Family

Family gatherings are always a big event for me.  I'm not certain why....  Maybe because growing up, we always spent holidays with our country grandparents, with all our aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We played outside, running wild.  We sat quietly, in the library.  But this was my life growing up, spending time with family.

When I was 19, I moved to Alaska with my boyfriend.  I didn't know a soul here.... As far as I was concerned, I was in a foreign country!  But soon, his friends became our extended family, and all our holidays and special events, became a special time spent with friends.  These friends became my family. 

Forty some years later and friends still make up our extended family list and holidays and events wouldn't be the same without them. 

Today I'm thankful for my ex-husband and his wife.  Our divorce didn't start out friendly and accommodating, but I'm happy to say that today we're good friends.  And not just because we have the kids in common.  He may not have been the right husband for me, but he's a good man and one I admire.  Unlike most of us, he lives his life to the fullest.  None of this pussy footing around, wasting time on a boring life.  No, there won't be any regrets when he leaves this world. 

When we were married, living a life filled with adventure and mishaps wasn't for me.  I valued living more than he did!  But it's worked for him and his new wife.  Today I'm thankful for our divorce because without it, we would never have become the good friends we are today.  Had we stayed married, we would have been that bitter old married couple, miserable.  By getting divorced, we were both able to find our perfect life partner. 

I have no regrets as far as this man is concerned.  We were married for 22 years, we tried to make it work; we just weren't compatible. But he's a good man. 

AND we made good kids and they have given us our precious grandchildren.  Life is good. 

I Wish You Enough

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the
final good-bye.

author unknown

I just love that poem. I keep it handy where I can read it from time to time to keep my life in perspective.

Today I'm grateful for my husband. Here's a man who would do literally anything for me or my kids. He has accepted my children as his own and loves them unconditionally. When the kids are going through difficult times, it's often Mike who suggests we offer support to them. He's never tried to talk me out of any of my hair brain ideas when it comes to the kids but embraces the idea and helps make it happen.

Today I'm grateful that my sweet husband came into my life.

Valentines Day

Yes, I know that Valentine's Day is over for another year but I've been giving it a lot of thought these past few weeks and it's still on my mind. 

My parents had a rough marriage.  They seemed so unhappy and miserable and you often wondered why they stayed married.  They fought something horrible and often times it was ugly. 

Yet, after they passed away and us kids were cleaning the estate, we stumbled upon the most astonishing sight.  Tucked away high up in the broom closet was a stash of old Valentine candy boxes.  Covered with dust and grime from being stored for so many years, they sat with untold love and promises. 

They were beautiful boxes.  With ribbon and flowers adorning the top of it.  Many boxes were covered with felt or satin.  Even in this old stage of their life, they were still beautiful boxes.  And my mom had kept them, through all the fights, all the ugliness that was their marriage.

Us kids went through the house and picked items we wanted to keep in the family but no one picked the Valentine boxes.  It greatly saddens me that us kids didn't see through all the fighting and our perceived opinion of their marriage, to recognize that there was love.  And lots of it.  My dad was a romantic.  My mom cherished his gifts.  I wish I had grabbed those dusty, dirty hearts and kept that part of their marriage alive rather than the memories of all their fighting. 

Later!
Nancy

Life in Juneau

How self-sufficient are you in case of a major crisis?
How would you take care of your family?
Would you have enough food and water to survive?
Do you ever think about such times?

I do.  Often.  Maybe more so than most folks.
Especially after the quake that hit Japan recently.  The devastation.
For weeks I sat with my tablet in hand, making lists of emergency rations I needed to buy and things I needed to do to be more prepared. 

Perhaps I think of it more than most people because of where we live.
Here in Juneau we're land locked.  We have no roads in or out. 
We rely on container vans brought to Juneau on barges, for all our goods. 
Groceries, household items, furniture, construction material, cars, plants, just about everything. 

So if something happened to Seattle and the waterways were no longer usable, we could be in big trouble.
Our grocery shelves would sit empty and bare after a week's time. 
If you didn't already have a vegetable garden you could forget about growing your own food because dirt, wood, and seeds may not be coming for a long while.
It could be weeks or months or even longer before rations made it to Juneau.
Okay, so I might be exaggerating some, but I don't think it's wrong to think the worst case scenario.
And should that worst case scenario ever happen.... I want to be somewhat prepared.

