Whiskey Infusions

Last year for Valentine’s Day I got him this Whiskey Infusion Kit, but apparently, we had forgotten about it. I recently “found it” again and decided it was time to dig into it and see what it was all about.

The whiskey we chose to use for our infusions was a nice Jameson triple-distilled; it’s got a mellow flavor that wouldn’t over-power the infusions. Jameson holds a special place in his heart as he was able to actually tour the distillery during his Ireland trip a few years ago!

Since there were two empty bottles in the kit, we each claimed one to make our creations with. We each started out with half a vial of the Vanilla Chips, which are currently soaking in the whiskey. They recommend infusing that for a couple weeks before adding in any other flavors you might choose. Since we did that last week, ours should be ready for the following steps sometime next weekend.

He plans to use the Coffee Beans, Orange Peel, and Bird’s Eye Chili for his bottle, while I plan to use the Chai Mix, Cinamon Chips, and Cocoa Beans for mine.

I’ll let you know how it turns out!

 

A Much-Needed Break – for Crafting!

I got to go on a crafting retreat a few weeks ago, and it couldn’t have come at a better time in my life! So many negative things are going on right now, I really needed something positive to counter all of the yuckiness.

I joined a group of 9 other crafty ladies at the Pioneer Ridge B&B for 4-days/2-nights of paper crafting and lively chatter. We all gathered at the B&B on Thursday afternoon and set ourselves up at our chosen table. There was plenty of room for each of the crafts going on: two ladies worked on felting, several had card-making crafts, and a few had sewing or embroidery projects.

Our rooms were lovely, with comfortable beds and luxury baths. We were assigned roommates which worked out perfectly well since we were only in the room to sleep at night. All the rest of our time was out in the common area or the dining room/kitchen.

Meals were handled quite well, I thought. Breakfast was of course provided by the B&B. We were on our own for lunches, but we had all brought plenty of snacks I almost didn’t even bother eating what I had intended to eat. For the dinners, we were divided up into three groups, each group responsible for one dinner. My group cooked a lovely pasta dish, and I was tasked with providing the salad.

As an added treat to the whole weekend, they invited a masseuse to come give full-body massages, if we so desired – and I, of course, took full advantage. She was reasonably priced and was quite good. I will never understand how those people manage to do what they do – she did at least 5 massages back-to-back each day Friday & Saturday! How do her hands manage that?

I had such a good time, and really got a lot done. I am looking forward to possibly joining them again for their next retreat!

Viktor, the Best Little Boy EVER

Viktor has died.

It just breaks my heart: he was my little snuggle-bunny and I loved him so.

He started throwing up, like 4-5 times a day. After about a week, I finally took him in to see his vet. She gave him an anti-nausea shot and sent him home with some pain killers. However, once the shot wore off (24 hours later), he resumed throwing up. I planned on taking him back to the vet the following day but he got so lethargic and unresponsive that I ended up taking him to the ER.

There, they drew blood and discovered that his kidneys had shut down. They immediately hooked him up to an IV with fluids and pain meds. He ended up staying there for three days while I worked with three vets and two specialists, trying to find a way to save him.

The final test results indicated that it was cancer, and the specialist that drove out from Anchorage specifically to work with Viktor said that while they could treat him with some aggressive chemo treatments, it still would only give him probably 6 months.

So, Thursday afternoon, I stopped all treatments & tests and just brought him home for the night. I snuggled with him. I held him while he slept with his face tucked up under my chin (his favorite place to sleep). I fed him his favorite foods. I did everything I could think of to make his final day a good one.

Then, Friday morning at 10:00, I had him put to sleep.

I just want to say, I am so very thankful for ALL the doctors and nurses and specialists who worked with me to try and save him. All of them were so kind and so supportive. Particularly, I want to give a shout out to Dr. Kelly Purdue at the Palmer Veterinary Clinic. She went above and beyond, in my opinion.

Mother’s Memorial

Mother’s memorial service was held a few weeks ago at the Presbyterian Church here in Palmer. It was a very nice service, attended by friends & family members.

My brother Reed stood up and spoke, telling stories of growing up as the youngest of her 5 children. Then I got up and read out loud a few letters that had been sent from people unable to attend themselves. Then my niece Katy got up and spoke of being the grandchild and her impressions of her grandmother. Last to speak was my niece Laurel who said a few words about her memories and then read another letter from a family member who was out of town at the time.

The reception afterwards was downstairs and had all kinds of food to nibble on. My partner had put together a slideshow of all the pictures we could find, from her childhood growing up in New Mexico all the way through her last week at the Pioneer Home. He had it on a repeating loop, so it ran the entire time we were all there, sharing stories and offering sympathies.

