Putting Mother to Rest

We put mother’s ashes to rest last month. She is in the wall along with Stewart now. We are working on getting an engraved plaque for her that will look very similar to Stewart’s, but that will take some time. Everyone was there, and we all talked a bit afterwards, telling stories and remembering her.

A few weeks later, I had everyone over to go through her jewelry. She had a lot of jewelry: I laid it all out on the bed in the guest room so we could all see it and sort through it. Some of it was really nice pieces of turquoise & silver – some was just junk costume stuff. We made sure everyone got something of hers to remember her by, and what was left was donated to the Bishop’s Attic, mother’s favorite second-hand store.

Family Hikes

My niece Laurel asked me to organize some Family Hikes this summer, so I have been putting together various hikes each weekend. People can join is or not, as their schedule allows. This gets me out on the trails again after a long hiatus (I didn’t hike at all while taking care of mother for 7 years), so I am happy regardless. And I get to see my family on a regular basis!

A humorous side note: the one who asked me to organize all these hikes has not gone on a single one yet!

We started the season off with a nice stroll along the Matanuska Lake Trail System. We went at a 2-year old’s pace, with lots of sticks and rock throwing along the way.

We followed that with a hike along the Matanuska River Walk Trail, an easy stroll with fantastic views of the river peeking periodically through the trees.

The next week, Kelly and I walked the old railroad trail from Moose Creek back towards Palmer. You can’t go the whole way any more as the river has eaten away the middle section of the trail. But the portion that is left is still a beautiful walk.

I did the same trail the following day with Katy, but this time we did it from Palmer walking towards Sutton. Henry had fun with his new binoculars and hiking pack – adventuring in the tall grass.

Eklutna Lake was scheduled for the following weekend, and again Kelly was able to join me. She is a fast walker, just like I am, so we really traveled going much farther along the path than I’d ever been before. We treated ourselves to some ice cream on the way home.

The Crevasse-Moraine trail system is not my favorite, by any means, but it is nearby and convenient. We all had other obligations that day, so our hike was a brief one. But we were together, we were outside, and we were moving. That’s a win in my book!

Our most recent hike was just this past Tuesday. Bryan was out of coffee, so Noel and I used that as an excuse to take a little road trip out to Girdwood (about 1.5 hours south) to get some from his favorite little coffee shop. And while we were there, we went ahead and hiked up to Virgin Falls to stretch our legs and give the pups a break from the car. Such a gorgeous hike, with a spectacular waterfall at the end!

Dehydrating Experiment

For Father’s Day this year, Bryan invited his family over for an early dinner at our house. I had to work, unfortunately, so I was not able to attend, but we apparently had a house full of family & friends to celebrate fatherhood. Just doing a quick count in my head, I believe we had a good dozen people over! Each person brought food with them, so we had quite the spread: stroganoff, garlic bread, salad, fruit, rhubarb crisp, and a huge pan full of watermelon slices!

I got home just in time to sample the food and give a quick hug to everyone before they headed on back to their homes. Almost all of them left food behind, so we have a refrigerator full now.

So, instead of letting that huge pan of watermelon go bad before we can eat it all, I decided to do an experiment! I dehydrated it!

At first, I set my dehydrator to 145 degrees and 18 hours, but once that was up, I set it for another 10 hours. Those slices were pretty thick…

But I must say – I love the results! Tasty little triangles of watermelon jerky just perfect for taking on hikes!

Otter, Maw-Maw, and Woof

Our monthly book club meeting was at my niece’s house this time. While getting ready, Katy was talking to her 2-year-old daughter, letting her know that everyone would be coming over. Eloise just wanted to know 3 things: “Otter? Maw-Maw? Woof?” That’s her way of asking if her cousin Autumn, her grandma, and her Aunt Ruth would be there!

So, from now on, we are calling Autumn “Otter”, and my new name is “Woof” (rhymes with roof)! Consider that one of my older names was “Aint Doofy” I can certainly live with Woof.

The meeting itself was a good one. Katy made lasagna for everyone, even making a small vegetarian one for me, with garlic bread and a tasty salad. Strawberry Shortcake with ice cream and/or whipped cream was the perfect dessert, and she even had cut up fruit to snack on between courses.

While eating, we talked about the book we had just read: The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell. The book is part one of a fantasy trilogy based on Tlingit culture and is being advertised as “the Tlingit version of The Lord of the Rings.”

I liked the book, but it was difficult to read because all the names of people and places and things were all in the Tlingit language, and I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce any of them. Book club members who listened to it on audiobooks said that was no better, because they did not know what the words meant. I probably will not continue with the series but am very impressed with the book as a whole, regardless of the language barrier.

Our evening together ended with Tara letting us know which book she had chosen for our next read. She said a friend of hers has been telling her for months to read Swan Song by Robert McCammon – so she figured now would be a good time to do just that.