Boreal Witch

We have very little time left before we hit the Chilkoot Trail. I'm very excited to be sans family for about a week and a half. Don't get me wrong, I will miss them, but the lure of Girl Time and the outdoors is just too great. I've been craving any sort of excuse to get away (though I suppose it is my fault for not taking advantage of a babysitter or living closer to family).

Anyway. My friend Amanda has written up a hiking schedule for us. We're meeting twice a week until T-Day ("Trail Day"). So far we've been on a couple of hikes, both up on Murphy Dome. Sunday we climbed up a ginormous hill (about 400 feet change in elevation, according to Loda's GPS) with our packs. I don't know exactly how much my pack weighs because we don't have a bathroom scale at home, but I am certain that it weighs more than Balin, who is about 21 pounds.

The hill was a killer. We stopped to rest for short periods of time during our ascent, with one long break near the top. It was good practice, though, for the Golden Staircase, which is supposed to be one of the hardest parts of the trail.

Look at those flushed, red faces. I wish I could blame the heat for that color.

Even though I still feel mildly out of shape, I'm glad that I actually did some training this winter. Granted, walking at the Big Dipper isn't the best training for the Chilkoot, but I was carrying a substitute pack on my back (a 20-lb baby) and I was walking at a good pace for an hour (about 2.5-3 miles) for two days a week. In addition to any other exercise I happened to get when the weather was nice (which wasn't much).

I hope to lose the rest of my baby weight by the end of this summer. I've been doing a pretty good job watching what I eat, but being active has always been more of a challenge for me. I never played sports in high school or college and I probably would never exercise unless I was with other people. So, here's hoping, folks.

Blessed be.

Yesterday there was a partial solar eclipse. Robinson sent me a link about it Friday and I was so excited about it that Arthur and I made a pinpoint camera that very afternoon. I never had the delight of making one before because I lived so far north and I was a little worried about messing up. Thankfully, it was an incredibly simple (and painless) process that I needn't have worried! For the next two days, Arthur was wondering when he was going to get to use it.

On Sunday we started raking up the leaves and dead grass and getting the greenhouses set up. We paused work to grab the pinpoint camera and view the beginning of the eclipse. Although Arthur is only 4 and doesn't always understand things as fully as an older child, he seems to grasp scientific concepts about the natural world fairly easily. For instance, he's explained to us in detail why it rains and how his pumpkin plant germinated. It's awesome.

Anyway, we continued our work but took breaks every 20 minutes or so in order to check up on how much of the sun the moon had "eaten." The moon had almost devoured half of the sun before some dark clouds rolled in and covered everything up. After the clouds hid our view, we went inside and had some watermelon and made some dinner.

I'm not sure if Arthur will remember these little family activities but I certainly hope so. Maybe someday he'll be able to do things like this with his own children (provided he decides to have them).

Blessed be.

I've become a bit more sensitive about the way my front yard looks. It looks like we have kids. I looks like we haven't spent time weeding. It looks like a mess. It's been neglected for five years and it's high time it was beautified. (Honestly, the back yard isn't much better, but because most of it is behind the house, you can't tell.)

So, for Mother's Day I did something a bit out of the ordinary for me. I bought some flowers to place on my porch as a kickoff to "Project Yard." Robinson and I made some flower stands out of some old wood that once were stairs. (We think they were anyway.  It seems that the people who owned the house before us had the nasty habit of buying wood, pounding nails in it, then chucking it in a big pile behind the house. We inherited a large wood pile that we used to make some patio chairs and a small table out of. Now that the 2x4s are gone, there are lots of little scrap pieces and lots of 2x6s.)


I even found a thing - wire shelf? quilt holder? display something? - at the Transfer Station that I wrapped plastic around and placed the tomatoes in as a pseudo-greenhouse. They are looking lovely indeed!

Added proof of how resourceful I actually am - see the door mat in the pictures? I made that out of an old carpet square and duct tape. 

Next year I'd like to get some juniper bushes for the front of the house. I've seen some lovely ferns around town that I would love to have in my yard, but I believe they are shade loving, so I probably won't be able to put them in the front yard. It's much too sunny, which is great for the greenhouse, but not so nice for shade-loving plants. Maybe they'll be happier behind the house or the garage...

Next year I also plan on growing my own flowers so that I won't have to buy any. I have a lot of annual seeds I brought back after my grandmother's funeral a couple years ago. I really should start using them. Maybe I'll grow some extra for my other mom friends (and my own mom!) for Mother's Day 2013. 

The side deck is getting some love, too. After several years of not having a place to sit on our patio, we finally finished two chairs* this summer (one we started on late last summer). We need to sand and paint or stain them, but considering they were made out of scrap 2x4s that we found all over the yard, they don't look bad indeed! We're still working on a table and a bench. Both need some 1x4s which we don't have in our yard so we'll have to buy them. All in all, I estimate that all of our patio furniture (2 chairs, 2 tables, and a bench) will cost us less than $50. Not bad and a great use for old wood!

Blessed be. 

* The chairs and little table were made using a book called 2x4 Furniture: Simple, Inexpensive, and Great-Looking Projects You Can Make by Stevie Henderson. It has lots of indoor and outdoor furniture. It has lots of pictures and the instructions are very clear and easy to follow. Robinson and I bought the book for $0.50 at a Goodwill down in Washington before we got married. It's been extremely helpful in making our home look beautiful!

It's about time to set up the greenhouses, get some seedlings, and watch everything grow, grow, grow!

We planted some seeds well before our trip to Anchorage. Even though we haven't done well with tomatoes or hot peppers in the past, we're going to try again. We also started a pumpkin and zucchini plant...which, come to think of it, we also haven't had much success with but - what the heck - we gave it another go!

When we got home, Arthur pointed at the pumpkin plant in the window and shouted, "MOMMY! Look at that pumpkin plant!"

It was HUGE! It was about a foot tall and already had some buds on it. Arthur has been taking very good care of it. He waters it every few days and examines the leaves and stalk. He counts the buds and watches for changes that take place. He's not very interested in any of the other plants, but he certainly loves that pumpkin plant.

I love that he's so interested in botany. Sometimes he reminds me of the days we need to water the plants.

Blessed be.