Can you say HOT?

What a great week it has been. The weather has been more than wonderful.

We have a burn ban on, since it has been so dry and warm.

We broke a record on Monday, with the high of 85! Can you believe it? Yesterday it was 84, but we didn't break the record for that day, the high was 90 back in 1975. But that is OK, I will take the 80's.

They say we are suppose to have great weather all the way into next week. All I can say, is bring it on!

Here is a picture from July 2nd of one of the Ferry's coming across the channel out by Auke rec.

Wow it is the 4th of July 2009

Here is the 4th of July weekend. Man did it go fast. Had a wonderful long 3 day weekend. Oh and Sara Palin resigned for those who did not hear. Amazing to run out on her commitments, must have a pretty good job offer!

Love three day weekends, guess I just need to take more of them off. I can get so much more accomplished and cleaned up. Felt good. Was able to visit with friends, BBQ, and still had time to relax! It was a great weekend.

Packaged up my bath bombs, and my DH made me these racks to hang my tote bags from when I enter the craft fair this weekend. Trial run for the Christmas season.

Now that is a basket of bombs.

I do have a lot of tote bags and also doggie jackets! And look we have a little visitor checking in.

Oh and my garden is doing great so far. Here is a picture of the brussel sprouts, look they have sprouts on them!

New neighbor

We have a new neighbor. This visitor likes to come over and see Marvin, but Marvin doesn't like to play with the new cat. They sit outside and just stare at each other, until mom comes out and chases the cat back to it's home. Marvin is 14 years old and this cat is way bigger and younger than Marvin.

Oh to decide what to do today? Sew on the quilt, make some bath fizzes. I think I will be entering a craft fair July 11th, so I need to get my ducks in a row and get some product out there to try and sell.

Golden Girl Today--and a little bear

Yes, today I am the golden girl! 50 years ago, at 6:15 AM central time, a beautiful child was born, that child is ME.

Today I am fifty years old. Wow, amazing. I have to say, it feels pretty good, being golden and all. Thanks you mom and dad for having me.

Oh and this is what I came to this morning at work. They had decorated my office all up in the Hawaii 50 theme, they are having a potluck and everyone is dressed up in Hawaiian theme shirts. Very nice surprise. As you can see, there are flowers and fabric all over in a Hawaiian type theme, which of course, I am sitting here thinking, wow, this will be great to make me a scrappy 50 quilt for me. I will use the same layout that I am doing with the quilt along that I am in. This will be perfect! Not the best pictures, it was taken with my cell phone, but you get the idea. Oh and they also had a small potluck birthday party for me at noon. So that was nice.

A co-worker made me this blanket and picture, which was really nice of her. And of course my Cake.

Oh yes, and we had a visitor on the street yesterday. We were just coming home from work and I spotted this black thing turning into the neighbor's drive way, thinking, that is not a dog, and sure enough. It is not a dog. A little black bear, checking out the trash cans. I think this must have been the same one that had it's way with our compost box.

Happy Father's Day

Father's day today. I have to say happy father's day to my dad. I hope he is enjoying his day and is out golfing or doing something fun. Speaking of a father................here is DH enjoying his day.
.

Look, Marvin is even wishing the DH happy father's day. Resting her head on his shoulder, saying I don't want you to be alone, just to let you know that I love you also.

What do these two photo's have in common? Yes, two good friends with a cat! See the resemblance?

"Did you feel it?" my friend Sue, asked on June 20, at about 9:45 p.m. on a sunny Alaska night, as we sat outside drinking DH's skullberry wine that had made and waiting for the BBQ to be finished. No it wasn't another earthquake. At that moment, the sun paused on its journey around our northern horizon, and we, for a second or two, experienced summer solstice.
Solstice is the precise time when the top of the world nods deepest toward the sun. Here's what it's like when solstice (a word derived from Latin words meaning "sun standing still") arrives in Alaska. Now, the days start getting shorter. And after saying that...........

While out on a walk took these pictures of the wild phlox that grows around town, it is sure a pretty flower and it smells so good. Also as you can see the fireweed is starting to develop it's buds. They say once the fireweed turns to cotton, Alaskans say there are about six weeks until winter begins. Oh dear. Don't even want to think about that yet.

First Pedicure

Tonight I had my first pedicure, and here I am, almost 50! But hey, I can cross this off the bucket list!

Oh and let me tell you, it was wonderful. The chair I sat in had one of those total up the back and down massages. Oh how great it was, especially after a full day of work. Soak your feet in warm water, with some pretty colors. Get a little massage, trim the nails, get all painted up. Pretty nice. And as you can see, purple toe nails. Yes, purple, not red. Can you see them smiling?

Mr. Bear and crock pot goes bad

Well, we had a bear last night come through the place. Not sure what time, but I thought I heard something around 2 AM--guess I should have gotten up. But, he hit our compost box. Broke open the boards on side and pulled things out he wanted to eat. Wish I could have seen him.

Still raining here, feels like fall. Been around 42 to 54 degrees all week with rain. Sure do miss the sunshine and the warm days we had, but..........it was better weather than we had for the last 2 years that is for sure.

Guess what I will be getting for my upcoming birthday present.....a new crock pot. We were lucky--I had food cooking in the crock pot yesterday and after we were home I could smell something, well, seems like the controls decided to burn themselves out. Nice little electrical fire. Glad it happened when we were home.

MN riders claim world record for longest ATV parade

Way to go, this is so great.

