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Hello Everyone!!
If you have enjoyed the blogs so far - please continue the journey with us at:

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Thank you!!
JPIX

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

(pk)

My birthday has come and gone (it was awesome!! thank you everyone!!!), we have helped Sonja out in her paddock, built a deck on the front of the house, lost another chicken to the Goshawk, pulled out three old batteries and installed four new ones, and attached the ledger board to the back of the house. I am tired and cranky. Jon is working overtime with the kids and projects. Here is the latest photo download.


Simon watches the chickens.


Sunrise from our bedroom window!!




Look close . . . those specks are hundreds of Sand Hill Cranes!! We watched and listened to the migration for over half an hour. We do not know how long they were flying before Jon heard them! It was an amazing site and sound.



Here is Xander digging a post hole!



Nothing like a good ole' family pee!!



Here is the last section of "our road" just past the top of the hill on the left is our place.



Here is Isabel picking raspberries at the top of our land. You can see the woodshed just behind her head. Our back door is just beyond the woodshed to the left. The raspberries are delicious and Jon and I both make exceptional raspberry muffins out here!



Here is Jon digging the post holes for the front deck.



Here I am working on the battery pack. A job that was a bit tense for me. Jon was a huge help and things would have gone astray had he not been there. It feels awesome to have these new batteries hooked up. I think the extra energy storage will be real handy in the cold dark winter!!




I am 'bucking' a log that was off to the side of the house. Jon carried it to the woodshed and split it. We have MUCH more of this kind of work to do. It will be great to finish the fall projects and spend a weekend or two just gathering, bucking, splitting, and stacking wood. It is our sole source of heat for the house and hot tub.

I am hauling down the posts and cement for the back deck.

Jon is measuring a post prior to cement and Xander is pouring water on a hole with the cement already in it.















The next series is of the front deck start to finish. Just as we finished we saw a gorgeous rainbow over our house and the caribou hills. The rainbow is in the second row and second photo.






When Jon and I flew up in March of this year to look at our house and land for the first time we found this "Welcome" dragonfly at the Portland airport. We purchased it before we had seen the place and now it is finally hanging on our gorgeous house!! (thanks Jon!!)



The Goshawk sitting in a nearby spruce after a meal of Kulhanek Rhode Island Red.



Nothing tells a tale better than a five year old and markers!!!

"Goshawk in tree and bearing down on Rhode Island Red"

The gray dot in the trees is the hawk watching. The black "u" shapes to the left of the Rhode Island Red are the Black Star hens.

"Goshawk dismembering Rhode Island Red"
Note the flurry of feathers and the huge talons!!

A final shot of the rainbow from the new front deck.

Here is a moose track in water on our road that makes a perfect heart if you turn your head!!

Have a great evening!! More later . . . .

Boiled Children Anyone??

(pk)

Jon and I had a GREAT time in the tub last night. After dinner the William Sonoma Thermometer beeped that the tub was up to temperature. It was actually 104 degrees, our typical temperature in Fremont, CA for our 'after-kids-bedtime' dips there. We took our drinks out and waded in, after I dumped 62 gallons of water into garbage cans so we would not displace water that would be wasted. We spent an awesome, wonderful, and splendid hour together in our aromatic tub. We wanted to be able to use the tub in the morning with the kids so we added more wood, turned the fire down low, and added the 62 gallons of water back in. We headed to bed tired and very happy.

The next morning the kids were thrilled at the mention of the hot tub so we all headed out - they had baths in a metal tub we purchased in Kenai yesterday and Jon took the cover off of the tub. When he felt the water he said it was very hot. After putting the thermometer in we discovered that the tub was 131 degrees. The fire was out so I bailed 94 gallons of water out of the tub and dumped in 30 of cold water. All this work brought the temperature down to 125 degrees. Jon said we might as well all get dressed and have breakfast as it was going to be a while before the tub was ready. Sadly, we did. The kids had a hard time understanding WHY they could not get in the water. We ended up telling them that it would cook them. Needless to say, much discussion ensued about what if felt like to be cooked, would you be alive while it was happening, etc.

Breakfast was excellent organic sausage, organic scrambled eggs covered in cheese and toast. (no generator for the toaster this morning, Jon used the broiler) After breakfast I did not feel so well emtionally or physically. I did homeschool with Isabel and then crashed. I napped on the couch upstairs until lunch. Smoked salmon cream cheese ball with crackers and an aweseome chicken noodle soup. After lunch Jon took the kids for a walk and I slept in the bed until 3:15 pm when the tub finally reached 104 degrees and we all went out for a family hot tub. It was wonderful! The kids loved it! Xander said, "See mom - I am not getting cooked!" The chickens were curious. It started to rain and that was our exit ticket. In the rain I dumped the 62 gallons back in so Jon and I can heat it up for tonight.

