Our first week in Petersburg

Wednesday 6/5-

Drove out with Gary Albagh first thing in the morning and looked at a property that will be up for sale soon.  We went home & played with Gage until 11am when we went to tour an old house that was for sale.  We learned just how old & run down the older homes can be in Petersburg.  I spoke to Summer, our landlord, and we learned how to get wifi at our rental house.  After a trip to the local internet provider, GCI, we took our purchase home and after 30 minutes of troubleshooting, we had internet at he house!  That evening after dinner, Gary & Kim Albagh came over to play with Gage and catch up...

Thursday 6/6-

Another successful night of weening!  Again Gage only woke up once in the night.  After a lazy morning and a late breakfast, Gage napped and Rob and I spent time catching up with the internet.  We had Bob & Anne over for dinner.  Rob made quesadillas.  I had a huge allergy attack that night.  We realized I’m allergic to the house, specifically all the cat dander in the house.

Friday 6/7-

We went out to the local hardware store and rented a rug doctor so I could clean the carpets.  Somehow we locked ourselves out of the house.  The landlords mother, Dorothy, came over with what she thought was the key but it wouldn’t open the door.  Then our landlord’s brother, Bentley, was given permission to break the front doorknob to get us in.  After 30 minutes of being locked out Rob & Bentley had completely uninstalled the doorknob and we were back in the house.  For the next three hours I moved furniture while Rob vacuumed the house then Rob played with Gage while I shampooed all the rugs and the sofa.  That night Gage threw an enormous fit because he wanted to breast feed before bed and I didn’t give in.  Finally after an hour, I quit trying to contain him in his room and let him go sit with dad on the sofa.  Before he would go to dad, he wanted to snuggle with me to apologize for being so mad at me, then he climbed into Rob’s lap and fell right to sleep.

Saturday 6/8-

Gage woke once in the night and for 30 minutes pitched the same fit he had had the night before.  After 20 minutes I told him to get into bed or I would leave.  He refused so I left.  I sat outside his door and held it shut so he couldn’t go to the living room and play on his ipad.  What do you know?  He climbed into his bed and quieted down.  I went into his room, laid down beside him and rubbed his back.  He leaned over to my face and gave me an eskimo kiss by rubbing his nose with mine.  It was another apology for being mad at me.  He then rolled over to go to sleep.  

For 24 hours we had a hole in our front door where the knob use to be and we used the deadbolt to keep the door shut.  Bentley came by and installed a new knob and brought us two keys.  I spent most of the day taking the Petersburg Tax Roll Map and transferred it to a program where I knit many high resolution pictures together and printed a 3‘ x 3.5’ map and a second that is 4’ x 2’.  I took highlighters and pens and marked all the properties and their addresses onto the map.

Gage’s bedtime routine starts around 9 pm and now goes like this...  Snack, usually tuna, chicken or Greek yogurt.  Wash face & hands & brush teeth.  Clean diaper and pj’s.  Get into his bed and read a few stories.  Turn off the light and recite The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton from memory.  Tell Gage how proud of him I am and If wakes up during the night it’s ok to go back to sleep.  I kiss him, tell him that I love him and I leave.  He rolls over & goes to bed.  YAY!  He is weaned!

Sunday 6/9-

Gage Slept thru the night!  I didn’t.  I had to check on him at 3:30am to make sure he was alive.  He was of course.  I pulled up his blanket and went back to bed.  Now is as good of a time as any to mention that it doesn’t get really dark outside until midnight so going to bed at 10 or even 11 it is still light outside.  It then starts getting light outside at about 3am!  I guess June 21st is the longest day of the year and therefore the lightest day of the year.  After that hopefully we will get more than 3 hours of darkness.  I put a towel over one of the curtains in the bedroom to make it darker but I should do it to the rest of the windows in our room.  Thankfully the blinds in Gage’s room are darker.

  Laundry day.  My allergies are better but there is still something in the bedding in Gage’s room that is making me sneeze.  I washed our clothes, his bedding and our bedding.  The 4” memory foam pad that came with our bed was too much and after a week Rob & I decided to try something different.  I put the memory foam mat from our RV, a 1.5” pad, onto the bed.

We got 3 rock fish that Rob filleted.  I’m so proud of my husband’s survival & providing skills.  Rob then found a marinade recipe of honey, lemon, vinegar and ginger.  I made sautéed bell peppers, zucchini & sweet corn then mixed it with our leftover rice.  It was all delicious!

Monday 6/10-

Gage woke up sometime during the night & Rob was able to comfort him and put him back to sleep.  It was the most restful night of sleep I have had in months!  It probably also helped that we had a bed that felt like our bed at home.  While running errands we drove by Hungry Point rest area, a popular whale spotting area on Sandy Beach.  Sure enough there were several hump back whales feeding out in Fredrick Sound.  There were also a bunch of sea lions out on a channel marker making a lot of noise.  
       Rob made a plywood box to lift Gage’s carseat up off the floor of Big O’.  It took until 5pm but he got it finished!  After dinner we had an appointment to see a house for sale.  Gage loved being able to look out the windshield while we drove.  He pointed and gave us his commentary of everything he was seeing.  I had no Idea he was so deprived.  Way to go Rob!

View from the kitchen window of our rental house.

View from the road between the airport & the grocery store.  Sunday & Monday were warm & sunny!

Icebergs & a boat.  Mountain on the right is Devil's Thumb.

Yes, wake boarding in the ocean beside an iceberg.  The locals here are tough! (and hard up for entertainment)

The view from Hungry Point on a sunny day.

Gage's carseat on a box that Rob made.

Awesome job Rob!

View out the living room of our rental house.  The green roof is Gary & Kim's house.

Young bald eagle (brown with white spots on rock).

A ray of light over Petersburg.

Rob & Gary Albagh 1985 mountain goat hunting.

Kim Albagh reading to Gage.

Gage was too tired to stay awake...

Bob Volk reading to Gage.

Rob fixing a leaky skylight on the van.

My boys wearing their Extra-Tuff boots.

A red snapper also known as a rockfish.  

Awesome Rob filleting the rockfish.

The fillets from 3 Red Snappers.

Rob cooked Red Snapper with green onions, vinegar, honey, lemon juice and ground ginger.  I made rice with veggies.

Hungry Point rest area on Sandy Beach Road here in Petersburg.