SILVER BAY, Minnesota - All-terrain vehicle riders who formed a parade along Minnesota's North Shore are claiming a world record for their turnout.
The All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota tried Saturday to line up more than 2,000 ATVs in Silver Bay into the longest parade documented for Guinness World Records.
Group spokesman Les Schermerhorn said they fell short, but their count was 1,632 ATVs. They hope to have the Guinness organization verify the claim in the coming weeks.
The current record of 1,138 ATVs was set by the Harlan County Ridge Runners of Evarts, Kentucky, in 2006. Three-wheelers and side-by-side ATVs do not count.
The Minnesota group's attempt last year fell 55 four-wheelers short of the Kentucky group's total.

go to their website atvparade.org

Can you hear the grunting?

Oh, you can see his smile for miles. A new lawn mower. What more could a man ask for? Self-propelled, goes like the wind. You should see this bad boy go. It just cuts the grass and you almost have to run behind it to keep up. You can push it with one finger. Pretty nice, I will have to say.

Our storybook

I haven't told you about the story book I had made from Stories by Everyone.com. I had this book made up from when we were in Disneyland. What a great thing! It is about 30 pages, it has 55 pictures from our trip. You right the story or captions that you want on each page.

I had one made for us and one for our daughter. It was funny, when they received the book, Tobee is looking at it and he says, " Mom, we are in a book." How great is that?! They did a wonderful job, the price was good. Plus, no photo albums laying around, and people just do not throw books away. A perfect little memory piece. You could do this for anything. Love the idea and I am sure I will have more books made.

Where is the sunshine?

Oh Marvin, she is such a helper.

Well, here we are day two of no sunshine and a light drizzle of rain. Man, things are so dark, the furnace kicked in this morning. We had 50 degrees on the thermometer this morning. Suppose to be like this for the next week or so.

Like I mentioned before, I am in this quilt along. Which is going rather good I would say. Each week we have a new task to complete. She is giving us complete instructions to go follow. So far things have worked out great for this project. It was rather easy and everything went together rather well. The best part, is, it is made from material that I already had, so right now, NO,! extra expense. Of course the DH loves that part, no more material in the house.

Here is a close up of the quilt.

Sunday Sunshine

Wow! What a wonderful morning. Wake up, look out the window and see clear blue skies with lots of sunshine. You have to love. I read the Sunday paper out on the porch, already 61 degrees at 10 AM this morning. Keep the nice days coming. After 2 years of nothing but rain and cold, this is great. My plants are loving this weather. I did lose a few plants from the rotten weather last year. Yes, those are tulips around the mountain ash tree. They just came up not to long ago. Most other places around Juneau, their tulips have been done for weeks now.

Brussel Sprouts are looking great, so far 9 inches long--


and the Rhubarb and the comfry plant are in competition on who is going to grow bigger this year. This is the best my rhubarb has been for years.

My nasturtiums are growing great. I guess they can read the sign that says grow dammit. You can tell, but there are marigolds and Rosemary mixed in with the nasturtiums.

Look at this cute little kitten. Carla, who moved to W. Virginia, just adopted this little kitten. She is so cute.

And speaking of cute, here are the two cutest grand kids in the world, according to this grandma.

Talked with them on the phone last night. Asked Kamee about being done with school. I was informed that she is only on a break and she is not done with school that she will be going back after the break is done. She is still going to swimming and is doing gymnastics, which she says, " I guess it is good for me to go to." and she has been going to church and told me that she learns about God and that he sometimes answers your wishes. Tobee, well, he is Tobee and he follows his big sister around.

More sunshine

Yesterday, Friday, was great. More sunshine and it was warm. When we came home the inside temperature of the house was 79 degrees and we live in the shade from about noon on, plus we had the windows open. So it had to have gotten very warm out here in the valley. I don't think I have seen our house that warm, well, I have, when mom was up here and she was tending the wood stove. I think she had it above 80, but that was in November. This is June. Don't get me wrong. I am sure loving this sunshine and warm weather, after 2 years or more of rain and cold, this is nice. We are breaking records.

Record high reached Wednesday in Juneau, another record could be in store today.The record high temperature for the date yesterday was tied. The Juneau Forecast Office says it hit 79 degrees at 4:46 p.m. That matches the high reached in 1954. Another record could be in store for today. The high today is forecast to range between the upper 70's and low 80's. The record for this date is 80 which was also set in 1954.

Went to a BBQ last night. Of course, as always, was a great time. The only thing one could complain about is the mosquito's and noseams, man, they are hungry and big this year. Other than that, it was great.

I really don't like spiders, but, this web was hanging between the railing, you do have to admire the spider on they can create there webs. Pretty amazing.

Oh, yes, Guess who has taken over another quilt, and of course laying in the sun. Thanks mom.

A co-worker made us this pie, out of rhubarb. The story behind it--well, she needed rhubarb. I knew a couple of patches around town that were on the hillsides and no one was taking care of them--so we went for a walk and picked some rhubarb. Actually,we saved the rhubarb. Thinned it out so it could grow some more. And this is what I received for being a partner in crime. No keys in the middle!

June 1st, Happy Birthday to the Darling Husband

Well, what do you get a 51 year old for a birthday gift. Why not a new toy, a monster sandwich and an apple tree.

