Ruffle Scarf

The other day Anna’s mother and aunt came to visit. It was a nice time of visiting. Her mother also brought Anna a gift, a new scarf. It is pretty and covered with neat ruffles. Here are some pictures of  Anna having fun with it.

Then the girls wanted in on the fun too. They thought the scarf was great.

Strawberry Spinach Salad (Chenopodium Capitatum Salad)

Last year we posted on  strawberry spinach and on harvesting strawberry spinach.  There seems to be many post on the web about “Strawberry Spinach Salad” but most are about Strawberries and Spinach, but not about Strawberry Spinach the plant.  Chenopodium Capitatum is the proper name for Strawberry Spinach, also known by Strawberry Blite and Beetberry. Others have referred to it as Indian Paint, and Indian Ink. Strawberry Spinach is an annual member of the Goosefoot plant family. “Blite” in one of its synonyms comes from the Greek word “bliton”, meaning a plant with edible leaves.

Again this year the strawberry spinach is in full bloom and ready to harvest. Jason and Judah spent a good long time picking a bowl of greens on two different nights from our strawberry spinach plants in the yard. The plants we transplanted last year from across town died, but they did go to seed and now we have a good many plants growing this year in the same place.

The first night they brought in a few stocks of berries as well to add some accent color and flavor. Although we kept the strawberry spinach salad simple by just adding a little dressing and enjoying the simplicity of the strawberry spinach.

The second night we had strawberry spinach salad with out the berries but instead we ate it with lots of our favorite trimmings like sunflower seeds, bacon bits, croutons, and canned baby corn. It was a great salad.  And I would almost bet no one would tell the difference from any regular salad.

For more information on Strawberry Spinach here are a few links:

Victoriana Nursery  in the UK

Wild Garden Seed .com

Daves Garden

Yard Sale Tent

Well it has been a busy week. We did get our cord or two of fire wood cut and stacked in the wood shed. So we no longer have that collection of 8′ logs in front of the house. We raked and shoveled up all the sawdust (about 8-10 wheelbarrow and wagons full).  We got our front yard space back again only to put up the big yard sale tent to get ready for this next weekend. We spent all day yesterday getting stuff unpacked for the sale, and now we will have to go through those boxes and start setting it up for Friday.

Bucksaw

We all tried our hand at using the new Bucksaw. We bought it from Lehman’s catalog.  Even the children wanted to try it. It made for some cute pictures.

Although the saw does work well, we noticed that is why people invented chainsaws. Notice Judah bringing the chain saw out behind Jason. But it is a good back up saw.

Judah had to pose as if he were cutting with the chainsaw too.

Benches for the Garden

Jason and Judah had a fun time working together making some benches to put in the yard and garden. They used up some of our old scrap lumber we had stacked in a pile. Jason used a simple design. He notched out of the leg a place for a 1×4 or 1×6 to fit on each side. With the 1×6 screwed in place, it adds to the stability of the bench by allowing you to attach the top of the bench to the legs as well as to the 1×6. The result was a strong bench.

We made four benches so far, two five feet long and two four feet long. Judah put a couple of them together by himself. Some of the wood we used was seconds from a saw mill that were less than perfect because they had bark edges and not wide enough on that cut for a full board. However these made for a nice bench top since they were naturally curved for a slightly rounded top.

When we got them all set out and finished Judah said they looked like they were set out for a church service. Judah also liked using the sander and was able to make that old weathered wood look nice.

Playing in the Dirt

We finally had the big tractors out to play in our yard. We cleared a few more trees, and we got rid of the “burm pile” made of roots and stumps, that had filled a big part of our yard since we first cleared the property several years ago. While they were here we opened up one more corner of the yard by pushing back a few small trees that were on the other side of the burm pile. You can also see the out house/shed building we have been building this summer as well, but that is another upcoming post.

After clearing that area they started digging the hole to put the roots and stumps in. But they only got as far as you see in this picture before they hit frozen gravel and could dig no more even with the BIG loader they were using.

Here you can see some small chunks of the frozen gravel. This is a good example of why traditional root cellars do not work well in Alaska. You always have to heat the root cellar in the winter, they can be made to work but it is not easy or cheap.

They came back a week later to let the ground thaw (mind you this is in July) and finished the hole. This is the “small” hole they dug to put the stumps and roots in when it was finished.

While they were gone swapping our the loader for a big dozer we had fun looking at all the rocks in the layers you could see in the hole. We took several nice samples for our pretty rock collection. There was also this neat sand layer.

It is amazing how big the yard feels now. These next few picture we made using the panorama editing feature on our computer, to make a wrap around view made from  4 to 5 other pictures put together. The first is of the dozer still working, the other two are of the yard how it is now in its almost finished state.

