A visit from Jolly Saint Nick

Santa didn't have far to travel this year. . . .and Tater must have been good enough, for his stocking was full.

And he also received what he had wished for. . .just how does Ol' Saint Nick know? 

May the magic of Christmas be experienced by all and the reason for the season be remembered and treasured.  Merry Christmas to all from the Sturdivant's!



Ice Fishing

It was a beautiful morning when we headed out to go ice fishing.  No wind, not many other people and the temperature was at about -10F.

We drove the pick-up out close to our selected spot and then pulled the sled over to where Eric chose to drill his fishing holes. 

We used some good old fashioned power to get our holes drilled (we sure are feeling it today).  We estimated the ice to be about 36 inches deep at this time.  I am sure in a month or so it will be thicker.  And of course Tate added in his support and moral cheering as we drilled our holes. 

The first hole was easy but each one after was not quite as fun.  At times seemed never ending, but at least we stayed warm while exposed to the elements.

We are all set and ready to fish!

The troops are snacking, still waiting for a bite. . . .

. . . And finally a bite!  Just a little trout, but it was landed and made the good spirits re-appeared.

Gingerbread House

The last 4 years we have kind of made it a tradition to make/decorate a gingerbread house.  This year Tate did alot of it on his own.  The frosting was a little thick so we helped him frost where and how he wanted and he did the rest.  Here are the boys starting to get things built.

 And Tater showing off his work in progress, looks very neat and particular!

 An the finished project. . .but everyone stay back, this gingerbread house is for SANTA!



First Ride

It has been a while since I have posted something. We have been getting moved into our house and situated as much as we can. With no internet at our house it has been about impossible to get updates on here, but hopefully now I can stay up-to-date.

This last weekend we went on a ride down to the river. It is just about frozen over, so we kept close to the edge. It was cold out (5 degrees) but we were bundled up good and had alot of fun. The sun was out when we started so we could see Pioneer Peak right beside us or at least the base of it. By the time we headed back it was pretty low clouds all around us. But we sure had fun and plan on doing it again soon. It's pretty handy when we can just leave right from our house and not have to worry about trailering our stuff around.

ARRRR Maties!!

This was hanging around our house at Halloween waiting for any lost sole to come along. (sorry it is sideways, I need to remember that next time when I take a video on my camera)

Happy Birthday

We celebrated a birthday the other day and had some yummy cake!

New House

Well we have finally bought and closed on a house. The process was long once we found the place, but finally it is ours to move into (well after all the work we need to do).

This is a shot of the back side. As you will notice by looking at all of these BEFORE photos the previous owners did not take too much care in how they occupied their lives. But overall the house has good bones and we can work with that.

The house was built in 1930 as a community building/church for the Colonists in the Butte area. So there is some neat historical significance to the house, and I hope we can keep some of that. So this is the West end of the house, which used to be the main entrance to the building, but not anymore.

This is the bathroom. It has a large walk in shower, with some very interesting "trinkets" around the archway.

And this goes to show how bad the people lived previously, but nothing compared to other parts of the house.

And these are some of the many "trinkets" that live in the bathroom. They will be coming down at some point in time, but until then maybe we will be able to identify all of them. (bird, seashell, bonnet, top of a red pepper, dragonfly, broken plates, pie, girl, orange, etc.)

This is a shot of the living room/dining room/kitchen. It is one big room, but we love the old hard wood floors. Can't see the kitchen too well, and I missed getting a good shot, but it is open and spacious. All the countertops even have butcher block on them. The first two doors lead to bedrooms. Then the bathroom and then the laundry room.

So that was the house tour. There was a lot of junk and trash everywhere, inside and out. And I am sure we will be spending all next year after the snow clears finding more trash and treasures.

So this last picture is of an old green house that is around back. But most recently it was used as a chicken house. So I guess stay tuned till later and see what we turn it into. It is also filled with lots of trash and treasures.

