Sunday

I feel like this photo should speak for its self, though I realize logically that is an unreasonable expectation. We've been cleaning! We have been undertaking the massive cleaning operation that is recovering from a month of visitors, a month of doctors visits, two months of living out of a suit case and living in a construction zone with everything we own in one room, two months of all our stuff being in a storage unit in another state, a week or so of frantic packing/cleaning/moving out after putting it off until the last second to try to have some security about our future. That's all in backwards order of course. Our home has gotten more and more ours, more and more livable, every week since September 1st when we arrived. The above picture is our pantry closest to the kitchen which we finished installing shelves in today and got kitchen things, emergency things, extra things, and recycling things all organized. Tim came up with a brilliant plan to move the two couches and foot stool out of our room and into the living room and move the couch and chair from the living room into the back bedroom with the projector and sound system and set up a little home theater in there as well as making two usable guest rooms in our house instead of a storage room and a futon in the glass living room. I am surprisingly excited about this plan and got busy unpacking boxes and hanging up artwork. I'd say the back bedroom there is about half way cleaned out from its previous storage-based existence.

Oh! I almost forgot! This morning, as with most Sunday mornings, Tim and I ducked over to UU where there was a guest speaker from out of town who had great readings but not particularly resonating things to say for us. After the service there was smoked salmon and ginger cookies. As we were milling and socializing, I saw a familiar looking head across the crowd. I have a bit of a history of not recognizing or misrecognizing people, but this morning I put reluctance aside and presented myself. "Are you Gordon?" the man said yes and I quickly introduced myself and that my parents were friends of his when he lived in Juneau long ago. I don't think I've seen this man since I was about 10 years old, but somehow I recognized him out of context and all else. It was great to catch up with another ex-Juneauite and he said his family currently have two milking goats who are bread ever year or two and the little girls are given away and the little boys are eaten. They've also had chickens and turkeys and pigs and ducks in the past and have a beautiful garden. I think they may be an excellent resource for us, particularly when it comes time to have goats and follow suit with milking and breeding and eating.

I normally try not to talk about the future, but just this once I want to give a little summary of what we have planned. Mostly because I am very excited for something in March.

The Future:
This week - Ariel continuing to meet in-home nursing patients.
Next week - Tim will hopefully be at 80%-90% on the hand front and ready to start working on Joe's boat.
Next month - Ariel begins the Master Gardeners program (hopefully) and Joe comes back to help finish up the boat.
March - THE BABY CHICKENS COME!!! (hopefully) Also, Alice will be in and out in March and April.
May - Ariel must be finished with Masters in Teaching and ready to apply for more relevant work.
June - Bristol Bay is looking like it might have a winning fishing season this year.