Yes, this is one big sandwich. Cut a round bread roll into 4 or 5 layers--layer with your favorite sandwich meat, this one has ham, turkey, hard salami and bacon. Left off the roast beef this time. Course each layer has to have a layer of cheese, I used pepper jack, medium cheddar and Swiss and what sandwich isn't complete with layers of onions, green peppers and oh yes, horseradish, mustard, 1000 thousand island dressing and spicy brown mustard, put on each different layer. And to top it off, last layer, meat, onions and bacon. I have also put tomatoes on the top layer. You can bake it in the over at 250-300 degrees for about 45 minutes. This way it melts the cheese nicely and the meat is warm all the way through. This sandwich though was cooked on the gas grill--it was 80 degrees and did not want to turn on the oven.
Can you say most delicious?

Marvin is also enjoying the DH's birthday by relaxing in the best chair outside. She looks rather excited about the birthday.





Oh and the new toys. yes a remote control helicopter. I think I have him a little scared to try and fly this one. He is still reading the manual that came with it. Big dollars to fix this one if it falls and tumbles to the ground. Look at the remote control,Oh my gosh! They say it is like flying a real helicopter, you must do all the checks and balances etc. I know I won't be flying this one, since the one I got for Christmas is now in the trash. It can not be repaired any more. maybe now I can have the DH's old one.

and what birthday would not be complete without an apple tree. Our friend Wendy, grew this from and apple. If anyone can grow things it is her. But the funny part of the this story, is that we both bought apple trees 2 years ago on Mom's day. Well, for some reason, my tree died and hers is still growing great. So, she gave this tree to DH for his birthday. We will see what happens to this tree if he can keep this one growing.

Still enjoying the sunny warm days. Loving this week. 70 to 84 degree weather. Bring it on.

How many bottles of wine?

How many bottles of wine does a person need? LOTS! And we have another rack this size that will be filled up in the next couple of weeks.

We ended up bottling the next batch of wine that was done, Peach flavored. It is very good.

Here is some pieces of fabric that I cut up, going to try and make this quilt with Old Red Barn. and her quilt along. It was hard to cut fabric when the sun is out in Juneau. It is suppose to be warm all week, they say the high could be 86 by Thursday. Bring it on! After the last 2 wet, cold summers, this is great.

Looking up at a wind turbine down in Wyoming.

When bombs go bad!

Well, not sure what happened here, but I believe that by me putting a fire in the wood stove and trying to dry out the bombs a little quicker was not a good idea!

As you can see. I believe that they dried way to fast and now I have bad bombs, but they still work, just not to pretty to give away or try to sell any. Our daughter will be happy, she will have more bombs to soak in.

This is my very first batch of bath bombs, they worked.

Then of course today, made 3 double batches of bombs. Which was great, but I also shampooed the carpet and it is raining outside. Did I say raining, the skies have opened and said let there be rain for the last 30+ days you had of nice sunshine.

So the first batch is drying nicely, the last two, not so good.

To much moisture in the air I am sure. We have 84% humidity. So, now I have the De-humidifier going to try and dry the carpets and my bombs. I would hate to lose another 2 double batches. I made patchouli, Ginger and bergamot (suppose to be a citrus smell)--In Witchcraft, bergamot is used to control or command and for this reason is used in a variety of spells and formulas in which a practitioner might wish to subdue another person. Wow, pretty amazing stuff.

Memorial Day Weekend

A pansy from my garden


Memorial Day, here is to all of those that have fought to give us our freedom. Thank you.

So far it has been a great weekend. We had a couple of BBQ's, that we were able to visit with friends and have a good time with. There were a few rain drops late last night. Just enough to put spots on the car. Otherwise, sunny and dry. Amazing.

I went for a walk yesterday up by the glacier. I took the Moraine Ecology trail, or as the forest service labels it the ME trail. It is about 1.5 mile loop trail. It is a real easy hike. There are few other little trails that I think I will have to go and explore that come off of this one.

Oh, and some pictures of my garden and flowers that are finally popping through. It is great.

We have garlic, which was planted in the fall

We have brussel sprouts, here are two out of 3 plants


we have radishes and green onions


gladiolus and dahlias trying to grow them in buckets to keep them out of the rain and rotting the bulbs, which seems to happen or it gets to cold and they don't flower. One more try this year and if I don't get flowers, NO more!


and just what do you do with old cement blocks, but use them to plant flowers in!


Yes, we have lettuce growing also. Put them in these containers on the railing, in hopes that we can keep the slugs away from the food.

Finally, I have tulips coming up and look, just off to the left side of the tree, my blue poppy made it through the winter, now to see if will continue to grow.

My rhubarb is trying to come up
and last but not least, the hops, which seems to grow over and inch a day--amazing plant.

and we have nasturtiums, rosemary and marigolds

What a weekend

Man, talk about a busy weekend. I feel like I accomplished so much. But looking at the clock and seeing it hit 5:00--knowing that the weekend will soon come to an end and i still could be doing so much more.

Let's see, washed the windows inside and out. I emptied out the spare closet of 2 1/2 very large garbage bag full of clothes, that somehow, managed to shrink in the closet. So took those to the salvation army along with a box of miscellaneous items. Declutter! Well, I am trying anyways.

Put the compost dirt that was ready all over my flower beds in hopes that the plants will grow even better. Finished raking the piles of leaves that I had in the back yard.

We have onions, radishes, garlic and lettuce starting to pop through.

I sewed on some more of little projects, table runners etc that need to be put together.

We filtered the pear and peach wine. MMMMMMMMMM it does taste rather good. Won't be long and those two flavors of wine will be ready to put into bottles. Now we are trying to find places to store another 60 bottles of wine and there is more brewing away.