Only this past spring, our weather was bad and the barge couldn't make it up the Channel to deliver the containers for days.  Our grocery shelves got depleted of fresh produce.

It never hurts to be prepared. 
My parents were.  They were totally self-reliant and I admire them for that. 
I suppose that's another reason I think the way I do.  They grew up in the Depression.  They knew how to be frugal and self-sufficient.
They had water jugs stored in the crawl space of our home.  It wasn't a basement, just the underside of our house.  Dark, damp, musty. A place you did not want to go. 
Mom canned and canned and canned.  We  harvested seafood and it was frozen.
We ate popcorn on Friday nights and mom would open up a fresh jar of grape juice.
Dad was prepared for any emergency.
We had wood stoves, a supply of wood, a generator or two.
Yes, they were prepared for any crisis.   

My husband and I decided it wouldn't hurt to become more self-sufficient.
In Juneau it's a little more difficult because we aren't farm folks.
In fact, there aren't any farms in Juneau and the farmer's markets are personal use only.
We can't go to the local fruit stand and buy cases of apples to process.
Or corn to can. 

What we can do is can fish, which we have plenty of here.
And pick local berries found along the road.
We can also buy "bulk" from our local Costco like strawberries for strawberry jam.
At least we know what we're putting in our mouths when we process our own food.

Earlier this summer we drove around town looking for the allusive salmon berry.  We managed to find four berries.  Four. 

And my granddaughter ate those. 

I guess my point is, it never hurts to be prepared. 

To have a little garden for fresh produce.

To have your freezer and pantry filled with bounty. 
Have some home brew for special occasions.

Next year I hope to have a larger garden. 
Maybe even a green house.
I'd like to grow enough food to share with family and friends on a weekly basis.
Help lighten the financial crunch we're all feeling.

To be better prepared should a crisis happen.

And if you aren't.... that's okay because I'll gladly share my rations with you!   

Berry Picking

I've been thinking about becoming more self-sufficient with the food we eat.  We grow a small garden on our back deck--lettuce greens, swiss chard, tomatoes, herbs, celery, etc.  Simple things.  But lately I'm been thinking we need to do more.  We need to be more self-sufficient.  We need to be more in charge of what's going into our bodies. 

We have a smoothie most mornings for breakfast and although we always try to buy fresh, when affordable, even a small bag of frozen fruit generally runs about $4.95.  Our drinks cost us about $25 a week in just berries.  So my husband and I thought, "let's pick our own!"  We don't have self-pick farms in Juneau.  We don't have ANY farms in Juneau, but we do have wild salmon berries, blueberries, some huckleberries, and other low bush berries like cranberry, nagoon, etc.  If we could put gallons of berries in our freezer, it would save us a bundle. 

So my hubby and I went on the search for the allusive salmon berry this weekend.  Yea, we didn't have much luck.

While shopping at Fred Meyer, we noticed five pound boxes of blueberries for $12.00.  That was a great price, so we bought a box thinking we would freeze them. 

After trying a handful or two or three, we decided we needed more, so headed back to Fred Meyer and bought four more boxes!   

Before bagging them, instructions say to lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze them.  So I did.  After bagging them, I think we had 12 quarts and decided that wasn't nearly enough berries to hold us through the winter, so went back and bought four more boxes! 

We're feeling pretty good about our "bounty" at this point, even though we didn't grow or personally harvest the berries.  So back up the mountain we went to find some local blueberries that we could pick and freeze.  And we found some.  They were pretty small, but just the right size for blueberry pancakes. 

I love that my husband loves doing things with me.  Like berry picking.  In a heavy coastal mist.  In and around wet bushes.  By the time we were done picking berries, we were drenched from our waist down.  My socks swished when I walked!  But we had fun, and we picked about two gallons of wonderfully tart little berries. 

I can hardly wait to go berry picking again.  Next time I'll dress for the weather better and maybe even devise a berry picking can to wear around my waist.  This is how we picked as kids.  It's time to get back to the basics. 

Later! Nancy

One Lettuce Leaf at a Time

Some might say I have a green thumb.
Others might think I have all the answers.
But I don't and I certainly don't! 
I'm just lucky and I don't give up.

