More progress...

It has been a good week, here in interior Alaska!

Needless to say, progress has continued just not as fast as it did over the weekend.  In fact, Monday was a down day.  I watched the Daytona 500 that ended with the horrific crash by Ryan Newman.  I felt bad for the winner as he was unsure of how to celebrate.  And I felt bad for the young drivers who were also involved in the crash as they appeared really shaken by what had happened.

Tuesday and Wednesday were shopping days.  Rob is staying with me this week since Kate is in California.  So I have someone to cook for which is fun.  I got things so I could try new recipes.  Nothing like having a guinea pig in the house! 

I feel like I am constantly cleaning up and organizing.  It is draining and fulfilling all at the same time.  But I am looking forward to doing some sewing, now that I have found my good sewing stuff.  I also know that I need to get other things done first.  I think it goes back to having to get my homework done before having fun!!

One of the things we came across was a large box of bathroom stuff.  It was basically stuff that had come out of the linen closet and the small cabinet that I had in the bathroom in Parkesburg.  The storage in my new bathroom was already full.  It was not quite as much storage as I had in Parkesburg.  So, I ordered another little cabinet from Amazon to put in an unused corner of the bathroom.  It arrived on Friday, so I spent the day putting the cabinet together, sorting through the box and finding spots for everything.  I rearranged where things are living and I have been able to have a couple of things on top that I did not have space for, so I am pleased with the results.

This is my bathroom on the lower level.  It has been recently updated.  The little cabinet fit right in that little corner.  I have my apothecary jar with bar soap in it so the soap dries out a little and lasts longer in the shower.

Closeup of the cabinet.

This is my shower stall.  It is a tad on the small side.  But anything too big seems a waste of space to me.  It works for me.  The tiny glimpse of the door to the right goes into the sauna.  I have not yet used it.  This was not a feature on my wish list when we were house hunting, but it came with this house.

I am going back in time in the near future.  When the Nintendo Wii came out, Rudy and I got one.  It was such fun to bowl, play carnival games, fish, etc.  But one of the most fun things I did was to play Animal Crossings.  It was a delightful game where I assumed a character who built a home, watered flowers, earned bells that allowed my character (Ginger) to upgrade her house and buy clothes and furnishings.  But the fun thing was that via the Wii Speak I could go to visit my friend's (Marji and Debby) village and we could each be at our homes, but together in the game.

In time, we all got busy, life happened and then Wii disabled the Speak device.  I gave my Wii sets away... one to a friend and one on my free table as I was preparing to move here.

After getting into the house here and getting the kitchen up and running, I began thinking about what I wanted to have in the house to make my days in Alaska fun.  I thought about getting a new game console, but I just was not happy with the games on the Xbox or the Playstation.  The games were too dark or too violent or too sports themed.  But Nintendo has the Nintendo Switch console.  it is a small screen, handheld console with controls on either side.  The games are geared more to kids, cartoony, less violent and thinking.  You can also connect it to your TV, so instead of a tiny screen, your screen is only limited to the size of your TV.  And, in doing my research, I found that this coming March, they are releasing a new version of Animal Crossings.

Since Christmas, when I bought my Nintendo Switch, I have been adding controllers, buying a game or two and have pre-ordered Animal Crossings.  If any of you are interested in the Animal Crossings game, here is a link to the Nintendo release of the new game information,  I watched it and it brought back such fun memories.  I am so anxious to get my hands on the game.  And I am hoping that I can once again find friends to visit and who will visit me.  If not, I will still enjoy playing the game on my private island.

For the last two days, I have been using water and electricity like crazy.  I needed to wash all of the towels and bedding that we found over the weekend.  I have also been cooking more, with Rob in the house, so the dishwasher has run almost daily... yesterday it ran twice.  I love, love, love having a dishwasher.  It allows my kitchen to stay neater, tidy and ready for cooking.  About the only bad thing is that I am still learning where I put things when I set up the kitchen.  But having recently touched every item in the kitchen, I know that it is at least in the house, so I can just keep looking until I find what I need.

We have been enjoying above zero temps for almost a week.  There has been some snow shedding, but when I have been outside, I can wander around in just a simple hoodie and not feel cold at all.  It is amazing how warm 25 above feels after 35 below!!

