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!!