My husband wanted to try his luck at growing cherry tomatoes a couple years ago.
So we bought a couple of those Topsy Turvy things and hung them on the south wall of our home where they would get plenty of sunshine.
Then he plants other cherry tomatoes in a pot. 
I guess he's comparing which plant will produce better.

Last year we grew this beauty of a plant.
But it only produced one measly cherry tomato.  One.
We were told you need to clip its leaves....
Click here for the story behind it. 

This year we have tons of blossoms and quite a few little green tomatoes....
But nothing is ripening.
So my question to you, fellow gardeners.... how long does it take a tomato to ripen???? 
These have been "in process" for about 30 days now.

My peas are finally coming on strong.

My three year old grandson  has been waiting not-so-patiently for them. 

Every night, as he heads home, he runs outside, around the car, bends and peers, anxiously waiting for the first peas to arrive.

Now he's quick enough to yank a few off the vines and heads home with a whole hand full! 

This is why I grow peas.

My strawberries are trying hard to produce.

But the birds are beating me to them.
I might get some netting and drape them next year.
I snatched this one up last night even though it was only half reddish, but it was still so yummy.   

 

I bought this basil on June 8.  It's maybe doubled in size.... 
I know basil likes warmer temperatures, but, still.... come on.... 

GROW! 

Gardening is certainly a challenge in SE Alaska. 
Our temps can be cold and weather wet.
Our dirt is poor
and we live in many microclimates.

Yet we keep trying.  And trying.  And trying. 
Trying to find the answer to growing tomatoes without a green house.
Trying to become a little more self-sufficient.
One lettuce leaf at a time. 

Later!  Nancy

The Garden of Life

Why is it I have way more to talk about and share than there are days in the week?
I could combine them all into a Week in Review collage and still not be able to cover it all.
It's not that my life is full of exciting adventures and stories to tell.
I'm not even one of those people who lives life to its fullest.
I just live a full life.

I live a quiet life.

A life centered around family and a few good friends.

Each week a rerun of the previous week.

I garden.

I babysit grandkids.

Then I garden some more.

We go for rides, getting a glimpse of our neighbor's lives through the gardens they tend.

Then I babysit some more.

We have family dinners.

Then I garden some more.

Occasionally we travel South to visit family.

Or head to exotic places and dream the life we wish we had.

Many of our travels are just across the street, visiting good friends and drinking wine on their porch. 

We pick berries along the side of the road and weathered glass on the beach.

We read.  Watch tv.  Play games.

I bake.  And eat.... Then bake some more...

Then we visit with the kids and laugh with the grandkids.

No, I certainly do not live an exciting life. 

I live a full life, a life I'm content with most of the time.

 My cousin's wife passed away a year ago.  She wasn't very old. 

He posted the following on his Facebook wall:

"Her message to you would be - if you have always wanted to do something and you’ve been waiting for the right time. It’s now."

Every time I read that passage, it brings tears to my eyes. 

Here's a woman who lived life, she just didn't have enough life to live.

That statement hits home because, you see, I'm still waiting for the "right time...."

I'm not certain what I'm waiting for, but I'm waiting....  

It seems I've been waiting most all my life for something.

To move south to live near family.

To travel across the U.S.

To live in a little cottage on the water. 

To learn to play the piano.

To travel to Maine to eat lobster.

Yes, that's me.... always waiting to experience life.

For the freedom and gumption to go, do, and be. 

I know my day will come to go, do, and be.

And I also know I'm supposed to be right here, right now.

Living in the present. 

But still, that statement makes me uneasy because it's so true.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Or if there will BE a tomorrow.

Many people feel that since we're retired, we should be traveling the world.

Doing exciting things!  Being exciting people!

Or at least not being so tired from babysitting. 

And I have to agree that babysitting grandbabies was not on my list of things to do when retired. 

But I also believe this is where we're supposed to be at this time in our life.

This is who we are.

This is our chosen life. 

Family.

For now anyway.

Before we know it we'll have the freedom to pursue our dreams.

We can be those people others think we should be. 

More importantly, we can be the people WE think we should be....

It'll be interesting to see how our life will change....

I know one thing. 
In my next chapter, I do plan on seeing if the grass really IS greener somewhere else.
And I do plan on traveling the world, or at least the United States.
And I do plan on living a fuller life, living life, experiencing life, learning about life. 

My life will always be my children and my family but it's time to start checking things off my Life List.
I don't want any regrets.