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you live in a zoo...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Somehow, it's been a year since Ezra was born. At least that is what the calender says-I'm not so sure I believe it.

Our plans for this weekend included an overnight trip to Talkeetna, a Wilco concert here in town, birthday cake and room rearranging. However, I'm burnt out on driving and camping, so Ezra may have a birthday cake tonight instead of on Sunday, like we had planned.

My baby boy, your father and I enjoy you so much.

You love to smile and laugh and throw your huge head into people, pillows, or whatever happens to be nearby. You drool a lot these days, working on new teeth five and six.

You're still an active fan of milk.

You seem too young to be talking and saying the words and phrases that appear to come out of your mouth like a parrot. But it's fun to try.
Blueberries are your favorite food, and you like chicken too. You love your kleen kanteen sippy cup with water. You are going to be kicked out of mommy and daddy's bed soon, because you insist on sleeping with your feet in my ribs-soon being before your eighteen. The sun is shining today and it celebrates you.
Happy Birthday Ezra Wilder!
Birth day blog here as I blogged through my labor.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:10:29 GMT

We're home.

We left Wednesday night, with every inch of our van packed just so, as to fit the insane amount of gear we wanted to take. Not that we took a lot of stuff, but I insisted on bringing the pressure canner, propane burner, and the sixteen point something pound propane tank. I was able to slide the cast iron burner next to Noah's head, so as long as he slept on his right shoulder, he would be fine. Our Odyssey is from the first generation and has hardly any cargo room. They are small but get excellent gas mileage. Well, maybe when they're not loaded down with so much stuff.

This is the evening view from our tent.

I need to apologize to those of you who I planned to see. You'll see in a few moments that weather interfered with our plans to stay till Tuesday.

This is our sweet borrowed canning set up. We canned 16 pints of salmon in each batch.
We did four batches. The fourth only had 11 jars though. I was sick of stuffing jars, neurotically avoiding sand. I was dropped off at Centennial Park on the Kenai River to clean the fish and chop them into steaks and pieces for canning. I developed quite an audience. One grizzled old man who was fishin' kept telling me how lucky my husband was, having me cleanin' and choppin' the fish, and cannin' them t' boot! And how I was doin' it the right way. Steaks don't waste no meat. It's the best way!
I was pretty happy when he left.

Quite a flattering picture, wouldn't you say? Eh...

Eric did all the filleting, gutting and most of the fishing.

Eric caught a huge fish. We grilled it last night.

Sockeye salmon are very beautiful fish.

The kids had a blast playing in the mud.

Umm, yeah. This is why the filleting job isn't so fun.
It's messy.

Eric also played the woodsman for the trip. We had friends and family who were camping with us at various times during the week.
Oh, by the way, Eric didn't pee his pants. His waders were leaky.
And that tent behind him? It wasn't ours. We didn't even know the people. They showed up at 4 am one morning, set up a tent right next to us, and left late that night. And seemed cranky that bajillion kids running around our site left, gasp, shoes! and, even worse, jackets! in the general vicinity of their tent. Even though they set up thisclosetous.

Noah illuminated our van with the following message-
"I love dipnetting"
The heart is holding a dipnet full of filleted fish. It was pretty awesome.
So, we had some beautiful days and some not so beautiful days. I got my own pair of waders while we were down there. On Sunday, I insisted on catching our fish for dinner. I caught it, filleted it, and cleaned it well. I planned on making a "feast," as Noah called it, for the folks who were around.
It was windy all day, but then as we went back to start cooking, it got windier.

The sand was getting stirred up, and the water choppy. But the sky was clearing something beautiful.

We didn't like the wind and the biting sand, but we were going to tough it out. We were planning to go to Homer the next day. This is me telling the world how tough I was and wasn't going to have a negative attitude.

However, a few minutes later, I realized they're was no where to prepare and cook food. The wind was blowing dust and sand everywhere. The flame wouldn't stay lit, and I didn't want to eat dust. That's okay. Eric was helping Dale pack up so he could leave. We decided to just eat sandwiches in the tent and wait it out.

Well...it never let up. We guylined the screenhouse down with two large full coolers and some large stumplike logs. Even with that, the screenhouse blew out of it's stakes and dragged the coolers and stumps down the beach. The sustained gusts bent the poles. Our own tent full with two air mattresses, clothes and enough blankets for us all was slowly blowing down the beach. Ezra was miserable, and the kids had enough.

