it's still winter

Yep, it's still winter here.... in case you were wondering.... You wouldn't know it though if you lived down south. Many people don't even know Alaska is part of the United States! How sad is that? And too many people see the two letter state abbrebiation AK and think Arkansas!


We find it interesting when we watch the morning news (national) that other states can have blizzards and zero degree weather and 10" of snow and gusts to 55 mph, and it's always recognized on the national news as NEWS! Chicago is buried today with 10" of snow. A train was tipped over yesterday due to high winds. But you never heard about all our container vans that were blown over due to high winds this week. Yes! Shipping containers weighing 11,000 pounds were knocked over like dominoes! Or that we've had temps dipping to -9 at night with wind chill factors of -35 for most of the week. Last year we had record snow fall well over 200". Never heard a peep about it on the news.... I wonder why Alaska isn't recognized as being newsworthy....

Here's the week in review at our household:


Blue Jays versus the Yellow Bird....
Bird DOG that is.... I've noticed ears of dry corn laying about in our back yard lately and just thought the Blue Jays had carted it off. I keep a plant stand up on my outdoor table filled with dried corn on the cob for my Blue Jays to enjoy during the winter months. It stays out of the weather pretty much because there's a second story deck overhead that protects it. It's an easy place for the birds to get a little snack. But our little Sadie Girl has figured out that somehow this is food meant for her and she wants her share as well. A picture is worth a thousands words. Do I need say more?


Grandbaby turns 2 months!
My most favorite little grandson turns 2 months today! Okay, so he's my only grandbaby so far. But two months, already! How time flies. He is just so adorable, I can hardly stand it. I get to visit with him at least once a week and we're developing a good rapport with each other. He's already indicated that I could just possibly be his most favorite grandma (out of three of us) and he likes coming here to visit me best of all. :)

Personally, I think he's already advanced for his age..... But I could be just a tad prejudice.

And, yes, it's still winter.... The temps have been to near zero or below for several days. We're having a heat wave today as it's almost 20 degrees outside. It's been snowing all day and we've accumulated about 6" of very light, fluffy snow. You don't need a snow shovel for this though, all you need to do is blow and it flies away!


Despite winter conditions, I've got a few Valentine decorations up, although I don't do much in the way of decorating for this holiday. I love little splashes of red here and there and especially chocolates wrapped in red celephane! Or just chocolate. I love chocolate. I got like 12 boxes of chocolate covered cherries (CCC) for Christmas this year. Did I tell you that? My family all know how much I love them, but 12 boxes....? I may still have some come next Christmas! I've tried buying other variety of candy since Christmas and my husband not-so-politely reminds me I have candy at home.... I have to tell him that one cannot live on CCC alone; variety IS the spice of life! And I do love variety! I hinted that I expected a box of chocolates for Valentines Day, but we'll see. Some times he's not so good at picking up on hints....

And speaking of my grandbaby, he just arrived so I'm signing off! I have a sweet little thing to hold!

the ins and outs of moving a nursery

The weather today is 33 and mostly cloudy with a slight chance of rain showers and snow showers in the morning.

The forecast for this winter is "cooler than normal. Slightly less liquid precipitation and probably near normal snow fall of 95 inches."

We've not had any snow yet this winter which is not normal. We typically have a light snow storm or at least heavy snow mixed with rain in October. So maybe today. It'll be an interesting day at work, if it does. I'm still working at the landscape nursery and down to the final push of tearing all the greenhouses down, sorting through supplies and tossing out no longer needed items. Then there's all the plants, shrubs, and trees that have been moved from point A to point B. We have three acres and everything is being moved from one side to the other side, the staging area, on little garden carts. Talk about work! Then, big container vans will be brought on site and we'll start loading them with thousands of plants. Every shrub and tree has been neatly tied with its branches facing in an upward direction and twine carefully wrapped around them. Tying the plants will, hopefully, keep the breakage down and also keep the plants compact and provide more packing room. The largest trees will be laid on the container floor with shrubs laid on top of the trees next going from largest to smallest. The perennials have been stacked inside of plastic milk crates and they will be piled on top of each other. The plants will live in this container for the long winter....

That was probably more information than you cared to learn but I find the process of moving the nursery somewhat interesting and find myself looking forward to going each week.


Now, I bet you thought of baby nursery when you read the title above! It was a fun baby shower yesterday and Michelle looked just way too cute. She said they're ready for Little No-ah to come into this world.... I got a sneak peak of the nursery a few weeks ago and it was painted so cute in a light green, light blue, and white. It just took me by surprise; it had become a nursery! This was really going to happen! They live in a trailer and it's a very small room so the kids have to be creative in the furniture and equipment they buy. I can hardly wait to see the finished product.

Have a great day! Did you remember to turn your clocks back?

just things

I don't really want to spend a lot of time thinking about what to write on my blog today so will just write some things that are "out there."

First, I've been nominated for the Rockin Girl Award by my daughter, Tracy! Me, Rockin??? Maybe a few years ago I was rockin a little more than today. Some days I just feel like I need a rockin chair.... Blog awards are fun; they certainly make us feel special. I nominate Tina at Cherry Hill Cottage and A Pink Bee at Fairiebees because I never get tired of their creative ideas.

My husband and I run Doggy Day Care four days a week. Not really.... but it seems we always have more dogs than our own little Sadie on any given day. Maybe it's our big, fenced yard. Maybe it's the cookies.... Maybe it's just that we love them. Whatever, dogs LOVE coming here! We watch Kona, my son's dog, four days a week because she didn't take kindly to moving out a year ago.... If left to her own devices during the day when Bucky and Michelle are working, she chews up the door. So they have to bring her over here. And I don't blame her for loving our place. We have the big, fenced yard to run in and low windows to look out of and a comfy couch that is all hers. It's truly a great place for dogs. And now with Tracy out of town and Adam working, we have Porter. He loves it here too, loves our Sadie. He's still a young pup; about a year old but is doing really well. This was the scene a few minutes ago. Honestly, I didn't drug them or beat them! It was just nap time! Sadie was sleeping on the couch (her picture didn't turn out; too dark). My hubby is fishing with Ray today and Timber (Ray's extremely large malamute) wanted so badly to stay and play at Doggy Day Care that Ray had to literally shove his big butt out the door to get him to leave. It was pretty funny. Like I said, dogs love it here. Go figure.

This is Monkey Bread I made this morning. I love it and it's so simple to make. Here's the recipe:

4 small or 2 large refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. Mix 1/3 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Cut each biscuit in fourths and roll each piece in sugar mixture. Place in a well-greased bundt pan. Mix 1 cube margarine (melted), 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Pour butter mixture over biscuits. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!