It is also amazing to see the roads that I now drive on compared to what I would not have driven on in Parkesburg.  Now I have mentioned before... I think... that when it gets as cold as it does here in Alaska, they cannot use salt as it stops working when it is too cold.  So the road crew here just plow and scrape.  Many evenings, you will find groups of road graders out literally scraping the hard-packed snow of the main highways.  I had assumed that as the winter moved along, the snow would pile up on the highways.  I have been delighted to see the color of the asphalt showing on many of the main roads.  Intersections are dicey.  With traffic crisscrossing, they might have hard-pack that is not able to be scraped all the way down. So they can test my traction-control on Miss Gaddy.  But the roads that are not main roads will have a layer of hard-pack that does not go away.  I have found that with studded tires, I can easily maneuver those roads.  You do not speed, you do not rabbit start, and you anticipate the need to stop, but I have stopped fearing going out on roads that would have had me staying home in Parkesburg.  You learn to do what you need to do!  Not that I am a seasoned Alaskan driver, but I am doing just fine for the length of time I have been here.

I hope you have a nice weekend.  I will be doing more sorting, putting away and all.  Chat at you later.

We kicked butt...

Let me tell you, Rob and I kicked butt this weekend.  Rob worked his heart out all weekend long so that I can get some of the things inside and sorted and have more things ready to be put away.

We did a great deal before I posted yesterday's blog, but Rob had a burst of energy later in the evening and started digging into boxes before we called it a night.

We started before the Daytona 500 was running this morning, but the race was rained out, so we had just continued to go through things waiting for the race to get going.  Rob had organized the shelves on the far wall last night.  Today we opened each and every box.  Some boxes we emptied, some we piled in the back of the garage and some we removed some things and consolidated others.  We found printers and DVD/Bluray players.  We found the top thread holder to the embroidery machine and the table for the Singer.  We found fabric and projects.  We found jewelry making supplies, watercolor supplies and my bling bag.  We found scissors and more rotary cutters.  We found many more rulers... who knew I had so many.

My hip had stopped screaming this morning and Rob did most of the bending so I would not irritate it anymore today.  He opened, we looked and I directed where the things should go.  I would move some things around and put things away as Rob continued to unbox.  

In the end, we cleared out the spot that my car will be in tonight. This is what the garage looked like when we were done for the day with things stacked up to be done at a later date and with the rooms inside cluttered once again,  But the garage looks like this now...

This is the view from the door into my bedroom.  As you can see, the wall of boxes is gone.  All of the large wardrobe boxes have been opened and emptied.  The boxes on the left, in front of the brown garage door, are empty and filled with the newsprint that things were wrapped in.  In front of those is a new stack of broken-down boxes.

This is now looking at the back of the garage. There is a woodworking bench under the boxes.  Boxes are on top of the bench and in front of the desk, but these are the only boxes that remain stacked.  They have, however, been opened and the contents looked at.  These boxes will need to be done after I get the stuff we brought into the house put away.  The brown on the right is the side door to the garage.

This is a closeup of the empty boxes with paper stuffed in them and you can see the top of the pile of broken-down boxes,  The snowblower, and the lawnmower are there waiting for the next snow or spring... whichever comes first.

These built-in shelves have been reorganized by Rob and the contents of many project/fabric boxes have been placed on them.  They will remain there until I get the stuff inside settled and then I will go over all of the project/fabric boxes and get them set up in a more organized fashion.

This desk is along the other side of the garage.  It was covered with stuff from when I first arrived before the moving van arrived.  We cleared it iff up to the bottled water and I have small project & fabric totes there too.  These will get mixed in with the others as I sort through things.

There are a couple of boxes at the end of that table, close to the door I use to get into the house.  They are marked Xmas.  But we will go through them before storing them away.  We have opened a couple of them marked Xmas, but it was only a small bag of bows and then nothing else related to Christmas.

Be sure to go back to yesterday's blog to see how it looked when we started.

We are tired, but Rob did most of the bending and lifting today, so my hip is no longer screaming.  I will have a lot of things to put away this week, but the progress feels really good.

Have a wonderful President's Day and week beyond!!

There may be light at the end of the tunnel....

Friday was a really fun day.  I got up and headed to the Quilt-In at St. Raphaels by 9:30 AM.  I had the back of Miss Gaddy packed with the trash in bags that was the result of a two-week collection.  Many of you know that I have always hated trash collection since Rudy died.  It was a job that we had always shared and I really hated having to do the whole thing, to have the garbage out each week on Tuesday night for a Wednesday morning pickup.  Here, the North Star Borough does not have trash pickup but we can take our garbage to a transfer station, at no cost, any day that we choose during the hours they are opened.  So I am free to take my trash on whatever day I feel like taking it and I can drop it off first thing before going to other appointments, shopping or events.  I stopped there on my way to sewing.

