Bryan’s Surgery

He’s been complaining for months that his arms hurt, so finally went to have it checked out. Turns out he’s somehow managed to tear both of his biceps! No clue as to exactly how he did that – but the end result is that he has to have surgery on both arms!

They decided to operate on his right arm first – so surgery was scheduled for this past Monday. Bright and early, we headed on down to the surgery center, got him all checked in, and waited for his turn in the operating room. All the nurses and doctors at the center were very nice, each one very carefully and clearly explained exactly what was going to happen. He finally got wheeled in at about 9:15 (that meant we only waited about an hour and a half, so not too bad) and they started the procedure. I went back home to work for a while, thinking I had some time to get things done. Unexpectedly, they called me an hour and a half later saying he was in recovery!

So back I went to pick him up. He was groggy and in a bit of pain still, so we waited maybe an hour for the pain meds to kick in. Eventually he was ready, so they got him dressed and into a wheelchair, and off we went to the car.

He’s home now, in a sling and on some pretty hefty painkillers. His post-op is in two weeks, where they will remove that temporary cast and give him a “half cast” which I understand will be a plastic thingy that just supports his wrist/elbow.  Then he will start in on the PT to strengthen and regain mobility.

He’s doing so good!

Homemade Fire Starters

You all know that I love a good art project – even more so if it uses up things that would normally go to the landfill. This week, he made a batch of fire starters for the wood stove!

We save the lint from our dryer (a box lives in the windowsill right next to our dryer: we just put the lint in the box each time we run a load). We save all the used-up candles (I love burning candles, but even a really good, expensive candle leaves behind wax that cannot be burned). We save all of our old egg cartons (we do give some to my nieces who have chickens, but he does love his eggs, so we have a lot of containers).

To remove the wax from the candle container, just pour boiling water in each jar. The wax then melts and rises to the top. You simply pick it off once it’s cooled down and solidified again. (remember to recycle the glass jars once you’ve removed the wax!) Then you place all that wax into a large can, which is then placed into a pot of boiling water. Melt it down till its liquid, then pour a small amount into each dimple (that’s Wikipedia’s official word for the compartments in an egg container – I looked it up!). Place some lint on top of each puddle of wax before it solidifies. Then pour more wax over the top of the lint. Continue layering wax and lint until the dimple is full or you’ve run out of supplies.

Place the filled egg cartons on a cooling rack and let stand until the wax is cooled and solid. Cut the dimples apart and store in a basket nearby your stove (but not too close or they’ll melt!). You can see that cutting the dimples apart is not quite as easy as it sounds – we ended up having to get a hand saw for some of them!

Voila! Homemade Fire Starters!

New Year’s 2026

This year we decided to ring in the New Year by renting a cabin up in the mountains all to ourselves, with just us & our kittens! I think it was perfect – but then, I am not exactly a people person. It was bitter cold out, however, with temps well below zero. We had a hard time keeping the cabin warm, as you can see by the frozen window in the bathroom!

As usual, I had my crafting with me. I got to spend 3 lovely days doing nothing but make cards, binge-watch the old X-files series, and munch on snacks!

Bryan worked on computer stuff the whole time, fixing a friend’s laptop that had been accidentally doused with coffee to the point where she was unable to access any of her files. He was a happy little boy, with all that technical stuff going on. And yes, he did manage to salvage the info - but she will need to get a new laptop.

The kittens weren’t quite as enthused about the weekend as we were. They did have their heated blanket, however, so could warm up when they needed to.

We treated ourselves to a meal at the nearby Lodge for the actual New Year’s Eve dinner. They were not officially open but agreed to deliver something off their normal menu. I got a Blackened Halibut Salad while he opted for the Bison Meatloaf with a side of Parmesan Fries.

Christmas 2025

Christmas this year was both quiet and hectic, all at the same time. No different than any other year, come to think of it, but completely different on a whole different level. It wasn’t bad, by any means. I quite enjoyed the whole season. It was just the first Christmas in many years without Mother at the house. She had a way of dominating everything just by walking into a room, you know?

