Let There Be Light

I've been meaning to take the above photo for awhile. My Grandma Lusignan, who writes me the nicest letters, has been asking if I have neighbor's that live close to me. The answer is yes. Too close! So, this is where we live. The door on the left is ours. The door on the right are my neighbors, who are very nice people, but not very social. The space in the middle there is where my laundry area is. So, this is home. And also living on the property is another family, whom we've met once, and then the owners of the property.

What you don't see is that the main driveway runs right in front of our home. It's where I'm standing when I'm taking the picture. And, it's a working farm. A very busy, working farm. So we have little peace and quiet. And directly to the left of where the photo ends is a STOP sign, so, yeah, we have people stopping in our driveway quite often. Annoying. So, we're looking for a new home, with a few less neighbors. Hopefully. After all, I didn't move to Alaska to be surrounded by people. Sheesh!! But have no fear, I have no plans to go too remote. I'm really attached to my indoor plumbing and electricity. The neighbor (behind us- he's about 90) just got electricity last year. No thank you. Seriously.

Last night we headed out to the Clearwater River area. It's so peaceful out there, and I really like it out here. It's beautiful. Anyway, we went out to snap some pics with our new camera. I can tell that this is going to be the best purchase ever. I was playing around with the manual settings here and managed to snap a semi-decent photo, in my opinion. So, this was my favorite picture of the evening. Enjoy...awwwwwwwwwww... ha!

And this. This my friends, is a photo of the SUN at 10 p.m. We have had very cloudy skies the past few days, but last night the clouds broke up to give us the most lovely late night show. Honestly, I found it hard to sleep. I nearly took a walk at 10:15 last night, but decided that I wasn't quite that brave. Though I certainly could have.

Yesterday Ches and I walked a nice, long walk. It's nice out here during the day, when most others are at work. So we wander the roadside out front. Ches loves to sniff the ditches to see what she can find, and it's just refreshing for both of us. Then after our walk we came back and I raked up some dead grass and sticks around the back of the yard. Today I plan to hit the front portion, and then clean up the winter leftovers from the previous tenants dog.

Also, I wanted to thank those of you who have sent birthday greetings. Most people only get a birthday but somehow I managed to wrangle a birth week. Aren't I a lucky girl?! Anyway, so thank you Grandma Lusignan for the nice card and gift of money, also Darryl & Audrae, Mom & Dad, and Sandy & Wayne for the cards, gifts and letters. Thank you for thinking of me. It's truly appreciated!

So, welcome to spring! I hope Northern MN managed to miss out on the snow that was predicted there, and hopefully you'll be moving on to warmer temps and spring-like temperatures soon!

Have a happy day!

Introducing Willie

Meet Willie. Or, Naughty Willie. He's cute, but he's naughty. Brent calls him the Tazmanian Devil. He runs around with his mouth open waiting to slit you with his razor sharp teeth. He's sweet...when he's sleeping, and I'm definitely not used to having a baby in the house. Now that we're on Day 5 of Willie's stay in our home we're settling in, and I think we've all adjusted. Maybe.

This is a picture of Tanya and I. It was taken by Alyssa, and since it was a half way decent picture of me I decided to plop it on here. Tanya planned a scavenger hunt for their family that brought them from their home in North Pole to Delta Junction to visit us. They scoped out our home, visited the chickens and other farmyard animals, and then we helped them complete the rest of their hunt and dined with them at the Buffalo Center Diner in town. It was a great day full of noise, chaos and fun! The dogs both loved all of the attention and we all slept well last night.

Willie's visit started out rocky, but if you look closely you can see that Willie is snuggled right up to her. The little white spot on her abdomen is Willie, upside down and sleeping soundly.

Today we decided to take advantage of the glorious Alaska sunshine. It was 30 degrees in Delta today, but the sun was high and warm!! I actually took off my jacket for the last portion of our hike. Our only goal for the day was to wear little Willie out! I think we've succeeded, perhaps? The little guy in the picture above is (I believe) a pine squirrel. He was giving us heck for interrupting his peaceful day. Perched high in the tree of course.

The photos above and below are of the Clearwater River. The water was beautiful, and cold. Ches and Willie had fun sampling some of this sparkling Alaska water. And the scenery's not bad either.

Tomorrow begins another week. Brent is off so I think we'll head to Fairbanks sometime mid-morning. Hoping you are all warm and toasty!! Enjoy your spring!

On another note I wanted to wish Jana a very Happy 21st Birthday!! She celebrated her big day yesterday with her family and friends!! Hope your day was super special!

Driving Miss Chessie

Happy Sunday! Today was a clear, sun-filled, chilly day of 12 degrees here in Delta. Brent surprised me this morning by making me breakfast. While I love to cook it's always nice when he cooks a little breakfast.

While I cleaned up the kitchen we watched Horton Hears A Who, which is a delightful little film. So cute. I really enjoyed it. It has a great message, and I'm thinking I may need to buy this one and add it to my collection.

After I had cleaned the kitchen I decided it was time to dirty it again. I put a roast, green bell pepper, onions, and pepperoncini peppers in the crockpot for Italian Beef sandwiches for dinner. Then I roasted a batch of old bread for homemade bread crumbs, and then boiled up a chicken carcass and veggies for some homemade chicken stock.

Since it was so lovely we decided to take a drive, just the three of us, and see what we could find to capture for you. Here it goes...

Welcome to Delta Junction!!

We decided to start out South of town since this is the area that we have spent the least amount of time exploring. It was a beautiful drive and the Wrangell Mountains were especially pretty today. I managed to catch a few different shots in the pictures both above and below, but I don't want to bore you to tears, so I only posted a couple.

After leaving the Wrangells we headed back out to the Clearwater Lodge area. The above photo is taken of the Clearwater River in Clearwater State Recreation Area. This is actually a boat launching area. The water was open and clear, Ches really wanted to go for a swim, but we kept her out. I have a feeling we'll be visiting here in the summer.

Ches and I on the banks of the Clearwater River.

Brent and Ches went off to explore the woods beyond where my boots would take me. I made the unfortunate mistake of only wearing a vest and Uggs, I should have had my snow boots and coat on. Next time I'll be better prepared.

As we left Clearwater State Recreation Area I was complaining about not seeing any moose, again. And was pleasantly surprised when we came upon this herd of caribou. They were quite far out in the field but I managed to zoom in to get a pretty good view. I have photos of about half the herd. The other half were grazing behind a clump of trees. It was nice to see them, as this is the first herd we've seen since the long drive to get here.

After dinner we decided to take advantage of the quickly fading light and took a drive down Tanana Loop. The mountains were beautiful and though we didn't see any moose, or other wildlife, it is beautiful and breathtaking just to be out there. The above photo is of the Alaska Range at dusk. The sun was sinking quickly behind them and they stood like ghosts on the horizon. I couldn't resist snapping a pic.

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was great and relaxing! Have a happy day!