Alaska-Part 2

Sorry for the lag! I know that all you readers out there are just dying for the next installment of my Alaska trip. ;) I was having trouble with my computer and Blogger playing nicely...but that seems to have resolved itself and here we are.

After landing on the Kenai Peninsula, we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing and familiarizing ourselves with our new home for the next 9 days. So we drove down the Kenai Peninsula coast.

Mount Redoubt from the Kenai Peninsula

Mt. Redoubt again

Beautiful Trees

An Alaskan Double Rainbow

Beach on the Cook Inlet-Kenai Peninsula

Soldatna Creek

Soldatna Creek with swans

We thought this was the Swanson River and my field partner and I decided that the river must be named so because there were Swans-on- the river. We were clearly exhausted!

One of the things that I most wanted to see in Alaska was the wildlife that I had read so much about. Moose, bears, eagles, magpies, orcas, etc. My field partner had been to Alaska before and had hit a moose during the trip, so he wanted to be especially watchful for them. So I was. And we started a "moose count" to keep track of how many we saw. We also started a bear count....although that was more tongue-in-cheek!

Moose Count: 21 Moose Imposters: 6

Cow

Juvenile Cow

Bull

Bear Count: 0 Stuffed Bear Count: 5

This one kinda looks like a friend of mine!

Up next-the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula-Stay Tuned!

And what I've done...

In my little mini-hiatus...I was busy crossing something off of my bucket list. I was offered the chance to go to Alaska for work...and without a moment's hesitation, I took it. This was a chance to see a place that I had only seen on television or read about in National Geographic. Three weeks later, I was on a plane to Anchorage with my team. We worked our tails off...but never in a more breath-taking place!

We stayed in Anchorage the first night. We ate at the Glacier Brewhouse for dinner... which was my first taste of Alaskan food...and incredibly good food at that...considering that it was my second dinner with the 3 hour time zone change.

The view of downtown Anchorage from my hotel room.

The brewhouse had amazingly good beer.

 And the halibut was not to be missed!! YUM!!

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast at Gwennie's, which was recommended to me by a dear friend. He was right. When I ordered a hot chocolate, this is what showed up!

 Single-handedly the best mug of hot cocoa I have ever encountered...it was breakfast by itself!

And then the breakfast I ordered came out....Reindeer sausage, eggs, and homefried potatoes.

Can we say "Giant Plate"?

After breakfast, we went over and spent the morning at a client kick-off meeting for our project. We grabbed lunch at the Moose's Tooth Brewhouse, which had the best pizza I have ever tasted!

Yum!

Then, stuffed on pizza and salad, my partner and I caught a plane over to the Kenai Peninsula, where we would be working.

And we were greeted by the locals!

Stay tuned for Part 2!



Where I have been!

As happens once in a while, I get so busy with life that I sit down and forget to write about it! And crazy busy it has been! I'll be detailing everything that has been going on over the next couple of posts. Horses, the house and work have all conspired to keep me off the computer and hopping all over the place. As many of the regular readers know, I travel A LOT. I actually have a running list of every Holiday Inn Express that I have stayed at (mostly for my own morbid curiosity). I love Holiday Inns. The rooms always feel warm, inviting, and comfortable. No, I'm not plugging them...nor is this a commercial... I'm getting to the point...hang on...

So I spend anywhere from 1-4 nights in this nice, warm, cozy environment... and come home to this (minus the books all over the furniture..you'll see why in a sec)

Cold, blank, and sterile. White walls, white carpet...YUCK.

After my last trip out, I got home, looked at the walls, and decided that the time for the long overdue painting was at hand. I gathered up some semi-willing friends and lured them in with the promise of good company, pizza, and alcohol. I went to Lowe's and bought paint in a color called "Pony Tail" by Olympia (irony, anyone??) and all the painting supplies I could carry. Including a little straight edge painter, which was a godsend for getting nice even lines near the trim and ceiling.

Four hours and two coats of paint later.... my boring sterile living room looked like this:

Cozy, comfortable, and warm. Two weeks later, I'm still loving it. And I'm counting the days until I can have a crack at Anthony's room!

A Cowgirl Turns 30

For an entire year, I've been in denial that this whole nebulous "30" thing was actually going to happen. I mean, lots of people stay at 29 forever, right? Denial is a wonderful thing.

But it isn't a river in Egypt... And eventually September always rolls around, bringing with it another birthday. So since 30 is a big round scary number and marks a somewhat official entrance into adulthood, I decided that we needed to do it up! I gave up digging in and fighting it...and started celebrating it.