We decided to try to throw everything into the van and find a new campsite, in the woods. However, we had so much stuff that needed to be carefully packed, on top of the stuff we purchased there, like the two new camp chairs, the four dozen jars for the salmon I canned, etc, we had to just stuff the kids in and hope they made it.
We made it to Johnson Lake, threw up the tent, made some hotdogs and ramen, and fed our famished family. Then collapsed asleep. It was POURING when we woke up.
We left, and came home.
We had had enough.

It was raining the whole way home. It's raining right now.
I love sleeping in my bed. No moisture, lots of warmth.
We had a great time, and were sorry it ended so abruptly.

It was lovely to have Eric home for an extra day yesterday. We defrosted the freezer for the first time in 4 years. I never knew until yesterday that it wasn't a auto-defrost unit. Oops. The top shelf had over 6 inches of ice, and we found three fillets in butcher paper lost in the ice from 2005. The 40 pounds of salmon fillets are at the processor being vacuum packed. The 5 cases of canned pints are in the closet. We've shared some with neighbors and friends.
It is SO good to be home.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:10:55 GMT

Tomorrow we leave for the Kasilof!
Ezra is hoping to eat lots of corn.

We scored some gorgeous produce at the farmer's market on Saturday.
We fried the eggplants last night.
Frying eggplant with my mom is one of my favorite childhood memories. When Eric bought the breadcrumbs, I told him they MUST be Progresso Italian Style. I think we had an electric skillet we used on the counter. I don't think you see those skillets much anymore.
Speaking of childhood memories, I also found Ovaltine at the store the other day. I bought it, and it was sweet and nostalgic all at the same time.
*waves* Hi Mom! I miss you. *kiss*
Anyway, we've been eating lots of salads, and the cabbage and potatoes
are for our hobo meals on the beach.

Dale was able to get us the photos of Noah with his first catch.
That bulgy looking person in the upper right is me, not catching any fish.
I think I looked better in waders pregnant.

The whole reason we do this to ourselves...

Noah is trying to quickly and humanely stun the fish without smooshing up the meat.

Jonas finds great joy in carrying around fish heads.
We think the sandy ones are the best. It greatly reduces the amount of actual fish juices on his hands, thus reducing the, shall we say, scent, of gutted fish.

Noah's pretty proud.
I am too.

No.
I am not on a cell phone.
I'm very intently grilling corn.
It's an art, you know.
Yum.

Selah is enjoying the one sunny time we had.
Wait...
Umm, I just rescued Ezra. He was standing [yes, standing] on my bedside table, had managed to open the drawer and was sucking on the glass jewels one would put in a fish tank-why they're in there, I don't know. Of course anyone whose been in my bedroom would understand there is all manner of mysterious things living here. Wait, those are our Mencala pieces. Eric and I used to play Mencala before bed last winter. Till the kids lost most of the pieces.
Back to dipnetting...
Selah is so brave in that cold water.

Seaside humidity does wonders for my hair.
Don't you think?

Here I am just about through.
I want to stop.
I really want to eat.
And I will proceed to get very cranky after this picture is taken.
And because of the Sailor Moon hairstyle I'm sporting, I will manage to get quite an itchy sunburn on my scalp, even though it's overcast.
Wow. Three pictures of me! I'm so full of myself today.

Hopefully this next week will be much better.
I'm not so sure how I feel about the forecasted rain.
I'm going to go now, and wrap all of our bedding in garbage bags so they will be safe on the car top carrier. And then I'm going to write lists, and think about how delicious my lunch of a fresh tomato, garden greens and Tillamook Vintage White Medium Cheddar tasted on a seedy onion bagel from Costco was, and how I would eat another if I wasn't stuffed.
See y'all next week!

No, really. This was cute.

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:58:37 GMT

It was pizza night at the Judges, and I had a mental block towards making pizza sauce, and was hoarding my frozen pesto in the freezer. We picked the large leaves off our windowsill basil pot and topped it with our precious tomato from a local greenhouse and copious amounts of feta. It was fresh and delicious. Eric and I ate the whole thing ourselves. [Remember, these are 8-10 inch pizzas, so I don't feel so guilty]
Forgive the lack of natural light...

We also have a huge, gorgeous head of red leaf lettuce from the valley.

The kids ate BBQ chicken pizza, and the rest of the chicken spinach ranch is sitting on the stove. But the whole reason I'm even blogging about this is this one:

This is olive oil, yellowfin tuna from a can, mozzarella and capers. With lots of cracked pepper on top. It's best described as...tangy. I don't know that I would make it again. Our family just doesn't like capers, I think.
Jonas was really hungry, and couldn't wait for chicken and spinach, so he said yes to the tuna pizza. He took one bite, and his face crinkled up.