We are very pleased with the tub and looking forward to getting to know it as well as we knew our CA tub. Obviously, once warm, it continues to hold heat VERY well. The William Sonoma Thermometer is really helpful. In the directions it says the many folks build the tub and loose the entire first 400 gallons to the swelling process. The water just leaks out of the tub. Ours is holding beautifully. We did an excellent job. I am so proud of us!!

Jon worked really hard today. He did the kids all by himself. He brought in the new stove single handedly and took the old fridge down to the cabin. The connection we had for the old stove will not work on the new stove or I know he would have installed it as well. I hope I am feeling better tomorrow to get going on the long 'fall list'.

Kenai trip for new stove & H2O for hot tub

(pk)

We started the day with camp showers for Jon and I. While Jon was making breakfast I emptied the remaining rain water in the barrels into the tub. The leaking had really slowed down. We ate a quick breakfast of soft-boiled eggs over toast and headed for our freezer. Here is a photo of Isabel heading up our hill to the Suburban. She is carrying our lunch. Our freezer is located at a friends shed at the end of our two mile road. He has electricity there and for $100.00 per year we can keep our freezer there. We needed to send some Salmon and Halibut to some very dear folks who have been waiting for it for WAY too long. The FedEx deadline for Homer is 10:30 am - it has been troublesome for us to make it out of our place early enough to make the FedEx timeline. Today, with careful planning ...and rushing... (I drove our two mile road in 8 minutes - a record!! This drive is typically 25 - 30 min.) we made FedEx at 10:15 am. Fish under way, we headed to the Post Office, library, and dump. The kids each picked some books to look at on the 1.5 hour trip to Kenai. Jon had wonderfully packed us a lunch which we ate in the car. We picked up our stove (ordered 6 weeks ago), stopped at Home Depot for 4 more garbage pails (30 gallon), went to Cad-Re Feed for chicken & rabbit feed, and finally stopped by Sweeney's (the local outdoor clothing store) for new rain boots for the kids (the X-traTuffs that I bought for the kids less than three months ago were NOT 'extra tough', and both had holes on the seams at the heels - I will not be purchasing those again!!), and new hiking boots for me. An uneventful trip home ended in a great Hot Cocoa and Coffee stop at Black Water Bend Espresso. We parked the Suburban loaded the Green Beast with 9 garbage pails, the Honda water pump, and a garden hose. We made a quick trip to Red Hill Canyon and started the process of filling all the pails from the creek. The Honda pump worked great. We managed to complete two loads of water; pumping it from the creek to the pails then from the pails to the hot tub in 2.5 hours. The water I had poured in this morning held extremely well, and as we started to fill it up we noticed some additional dripping as the side seams swelled... NOT MUCH THOUGH!! I am very pleased with our work. Jon started a fire in the hot tub stove then went in to make dinner for the kids (8:30 pm) and get them ready for bed. I cleaned up outside, put away the pump and hoses, and switched the Beast for the Suburban so we are ready to bring in the new stove in the AM. We are using the William Sonoma Remote Thermometer to monitor the temperature in the hot tub. I really love this idea!!! The water stratifies quickly in the tub - the temperature started at 44 degrees, then dropped to 43 degrees. The hot water rises and the cold seems to gets colder... crazy! And, it has happened twice so far from 55 degrees to 54 degrees, circulating the water is important in a Snorkel Stove Hot Tub. We hope that we will be in before midnight tonight. The kids finally made it to bed at 9:30 pm; too late!! And, no doubt, we will pay for that in the morning though not as much, however, as we will pay for staying up to go into the hot tub!!! We are so thrilled. Jon is making King Crab Puffs and a salad for dinner!!! I am about to get started on the Rum and Cokes. Time allowing, we might take in an episode of Grey's Anatomy (1st Season on DVD) while the tub comes up to temperature. Tub temperature is currently 82 deg!!! It has gone up 39 degrees in an hour and 10 minutes - 101 here we come!! Here is the hot tub interior this morning with the towels . There are three benches. The lowest one is not visible in this photo. The picture below shows the fence that keeps us safe from the stove which is located behind it.

