Friday, January 30, 2009

Volcano

the Redoubt Volcano that is being much talked about all over the place is one of the ones right across the the water from us. The one directly across from our house is Illiamna, and the one to the left is Redoubt. We can see it really well from upstairs. The big earthquake we had the other morning that mom was talking about on her blog has been tied to the volcano. Usually an earthquake has to be within about 5 miles for them to consider it part of the volcano, however the intensity of that quake, mixed with a sudden jump in Redoubt activity very close together made them believe that they are tied. The volcano is set to erupt "imminently", they're not sure when, but are fairly sure, as much as I think they ever can be, that it will erupt its just a matter of when.

We're pretty well prepared, except when it happens we will need to go close the goats in, and put healthcliff in with the chickens and close their doors. Other than that, we have masks, filters for our cars, water, food, etc. We just have to wait and see what happens. We don't know the trajectory of the ash/explosion. I don't think they will know, until it happens, because it just depends on what the currents are doing, and such. There is a website, which has been pretty overwhelmed today because of the national news coverage, but if you are interested, here is the link. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php That has webcams, ash trajectory maps, periodic updates, lots of cool information.

I just wanted to let everyone know about this, in case you had seen it and were wondering, or if you hadn't heard about it, now you know! It is near here, but we are prepared, and I'm sure all will be well. :)

Due to the size of the ash, sometimes they shut down the electric facilities and probably the phones and I would expect that the cell phone transmissions will also be affected, so don't be alarmed if you can't get ahold of us for a few days. We use wood heat, so even without power, we will be warm and we will post on the internet as soon as they put the power back on.

We just now checked the site and they expect it to go off any minute now - so here we go !!! How Exciting ! !

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Digi page


I really did not need another reason to be on the computer so much, but now I'm hooked! Shoot! :)

Snow

Thank you to everyone that prayed for snow, and sent snow vibes our way! We got enough snow to re-open tomorrow. YAY! Thanks

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Digi page

Another page I did. Actually the first page I did. Also from the same free pet kit by Faith Sisters.

Digital Scrapbooking




Well, we got this cool program with mom's new computer, and it does all kinds of photo stuff, including digital scrapbooking. I've been watching this show on BYU TV called scrapbook memories, and everyday the person from Adobe comes on and teaches a new technique for this program that we have. So then I run over and try them out. So far this is what I've learned. This stuff was from a free digital kit that I got from blog hopping from the "Faith Sisters" company, promoted on Ikea Goddess' blog. It's free until february, and you get a piece by going to each of the artists blog. Cool stuff!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

No pictures

I guess I don't have any pictures on this computer to post. I thought I must have something that would be interesting to look at, but I have already posted all the pictures that I have on this laptop (the one for the business), and I still haven't taken a picture of Anna, the new dog, or as we call her "2". Anna and Mya were too similar, so when they were in trouble and I was trying to straighten them out, I kept just ending up yelling DOGS! STOP! or YOU! QUIT! so now we call her 2, so we can keep them straight when they are in trouble. or at least a little bit.

Anna isn't used to being taught, or talked to really, so she's learning, and we're trying to enrich her vocabulary. Mya has a huge vocabulary, probably more than any dog I've ever had, like we can tell her that if she wants to go outside, she needs to stretch, and if she wants out she will stand up and stretch, but if she doesn't, then she just looks away or goes back to sleep. Now Anna is learning that when you ask her if she wants to go outside, sometimes she stretches. So she's learning. She's a smart dog. She was mal-nourished as a baby dog, so she's not as big as she should be, which is a bummer, I've always wanted one of thos gigantic labs, and that's what she would have been if she had been fed right. She's still growing a little, but she's got lots of extra skin, and big paws still, but her ribs are filling in a little bit.

Tomorrow we have an audit for the insurance company. Mostly its just making sure we're keeping the paperwork in order for the tubing hill. Not much to show since we've been closed for 2 weeks. We're still way short on snow. We went up and checked after church, and there just isn't enough. We need four more inches. So if you have the inclination - we could use all the snow prayers or well wishes that you want to send. For those who live locally, and don't want snow, its okay if you just want to send the snow to Ohlson Mountain Road. :D

Justin's pretty antsy without having snow. It means he can't work, or play, so he's getting pretty tired of just hanging around. I'm trying to get more organized. Mom and I decided to move the sewing room from the tiny extra bedroom (the smallest bedroom in the houes) into my old bedroom, which was the 2nd biggest in the house. We'd been using my old room as a guest room for all 3 weeks a year that we have company, and for storage. So we decided that we need a project to keep us busy for a few weeks, and so we're repainting, at least I'm repainting, the room, and then we're going to switch everything around. Should solve a lot of problems for us on where to put stuff. We've been having trouble storing everything while still having access to it. So this will be better. Plus it keeps us busy. I'll try and post pictures as we get them.

I guess this is turning out to be a long post. We got a new program when mom and dad got their new computer, Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, and I was trying to use it today, but holy cow! Its really hard to just jump into. I'm going to have to get some books, or a movie or something to learn how to do it. if anyone knows a good learning thing for it, let me know. I was going to try and take a college class for it, but they only have a web based class for it here, and I thuoght well, if its going to be web based, I might as well learn it myself, since that's what I'd have to do anyway. So we'll see.

