What a week! Not sure where to begin so let’s start with the earthquakes. Yes plural, as in multiple. Literally every few minutes but thankfully we only felt one-a 7.1 on the Richter scale.  

 The red point is epicenter the blue dot is us. We sustained only minor damage but others weren’t so fortunate. Many have lost their homes so please say a prayer for them and while your at it thank God for his infinite wisdom, love and grace for I discovered through the big quake how truly blessed we are. Let me explain. When we made the big move to Alaska months, years actually we searched the Internet, combing through locations and even put in offers (full asking price on a couple of places) and we’re always rejected. Friends spent many hours touring properties for us, taking pictures and inspecting the sites only to have the offers rejected. Now seriously who puts their property up for sale for 5 years and rejects a full asking price offer? Well it happened to us-twice! Not deterred I knew God had a plan. One evening this property popped up on my computer, mind you my settings blocked pop ups. Closing out of it for fear it was a virus (not a website I had ever visited) it kept popping back up every time I turned on the computer! Finally I said “alright God I think you want me to take a look at this place. Yes sometimes I need hit over the head before “I get it”.  I finally tracked down the real estate agent, left multiple messages and emails then finally a response. Now mind you I have never had a real estate agent come across as rude until this lady. She told me stop wasting her time that I didn’t want the property and then I got mad! I decided okay I don’t want it so continued looking elsewhere. Once again with the pop ups. Seriously! I was at my wits end when something strange happened, as if this entire thing wasn’t strange enough! The owners name popped up on my computer screen. Weird! Just plain weird but I took the cue and contacted him. Long story short he had never seen the property. I said I was interested he told me “go to Alaska, go have a look and if you want the property call me back”. Super nice retired farmer who listed the property years ago and forgot about it. So long story short we continued looking at properties all over the state but in my heart I knew that here was where I was supposed to be. Fast forward…we got to Alaska and it took weeks-yes I said weeks to get to the property and locate it. Mind you no real trails, no markers and no neighbors to ask we flew by faith and a GPS to finally locate it. What happened next was surreal. Still letting my head over run my heart I saw only the difficulties but then It happened. I had a dream, I was looking at a painting. The next day we went back out to the property and as I crawled off the four wheeler I turned to see the painting in my dream! Mount Illiamna looked as if it were an oil painting and it was the most comforting feeling I had ever felt. I knew I was home. Alright so that was a long winded explanation of how we got here now here’s the blessing in all of this. We are in a wet area. Our cabin is built on logs sitting on muskeg. Muskeg is simply put lots of moss that grows very deep. Peat moss-a giant sponge. So while the rocking and rolling of a 7.1 earthquake was going on we felt a shake, then things rattled and a bit of rolling like being on a wave but other than a ding on my coffee grinder we were left with zero damage. I was actually shocked to find out it was that large an earthquake as it felt smaller than the one we experienced when we first got here and still in town. That was a 4.9 and it shook! I fully realize how blessed we are and am thankful once again for the blessings we have.

Anyone who knows me knows cooking is my thing. I love to cook and jump at the chance to cook at any event. An earthquake is an event, right?  Here’s my earthquake breakfast crepes-serves 4

Ingredients-filling

1/2 lb.bacon fried crisp 

4 c. Shredded potatoes (frozen or par boil 4 med potatoes ahead of time and let cool before shredding.

1 med onion diced

1 cup shredded cheddar

4 eggs scrambled

Salsa to taste

Crepes 1/2c flour, 1/2tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp oil, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk (approx)

Cut 1/2 pound bacon cut while semi frozen in 1/2 pieces then browned, remove from pan and add 4 cups shredded potatoes to the pan and 1 small diced onion. Cook it on high heat turning to brown evenly. While that is cooking mix up 1/2 c flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2tsp oil, 2 eggs and enough milk to make a runny batter-really thin batter. In a small skillet coat with oil and get super hot, pour a few tablespoons batter in pan and turn to coat the entire bottom. Cook on high 1 minute remove from pan repeating and oiling pan each time-even non stick pans. After crepes are done scramble the 4 eggs and set aside. Now just assemble them-cheese, eggs then hash browns, roll up top with salsa.  

  
Still no winter but perfect weather for meat processing so the hog has been butchered and all the meat now cut and wrapped. I ground sausage yesterday and made breakfast sausage that my dear hubby says is awesome but once again forgot to measure the spices so I could share the recipe. I am so used to just adding until it looks right. I’m waiting for my sausage casings to arrive then will finish by making boudin (pronounced boo-dan) a Cajun sausage we all live. That recipe I can share as I wrote it down and made notes after tweaking it to get it just right. I’ll include it in the post when I make and take pics.

Today turkey culling will be happening. I finally have decided on who will stay and who gets to go to freezer camp. After they are done my butchering should be done for awhile. 

Yep it’s been a crazy few days but all are well here and I pray you are too. Please keep those less fortunate in your thoughts and prayers. Have a blessed day and I’ll leave you with a few random pics