Our New Deck!

We got a new deck!!!

The old one was, well… old. It was a lot smaller, and had a ramp for the handicap person who lived here prior to us. For our purposes, it was just too small. So we hired Hatcher Pass Builders to build us a new one.

Bryan did the demo work himself, saving us a good $300.00 or so. We now have a pile of used wood: our lawn-mower man has said that he could use the bigger pieces, so next time he comes over they will be gone. The smaller pieces can either be taken to the dump or chopped up and burned (maybe).

Tom, the owner of the company we hired, came out on Friday to do a final check on his plans for our deck. He laid out markers for where he wanted the piles to be, and double checked his measurements. While he was doing that, the lumber was delivered that will be used.

The pile drivers arrived first thing Tuesday morning. It was really quite interesting to watch. Their pile driving thingy was much smaller than I expected, but the piles went 14 feet down – that’s pretty cool.

Wednesday morning had Tom back at our house, and he immediately got to work. It was just him, since the helper he had hired could not make it. Still, he made very good progress. He had the framework done by the end of the day.

The second day had the decking all laid out.

The third day was mostly just finishing touches on the deck itself, and installing the steps & railing.

All we need to do now is stain it!

Mother’s New Bed

Sister Kelly bought Mother one of those mechanical beds for her birthday this year. It’s pretty sweet! It sits up, it lifts your feet, it massages your back for you. It even has a light underneath in case you get up in the middle of the night.

They went to the store together to pick it out, and tried out all the different models & mattresses. They spent a good afternoon together, and had fun. The store set up delivery for a few days after that – which gave Mother plenty of time to rearrange the entire house in preparation for her new bed.

First she had to figure out what to do with her old bed. Move it upstairs into the Craft Room? Store it upstairs in Bryan’s Storage Room? Put it in the Red Room along with the bed that is already in there? 

Finally she settled on The Red Room, but had to take out THAT old bed to make room for HER old bed. The one that was originally in there folds up, so it’s now tucked away in The Bunk Room for future use. HER old bed got moved into The Red Room, and looks very nice even though it’s a bit bigger.

Once her room got cleared out she took the opportunity to mop the floors; it’s amazing how much dust can accumulate under a bed over the years. Her floors are a vinyl tile, so are very easy to clean.

The movers were a bit later than they said they’d be (an unpardonable sin, in Mother’s eyes) but they did finally show up with a big movers van. The two guys were impressive in and of themselves: huge Samoan guys who easily picked up the bed and took it in the house.

Half an hour later, and Mother’s bed was put together and in place! She had to let the mattress rest for two hours before using it, since it had been rolled tightly for transportation and needed to relax into its proper shape. She had just enough time for that before heading off to bed for the night.

This morning, she said she had the best night’s sleep!

My Irish Sweater

Bryan took his mother to Ireland a couple years ago, kind of a Mother-Son Fling. She had been there several times herself, and wanted to show him all her favorite places. He asked me what I might want him to get me while he was there, so I of course told him to get me an Irish Fisherman’s Sweater.

So he ended up finding this little shop in Northern Ireland called Lucy’s Loom, full of all kinds of hand knitted items and yarns of all colors & fibers. He hesitated on picking one out for me, however, for fear of getting one that didn’t fit. The proprietor suggested that he go home, have somebody take proper measurements, and then email them to her so she could make a custom sweater for me.

“Really? You’d do that?!? How much would THAT cost?” he exclaimed.

Turns out, it wouldn’t cost any more than the other garments in the shop – so that’s exactly what he did. He came home, told me all about it, and had Mother take the required measurements. Then he emailed them to the owner of the shop and she got to work making two sweaters (one for me and a matching one for him, of course).

Less than a month later, Bryan got his in the mail – but mine never arrived. He emailed the shop again, and the lady said “Well, I’ll just make another one and pop it in the mail right away!”

So she did – she made another (at no extra charge, either) and popped it right in the mail. Not three weeks later, I finally got my Real, Honest To God, Irish Fisherman’s Wool Sweater!

I love it…

Birthday Surprise

For my birthday this year, Bryan surprised me with a 4-day Weekend Getaway in Homer! He had been down there by himself a few weeks ago and had come across a place he really liked, so he went ahead and booked us right then.

The weekend was actually a comedy of errors: there were a few hiccoughs with the reservations, a few misunderstandings as to what amenities were available and what weren’t, and we may have driven right past the place a few times trying to find it initially. We were adaptable, though, and just rolled with the flow. None of the issues were earth-shattering, mostly just adding a humorous side-note.

We took off from Palmer around 9:30 or so on Thursday morning, making our way leisurely down the coast and admiring the scenery along the way. We stopped in at Girdwood to grab a late breakfast/early lunch, then continued on in to Soldotna for a rest stop at Fred Meyers where Bryan went in for a potty break while I just paced the parking lot to work the kinks out of my hips. When Bryan got back to the truck, he had a large packaged wrapped in brown paper bags. More surprises to add to the list!

It was about 5:00 pm when we pulled into the parking lot at The Bear Creek Winery – and that’s when I found out that we were staying THERE! I have to admit, I was stunned. I kept thinking to myself, “We’re staying at a winery?!?” it was so NOT what I had pictured in my mind when he said he found the perfect place for us.

Honestly, though, it really was nice. They were just starting to open back up after having to close down for the whole COVID-19 thing and we were their first guests. As a matter of fact, we were their ONLY guests – the rules are that now they can only have one guest(s) at a time, and they had to wait 3 days after we left before they could have another guest stay there. That kind of sucks for them, but it was really great for us! We had the entire place to ourselves, and could use the hot tub or fire pit any time we wanted throughout the day or night.

Our room was small, but still large enough for a nice bed, a sitting area, a kitchenette and a small dining area. The deck outside the front door had a picnic table and a gas grill. And best of all, right off the deck was the goldfish pond, with a dozen of the biggest goldfish I’ve ever seen! It was so much fun watching them swim around all day! Our hosts even provided fish food we could toss out there occasionally.

For a Birthday Surprise (as if there wasn’t enough of a surprise already) he had arranged for them to place a vase with a dozen roses, a bottle of white wine, some fancy chocolates, and two crystal glasses on a lace tablecloth in the sitting area. And on top of that, the owner came over with another bottle of their special edition Pomegranate Wine and more special chocolates! I don’t think I’ve ever had so much wine in one weekend – but all of it was so good…

Remember that package Bryan got in Soldotna at the Fred Meyers? That turned out to be a portable DVD player! One of the “comedy of errors” I spoke of earlier… turns out the room did not come with a DVD player, but I had brought all these movies for us to watch while making cards and tying flies each night. So – now we have one we can take with us on all of our weekend getaways!

For our first day, we drove out to the end of East End Road to a little cove where we walked the beach for a good 2 hours. The day was just gorgeous with blue skies and calm seas. We were the only ones out there, so didn’t have to worry about wearing our masks – we just took our time and enjoyed the fresh air.

For our second day we walked the docks down on the spit. It was a little bit more crowded down there, of course, but people were really good about keeping their distance, so we didn’t feel endangered in the slightest.

We did get to see a huge sea otter, though! She was sleeping in the harbor at first, but then hauled herself up onto one of the docks and promptly went back to sleep. She was not at all concerned with us being right there watching her.