Lurkers

I'm a chicken. There I said it. Are you happy now? I am. And while I think it's wise to be cautious, I get frustrated with my chicken self on a regular basis. We live in the trees. Surrounded by woods, at a close proximity to the house. For all intents and purposes this situation is divine. Except for that first sentence, I'm (literally at times) scared of my own shadow!

Last winter I complained at our lack of moose viewings. This being mainly because I was home all day long, stuck inside, and jonesing for a big, fat moose to walk right up to my front door. I read lovely stories of people who had moose looking right in their windows, which would freak me out, but thrill me to no end. Now that it's happened, I can say it was worth the wait. It is still a little freaky, and wiping little moose nose prints off my car windows is annoying, but I'll take them.

What I'm having a harder time with are the bear scat, and now seeing a bear, at the end of my driveway. It happened last week. I had been hearing about people seeing bear, or bear sign, everywhere. Though I've heard that the bear here are elusive with some people only seeing one in the past twent years. Anyway, it's something we love to talk about. I was driving home from work one day last week, and as I pulled into the driveway, I thought "hmmm...that was big". I backed up and sure enough, there was a pretty little black bear sitting at the end of my driveway, in the gravel pit. I suppose it was a smallish bear, and so pretty, but still I couldn't help but imagining him trying to eat me.

I've always had a pretty healthy imagination. When I was growing up in Northern Minnesota, I would be scared at night that a bear would climb up the outside of the house, into my window and eat me. See, I have this ongoing thing with bears! LOL. Anyway, I respect wildlife, I don't want to get in their way, and I do enjoy having them around. However, I do wish that my first (and hopefully not only) bear sighting would have been a little bit further from home.

Like many Alaskans we've been busy trying to prepare for winter. Which, if we listen to the weatherman, is predicted to come with the first snow this weekend. I have to admit. Mentally I am NOT ready for this. But I will be. I cannot lie that I enjoy the first snow falls, the fluffy whiteness. The serene quiet of the world around. But I'm nervous about the dark that is pushing up against me like an unwelcome hug from a smarmy "uncle". We are losing light at the rate of 7 minutes per day. That's rapid. At this point in time we're about on par with light in the lower 48, well, Minnesota anyway. But the deep, dark night is coming.

We attempted to pick cranberries this past weekend. Brent really wanted to get out and get some berries in the freezer before he left for Portland. The berry season will be pretty much over when he gets back. But much to our dismay, and not for a lack of trying, we ended up with a small container of rose hips and no berries. I'm going to dry the rose hips for future use, or perhaps just freeze them. Apparently there are a number of things to do with them. This is new for me. I've not eaten rose hips before.

Other than that not a lot is going on. Brent's away for class this week, and the first night went much better than I thought. I guess that's one benefit to having a big dog and a few big guns! Ha. But really I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't freak out more. Of course it could have helped that I had been up for about 20 hours when I hit the hay, hard. I'm surprised I don't have bruises!!

While Brent's gone I'm busy organizing and getting ready for my first Alaska girls' night. Since winter is coming, quickly and with wild abandon, I decided that the only real way to meet people is to invite them over, er, bribe them with cocktails and food. Some of the ladies I know, and some of the ladies I've met on one or more occasions, but I don't know as well. I asked each lady to bring a dish to share and a friend. I invited 8 ladies, so that's potentially 16 new friends. Am I smart or what?? Ha!

In between there I'll snap some interior photos of the house so that you can all see where I'm living. And where the magic happens. My writing that is, let's keep it PG here people! Sheesh. My parents read this thing...

Happy Monday! What's happening in your neck of the woods? Have a happy day!

Longer Days

Well, as you can see my little Buddie was back last week. She was having a hay day stocking up on yummy seeds that BRENT sprinkled in the backyard for the grouse. Since he attracted her I told him he couldn't shoot her. And he happily obliged. Yes, she is sitting on the logs of the house, but she retreats to her trees, so for now she's safe. And full. Ha!