The wonderful thing about a 2-day sewing event is that the first day you lug your stuff to sew, but at the end of that day you can just take your purse, coats and lunch stuff home and leave your sewing machines set up with your projects so you can arrive the next day and just sit down to begin where you left off.  So I was able to do the trash on Friday as my car was empty of cargo.

Friday I took my camera to the event.  I know that my Sew Much Love ladies are wondering what I find when I sew with my new friends, here in Fairbanks.  So, here are some pictures...

This is one of the projects that was on the floor being looked at and adjusted for color.  Tammy, the lady who invited me, is doing this from scraps that she has accumulated.  She did some sewing on it after I took the picture.

These are three of the tables that were set up for sewing.  The one closest is for Marie.  She is Tammy's daughter.  She is also working on a scrappy quilt, although she was working in the church office when I took the picture.  The table next to hers is where Tammy was sewing.  The last table is Camille.  She lives in the same subdivision that I am living in.  She is working on a very complicated, applique quilt for a family member.  I think it was to have been a Christmas Quilt.  She was working on it the first time I went in the fall and is still doing it.  It is lovely and she is fussing with borders now.  I am hoping to get a picture of it finished.  It is a pattern from a magazine and Camille says, never again!!

This is the cutting table.  They use PVC pipes on all four legs to bring it up to cutting height.  In the background, you can see the single ironing board.  On Friday they added padding to the ironing board making it a much better surface than it had been.  I will be bringing my little, personal board.... as soon as I uncover the one that is still in the box.  I have found the loose one that was in my sewing room, but no clamps yet.

This is Camille working on her project.  She has a Janome, but it was giving her some issues on Friday.  Of course, it did not help that she had taken her first Yoga class the day before and was a tad sore.

This is a little six-panel quilt.  The children who are doing 1st Communion each make a block.  Tammy squares them up, adds sashing then makes the quilt sandwich and quilts it.  There are several on the walls of the room we use.

These are double tables that are set up and Friday there was a third one added for projects to be laid out on.  Tammy is on the left and on the right is Lynne (her first day with the group).  They were folding bulletins for the Sunday service.  The church Secretary, Nancy, was in Hawaii for a quilting retreat.

This is a picture of the project I have been working on for the last three sessions.  It will be a really springy heart quilt that Jenny Doan (MSQC) did several weeks ago for her tutorial.  It is all charm packs and I was able to find what I needed to do this one in the boxes that have been unpacked.  It is going to be very light and pretty.

This was my table.  I was working on one of the big 25 patch blocks.  There are 9 of them in the quilt.

I left around 2 PM, a little earlier than I usually leave, but Rob had texted that he was heading to the house to take a load of cardboard to the recycle center and I thought I should be there to help.

I got home to find he had already come and gone.  The cardboard was greatly reduced, making the garage look much larger.  Rob returned and we talked about dinner.  He had suggested going to Ivory Jacks as Friday is prime rib night.  But it was also Valentine's Day.  So Rob called to check times and availability thus we headed to Ivory Jacks for a 5 PM dinner.  Check the link for their website.

We each ordered Prime Rib with Fried Shrimp.  Rob had mushroom soup and I had New England Clam Chowder that was to die for...!

Rob took a picture of his meal before he began eating.  I just dug in.  But here is the picture that Rob took...

I have had this meal here before and it did not disappoint.  So nice to know where I can go to get a great Prime Rib dinner since I can no longer get to Shadymaple!!

We came to the house and watched the NASCAR Truck race from Daytona.  The race had been run while we were doing other things, but SlingTV, who is my TV provider, added 10 hours of DVR to my package, so we recorded it and watched it when we were ready.  (We did the same thing for the Xfinity NASCAR race today.)

This morning we woke up to 30 below.  Rob has been having issues with his new car in this really cold temperature.  He had already loaded the remaining cardboard into his car, but when he started it, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree, so we moved the cardboard into my car took the remaining broken down boxes to the recycle center.  It was easy and free and gave us a lot of room to make some dents into the remaining box pile.

So upon returning, I left my car out in the cold and we closed the garage door, left the door into the house propped open and began to tackle the boxes.  Little by little, we opened boxes, unwrapped things from the newsprint and guided them to the rooms they needed to go to.  The boxes are "marked" but what is written is not always what is inside.

I found my big Singer sewing machine but not the table that attaches to it.  I found the majority of my rulers and templates.  I found rotary cutters.  I found most of my Accuquilt dies but not the machine.  I found two more boxes of bathroom stuff, so I have more than enough towels and hand towels.  The table that we cleared is covered with totes full of fabric and projects and we have not yet opened all of the boxes marked "totes".