Before and After

Happy Mother's Day

Here is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all of those mom's out there. I received these lovely flowers from my daughter. That was very nice of her and her family.I called my dad to wish him a Happy Mother's Day, told him since I don't have a mom to call, that I called him to thank him for marrying mom and having me!

Plans for today, oh yes. Running around to the nursery's today to pick up a few flowers to plant. Then plant the flowers, potatoes etc. since we have a beautiful sunny blue sky day. Yesterday, I planted some wild flowers, my brussel sprouts, carrots and onions.

Last week, I had to make a trip up to Anchorage for business. Here are a few photo's from the airplane. Talk about rugged country.

Wonderful Saturday

This little crocus in the front yard is saying I know spring is over in some areas of the country and Juneau, but I still want to come out. We still have a few piles of snow in the front yard as you can see below with the crocus trying to pop out. But with the sunshine today you can see it melting away.

And WHO could complain with a 75 degree day in Juneau, Alaska? Not me! Well I do have one complaint, I did not win the Nenana Ice Classics, it went off on May 1st, and I had May 2nd. Oh well, guess I will have try again next year.

I just worked all day long in the yard. Busy day, we had to go shopping so I could get some flowers to put into my hanging baskets. DH need oil, plugs etc. to tune up the car. Once we got home from running around, I was busy planting away in the dirt. The sun felt so good. Then the best part at 4:30, DH said stop working and handed me a cold beer. Oh did that go down good, but there was still daylight and warmth to be had, so had to continue with more things outside. Even if that was taking a broom to all of the rocks on the main road and sweep them into the driveway.

Along the front of the house and at the end of the deck, has always been a sore spot. So, I found some azaleas and planted them there under the window. This place never received much sun, but since the neighbors trimmed up the pine trees to do their roof, we get a lot more sun. So, with the pine trees and more sun, I figured that the azaleas would do OK, since they like high acid and the pine trees give that off.

As you can see BEFORE:

And AFTER:

They will be so beautiful. If things go well, they should get about 6 ft high and about 4 ft across, so that should fill that area in very nicely!

I planted my hanging baskets. In the long baskets, I am going to try and out smart the slugs and plant lettuce, onions and radishes in those.

I also put in a burning bush in the front of the house by the deck and along the side of the house along with yellow rose bush. Not sure how well that will do, but.........we will try it.
Some more flowers in a pot.

Our son-in-law, was hired at EnXco, this company makes those wind turbines that supply solar energy. He will being doing maintenance on them. They sent us some pictures of them around the area. They have 156 of them around the arehe works at, and they stand 280 feet in the air. I know you won't catch me at the top of those!

If you look close in the picture with the semi, there are 4 or 5 antelope running in front of the truck. I am going to assume that they made it across!

Sunshine and more sunshine

What a great week. How could it not be, with all of this sunshine that we are getting here in Juneau. Plus 60 degree days. Wonderful.
The first hummingbird made it. We seen him last night on the feeder. They are one day late, last year they arrived on April 29th. But---they are here. I have 2 feeders already out, I guess, now that they are here, I will get the third one out.

I actually have tulips popping up out of the ground now, they are about 2 inches high. Just maybe I will get some this year. My rhubarb is about 3 to 4 inches high. It is great walking around the garden and seeing things come to life.

This weekend, yard work, raking, burning of sticks and leaves, getting the compost dirt out and on my plants. Planting my hanging baskets. DH will be working on my car, new oil, plugs etc. so I can zoom down the road faster.

Not much for sewing when it is sunny outside.

The Mad Vintner

The mad vintner is going at it. Doesn't he look like a mad scientist with his project. The blueberry wine is now getting filtered after what about 9 months of sitting. It sure is a pretty color and it actually tastes real good! Not to sweet which I am glad for. It will have to sit for a couple of days and then run it through a finer filter, then we will be able to bottle the blueberry and let it sit for a month or so to let it settle down. We should get about another 25 to 30 bottles of wine.

Dancing Skeltons

I love this quilt. I love the colors, how bright they are, how the back with the hearts seems to go perfect with the skeleton's. This quilt is actually going as a wedding gift. I hope they like it as much as I do. Maybe today will be designated sew the backs on to the other quilt tops I have done, or maybe, start creating something else!

Another note, the snow is melting. I can see the fire pit now, so I can make fires. I can start raking some the yard and burning the leaves and the tree limbs that have fallen all over the place.

Earth Day

For Earth day, our Department (Dept. of Environmental Conservation) had a garbage pick up day. We gathered together at 11:00 to collect our bags and gloves and hit the block's around the DEC building to gather up trash, and there was plenty of it. Amazing how people just through things away anywhere, verses finding a trash can. And then at noon, we all gathered together for a pot luck after we washed our hands, even with gloves on. Did not mind picking up the trash, what better way then to get outside for an hour and enjoy the sunshine and not have to deal with paperwork etc. it was a gorgeous day. Yes that is me with the BP bag, the third largest oil company.




It was also Admin Professional Day. I received flowers from the Director and how fitting is this, a quilting magazine. I gave one of my admin staff hazelnut coffee from Heritage and a new coffee cup and the other admin staff, a tea cup with a tea holder along with some new teas to try.

Oh and well I was waiting for my DH at his work--I was walking around and took a few snappies. They have the net pens up and loaded with their little baby chum salmon, and here is an old boat that low tide is showing and the sea is trying to claim.

