Oregon Helpers-September

Steve and Jon arrived in the evening of  the first Saturday in September. They immediately went to work around the house and yard. 

Jon was intrigued with an aged welder dad had. He decided to fire it up and was rather impressed with how well it worked. Jon and Steve helped get things loaded that were sold and hauled stuff to the dump. 

Julie M-Ware was one of my staunchest helpers over the last years of taking care of mom and being north. She took several pieces of furniture, including mom's 'bell' cabinet. A glass cabinet that was probably purchased when I was in Junior High!  

Jon did some playing while he was at the house in North Kenai. He managed to get mom's old desktop running and the games on that were so much fun! Here he's playing one of the Sim games. Tumble Bugs was probably our favorite, though. 

We did get out a few times to the beaches. It wasn't exactly warm and it was generally after everything else was done! This day I hauled them off to Capt. Cook State Park. 

Mom had quite a few boxes and books of old mementos that smelled nasty with mildew. So, I took photos of the items instead of trying to keep them. They will comprise a whole post, I'm sure! 

The absolutely horrible car the guys rented in Anchorage. Steve had to fix it before it could even drive back to be returned!!! We didn't use it while it was on the Peninsula. 

One of the days was a stunning warm extremely low tide day. So, we went to the Kenai beach for an hour or so. Jon took some really neat photos, but oddly, I've not gotten those yet!! People were barefoot (even I did that after a while!), there were jelly fish, fascinating blobs of clay and pebbles, and cool looking rocks. 

A little who was fascinated by the neat things out and about on the beach. 

Jon spent a lot of time on the water. He took out an absolutely mouse ridden boat from the shop and hauled it out for a last float. After a few days, it did start to get water logged and sink, but it was good to see it out on the water. The little craft, from a distance, looked a bit like the small boat Cary Grant captained in 'Father Goose'. Up close, it was more USS Rodent! 

Spotty photo of Redoubt the Saturday they left. It was sort of funny. We had had a yard sale on Friday and a part of Saturday. Jon had wanted to see moose, but only got a glimpse of some through the trees in the yard. We stopped the sale in the afternoon, the guys left prior to the ending, and while I was outside eating lunch, a mom and calf walked right past the garage! In fact, I saw more moose that day than I'd seen most of the summer! 

Fur, Feathers, and Fabric (and a couple other photos!)

One of the prettier days when the mountains could be seen from Dad's bench. 

A VERY scruffy bull moose in the area. I first saw him and was certain he was a horse. Then, as the car got closer, I realised it was a mangy moose losing his winter coat! 

Sunset over by the Senior Center- 

 The bluff is in VERY bad shape.

While down by Arness Dock, I spied this very young eagle. Not immature, as it has it's adult plumage. But, he's a young adult! There was also one swooping over the lake the other day. 

The babies are being born!!! I spied a pair of twins near the yard this morning and last  night, I spotted this mamma and baby. They didn't stick around for photographs! 

The author I met at the Kenai Fabric Center. I'm holding her newest book (it was left at the fabric store!) and Patience Griffin is holding fabric created for the quilts in her novels. Follow the link to find out more! 

I went for a short walk when I got back to the house and found a LOT of mosquitoes. Jon asked if they were in force yet. Yes, Jonathan, they are! 

Steve sent this photo of Dorothy and Jon on Memorial Day. Notice how Jon has his arm around Grandma? Color me one impressed mom! 

Painted Skies

From the park near the Kenai Senior Center. (this first photo looks like I might have used a sunset setting, I didn't. Needless to say, Jonathan was NOT there to take pictures for me.)

About this time, my camera batteries died. So, I ran back to the car to change them out. Quite a bit of sunset happened while I was dithering around with batteries! 

About this time I noticed my hands were getting VERY cold and took a couple of photos with my cell phone. Crazy how frosting them in HS comes back to haunt years later. Took almost 10 min for my right thumb to actually warm up and stop burning with cold. 

Winter Claws

Mom and I thoroughly enjoyed the winter awning we had. Then, the claws appeared! 

 This is a fairly natural phenomena happens when winter combines with metal roofing. Jon, when I was telling him about these cool features, proceeded to explain exactly how they were formed. Or at least, it sounded plausible! There were distinct shades of Mr. Fairchild as he spoke...

The sunlight on the icicles reaching out to the house made them even more fun. 

 At the far end of the house, the icicles behaved themselves, for the most part. Hanging straight down, with very little curvature on their lengths. They were slipping out from under the awning.

At night, they were even more insistent about reaching out to touch the siding of the parsonage. 

They grew with the sun and hardened in the night. 

 After a while, some started to curve......

I had to remove some today. The ones hanging directly over the entry to the porch. When one of our friends stepped outside, I realised how close to her head they were. So, I broke them off and tossed them in the snow.  A couple of the more fantastic ones had became horns on the cyclops snow creature in the yard. 

I could sense someone crafting a frozen horror tale of  expanding winter fingers, creeping their way into houses and entering sleeping bodies with a cold, chill pointed death. Only to disappear in the morning sun. A tale of winter's last breath before the warmth of spring. If someone does write this, please let me know, I'd love to read it!!!