"It has pickles on it" he said.

He proceeded to pick them off, one at a time.
There were a lot of capers on the pizza.
Mary Lynn, if you read this, the capers are all yours. Come get them.

Jonas was really cute though.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:18:22 GMT

Note to self: It is in no way frugal to eat a roasted chicken, then make stock, and leave said stock on stove for two days. In fact, it's downright disgusting. Next time, just put the chicken carcass in the freezer till you have time.

Thanks self.
Have a great day.

PS- Do something nice for Eric for getting rid of the greasy pot for you.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:36:24 GMT

Since it's been pointed out that no one realized Ezra was walking for real-
PS- I'm sorry for the crick you're getting in your neck for watching this.
And that Selah's harmonica is somewhat earsplitting-she's learning.
And why does this and other of my "homevideos" end up sounding like teletubbies at the end?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:10:09 GMT

I just got Jonas out of the bath, and don't worry-he should be dandruff free for a long time. At least judging by the cloudiness of the water and the copious bubble fluffs all along the edge and the bottle of open shampoo bobbing in it's own time.

He helped in the garden this afternoon, along with Ezra.

The weather is still dismal gray. The sun has been slow in showing herself. There is not a single fireweed blossom to be found from here to Kasilof.

Jonas really enjoyed watering the plants. He's a well hydrated boy.

He loves bugs.

He picks the daddy long legs off the plants and siding and laughs at the tickles.

When he's all finished, I hope the bug is still alive, and place it on the potato plants.

Very slowly the spinach plants are outgrowing the weedy grasses.

Our rainbow chard may start to catch up now that it's thinned and weeded.
Maybe.

I've found that it's difficult at times to determine what is a feathery baby carrot and what is wild chamomile-a weed which seems to have been sown in rows along with our other struggling plants.

The clovers and dandelions seem thrilled with their location. Soon they will have taken over the whole yard, and our meager vegetables will disappear.
Does anyone have some trimmer line?
Please?

The potatoes seem very very happy.
We have no dirt to mound them with.
Hmm.
We should get on that.

This hosta wants so desperately to be split and replanted before it takes over the bed and eats itself alive.

A fresh layer of mulch was added a month ago, and suddenly we have mint volunteers.
Pick up the cry.

Speaking of volunteers, Ezra lovingly used his walking skills all over baby beetlings-red and gold, spinach, and a few potato plants.
Oops.

I imagine our extra weedy yard is a little wilderness for him.
He can part the grasses and be Shere Khan or Mowgli.
I'll be Baloo.

Ezra is excited to eat the closest thing in Alaska to a cheesesteak,
even if his shirt does make him look fat.
At least, like he has no neck.
Poor kid.

That's okay. We enjoy this kid immensely.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:51:38 GMT

Today hasn't been the best of days. It wasn't the worst, but wasn't the best either. I had a cleaning at the dentist that I had mistakenly thought was tomorrow, but it was actually today. I had to cancel it because I had no childcare. My kitchen is a mess. It wasn't all that tidy before we left on Thursday, but it wasn't that bad. But I made pizza Sunday night so we wouldn't have to eat out, and never cleaned up. Then last night, Eric worked really late, and I fell asleep with dinner [whole wheat spaghetti] still sitting on the table. It wasn't my most shining moment. Eric came home and moved me, and I still didn't wake up. I must be catching up on my hours of lost sleep camping with a baby who couldn't sleep, and I was feeling stressed out about some family stuff, which had me wandering the house at 4 this morning. I did fall back asleep when Eric left at 5:40. Eric worked eleven hours today, and sadly, came home to the house looking like this. There is not a clear spot on any of the counter space.

John David, our pastor, showed up and dropped some stuff off. He just about fell down the steps. It was that bad.

All of the bedding is washed and now sand free, but not yet put on the bed itself.

When I found this recipe in my inbox, I realised I had enough ingredients to fake it. So instead of cleaning up, I baked a cake. It took less than 10 minutes to whip it up. Hey, feeding a hungry husband [and 4 kids] seems more pressing than the dishes and floors. The mess will wait.
And grow.
But who's watching?