We found more tools and the air compressor.  Rob moved the big parts of the quilt frame out to the woodshed so we can get to some of the built-in shelving in the garage.  This will allow me to organize the craft supplies in a better way and perhaps even some other things there.  But we have not yet gotten all of the boxes opened yet.

Tomorrow we will go slowly.  Rob is still fighting a cold and all of the bending and moving has my right hip screaming again,  So we will watch the Daytona 500 live and then get back to the unpacking.  But we made great strides.  There is now, a light at the end of the tunnel and I no longer have the feeling of being overwhelmed.  The end is in sight and I will be getting into a more normal lifestyle.  I will take some more pictures of our progress at the end of the day tomorrow.

BTW, it is almost getting to normal light.  Driving to sewing this week was in daylight and not just dusky light.  Last night, when we drove home from dinner around 6:30 PM, there were still lights showing behind the hills.  It will be up to 25 ABOVE on Tuesday and that is because the sun is getting higher and higher in the sky.  So, I think I have made it through my first Alaskan darkness and it was not bad at all.

I hope you are having a good weekend.

Looking for a weekend of progress...

I have been running an infirmary here all week long.  Kate came down with a cold at the end of last week.  She still appeared at game night (it was here at the house) on Saturday night.  Rob was beginning to show signs of coming down with it too, so after all of our guests left, they packed up their car and headed home to sleep in their own beds. 

It was one of the stranger game nights.  Friday evening our normal host texted to see if anyone else could host.  They had been having real issues at their home/store with water pipes having leaked and being broken in several places.  We could still go, but we could not use the bathroom.  So I checked with Rob and we volunteered to have everyone here.

On Saturday, our host texted me to see if we had a working dishwasher.  They had several days of unwashed dishes and would like to get them cleaned up.  I told her... sure, bring them over.  Then I also told her that if she wanted to bring bath items, that she and her family were welcome to freshen up.  She and her teenage daughter took us up on the offer and showered before heading home.

Upon arrival at our house, the other family also had suffered burst pipes at their house and were without water.  I have also been listening to the local scanner and hearing many burst pipes scenarios.  When you are dealing with sub-zero temperatures, you have to make sure that your house, your heating systems, and water systems are in the best shape possible.  And this has been a record-breaking stretch of sub-zero temps, so many places are just not coping well in the weather.

Sunday was a quiet day.  Rob and Kate slept and kept their cold germs at home.  I chilled and watched TV.  NASCAR is getting ready to start (this Sunday is the Daytona 500!) so I watched the prep for that event.  

I also got started watching "Next In Fashion", a new series on Netflix.  Rob and Kate had been watching, so I started after the Sunday race.  It only has 10 or 11 episodes and is a reality show dealing with fashion design and sewing.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  I stayed up until 1:30 AM Monday before turning it off and finished the series Monday morning.

I saw Rob come into the house early Monday morning.  I thought he had forgotten something that he needed for work.  When I finally got moving, I spent most of the day on my level, thinking that I was alone.  You can imagine how surprised I was when Rob came down the stairs around 2 PM to say 'hi'.  Turns out that Kate had dropped him off.  He was in full-blown 'sick' mode and had just gone to his room and fallen asleep.  He and Kate had Tai Chi Monday night, so Kate came after work and picked him up, they went to Tai Chi and then she took him home.

Tuesday Rob returned to the infirmary.  I, at least, knew that he was in the house this time.  I just puttered around in the lower level.  I did wash their sheets to try to get rid of germs in the house.  He was working on his computer.  His sore throat was getting less hurtful but his snotting and coughing were not giving up.  He picked Kate up after work and headed home.  Wednesday he had hoped to be well enough to go to work, but alas, he returned to the Rudewick Infirmary.  The sore throat was gone and he had a tad more energy, so I think the worst is over.  We had hung two coat racks in the landing on Tuesday and Wednesday we did some work in the garage to get ready for the weekend.

Earlier in the week, I got an email from my sewing group.  They had changed the schedule from what I had in my calendar.  We were going to be meeting Thursday and Friday of this week and NOT next week.  Then we have two days at the end of the month.  So I packed up my Janome and the parts and pieces of a Valentine's Heart quilt top to spend two glorious days sewing with the ladies at St Raphael's Quilting group.  I received a text from Tammy asking me to pick her up if I could.  Her husband's truck would not start (it was 35 below at 9:00 AM today) so he had to take her car for a class he was teaching at Eielson Air Force base at 8:00 AM.  So I stopped there and picked her up.  Her hubby would pick her up in the afternoon.  I worked on the heart quilt, using all charm squares, all day.  I should finish the flimsy finished tomorrow. 

