CJ & Autumn Miller

At this very moment I have immature vegetable plants growing all over my house. I started them by seed in little soil pods our first week in Port Alsworth & now they are demanding more root room. I did a bit of recycling & punched holes in the bottom of my tin cans for drainage which transformed them into modern pots. My neighbors have been teasing me & are a little suspicious about what I am growing, but hey, I am doing the best I can without a greenhouse.

I attribute my green thumb shenanigans to my Grandma. Every summer my parents would drop me off in Cincinnati for two weeks to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa. They have always had a lush backyard garden & graciously let me trample through their vegetable rows & help harvest. I always tried to time my Ohio trip just right so I could be there for fresh raspberries. Right up there with fresh raspberries is grandma's steaming hot raspberry cobbler. I would pay big bucks to get my hands on a piece of that right now!
Thanks Grandma for sharing with me the joy of gardening.

I just took two loaves of sourdough bread out of the oven. It is a little bit of an experiment each time on how to get it to rise correctly & be big beautiful loaves. I have high expectations from working at the bakery & not a lot of bread making experience, which can be a disappointing combination. My old gas oven has a mind of its own regarding temperature & is by all means the antagonist in this story.

My dear mother has had patience with me through it all though. A couple weeks ago she called from Alabama just as I was taking some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven that were charred on the outside. I know, how do you burn chocolate chip cookies? Well, I set the oven at 275 for safe measure & when I reached in to take the cookies out I noticed it was a blistering 425 degrees. Mom calmed me down & reassured me that I just needed to get to know the oven. Well, let's just say we are getting to know each other quite well with no restaurant options in town. Thanks to many cooking lessons growing up & her persistence with me refusing to stick my hand up the turkey, CJ is not starving up here in the sticks.
Thanks Mom for sharing with me the joy of cooking.

Knitting is the thing to do in Alaska. Every lady I have talked to in Port Alsworth knits, & it is not just the elderly. Somehow the cold of winter, a hot cup of tea, & a knitting project sounds so enticing up here. So, I am glad I brought my knitting needles & have at least knitting in common with my new neighbors.

My mother in law, Pam taught me to knit a couple years ago. She showed me her completed projects while CJ & I were dating. I was super curious & I guess my nagging finally got to her. Pam sent me my fist pair of knitting needles, some purple yarn, & an instruction book for my 25th birthday. Luckily Mike & Pam came to Texas to visit us shortly after my self instruction began & Pam straightened me out. She said "Are you stressed out? You are doing this so tight." Well, I still knit pretty tight, mostly because I pull out my knitting when I need to relax, but I believe it is good therapy.
Thanks Pam for sharing with me the joy of knitting.

We have arrived at the Miller's house on the lake & they have graciously allowed us some time for rest & recuperation. Their view of rest is very active & to tell you the truth, many of my muscle groups are pleading for mercy. Jordan (CJ's Marine brother) has been our personal trainer in the mornings. He set up a cross-fit gym in his garage complete with monster tires & climbing rope.  
The weather has been sunny & cool. We tested out our new-to-us tandem kayak & it floats! Plus, it is a great arm workout. We are in search of some paddles to take to AK.
Because of some scheduling complications with Dwayne, we are extending our time in Michigan until Monday. I am great with that. I think we will sift through our stuff in the UHaul again today & try to consolidate even more. Anyone want free stuff?

Saturday CJ & Nate managed to puzzle all our belongings into a 10 ft. UHaul truck & the Subaru. After dinner & some goodbyes we hung our Alaska or Bust sign in the back window of the Subaru & trailered it behind the UHaul. I fell off the trailer that night loading the kayak onto the Subaru & CJ attached the mountain bikes up top as well. We probably look like the Beverly Hillbillies, but we are loaded! We slept on the wood floor in sleeping bags that last night & unplugged the fridge. The house was empty, clean, and echoing. We departed 650 Keezletown Rd. Sunday morning at 4:30am.  CJ backed the truck out of our driveway in the dark & I got a text message from our pregnant friend Christine that said she was praying for us. The baby must have been on her bladder. We wished we hadn't boxed up the coffee maker.
Our route to Michigan was adjusted so we could have lunch with Grandma & Grandpa Sizer in Cincinnati. Aunt Joy, Uncle Kevin, Ashley, her boyfriend Brad & Grant met us there for lunch. It was great to have Grandma's cooking instead of fast food & even greater to catch up with everyone. After lunch we proceeded to Kalamazoo, MI to spend some time at Mike & Pam's house & see Luke & Jordan.
Total Driving Time: 16.5 hours

Papa Mike swung by & picked us up in the Meridian Saturday morning for a quick weekend with the family. Pam hosted an Easter feast at the house Sunday, so we were able to see lots of Mortons & Millers in our short time & explain our crazy move to Alaska.

The week of Christmas I worked like crazy as Santa’s cookie elf at the Bakery. Charles picked us up in the Mooney Wednesday afternoon & we flew with Teco to Kalamazoo. It was a challenging trip to pack for considering we were limited to 50 lbs of luggage & our Christmas presents totaled 25 lbs. We arrived safely with a key lime pie in hand for Pam’s birthday. It was great to see Jordan that night after his long stint in California with the Marines. We attended the usual Morton family gathering Christmas Eve & the absence of grandpa Morton was hard on everyone this year. CJ was privileged to sort through his old workshop & pick some useful & sentimental tools to remember him by.

Luke, Amanda, Jordan & Paige all spent the night at the homestead Christmas Eve so we could wake up & celebrate early together the next morning. We opened presents & celebrated. They gave me a Nikon D5000 camera early so I could enjoy it on Christmas! It rained outside & we relaxed by the fire. Friday morning CJ & Jordan played a cold game of football with some old Gull Lake friends & I experimented with action shots on my new camera. Saturday we took a trip to the barn & rode horses in the snow. Teco loved chasing the horses & wore herself out playing with the other three dogs. By Saturday night it was really snowing & we were able to go cross country skiing Sunday before Mike flew us home.