Beginning the harvest.

Garden 001a — Getting ready to dig some spuds.

Garden 007a While I was at church on Sunday, Caleb, SP, and Alena opened up the garden and began to harvest the root veggies. We planted fingerlings and carrots. Fingerling potatoes are small. I knew that, but I think Caleb was expecting more for all the work. He said, as we stared at about 10 plants worth which weighed in at about 4.5 pounds, “How much does a 5 pound bag of potatoes cost?” I said, “It’s not about the cost….these are grown with your own hands, with nothing harmful added to the soil.” (Thank God we didn’t plant the peanut potatoes!) Garden 020a

Garden 019a SP was totally thrilled with the carrots. They didn’t pull them all, so I will be able to pull a couple myself and there are still about 14 potato plants to dig. We have had tons of lettuce all summer. In fact, some of our biggest fights this summer have been over the lettuce. “How can lettuce make you fight?”, you ask. Don’t ask!

Garden 004a — Buttercrunch lettuce - yummy but not very crunchy.

Our pepper plants didn’t produce at all. We probably started them a bit too late. Mom and Dad are getting new windows installed at the house. Caleb is already planning a new greenhouse with the old windows. He also won 2500 heritage seeds on ebay. So many different vegetables and varieties to choose from….what is a girl to do? Garden 021a

My Dad, my sister, and my grandson.

Dad, second from left, and Diane, next to Dad, are joined by Caleb and Mom as they watched SP on the front beach this summer.

Every year, I travel to Anchorage in October to facilitate the Village Seminar for the Aleut Corporation. The meetings are usually held on Thursday and Friday in the 3rd week of October. If my Mom and Dad fly in early, I miss Dad’s birthday. If my sister, Diane, flys up from the lower 48, we celebrate their birthdays together. (That one doesn’t happen very often.) There has been one static for the past 7 years….I miss my grandson’s birthday.

I suppose having been in the room when he was born should count for many years of missed days. Especially when you take into account what my daughter told me to do to myself at 4:30 am, after she had been in labor for 37 hours! (She ended up laboring for 47 hours, I do believe. I have forgotten, although I am certain she has not.) And having him in my hotel room on his first birthday, stark naked on a sheet, indulging in a decadant chocolate first birthday cake (him, not me) counts also.

I feel extreme guilt when I see the picture of him on his second birthday…his mom was also in Anchorage that year, and SP was home with Grandpa. Caleb, the wonderman, put a candle in the shape of the number 2 on top of a box of animal crackers. That was SP’s birthday cake! He did let SP blow out the candle numerous times…something that they both were very excited about. I was really excited when Mom said we would have a second little party for him when we got home this year. Was I ever surprised to find out that, being the last one to fly in a mere 3 days after everyone else, they had the party for him 2 nights before I got home!! What the hell??

So, to break the silence of my blog, I want to wish my Dad, Sam, 83, my sister, Diane, 52, and my grandson, SP, 8, many, many years.

a brief hiatus

This brief hiatus that I have taken will have to be extended for a little more time. I haven’t quite been able to get my head around writing lately – for a variety of reasons – visiting sister, fishing, berries (or the lack thereof), tourists and more tourists and still more tourists.

I am taking time for family and spending precious time with friends; preparing foods for winter and getting set for the new school year. I think I have been waiting for summer to come….Ha! It must have been the cool moistness that fooled me. And now that we are nearing the end of summer, the empty rivulets in the hills are surprising to me. Where did all that moisture go?

Enough of that.

Picture a nice lunch. Then all of the sudden the aunts have a thought. 06162009 012A Hmmm. Can we get a little more action out of the nephew? 06162009 011B Ninja Boy! 06162009 020C And, what kind of look is that from mommy….Is this a glamour shot? Is she giving the “stink-eye” to the aunts? Or does this simply say, “I don’t know these people. They just sat at my table.” 06162009 017D