I am a new grandmother. Peyton Nicole Ezra White was born on Feb 16th. She weighted 5 lbs 5oz and was 18" long. Mom and baby are doing great. Peyton was born with a cleft palate/lip but is fine otherwise. Fortunately she was born near a children's hospital with a craniofacial team. She is supposed to be released from the hospital on Feb 25th and treatment will begin. My daughter, son in law and granddaughter are moving to Roanoke VA where Peyton will be treated by an outstanding craniofacial team there. This team is the one you hear about in the news treating babies and children from all over the world with craniofacial anomilies. According to preliminary information, Peyton will have her first operation to repair her lip AND palate in the next four weeks. This is a huge advance over previous treatments. If all goes well, it will be several years before she will need any other procedures. I don't have any pics yet but I will post some as soon as I get them.
If you would like to know more about craniofacial anomilies and the national organization check out www.ccakids.org.
My friend Jeremiah arrived here on Feb 6th, just in time for my birthday and his. I came over to Homer for the first time since Nov. My truck cranked right up, I got off the spit and.....it quit. $235 and a day later it was fixed. Bad ignition coil. BUT in the meantime...the automotive place was kind enough to take me where I was staying for the night. However I forgot they didn't have a landline and I don't have a cell. So I had no way of getting in touch with Jeremiah to let him know he needed to get a cab when he arrived later that evening. I did have my computer with me but wouldn't you know it not one single person on two different buddy lists were online. I took a quick walk around the neighborhood but no one was home. My friends live out of town and it would have been a long cold walk into Homer just to find a phone. Finally someone came on line and he was kind enough to text message Jeremiah. I also figured out how to send a text message from AOL to a cell phone. I sent several to Jeremiah and also got in touch with my ex husband who called him and left a message. Jeremiah got them all, rented a car and managed to find the house in the dark...WOOHOO first adventure down.
I crocheted a muffler for Jeremiah ( yes I really crochet and do needlework too). Looks really good on him. He got me some socks, a polar suit, and a BOB. If you want to know what a BOB is, just ask....lol.
The next day we picked up my truck, returned the rental, grabbed some snacks and settled in for the afternoon. We were supposed to meet Jon and Nelda for dinner but managed to get stuck in the driveway...ai carumba...So no dinner, but I now had access to a phone, but didn't have Jon and Nelda's cell number and they were already gone..
Eric helped us get out the next day. and oh yeah I finally got my truck registered and have Alaska tags but I failed the driver's test. Oh well. I will take it next time I am in town. It was pretty funny actually.
We came back over to the lodge on Feb 8th, in a heavy fog and choppy seas. The fog finally cleared up after a few days and it has been sunny every since. We had a few flurries but no real snow at all. The last week we have had another cold snap and it hasn't been above 25 at the lodge. Today it never reached 20. But very bright outside and not too bad when the wind isn't blowing.
We have been rowing several times and went way back into Little Tutka Bay and actually rowed through light ice. Our neighbor Keith was out in his canoe doing the same thing. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I took Jeremiah to the mail shack and I took a short hike up the path behind it where I found a chicken coop, an outhouse, and lots of junk.
While Jeremiah has been here, everything that could go wrong has. First, we ran totally out of water and had to melt snow and boil water for a couple of days. Water had not been running from the spring to the tank room for a while but it wasn't a big issue as I had plenty of water. We washed all of the linens and bed clothes from the cabins and used up all of the water. Finally it was warm enough for a couple of days to thaw out the section of pipe from the spring house.
Then, we lost electricity for over a day when a piece of line from the transformer went bad. There was a loud pop around 10 pm and we were plunged into darkness....until I connected the transformers and turned stuff back on. Jeremiah got to see how that was done and the next day Homer Electric sent out a helicopter and crew to fix it. We had electricity on by that afternoon.
And then today, the 24th, the septic tank alarm went off. The heat lamp blew at some point either last night or early this morning. The alarm started going off around noon. And what does this mean you might ask? Well can you say outhouse? Fortunately we took showers this morning before the alarm went off. I put another light in the heat box but it will take time for it to unfreeze. Hopefully by in the morning. In the meantime no water can go down the drains. So a trek to the outhouse is in our futures. And finally to cap it off, the light under the house blew around 11:30 pm so I was taking care of that..
The only thing that hasn't gone out is the propane for the stove....lol. Jeremiah has gotten the whole gamit this month. Except for snow fall. He has enjoyed himself, has gone on a few walks with me, fed the eagles, been rowing, seen lots of new birds and wildlife and generally had a good time. He even drove the ATV and used the snow blower.
Wildlife Report - I finally saw the coyote. I had seen lots of track and scat activity but no live animal. Finally saw him a week ago. So he does exist. I have seen lots of other animal tracks but no animals. I don't get up early enough I guess. Rabbit, Ermine, Cat, Moose, and other small critters.
We saw a school of harbor porpoises in Little Tutka while we were rowing. Now that was pretty damn awesome. We (read I), literally rowed over them and they all surfaced behind us. Needless to say we sat and watched them for a while until they left the bay. Unfortunately we didn't get any good shots but maybe next time.
The sharp shinned hawk slammed into the kitchen window. He flew off after we went out to see what happened but I haven't seen him since, so he may have bit the big one.
A white winged cross beak hit the window upstairs which woke me up. These window go the entire side of the upstairs overlooking Little Tutka Bay and there is a slanted roof on the first floor which is over the living room. The bird was alive but just out of my reach even with a broom. I got Jeremiah up so he could stand at the window while I went outside and climbed up on something to rescue the bird. However, Jeremiah was still in a daze similar to the poor cross beak's and he let a magpie snatch up breakfast. So much for that little birdie but I got to add a new one to my life list.
I didn't take this pic of the hawk but here is one so you know what it looks like. Same with the crossbeak.
I fixed a whole salmon which was stuffed with bacon and onions and then baked. It was fantabulous.
We cut up another pink salmon I had in the freezer and took it to the dock for the Eagles. We didn't catch any pics of them swooping down but I did get some good ones of them in the tree. I was only about 20 feet away when I took these pics. and of course under the tree...lol
Spike has been having a blast outside. He has started following me around all over the grounds. Haven't gotten him out to the dock yet but that is probably a good thing. He would make a good dinner for a hungry eagle. At least around the house and cabins Spike has lots of hiding spaces in case he is swooped upon.
We woke up to ice in the cove the other day. Nelda said she had never seen ice in the cove, ever. Pretty cool.
We are going back to Homer Feb 28th and Jeremiah leaves on the first. This all depends, of course, if the weather and taxi service cooperate. I might even try to get my drivers license again...lol
I have lots and lots of news items to talk about and other little tidbits and will try to get to that this week. It isn't like I don't have the time....Been busy playing on POGO and getting my badges. I will have to let you all know about my online gaming addiction.
Till later - don't forget to check out the new slide show and the craniofacial organization!!
