Top 10 Reasons I Love Alaska

Every time I travel outside (of Alaska). I come up with more and more things I like about it here and why I don't want to move. I suppose I should add the caveat that this does not include Anchorage. Around here it mostly called "Los Anchorage" or "Ancaragua". But there are plenty of good folks in the "big city" and most of them I would choose over folks in the lower 48 cities.

1. In Alaska it's always light and you can see where you are walking, either because of the snow in the winter or the light in the summer.
2. In Alaska every trip to town gives you new scenery, the mountains, the change of season, the moose lurking by the road...and that's just a trip to the grocery store.
3. In Alaska everything is not overcrowded. You have to be willing to put up with the winter to live here, therefore, there is lots of room to move around.
4. In Alaska we have the right to conceal carry with out a permit.
5. In Alaska we have the best homeschooling rights in the country.
6. In Alaska there is plentiful natural resources and wildlife: buried in the ground, in the oceans, rivers and on land. You just have to know how to find it and harvest it.
7. In Alaska the children are tougher than most L48ers. Many have taken game and most have fished. And find a kid that dosen't own one or more of the following: ATV, pistol, rifle, bow & arrow, skiis or snowshoes.
8. In Alaska the men are men. They are self assured and even quite manly and those are attractive qualities in a man.
9. In Alaska the women are manly but don't try to be men. They put on their make up and earrings for date night and they throw on their Carhartts and Xtra Tuffs for the hunting and fishing. Give her a chainsaw and watch her go, give her a rifle and let her kill. (notice the men gives the woman these things...)
10. In Alaska life is not easy. You have to earn your keep, shape up or ship out, make it or break it, and all those other puns. It's a serious place for serious people that know how to work and play hard. My favorite part about Alaska is by far the people who proudly call this their home.

So, tell me, what keeps you in Alaska?

Some of the original adventurous spirits.

Master bedroom spring clean up

I'm a huge master bedroom offender. I make pile after pile in my bedroom until I can't stand it. Then I pile up more stuff until my husband goes on a bear hunt and I have to take care of it before he comes home.

I started out very slowly today around 3pm feeling very un-motivated, I watched the first episode of "Wartime Farm" (so good! I am in love with the whole Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Tales from the Green Valley, if you haven't watched them, look them up on youtube, especially if you have any love for farming or history). I didn't get too much done that first 2 hours, mostly put away all my clothes that I have been piling.

Today I put away:
10 sizes (multiples per size) of girl shoes, we tied them with ribbon and will sell them at the upcoming Country Fair.
2 of my suitcases from my trip in March.
Some of hubby's guns.
His gun cleaning kit.
Multiple laptop power cables.
Moved 3 old laptops.
A box full of sci-fi novels.
A king size quit for the Country Fair silent auction.
Church music and church books.
A tote full of camping gear.
I gave the girls 4 old bags or backpacks.
Multiple purses.
4 sewing/crocheting/cross stitch projects.
Giving away a pile of shirts I haven't worn in over a year and 3 old pairs of shoes.

My project overflowed into the hallway where I'm also trying to organize the bookshelf out there and started washing and putting away the winter gear. The project was fueled by my children's hunger for candy where they would do two "errands" then they could choose a candy they desired. I had lots of Easter candy.

I had my phone back (finally) and was able to take pictures, however I was only able to get a couple of the pictures on my computer that I wanted.

After 2 or 3 hours of working I thought to take a picture. 2 large piles are gone.

After 7 hours and not even putting fresh bedding on, I was finished.

My favorite view. I got this (new to me) milk glass light on Etsy when I was ordering lights for my girls.

Shriveled potatoes and really old eggs

Sounds appetizing right?

It's May and I still have 2 boxes of shriveled up potatoes that have started sprouting. They look unseemly, I hate to throw them out, but who wants to eat them that way? Well, I do, they are perfect for skin on-mashed potatoes.

Today hubby is making some pork ribs (using the 3, 2, 1 method) in the new smoker I encouraged him to purchase (more cooking for him means less cooking for me, and smoked meat? Yeah, baby.) Skin on potatoes sounded like a perfect fit.