In the last picture below you can see one of our remaining top soil piles (to the left) we plan to spread it around and pull roots out of it and make a nice grassy area between the garden and the gravel. We still have more gravel to spread out too. So the work is on going as it seems it will never be finished. But it is nice to see such big changes.

Tirzah

We are now reading~

Tirzah

By~ Lucille Travis

Here is another book that is from Bible times, although this one is a look at a Biblical story through a fictional girl account. From the cover “In the flight to freedom, Tirzah Learns a song of hope”. This is going to be a story about the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. We hope it will be true to the Bible. We will comment later and let you know how it went, and how the children liked it.

Eating Alaska

This is a link to a new video project called Eating Alaska. It is a very interesting looking project for those of us living in the last frontier, and may help others that may have some of the same types of plants in your own back yard. It is often hard to find thorough information on wild plants that are edible or medicinal here in Alaska. they often say in book titles “Plant of the North West” but you can nearly bet they forgot all about us here. So it is very nice to see something that we hope will have some good information in it. The final version will be for sale late this fall (2009).

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Some Food For Thought

I just came across this web page again today and thought I would share it with you. I know this is often one of many reasons why so many people choose to home church. I re-posted this information by permission by gladly adding the link to their ministry at Free Church Ministry. In reading this one must think and pray if it is time to peacefully walk away and time to do something different. But only you can decide this for your family. Blessings to you!  Below is what was posted there….

Unlicensed, unregistered, unregulated under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and protected by HIM and the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

There is NO LAW in America requiring a church to incorporate or apply for a 501-C-3 tax exemption recognition.

John 8:32 – “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Jesus Christ is Sovereign over His bride the church.  HE wants His bride to be without spot, blemish or wrinkle.  Does anyone believe Jesus wants a corporation as HIS bride? – Dead, Cold and owing “allegiance” to anyone but CHRIST Himself?  Remember the church is a she.  Ephesians 5:22 and 1 Peter 1:19

Romans 12:12 – “… be not conformed to this world”

When a church incorporates it becomes a non-profit business which owes allegiance to its creator = the state.  When a church applies for and receives the 501-C-3 tax recognition, she (the church) has voluntarily become an it.  That exemption recognition comes with a voluntary muzzle and a whole set of “regulations” that are not Biblical, desirable nor would the early New Testament church as in the Book of Acts sought such recognition, accepted it nor did they when they could have.

Acts 5:29 – “… We ought to obey God rather than man.”

[NO License is required or desired!]

1st Amendment to the Constitution of The United States of America (The Bill of Rights) “Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

Our Founding Fathers were well aware of the atrocities in Europe (and other places) where the Christian Church was regulated or controlled by the State.  They determined not to have that in America.

King George III despised the preaching of the patriot pastors (“The Black Robed Regiment”) during the War for American Independence “era”.  Actually, during the time period 1730-1805 there was a great amount of “political” preaching concerning the responsibilities of the civil magistrates (Romans 13).  The king wanted to license preachers and the churches so he could control what they would say and do.  He was a tyrant and wanted to opposition to his evil.  Those who refused his license were punished… some even killed.  Patrick Henry and James Madison both saw the punishment of these unlicensed preachers and sought to protect the church from an overreaching government.

{All income from donations to the Christian Church is tax immune.}

We are encouraging all preachers of The Gospel of Jesus Christ and all churches who are the Bride of Christ to be free to serve Christ first as Our Heavenly Father intends.
(Revelation 3:15 – “I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot”)

{What to do now that you know}

1) If your church is incorporated… you can unincorporate

2) If your church has a 501-C-3 tax exception recognition rescind it…

3) Become or Pioneer a Free New Testament Church

4) Preach, teach, pray and do The Lord’s will without exception.

+ We will have no other king but King Jesus!+

Isaiah 33:3, Acts 5:29, Rev. 17:14, 19:16

The Church, the EKKLESIA is not a building, a business, a dead formality, a religious organization… the Church, she is the Bride of Christ (Eph. 5:22)

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The below we found on the website hushmoney.org

“In the matter of changing religion, State favors are stronger than penalties.”

The Framers of America’s Founding Documents relied heavily upon the writings of the French political philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu. Typical of Montesquieu’s brilliant insight, he once wrote that:

“A more certain way to attack religion is by favor, by the comforts of life, by the hope of wealth; not by what reminds one of it, but by what makes one forget it; not by what makes one indignant, but by what makes men lukewarm, when other passions act on our souls, and those which religion inspires are silent. In the matter of changing religion, State favors are stronger than penalties.”

The Spirit of the Laws, Baron de Montesquieu (1748)

Another New Window

We recently installed another window, this time we put one in where our old front door used to be. The window we used was our old kitchen window, that now opens completely into the living room adding extra air flow and a good place for looking in on the children while making dinner. When Jason framed in the old door  last fall, he framed  it to fit the window. So all we had to do was cut out the hole and add the window. That is a little simplified, but you get the idea.