Those same pictures have been made into a Photo Book which was printed out (by Shutterfly) for each member of the family. If you want to take a look, I’m sure we’d be happy to share. Just come on over, anytime!

Next up on our seemingly never-ending list of tasks to attend to is the internment of her ashes. We will have a Family Only gathering at the Palmer Cemetery next month where we will place her ashes into the wall, next to Stewart. After that, I plan to have the family over a few times to help me go through her jewelry (those who knew her will remember that she always wore turquoise on her fingers, wrists, neck, ears, lapels, and pretty much anywhere else she could affix them, so she had A LOT of jewelry) and her clothing. Slowly but surely, things are getting done.

Semi-Retirement

My semi-retirement is going well enough, I suppose. It’s rather difficult to adjust my spending habits, since I’m used to having an actual paycheck coming in that is reliable and predictable. But as long as I keep myself in check, I seem to be doing okay. I haven’t started pulling money from my investment account yet – still working on the severance payout from my previous job, supplemented with income from various part-time jobs.

The DoorDash thing is going surprisingly well. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I do. Thankfully, I can go whenever I want to – and if I don’t feel like going, it’s perfectly okay to NOT go. I have been dashing the lunch crowd for the most part, as I would rather be at home in the evenings. A typical day of dashing is from about 11:00 to around 1:20 or 2:00, depending on how many people are ordering food. In that time period, I can usually fit in anywhere from 4 to 7 runs and end up earning an average of about $37 a day. It’s not much, but it helps.

My account with Rover.com is still up and running, but I have not had a single inquiry. I did have a nice 2-month gig through a friend who went outside for their spring camping trip, though. I helped take care of 2 cats and 3 chickens! Two months is a long time to take care of somebody else’s animals, but I had 3 other people helping me, so it wasn’t quite so bad. I fixed the schedule so that I stopped by their house on M/T/W/T and had the others alternating weekends. As an added bonus, we all got to keep the eggs the chickens provided. I had forgotten how much I love chickens and am now seriously considering getting some for my own backyard!

The big news is that I have been hired on at The Musk Ox Farm here in Palmer as a part-time Tour Guide! They have 72 musk ox on 75 acres of land, and my job is to take groups of people out to meet the animals and talk about them. It’s pretty fun, I have to say. I know a lot about musk ox from my days at The Alaska Zoo, but it will take some time to learn all these individual animals & all their stories. The job is, as I mentioned earlier, just part time and right now is only for the summer season. I can extend my employment out through the wintertime, if I find that I enjoy it that much. Or I can hire on again next summer if I prefer. Or it could just be a one-and-done thing. Time will tell.

Fun in the Kitchen

As you all know by now, my partner and I love to be creative in the kitchen. The other day, we spent several hours putzing around and having fun.

My niece Katy had gotten a dozen mangos from her workplace and didn’t want them to go bad before she got around to eating them. So, I volunteered to dehydrate them for her! I must say, they turned out SO DELICIOUS! She now has a nice big jar of mango chunks to hand out to her kids when they feel snacky.

While I was chopping mangos, my partner dealt with the huge chunk of fat we had stored in the freezer. He chopped it up into more manageable chunks, rendered it down in the crock pot, strained it several times through a cheese cloth, and ended up with 6 jars of tallow we can use while cooking! FYI: Tallow is lighter than water, so you turn the jars upside down to allow the moisture to gather “on top” so it’s easier to remove before using.

For Christmas last year, I tried to make Vanilla Extract for all my family members but hadn’t given myself enough time for it to sit and infuse, so had to put that aside until now. Apparently, it takes a good 6 months (at the very least) and I had only given it 3 months. But finally, it was time to see how it turned out! I must say, the Mexican Vanilla Beans I used smelled SO GOOD! I am very happy with the results and have enough jars to give to everyone while keeping a couple for us here, as well. Then I tried something entirely new, and made Vanilla Paste out of the used beans. Basically, just you grind up the beans in a mixture of honey & vodka – which I have to say is a lot easier to say than it is to actually DO. But again, we ended up with enough jars to hand out to everyone and keep a few for ourselves. I’m told that Vanilla Paste can be used exactly like the extract but that it’s a bit more intense and has little bits of ground-up beans still in it.

Quarterly Craft Project - part 3

Once again, I hosted our Quarterly Craft Project with three of my favorite people. Heather, Sam, and Kaylee came over to spend the day with me, painting and gluing and just generally having fun. 

I notice something rather funny though: each time I invite them over, we always end up sitting in the same seat as we did last time! Next time, I think I’m going to shake things up a bit and make people move.

Anyway, Heather’s creation has polka dots which she made by using an eraser from a pencil. It looked really cool.

Sam’s has kind of a Giraffe theme going on, although he kept assuring us that it was NOT a giraffe (it totally was).

