Grouse hunting

Last Sunday was the opening day of grouse season, and Matt spent the afternoon out hunting with my dad, my brother, and our pastor. He agreed to share his account of their afternoon here:

We didn't actually see any grouse at all. The middle of the day is not a prime time to find grouse, as they usually come out to eat in the morning and evening. They are generally found near roads or trails, because they eat little pebbles from the road, to fill a crop in their throat that pre-grinds the food they eat. My understanding is that most grouse hunting is done by walking down a trail until they scare out of a bush and fly into a tree. 

We ended up exploring a road that goes out of town quite far. Well, it isn't really a road, it's more of a trail for ATVs or snow machines (mobiles). A lot of people use the trail to get to their favorite moose hunting spots in the fall and winter, including a friend of Rosalie's dad, who said we were welcome to use his spot whenever we would like to. The camp is over 20 miles off the main road, but we weren't sure EXACTLY where it was, so we didn't get all the way to it. 

Rosalie's brother rode with me in our jeep, and her dad rode in Father's jeep. Father's jeep was much more customized for things like this trail, with things like extra wide/large tires, and a winch on the front, but our jeep didn't have much trouble either. Since Father's jeep also had a CB radio in it, Rosalie's brother got his CB from his truck and put it in our jeep for the trip. This allowed us to communicate between the vehicles while we were moving. Her brother and I followed the other jeep out and back, 17-18 miles each way. The drive was fun, challenging, and beautiful. The majority of the trail runs from overlook to overlook, along ridges and hillsides, with woods and more hills as far as the eye can see. To the north, very far off in the distance, we could see the peaks of the White Mountains, that run across the northern part of the state from east to west. When we got out the binoculars, we could barely make out the radio towers that are back where the trail started, at Cleary Summit. Here are some pictures from the farthest point we made it to.

The trail there and back was pretty well maintained, but heavily rutted from constant use of ATVs during the summer and fall. This meant I had to drive with one wheel on the center ridge, and the other on the side of the trail, to avoid scraping the bottom of the jeep on the many rocks and roots there. We crossed a number of shallow streams, and climbed more than a few very steep hills. Had we known the way to the moose camp, I have no doubt we could have made it there in our vehicles. 

Trucks tend to be what everyone in Fairbanks drives and believes is the best vehicle for everything, but there is no way a huge truck could have done what the jeeps did without getting stuck. It was fun to find something that our vehicle could do that a truck could not.

When I pulled into the post office parking lot the other day, the jeep still covered in mud from their adventure, a guy parked next to me in his nice clean jeep and laughed. "That's the sign of a happy jeep owner," he said, nodding to the mud on the roof. "I have to go get mine dirty again." It's too bad they didn't find any grouse, but there's still plenty of grouse season left, and I'm glad they got out and had fun!

Overtired rabbit trails

"Goodbye!" 

*click*

I stuck my head out of the shower to see that Little Bear was no longer in the bathroom, and the drawer which houses my makeup bag was standing open, empty.

There are windows everywhere in our new house, and of course they were all open because why would I expect to need them closed in the middle of the day? So by the time I was decent enough to chase down my errant makeup, the container of blush was open and scattered across the light beige living room carpet. Cleaning suggestions, anyone? I'm seriously thinking about just throwing all of my makeup away; I never wear it, and Little Bear keeps causing trouble with it, and there's no good place to store it out of his reach in this bathroom. 

So that was Tuesday. Other things probably happened Tuesday too, but I can't remember them because when I don't sleep my memory stops working, and the last two nights... Tuesday Little Bear had a good night, but I lay awake for hours worrying about Matt's impending oral surgery and him having a reaction to the IV painkillers, because they were giving him a narcotic in the same drug family as codine, which he's had an allergic reaction to before... Everyone assured me it would be fine, and it was, but I still worried. 

Wednesday morning we were up early to drive across town for Matt to get his last two wisdom teeth out; Little Bear and I played and read books in the waiting room for about an hour before the nurse brought us back to see him. The surgery went well, and he has been feeling fine, energetic, "with it," etc, unlike his wife last year; it took me a long time to come out of the general anesthesia, and I don't remember much about that day or the next.

Little Bear went to sleep quickly last night, but he woke us up at 11:45 pm screaming and sobbing. I hate it when he gets night terrors! He's so upset and there's nothing I can do to make it better—he won't wake up, and it seems like everything I do makes it worse. Someone once suggested that night terrors in toddlers might be linked to teething, and I wonder if that's true: I'd been wondering earlier this week if he is starting to get his two-year molars. I finally got him to sleep by going through a litany of every single saint I could think of... And not an hour layer, it happened again. By 2:15 am, I think he was finally asleep for the night, but by that time I was frazzled enough that I didn't really sleep much for the rest of the night. 

