Local plants

I can't believe it's been two years since I posted on here. We have another child turning one soon and I've missed writing any of it. So much happens in life and blogging hasn't been as urgent as everything else. I thought having internet at home would make it easier, but that got me deep into facebook. Sometimes internet is a bit addicting for me. It was craigslist for awhile. But now I've found a local online garage sale group, way more profitable than craigslist which covers a 100 mile radius in our area of remote Alaska. Mommy brain has me trying to remember what I even was going to post about, now that I'm here. Hmmm. Yes, I remember. A "miracle" plant: I've had a patch of eczema on my low back for many months now. Less than two years, but I don't remember when it started. I also have a wart on my two that I've had almost two years, it started before my last pregnancy and hasn't cleared up. Finally I am fulfilling a dream of learning about the land, so I could possibly live off of it. I'm enjoying learning about local and native plants/weeds and their uses. One prolific weed is jewelweed (touch-me-not family). We have a great book by Schofield that describes uses of all these plants. We've been experimenting with one at a time to learn it's usefulness for us. Jewelweed takes away the sting of nettles, true it worked for us. And we do have nettles in our weedy areas next to the pooshky and the raspberries usually. I read that the Jewelweed can also help other skin issues and it mentioned eczema and warts specifically, among other things. Having both those conditions I decided to give it a try. THere's no recipe or instructions in the book. So like a good pharmacist, I just took some plant, broke it to release juices as we did for the nettle sting and rubbed my two affected areas, and went to bed. I repeated this "dosage" in the morning and evening today. What Have I noticed so far? Amazingly my eczema patch smoothed out significantly and it's pink blotchiness is gone. The area has reduced to a tanned skin color with slight stiffness compared to surrounding areas. Basically, it's hugely improved in just one day!!!!! I am curious to see if it fully clears up. The wart has not changed yet. I'll continue twice a day applications and see. Plantain we have tried on skin wounds. Seemed to work. Having a cold right now, I've also been using yarrow, pineapple weed, and spruce tips - all of which grow conveniently on our city lot. That brings a bit of tension. If I get rid of the wild, unsightly weeds and make a pretty plot of land, I lose access to my closest natural medicine chest and have to walk further down the road. But what if we ALL got rid of our weeds, then where do we go? On to other things, our baby boy. Perhaps "Rocky" would be a good screen name. He's named for courageous wisdom, that's his identity that we are calling out in him. By the way, does any one read blogs anymore, now that Facebook and other social media has exploded in popularity?

Eveline Trail

A Few weeks ago we hiked the Eveline trail with one of the mini DTS students from St. Lawrence. She stayed in Homer a couple extra weeks after graduation, so we got to do some hanging out. It was a beautiful day for a hike. My kids love hiking and camping.

August Flowers

These are a few shots of my garden this month. All of these flowers I planted either last year or this year. As you can tell, I love dark red. I have monarda, lilies, impatiens, dianthus, nasturtim, and nemesia all in reds. Strawberries are red too, but they don't count. Another bed is mostly purples and blues.

I finally got my whitney crabapple planted, hoping it's not too late in the season. It's been sitting aorund for almost a month, waiting for the hole to be dug, which is BearHunter's job. We added some of my home made compost to the hole and mixed in some purchased topsoil. THen decorated the base with some cobalt blue glass bottles upside down. I should post a picture of that...meaning I need to take a picture of it first. Then we'll espalier the tree, probably not til next year.

I love gardening. -Calla Lily

Canoeing Trip with BearCub

Late in May, Bear Cub turned four on a three-day canoe/camping trip with Daddy and one of Daddy’s buddies. Bear Cub loved it. He constantly played in the lake, trying to catch tiny sucker fish with his hands. He’d dabble in the water, ankle-deep, until too wet and cold, then come back for a change of clothes. I finally had to make a boundary of rocks to keep him out of the water for awhile. He didn’t cross the line, but he did move the rocks into the water! He caught several rainbow trout with his pole and we cooked them over a fire. I’m sure this is a memory he won’t soon forget.

New Dog

We found a small dog in California that fit our want list criteria, so we brought him back with us. We named him Mocha, but I keep calling him by my son's name which is similar. So we might yet need to change the dog's name again.
He's a 2 year old chihuahua mix. We think he's got schipperke and possibly terrier in that mix. FOr a chihuahua, he's amazingly quiet and calm, unless a group of junior highers is in our house - which happens every Monday night. He's pretty well potty trained. Except that BearHunter is gone for 10 days right now on outreach, so I'm the sole caretaker of dog, toddler, preschooler, woodstove, meals, and self! And our first morning I took him out right away for a pee, while I gathered some firewood. Then he pooped inside 15 minutes later....I should have waited for him to poop outside. His favorite toilet spot is the kids' room. Partly it's where we hang out the least, and mainly because he's peed there before and the scent is probably hanging around.

I never liked dogs. But my husband has loved them his whole life, sleeping with his dogs while growing up, etc. I had hoped to get some kind of animal companion for my son when we moved into our own place. And early this winter, I got the inner drive to research dogs. Hunting for the elusive perfect breed for our family. In any case, I think GOd was preparing me to get this dog, it seems He hand picked it for us. I just needed time to warm up to the idea and feel confident in the choice when we finally met him. We had only a few hours to decide if he would become ours. The dog was probably already in a shelter when my desire began. We found him at his second shelter, a non-kill location that saves animals off of death row.

He has turned out to be a great dog for us, considering all the potential problems we could have discovered with a used dog (that doesn't sound right, but he wasn't a puppy). And I'm thankful not to be dealing with a puppy's needs right now. My two human kids require much care and energy, a puppy would have sent me over the top or simply been neglected and poorly trained.

We received a lovely crib from friends in California. We got it set up in hte kids room. So we're one step more ready for when an adoption happens for us. We're just waiting on an Alaska mom to choose us. That's all in God's hands too. He'll have to provide the finances for it. But we strongly believe it's God's will and his leading for us to have come this far in the process.