Landon Graduates and Ships off to Naval Station Great Lakes

Honey and Gramps made the trek North to Alaska to see Landon graduate from high school.

We enjoyed having them with us.

Landon's graduation day, getting ready to go to the ceremony.

Lots of tassels and cords.

Posing with Honey and Gramps before the ceremony.

Gramps on the deck looking over the hayflats.

At the ceremony, seated down on the field

Landon's picture on the big screen.

Another picture on the big screen.

Gramps watching the ceremony.

Honey and Gramps, with the video of the graduates on the screen in the background.

A video of the moment Landon's name was called.  You can also see him cross the stage on the screen in the background.

After the ceremony.

With Grayson.

Showing his diploma.

Later, we visited the Reindeer Farm in Palmer.

Honey and Gramps, saying hello to the farm's resident moose.

Feeding the reindeer.

Gramps sizing up the livestock.

On the Reindeer Farm, with the Butte in the background.

An overlook, with Knik Glacier in the background.

On the Musk Ox Farm.

Bull Musk Oxen.

Back at the house, roasting s'mores around the garden's fire pit.

The boys, horsing around in the garden.

The big steps just keep coming for Landon.  He went to base with me to get a reg haircut prior to shipping off to Naval Station Great Lakes for Naval ROTC indoc training.  After his haircut, we drove by a black bear on base, and stopped to snap a quick photo.  We also saw 5 moose, two moose newborn calves, another black bear and a fox carrying its small kit around in its mouth - - lots of wildlife out and about.

Last night, on the way to the airport to drop Landon off, we stopped and ate dinner.

The waitress figured out he was joining the Navy, and brought him a special dessert.

At the airport.  Everything he needs is in one small backpack, as we saw him off on his redeye flight to Naval Station Great Lakes.  We'll hear from him again in about a month!  Please keep him in your prayers.

Planting the Garden

 

Nice weather in early May gave me an opportunity to put up a fence around the garden, and to get the garden planted later in the month.

The hot wire fence starts and ends at a gate I built, using trees to hold both the hot wire as well as the gate.  Cementing posts in place in Alaska is problematic, since the winter frost level is more than 4 feet deep, which would push the concrete back out of the ground.  So instead, I anchored the hinged post to a nearby tree to stabilize the gate frame, and built a small box to house the charger.  Seems to work well.

A warm week the first week of May gave me the opportunity to plant the potatoes.  

We added a few in-ground beds this year.  Here, Grayson adds some compost to the beds.

We filled up each raised bed with onions, carrots and beets, respectively.

You can see the new in-ground beds in the background of this pic.

This week, I added some straw mulch, and am now just waiting for the garden to sprout. This year we planted cabbage, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins, Brussel sprouts, peas, beans and lettuce in the in-ground beds. The asparagus and chives beds are doing good as well.

Tomatoes and peppers are in the greenhouse.

Potatoes have sprouted, but nothing else yet.  These are from our own seed potatoes from last year's harvest.

Down by the creek, these fiddlehead ferns are emerging from their winter slumber.

The creek, thawed and running strong.

A burl on a tree I cross on my morning walks.

Ducks paddle across Dino's old swimming hole.

A Great Horned Owl, watching the ducks closely on the water.

The moose hit this area hard over the winter, scraping the bark off the trees with their teeth.

A young bull moose I ran across on a recent walk.

The compost bin did well, and we had enough compost to spread over all the garden beds.

A video of moose crossing the hayflats.