Monday, November 29

Monday, November 29, 2010

As November is starting to end, we are still lacking snow! But we did get some frost this morning! The mountains are frosted over with some of the white stuff, but it's definitely not the fluffy white stuff we've all been waiting for!

So after over a week of stormy weather, good 'old Mother Nature decided to grace us with some nice weather and the planes have been able to fly! I'm slowly getting in some of my orders from a month ago... still patiently waiting for all my xmas gifts to come in! I have been shopping up a storm online lately with all the great sales!

Yesterday we put up our tree and decorated it! Veronika had a blast watching me put all the decorations on, then you should have seen her bouncing and swinging her arms while giggling when I finally plugged the lights in!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! My mother and aunty Jen cooked up a feast and the whole family ate at my aunty Jens! Veronika filled herself up on turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and some cranberry sauce! On the 23rd we got to celebrate a big thanksgiving dinner at the Safe Harbor Church - a big thanks to everyone who helped Gary and Margo with that. Then they auctioned off some quilts that some of the local ladies made (they are trying to get money for more quilting supplies).

My puppies are going on 4 weeks and 4 days today! They have had their second de-worming and are starting to run around and play, getting into everything! I have 2 long haired chi's and 4 short haired chi's! They all have their own personalities already! It's so cute!! I love chihuahuas!! I got their CKC registration papers in and am waiting for the AKC to get back to me so I can see if I can have them AKC registered too. Veronika loves the puppies!! I don't let her get too close because I know she'd probably hurt them by grabbing them too hard. She's really good with petting my adult chi's and she loves our lab Tug!!

I met with this really nice couple today who have been keeping updated by my blog! It's always nice to meet with my blog followers! Their son and daughter-in-law were here in Akutan taking care of the Safe Harbor Church, it was nice to hear how they were doing!

I have to get a move on my Christmas photo/cards. I am still trying to figure out if I want to use older photos or just use the self timer and try to take new ones. But I have to get going on that before Christmas passes! I still can't believe how fast this year has gone by and that we only have 32 days left in 2010!!!

Else where in town everything is slowing down. The boat harbor project is stopped right now as far as I know, so that the workers can celebrate the holidays at home, not to mention it's winter time. But we do have people coming in to look at the possibility of where to put the road that will take us to the head of the bay where the boat harbor is being built.

We've had some local City employees working on parts of the boardwalk, fixing broken boards and reconstructing some of the bridges that needed to be replaced. The store has been getting in some Christmas toy and gifts in the mail, but they won't be ready until most of it comes in and gets priced. We usually put it all down in the store all at once when it's ready and people come and "power shop" for gifts! I'm happy I have all my shopping done with already!!

Here are some recent prices to some of the stuff sold at our store: a can of soda is 1.00 but a 6pk is $4.50, onions and potatoes are both $1.14/lb, milk is $1.70 and $1.95 for 2% and whole, meats are reasonable priced: hamburger is $3.60 for 1lb, ribeye steaks are around $5-6.00 per 1/2" steak. Bacon is $5-6.00, chicken nuggets and fries are $5.00, bread and eggs are both $2.25, candy bars are $1.10 each, toilet paper ranges from $2.50 for 4 rolls (angel soft) to $16.75 for 12 rolls of Charmin, paper towel is $7.65 for 3 rolls, sliced American cheese and 1/4lb brick cheddar are $5.00 each, yogurt is $1.15. A twin box of chicken stuffing is $3.75, a taco bell taco dinner kit is $5.20, chips range between $4.75 and $5.75, breakfast cereal between $4.75 and $7.00, can milk is $2.75, a pack of cigarettes is $9.30. From the city #1 diesel fuel costs $3.21/gallon and #2 diesel is $3.16, gasoline is $3.48/gal. Those are some of the recent prices we pay for stuff here on the island. Occasionally the store gets produce from either the cannery or from Safeway in Dutch Harbor. So that gives you an idea of some of the prices for stuff here in Akutan, which isn't bad compared to most rural villages! We're lucky that the freighter (Coastal Transportation) come here from Seattle (where we get most of our groceries) and we don't have to air freight it all in!

I've been sprouting some bell peppers and will see how great I can get those to grow. I also have an apple tree sapling I'm trying to grow. The bell peppers will be for my canary Sylvester, that's if I can get them to grow, they are just starting to sprout out of the ground. I have a red-factor canary. I just love how he sings!! Doesn't take back the fact that I miss my cockatiels.... they were starved when we were down in Seattle... so I ended up getting a new bird. There was no way I could replace my hand-raised from a chic cockatiels so I got a completely different kind of bird. My parents had a canary when I was younger, I loved the songs those birds could sing. So I figured we'd get one to sing for us! He's a great bird!! Veronika loves to sit and watch him flutter along in his cage, sometimes when she's in her high chair she just sits and stares at him instead of paying attention to me while I'm trying to get her attention to eat!! What can I say, I love animals. It was a dream of mine to be a veterinarian... that or a flight attendant! One of these days I'll move out of the village and pursue one of those careers...... but for now I'm loving my life here in Akutan, raising my daughter in my home town! I'll always love it here, this is home!

Well until next time TTFN!!

Tuesday, November 16

Tuesday, Novembe 16, 2010

Darn how did 2 weeks blow by so quickly? I'm getting bad at trying to keep this updated... I'm on my facebook all the time though..... Facebook can be addicting!

So the puppies are starting to try to walk and their eyes are open! They got their 1st deworming on the 11th (2wks old). They are just the cutest! I love chihuahuas!! Still waiting on their CKC regirstration papers to come in, but I got in their puppy shots (2 for each puppy at weeks 6 and 9).