Here is the hot tub on it's first firing!! It was a bit smoky initially and then Jon read more of the instructions and it smoothed out nicely. We are heading in right after dinner. The tub has warmed up quicker than expected by either of us!!!!

Two Tonka's bite the dust and a hot tub rises!!!

(pk)

We returned from a sad trip to Minnesota on September 14th. Our dear friend Neil Larson passed away after a seven week battle with cancer. Jon and I attended his 'Celebration of Life'. We spent a week in the Twin Cities - spent time with dear friends, visited the Science Museum of Minnesota, the MN Landscape Arboretum, and the 'Water Park of America'. Our friend Annie had running water and electricity - the kids were thrilled! They often took baths twice a day. I felt as if I was using too much water and skipped the shower some days ;-) The Twin Cities were home for Jon the first 35 years of his life and home for me in the seven years prior to our CA move in 1997. This trip the whole place felt really busy - we both missed our hard working though slower pace of life back in Homer.

We were delighted to come home and find that Autumn is fast approaching - the drive from Anchorage was filled with amazing vistas that had changed dramatically in just a week!! Yellow was everywhere, the Fireweed leaves were deep red, the hillsides were FULL of color. It was a wonderful drive.

Before we left, we dug holes for the four support posts for the joists of the Snorkel Hot Tub that we hoped to put together soon!. On our first day back Jon cut the support posts off level and attached the cross beam and laid out the chime joists.

In the photo you can see some of our chickens. This morning Jon and I decided to put together the tub - the instruction manual said that two people working together should take about four hours.

The morning started with Isabel finding her present from the tooth fairy. Her first baby tooth was pulled last night by her dad!! 7:15 am Isabel started to talk to Xander about her tooth fairy gift, an Armadillo puppet and $2.00. Jon and I were quickly called in to witness. The tooth fairy was unable to find the toy baby ferret the five year old is really after :-( We all got up and headed downstairs, hit the toilet, and headed outside for a 'camp shower' with the water warmed from our kettles on the woodstove. We use a dishpan to mix the warm/hot rainwater with cold rainwater from the rain barrels outside, dip into the dishpan with small plastic dishes to get our bodies wet, soap up, and then rinse. The kids still think this is awfully cold and, as usual, they hurried inside. Jon and I take if a bit more leisurely and with warm water Jon will even shave. To wash the entire family takes less than one gallon of water!! I actually did my shower one morning with less than 3 cups of water!! Once were cleaned, dried, and dressed it was time for dishes (I did those) while Jon made popovers and organic pork sausage for breakfast! Yummy! I headed out to dump the toilet buckets. We had lots of compost from the kitchen because our old fridge quit working while we were gone and things in the fridge has spoiled.

I hiked the buckets full of urine, feces, and kitchen compost up the hill past the chicken coop to the compost bins we built a few weeks ago. I created a nest in top using the shovel (this shovel is ONLY used for this purpose) and dumped in the two buckets. I have toilet bowl brush and container of Dr. Bronners Lavender soap up by the compost bins and I use this to wash and then rinse the buckets. Once they are cleaned and I have dumped the water used ON THE COMPOST PILE I covered up my nest with some straw to stop any bad smells and get a good Carbon to Nitrogen ratio for my composting. My next stop was the sawdust pile to fill the buckets with sawdust and bring them back into the bathroom in the house. Here are the compost bins when we built them (upper left) and the toilet with the sawdust bucket next to it (below). Once these basic chores were done I also washed the old refridgerator so it was ready for storage in the cabin. We picked up the new one, thankfully we had already planned on purchasing a larger propane fridge and had ordered it four weeks ago, in Anchorage on the day we left for MN. A bit lower down is a photo of both fridges - tomorrow we hope to get the Danby (old one) out of the way.