Spider Web Quilt

I found this quilt pattern on Mary Quilts. I loved how it looked, so I thought I would try it. Oh my goodness, it came together like magic, like we were meant to be! My DH says I need to applique an spider on it and then make like a spider web design going out from it for the quilting part of it. I guess he has more faith in me than I do. The best part is! I did not have to buy any NEW material. This is all from my stash that I have. I have been saving this material for about 2 years now--knowing that I was going to make a quilt, but could not come up with any design etc. that I liked and then, here it is. I don't think it turned out to bad. Oh and don't mind Daisy, she should have had her head on the outside.

Oh and such a wonderful day today. 60 in the sun and 41 in the shade. WHAT! for Juneau. Loved it. I went over to Wendy's place to show her the quilt and she the let the chickens out. Yes, they loved the sun and the dirt. They are such babies. I keep telling my DH that I need at least 2 chickens, but he isn't buying it so far. If they eat slugs. I want them!

And the mad vintner, is busy making another new wine. Blackberry pinot noir. Sounds good to me. Keep them coming baby!

Varied Thursh

What a way to wake up in the morning to the wonderful signing of the varied thrush.

They were just singing away this morning, and last night. I was standing outside and you could hear them singing, in all different directions. If you want to hear how these birds sound follow this link.


Then little missy girl decided that she could go outside for longer than a minute. I guess she is sensing spring is in the air. She is finally able to see something else other than a wall of white snow. She jumped up in the chair on the porch and enjoyed the morning.

Two days of sunshine and a Robin

I spotted my first robin, it was downtown, but all the same. As you can tell not much snow is this yard.

Two days in a row for sunshine here in the capital city. But, I guess this could be short lived since they are saying rain tomorrow. Which I guess is ok, if it melts the snow, but I like the warm sunny days. Which to me are long over due here in Juneau.

I walked around today on my lunch hour and took some pictures so you can see where there is snow and no snow. Looking over towards Douglas on blueberry hill, they have snow. And looking towards the Federal building none. All along this stretch of walking it was amazing to see flowers growing, people out painting their homes, cleaning up the yards.

I heard that the hummingbirds are in Ketchikan so it should be about a week before they arrive here. Usually by April 29th I have my feeders out and I have hummingbirds, but this year I think I will get them out by this weekend. Not sure if they will come around with all of the snow and the pine siskins and redpolls that are out there.

As you can see the snow is slowing melting out by our house. Downtown there are hardly even snowbanks left.There are crocus's coming up. I won't see that for awhile that is for sure. The backyard is just as bad as the front as far as snow goes.

I have been checking out areas for us to move to. I think next year, a vacation will be planned to go to Washington and Oregon and make a drive and see if we like the area's--and if so, which ones. Time for us to get closer to the family.

Happy Easter

Easter is here. Let's see, we went to the Baranoff Hotel to eat their brunch that they put on. We have never been there before on Easter so we thought we might as well give it a try and give me a break from cooking, and I will tell you, it is a great feed. You name it, they have it there for you to eat. Prime rib, ham, lamb, and omelet station, a crepe station, smoked fish, crab legs, shrimp, lobster. Oh and the desserts, complete with a chocolate fountain. There was so much food. Plus a room with just other hot foods, eggs, potatoes etc etc. The list goes on for the food that they had.
Plus, it is complete with piano music in the back ground. A real live person playing not music pumped in.

After we stayed there and ate for about 2 hours, we left and headed out to the glacier for a walk to the falls. There is still snow out there, but we made it. It was a great day. We seen 4 mountain goats, an avalanche and there was sunshine. In the shade it was 40 degrees today, so I know in the sun it was warmer and it felt so good. Oh and we even seen pussy willows, so I guess that means spring is coming, or here?

The falls the avalanche

Looking for that giant piece of gold

2 mountain goats on the hillside

Pork stir fry

Here is a quick and easy dinner and it tastes oh so good.

You will need:
1 to 2 lbs cut up pork
Cut pork into bite size pieces

1 egg beaten add 1/2 cup of milk
add pork to the beaten egg mixture to coat the pork

1 package of Panko crumbs--place the crumbs in a ziplock baggie
take the pork out of egg mixture and place into the ziplock baggie with the panko crumbs
Shake to cover the pork with crumbs.

Have a pan of hot oil, about 1/2 cup or so cooking add the breaded pork cubes, cook until done, about 15 minutes to 20 minutes

Remove the cooked pork out of oil and discard the oil. Put the pork back in the pan with maybe a touch of sesame oil and about 1/4 soy sauce.

Here is your stir fry sauce:

Mix up 1 cup of ketcup
1/4 cup of honey
1 T. of mustard seed to put on top of pork and veggies

Grab a bag of frozen stir fry veggies, put those into the pan with the pork add your sauce of ketcup/honey mixture
Cook until veggies are soft and there you have it a quick and delicious dinner. Serve over rice.

Bottling the first batch of wine

We will bottle no wine before it is time. I guess it is time. Our first batch of wine, this is from a kit, it is called Gewurztraminer. You know, the wine that starts with a G and is hard to say.
As you can see it takes a lot of concentration

The happy vintner

Oh showing of his muscles as he corks the bottle.

Now that it is bottled. We have to wait for 3 months before we can start to open and really drink them. So, looks like some time in July.

Can you say 29 1/2 bottles of wine? Guess what is for tasting tonight? Can you say Gewurztraminer?

