Back online

Ohhh, the internet thing has turned into one of those ugly "I told you so" kind of deals. It's like this....the previous homeowners buried the phone line. Homer accidently found and broke that with the dozer. He than ran another line which laid on the top of the ground all winter long, and it worked perfectly. Somehow, the dozer found that one this spring. The third line was hooked up and laying on the ground waiting for one of us to dig a trench and bury it. Everything was fine until the internet began to fail...here and there it wouldn't work...then it didn't work at all...then it teased me again. Over and over I would say "are you sure there aren't any loose wires? are you sure everything is hooked up right?". Of course it was. So finally I called the internet company for the second time in less than a week. I spent an hour on the phone arguing with the man...he said my signal was fine, I told him I couldn't open a webpage. So hecaved and put in an order. Today, the ACS man was at my house (and it turns out to be someone we know from motorcross). To end this long story....the wires were loose...wigglin' blowin' in the wind loose. That will work for phone...it will not work for internet. He did some cutting, taping, screwing, etc. and guess what??? I have internet. Now my man is a great man. He works hard and provides us with a great home. He can fix just about anything, and goes along with everything. BUT...this one time things weren't quite as he thought and well, the wires were loose. He doesn't want to talk about it (in a fun joking way), and I imagine that is because he feels pretty bad that we "suffered" without internet for six weeks due to wiggly wires. So the moral of the story is it's good to stand your ground and believe in yourself, but when no one is looking run out and double check that you know what you are talking about so the internet man doesn't show up at your house proving you wrong. Not that being wrong is bad, but giving the "old lady" something to hold over you can never be a good thing! :)

Anyhow.....our internet works!! YEA!

I have some photos ready to catch you up closer to today. It will probably make for a long loading webpage, but I want to keep it all under one post. Then maybe after one more I'll be up to our current summer happenings.....

June 6, 2007....Emily and Elijah participated in the Aleyska (something-or-other) contest to try and win a bicycle. (Elijah wanted the bike, Emily wanted to run...she loves to run). I signed Emily up for the 50-yard dash. She was in the 1998-1999 age group being on the younger end. When you sign up you don't know what you are up against until you get to the track. Unfortunately, we found that Emily was racing older girls. She made it through the first heat to the finals, but she was up against all bigger girls. When the 100-yard followed it was all lgirls her age. I'm pretty confident she would have won that race. But you can't guess this at sign ups....anyhow, Emily is the one on the far left.

Elijah wanted to do the softball throw this year (he ran last year). I thought he'd do pretty good until we got there and realized like Emily he was in the younger part of the 1994-1995 age group. A boy we know was competing against him...he is a tremendous athlete and quite a bit bigger than Elijah. There was no doubt he would win the competition, but Elijah still went out and did his best. Elijah lost second by only three feet...the winner beat them both by about 70 feet. The great thing is he did his best and remained positive instead of getting a bad attitude...and well, with a little training, we're pretty sure he'll win next year since the first place guy will be too old to participate.

Here's my handsome man on the stand in third place!

Look at little Emily in the finals! She's the little blonde in the middle of the pack on the far side. Look at how much bigger the other girls were....there were several heats of her group and she beat out quite a few to get to the finals. I'm really proud of her especially since she is so shy and it takes a lot out of her to just walk out on the field infront of all those people (there were a few hundred in the stands). I think next year we'll put her in a longer race...with those long legs and her stamina it might be a better fit. Oh, ya, and their cousins Jadyn and Justise also ran that day...and Justise went home with a new bike. Yea! :)

June 12, 2007...Emily and Olivia are helping me in the garden. Emily is such a "girl" with the dresses and purses, etc. Not sure what is up with the rubber boots (it was hot and sunny, and no rain in sight). I'm guessing maybe they were closest to the door?? What pretty little girls.

also June 12, 2007...here you can see the radishes getting going. This was one of the last beds to get planted. The first radish bed was in nice, neat little rows spaced just like the package said. The onions were done the same. (As were most of the beds). It got near the end and I was running out of things to plant without going and spending more money. Here I took the remaining radish and onion seeds, mixed them together and scattered them about. I've decided that's how it should all be done...this row stuff looks rather stupid once it grows. To sprinkle it about utilizes a lot more of the garden bed.