End of the Year at the Farm

So it was a long summer with all the rain we had, but it was a great summer. Harvest ended up good and so did everyone's moral, even though we had some slow days.

Below is a picture of the "Field Ornament" that I made. Some of the boys who were supposed to be moving pipe for me, so I could roto-till missed a piece.

And so this is what happens after a loud "BANG". It was left in the middle of a patch of Brocolli and hidden pretty good. Lucky no one was standing behind me because it shot out of the roto-tiller quicker than I could get the PTO shut off. We finally got carrots done also, seemed like a never ending job.

These are bins full of BAD carrots, crooked, broken or whatever may be wrong that we won't package them. There are going to be some happy horses somewhere though!

The carrots are GIANT carrots, as you can see. Most of them go to restaurants, not really sold in grocery stores. We bag/box them in 25# or 50# increments.

This is the antique carrot cleaner that we use. Go in dirty one end (right side of picture) and come out sparkly orange on the other end.

These are just a few that didn't get chosen. We saw some very strange looking ones. The one in the middle is almost white (albino carrot).

And the last day I was doing field work I had several visitors watching me and wondering where all the cabbage went that they were munching on.

Fall

A harvest moon, golden leaves and a chilly morning sure remind us that Fall is in the air.

Matanuska Peak Hike

Our most recent hike was on a great beautiful day. It looked cloudy up at the top, but we went anyways.

Here is where we headed. . .Matanuska Peak.

Part of the trail was hard to see, and the grass sure was tall!

Three of our four troops. . .even Buford came along for the fun.


This is some of the "fireweed" that grows wild all over, even in our backyard/frontyard.

Taking a break on the trail.

And the view from the top. . .well almost to the top. We didn't quite make it due to time.

AK State Fair-Lumberjack Show

So we attended the Alaska State Fair 2010. . ."Imagine If. . ."

We had lots of fun. One of the biggest highlights was attending the Lumberjack show.

What a show they can put on too.

Here are some of the many events that they performed.

Ax throw.....

Fastest to saw three disks. . . .

Tree (or pole in this case) climbing. . . .

Log rolling jousting. . .

And the log roll.

We all had some really good laughs!

Blueberries

For about the last month Hatcher's Pass has been abundant with wild blueberries.

So we took advantage of this opportunity on several occasions to pick some for ourselves.

And these are my boys pretending they are hard at work picking :)

Eric's "contraption" actually works really well and helped us be successful in our pickings.

We found lots of berries and now have our pantry stocked with Blueberry Syrup and the freezer full of frozen berries. They are going to sure taste good this winter in muffins and pancakes!

First Day of School

First Day of School 2010-2011

He wanted to ride the bus so here he is getting on the bus.

Artic Thunder 2010

There was a huge airshow this weekend and so we decided to brave the weather and check it out. We left in the morning with all our rain gear since it was raining. Once we got there the rain stopped but there were still clouds in the sky. But we had a great time and got to see some great performances. Here are just a few of the many we saw....it was an all day event.

These guys (Screaming Eagles) were part of the starting performance, landing with the National Anthem on loud speaker.

As were these guys with the Alaskan flag. They were part of the "Wings of Blue."

This guy flew around for a while in his WWII grasshopper plane. The guy was 84 years old and flying in his original WWII uniform. Very impressive if you ask me.

This lady on the other hand didn't have such a great day. I am sure her performance would have been awesome. . .but due to low clouds it was unsafe for her to perform. She did however take off and make an attempt. Oh well, she later walked by and gave Tate her autograph.


These "Canadian Snowbirds" were quite impressive to watch. Pictured is 11 snowbirds but they only performed with 9. I think the extra two were only for cases of emergency.

Their performance started before they even left the ground. Each pilot and assistant came out in a choreographed manner and prepared for takeoff.

Once in the air, they were full of formations and gave a great 'loud' performance.

And their final fly-by.

And a special treat. . . .Fat Albert. . .bringing you the. . . .

Blue Angels!

And what a performance they gave. . . . .