Nice surprise

Talk about a nice surprise, a dozen roses were delivered to me at work on Wednesday. My DH sent them to me. It made my day.

And

then, I found out where Marvin likes to hide. My fabric stash way in the back of the closet. I caught a picture of here as she was sneaking out.

It has been raining here for the past week off and on, which is better than snow at this point and it is melting the snow fast, but not fast enough for me.

Happy Birthday Tobee

Our grandson had his 4 year birthday. He ended up getting a new bike for his birthday, so, grandpa and grandma sent him a new helmet, with elbow pads and knee pads. He is ready to ride.

Giveaway for a sweet doll and pattern

Oh my here is another give away at Oh Sew Dollin--Free Primitive Raggedy AnnieCloth Rag Doll Patterns
She is offering a FREE e-pattern for you to download and print out yourself.

Another Sunday almost over

The weekends sure do go by way to fast. Between cleaning the house and laundry and all the house chores and then try to relax and do some sewing, the next thing you know--the weekend comes to an end.

It has been raining most of the weekend, which is better than snow that is for sure. My dad called and Northern Minnesota was hit with 16 inches of snow. NO! So hopefully this rain will help melt back the snowbanks.

I am working on another quilt top. It is a Flag type theme. Not sure what I will do with this one, I am actually thinking of donating it. Not sure where?? but something will come to me. Maybe a Veteran's home?

The DH has been busy making more wine. He has blackberry and honey mead started. It won't be long and we will be bottling some of the first stuff that he has made. The true test! Is it drinkable? Here are some samples of the labels that he has been creating for the bottles.

Book giveaway

Head over to Crazy Shortcut Quilts and enter in the drawing that is going to happen on April 4th.

An autographed book to give away! Easy Applique Blocks. As they say, you can't win, if you don't play.

Mt. Redoubt

Here are some more photo's of Mt. Redoubt, it is sort of quiet now, but they figure it will be exploding again here real soon.

Zig Zag's

This was a lot of fun to make. I think I am going to try and make some more. They go together quickly and they have a fun design. I have to attach the back to it--that will come another day.

The yellow around the edge of the border is piping. Gives it a nice clean look.

You have to ask yourself...what do the following items below have in common?

Not sure, it is prep work for a colonoscopy. Oh, man, what fun. That is a lot of gatorade to drink up and nothing to eat.

Feeling way better

Boy, it was amazing, last night, I started feeling better. I mean I could tell I was getting better. I could think, my nose wasn't running. Oh, I felt so good. I stayed up till around 10:30 sewing, so I must have felt good. LOL

Here is a lap quilt that I made to send off to Galen's grandma in Minnesota. Hope she likes it. Now, I must think of something for the other grandma. I may have to find something with birds, I think she likes birds.

Then today, Monday, we have the day off for Seward's day, so have a long weekend. Which I really need. I know I am not up to 100 percent feeling well, so any extra day of doing nothing, will be good for me.

I have been of course, in my sewing room. I have made a couple of table runners that I just have to sew together. And then I made another top of a quilt, have to find some type of material to put on the back. Not sure what, so will have to go looking this coming weekend.

This pattern reminds me of that old time wallpaper. Kind of different.

Then of course my table runners. I like to put things sort of together, so when I run out of my mojo and creative juices, then I can sew those things together and not think about anything. I guess there is a reason behind my madness after all.

Under the weather

Well, ole granny isn't feeling to well. Finally ending up getting the crud that everyone has around town. I tried so hard not to get sick, but.........at lass it found me. Coughing, sniffing, feel miserable. I hate being sick. So welcome to day and night quill!

It is hard to sew and do things when you don't feel well.

I have a long weekend at work, since we get Seward's day off, I had all these plans to spring clean the house and well, with no engery, that surely is not going to happen.

Lots has been going on.

Mount Redoubt, the volcano, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, continues to erupt.

Then our daughter has been having some heart issues so she has been on a heart monitor and will be for 30 days. They are calling what she has They are calling what she has Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome. Some heart disease issue.

In a normal heart, electrical signals use only one path when they move through the heart. This is the atrio-ventricular or A-V node. As the electrical signal moves from the heart's upper chambers (the atria) to the lower chambers (the ventricles), it causes the heart to beat. For the heart to beat properly, the timing of the electrical signal is important.

Some good news-------Casey has another job. He will start in a week or so. He had to go take a physical and if he passes then he is hired. He will be working out of Glendale, about 45 minutes away from Casper on those wind farms. The company has them around the state and are putting more up and he would be the person that maintains them. This should be a great job, since I really think that is the way the country will be going.

We watched a show on dirty jobs and they had it all about how these people go in and up to the top of these things and clean them. Very interesting. I suppose he got the job because he worked on the rigs and was one of the Derek’s or stabbers that are on the top of the oil rigs, so……not to afraid of heights.

Oh and the best part also, is he only works from 6:30 to 3:30—Mon thru Friday, weekends off. WOW! Not sure if the family will know how to act to have Casey home all the time and not leaving in the middle of the night or gone for days at a time. He is on 90 days probation and if he passes that, then that is when the Health insurance will kick in and his pay will go up another 5.00.

Then on Kristine, her heart monitor that she is wearing, well, it sent of alarms at the place that is monitoring her. They wanted to know what she was doing at 6AM the other day and she was sleeping and they are like this is not good. So they have her coming in on the 6th and they are doing some type of tilt test on her to try and make her pass out. So they can try and locate what is going on…bottom line, I think they maybe heading putting a pace maker in her.

