All Boy

On any given day, you can most likely find my son outside riding his bike, constructing the perfect sword out of sticks, setting up booby traps, making teepee's or anything else that might come to his imagination. Today was no different. He has happily entertained himself most of the day, building a new fort. A fort in his own yard. He comes into the house, dirt covered face, with a big grin and asks if I want to see his fort. Of course the only answer I can give, is an enthusiastic,"Yes!" Outside, underneath a large tree he proudly shows me his fort, complete with a "keep out" sign in the front (no girls, of course).

I love my boy and his zest for life. He LOVES to enjoy whatever nature has for him. Be it a pile of dirt to kick around or a tree to make a fort. He is in his element when he's outside. Rain or shine, he is out there.

It reminds me how I should be loving life and taking in the beauty and creation that is right here in my front yard. I need to enjoy what God has given us in this beautiful place. Oh to be like my son! I just love how the Lord has allowed my children to teach me so many wonderful things about life. What a blessing!

Blueberries!!!

Living up here has been one great adventure after another! I have had some great opportunities. I'm learning from some very wonderful people who are helping me survive the elements and take advantage of them as well.

One advantage of living here is that there are numerous places to go to pick blueberries. We have had the opportunity to pick them as a family and I, most recently, had the chance to pick them all day! It was such a beautiful day and we picked and picked and picked! It was great! My family didn't even mind giving me up for the day because they knew I'd come home with lots of blueberries for them!

Riding a float plane out and picking blueberries and seeing beautiful mountains were such a delight. I felt like a little kid! So, after picking for about 5 hours, I came home with about 2 or so gallons of blueberries. (The really good pickers gathered 3 gal. or so!!) Carlon and I ended up cleaning blueberries well into the night. We spent about 3 hours cleaning and freezing them!

It was time well spent. That night I could just taste all the wonderful things that come from blueberries...blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry icecream, blueberry cobbler...and so the list goes on! Yum!! A friend of mine put it perfectly, she said something to the fact that this is the best kind of harvest, one you don't have to plant or take care of, but just wait for the Lord and come take your share.

Ali, thinking she's going to go with me.

The view from the plane.

The area we picked blueberries.

Bucket getting filled.

All the blueberries we picked.

Carlon, multi-tasking. He was a huge help!

Yummy blueberries.

Attacked!

On a cool summer day, one of the last days before school started, a couple of the kids and I decided to take a walk. The walk turned out to be quite the adventure, but with a happy ending.

We took a path, a nice narrow path. With beautiful greenery, beautiful flowers and even berries, which we weren't sure if they were poisonous, so opted NOT to eat them. We enjoyed a nice afternoon in Alaska walking in the tundra. The path eventually lead us out onto a more popular trail. Once we reached that trail, we turned around and started heading out. As I looked on the ground, there was fresh bear scat, or poop as others might call it. So, we were glad to turn around and go back the way we came...just in case. Bad deal number one.

Along the trail home we continued to enjoy the scenery and were able to avoid tripping over many tree roots on the ground. We came up to a place that had some sort of bug flying about in the area, in a little hole. Much to our surprise it was a swarm of hornets. Hornets that were NOT happy! So, I scream to myself and my children,"RUN!!!!" and we did! I got stung twice and one of the kids got a sting on her head. Bad deal number two.

So, after traumatizing my poor children, we made a run for our prowler (four wheeler thing). I was told by my children to drive fast! As we drove we started to finally feel relieved when suddenly out popped another hornet from who knows where! Screaming and yelling and some more tears later it thankfully flew out as soon as I stopped and opened the door. Bad deal number three.

After many tears, lots of screaming, and a few stings, we were safely home. We put in a movie ate some icecream, drank some rootbeer and enjoyed the comfort of our home INSIDE. All in all a good deal in the end. And to think, I was worried about bears!!

The berries we chose not to eat.

Standing by the "forbidden" berries. (They are probably just cranberries, but better safe than sorry)

The trail on the way up, when we were happy!

The narrow trail. Hornets here we come!