Well, guess I'll be quiet now. Hope you're all doing good, staying warm, etc.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Our New Dog

I haven't taken her picture yet, but we got a new dog yesterday - a companion for Mya if you will. Her name is Anna. There was an older gentleman living up the hill from the tubing place, and he was dogsitting this dog for a guy that owned her but didn't really want her. Well, the dogsitter had to leave suddenly to go to Seattle to take care of his ill mother, and didn't have anyplace to give the dog (he didn't want to give it back to the owner, I guess that was not a good situation for a dog to be in and the dogsitter couldn't afford to take her with him). Soooooo Justin said we'd take her. I said no, he said yes, I said no, no no no no no no no. But then yesterday we picked her up, with the intention of giving her to someone else, but I agreed to give her two days here. She's really a nice dog. Her and Mya are having a lot of fun playing and wrestling. She's gotten her butt kicked a couple of times by Mya, Mya is definitely into showing that she is the boss, which is understandable, and acceptable, as long as no one gets hurt in the process.

Anyway, I've been stressing about this pretty significantly the last couple of days because my plate is so full right now that I really can't add anything else to it. This morning I had to take a relaxant and go hide upstairs in the bathtub for 2 hours, I just couldn't take the panting panting panting, pawing, panting, growling, rolling around, stepping on the feet, and the fur! the fur everywhere! and on and on. Then just now I was sitting here (I know, I know, its just a dog, what's the big deal, get a grip, I know, I know I'm over reacting). Anyway, I was sitting here reading the news stories on MSN, and there was a story about how more and more people are abandoning their animals because of the recession, and it was so sad. Animal shelters make me incredibly sad, to the point of I have to go out to the car to cry everytime I go to one, I just feel so bad for those animals. Anyway, here's a clip from that story: "The effect has been cramped quarters for dogs and cats, a faster rate of shelters euthanizing animals and some shelters turning away people looking to surrender pets, according to interviews with several shelters and animal advocates. Of the estimated 6 million to 8 million dogs and cats sent to animal shelters every year, half are euthanized and the rest adopted, according to the Humane Society of the United States. "It's definitely discouraging for us," said Adam Goldfarb, a Humane Society spokesman. "One of our major goals is to develop and celebrate the bond between people and animals. It's so tragic when families reach a point when they can't afford to care for their pets.""

And while I REALLY don't want a second dog, she's a really smart, sweet dog, and I don't want to just send her to a shelter where she could be put down, I only take dogs I hate but don't have the heart to shoot to the pound. So, now I'm trying to figure out how to re-arrange our yard, or home, to make room for this extra life. I guess I think of it as, we have room for another dog (even though it makes things really tight, especially downstairs), we have room, and means, so I feel like I should help out the poor homeless doggie. Even though its making me crazy, crazy, crazy! :)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sourdough

Found my sourdough jar pics, so here they are!

Oops, I forgot I took pictures of the roasting chickens in the middle of bread making. This chicken is SO good. If you want the recipe its on http://www.foodnetwork.com/ and look up Beer Can Chicken. Its the recipe by Guy Fieri I think its called big buds beer can chicken, but we don't use beer we use seltzer water or sparkling water of some sort. I think we even used 7-up once. Works great. Really really good chicken. My first sourdough bread. Short as usual. Hopefully today's bread turns out taller.



Making my own flour!

I wanted to add the pictures of my sourdough pot, but those are on the other camera, on the other computer. SIGH. But anyway, at least here's a few pictures of what we've been doing. :)

Christmas Pictures

Here's some pictures of our Christmas. Mya got a stuffed bear from Justin and I, and it was wrapped and everything. I handed it to her wrapped, and she squished it with her mouth for a few seconds, then put it down, and ripped the paper off to get the bear out. It was so cute that she knew to open it, and how to open it. She was really excited!

Ok, I don't look good in these pictures, and I wouldn't share them, except I love this gun, its so cute and I want to show it to everyone. So I put them up. Its a really cute gun, its a Davey Crickett "My first rifle" type thing, Really cute.


Our Christmas Eve dinner
The new nativity and our new camel. Thanks Jody! hehe
Here's some pics of mom and dad cooking and grinding wheat with the hand grinder before the good grinder showed up.

Below are some pictures from our Church Christmas open house. We did a display about storing food for long term/emergency storage.
This picture (above) is our booth.

Quilt pictures
















I found these pictures on mom and dad's camera and thought I'd add them too. I look horrible in them, but oh well. At least the quilt looks good. :)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tubing Video

Here's a picture of Justin going down the tubing hill. We're going to put it on you-tube soon, and on the tubing website when we get a chance. Its pretty cool. Worth the time to download.

Little Texas





I was sitting at work on the tubing hill about a week ago, or a little more, and in the background I heard on the radio - "I'll take the fifth caller right now for tickets to the Little Texas concert - fifth caller right now" So I grabbed the phone and started dialing. First ring I was the third caller, I hung up really fast, redialed, and he said "Hi you're caller number 5!" WOOHOO!! I won a pair of tickets, with preferred seating up front, and a first place in line for the autographs. YAY! Totally fun stuff. It took a little finagling (spelling?) to get the details worked out so we could go, and in the end we had to close the tubing hill for the night, but it was totally worth it. So cool! It was their first concert on their 20th anniversary tour. They were great. It was really loud, too loud for the space, but with earplugs it was perfect. Four of the original members are still there, so that was neat. The other guy, who was pretty cute, is part of another band that just got the deal to open with Kenny Chesney this year on his tour. He was fun.

Tubing Photos







Here's just a few pics of our tubing hill, of people going up and down the hill. Its' pretty cool, but we're almost out of snow! Pray for snow!

Christmas Quilt




I've been wanting to put these pictures up, of a quilt I did, but since it was a Christmas present for Justin's mom and dad, I didn't want to possible ruin the surprise. I love the way it turned out. I goofed the quilting a little bit, but I had to sacrifice perfection, for getting it done, so I think that's a good compromise. :)