Kaylee painted some wild stripes on hers, getting paint all over herself and the plastic tablecloth (which is why I have a plastic tablecloth!). I think she did a great job, though.

I went with the distressed look for mine and am quite pleased with the results. It was easier than I expected it to be.

The Storyteller Trilogy

I’m reading the Storyteller Trilogy by Sue Harrison right now, which is “the complete saga of prehistoric Aleut tribal life” . It’s a very interesting story, but I’ll be honest: it’s a hard read.

It’s very well written and thoroughly researched, making the tale as plausible as possible – which is why it’s so hard to read. She takes her time, taking multiple chapters before anything actually happens.

I think that’s rather indicative of today’s society: we are so used to having instant gratification, like a horrific car crash right on page 3 or a brutal rape/murder in the opening scene. Our attention span has been degraded over time to that of a goldfish: if it doesn’t grab our attention within the first two seconds, we scroll on to the next tidbit of entertainment.

Sue builds her story slowly, giving you all the background history: telling you about their daily lives, their tools, their society. How they weave their baskets out of which type of grass. How their shelters (or lodges) are built and who owns them & why. What they eat and how they hunt. All the pieces/parts that make a community work. Only then do you begin to get to the meat of the tale. You slowly meet all the characters and get a sense of where they fit into the story and what their part is going to be.

I have (finally) completed book one of the trilogy and am looking forward to book two now. But, while I wait for the evening so I can sit & read for a while, I am scrolling through Facebook and just happened to come across an article on Otzi the Iceman. I have always been fascinated by him, so this caught my eye. 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Otzi, his story is something else. Back in 1991 his body was discovered by some hikers up in the Italian Alps. He was so well preserved that at first the authorities treated it like a recent crime scene. However, it was soon determined that he dates back some 5,300 years!

Which – coincidentally – is about when the Storyteller trilogy takes place! (give or take a few years)

So now, when they talk about all the tools that Otzi has on him, or the clothes he wears, or the tattoos on his body, or even the arrowhead embedded into his left shoulder that ended up killing him  = all of this is in Ms. Harrison’s book!  It puts a whole new level of understanding and clarity to Otzi the Iceman’s story, making it that much more fascinating.

Happy Birthday Betty!

Our granddaughter, Little Betty, turned TWO last week. Her parents threw her a birthday party where she had lots of fun. Here are a few pics from her big day.

Snowy Girdwood Weekend

The drive out to Girdwood is always a beautiful one, but with all the snow and cold temperatures it was particularly  beautiful this time. The arm was chock full of tiny icebergs and looked like landscape from Mars, kind of.

Our cabin this time was a very nice one, although it did have a rather steep driveway and you had to climb stairs to get into it. It snowed even more while we were there, so the whole place just looked so cozy and Alaskan. Just one of the reasons we love Girdwood so much.

Inside, the kitchen was well stocked with all the necessary cooking utensils, and even had 5 jars of strawberry jam, 2 jars of grape jam, and 1 jar of orange marmalade (people leave things when they go). The living space was a little bit cramped but we managed to stuff all our things in there; he worked on his computer stuff while I got quite a few cards made while watching cheesy disaster movies.

He was a good boy and wore his arm brace the whole time, even though he really doesn’t need it so much anymore. It’s just a way of making sure he doesn’t accidentally forget while he’s out and about. Plus people see it and give him a little extra space so it doesn’t get knocked accidentally. He wasn’t too happy about the ladder leading up to the loft: it was clearly handmade, kind of twisted with uneven steps. But he managed, even in the dark.

I set my table up by the couch and had more than enough room to spread out. I did have a bit of a problem with the couch wanting to grab on to my lounge pants each time I got up (almost like Velcro but not as firm a hold) but I managed.

I only wish they’d let me bring the kittens – but I’m not sure how they would have delt with those stairs.

A Care Package

My good friend Sarah sent me a care package all the way from Miami. It arrived the other day, and just in time. I have had the crappiest year so far, and really needed that pick-me-up. Greatly appreciated, Sarah! 

Inside the box, I found a bunch of books (she knows me well) and some other little nick-nacks like candles, honey, and even a cookie!

A tiny puzzle of Florida - fun for perhaps one of our Weekend Get-Aways!

A tiny book of plant stickers for my cardmaking - I mean, who doesn't love stickers?

A murder mystery - it has kind of an Agatha Christie kind of vibe.

True stories of mysteries in the Everglades - I just might take this one on vacation with me in September.

A cookbook from Florida - I foresee a lot of tasty meals in my future!

An actual Mystery book! This one is so cool… I won’t know WHAT book it is until I open it, but it is a sci fi book of some sort.

All in all, it was a GREAT care package.