Brent, Ches and I walked out by the pasture on Friday evening. It was beautiful so we took a nice walk around the farm, just enjoying the longer days. This is the sunset, it was just too beautiful to pass up. We also noticed coyote and moose tracks, so I have been on the lookout. But have yet to see either one. It's just through the woods, and without the underbrush we can see straight through the trees to where the moose has been hanging out. The coyote I don't suppose we'll see. I think he's hunting rabbits under the logs out back. I suggest he stay away from the chicken coop or he could be in big trouble.

Friday afternoon Brent spoiled himself and bought a new gun. It's a Mossberg Maverick 88 and it's solely for protection. This is his reaction after shooting it for the first time and learning that it had a little more kick than he thought it might. Too funny. His shoulder was still smarting today, which I think is really quite funny. Directly after this photo was taken (on Sunday a.m.) he tried to get me to shoot it. Um, no. Do I have stupid written across my forehead? Silly boy. But it was fun to watch him try to sneak a little rub in, like I wasn't going to catch him! Really.

Sunday we decided to get out and go for a little drive despite the 180 mph winds. Okay, so that may be an exaggeration, but seriously, it was ridiculously windy. And then, like idiots we drove SOUTH of Delta, which is notorious for being windier than where we live. We drove slow to capture the Alaska Range (above) and Donnelly Dome (below). But sometimes it was really difficult to even stay on the road.

We stopped at Donnelly Creek Recreation area. The creek was open so we stopped to see what we could see. It was really shallow, so there was nothing in the way of fish. But we did come upon some buffalo droppings. I think we might think about camping there sometime this summer. Depending on what we find in other areas.

I am guessing that spring is on it's way here. We have a huge increase in little birds around. I have yet to get close enough to get a picture so that I can look them up. But they are here. In droves. We have heard that the bear are indeed starting to come out of hibernation but we have yet to see sign. The days are getting long. With the sky beginning to lighten around 6 a.m. and dusk lasting until 9 p.m. or later.

I will be busy this week. I have agreed to puppysit a 9 week old black lab pup named Willy while his parents go to Africa. He is rambunctious and I'm not quite sure how Ches will like having him here. He's temporary and I'm sure she'll adjust in time.

I have yet to hear on the job that I applied for, but there is another opening that I will be applying for. I have no idea what my chances are, but hopefully in time I'll find something. I was convinced that I would work from home, and I may still, but I am craving interaction with other humans, so for now I'm just keeping my eyes open.

Hoping you are warm, safe and dry! Have a happy day!

Before And After

Wednesday morning I woke up and decided it was finally time to turn the mess above into a walk-in closet. We have two coat closets for storage for the entire house. Um, yeah. That's not working so well. So we decided to take bedroom #2 and make it into a walk-in closet, storage area. It also holds one of four windows for the house so I wanted to be sure that we could open the door and not be embarassed by the chaos above.

This photo was taken only for showing you the size of our closets. Not very big. Not very big at all.

When Brent got home from work he found this. And was pleasantly surprised. It is much brighter, and much more functional. In addition to the closet I moved our bed around so that we're able to open that window as well. And I think we'll like having just a little bit of room to move around in there as well.

How do you like my highend storage solutions? Ha! But seriously, they're moveable and work well in the area/space that we have. The totes will hopefully disappear as we buy a few more items for organization, but they work for now.

In between frozen shower drains and frozen well pumps we have been laying low. It's cold here. Yesterday afternoon we went for a short drive down the Tanana Loop and saw this guy. He was in a hurry to get away from us. Did you know that a full grown moose can jump anything 7 ft. or under with ease? WHO KNEW? That's just a little weird. They don't look agile at all.

I've been reading a lot lately. Soon the cows will be chasing away last year's calves and giving birth again the end of April. Also, we've read that moose become more aggressive this time of year due to starvation. That makes me a little sad. Who wants to starve? I guess maybe I shouldn't read so much.

After returning home from our drive we were playing outside with Chessa girl. And this is what the evening sun had for us. Isn't it gorgeous? Honestly, there is barely a day that goes by that I don't think "what a beautiful place to live". I'm thinking I might change my mind in spring, with the loads and loads of mud that are likely to find their way into my house. Ha!