I used watered down yogurt instead of buttermilk, and frozen blueberries instead of fresh raspberries. The crunchy salt-sugar flavor on top was interesting. The cake is made with whole wheat pastry flour, which our family is used to, but its nutty dryness may be too different for you, if your not used to it.
Try it.
I dare you.

PS-my toe is sore but less bruised. I went camping rather than to the doctor. And I did roast a chicken for dinner, so my hungry family did have more than cake.
Thank goodness.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:18:19 GMT

In case you couldn't tell by the pictures, the majority of our trip was cloudy gray. We returned home with five fish, the sixth eaten for supper on Saturday. It rained more than it shone, and while the trip was fine, it was not as fun as years past. Hopefully, 10 days from now, we'll be enjoying ourselves much more.

Selah wanted a crown of braids. I did the best I could.

Selah was pretty stoked about her waders. I found them at value village last winter. She got lots of compliments. Mostly men saying she had nicer waders than them.
[or her parents, for that matter]

Ezra had just fallen asleep when we decided to make the trek from camp to the fishing beach.
We bungeed him to a sled, and pulled him, and he slept like a baby.
He was our little papoose.

On the trip home, he was awake.

And happy. Even after he fell off a time or three.

Both Selah and Noah caught more fish than me [read: none]
Hopefully grandpa Dale has the photos of Noah on his camera-our battery was mostly dead on this trip.

I must share my little part in Selah's first catch. I was standing 10 feet in front of her in the water. She was in knee deep water, being small herself, using a smaller, borrowed net. I got that funny mom tingle in my stomach and turned and looked at her, and said "Selah, if a fish gets in your net, hold on tight! We don't want to lose John David's net." Then BAM! She gets a fish! She looks shocked, scared to death. At least, very very serious, and everyone starts yelling "pull it in!" "you've got one!" "wow!"
She turned around and pulled it in, looking shaken. All the men are cheering her on, strangers coming to give her high fives, and she just keeps staring, and won't smile. It really shocked her. After a bit, she loosened up, and got back in the water.

Then caught another fish.

I had to listen to her the whole weekend ask when I was going to catch one.
I don't know Selah.
I just...don't...know.

Noah takes his marshmallow roasting very seriously.
He caught his fish the next day. In shallow water as well.
Kids.
Always makin' us parents look bad.

This is a photo of me. I was a raving lunatic on Saturday. If one more kid put a sandy hand in the food, I was going to lose it. Actually, I think I did.
Not to mention that my freckles came out in full spectrum.
We bought a Coleman camp kitchen a few weeks ago. Basically, a folding table with a hanging rack and stand for a camp stove.
It was heaven for cooking. No hunched over the cooler, a place for prep. Paired with Rachel's screen house, it was amazing. Every trip gets better and better. Except when I'm a grump. Eric wants to figure out a way to keep the clothes organized. Do you think this would be over the top? I don't want us to turn into crazy campers who bring blenders and generators tent camping. However, when you're living on a beach, sometimes it's the little things that keep you sane, and not eating hotdogs every.single.day.

Finally, Saturday evening, it got sunny. It cheered me up, I fried us up some salmon, and grilled corn in the fire. It was fun, tasty, and I wasn't so miserable.
Regardless of how negative *I* was, seeing my kids both catch their first fish in a dipnet made the whole weekend worth it.
I'm making spaghetti sauce today, and freezing half of it. I'm trying to see how many meals I can freeze and just heat up for fish camp-take 2, next week.
I'll also be making a double batch of lentil snobby joes to eat one night and for camping. We did beans and rice "burritos" for lunch one day. They were kinda bleh. Next time we'll do dang quesadillas instead. With rice, beans, and corn. Yum.
Time to get cookin' and plannin'.
See y'all, I mean, you all, later.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:36:15 GMT

Warning: The photo you are about to view may disturb you. Please proceed with caution.

What do you all think? Does a toe swell and bruise like this if it's not broken? Yet, I don't want to pay to go to the doctor for a toe...
This is what it looks like 12 hours after I banged it. It's about twice the size of my other pinkie toe. I spent a lot of time in the dirt today, so at first we thought my foot was just dirty, but then I washed it. I now have it taped to the next toe, but it hurts more because it's being made to straighten when it wants to be folded in a weird way- I have strange pinkie toes. My toenail now appears to be on the side of my foot, not the top? Dislocated perhaps?
Eww. Feet are gross.

Dipnetting tomorrow-what a lovely way to celebrate Leah's birthday!!!
Have a cuppa to celebrate, and enjoy starting your DTS, it looks like fun!