Hats Off

Ever wonder if you can wash a baseball hat without one of those fancy stretchers? My mother taught me how. First you find a container that fits the hat. I use my Tupperware canisters or other suitable containers. This time I used some large bowls but will have to either let it hang over the counter or set it on a smaller platform because the bill hangs below the lip of the bowl. Second toss the hat in the washer with the rest of your laundry being sure not to wash in hot water. I use the warm/cold setting. Third take it out of the washer and stretch it on and around the container being sure to shape it appropriately. The most important part to shape other than being sure the band is tight is the front panel and the top. I gently pull the hat down and flatten the front panel around the container then I shape the bill slightly so it is curved the right way. If you want it more curved you can do so now or wait till it dries. Typically with the humidity here it takes a day to dry but it may depend on how hot or damp your environment is as to how long it takes to dry.

This works so well that even my husband was amazed when I washed his hats when we first got married. They fit and he was happy to have clean hats again. I never had to use one of those “hat gadgets”. However I think this method works better than one of those and I didn’t have to waist money on one.

Living With Living Books

In order to keep the kids occupied while sitting in the car waiting for daddy during our trips to town I have started reading a book to them. Rather than read picture books where the kids want to see the pictures I decided to read some sort of living book. Like a historical story or classical book. So far the kids have enjoyed it. We are able to discuss certain points that they may not understand while waiting too. It sure can lead to some good discussions. Once we get home they can draw about what we read or write a couple of sentences down. They are not at the age where a report is possible but in a few years that may be an option. It sure is nice to come home knowing you got your history lesson done for the day.

Husking Corn

Today we had a real treat for supper. We had corn on the cob! We here in Alaska do not have to many success stories about raising corn in the garden. The stories we do hear are like the old fish stories about the one that got away… lol! You just don’t know if you can believe it or not. It just doesn’t get warm enough here and a very short growing season. Alaskans don’t have to feel to bad though, because Alaskans have grown some great BIG cabbage. So for our corn we had to rely on the grocery store. That way the kids could still have the fun of husking our own corn. Even after shipping all the way to Alaska, it was still so much better than frozen.

Discount Lumber

We were off again to one of the local lumber mills to pick through their “seconds pile” stuff left over from their cutting last year. They have a lot of wood out there to sort through. Every board is $2.00, it doesn’t matter the size. Since we are framing our house out of 2×8’s, we were looking for as much 2×8 material as we could get. We found about ten that were longer than 16′.  Since we need 8′ boards, we can cut them in half. That means we got twice as much lumber for the money. Many of them for only $1 a board. Plus we got a bunch of 8′ and 10′ boards too. For $60 we got a majority of the material we will use on the building of our walls. What a blessing.

Stripping Forms ~ Fitting Base Plates

The next day after the concrete was dry on our foundation, we began the exciting process of stripping all the forms. Judah helped a bunch, as he has become an expert at pulling nails. Everyone got to help out, even baby Vision got to do some supervising as seen in the top picture. All the nuts and washers had to come off to pull off the form boards. Then we screwed them back on loosely as not to lose them. You can see Anna doing this on the left. Then we were able to start pulling off the big boards on the sides, and see the “bare footers” (bare feet..lol ) for the first time.

After the forms were stripped, we swept them clean. Then we were able to measure and place some marks, that we could snap our chalk lines to. These chalk lines would set the placement for the building of our addition. Then we were able to start placing our base plates that are treated 2×8’s. We marked the alignment for the bolt holes we had to drill. Then we drilled and trimmed the plates, and placed them according to our chalk lines. Then we were able to put the nuts and washers back on to hold the plates in place while we finished the rest. Now we have them all in place. Next we will take them off one last time and put some sill seal under them but we will cover this in a future post on the continuation of our building story.

Playing At The Park

While we were waiting for our concrete to dry on our new foundation. We went to town and spent some time at our local park. We had a nice pick nick and enjoyed the sun. And the children had a great time running and playing. They got all their energy out, since they couldn’t play outside that day (until the concrete was dry). Here is a picture of two, of our puppies while we were putting them up to go to town. I had to include it too, since they looked so cute looking out of their dog pen door.

Pouring Concrete

Yesterday we worked on getting the last of our rebar tied and set in place. Then late that evening we set out to make sure it was level. We used the builders level (transit) to shoot our grade, and get everything ready to pour concrete in the morning.

In the morning Jason’s dad came to help, along with two friends. It was bright and early (6 am) when they started getting set up to run the mixer. There was a couple of little mechanical glitches, but nothing too serious. Then by 7:15, they were mixing concrete.

They finished at 9:30 am. A little over two hours and our footer was poured and ready to go. Thanks to our helpers, but most of all thanks to YHWH, for helping us with weather, and for giving us strength and safety.

Working In The Yard

We had a backhoe come out and do some dirt work here. We also had 7 yards of sand and gravel mix delivered. It is for mixing our concrete, for the footers (foundation) on the addition that we are building on the house. While we had them here we had them dig a nice size hole for planting a couple trees in.

Our top soil is only about six inches deep. Below that you hit hard gravel and it is not good for growing any thing. So we dug a hole about 4 feet deep and 6′x14′ across. Then we filled it with some of our top soil. We have a big pile of top soil from when we cleared the property to build.

In our new hole of dirt we planted two nice Lilac plants we bought. They are about 2.5′ to 3′ tall. They both bloomed soon after the transplant. They are still doing well, like they were never replanted. We also hope to plant a chokecherry tree or two too. We did use some of the area to plant some of our new strawberry spinach plants we brought home. Some of our first steps in landscaping. Many more are needed,

Harvesting Strawberry Spinach

We went to visit some kind people we know, who have an abundance of the strawberry spinach in their yard. They were so kind to let us harvest some for eating and some for transplanting to our yard. We had fun gathering our treasure and replanting when we got home. We hope many of the transplants will go to seed bringing in a FULL harvest of our own next year. In the bottom left picture you can see the bowl of berries and the beautiful salad we made from the greens and topped with several of the berries. We served it with a raspberry vinaigrette. It was great. Highly recommended.

July Pictures of Baby Vision

Here are a few of the newest pictures of Vision.