Batten Down the Hatches, Boys!

Well, it's been a while.  And while something tells me that I should feel guilty, I'm not.  I do this for fun, the blogging.  In the mean time, I 'm living.  That means, I share when I have time.  And since we've been trying to soak up every bit of autumn splendor, I haven't had much time for blogging.

The above photo is of Brent and Cash hunting at Castner Glacier.  It's a lovely hike, and I'm sorry that I didn't let Brent drag me out there sooner.  Anytime I hear the word hike, I cringe and dig my heels into the ground.  It's reminiscent of days spent hiking in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  He's drag me around every mountain at least 3 times.  I like to wander, watching the skies change above, not him.  He's more of a get there, get back kind of person.  Not so at Castner, it was such a nice, easy walk.  Easy pace.  Watching Cash and Ches dash in and out of the woods, the water and the dirt.  

This is Brent with the Alaska Range in the background.  This was before the "s" word fell and coated the mountain tops with fresh white powder.  He's standing on top of the world, showing me where he should have shot a moose.  No such luck for these newbies.  It was incredibly warm and while he saw a few cows with calves, no bulls.  Hmph.

Once you reach the peak on which Brent was standing you come down to view the glacier.  Not really what you picture a glacier to look like is it?  But it's awesome.  How absolutely unique to think that you can stand on a glacier.  It's pretty cool and I'm glad I saw.  I'm also looking forward to doing that hike again.  Really soon.

I prefer to be behind the camera, but this is me, holding the bear protection, while Brent snaps a photo.  It was such a nice day.

This is a lovely Soapberry bush.  A favorite food of bears, or so I read somewhere.  Of course, I stumbled upon this knowledge after I left the area, and it made me extra thankful that we had the bear protection along. Something stronger than mace x 100.  Ha!  Alas, we did not see a bear.  I think they're hiding from me.

Fall comes early in the Interior of Alaska.  Sometimes you have to be careful to blink or you will miss it.  This is a photo of the changing colors in early September, on Triple H Road, near our home.  Now the leafy trees are bare, and withered and decaying leaves litter the ground.  I should feel melancholy about it I suppose, but it's lovely to see more sunlight peaking through the tall trees.  And I will admit while winter is long here, it's particularly pretty.  

Lately we've been enjoying unseasonably warm temps.  We got our first sprinkling of snow on Sept. 26th, and much to my delight it didn't stick around.  The days are warm, hovering in the 40's and low 50's, and the nights are crisp.  Each morning we wake to a covering of glittery frost and the warmth of the wood stove.

I have missed the warmth that wraps around you like a soft, fuzzy blanket, except when the nights are warm and it becomes a sauna in here.  I have not missed the headaches that come with puffs of smoke escaping the door and blasting me in the face when I go to reload it.  The humidifier hums in the background, and lets little chugs here and there.

Brent had a nice birthday, I think.  I made him a fairly large dinner, since we so rarely eat out here.  His requests were simple, and I let him choose his guest list.  Since our home is smallish, okay, it's just plain small, we had 4 dinner guests, and 4 additional dogs.  Yes, it was mass chaos in the house of Kings...6 dogs, 6 people.  5 square feet.  I made him salmon cakes and grilled oysters with chili-lime salsa for starters, for dinner we had roast grouse, braised brisket, au gratin potatoes and roasted acorn squash with maple/orange glaze.  We had some slightly over done bread, which is pretty much the norm for me, and for dessert his beloved German chocolate cake.  Straight from home in Minnesota.  Provided by my mom.  :)  I'm not much of a baker, so it was a perfect compromise.  :)  He had a great day with great friends!

I must go, both dogs are alerting to something in the yard.  Knowing Cash it's just a leaf drifting across the driveway...but since Chessa is alert, I think it might be worth the look.

Happy day to you all!!!

Top 5 Differences Between Alaska and Minnesota

**DISCLAIMER: I have lived in Alaska for less than 2 months. These are my early observations/opinions and they may or may not be accurate. I plan to update this in coming months. Not better or worse, just different.

5. It's cold, but it doesn't feel as cold as Minnesota.

4. When it snows, there are plows, but they aren't there to rid the road of snow, just keep it debris free and maybe sand the slickest spots, the rest just is... The roads that are good/fine are roads I would normally have avoided in Minnesota.

3. The utilities here in Alaska are temperamental. I have lost phone connection, satellite, and electricity more times than I'd like.