Tilt table studies: A tilt test may be advised for some people who've had recurrent fainting spells (syncope). This test shows how your heart rate and blood pressure respond to a change in position from lying down to standing up. In this test, an intravenous line (a small plastic tube in a vein) is usually started in case medications need to be given during the test. A catheter also may be placed in the artery to monitor blood pressure from inside the artery. If a cause of the fainting spells is found, medications can be given through the intravenous line to help prevent the episodes.
The head-up tilt table test is a way to find out the cause of fainting spells. The test involves lying quietly on a bed and being tilted at different angles (30 to 60 degrees) for a period of time while various machines monitor your blood pressure, electrical impulses in your heart, and your oxygen level.
The test usually takes one to two hours to complete, however, that may vary depending on the changes observed in your blood pressure and heart rate and the symptoms you experience during the test., Before the test begins, a nurse will help you get ready. The nurse will start an IV (intravenous) line. This is so the doctors and nurses may give you medications and fluids during the procedure if necessary.
You will be awake during the test. You will be asked to lie quietly and keep your legs still.
The nurse will connect you to four monitors, including a:
Defibrillator/pacemaker. Attached to one sticky patch placed on the center of your back and one onto your chest as a precautionary measure. Allows the doctor and nurse to pace your heart rate if it is too slow or deliver energy to your heart if the rate is too fast.
Electrocardiogram or ECG . Attached to several sticky electrode patches placed onto your chest, as well as catheters placed inside your heart. Provides a picture on graph paper of the electrical impulses traveling through your heart.
Oximeter monitor. Attached to a small clip on your finger. Checks the oxygen level of your blood. Blood pressure monitor: Connected to a blood pressure cuff on your arm. Checks your blood pressure intermittently throughout the study.

So it sounds like Kristine is going to have a fun day at the hospital getting tests done. But, if they can get that all taken care of and make her better this is good. So now we wait.

Motel in Disneyland

I just have to say this about the Howard Johnson's Plaza Hotel that we stayed at. It was great! Nice and clean, quiet, and if you have kids it has a great castaway cove pool area. There is also an adult pool on the other side of the motel. There are six different building's that you stay in around the area.


The bucket would fill up with water, it holds about 300 gallons, a bell would sound just before it would dump. It was so funny watching the kids, they either would run away from the splash or come running to get the water splashed on them. The bucket of water would spread across this platform to spread out the water. They had a small kiddy pool in the cove, where the kids could go and play in and you did not have to worry about them dropping into the deep end, the little pool was about a foot deep.

The pool also had two slides that they kids could on. Also a hot tub area, so the parents could sit and watch the kids and relax there aching feet from walking all day. The had tables with umbrellas on them and lounge chairs, with towels supplied to dry off with. showers and a restroom in the cove area.

Looking out from our balcony room

The flowers around the motel.


The trees around the motel.

Looking down towards cast away cove, the flowers in full bloom.

It is in close walking distance to Disneyland, only 8 minutes. Close to the restaurants to eat at. My recommendation, eat at Denny's, it was the cheapest of all places and the food was good. There were other good restaurants to eat at, all depends on what your wallet has in it to spend. You could also watch the fireworks from the motel, so you did not have to be in the park to see them.

The other great thing we did was we had Albertson's deliver food to our motel for the week we were there. You place your order on-line, pick the date and the time you would like your order to arrive, they call you when they are there. We bought a case of water, beer, wine, bread, peanut butter, jelly, cereal, milk, OJ, paper bowls, plastic ware, snacks, yogurt etc. they charge 12.95 to deliver so you want to make sure that you have a large order to help split the costs. You don't have to tip, they tell you not to tip the delivery person. They bring the groceries to your room, unload them for you and take the crates away. Great Service.

If I would have been thinking, I should have ordered lunch bags to make sandwiches and eat those in the park. Since it did cost 6.00 for a hot dog, and other things were just as or more expensive to eat there.

A long week

It sure has been a long week since we got back from Disneyland. Lots of snow here yet and it was snowing on the first day of spring, big giant snowflakes. Stop already!

Plus, it doesn't help being away from the grandkids and daughter. So, back into my sewing room I go.

This is what we have in the front yard, looking out our patio window, the lovely view we have from the dining room table view. A wall of white.

Working on all kinds of things, table runners, wall hangings or they could be table coverings, some tops for quilts. I hate cutting out the pieces for quilts, but I guess this is the only way that they get created.

This one quilt is going to be so much fun. I love the colors and the skeletons look like they are at a wedding party. More pictures after it is all put together. I have to put in the batting and attach a back to it.

What a wonderful week it was

We are back from Disneyland! What a great time we had. The grandkids are of course are wonderful and are growing up so fast. We put on so many miles. I wished I would have brought my step counter. I think we all would have been shocked to see how much we really walked. Dreams do come true!

jelly fish ride and oh the special glasses for the Bugs life

The bugs life and of course waiting to go home at the airport.

look Buzz light year, can you imanage walking around all day in the custom?

We also we honorary citizens of Disneyland on Wednesday. Which means, we opened up the park for all of the guests. We were standing in line, and here comes one of the park attendants, hands us out buttons and says that we are going to open up the park that day. We had to sign the honorary guest book. We were brought in first, yelled out the magic begins and we started counting down from 10 to one, and then let the celebration begin. What are the chances that you would be picked to do that 1 in a million? All these people looking at us--it was great! There was this huge group of people outside the gates.

