to be 3 pots short, so I put 3 tomato plants in the greenhouse too.

The other 27 tomato plants are occupying my dining table which makes it easier to "harden" them when it's nice enough outside.  I sprayed them with cayenne water to keep Peeka from eating them.  So far she is leaving them alone. 

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to tell ya.  

As for moving to Duluth, it ain't gonna happen.

The next potential is South Bend, IN.

We'll see how that one goes.

I certainly don't mind staying here either, which also could happen.

In a couple weeks we are planning to take a road trip to Dawson City, so maybe I will have something exciting to post about then.

Until then......adieu.

It Feels Like Spring!

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a fresh helping of the white fluffy stuff, but it's all gone now.

The temps have been in the high 40s/50s and the sun is shining and the sky is blue and the mountains looks so pretty.  It's still jacket weather, but it feels so warm!

Weeners even had her ugly boyfriend calling on her.

That is one mangy lookin' cat I must say.

He stood there looking through the door hoping Weeners would show up, but we scared him off when we tried to invite him in and ask him what his intentions were with her.  You know, the ol' protective parent bit that all potentials must endure if they want to date our daughter.

We don't know when we will see him again, but now that the snow is gone, our kitties are taking advantage of walking through the grass to get to the weeds where they find their trophies to take home.  They are so proud of them!

I thought between the two of them, they had a little game going.  Weeners was catching them and dropping them off at my door, and then Peeka would pick them up and carry them under the deck, which I appreciated cuz that meant I didn't have to dispose of them.

But then Peeka was bringing the stash back, so now I will have to do something with them before the maggots come. (Chuck is in Seattle this week, so it's all up to me, and that's why it hadn't been done yet.) BTW, this morning I took Weeners in for her checkup and I asked the vet if this habit was going to result in her getting parasites or something, and he gave her a preventative deworming medicine that will have to be done every year.  I suppose Peeka will need the same thing.

At least I don't have to worry about wood ticks or fleas. 

Speaking of wood ticks and fleas, Chuck STILL did not hear anything about that Duluth job, so your guess is as good as ours.  But since they are taking this long in getting back to him, we are 90% assuming he didn't get it.  So while we are still waiting for the official yay or nay, I went ahead and started my tomato plants.  Unfortunately, as you know, Peeka likes to chew on my plants, so she happily chewed off all the leaves one Sunday morning while were in church.

So I had to start over; but this time after they sprouted, I put them upstairs to hide them from her.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but they are really taking off.  I have 30 tomato plants and 5 celery plants started.  After they get too big to stay on these little tables I don't know where I will put them, but I'll figure something out when I have to.  (stupid cat.....)

Here is Peeka's nightly ritual.

Every night Chuck sits down and puts his feet up.  As soon as Peeka sees him doing this, she invites herself onto his lap and takes a nap.  And then Chuck is in a pickle when he needs to go to bed cuz he doesn't want to disturb her.  (roll eyes)

So that is pretty much it.  Just staying busy with my usual activities:  teaching my Bible class (6 more weeks to go), subbing for bowling (tonight is our last night so after this it will be nice to have my Thursday nights free again - yay!), and instead of sewing, I've been doing a lot of scrap booking, and also working on organizing some genealogy records.  Next time I go home I will need to pay a visit to the library and look for some certain obituaries, so I've been working on a list of people to look for.

Otherwise, nothing to see here.....move along!

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

Spring-Time Busy-ness

I realize it's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I'm sure you didn't miss me, since I am pretty humdrum anyway.

Most of the time, I don't post anything cuz I don't have anything exciting to say.

This post will prove it cuz I still don't have anything exciting to say, but I will record a few things that I've been up to.

Sewing.  Purging.

There.  That about covers it.

If you want more details, you can keep reading if you wish.

This Alaska quilt that I've been working on is finally almost done.

I really hate the way my quilts get puckered when I quilt all the way across the whole thing, so this time I tried to minimize the puckering by not sewing across the sashing, which meant constant starting and stopping, which meant more frustration with my machine.  So in order to maintain a fairly good relationship with my machine, I had to do only a little bit at a time each day, and get it done slowly and calmly, instead of quickly with high stress and rage.

Anyhoo, I finally got to the part where I can start working on the binding.  I was looking forward to taking a break from my machine while I waited for myself to go buy some fabric for the binding, but then PW asked me to teach her how to sew.

sigh........okay, fine

I got her started on a small project, and this placemat is the final product of her labors.

 I thought it turned out pretty good for her first project.

She had a little help from Weeners, of course.

I think Weeners loves my sewing machine more than I do.

Since I still had the walking foot attached to my machine, I went ahead and made some more dish rags for the church building.  I will probably keep some of them for myself.