2. In Minnesota you bring your license to the DMV, you test, you get license. In Alaska, you bring in your passport/birth certificate, social security card, valid drivers license, proof of physical address, not mailing address and your first born. Then you test, then you get your license.

1. The general population in Alaska actually dresses for the weather, then adds a stylish touch instead of wearing something cute and hoping you don't breakdown and freeze to death. :)

Have a happy day!

Home

This is our home sweet home. It's quaint and the totes out front don't help the hillbilly appeal but our storage shed still holds the belongings of the former tenants, so we're waiting patiently. Or not-so-patiently.

So, a lot of people have been asking for photos of Alaska and where we live. So, today we ventured out a little and snapped a few pics. Nothing uber exciting, but it will give you a feel for where we are. This is the road that leads to our house. It's the Tanana Loop Ext. and it's beautiful coming and going. This is going towards town. As you can see, the roads aren't that fabulous right now, but good enough to get out.

This is the view from our front porch. It is actually a hay field but it's nice that I can look out and see the sun shining. It's not all that exciting right now, but I'm looking forward to the summer and the smell of fresh cut hay.

This is the driveway. Our house sits to the right. This is the road that Ches and I walk up and down. We also venture out on Tanana Loop, and go about 1/2 mile in each direction. As I said before, I don't wander too far from home. So we go a few times a day.

This is the shop that burned last weekend. It's on the back corner. This is where our landlords live temporarily. They'll be building in the summer.

This is the chicken coop and pole shed. The bus is the wood stove/furnace to keep the chickens warm. Everything is repurposed on the farm. It lies about 100 feet from our front door.

And you thought you'd seen cold. Ha!

Friday morning we left Whitehorse at 7 a.m. It was still dark. Pitch black, the roads were awful, and since we had just gotten a dusting of snow, visibility was at about 0. Okay, it was zero. But we headed off with Adam & Jennifer in the lead for a while. We quickly switched over though. When we departed it was -25 degrees, this photo was taken at about 9:00 a.m. And yes, that's the moon.


The roads were fair, for some of the drive, and bad for other parts. This is what they looked like for most of the morning. At least we had beautiful scenery to keep our minds off the roads.

As you can see we were up and down and wound around. I guess that's what moutain travel entails. I had no idea how exhausting this trip would be.

This is the Boutillier Summit in the Yukon Territory. It was much more beautiful in person, it's amazing how the mountains just never seem to stop and continue to rise up and greet us. I will admit, we were both aching for a little bit of flat land near this point in the trip. Second highest point on the trip between Whitehorse and Summit.

Here we are at Kluane Lake in Kluane National Park. It's located in the Yukon Territory, and is the largest lake in the YT. The Kluane Lake area was the site of a short-lived gold rush in the early 1900s.

Sheeps Head Mtn in Kluane National Park is where we stumbled upon bridge construction in January. It was beautiful as the road ran between Sheeps Head Mountain and Kluane Lake. Gorgeous.

This is a photo of the World's Largest Gold Pan in Burwash Landing, YT. I am tempted to drive back here to check out the burlwood trees they are famous for. In summer, of course. This is where the road began to get very interesting. The tales are true. The Alaska Highway does indeed bounce from pavement to gravel along the way. Also trying are the frost boils that heave the roads, pavement and gravel alike, for about 100 miles of the journey. This was the hardest part of the day, very wearing on nerves and patience.

White River in the Yukon Territory.

This is the road in the area of Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory. The items along the roadside are an experiment they are doing along the Hwy to try to relieve some of the frost boils and pitching of the road. From the condition of the roads here, I'd have to venture a guess to say they aren't working.

In preparing for the border crossing I missed a pic of the Welcome to Alaska sign. We managed to corss the US border without incident and from there the roads became much more tolerable, even clear in some spots. I took over driving this last portion, and it was breathtakingly beautiful. We saw a moose, and soem caribou yearlings who kicked up their heals in excitement at seeing us. Truly hilarious.

We reached Tok, Alaska just as the sun was falling behind the trees. It was so cold my nostrils, eye lashes and hair were frozen. When we stopped the motel owner told us that the temp was -63 degrees. Without wind chill, that's actual temperature folks. I never need to see that kind of cold again. Completely unbearable.

When we reached the motel we learned that Jennifer & Adam were having brake issues and as it turns out their brake lines were frozen. I wouldn't have wanted to travel that highway with frozen brakes. We celebrated our arrival and survival with dinner and a couple of beers. Trust me, if I was the bender type I would have tied one on.