Very proud Grandpa and Grandma

Birds of Paradise, my favorite flower. I love these flowers.


Aboard the ship the "Columbia"


The Pirate himself

Kamee and Kristine with Woody

The END

March Storm

Well, so much for sunny days. A winter storm warning is in effect until 6 p.m. today for the Juneau area. We are to expect 4 to 8 inches of snow..In addition, wind gusts to 40 miles per hour are expected by mid-morning.
Oh how wonderful the 10 day forecast looks at Disneyland, sun and 68-70 degree weather during the day and lows around 47. I can handle that, and no snow banks to look at.

Sunny day in Juneau

We had some more sunshine today after a couple days of overcast and light snow, 5 to 6 inches. Had to get outside and just walk and get some of that vitamin D into the system.
You can see some cable hanging down from the main cable.
Nothing happening.

Took a walk at lunch. They are replacing the cable on the tram, so went down to see if anything was going on. Course it was 12:30 lunch break. So no one was working.

Took some pictures of the Fisherman memorial. You can hear the echo's even in the winter.
The selected design is a curved wall of granite with a down ramp depressed into the shore on
the water front. Names of fishermen are engraved on the curved wall. The memorial must
withstand the test of time so therefore only the most durable materials could be used.
In the center radius of the floor is a large jade disc showing a fishing vessel somewhere in
Alaska’s waters. The name of the vessel is the ECHO. But of course you can not see that now, since it is buried under snow.
If one stands on the disc facing the wall and talks, the sound true to the engraved boats name is
echoed back and amplified.
The Blessing of the Fleet is held the first Saturday in May.

Oh the birds

After that cold snap and the winds that came last week all my birds disappeared, well, they are now back and hungry! All my feeders are empty in one day. It is amazing what they go through in seeds.

Poor Marvin, she just sits and looks out the window at all the birds and there is nothing she can do. She won't go outside, it is to cold and to much snow. Which is fine, she is 13 years old, so, would rather her stay in. But she does have a good place to sit, in the window, with the sunshine (when it does shine) on her blanket and she can still get the heat from the heat vent.

Oh here is Mr. Squirrel, looking for seeds and peanuts.

Oh, here is either a table mat, or a wall hanging, I put a rod holder on the back so if someone wanted to hang it they could. I made it from my cow quilt scraps. A co-worker loves cows and asked for just a scrap piece of material, well, I just could not send her a piece of cut out fabric, so I made this and will send it up to her.

And of course, I knew I would have to make another one out of frogs. Since this other co-worker likes frogs, I made this one. She never asked for anything, but I did not want her to fill that I favored one co-worker over another one. I suppose I will end up making them for everyone in the office! Dug around in the material box and low and behold, I found some frog material.

I can not believe this, but I put this chicken quilt together today. I just have to put the batting and the back on it and it will be all done. Of course, I want a black back and I have no black material--may have to relook at this one and see what else may work.

Suitcases are down and are getting packed for Disneyland. Oh and LOOK, someone was trying to come into the woman's cave---camera ready and he is gone.

Holy Cow

Here is another quilt all done and put together. I am calling it Holy Cow, I guess I could have called it Happy cows. Don't you just love it?

Pretty quiet weekend, we actually had sun, which was great. Some time during the afternoon, the birds just all took flight. Have not seen them any more during the day. Wonder what is up? Did they migrate or is a storm coming in? We will find out tonight if the feeders are still full.

The suitcases are out and ready to pack to Disneyland. Did I mention that we are going to Disneyland?

It's official

Our tickets came today, so it is official, we are going to Disneyland. I am so excited to see the kids and get out of Juneau. Even if it is only a week.
Better get the suitcases out and start packing.

Dancing Skulls Quilt

Finished this quilt. Lots of skulls. You have to look close, there are skulls on the quilt in hats.

Here is the back of it

Valentine's Day

Another sunny day was had in Juneau, it was great. I stood outside for awhile to try and get some bird pictures. The birds are faster than my camera and to stand still for so long, pretty hard for me. But I did manage to get a few chickadee pictures. I even had a bird land on my head for a second or two.

Valentine's day, I hate to say this, but, the better half and I have never really thought of this day as anything special. I look at it as a day for the card companies to make some money along with the flower shops after the holidays. I know I am bad, but........just has not been my thing. I guess I am just not a normal "girl", or maybe because I have always just about finished our taxes and see that we are so close to having to pay into uncle sam that it is just like no, don't waste the money.

Nascar race tomorrow. Daytona.

Planning our stops and route for Disneyland. Have some maps of the area/park so we can make the best use of our time for the week that we are there.

Sunny day on Friday the 13th

Happen to have two sunny days in a row, which means for us, colder weather, this morning it was 6 degrees and warmed up to around 25. I took a walk at lunch to get some vitamin D and see about taking some pictures with the snow and the sun.

Looking towards the Douglas bridge from Marine Park.

They are building a new parking garage downtown at the place they call capital/telephone hill. How would you like to be those people living in that house on the hill? They are blasting all day to break that rock up and then the digging. I mean they are like 5 feet away from the side of that house. I think I would look for another place to move and fast. You are not going to have any type of view anymore, unless you like to look at concrete straight away.

Looking towards city hall.
Oh and yes Mr. Raven doing a call, if you look closely you can see a puff of his breath. It isn't a smudge on the camera.
Oh, another bird picture from at home tonight.