Now, to be fair, I'm aware that Alaskan freight costs are 38% higher than the lower 48 and that Hawaii's freight costs aren't significantly lower. However, in an earlier post, I had mentioned a purchase of a 16 ounce flat of blueberries and a 16 ounce of strawberries for $5.99 each.

Then a friend from Washington D.C. mentioned she purchased a 16 ounce tray of strawberries for $1.99!

I can't wait for the farmer's markets to open!!

Good morning

Starting off at 47° and sunny. We did get a light rain last evening though.

Baking today, laundry and if any energy leftover grass cutting. That should put the day in.

Rick, this mower is so easy to push and I am so pleased with it. Makes my job a lot easier to do.

Patricia, blueberries here are 7.99  for not much more than a pint. They stay right there on the shelf!

OLM. my sons friend bought a Ego and has it for 6+ years with no problems .....it even has headlights!.

Enjoy your day and stay safe!

Good Morning Amy, Patricia and all!😊
Its 42°F here with clear skies. We had rain and a T-storm yesterday afternoon. Settled the dust nicely.

Somehow I managed to get a low tire on my UTV. My new tire inflator (looks like a drill) came out of its bag. The manual claimed the battery was fully charged before packaging. Mine was not. I put it on the charger overnight. It has a nice digital pressure display so I won't have to 'guess and check' any more.

My glass blocks came yesterday. The new shoes the day before. I found the description had not been entirely accurate. The are leather and didn't stink.👍 They were, unfortunately, lined with synthetic fabric over cheap foam. The "leather insole" was a very thin leather over dense foam. All that material had to come out. I reserved the leather insole, trashed the synthetics and foams. I still have a little clean up and sealing the inside to do. They bonded some gauze to the inside of the leather by coating it with a white rubber or EPDM like substance to give it structure. That I'll have to seal. I didn't pay a lot for them. I figured I'd have to do this. I just couldn't find a better match even paying more.

Ron showed up yesterday evening with groceries, blg mtrls and 4 wheelers. He'll be back about mid-day, I think. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids will arrive in the late afternoon.

Amy, headlights! I was at first perplexed... so he can mow after work? Then I realized that maybe some places its so hot mowing after dark is preferred. Being an early bird I never thought of it. Come to think of it, now that my husband mows he does end up mowing in the dark. He has a blinding headlamp.🫣

Patricia, How much will they be at the farmer's market? You've reminded me I need to go check the huckleberry patch. There might be enough for pancakes in the morning with the Gkids. I have thimbleberries also, but they're better just to eat from the bush. Too squishy for much else besides jam.

Have a lovely day everyone!

Happy FLAG DAY to everyone.

                                                    THINK ABOUT IT.

Good morning everyone, it's 65 presently and will be in the mid-eighties this afternoon. Meet and greets, morning routines and everyone's fed with my first coffee at hand.

Farmer's markets began in May and operate through September. However, fresh fruits and vegetables are sparse due to the earlier cold, wet and rainy weather. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and others are cheap because they grow wild and plentiful in the interior.

Most fruits and vegetables grow large here and flowers, especially peonies, are a major export. The soil locally is a rich black glacial soil and items such as cabbages and other root vegetables can grow quite large.

 A 138-pound cabbage, 65-pound cantaloupe and 35-pound broccoli are just a few grown in our short, only 105 days, on average, growing season. For comparison, California's growing season lasts nearly 300 days. The Interior has a midnight sun, almost 24 hours daylight due to solstice and from the filtering of harmful sun rays from our location, this far north.

Patricia,that is fascinating! Thank you, I love learning these kinds of things.😃

Good morning...
 Nice sunny day with a temp of 47° and we still need rain. Most of the work got done yesterday all but one load of laundry.
We are off to Kyle's sister's 90th birthday party later on. Just the two of them left now.

Patricia,  did you think of all the cabbage rolls that could be made from that 138 lb cabbage?

Rick, while sitting out on the veranda  a bluebird came by ,perched in the tree then picked something off the ground. We don't often see them and  enjoy when they are here.

OLM, my thought was dew on grass but apparently no dew that night.

Better get the day started.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Good morning, it's sixty and clear outside, although, one site says 56 and the other 60, but they agree on the clear skies.

Meet and greets, a call with Claire's son, morning routines, everyone fed and coffee is in hand so here I am, and how are all of you?

Barb's last post was on the fourth, has anyone heard from her?

Amy, no cabbage rolls came to mind, but I remembered reading that last year and thinking of all the coleslaw that would make.

