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. . . . .