On Friday night, we went out to get drinks at a club where two of our favorite DJs were hosting karaoke.  My friends suprised me with an amazing cake. Shawna Cole and Dodd Lede (the DJs, also lead singers of Bare Necessity) made the night extra fun by singing Happy Birthday (in the sexy voices!).

On Saturday, my friend Pam and I had a joint birthday party at her house. We have always celebrated our birthdays together since they are three days apart and this one was a big 'un. So friends and family gathered at Pam's house and we talked, watched the kids play, and ate more birthday cake. Pam made sure we had some Blue Bell Cookies 'n Creme ice cream, since that is one of our favorites.

On Sunday, I took a day off from birthday stuff, because apparently, there can be too much of a good thing!

Monday was my actual birthday. And as Monday birthdays go, it was a pretty quiet day. My boss bought me lunch. I spent part of the evening hanging out at the barn, and the rest hanging out on the couch with Anthony.

I guess 30 isn't so bad after all... Lets see what this year brings!

This One's For My Girls...

My cowgirls, that is....

Last week, an anonymous commenter on the blog asked me to quit calling myself a cowgirl, because it was offensive to "those of us who live the life". Well, darlin, I've got news for you. If I've offended you, then I'm doing my job. This is my blog about my life. I'll call myself anything that I damn well please. I regularly call myself a klutz, a pain in the butt, stubborn, and crazy. No one has argued with me about those. But just in case you argue the definition of a cowgirl, this is what Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has to say about it (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cowgirl; accessed August 22, 2011):

Cow girl noun \-ˌgər(-ə)l\



Definition of COWGIRL


1: a girl or woman who tends cattle or horses


2: a girl or woman who is a rodeo performer
 
Now...how does that definition fit me?
1. I am a woman;
2. I tend horses, both at my little farm and at Southeast Boarding Barn where I am usually found in my off hours; and
3. I am a rodeo performer. Not a good one yet, but I'm working on it.
 
Now if your question is: how am I further qualified? I've worked cattle..even though I don't own any. My family has ranched the North Dakota badlands for the last 100+ years. I know how to fix fences and spent one summer helping string a mile's worth of it. I have the veterinary knowledge that being self suffient requires or I know who to ask to get help. I bust my ass from dawn til dark to take care of my family, my job, my property, and my animals. I know that I'll be eating canned beans and baloney before any of my animals go without proper care.
 
I don't have any delusions of grandeur where my little farm is concerned. Its not a ranch, nor would I ever call it that. I'm saving that for the 200+ acres I will be buying someday. I've got to work to get there, but I will. But that little farm is MINE.
 
And finally, being a cowgirl is a attitude. Its a take-it-all on, work through the pain, bust tail til the job is done and the fingers are bleeding mindset. You fall off, you get right back on and tackle the world.
 
And darlin, if you've got a problem with that...then don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya on the way out.
 
 

 

Cowgirls gone wild!

All My Eggs Are in One Basket

My chickens are laying! It started off with one random egg every few days about 3 weeks ago.

Since the egg were too hit or miss to count on, I wound up throwing away the first few since I wasn't checking the nest boxes every day. Over the last couple of weeks though, more and more eggs are showing up in the nest box. There are four nest boxes. They all seem to prefer the one in the front right corner. No skin off my nose, its easier to grab them all in one swoop. I guess I'm going to be giving them away or selling them in short order since there is no way that we can eat four to six eggs a day!

The eggs from the last week. I've already given away half a dozen of them! I guess I just have extra talented chickens since they aren't really supposed to be laying for another couple of weeks...and we're in the middle of an awful heat wave. But hey, if they're willing, I'm happy to get my money back on all the feed I've been putting into them!

A Step Above

It seems like every week, something new is happening at my house. I mean, when you live with a 4-year old, something new is always happening. Shaving cream murals in the bathtub, macaroni in the carpet, and strangely colored cats are among the things that happen with an astonishing regularity in my house. But lately, we've been letting the kiddo play with the power tools. Just kidding. No, really, I'm just kidding. He just holds the hammer and bucket of nails while his Papa and I build.

This week's project?

New stairs.

It has long been recognized that the stairs up to the porch at my house are at the very least a safety concern and definately a safety hazard. And after nearly ripping a toenail off the other night in the dark, I had enough.

This is what my stairs looked like:

Yikes, right? And no, that's not the angle of the photo, that wood "stair" really does lean like that.

After two hours, this is what the new stairs looked like.

They are set in place and concrete will be added soon to make them a solid pad. And the tilt IS the angle of the photo.

And since a) I can't stand the bushes in front of my house, and b) I needed steps down into the yard near the front door...

We built them too...

I'll post photos of the concrete work next week!