Kate is heading to California tonight.  She will be spending a couple of days with her parents and her brother and his wife before heading to San Diego for a week.  Rob will be staying here over the weekend and we are going to be working in the boxes that remain in the garage.

This is the pile of broken-down boxes from everything that I have opened and found homes for thus far.  It is not all of them as I have taken a few to the transfer station.  Saturday we will be loading them in the back of our two cars and taking them to the recycling center.  They are just getting in the way.

This right outside my bedroom door.  You can see my car just beyond the pile.  They are stacked from the floor and as high as they can go without falling.

The appliance is the trash compactor from my kitchen.  The built-in one in the kitchen does not work, so we have this one plugged to compact trash, should we need to.

The pile is two piles.  It is a lot of boxes.

This is taken from the front of my car.  It shows the best, the number of boxes I have already opened and gone through.

It will be nice to have them gone!!!

I turned the other way from the picture above.  These are some of the boxes that remain to be opened.  The majority of these are sewing projects and fabric.  There is probably one more kitchen box, a couple of bathroom boxes but the majority is from my sewing stuff in the basement.

This is from the other side of my car at the front of the garage.  I have a small space for the lawnmower and the snowblower (under the packing blanket).  Some craft stuff has already gotten to shelves, but it all needs to be sorted and consolidated.

This is taken through from the snowblower.  It is packed solid.

This close to the side door on the garage.  We had to make room in this corner when they delivered the generator.  But it hardly made a dent.

I held the camera up so you could see that some of the boxes go almost to the ceiling.

Yes, we have a lot to do.  Rob and I hope to make a nice dent in this Saturday and Sunday.  We will also have to take time to check in on the Daytona 500.  Nice to have NASCAR back on a schedule!

Have a great weekend and I will let you know how well or not so well we did in getting things unboxed.

Finally, more than flurries

If you were to look outside through my front window, you will see an accumulation of snow that would have been seen after a major snowstorm that might have fallen in Eastern PA.  But with the always cold temperatures here in the interior of Alaska, any snow that falls... stays!

In the time that I have been here, the most that I have seen has been only an inch or so.  Well yesterday, there was close to four inches that had fallen overnight and into the early daylight hours.  It added to the flurry accumulation of about 2 inches, so I got to blow my driveway with close to a total of 6 inches.  The snowblower did a nice job of blowing the fluffy stuff off of the snowpack that is on my driveway and it was easier to see where I had blown it off than it has been the last several times I have cleared my driveway.

And I must be getting the entire process down pat.  I blew the entire driveway, including the pathway to my mailbox, AND shoveled the steps to the front door in about an hour and 10 minutes.  The first time I did it myself it took 2 hours just to do the driveway with no shoveling.  Yay, Jane!!!

This week I met my new Dermatologist, Maren Gaul, D.O.  She was young but did not remind me of Doogie Houser.  She was thorough and froze a couple of pre-cancerous areas on my face.  It seems that I am paying for all of the 'healthy tans' and nasty sunburns of my youth.  I also have a slew of other non-cancerous growths that have been and continue to appear all over my body.  Because of what Medicare pays for or does not pay for, these will remain as her fees for a simple extraction, removal and freezing make it too expensive for the sake of vanity.  But I will go to her for my annual check-up or when I notice any blatant changes in my skin. 

I continue to get my lower level space set up to serve my needs.  I was finding that while I was able to make coffee in the craft room, I needed to add a few things to help me eat better.  I found that I was not eating breakfast as often as I should, so the first thing I added was a hot water pot.  This is a glass pitcher that inserts into a base that will heat just water for hot tea or to add into quick oatmeal, etc.  I can select different temps and it heats in just a minute or two.  So now I have a selection of teas as well as K-Cups for my sipping pleasure.

I have a small microwave.  It is the one that was left in this kitchen.  But it was not very big and I replaced the one in the kitchen with a bigger one that has more options for cooking.  The small one works perfectly down here to reheat food or to keep my coffee or tea warm during a morning of slow sipping.  I also use it for popcorn when I am peckish in the evening or for those muffins in a mug things for breakfast.  It also cooks a mean bowl of oatmeal.  I have all of the plastic ware that I had in the car for the trip across the country down here for when I need it.  I also have some paper plates and bowls when I do not want to deal with cleaning dishes.