same day....the radishes, onions, potatoes, carrots and peas were started from seed. The broccoli (closest) and cauliflower (farthest) were some of the few things purchased. I picked them up at Plant Kingdom on Farmer's Loop ( a nursery owned by the daughter of a woman that I spent the first 17 years of my life growing up next to in Tok). Anyhow, the plants were beautiful and when I get caught up you will see just how much they have grown! This year I had to purchase several plants and bushes from various businesses in town...some small local nurseries and some big box stores, and I have to tell you almost everything has either died or is barely growing except for what I purchased from Plant Kingdom. I won't go anywhere else from now on. Although Homer said that before it snows he will have a proper greenhouse and plant room set up so that next year in Febuary (Spring for America and still winter here) I can start all my own plants. When June growing season comes I hope to plant all my own starts and have a much bigger garden by this time of year.

Here's the radishes in another bed in a row. Doesn't that seem silly and such a waste of dirt??? It is a waste so Sydney planted more seeds in a zig-zag pattern between the rows. Next year we'll go with the "sprinkle" method and thin. Get as much bang for our buck as possible! (Homer and Papa have had a few radishes out of the garden over the last few days and they say they are good...I think they are too hot for me and I'm not willing to give them a try....heck, still a chicken to try new stuff at my age!).

June 12, 2007...9:38 PM...when do Alaskans sleep? All winter long! Daddy and Olivia are installing fence posts. Olivia is adding water to the gravel and Dad is mixing it to pack around the bottom of the fence post. (See the sunshine at this "late" hour?). Olivia just loves to help with the yard work. I actually can get a lot done with her working at my side. The hang-up comes with Lukey (will we call him that when he is 15?). At the tender age of one, he wanders off...exploring I guess it is called. I spend more time chasing him then working. But man, they both love the outdoors...they just cry if they have to be inside. And what little animals...they now spend all their time running around half naked and barefoot. They are tough!

June 13, 2007...this is a duck we got from my friend Carolyn (along with two other ducks and two geese). For the life of me I can't remember what kind of duck it is (I have to call her and ask), but look what the stupid thing did....that is a ring of birch bark around its chest. Yes, a complete ring of bark came off a log and somehow this duck put its head through the bark and got it wiggled down and wedged over its wings. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what it was. Then I thought it was wrapped in something because it had been injured (our Rizzo killed three ducks a few days prior). I guessed Homer had "bandaged" it up. When I caught the thing and saw it was confined by tree I laughed so hard. The duck was very pleased to be set free.

June 15, 2007...here's a peek at the gals and guys in the pen. There are two Emben geese, one Tulouse goose, two Khaki Campbells, four Indian Runners, two Blue Swedish, three Magpies, one ???, one bronze turkey and one white turkey. Soon I'll have close shots of each one so the kids and I can sit down and name them all. (Oh, and I also got 26 chickens two days ago. I know, I'm crazy, but I had to. It's the end of the selling season and they needed to unload the leftovers so they were selling for 50 cents each...normally 5-6 dollar chickens. I couldn't pass it up! I got 20 little assorted bantams because they are so gentle and fun for kids, and six red sex link that are supposed to be some of the most prolific egg layers and gentle as well). (Oh, and this is just the temporary pen until the grass grows and the pond is finished).

I guess that I had more pictures ready to post that I remembered, and this is turning out to be quite long. I am THRILLED to have my internet back (and to think most of us grew up without computers and now we depend on them). I so wanted to go on and on (which I've kind of done), but I still haven't gotten everyone up to date. And it can't happen tonight. It is already 2:51 AM! Can you believe that?! And I believe the sun is on its way back up...it's quite bright out and I could be out working in the yard if I had the energy! Oh, these Alaskan summers....we go, go, go....good thing they are short!

I hope everyone is enjoying the pictures and ramblings about our family. I enjoy sharing them as I am so proud of each every one of them. Tomorrow will bring more pictures.....send some our way as well.