Kyle's sister, Phyllis, MaryPage, Jane, and others in their nineties, that's quite an achievement. No one in my family, that I'm aware, both sides, have lived past their late eighties. Although most have come from hardscrabble farming lines. Ironically, I recently took a quiz from a health site that I'm in line at 87.3.

I have a question for all you that are houseplant savvy. I have grown spider plants for years, however this variegated one I have now is three years old, quite large and has never had flowers or small plantlets that can be rooted.  Last year I tried fertilizing and the previous year I used spray due to gnats that had snuck in on a new plant. I haven't had the gnats or any bugs since but no plantlets.

I haven't seen any smaller birds other than the occasional wren since they cut down the trees on this back side. However, this past week when the weather warmed and tiny mosquitoes made their debut, I have pigeons being very amorous on my balcony rail. Farrah wasn't impressed beyond watching them quietly, a time or two.

Patricia, Barb is around somewhere. She posted on SeniorLearn this morning.

Good Morning!!  Or I should say good afternoon!!  I don't know if this will go and I'm still not hooked up!  So I'll try to see you tomorrow. I had a great time with the kids and I miss them already??  Enjoy the rest of your day!!

Come to think of it Patricia, Jenny hasn't posted since the 2nd. I've been checking to see if she posted for the last few days.

Oh, here is my sister calling to let me know she is back from the casino. Most Sunday afternoons she goes for a few hours and I get to here how the smokers bother her, again.

Aside for a few normal chores, I spent the day reading. Weather is still cloudy, humid and off and on drizzly. Temp stayed in the low 60s.

Thanks for letting me know, MG.

Jenny hasn't been posting regularly for the past year. She last posted on May 26th but was briefly on site on June 2nd.

I know that she recently returned to Denver from Arizona and may just be busy with settling in again.

Good morning

Another chilly start to the day at 40° but nice and sunny.  We had a great time at the birthday yesterday, was nice catching up with the nephews too!

Need to pick up paint this morning after coffe with friends then home to catch up on work inside and hopefully brushing along the fence.

Jane, how was the trip home? Nice to sleep in your own bed , am sure you will miss them as much as everyone misses you! Ali has some wonderful memories  of canning with you .


MG, thank you for letting us know about Barb.

Patricia,Jenny is fine, just been busy.

Ok, better get busy.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Good Morning Everyfriend!  I don't know how this well be because I can only see half the screen.  It's doing a checkup and I just don't have time for that today.  I really miss the kids already but Cooper and I have had 2 walks together.

Yes, I think Ali will become a canner.  She's already looking at Pressure Canners!

AMY  The trip home was LONG and BORING and we're both glad it's over.  The unfortunate part of that is Cindy has to do it again.  The nice part of that is that her sister Christy is traveling back with her and will have a week's visit then fly home!

Now I'm going back to work getting stuff done around here!I hope you all

When I saw the size of that cabbage I also thought of Cole Slaw like PATRICIA did!  If I had to deal with that, it would take me all summer to get it canned!

Now I'm going back to housework!  Not my favorite occupation but I'm glas I can still do it!  I wish you all a great day Do whatever suits your fancy!

Good morning, 69 and smokey from some small fires in the area. We can never have heat in the forests without fires, not one anytime without the other. A concerning one is in the sanctuary. We'll have highs in the mids to high eighties or higher through at least Tuesday.

Morning routines, meet and greets, and some tidying up finished and coffee in hand.

I do have a couple of errands today, back to Lowes and to a paperwork issue. Then that inspection finally on Wednesday. It never ends, does it?

Amy, thanks for letting me know about Jenny.

Jane, I'm sure Cooper was glad to see you and to have those two walks, getting reacquainted with the neighborhood.

The ones that have dogs here, have a narrow fenced corridor, the length of the building for their dogs with bags available. But many prefer taking their dogs to one of the city dog parks to let them run and play with other dogs.

The larger crops due to the midnight sun and black glacial soils have turned into quite an intense competition not only locally but at fairs around the state and between various growers. Besides the various berries that grow wild, or brought to the farmers markets and fairs around the state, there is also piling and piles of rhubarb and zucchini in yards with signs saying free to a good home.

This is why, FDR, in the thirties, sent so many of the dust bowl farmers here and why the Mennonites arrived in Big Delta. Big Delta also has a communion of Russian Old Believers, an offshoot of their Orthodox church around the same time the Amish split from theirs and for similar reasons. Old Believers, similarly to the Amish, wear the older styles of clothes, similar church services, but they do drive.