It was shortly before 11:00 when Jon and I loaded the first trip of hot tub supplies from the shed into the Suburban (our van was 'totaled' and Jon's uncle Kutch gave us his old Suburban) and drove it down the hill. We started by putting the two pieces of the bottom together using three dowels and the rubber mallet then turning it over and nailing down two short pieces of wood to the bottom to help hold it while we put up the staves. The staves are the sides of the cedar tub - we managed to get them in place using the recommended masking tape around the top to all the staves to help hold them in place. Now we put together the three copper bands that circle the tub. Now began the hard part circling the tub with a rubber mallet pounding on the copper band on each stave while one of us tightened the bands using the wrench. Both jobs were hard work! We kept the staves nicely in line at the top. This took a long time we worked around each band up to six times. We had unexpected human visitors about this time. They were out for a family moose hunt. Mike and Vicki live about 1.5 miles away and they have two small children as well. One was asleep on his mom's back in a backpack. When they left it was time for lunch. Jon made a quick salmon salad served with cheese and bread I had baked yesterday. Back out for round two - installed the stove, fence to guard the stove, benches, aluminum top and wooden cover. During this process the kids started to play 'baby'. A game they invented that involves pushing each other down the hill in the toy Tonka trucks and often with disastrous results. Xander ended up under the Suburban with just his head sticking out and held in place by part of the bumper. I had to call Jon out of the tub to help me extricate him. He was fine - just scared and a little scraped up. This came after my cautioning about playing 'baby' with the Suburban parked down by the back door. After this mess we put on a video and finished the tub while they watched!!!

After the tub was altogether we vacuumed the inside and laid towels all around the inside and poured in buckets of rain water. We do not have enough water on hand to fill the tub right now, and the first filling in this type of tub often seeps right out. We had leaking on the seams that seemed slow and reasonable to me (and tipical according to the instruction book). We did a great job tightening the bands!! We got the towel suggestion from our visitors (they also have a snorkel stove hot tub) - they keep the staves a bit wetter to allow them to swell without having to fill up the entire tub. We used 1.5 of our rain barrels tonight. We have a total of six. After today two are full and two are half full. The other two need to be cleaned and ready for the rain that we hope is coming!! The rain will really help the tub to swell. Our other option is putting the rain barrels into the 'green beast' and driving to Red Canyon on our road to use our Honda pump to fill them up - making trips until we get the 400 gallons we need to fill the tub. Wowza!!

Anyway, we started clean up around 7:30 pm, loading the Suburban with items to run back up to the shed. The kids had long since finished the movie and were feeling pretty strung out. Isabel wanted to play Princess Mononoke with a screw driver as her sword. I said "no such luck this is too sharp for you to use as a toy" and she was very unhappy. Xander had found his wooden toy sword and put his 'Ice Age 2' underwear on top of his head as a helmet and was running around the yard. It was time to go in to cook dinner and get them in bed. On my way up to the shed I noticed the Suburban was having a hard time getting up the hill and then I heard the crunching sound. It was pretty much a done deal so I kept on going to get clear of the wreckage of the two Tonka toys - one had a real metal dump bed, we had just purchased it at Fred Meyers for $32.00. BUMMER. The kids were now totally flipped out. Jon and I were tired and worn out. It had been a long day. As I have been blogging whileJon made Mac & Cheese for the kids, fed them, brushed their teeth, and put them to bed. Now I am heading out with the headlamp to make sure the chickens are all roosting and the lock them safely in the coop for the night. I will put up some photos of the completed tub in the morning!! Turns out Jon also put the chicken away for the night! More later!!

First Predator Attack (pk)

We lost our first animal to predators today. One of the Black Star Chickens was taken down by a Goshawk. Isabel and I went out to see if the chickens had put themselves to roost and found a gorgeous hawk right near the coop feasting. The other 17 chickens were scattered and confused. Isabel (age 5) was sad and ran back to tell Jon and Xander who were in the house getting ready for X's (age 3) bed time. They both came out. We watched the hawk sit in a nearby spruce tree. Jon cleaned the young hen carcass and was able to salvage both legs, the breast, the gizzard, liver, and heart. The hen was still warm. We must have just missed the excitement. It probably happened while we were eating dinner.

There were 15 chickens in the coop. While we were cleaning the bird, two Rhode Island Reds showed up. We were still missing one Black Star. All 6 Barred Rocks were accounted for. Jon and Xander headed back inside. Isabel and I continued on our errand of dumping the saw dust toilet bucket into the compost pile. We finished dumping and cleaning the bucket, filled it with saw dust and brought it to the bathroom in the house. On the way I lost Isabel who saw that River (our cat) had caught something, which turned out to be a live shrew. She was thrilled - quickly found her box and large plastic bug container to contain the disoriented shrew. I went back to check for our last missing hen. After hanging around the coop and listening for 5 to 7 minutes I heard her near the back of the coop, she was stuck under a pallet. I lifted the pallet up and carried her back to the coop; setting her gently up on the roost with the remaining hens.

It was an exciting evening on our ten acres. The kids handled the death of the chicken very well! I hope they handle it as well when we eat it tomorrow with the rabbits we will slaughter.

Well, I am turning in now for some much needed R&R with my guy!! More later!!