Barb’s Weblog

Katie had to head to an in-service in Stebbins for the day so I spent part of the day photocopying things for her and straightening her class library.  Bill surfed the internet and waited for our 2 delayed pieces of luggage that headed to Shaktoolic instead of Saint Michael yesterday. Here’s a picture of their beautiful little school at sunset.

Of course the cooler that had all the food was one of the delayed container.  When it arrived the hamburger was thawed and the fresh produce all semi-froze.  (Makin memories!)

Jan Whalen sent a sushi maker with us for Katie,  so Bill and I loaded up with shushi rice, rice vinegar, wasabi, fresh avocado, cucumber, green onion.  Katie and Sara supplied the soy sauce and carrot, their friend Christine supplied some Kenai red salmon, and Dan brought the pickled ginger.  We were set!

This is the counselor who shares her time between Stebbins and Saint Michael.

Dan was the last one to take a turn making a California roll and I think his turned out the best!  Here’s Bonnie getting ready to roll hers up.

We had beautiful flying weather out to Saint Michael.  Blue skies and not a drop of wind.  The sun even had slight hints of warmth.  I was sitting right behind the pilot on our flight from Unalakleet to Saint Michael.  I kept thinking of Bill as I kept a steady watch on the co-pilot.

Katie was at the airport waiting for us with the school pick-up.

We had to check out her new mode of transportation parked by her apartment, which is in the old school.

The accommodations were very nice!

Today was Bill’s first day back from St. Mary’s.  It was a perfect blue-sky sunny March day.  To celebrate his return home we snowshoed out to the Valdez Glacier to explore the ice formations.  We were not disappointed.

We sat outside the tunnel soaking up the sun and had a nice little picnic of hot tea, an orange, and a NutRageous candy bar.  YUM!

This little guy started visiting our back deck a few days ago.  He’s been sampling the sunflower seeds we scatter among our Christmas tree that got relegated to the back deck after the holiday. (The chickadees love the ground cover protection.)

An added bonus.  He’s turned into our guard squirrel.  According to Bill he scares off the magpie’s and crows that come to loot the seeds.

Rudy can only stand watching him from inside for just so long, then he has to blast him with some ferocious barking.  Makes us all jump!

For the past two days Bill’s been steadily packing for his two week stint to St. Mary’s. 

This will be his first time flying in this part of the state.  It’s been just about 6 months since he last flew.  Hurting his back put flying for Hageland on the back burner. 

We’re hoping his back does just fine and the flying goes smoothly!  We’re coming up on that memorial April 1st date.  We don’t want a repeat of last year’s adventures!

Once again, he’s managed to pack pretty much everything.  I think the kitchen sink is in the bottom left cornor of the tub!

I always try to make a big batch of chocolate chip cookies for him before he heads back to the bush. This was truly a labor of love.  I just got back from my overnight Battle of the Books slumber party!

I woke up at 3:30 am only to realize I was all alone in bed.  Bill had never gotten there.  I quietly slipped out of bed and padded down to the basement expecting to find him sawing logs on the couch with some random movie playing.

Nope.  He was quietly and tediously working on some minuscule aspect on the chair project.  This is definitely a labor of love! (Oh! And James Bond was on the tube keeping him company.) 

To Celebrate J-Ben’s 35th birthday and finally meet Garrett Sutton, the LLL met at Magpie’s Bakery this morning for a little coffee, scones, and time together.

After opening birthday and baby gifts everyone got a chance to hold baby Sutton.

Here’s the birthday gal getting a little review course for her upcoming April baby.

Could that smile be any bigger?!?

Ace’s turn!

The proud mama!

Check out these peepers!

There’s Noelle!

Now that Katie has received her Christmas quilt I can officially post it.  This was a fun quilt to put together and pretty quick.  I loved the colors.

Bill went down to the garage to retrieve his old pair of bunny boots.

What is it about this odd looking winter footwear that scream storage pantry to rodents of this nature?!?

Now that the gauntlet has been thrown down, Bill has once again taken on the challenge and is planning retaliatory strategies.  I guess it will keep things interesting for the month of January and help him out of trouble!

This furry critter had a smorgasbord of delectables from mushrooms and dog food to black walnuts.  (We wondered what had happened to those nuts!)  We’ll keep you posted on the continuing saga.

This was the view looking across the park strip from the end of the street this morning about 10:00 when I took the trash to the dumpster.  Not too shabby!.