I got 4 more to go, and then my machine will be put aside until I get my binding fabric ready.

Also, I started another quilt.  I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but I decided I am going to hand piece this one because I'm sick of my machine, and I just find it relaxing to sew by hand.  Besides, this one will have a lot of seams and corners to match up, and I know if I do this one by machine, nothing's gonna match up.  It will look way better done by hand.

I take turns making quilts for my kids, and since PW's is all done, it was time to make one for Justin again.  I found one in a magazine that I thought would be nice for him.  The whole thing is made up of 2-1/2" squares.  Very simple.  

It took me a long time to get all my squares cut out.

For a twin size quilt, I needed 1800 squares.  All neutral colors in dark, medium, and light tones.

I didn't want to repeat the same fabric in the same 25-block square, so I had to keep running to the quilt stores to look for more patterns, for variety.

I finally got them all cut out and ready to sew.  So now when I sit down to watch TV, I can relax with my thread and needle and let the quilt top slowly grow in my lap.

This is the first block.  I gotta make 72 of these.

In the meantime, I finally FINALLY! got Justin's 1st year album all DONE!

I had to buy a 3-1/2" binder cuz it ended up too thick for the binder that it was in.  You know how it is when it comes to taking pictures of your baby, especially your first one.  You take LOTS of pictures.  So I'm sure the 1st year album will be the thickest one, and the later years will end up being 2 or 3 years all in the same album.  That is, if I live long enough to get through all his years, let alone Steph and PW.  But it's a fun on-going project that I enjoy doing.

My other recent activities involved purging.  We've accumulated a lot of JUNK over the years, and decided it was time to get rid of stuff.  We've already made 3 trips to Value Village, and that was just after going through Justin's and PW's rooms.  

Mostly got rid of a lot of books from our homeschooling days.

Then I went through the game closet and got rid of half our games that we don't play anymore.  :-(

Next room to go through is my scrapbooking room, but I highly doubt I will be getting rid of much there.  I do need to do some serious organizing though, and that will be a huge time consuming job.

Side note news flash:  one reason we wanted to start purging is because Chuck applied for a transfer to Duluth, MN. If he gets the job, at least the biggest part of purging will be done.  But nonetheless, even if he doesn't get the job, purging is still needed, and it feels good to get rid of stuff.

That is all I'm going to say about Duluth because there's no point in elaborating on it until we know something for sure.

At I'm not quite sure how I feel about it anyway.

So a couple weeks ago, Chuck had to go to Florida for 10 days.  Midway through his absence something happened.  PW left the garage door open all night, and that resulted in a whole day of an unexpected fiasco which woulda/coulda been avoided.

Friday morning I woke up to a cold house.  It's usually on the cool side anyway, but this was cold, so I knew right away something was wrong.

The furnace wouldn't kick in, so I knew I had to call someone right away before the house got even colder. I called HeatSource cuz they've been out here before to fix our furnace and I was very pleased with them, so within an hour or two, the guy arrived. (His name was Jesse - very nice guy.)

First, he discovered that the furnace froze up, so he gave me the option of thawing it out myself and then he would come back after it's thawed, OR he could switch to hourly pay and stay and do it himself.  I knew either way it was gonna cost a bunch of money, so I told him to just stay and finish it.  It's a good thing because while he was here, he discovered that the pipes behind Chuck's "slop sink" were frozen.  So while the furnace was thawing out, he examined that problem, and found out that the pipes behind the sheetrock had burst open.  So he had to go down into our crawlspace and turn off the water and look for the leak and then he told me I should call a plumber.

Here's the weird part that I don't understand.  I asked him if he recommended anyone in particular and he said "no".  So I got on the internet to look for a plumber, and HeatSource came up.  Well, that is who this guy Jesse works for!  (So, why didn't Jesse recommend HeatSource?????) So, I called HeatSource and told them what happened, and she asked my name, I told her, she said, "Oh, Lisa!  Not your pipes too!"  She recognized me from my earlier call about the furnace.  I told her that Jesse was still here working on my furnace, so I gave the phone to Jesse.  I heard Jesse say something into the phone like "I don't know, she looked it up on the internet and HeatSource came up....."

So, I was getting the feeling that maybe they didn't want to do the plumbing work?????

Anyway, Jesse got stuck with both jobs of fixing my furnace AND my pipes.

I'm just glad he was here, and I told him that he was my knight in shining armor.

He said, "we don't usually get that kind of reaction from people".  But Chuck was gone, and I was feeling like a helpless damsel in distress, so that made him my knight in shining armor.

(The last time the furnace went out, Chuck was in Iraq!  Should I be seeing a pattern here?)