One day post-surgery, Matt insists he's feeling well enough to tackle projects. I keep trying to get him to rest, and he is to a degree, but every time I say, "X is too much physical labor, you should wait," he reminds me that my brother went backpacking, overnight, by himself, hundreds of miles north of town, two days after getting one of his wisdom teeth out a couple of weeks ago. He has conveniently forgotten how foolish he thought that was at the time.

And tomorrow is a holy day of obligation! The Assumption(/Dormition) of Mary. I'm so grateful that Matt is still on sick leave tomorrow, recovering from surgery, so that we can go to the noon Mass as a family and not have to try to make the evening Mass work! 

 

Answer Me This with a rainbow-y anniversary adventure

"It just wouldn't have been right without some kind of... adventure." 

Matt and I have pretty extraordinary luck when it comes to having enough excitement in our lives. The farther away from civilization we go, the higher our chances of having an "adventure." So when we decided to celebrate our third wedding anniversary with a picnic up on Murphy Dome north of town, the same place where I sunk my mom's suburban above the axles in snow the night Matt proposed, we were just asking for something more exciting than a quiet dinner out. 

We dropped Little Bear off at my parents' house around 4:30 and headed north, watching as black clouds steadily accumulated on the eastern horizon and convincing ourselves that "they're way over there; we're going the opposite direction." A couple of miles from the top of the dome, long after the pavement had ended, we came upon two guys trying to load a motorcycle onto a trailer. The bike had died on the way down, so Matt got out to help them lift it on and secure the trailer. As we drove off, we talked about how we liked living here where if you break down on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, people will stop and help you because it's not really dangerous to do so.

Right before the parking lot at the top of Murohy Dome, we turned down a side "road" (our jeep had no problem with it, but a little car probably couldn't have handled some sections) and skirted the ridge line a couple more miles until we found a pull-off my dad had told us about. The clouds were covering most of the sky by that point, and the wind was blowing something fierce, but we hiked around a bit and enjoyed the view of the Chatanika river valley and Minto Flats before the rain started falling.

As dark as the clouds were, we decided not to risk having the steep sections of the road turn to mud before we got out, so we got back in the jeep and drove until we found an empty pull-out along the main road, just a mile or so before the pavement started up again. As we were coming down, we saw something incredible: a triple rainbow, with another normal rainbow arching over it!

I don't think you can see the second and third iterations of the spectrum under the brighter rainbow in this photo... We sure wished we had a camera that could have actually captured it! It was beautiful.

We parked in the pull-out and ate our picnic in the car, watching as fat raindrops spattered the windshield. As we finished eating and talking, the car made an odd dinging noise. We'd left the lights on; the battery was dead. "We dint have a great track record with cars on this road, do we?" Matt laughed, as he went to dig the jumper cables out of the back and I walked out to the edge of the road to flag down the next passing vehicle. I didn't have to wait long at all before a couple came by, and they were happy to pull over and give us a jump. 

We made it back to my parents' house to pick up Little Bear sooner than we'd expected, so we finished off the night by taking him with us to the ice cream parlor. Being his parents is certainly one if the great things about being married, so it made sense to include him as we were celebrating our anniversary.

Now for some Answer Me This:

1. What do you still want to do this summer?

Goodness, so many things. I need to pick more berries, to freeze them and make jam; ideally, while it's summer and produce is cheap, I should be processing as much as I can and storing it for the winter. Matt is actually out hunting right now—it's the first day of grouse season—so we're hoping that soon we'll have some meat in the freezer. Before the snow flies we also need to figure out a semipermanent gate for the deck, so I don't have to worry about Little Bear falling down the stairs. Oh, and wood. We talked with a guy selling wood a week ago and he was supposed to bring us three cords, but he hasn't yet and that definitely needs to happen ASAP.

I want to get out as many more times as we can: up high like on Murphy Dome, and alongside rivers or lakes so Little Bear can throw rocks. We still haven't made it to the new artificial lakes south of town. Two of my siblings leave for college next week, and we really need to do something fun with them before they go! I want to take Little Bear on the carousel at the park, and we were talking last night about how long it's been since we played mini golf. And we need to grill as many times as possible before it gets too cold!

2. What's your favorite kind of pie?

Rhubarb custard pie, but mincemeat and pecan are tied for a close second.

3. How much sleep do you need each day? How much do you get?

Need to function? Just a couple of hours. Need to be pleasant and optimistic and get more than the bare minimum done? I'd say six to seven hours, preferably with only one interruption. Most nights twenty I've probably gotten five to six with two interruptions, so that's not bad. Last night, though, I got maaaaaybe four hours with at least as many interruptions. Unhappy mama this morning.

4. Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river or ocean?

Hmm. Lake. I've never swum in the ocean, rivers here are definitely too fast for swimming, and I don't like the chlorine in pools. I loved swimming in lakes when I was younger; it's been a while, but if we lived closer to one and we hadn't been so busy with moving and everything, I'd probably have taken Little Bear to a lake many times this summer. I suppose there's theoretically still time.

5. Do you know any poems by heart?

Lots! Mostly little kid poems, nursery rhymes, that sort of thing. But I used to organize poetry recitals for local homeschoolers when I was in high school, and I still know a fair number of the poems I learned for those, particularly some by Keats, Tennyson, Frost, and sections of Chesterton's epics.

6. Do you use the public library?

Not as much as I should. When I was in junior high and high school, I would come home from the public library every week with a stack of 10-15 novels. The little kids would regularly have two full canvas tote bags of picture books, early reader books like Henry and Mudge, etc. I haven't even gotten Little Bear there once a month! It's hard, because I usually do my errands right after taking Matt to work in the morning and the library doesn't open until 10 am. I'm home by then, and especially now that we've moved, it's too far to make multiple trips to town in one day. I want him to learn to love the library and reading as much as I do, though.

Have a good week!

SQTF 97

I

We have had three straight days of sunshine! It's wonderful. It's also incredibly odd that I'm even noticing three days of sun in a row... It's been such an oddly wet summer. I saw in the newspaper the other day that this has already been the second-wettest summer on record, and we only need another 6mm of rain to set a new record. Given that August is usually the rainiest month of the summer, we're probably going to get there.

II

We have made good use of our not-rainy week: Tuesday the rain let up in the afternoon and we had my family over for supper to celebrate Little Bear's baptism day (and belatedly, his birthday); Wednesday Little Bear and I went to tea with my mom, sister, and a family friend who is moving out of state; yesterday my mom and I took Little Bear and my youngest sister to a park, and we had a good friend from Matt's office over for supper; and tonight, as long as it stays sunny, we're going to walk through the Tanana Valley State Fair. It's been a great week: I love being able to get together with people and get out and do fun things in the summertime! 

III 

Ever since Tuesday night, Little Bear has been having a blast with his pony from Grandma and Papa. He probably spends equal amounts of time riding it around the deck and house, and dragging it around by the tail.

IV

Poll: Walking around the fair tonight with roughly 27 pounds of child, should I bring the Ergo or the stroller? Honestly, I hate using the stroller in crowds, and Friday night of fair week is definitely going to be crowded! But the stroller would let him eat or drink while we walk without pouring anything down my back... Which would you use? He's heavy and squirmy enough that alternating between just letting him walk holding my hand and carrying him on my hip probably isn't a good option.

V

Is there a difference between a kid "speaking in sentences" and "using words together"? It seems silly to say that a kid isn't "talking" because they don't use articles and transitions, but where is the line? Is there some actual definition the pediatricians use? I told Little Bear's doctor last time we saw him that no, Little Bear wasn't using sentences yet, and received a referral to an audiologist for his "speech delay." We haven't gone, because it's going to be expensive and I don't agree that he has a speech delay: in the car heading home this morning, for example, he said "Home garage button garage door beep beep beep," clearly (to me) expressing "we're going home to the garage and I'll push the button to close the garage door and it'll say beep beep beep." (Our garage door beeps before and as it closes.) I frequently hear "Dada, work," when Matt's at work, or "Grandma, car? Nope." when he's looking out the window at the driveway. Not "sentences," but surely that's not "delayed" language development for a newly-two-year-old?

VI

The cheese snob is back: When Little Bear was younger, he went through a phase where he would only accept sharp cheddar and would turn up his nose at medium. He's always liked Parmesan, and it's pretty clear that he can tell the difference between freshly-grated and from a canister ("shakey cheese"). He's been pretty good about eating the more affordable medium cheddar recently, but last night I set out a plate of Gouda, Brie and smoked salmon for the guys while they were grilling, and apparently Little Bear managed to eat as much of the Gouda as his father did. Today as I made lunch he was dancing and singing about cheese, but when I offered him a slice of cheddar, he let me know that that was not the cheese he wanted.

VII

Someday, it would be lovely to have a pressure cooker so that I could can food without using the boiling water bath method. I have a big pot of pasta sauce sitting in my fridge that needs to be portioned out for later use, and we have such a small freezer that I really wish I could can it! Tomatoes and meat both fall in the "pressure cooker required" category, though, so I'll have to do some creative freezer reorganization this afternoon.

Sorry I'm so boring this week! For many more interesting batches of Seven Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Transfiguration

"And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. ... But Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Rise, and do not be afraid.'"

