from my garden...

Yummy! These were picked off the raspberry bushes in my garden for the sole purpose of breakfast the other morning. They were absolutely delicious. It is things like this that make me glad to have a garden....

raindrops on roses

and whiskers on kittens....

A while back, the kids brought home a stray cat that looked pregnant. She wasn't. However, with the combination of her and an unfixed male cat that we thought was too young to accomplish anything (after all, he was just born in November), she quickly became pregnant. So, we now have, in our 950 square foot cabin, two adults, three kids, one dog, and six cats. At least four of the cats are tiny and only temporary residents. And right now, they stay put in their little box. But I know that at some point they will be underfoot, and we will all have to be very careful. I have never had a cat have kittens before, and they are just adorable little creatures. Not any of them look like either of their parents, though.

the perfect s'more

One of the things my kids really like to do is build a fire, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We do this every two or three weeks, and it is a lot of fun for them. James has figured out how to make great s'mores.... check it out...

stone

We got the floor for the Arctic entry in. I think I may have talked about this in a previous post, but now I have a picture :)

James found some natural stone on sale, and bought enough for the arctic entry, plus some. He laid the stone, and I put in the grout. I am really happy with the way it looks.

I really enjoy projects like this because in such a small space (5 x 7), you can do a lot to make it look nice and improve the functionality of the area without spending a fortune, and get it done fairly quickly.

Once sealed, the stone will be perfect for the arctic entry. It is an area of the house that will be subject to heavy traffic, mud, snow, water, ice, dirt, etc. being left on it, and frequent temperature changes. Stone handles this well, as it is naturally exposed to all these things anyway.

Seduction

So, remember back in March, I said: "We could have gone out and bought a new car, no problem. But it just didn't seem like the sensible thing to do. We just paid off our Dodge Durango in January, and I am very happy to be free of car payments. And if I can't get a $20K new car that can match the gas mileage of a $750 car, I just don't see any benefit to it at all." (http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html) Well, that was my common sense speaking.

But I guess I don't always think with that. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know we have been having issues with our little Geo. Well, yesterday morning halfway through our 55 mile commute, we lost one of our three cylinders. We were able to nurse it into Anchorage, but it was clear that the engine rebuild could not wait any longer. I spent a couple hours yesterday calling around to try to find out how much it would cost to fix, and how long it would take.

Late in the afternoon, James called me. "Come outside," he said. So I went outside, and saw him sitting in a sexy little red car.

"What do you think?" he asked me.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. He was test driving it. Then I test drove it. And I liked it more. I kept thinking, "I don't want a new car. I don't want car payments and full coverage insurance. I don't want a new car."

"We could fix the Geo," I said, trying to maintain common sense.

"What do you want to do?" he asked me. And the rest is history:

I am now the proud (and somewhat abashed) owner of a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer. It has been averaging just over 30 mpg, so it isn't totally extravagant, but boy, its a long way from my Geo Metro. And I love it.

Quick update

Haven't had a lot of time to blog, even with the new computer. Work has been crazy busy, and home life has been crazy busy, and between the two there is not much time left over. I have been working lots of overtime at work. I am working again Saturday, but I am going to try out the new computer with the working from home thing.

James found some beautiful stone tile on sale at Home Depot, and we are in the process of putting a floor in the arctic entry. We have the tile laid, sealed and grouted, but we need to touch up the grout a little bit and reseal it. When it is done, I will post a picture of it. We also looked at cabinets and we think we have some picked out for when PFD's get here.

A friend of a friend gave us some foam blocks about 4 inches thick that we are putting around the bottom of the house to keep the underside of the house warm. It will save us a lot of wood this winter. (this friend also has cashmere goats and gave me a bag of their fur. I am very excited, but I can't bring it in the house til I wash it, cause it smells goaty.) Also, James has the plumbing for water out of the house done, and is working on the plumbing for water coming in to the house.

Ryan has been ordained a deacon, and Becky is getting baptized this Saturday. Like I said, lots going on.

technology on the last frontier

So, my little cabin in the woods now is on the leading edge of technology. I have no electricity, no phone lines, cables, or satellite dishes on my property, or anywhere nearby. But I am online. I now have a laptop computer, and an internet connection. I bought a car charger for my laptop, and I can also plug it in at work. I am looking at getting extra batteries too. But the cool thing is the internet. You see, my cell phone service is through AT&T, and they have this cool gizmo that hooks into a USB port in my new laptop, and voila! I am connected. It is essentially a cell phone for my computer. It is very cool. So I am sitting here at my kitchen table, blogging. It also means that I can work from home one day a week or so, to cut down on the commuting. This is especially good since my little Geo is going through oil at the completely alarming rate of a quart every time I get gas. We are thinking we should have rebuilt the engine when we fixed the head. Now we will have to take it apart again, it looks like.

thought provoking

A recent post (http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/16/sleeping-beauty-and-why-you-should-think-about-peak-oil-even-if-it-seems-much-nicer-not-to/) on Sharon's blog got me thinking.  She says:

 

"Is it possible to imagine any other time in American history when we would have consented to see an entire major city laid waste, without ever rebuilding even its most basic infrastructure? Is it possible to imagine another time when we would have shrugged and accepted the knowledge that our basic infrastructure, things like highways, sewers and subways, are simply falling apart and that we have no intention of fixing them? Is it possible to imagine another time when we knew we were in danger of handing our children a future of hunger, poverty and drought, and sat around debating whether congress might want to consider raising fuel efficiency standards? Has there ever been a time in history when citizens felt so powerless to stop the forces that were driving them to disaster? ... Few of us have put all the pieces together, but when we failed to rebuild New Orleans, when we accepted that we can't afford the tax base to keep bridges from falling on motorists and sewers from backing up, when we accepted that electric grid failure will kill people in the inevitable heat waves, we implicitly acknowledged what we have not yet faced up to consciously — that things have changed, and many of our problems are going to continue getting worse because we either lack the will or the money or the energy or the time to fix them."

 

You should read her post. It is very thought provoking. Essentially her point is that we keep talking about what will happen when TSHTF (when the sh*t hits the fan), with peak oil and a host of other problems we are facing, but that it is happening now. It is no longer a matter of when.  Even before reading this article, after much discussion between my husband and I, we are convinced that it isn't a matter of when.  It is happening, all around us. 

eklutna lake

On Saturday, we decided to do something fun as a family, so we loaded up all the bikes, and went for a bike ride on a trail that runs alongside Eklutna Lake.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We made it probably halfway to the glacier, about 6 miles, before we had to turn back because we didn't want Steven to get too tired to make it back.  He made it the whole way, though, on those little legs.  It was really cool to watch James pedal alongside Steven, holding onto Steven's handlebars, helping him up the hills.

the hills are alive with the sound of music...

I bought this piano last week.  It is in great shape, seems like it only needs minor tuning, and best of all, only cost $125.  I am very excited.  Now I can have music in my house without electricity!