My maternal grandmother was born in the early 1900s or late 1890s. At the age of 16, her father bought her this figurine for just 25 cents. I don’t know the occasion for the gift, but I do know she treasured it. I somehow ended up with it and it is now proudly displayed in our curio cabinet.
This clock
came from the other side of our family, originally from Sweeden/Germany. We have
somehow managed to keep the original glass dome, too. It is proudly displayed
in our curio cabinet also.
My cousin
Anna and her husband John came up a few weeks ago: it was great getting to visit
with them!
Noel and Hank
came over Friday night for dinner of Moose Stew and fresh caught Salmon. Then
Bryan took his father and John out fishing at Jim Creek early the next morning,
getting back just in time to cook us all some Sourdough Pancakes.
Saturday
afternoon, we all headed up to Kelly’s house for a big family BBQ where
everyone got a chance to visit with them, and they got to meet the newest
member of the family.
Annalise stole
the show, of course.
Bryan and I spent a fabulous weekend out at the Granit Point Mountain Lodge where we rented a dry cabin for 5-days/4-nights. The cabin was perched high up on a cliff overlooking the oceans far below.
We had the
place pretty much to ourselves the first night, then two more couples moved in
for the weekend. They left before we did, though, so we had the last night to
ourselves as well.
The cabin was
nice, with a well-stocked kitchen and a comfortable bed. I made good use of the
couch out on the porch, reading my book(s) and drinking my tea. We had to haul
our own water and firewood, but that wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it would
be.
One morning a
little ermine came to join us for breakfast – and one afternoon we watched a humpback
whale and her calf play for hours out in the bay. Fish were jumping like crazy in
the cove, so Bryan had a good time fishing. I did a bit of beachcombing and got
to see several fat purple sea stars, numerous sea urchins, and even a few
jellies washed up onto the beach.
It was a
wonderful get-away and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
Back in March of 2021, I wrote a post about my attempts to live with less plastic: I think it’s time to update my progress!
The laundrydetergent I’m using is awesome: I love it. It’s very easy to use, cleans my clothes just as well as the “normal” detergent, and uses way less space in my cupboard (and in the landfill). I can highly recommend it!
The Blueland cleaners, however, turned out to be no good. They did not clean well at all and I ended up throwing it all away. I did keep the squirt-bottles (can’t bear to throw away plastic) so now I can use them for other purposes, but I do not recommend this product at all.
I did go ahead and try the HiBar shampoo & conditioner, and I really like it. I’m not very fond of the smell, but honestly that’s not that big of a deal. I like the product, like how my hair looks & feels, and - as long as I store the bars in a dry place when not in use - they last a good, long time.
Another
product I wanted to tell you about is the Crystal Body Deodorant. I’ve been
using this product for well over 6 years now and am so happy with it. It works
very well, although it is weird to wipe a wet rock under your arm each morning.
This rock is 100% natural mineral salts with no chemicals, perfumes, dyes or
parabens and does not stain clothing. I’m not to thrilled with the fact that it
comes with a little plastic dish – but since the rock lasts almost forever
(unless you drop it and it shatters – like I did once) at least you’re not
buying a new plastic container every 6 months as you would if you still used
the more tradition deodorants.
Some time ago, I signed up for a daily newsletter called BUILDER PULSE. This newsletter is full of articles from builders across the country announcing their grand openings, reviews on new products and tools, sample floor plans, and market trends.
This week, a company called Beazer Homes announced a grand opening in Las Vegas for a planned community. The opening sentence reads: “The community will feature 46 single-family homes on a 6-acre site located near the I-515 freeway.”
Think about that for a moment. 46 single-family homes. On a 6-acre site. That’s more than 7 houses PER ACRE!
I’m appalled.