He ended up cutting a hole in the sheetrock to change the pipes.  It was all wet and soggy in there, so he told me to put a fan in front of it to help dry it out (so mold doesn't grow in there).

I know, by looking at this picture you're thinking I was supposed to turn the fan ON, not just set the fan in front of the hole.  LOL! No worries, I took this picture after everything had dried out.

So, while Jesse was waiting for someone to deliver two new pipes (yes, two pipes burst open), he continued to work on the furnace, which by this time was thawed out.  He got it working again and said there was no damage, but then he made another discovery.  He said, "I hate to give you more bad news but I have to "red tag" this furnace and shut it down."

WHAT!?

He tested the CO2 emissions and they were SKY HIGH, way off the charts.  He said if our furnace happened to crack, everyone in the house would be dead in a matter of seconds.  

So maybe it was blessing in disguise that PW left that garage door open?  Otherwise we never would've been aware of this.

He said it would be a week before they could install a new one, so I asked him, can't we just take our chances and keep this one running for one more week?  

He said no because it would be against the law, and he would get fired.

Okay, so what am I supposed to do to keep warm for a whole week?

He said he would let the furnace run long enough to heat the house up, and he would stick around and watch the CO2 emissions, but then he would have to shut it down when he leaves.  And he would also loan me some space heaters to keep the house warm until the new one was installed.

I was grateful for that cuz I thought I was gonna have to run to Lowe's or Home Depot to go buy some.  Also, Jesse set up one of their other guys to come out to my house later that same day to sell me my new furnace, so I was glad I didn't have to run to the store and try to get back in time.

So after Jesse fixed my water leak and shut down my furnace, he left.  And then Ben came to give me his spiel.  He presented me with 3 choices:  cheap, medium, expensive.

And we also got Chuck on the phone so he could be in on this.  I didn't want to make this decision on my own, although I was already in my own mind leaning towards the medium one.

It didn't make sense for us to spend a bunch of moolah on the expensive one if we ended up moving.  The cheap one didn't sound too impressive.  So Chuck agreed that we should get the medium one.

So for a whole week, the furnace in the garage sat useless

while I kept the space heaters quite useful inside the house.

They actually kept the house quite toasty, too warm at times.  It reminded me of being in our toasty cabin on a cold winter day.  :-)

So anyhoo, that was an unexpected adventure that ended up taking my whole day,

but thankfully we are still alive and warm with our new furnace which was installed on the same day that Chuck was coming back from Florida, of course.

Now if we could only train PW to get into the habit of always shutting the garage door!

For someone with nothing to say, this post ended up being really long.

I leave you now with a deep thought from Peeka-boo:

"???????????????????"

My Poor, Poor, Poor, Poor Begonia!

A few months ago a lady from church gave me this begonia plant.  It was supposed to grow pretty flowers on it, but apparently it wasn't getting enough sunlight cuz it never grew any flowers.  Or at least that's all I can figure.  Other than that, I thought I was doing a pretty good job at keeping it alive.

Until Peeka came along.

She is a very sweet cat, but has one very bad habit.

She likes to chew on my plants, both live and plastic, she doesn't care.

This plant quickly went from standing up straight and proud.....

to wilty.

Peeka had broken one of the stems, so I had to take out a whole stalk.

But she wasn't done with it yet.

I tried and tried to keep her out of my plant, but even if I manage to do this during the day, who's to say what she does during the night when I'm in slumberland?

This is all that's left of it now.

Even if I could revive it, what's the point?  

Do cats ever grow out of this habit?

Or is she hardwired for it for good?

What should I do with this plant?

Here is my other plant that she chewed up.

This used to be what they call a "money tree".

I forgot what it's real name is, but it doesn't matter cuz it's not fit to bring me any fortune now.

So, do I give up on having any live plants altogether?

Good thing for her, I don't have a dieffenbachia.

I still have one more plant that she hadn't touched yet, but it's only a matter of time, I'm sure.

I suppose you all heard about our earthquake.  They say it was 7.9 or 8.0.

When I heard it was that high, at first I didn't believe it cuz it didn't feel any worse than other earthquakes we've had.  8.0 is pretty big.

But I guess we didn't feel the big impact because it was far away, and it was really deep under the ground.  So we just got a good shaking and swaying motion.  I was just crawling into bed when it happened, and at first couldn't figure out what that knocking noise was.  Turns out it was my bookcase hitting against the wall.  Anyhoo, we didn't have it that bad here, but I guess the people closer to it were advised to get to higher ground because of a tsunami warning, which turned out to be only 9" higher than the normal tidal wave.

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

That's all for now!