I am so lazy when it comes to actually using potatoes. I don't like scrubbing them or peeling them. Fortunately, God gave me 6 healthy children, so they can do it, besides they eat them all, so I don't feel bad. Skin on are not my husband's favorite kind, so when they are fresher I concede and peel them, but the skin is where all the nutrients are in the potatoes, so I try to sneak in skin in recipes that call for taters. We have to fill our 8qt pot every time we make them, we still don't have leftovers.

Skin-on mashed potatoes

One pot full of potatoes
One stick Butter (or margarine or olive oil)
Salt & Pepper

Optional:
sour cream
cream cheese
dried minced onions
milk

Scrub the potatoes, fill up the pot as you go. Unload the potatoes and cut them up in to large pieces and take off any green that is on the potatoes (the green is from being exposed to light and makes them very bitter and I have heard that it is even poisonous, but that may be a wives tale). Also by May there seem to be more black spots inside the potatoes you need to cut out.

Put only about 4 inches of water in the bottom of your pot. My mother taught me to do it this way, you basically are steaming your potatoes instead of boiling them and leaching out the nutrients into the water.

Cook about 15 minutes, until they are fork tender.

Drain off most of the water, put in a stick of butter, cover the butter with potatoes and let the butter melt for 3 minutes or so. Add salt to taste (I added about 4tsp tonight), pepper (I added 1/2 tsp) and anything else you desire (I added a pint of sour cream tonight, they were really good.)

Mash, taste, adjust salt and pepper, serve hot.
OR
Put them in a 9x13 casserole and re-bake them for a potluck or for dinner the next day. When you re-bake them add more butter to the top and some paprika. Bake covered at 350 for 45 min, then uncovered for about 15 min. I do it this way when I'm going somewhere for Thanksgiving and I usually peel them for Thanksgiving and add the cream cheese and dried minced onions.

Here are my scrubbed, shriveled, soft potatoes being cut up for mashed potatoes.

Top are the potatoes cooking (lid on) and below are the eggs covered with water, lid off, watch them.

Ok, onto the month old "farm fresh" eggs, ha.

If you are Orthodox than you know why I have a plethora of eggs up to one month old. I have given some eggs away and sold some too, but I still have about 12 dozen eggs built up in my fridge. I haven't figured out how to tell my chickens that it's Lent, lay off for a bit... But as I HATE wasting food, it is my mission to find the best way to use month old eggs.

A cool way to tell if an egg is rotten or not is if it floats, if you have a floating egg throw it away. If it stands up on end, it's old, but not rotten. We eat those.

The best way to cook old eggs in my opinion is to make deviled eggs! You float them all in the water, hard boil them, make a bunch of hard boiled eggs, devil them and eat them at your potluck, then make more for snacks for your family. Most people say that the older the egg, the easier it is to peel. Mine should be quite easy to peel!!!

Basic Deviled Eggs, for 24 eggs (48 deviled eggs)

Hard boil eggs (you can reference the internet for more details on hard boiling eggs, but this is what I do):
Cover eggs with 2 inches or so of water, heat them on medium heat, I leave mine uncovered at first and check on them every 5-10 minutes.
When the water just barely starts to bubble, turn off heat and put the lid on the pan, set the timer for 18 minutes.
The other day I put the lid on for 22 minutes and they were overdone. I don't mind for deviled eggs, I'd rather them be overdone than underdone and it's easy to under cook this many eggs when they have all come out of the cold refrigerator. The mass of cold versus the mass of hot water won't let them cook properly, that's why I have started heating them more slowly, it causes the eggs to heat up with the water.

Cool in cold water with ice, wait 'till manageable or completely cooled. Cut eggs in half, pop yolks into a bowl.

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
4 tsp white vinegar
4 tsp mustard
milk if needed
pepper to taste
paprika

Whip ingredients with a fork, add milk if it's too thick. Taste it! Add salt if you need more. There are also other fun ingredients you could toss in, but when you're making so many eggs and they are good this way I don't go for fancy.

