Squeezing the last drops out...

Squeezing the last drops out of summer in Alaska can be difficult. Fall sneaks in overnight, before you even get a hint that yesterday was the last day of summer. Temperatures drop from the high 60's to the mid 40's and the leaves hit the ground like little missiles. The joke goes something like this "When is summer going to get here? Oh, you missed it. It was yesterday!"

Truly, summer was yesterday. On Tuesday I picked the second crop of broccoli from my garden (don't be fooled, I have not picked very large heads this year) and Wednesday the moose blew through with the storm and ate all my cabbages and destroyed any hope of more broccoli.

The bathrooms are not done. I know, BIG surprise! We decided moving our two younger boys in to their own room was even more pressing than finishing the bathroom. We did put a new toilet in upstairs, so it is usable. There has been a lot of arguing over who made what mess in the boys room and when we moved the younger boys, we found out exactly who it was! I am thrilled that the oldest boys are able to keep their room clean now and now I know who needs further training. An added bonus is with the toddler son upstairs now, our nights are much quieter. He sleeps much better now that he is not sharing the nursery with a baby. The downside is I emptied my sewing room in to the homeschool area and now I have to sort it out and find a home for it!

My wonderful friend Niki came over for the day and lead a work crew of 6 boys to move gravel to the new bike parking pad!

I finally got around to building some high chairs. Just in time for our children to out grow them ;) * Correction: 1 high chair. I didn't actually assemble the second one! :{

We went to Seward, picked berries, went to the Sealife Center.We also decided we will NOT be sleeping in the motorhome with all 7 of us again! That is a story for another time...

I tidied up the laundry room and washed the bedding that had stacked up all summer. Our washing machine doesn't handle comforters very well. This means hauling everything to the laundromat. It sounds far worse than it is. These kind of errands get easier as my children get older - I don't take anyone in to the laundromat. I haul my stuff in, cram it into the biggest machine they have (it holds 4 or 5 king size comforters) and then set the timer on my phone while I hop back in my truck and run errands! Certainly not without hassle, but not all that difficult.

Some of our last projects for this fall (um, summer?) are to finally put the lattice up around the porch, finish the bathrooms and move the freezer out of the kitchen and into the basement. We might get to the porch roof. Maybe.

All this in the middle of putting up food for the winter - squash, potatoes, carrots (done) and apples. Until I have a root cellar, the corner of the basement with the back door will have to do. We had a farm subscription this summer, which means that once a week I have picked up an overwhelming amount of produce that I have cooked, dried, or blanched and frozen to be used over the winter. The refrigerator has been so full that I haven't had room for my bread dough. I can't wait to start baking again!

I'm looking forward to indoor work, too. School has started, and when we get in to a rhythm, I can start working on painting, trim work and tiling bathrooms!