I also have some plastic glassware here.  I have several stemless wine glasses.  It protects me from breaking them here where I will be creating.  I have a large bottle of red wine... my cousin introduced me to it as I do not usually drink red wines.  I also have a bottle of single malt Scotch... I learned to drink Scotch when I was an aide to a State Representative in Delaware many, many years ago.  Finally, I have a bottle of Fireball Whiskey.  I have been hearing a great deal about this liquor, so I got a bottle to try and I really like a shot of it once in a while. It has a lovely cinnamon undertone and I enjoy a shot just before I head to bed.  I found some lovely real glass smallish glasses at Value Village, a thrift store here in Fairbanks.  They have a heavy bottom and there were four of them in the group in different colors.  "Carnival" was etched in the glass so I am assuming that they were a cruise souvenir from a vacation that someone did not want to pack up and move back to the lower 48.  The amount of Fireball is perfect for a couple of swigs before bed.

There has been a warmup of sorts in the past week.  We had temperatures well above zero.  Nothing above freezing, but it felt downright balmy.  The only issue that one has when it gets that warm is the shedding of snow from the wires and trees.  You saw the video in the previous blog.  It can be a large amount of snow falling in a small area very fast.  This last week, the power has gone out and come back on very quickly as snow fell from overhead wires or from trees across wires.  One morning it went off and came right back on three times within 10 minutes.  So far it has just been a nuisance outage, but it certainly makes me happy to have my generator in the garage and the external, whole-house plug installed, just in case.  I would not want to be without power when it is 40 below.

I have had several friends tell me that they are planning to come to visit during the summer, here in Alaska.  Sheila has already started looking at airline fares for her trip.  She found that the March flights are listed as quite costly.  She also asked about the preferred airline for coming to Alaska.  Not surprisingly, the best Airline for getting to Alaska is Alaska Airlines.  They fly out of most big cities, including Philadelphia.  Most of the flights from Philly will leave during the day and arrive here in Fairbanks around 1:00 AM to 2:30 AM.  It is OK.  Now that I live here, I am aware of that time and will happily pick you up at the airport and get you settled here in the house where you can catch a few winks before starting your visit.  I am only about 10 minutes from the airport and with just a few gates (the last I counted was 3 regularly used gates) you will be in and out quickly.  Sheila had noted that there were some cheap flights showing in June.  I asked people who have lived here longer than me and they said that these flights will increase in price as summer approaches.  Summer is cruise season.  There is a "Land/Sea" cruise that either starts in Fairbanks or ends in Fairbanks.  The cruise participants are on the sea, then on a train from Anchorage to Fairbanks and then fly home, or vice versa.  So busloads of people can arrive at the airport to fly home during the summer.  That can fill up a flight quickly.  So, if you are thinking about coming to visit me, you might want to start checking Alaska Air flights and snag one before they get really pricey.

 Rob is here again today.  He was dropped off yesterday.  Both he and Kate have colds.  Kate is at work.  She dropped Rob off yesterday.  I knew he had come into the house from the motion alerts on the one camera that watches the yard.  I thought he had forgotten something from when they were here on Saturday.  Imagine how surprised I was when he came downstairs in the afternoon after he slept the morning in the bedroom upstairs.  He is here today, still stuffy, but working from home.  I will be blowing snow shortly.  There is quite a bit of snow on the snowpack again.  The only issue us that it is once again well below zero.  Google says it is 25 below at this hour.  But it needs to be done.  Keeps me active and should the sun come out, I will get some valuable vitamin D.

So, have a great day.  I will be marching up and down my driveway!  Days like this get me close to my 10,000 steps each day.  No matter how many hours it takes, the number of steps is a shade over 6,000 to do the driveway.

One Month later....

It has been quite awhile since I have posted... I know, I know!!  But life has gotten mundane.  I get up, coffee, feed the dogs, watch some TV, open boxes, put stuff away.  Sometimes I get tired of doing that and I go do a little shopping.  I add things to the house to make it easier/nicer to live here.

And then there is the normal living stuff, cooking, cleaning, laundry... and that can put an end to the momentum of unpacking.

The one room that is left in a state of disrepair is the craft room.  The desktop computer is set up.  I have my laptop on the small, portable table that I had in the living room in Parkesburg.  I can use the laptop while I watch TV in the entertainment corner of the craft room.  That corner has my new 55" Roku TV with a soundbar, the round end table that belonged to my parents, then my new electric lift recliner and then the cabinet sewing machine that Susie Jackson gave me at Indian Acres.  I am using it as an end table but can quickly change it into sewing mode.  It is an old workhorse, metal, manual sewing machine that I enjoy sewing on from time to time.

For Christmas I got my youngest son, Brian, a Portal TV and I got one for myself.  It allows me to make video calls, using either Facebook Messenger or the Whatsapp app on your phone to do video chats on my 55" TV.  I have connected with some of you.  Some of you I have tried, but gotten no answer.  But if you ever want to see my ugly mug for a face to face chat, text me and we can arrange a time for me to call you on my TV.  If you have a Portal product, let me know.  It is really, really cool!!!