I used a little milk the other day because it was too dry. Then, the next day when I made more, I didn't need any. I also used a quart bag, folded down edges, filled bag with filling, cut the tip off the corner, and squeezed in a heaping portion into each half.

Sprinkle with paprika to make them pretty.

Here are the ribs hubby made today. They. Were. So. Good. I'm not a rib fan, but I'm a fan of these.

By the way, if you want to know if you can give your dogs cooked pork bones, you can't. They are like cooked chicken bones, they will splinter and they can kill them. :(

Roasted Rooster

I have been updating a few past blog posts, correcting mistakes, making them less annoying, etc.

I updated this post about getting seven free chickens one day with my favorite go-to roasted chicken recipe. Roasted may be the wrong word since it's covered for so long and basically steamed, but we love it. Hope you enjoy.

Roasted Hen, Rooster, Chicken, Game Bird, or anything you want to roast.

Holy Saturday, Hot Cross Buns

We enjoyed Holy Saturday liturgy this morning. I love this liturgy, it's maybe my favorite of the year. The colors have been changed from purple to white, vestments all white, alter cloth all white, the censor with the bells is brought back, Christ is almost risen. Father throws bay leaves and rose petals instead of incense. It's beautiful. We typically have bread and fruit after liturgy with coffee and wine and a few guests. I make hot cross buns using the Artoklasia bread recipe that we use in the Latia services. It's a delicious, fasting, sweet bread and top it with frosting, can't be beat. Today we had over only clergy and their families, it was fun to hear the men banter and tease each other and compare war stories of bad services and embarrassing moments with the Bishop. The women bonded a little more and my kids had fun playing with the babies that were visiting.

Artoklosia or Hot Cross Buns
Recipe adapted from "A Lenten Cookbook" from St. Nectarios Press, WA 1982

2pkgs. Compressed or dry yeast
1/2 cup water
3/4 c sugar (or brown)
2 t salt

Dilute yeast in 1/2 cup water. Add sugar, salt and stir. After yeast proofs add:

1/4 c oil (olive, vegetable, etc)
1 1/2 c water

Then mix together:

3 c flour
1 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg or cardamom or some other spice combo

Add flour and the spice to the liquid. Stir until the batter is smooth. Add:

2 1/2 - 3 cups flour

Mix until the dough is soft but firm. You want a soft dough, don't add too much flour.

If making Artoklosia divide dough into 5 parts and shape into 5 round loaves. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Use scissors to cut crosses in the tops of each loaf.

Hot Cross Buns do the same thing but divide into about 24-32 individual rolls place on 2 greased cookie sheets. Use scissors to cut crosses in the top of each bun.

Rise until double.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes for the large loaf and maybe 10 for the buns. Keep an eye on them, don't do like me and try baking them, then run back to church, then come home and find them overbaked. Not a great plan.

Remove from pans and cool on racks for 10 min. For the loaves brush tops with water mixed with honey or brown sugar. For the buns make some butter cream (or in my case almond milk/margarine) frosting glaze and glaze each bun with a cross. Be generous with your frosting, your guests won't mind. This recipe typically impresses most people (not when overbaked) and they go back for more. I have always used cinnamon, but this year our priest wife makes her Artolkasia with nutmeg and it's so yummy.

The 3 remaining buns from this morning. I used 1/2 wheat flour, but I would use less next time or more sugar or more frosting. They tasted too "healthy" to me.

No pictures, words will have to do...