Veronika is mastering sitting up on her own, she's starting to try to climb up stuff if it's in her way. She's such a tough little girl! She finally got caught up on her vaccinations last week. She was a little late due to no vaccinations avail on the island here. Had to wait for a doctor to bring them down. So now she's all caught up with all her shots, just needs to go in next week for her 2nd flu shot and she'll be good until her 1st birthday. I can't believe how fast the last 8 months have went by.... what happened to my little 7lb 10oz baby?!?! She's about 25lbs and just under 30 in long now! Next week I'll make sure to get her official weight and length for her baby book!

She loves to eat anything we eat! She had some ham last night, and loves steak (I chew it up for her 1st). She loves mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, peas, turkey, carrots, pears, apples, bananas. I just started to give her Gerber yogurt and the Gerber graduates meltaways and puffs. She's getting good at crawling with her tummy off the floor, she's quick too! I have her in #4 diapers still but thinking of putting her in #5s here soon. She's squeezing into 12 months clothes still but I mostly put her in 18 month clothes but she's getting ready to move into all the 24/2T clothes I got for her when we were in Seattle.

The weather here has been pretty nice actually... but that doesn't stop the airlines from not making trips. One day the plane broke down and they had to wait for a part to come in, other times they use the Saab flight that goes from Dutch to Anchorage (or Anchorage to Dutch) to give them the weather - but then the Saab is usually flying up in the cloud level and they say that its foggy inbetween.... the Saab needs to fly lower in order to give the right weather and not be above the clouds when they give the weather. The Goose doesn't fly up as high as the Saab does! I'm still waiting on some movies that I ordered 3 weeks ago..... mail has been moving sooo slow.

Speaking of mail, I ordered some xmas stuff for my neices! I hope they like what I got them! I love shopping at Kohls and getting Kohls cash!! Today I think I'll use my Kohl's cash and order some stuff for Roni! I can't believe it's already the holiday season of the year! I need to get a good picture of my family for xmas cards! Think we'll do it the same as last year and send out picture cards!

The temps have been going up and down lately. We get snow then it rains the next day, then it snows again. We have windy days and calm day and foggy days. The usual for this time of the year! But the hills have been staying frosted with snow at least, looks better than the dead brown grass look that we'll be stuck with until the island starts to turn green again.

Nothing much going on in the construction department. Parts of the board walk are being repaired/replaced including a bridge that needed to be taken care of awhile back. Happy they are getting that taken care of. The new LED street lamps are installed, make it looks like someone is holding a bright light over my yard at night!! Other than that pretty slow everywhere else. I haven't heard much about the boat harbor project, but the company taking care of that are still here doing their thing.

King Crab season is coming to an end, most of the boats have put away their gear, made the last of the deliveries and heading home until oplilo season starts. I wasn't able to make it up to the cannery to take any pictures since most of the boats came in at night time, and I don't like to take Roni out in the cold unless I HAVE to! A 10K box of crab was 198.00 this year from the cannery here on the island.... that's like 5.00 more than last year! Still didn't stop me from getting a box! I've been undulging on it lately... I love it dipped in melted butter... if not another way I like it is stuffed in halibut and baked!! Mmmm mmmm good!!

My hubby is currently making a model of the tug Gyrfalcon for one of the Captains. He's been slacking on making it... mostly the small detailed stuff left to do, but he's busy working on it to hopefully have it ready around xmas time to give to him.. if not by this new year. It's tedious work, but it's beautiful once he's done with it!

Lets see what else is going on here on the Rock..... The school is planning their yearly trip that's funded by APICDA, not sure where they are going this year but hopefully it's informative and a great learning experience for the kids! They usually have a great time! I remember going on our "fisheries" trips when I was in school!! Great times!

Ok well I hope all is going great with everyone else out there! Take care and until next time TTFN!!

Tuesday, November 2

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

OMG I am getting so bad at updating my blog I'm so sorry about that everyone!

Gosh I have to look back to see what I last wrote about :S

well I'll just start from a couple days ago. So Halloween went off great, except for the fact that like 8 of the younger kids didn't make it to my house for trick-or-treating so I ended up with way too much candy. Not to mention that I took Veronika out trick-or-treating and ended up with a lot more candy! She was the cutest little black kitten!!

Veronika now officially has 4 teeth that have popped out of the gums and 1 more that might come out any day now. She's just over 7 months old, and is starting to crawl, but she still prefers to roll to get around! She's at 29in long and 24lbs 8oz at her 7 month mark, she also got her first flu shot!!

On October 28, 2010 around 4:55pm I was made a grandma!! My pups Cali and Roscoe had their 1st litter of puppies!! 6 beautiful little pups were born - all ranging in color from black and white, to brown and cream! There were 5 females and 1 male. I am probably going to keep 4 of them for my "breeding" stock so that in a couple years I can start producing beautiful purebred chihuahuas for people who want them. I'm probably going to charge between 300-400 a pup, and they will have their CKC registration papers! I am looking into AKC and seeing if I can get them registered with them too (Cali is registered with both, Roscoe is CKC and Dante is AKC)

We officially have snow on the ground as of yesterday!! Been getting colder and colder everyday! I carved 2 pumpkins this year, one is an owl on a branch and the other is Tinkerbells face! They turned out really good. I hope to get some pix posted here soon!!

Well I'll make sure to try to keep up on my blog, again sorry about that I know I have to stop procrastinating with it!! Hopefully more tomorrow!!

I woke up early and voted today!! Every vote counts!! I hope everyone else is casting their votes!!

Well until tomorrow, TTFN!!