We thought the image of transfiguration was a pretty great metaphor for marriage. Three years later, I'm so glad we have this feast as our anniversary! It's a good reminder that the first purpose of marriage is to help each other be transformed in Christ, and to one day make it to heaven. 

Happy anniversary, Matt! I pray we'll have many more.

(Reeeaaally low-quality photos alert, because I had to use screenshots of thumbnails from Shutterfly, but I wanted to have something!)  

Blessing after Communion

Wedding party

Memorare at the Lourdes grotto

Cakes and Carharts

I came into this week planning to do a "7 posts in 7 days" challenge to push myself back into the rhythm of regular blogging... can you tell? Ha. Sunday's post went up Monday afternoon, and I spent all day in the kitchen yesterday; maybe I'll try for 7 in 7 next week. I do have a handful of photos I've been meaning to put up here, so it's photo dump day!

Carharts are pretty much indestructible, at least on kids. This might be the same pair of overalls I wore when I was Little Bear's size! He's worn them the last few times we've gone out in the woods/berry picking, because nothing can get through the heavy fabric.

He ran off with the hammer while Matt was hanging pictures and crucifixes the other day, and decided this box needed to be "fixed."

Another for the "how did my 2-year-old manage this photo composition?" file. Neither Matt nor I have much talent with a camera, so it's always confusing to come across artsy photos on my camera after Little Bear has been playing with it.

The fruits of my morning in the kitchen yesterday: ten buns for sausages, twelve bran muffins, and a two-layer banana cake. We had my family over to celebrate a late second birthday party (which will hopefully get it's own post when/if I get photos from Matt's phone). It was the first time we've ever had them all over for supper, and I figured that having leftovers for the rest of the week was better than not having enough!

I don't watch a lot of cooking shows—I hardly watch any tv at all, probably not even once a month—but I once saw something where a guy was frosting a cake and had it on a platform that slowly rotated in front of him. I have the hardest time frosting cakes, and yesterday I discovered a plebeian version of the rotating platform: my spice rack. It was so much easier to frost the cake this way!  It's a long time until the next birthday, so I'll have to try not to forget.

 

A napless Answer Me This

I'm late with Answer Me This this week, courtesy of a non-napping Little Bear yesterday. Two out of the last four days, Little Bear did not nap at all, no matter what I did, no matter how long I tried. He is so not old enough to give up naps; my sanity won't survive it! I'm so, so grateful that he IS napping today, and that Matt was home yesterday to help me deal with the non-napper and to take us all to the park so that I could get out of the house and Little Bear could run around and hopefully get tired out. It didn't wind up making him take a nap, but we all had fun and I definitely needed it.

1. When driving, are you more likely to listen to the radio, to CDs or an iPod, or nothing at all?

Nothing at all. I definitely prefer quiet! If Little Bear is having a particularly hard time being happy, I'll turn on a CD of music he likes. Occasionally, if I'm the only one in the car and I'm sitting in a parking lot waiting for someone, I'll listen to the radio.

2. Do you prefer window or aisle?

Window, so that I can close it! I always get headaches from the glare of the sun on the wings or on the lower clouds.

3. Do you fall asleep on your side, back, or stomach? What position are you in when you when you wake up?

I saw that this would be a question last week, so I spent all week trying to figure out the answer. I'm still not sure how I wake up, probably because I'm usually half-awake and trying to deal with Little Bear, but I do know that it's really hard for me to fall asleep if I'm not laying on my stomach.

4. When is the last time you attended a zoo, circus, carnival, county fair, or parade?

Two years? We didn't go to the fair last year. It's being held this week, and I think we're planning to go on Friday. None of us are interested in rides, and we're trying to convince ourselves that we aren't going to get any of the awful-for-us food, but I want to see the sewing and canning entries, Matt is hoping to find some photos of Alaskan wilderness, and we think Little Bear will like seeing the animals.

5. Do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying?

Not really... If I can't think of any quotes without asking Google or flipping through a book, I don't think I can classify anything as a favorite. I probably would if I wasn't so tired; ask me again in a few years, when any children are sleeping through the night and taking proper naps.

6. What's the best thing about summer?

Being able to send kids outside without layers of gear! When it was in the low 40s the other week and I wanted to put light mittens on Little Bear before sending him out to play with his aunt, it took a ridiculous amount of time because by the time I had one on, the other was off. Adding snowpants, boots, a hat, and a heavier coat once we reach late October is going to make every trip out the door such an undertaking. And I'll be doing it a lot, because as long as it's above -20 F (and probably when it's colder, depending on how much of a wimp I am that day), kids need to get outside at least for a little bit each day so that no one goes crazy.