Today I woke up earlier than normal.
The sun woke me up shining in my face.
Papa and son walked to Liturgy.
It was a crispy morning, the clouds hung low and snow was trying to fall.
The remaining six of us drove to church and attended Presanctified Liturgy.
Communion was served, the Holy Gospel was read, prostrations were made and we returned home.
I started a fire in the stove to give warmth to our toes and hearts.
Math had to be done, lessons had to be re-learned, tears were shed. School is not over, quite yet. Next week will be our Spring Break (during bright week) I love being able to set our home schedule around the Church's calendar.
Older son's hair needed cutting, he wanted to cut it himself, he did a great job.
Animals were fed, watered and milked. Eggs were collected, manure was shoveled.
Dishwasher loaded and emptied, rooms cleaned, island tidied, table cleared, messes made, messes picked up, always trying to stay ahead of those messes.
I'm making a skirt for Fran, I made sure it would fit and started hemming it, then the phone rang.
I started working, customers are waiting, facebook and pintrest grabbed my attention. Customers are still waiting.
Papa went to town, he has the week off for Holy Week, it is so nice.
Yesterday and today he: jumped the car and got it working, jumped the truck and got it going, checked the bees, finally went to the chiropractor, trimmed up the long hairs on son, ran an errand for me, read his book, bought a new battery for the car, worked on choosing a new electric smoker for his fish and meat projects, took a call from work, read books to the girls. I imagine he'll fix the 4wheeler next. I like it when he takes a week off of work.
We got another lamp for the girls room from the mail carrier today, we have the best mail lady in the world.
Sus went outside, she's tormenting chickens and cats. I love that we have cats and chickens for her to torment.
My neighbor and her six kids are out cutting their firewood logs with the chainsaw, splitting them with their mauls and hauling them inside. I am convinced God put her next to me to constantly humble me.
It's April 30th and it's snowing and I don't mind. I love Alaska and her surprises. I love the calmness that the weather on days like today bring with it.

Sneak Peak

I'm not sure how much I have talked about the "new girls room" on here. I haven't had my phone now for three weeks now (aka my camera, that's another long story about the repair shop being sold to a Russian man named Egor all while my phone was there being held hostage as I'd already paid half for the special order part that didn't end up getting shipped...doesn't really boost the confidence in the repair of said phone). During that first week of no camera is also when my builder friend had two days worth of time to dedicate to building us some built in beds in the little girls room. It just happened to coincide with the goat giving birth, the chicks coming and the bees arrival. Needless to say, that week was insanity.

I, like so many pintrest nuts out there, have been wanting built-in-bunks for a while now. I, not like so many others, have a really good excuse to build them (yay for having 6 kids, sometimes you get cool stuff). I have three girls crammed in one bedroom. They have been sharing two twin beds for the last two years. I have been saving up for this and finally hubby and I had had enough of the fighting and crying at bedtime. Something had to be done. This room is the largest kid bedroom but has weird quirks. There's the giant 5'x8' window on the north wall. It also has a basement bump out wall on two sides of the room. And the south wall has the closet all the way at one end and the door all the way at the other, thus eliminating the ability to put bunks on the door end. Ugh, I have thought long and hard about how to solve this room dilemma. I love the look of window seats, and that's what we would end up with in here, two separate window seat/beds built at the height of the bump out. The bottom two bunks would be shorter with no window and less head room, and they also would not have a base, the mattress must rest on the floor, but when it's your space, it's your space and it's still better than nothing. Also, since we only have 3 girls, there was no need for a fourth mattress, it's the perfect spot for the doll house, the extra dresser and, well, their junk.

After the room was painted all white (cut down on taping labor and time, all me) I had time to figure out what lamps I wanted in these 4 beds. Lowes had ugly wall mounted lamps for $42 each, so I easily settled on these hobnail milk glass wall lamps and just so happened to find 4 matching ones on Etsy the price was between $30-$50 each including shipping. The plan is to take some plain lampshades and doll them up with some cute bright pompom trim.

And remember the photo of the cute green chandelier with buttons? Well, I don't think mine is as cute, but it's cute. I spray painted our old "antique brass" one I'd gotten for the dining room (that was too small) and put it up in here. I also ordered the beads/buttons from a gal on Etsy. I'll add the bead necklaces as I find them around the house or as they break.

Notice the bunting in the background? Em loves to sew and she really loves sewing triangles. She did the bulk of the initial sewing and I finished them up on Friday. The vintage circus pictures came from the local antique store "Chickadees".

Here's a photo of the least messy bed (Fran's):

Eventually I'll have curtains up on the window, closet and on each bed. I'll also eventually get Sus her own big-girl-mattress and her own set of book shelves. I am ordering a mirror from the local gal who re-paints old pieces in super cute bright colors, I'll put that on the blank wall in the pic straight above.