The photo above is of Ches in her blankie. We had the thermometer turned up to 90 but the room stayed at about 63 degrees. FRIGID. What a nice Welcome to Alaska!!!

In and Out, In and Out

We left Watson Lake at 7:30 a.m. It was dark. Pitch black but we were on our way anyway. Our accomodations were very rustic, but clean and warm, and I guess that's all we can ask for at this point in the game. Certainly no reason to complain. The above photo is the 2nd pic of the day. It was taken about 9:00 a.m. The first photo was just too dark. Bummer.

The roads today weren't necessarily better, however the turns weren't nearly as sharp, and the hills weren't nearly as steep, up or down. All in all, today was a better day. However, 2 days of straight through driving has been hard on Brent and his back. He's threatening to make me drive some tomorrow. We'll see who wins.

This photo is taken of the sunrise about 9:30 a.m. It was absolutely gorgeous. Definitely made the 6:00 a.m. wake up call worth it. We continued to travel with Adam & Jennifer as it is a relief and a joy for all of us. We have a very similar travel style which makes it that much easier.

Today was fairly uneventful in the way of animal life. We did, however, manage to see one little gray fox who had buried himself in a bison track. He was hard to see so I didn't get a pic of him. All you could really see were his ears and face. However, the views continued to be marvelous. The pink sheen on the left of the picture is the sun starting to peak over the horizon.

Before we left we received great gifts of crossword puzzles, word games, word searches, Mad Libs, etc. However, way too many hours in the car leaves you searching for something new and exciting. As members of the Brain Trust know crossword puzzles aren't my strength, so I'm leaving those for "later". Ha! I decided it would be a great idea to write a poem. So I submitted 3 words, then Brent, then I, and you get the point. Unfortunately he was feeling snarky, so we can't publish our creation. However, I thought this might be a good place for him to live in his mood (above pic). In seriousness though, he's done a great job getting us through the mountains, and I cannot complain.

This was a very, very long bridge we had to cross today. It seemed never ending, and after the bridge collapse in Minnesota a year ago, I wasn't overly excited to cross the jallopy. We managed to survive. How? I'll never know.

Since the driving has been so hard on the guys we decided to stop for lunch in Teslin, Yukon Territory today. It was nice to actually eat a meal on the road, we haven't been stopping for lunches as we packed a cooler to eat along the way. Ches decided to take over my nice, warm heated seat. I can't blame her. She's been an absolute trooper. Such a good girl.

The Alaska Highway travels in and out of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory for a portion of today's journey so you'll have to forgive me if I sound confused. We'd see a sign welcoming us to one province or the other and finally I just stopped paying attention. Eek.

This is a photo of our descent into Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We are spending the night here and then heading to Tok, Alaska. WOOT!! Finally. We're planning to travel on to Delta Junction on Saturday a.m. I cannot wait to actually see our new home, and just be able to put our stuff in one place and not have to haul it in and out anymore.

Thanks for following along...I hope you're enjoying the ride! By the way, feel free to comment. :)

Good Byes

When we packed up and moved to Colorado in 2001 saying Good Bye was easy. I remember lying in bed, both of sleepless with anticipation. I would close my eyes and try to sleep, and then they'd pop open to find Brent looking at me as if to say "how can you sleep at a time like this"? The truth was, I couldn't. We jumped out of bed, threw our clothes into bags and stumbled down the steps to break the news to Brent's parents. I know they weren't happy with our decision, not because they were'nt happy for us, but just a little sad to see us go. But go we did. Without looking back.

This time is different. I have stronger bonds with those in my life. And this time the leaving is truly bittersweet. Being so far away will inevitably cause us to miss important events in our loved ones lives. I just hope we don't miss too many. We will certainly try to come for some, but all will not be possible.

Today we started our rounds of Good Byes. I think I'm still kind of numb to it all really. I don't think it's hit me. I truly don't feel as though it's good bye. It feels to me like I'll see them all at the next holiday or event, even though I know that's not true. The first event will take place on the day we are hoping to arrive in Delta Junction. That will hurt, for just a little while.

So we said good bye, and hugged our hugs, but it still doesn't feel real for me. Brent isn't saying much, though I suspect the Good Byes are just as hard for him. He usually keeps that kind of thing a little more to himself. I know it's affecting our loved ones too. It's hard for them to say good bye, and to watch us go. But we'll be back, at least to visit, and we have email, and phones, and texts, and blogs...

We love you. We'll miss you. Come and visit!

A day of rest.

Last night I did virtually nothing in the interest of the move. We sat, snuggled Ches and the neighbor dogs, and cats, and relaxed.