I have my cutting table set up in the craft room and I have found all of my cutting mats.  The movers had packed them in some of the picture boxes and made sure they did not bend.  Good job, Patrick and crew.  I have NOT found my rulers and templates.  And only one or two rotary cutters have appeared.  These things are in one of the many boxes that remain in the garage.  

I made a dent in the back of the garage.  I now have a Honda generator in the garage that will power my entire house.  During the warmer weather it will not be that essential, but when temps get to -30 to - 50 below, you do not want to be without a furnace running for too long.  Rob had made room initially but the generator was delayed in getting up from the lower 48, so I continued working in that corner.  It does not look like I have done much, until you get back to that corner.

I have NOT found my big Singer sewing machine.  But I do have my Janome and my black Featherweight.  I have my serger.  It was in one of the boxes in the back corner.  I have it sitting on the counter top as that will not vibrate as much as a freestanding table.  The only problem is that whoever packed the serger, did not pack the power cord in the same box... not the best plan, Patrick and crew!!  But it is set up and ready to go when I find the cord.

I have the sewing table from the basement set up and waiting for the big Singer.  I have one of the small ironing boards that clamp to that table... but no clamps... they are in one of the boxes.  No little iron, either, and there are two of them in the boxes, somewhere.  None of my good spray bottles.  No bobbins for either the Singer or the Janome.  I have been taking the Janome to the "Quilt-Ins" at St Raphaels Church.  I have to either find projects that use the same color thread or unwrap thread from the one bobbin I do have.  Again, I have to have 200+ bobbins somewhere in the boxes!!  I did find my containers of cotton, colored threads, so I at least have thread to use.

I have been Alexa-ing and Googling my home.  I really missed having the ability to run my house with voice controls.  It is amazing how lazy one gets and how used you are to doing things by voice commands.  Each day I can add a routine to the system so I can turn on or off different lights or appliances.  I have even set up an iRobot vacuum so I can start it from the lower level to run in the upper level.  The upper level is where Rob and Kate stay when they spend the night.  The kitchen is there and the Living Room and Dining Room.  It is the level that my visitors will stay on when any of you decide to check off that bucket list item to visit Alaska.  I am trying to keep the clutter off that floor and have it neat and cleaned so that if company should come to visit, it is ready for company!  Kate has a Knitting group that meets every Sunday and she may want to invite them to come to the new house at some point and I want Kate to be proud of the place.  And my mess would be out of sight, unless they want a tour.  So I am trying to get this organized and less cluttered.  But doing it all by myself, it is going to take time.

I am still looking for the top of Happy, my embroidery machine.  I had to remove it for transport.  It is in one of the boxes in the garage.  See what I mean about being really boring!!

I also have to admit, that while I am enjoying getting settled into the nicest home I have ever lived in, exploring Fairbanks and meeting a few new people.... I have been missing all of my friends and family back in Parkesburg/Chester County/Elkton/Newark, Middletown.  I miss the occasional call from Patty to see if we can go shopping or deliver blankets to MCC.  I miss Marji.. we still talk several times a week, but I can no longer drop down to her house for a badly needed hug.  I miss Sheila.  We would have the occasional meal together and seeing her at church every week was a blessing to me.  I miss my church family.  It was a comfort to see everyone each Sunday, catch up on their lives and I miss helping with the service.  Doing the A/V system challenged my mind as I attempted to make the presentations better each Sunday.  I miss Debby, MA, Sharon and Mary, my Indian Acres friends or red hatters.  We did not talk often, they have busy lives, but we did manage to visit from time to time and I loved that.  I miss Sew Much Love and all of the ladies who came to help out with our charity projects and learn a craft or two.  I miss plans to travel with many of these ladies either to Fancy Gap or OBX.  We had not done it in a while, but I will not be doing any road trips like I did in the past as I have to travel hours to get to another city to visit.  My life has changed a lot in that regard.

I have been visiting some local churches.  I am hoping to find a church home similar to the closeness and feeling of family that was Parkesburg Mennonite.  Several weeks ago I visited Journey Christian Church.  It is close to my house which I liked.  It is in a new building that houses a Rescue facility that they sponsor.  According to the bulletin, the Sunday before I visited, they had close to 200 in attendance.  The service was to start at 10 AM.  I parked my car and walked into the building.  I was greeted by a lady who welcomed me as she was taking off her coat.  Then a young man gave me the bulletin as I headed to the large room with many chairs.  There were a few conversations going on out in the hallway.  There was a stage and some musicians preparing to play and sing.  People were wandering in and finding seats.  At exactly 10 AM the people on the stage began playing and singing hymns.  There were no hymnals in the room, no Bibles, either.  The words were projected on a large screen overhead.  The hymns ran from one into another into another with not a breath in between.  This happened for close to 30 minutes... or so it seemed.  During this time people continued to dribble into the hall and find seats.

