Saturday, April 14, 2012

Memory Lane

Today I got a message on Facebook from my nephew Brandon. He was working on an oral report and asked about my Dad's house in Old Harbor and what had happened to it after the earthquake and tidal wave of 1964. Boy, that got me back into the past. Old pictures, old times, Old Harbor.
I was thankful to find that I had a picture of the house my Dad built in Old Harbor. When my youngest brother Mark was still alive my Mom normally lived at the same small house he was at. This house was built by our family for Mom after my Dad died. It ended up that Mark lived there and in 2010 he died there. (Boy does time fly!) After Mark died my husband Doug and I ended up being the ones that cleaned up the house and took care of Mark's animals. Since there would be no one living there after we moved Mom out into an assisted living facility Doug drained the pipes and winterized it. There it sits to this day. If I had the money I would pay the taxes on it and I would make it liveable again. Alcoholism is tough on material possessions!
We went through what little paperwork we could find that looked important then brought them home with us in case it was needed for Mom's future. We arranged with the neighbors to check the mailbox every so often and we stopped by there to pick it up, when needed.
As Doug was picking things up in the yard he found a garbage container filled with trash and in it was some photographs! This sort of stuff happens when someone is alcoholic. I am so glad that Doug checked this stuff and salvaged the pictures. They are precious to me, even this one picture of the house that Dad built. One thing that was not salvageable was the big bear hide that my brother owned from a hunting trip that he went on. It was wet after sitting in the drip of the eave for we don't even know how long. Sad to let things go that would have been a link to someone you loved. But when death is fresh on your heart it is hard to think of 'stuff.' So we left that behind but brought some of the old pictures home from the trash barrel.
Shortly after my brother died my Mom lost her mind. Maybe this is a protection? Personally, I believed she had suffered a stroke, but the doctor said there was no sign of any NEW strokes. He did tell me that it appeared that she had survived five strokes in her past and that she had recovered from them without medical care. Mom does not even remember Mark right now. She asks once in a while who the boy was that used to live at her house. " It was Mark, Mom." "Mark?" It is amazing to me how she forget someone that had such a big part of her every day.
I have a new laptop and my first ever web cam. :-) I was trying to figure out how to get my pictures from my phone to my laptop, and saw the webcam. So there you have it. A new way to take a picture of an old house.
Ha ha!

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Moose Calf

Since early last spring we've observed a cow with twins. They kept showing up here and there and different ones of the family would say they saw them. This winter we have had a lot of snow and the minus temperatures began in November! Seems the very cold days hung on forever and the snow kept falling. With the deeper snowfall we have seen a lot of moose on the plowed roads. Not a good mix--ambling moose and frenzied drivers.
A few months back we saw two dead moose calves. One appeared to have just curled up and died. Makes my heart sad.

Now for the last three days a cow and calf have hung out here near the house. The calf walked slower than usual. Just stays bedded down while the cow moved on browsing. She keeps returning and bedding down close by throughout the day.

Doug got out his tree trimmer and cut down the high branches and put them near the calf. He ate yesterday and this morning. After eating this morning he laid down and hasn't lifted his head once. I am concerned. I don't know much about moose everyday life but I suspect this is not normal.

Say a prayer for our moose calf.

Update: This calf died last night. 2/10/12

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Bigger Than Real Life

Today the mountains appear larger than they really are. There is something in the air that acts as a magnifying glass which makes them look closer and taller than they are. It even lifts the mountains beyond the mountains that we normally see everyday to loom taller than those in the foreground.

This reminds me of how our troubles jump out larger than they are a lot of times. The saying "making mountains out of molehills" comes to my mind as I gaze out on this beautiful world this morning.

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Reading

I just spent some time reading my old posts after recieving an email from a person that claimed to have read here. I read back to when I had the surgery that quieted my facial spasm. What a blessing to still be enjoying the results of that trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! I am thankful!