I did call on another rental. However, since it's available Dec.1 we won't be putting ourselves on the list. So, I wait. Some more. I'm trying to stay positive and know that we'll find somewhere to live, but my faith waivered, for a just a minute, yesterday.

Today's a new day. Enjoy it!

Seven Strangers...Picked to Live in a House...

Much to Kyle's dismay our trip won't play out like a season of the Real World. I'm still laughing, thanks Kyle. However, we'll try to keep a diary of the trip as we go and post when we can. I'm expecting that it won't be while we're on the road, but after we're settled. Either way, we'll keep everyone as updated as possible. And try to share as much of our journey as possible.

Last week we both went and got our passport paperwork done. "They" said that it would take 4-6 weeks. Since we had 8 weeks at the time, I'm really, really hoping that it only takes 4 weeks. However, I've chosen to not worry about it because frankly, I have enough other stuff to worry about.

Today our Space Saver bags came. You wouldn't think someone could get so excited about space saving bags, but these little honeys are gold. You know the ones, with the commercials that show the exasperated housewife shoving 15 comforters, 6 blankets and 3 sets of sheets into one bag that becomes a 4"x4" square after all the air has been sucked out. They really DO work. And now, now they come in cubes. Can you imagine all the goodness that we can shove in them? Awesome. I can't wait.

This week has been cruising by much too quickly. We're trying to get stuff done, but it's hard at night with the lack of light and the constant state of chaos. So hopefully this weekend we'll be able to sort and get a handle on some things, move it around so that it's efficiently stored for the time being, and try not to drive eachother absolutely batty in the mean time.

I will state for the record. I make no guarantees.

I checked on a couple apartments tonight. Rented. We still have time. I'm not freaking out...yet.

Tomorrow Chessa will be spayed. I need to schedule more appointments for us, the vehicle and so on. For now, it's late, and I need a bed.

Fueling up

In preparation for our journey we purchased a new video camera. Can't have a video diary without a fancy pants camera to capture it all. So we bit the bullet and bought ourselves a snazzy little handy cam. So far so good, we practiced with it in Grygla this weekend and managed to capture some priceless deer tales.

Today it's 17 degrees in Delta. It was 33 here and I thought I was going to freeze to death. My only solace is that I'll be able to work from home, wrapped in down from head to toe, and not have to go out in it every day.

Brent is a fiend for information. I think he craves it, much like a body craves water for survival. Today he came upon the information that 1000 accidents per winter happen between Delta and Fairbanks. There is a spot near North Pole that claims over 700 of those accidents. This is scary. I don't like ice. Snow I can handle, by the bucket loads, but ice. I freeze. Pun intended.

We're still searching for a home. There were some new listings on the Delta News Web today so I will call tomorrow to find out more information. It's still a bit early. I don't want to have to put out anymore money than necessary, but we've heard that finding a place for Ches may be difficult. Time will tell.

Other than that, nothing new. I'm sitting here in my short sleeves trying to thicken up my skin. I don't think it's working, and I'm going to jump under my electric blanket. Audrae, if I haven't said....THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ELECTRIC BLANKET!!! lol.

Happy Day!

Welcome!

Hello Everyone!


If you've talked to us, or anyone we know, in the past few weeks you'll know that we're moving! This is a long trek, across Canada, in the dead of winter. We'll be leaving our home here in late December, or early January and heading to my parents home for a few days before starting off across Canada for our new home in Delta Junction, Alaska.

Delta Junction is a town of approximately 950 people. It's located about 100 miles Southeast of Fairbanks and is fairly remote. Brent will be working in Ft. Greely which is an army base located about 5 miles from Delta Junction. You can view more information by clicking here.

We have yet to find a new home, but we're optimistic and hopeful that something perfect will come along soon. Until then, we're trying to be patient and trying not to chew our nails to the quick. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

As you can imagine we have a lot going on. We've decided to store or sell most of our belongings and just make a clean start. It makes more sense financially for us to leave most of our stuff behind. We're still deciding on what to keep, and what to sell or what not. In time it will all work out. I'm convinced.

As many of you know the hours of light and dark are distributed differently. You can view a chart of what our hours of daylight and darkness will be here. The nearest city listed will be Fairbanks. As you'll see we have less hours of darkness than some areas of Alaska.

So, as we plan and plan and fret and plan, we hope to take you along for the ride. This will hopefully be a good and easy way for us to keep you updated and for you to see pics of our move, our new home and our life.

Welcome to Insanity!!