Finally a young man stood up and spoke.  He seemed nervous.  He was quoting scripture and talking about Communion.  When he finished, Communion was delivered to the entire congregation with the bread (cracker pieces) and wine (grape juice) being passed along the rows of the congregation.  A couple of songs while that happened then the minister stepped up.  He had a nice sermon, a few of the points applied to my current state.  But he spoke for quite a while.  He finally stopped, a little more singing as the money was collected.  THEN another gentleman stepped up to go over announcements (the bulletin was 8 pages) and a few others also rose to make announcements or clarifications.  This church has no shortage of small groups during the week.  Finally, a tad before noon, we were dismissed.  Yikes!

I will not be going back.  The entire time I saw families come in and sit together.  I saw young couples come in and sit in pairs.  I saw many singles come in and sit all alone.  Once in awhile, there would be a nod of acknowledgement.  But no interactions.... not one.  At the end, everyone booked for the door when dismissed.  No one said a word to me other than the first 2.  I filled out the new attendee card with address and phone.  Nary a phone call.  Not a knock at my door.  Not going to be my church family!!

Yesterday I went to mass at St Raphaels Church where I have been going for sewing with some nice ladies since I arrived.  I figured that at least I would see some friendly faces.  And I did.  Nancy, the church secretary and quilter, came to me and said "hi" and we chatted for a bit.  She is heading to Hawaii this week for a quilting retreat.  I also saw Marie and her family and Camille (who lives in my neighborhood).  Marie acknowledged me, but Camille sat alone.  It has been some time since I have been to a Catholic Mass.  It has changed quite a bit.  This one had children singing, playing instruments and collecting the offering.  There were a couple of unhappy babies.  I am not used to that.  St Raphaels is the farthest from my house that I want to travel... so my search will continue.

Let's talk COLD.  My first Alaskan winter and Fairbanks is experiencing one of the longest stretches of below zero cold in many years.  Today it is currently 7 degrees... ABOVE ZERO.  This is the first day since before Christmas that I woke up to temperatures above zero.  Many mornings Alexa has told me that it is -30 degrees or colder when I woke up.  Sometimes that was the high temp for the day!  The dogs have not been outside in weeks.  Temps below -20 would burn their paw pads in just a minute, so they have been learning to use their pee pads.  I may have to take them out today so they can stretch their legs.

So far the snow fall has come in dribs and drabs.  It flurries almost daily.  Sometimes the snow falls more steadily.  But rarely more than an inch or so.  I have not blown snow for a couple of weeks.  We are scheduled for more sustained snow tomorrow, so I may be blowing on Wednesday before my appointment with my new dermatologist.  

When you have days upon days of below zero weather one sees a phenomenon called hoarfrost.  I think I have mentioned it before.  The air is so cold and everything exposed to the cold will get a coating of crystalline frost.  It sparkles in the sunshine, when we get sun.  Tree limbs, fences, overhead wires, flat surfaces, etc. will be coated.  The when it flurries, the snow will stick to the ice crystals.  Over time, the appearance of snow buildup happens.  It is sometimes hard to gauge how much snow has actually fallen.

Rob has one of his Wyze Pan Cams pointed out my front window.  It records motion so we can see cars, trucks, people, moose, fox and lynx walking in the driveway and parts of the yard.  He emailed me about some 'snow shedding' that had triggered the camera.  I thought I would share it.  It was the first time I had seen something like that.

I am still alive and doing well.  I miss my friends, but it has been nice doing video chats or just phone conversations with my friends who are concerned about me.  I do not mind being interrupted from my boxes.  And remember, when it is late for you, it is still during my normal day, so call.  I would love to hear from you.

BTW.... Marji and Debby.... I bought a Nintendo Switch around Christmas.  According to the web site, March 20th is when Nintendo will be releasing a new Animal Crossings game for the Switch.  Sounds like there will be numerous old and new 'people/characters' in the game that will be building their home on an island.  I am NOT sure if it will be multi-player with other folk on the Internet, but other Switch games do that.... so perhaps they will make this one multi-player.  I will be getting the game and will let you know how it is and if it will allow us to visit other islands. Stay tuned.