We started off the season with a crafting session (of course). My sister-in-law Heather and her two kids Sam & Kaylee came over to help me make Reindeer ornaments from a kit we subscribe to. It comes to us quarterly, with seasonal crafts that we can all sit down and enjoy together. This one was, as I mentioned earlier, Reindeer! We had a great time!

After that, we decided that we had to make cookies. I originally envisioned us making one or two different kinds, but somehow, we ended up making Cowboy Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Butterscotch Cookies, Chocolate No-Bake Cookies, and Rum Balls! Trust me, that’s way, WAY too many cookies for just two people. But we had fun, and that’s all that really matters.

Since we had so many cookies, we decided to bring a plate of them over to Mother at the Pioneer Home, so she could enjoy them with us. My niece Laurel brought her two girls Autumn and Annalise over as well, and we all had a great visit. Mother was in good spirits, chatty and very much “there”.

Christmas Day at the Beaver House (my house) was a good day. We wore our new pajamas, opened up gifts, and enjoyed watching the kittens play with the discarded wrapping paper.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Bryan braved the windstorm this weekend and got us a tree! We spent a nice afternoon getting all the decorations out and setting everything up.

Naldo then enjoyed rearranging everything for us. Because… she’s a cat. That’s what cat’s do.

Next on the list of things to do: get the packages wrapped and placed under the tree!

Our New Vacuum Sealer

For his birthday this year I got him a new Vacuum Sealer!

He’s been wanting one for years, but it’s very expensive. However, if you add up all the money he’s paid other people to seal up all the fish & game he brings home, he could have gotten three of these things already. And we both paid for halfs, so it wasn’t such a bite to our pocketbooks as it could have been. It took a while for it to arrive at our doorstep, so we are just now getting to play with it a bit.

During our weekly grocery shopping run this weekend we came across a really good deal on a huge chunk of New York Strip, so we figured that was the perfect “excuse” to try out our new toy. We also got a nice big ham and some chicken breasts – but the deal on the beef was exceptional: regular price was $175 but we only paid $70

I’m sure by now everyone knows I don’t eat red meat. My preferred source of protein is more plant based, like Tofu. Seeing that huge hunk of bloody meat in the bag at the store was quite gross, but Bryan was really excited. He had fun cutting it into meal-sized portions. I failed to get a final tally, but I’m guessing he got at least 14 or 15 meals out of that chunk!

The new sealer is very loud and make lots of hissing noises – but it works pretty well. It came with a package of various sizzed sealer bags, so we had plenty to work with. It took us maybe an hour and a half to get all the meat packaged up and in the freezer.

The Big Windstorm of 2025

The valley got hit with another big windstorm – actually bigger and longer than the last one. The other one, back in January of 2022, only lasted three days with gusts up to 90 mph. This one has been going on for well over a week and they’ve recorded 100 mph gusts out at the airport in Palmer.

I am exhausted; I just can’t sleep with the howling winds. My mind keeps picturing trees falling on top of us. Or debris crashing through a window. Or our pipes bursting & flooding the place. Or any other of the hundreds of worst-case scenarios my brain can come up with. The only reason my cats haven’t spent the past 10 days in their traveling crates is because Bryan talks me down to a more reasonable level of panicked alertness. As it is, Viktor needs a lot of hugs lately. He does not like the wind any more than I do.

The worst to happen so far has been the three trees that got blown down. Two of them are just tiny things, with no damage done to anything. But that third tree – that was a big one! Thank goodness it didn’t hit anything, it could have taken out our house for sure! Bryan says he couldn’t have laid it down any better if he’d done it on purpose – it JUST missed our trailer and the shed out back.

Our neighbor wasn’t so lucky – you can just see the tree on his roof. The poor guys were out there in the freezing cold and bitter wind, all with chainsaws and ropes, working to get it off his house. Hopefully the damage was minimal.

During a lull in the winds, Bryan went outside and did a walk-around to see the state of things and found that somehow, something got our water main! It’s just the marker, so basically an easy fix – but seriously: How did that happen?

Inside the house we have silt everywhere. The winds definitely come from the glaciers nearby! So far, I have swept up hands full of the stuff at each door & window. Once it’s finally done blowing, I will have to do a more thorough cleaning with a mop to get it all.