Today we went to Granite View to pick up Brent's gun. FINALLY. We dropped off that beast over 3 months ago. So, I've expressed my frustration with the physical address/mailing address issue before, right? Here we go again. I honestly have no idea how many hoops we've had to jump through, but it's ever increasing. Brent's drivers license had our mailing address so we had to go to the DMV and change it over to our physical address and now we have the gun at home. Amen. Goodness.

We have been researching bear protection since we first learned that we'd be moving to Alaska. We love to hike, and we're looking forward to exploring every inch of Alaska that we can. So naturally bears were a concern. Brent ordered Bear Spray last night as our defense. It is 92% effective on brown bears, and 99% effective on other bears and wildlife. So, we're fairly confident that it's the right choice. There are huge numbers of bear killed in Alaska each year by humans who are threatened by their presence. That just bothers me. We both wanted a solution that wouldn't be fatal to the animals we come in contact with, and I'm convinced we've found the golden ticket.

Hope you're enjoying your nice weather! We're staying down around 0 degrees. I really doubt that spring is on it's way here...yet.

Have a happy day!

Chilly Willy

Hello Everyone!

Dad sent me an email today to give me a nudge. I guess I've been slacking again. So I'm back to fill you in on the day-to-day life of a slacker. Ha!

Sunday after we got the shower drain thawed out, AGAIN. I took off to Fairbanks all by myself. I went despite the fact that the -29F temp was screaming at me. But the sun was up, and the day was glorious, despite the frigid temperatures. I managed to travel the roads without incident. Thank goodness. I saw one moose, safely bedded town amongst the branches and snow as I chugged along the Richardson Highway.

I hit up Fred Meyer, Walmart, Safeway and Barnes & Noble. I treated myself to a smooth, creamy and piping hot latte at Starbucks, and was feeling smug and smart as an independent person. I browsed the books of B&N and just took my time. I looked at design books, and read the covers of every smut book I could get my fingers on. I rifled through cookbooks of my favorite Food Network stars, and even thumbed my way through books of local cuisine. There were some recipes in there that I dare say I will never attempt. And then home again safely. But man did it feel so good to just have time to myself. Next time I think I'll see a movie, in a theatre.

Yesterday was pretty dull and boring here. The sun was out again, and I'm hoping it's a good indication of what spring and summer here in the Northland will be like. I do say though that Brent comes home with tales of wildlife encounters every day, and frankly I'm beginning to think that ignorance is bliss. I will say that most people we know have only seen a bear at a distance. However, we plan to carry a big gun where ever we go, just in case. Did you know that a bear can smell food for up to 10 miles? Seriously.

We have been told that the worst time to encounter a bear is April 1-June 15. We have started burning our garbage immediately instead of letting one or two bags pile up. And we need to order a bell for Ches. I guess it's a great deterrant. I keep telling Brent that he needs to just keep this information to himself. Soon I won't even leave the house! Ha!

Today was another cold and sunny day. Ches and I took a nice walk along the road out front. We only venture as far as the other driveway. And then do the circle. There has been a lot of moose action in the field across the road, and I just don't want to get caught out there in the
open. When we got back to the yard I threw Ches' dummy for what seemed like an eternity! But she had a great time, I know she's been missing the exercise.

Tonight after dinner we stopped over to check on one of Brent's coworkers wives. She needed help opening some jars of pickled beets and sauer kraut. I did try one of the beets, but I dare say they don't hold a candle to Mom's. Despite that fact, I think I'll pick up a jar the next time I hit up the IGA. She is lonely, but doing well, and I think we'll pop over again this weekend to visit. And Brent will probably take Shiro, their Akita/Pitbull cross, out for a walk in the woods. Though if you've seen Shiro, you'll know that Shiro will be walking Brent!!! Ha!

Yesterday I had a pretty blue day. I just couldn't get motivated in the least. I dare say it was my first real one since arriving here. So, I gave myself my little pity party and this morning I put on my big girl panties and faced the day.

I had been hearing rumblings that the Northern Lights have been magnificent. I tried to stay up to catch a glimpse of them last night, but didn't make it. Who knows? Maybe I will tonight!

To all our friends and family in warmer parts of the country and beyond....PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. Ha!

Have a happy day!