Back and Getting on Track

Sunrise 8:57 a.m.      Sunset 3:56 p.m.

It's 8:28 a.m. when I'm beginning this blog post.  Which means, technically, that the sun isn't up.  There's light in the sky, but I fear it's going to be another gray day.  There gets to be a lot of them this time of year.  It is November, after all, and this is the time of year that we lose light, at lightening speed.  So I sit by lamp light and write.  I would like to say that I miss the midnight sun, but that has it's place, and it's nice to have a little dark back in my life.  Soon the sun will come back, and life will even out, once again.  My main goal for this time of year is keeping the electric bill down.  Easier said than done. 

We've been home for nearly a week.  And I will admit the jet lag was a little bit hard on me.  We had a wonderful trip to Minnesota.  We had nice weather, despite a few days of rain and wind, and I have nothing to complain about.  We visited with family and friends, met new members of the family, and drove by old haunts, or houses if you will.  Everything looks the same, feels the same, and yet, I have changed.  All those things that were once so important, didn't matter so much, and at one point (much earlier in the trip than I imagined) I was wishing for home and my stuff and my furkids.

I had a hard time sleeping once we were at the in-laws.  Seems the train is closer than I remember.  And there's street noise, something I'm certainly not accustomed to, and LIGHTS. :)  All minor, but odd to adjust to when you are used to the peace, quiet, and dark.

The visit was too short.  We certainly didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to.  We did, however, take the time to go see Brent's grandparents (graves) in South Dakota.  I wish the weather would have been nicer so we could have spent a little more time, but it was comforting to be there.

We celebrated the holidays, complete with gifts, visited, laughed, shopped, celebrated Halloween, hugged chased, golfed, shopped, hunted, trapped, stayed out late, it was a great visit.  And I'm so happy to be home.

Thanks to our wonderful, competent house sitter we came home to a clean house, cleaner than when I left, freshly laundered sheets, and happy dogs.  A good house sitter is an absolute necessity when traveling from Alaska this time of year.  He kept the home fires burning, literally and figuratively.  We are happy and thankful.

So far life back home is good.  The days are shorter, we've gotten a little more snow, but the temps have been up and nice.  No reason for complaint.  Hopefully our good luck will last.  I never want to see -63 degrees again!  Do you hear me!?!  lol.

Thank you to all of you who made the time to see us.  It was great to see you all, meet the new little ones that have joined the family since the last time we were there, and catch up with everyone's lives.  

Happy Winter! 

Wintery Weather

Sunrise 8:36 a.m.   Sunset  6:18 p.m.

It's true, we've been having wintery weather.  The kind that makes your toes wish for a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers when you skitter to the rest room in the middle of the night.  The kind that brings a lovely green glow the sky and the most amazing moons I've ever seen.  Though, you won't have known it today.  

Today we had overcast skies, but I didn't mind because the air warmed to a lovely 37 degrees.  I even wore short sleeves, with no coat, because frankly, I get darn tired of wearing a coat by spring time in Alaska.  So I was a rebel, and went without.  Dear God, please don't let me get sick.

I would have taken some pics of the auroras and the moon, but I've been busy.  Readying the house, the pets, and the suitcases for our trip.  Where are we going?  I'll tell you in a minute.  We have an awesome house/pet sitter.  For us, it's the best of both worlds, and worth every penny.  He takes care of the house, keeps the home fires burning, literally, and keeps the pets happy, fed, played with, and anxiety free.  Which in turn, leaves us anxiety free.  See?  No complaints.

Brent and I are off to Minnesota.  They've been having lovely weather and I certainly hope that they keep it around.  As you can tell by today's short sleeves, I am sooooo not ready for winter.  Let me tell you what I am ready for.  Laughter with friends, family, the ones that have known me for so many years that I can't remember when they weren't there.  Mom, Dad, family, family, family, hometown football games, Grandma and Grandpa.  SHOPPING!  Sorry, we have very little shopping here.  Can you tell?  Ha!  Familiar places, familiar faces, my nephews and my darling niece.  My Savannah girl, whom I miss so dearly that I have tears just hoping that she won't be shy, I need a Savannah hug.  She was only 3 when I left.  Shannon.  And more shopping!  

We've been loving our life in Alaska.  And truthfully, it hasn't really hit me how much I've been missing certain people from my "old" life.  Sometimes it feels like years ago, which technically it was, but let's not split hairs here people, other days it feels like we were just packing up that little aluminum trailer and hitting the not-so-dusty trail.  I had no idea how much I'd love it here, or how much my life would change.  How much I'd change.  

So, I'm signing off.  I'll check in when I can, but really, I make no guarantees.  I'm going to savor every moment.  Happy autumn!!!

Home Sweet Alaskan Home

Well, I did it.  I ventured "outside".  For the past week I have been living the "high life".  Do you really want to know what I think of that?  Pffffffffffffffttttttttt.  I spent the last week in Dallas, Texas.  This was my first visit to Texas, and while I had some highlights, which I'll tell you about, I have to say.  Dallas is not the place for me.  It was not my most favorite place in the world.

I'm not sure what I expected really.  I knew that Dallas Fort Worth is a metroplex.  So why then would I be surprised at the traffic, freeways and lack of...wildlife?  You tell me.  The people were friendly, our stay was fine, but nothing, not even the Dallas Galleria, impressed me much.  Sure there was shopping, and good shopping.  Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Saks, DSW, and yet...I found a hard time finding things that were practical for my space, and for my life.

The number of people didn't bother me.  The traffic, while difficult to drive in, didn't shock me.  But I felt very displaced, unsatisfied.  Now, I'll be the first to admit that Brent's schedule, and my refusal to drive in Dallas, left me alone in the hotel room.  But really, I LOVE my alone time.  And I LOVE sleeping in.  In the evenings, and at lunch time, we'd go out and about seeing parts and places of Dallas.  We were adventurous with the time we did have.

I was just yearning for home.  For the quiet, the peace, the wildlife, the ease.  No rushing around, no hour long commutes.

We enjoyed parts and pieces.  It wasn't totally miserable.  But it certainly was different.  The trip "outside" truly opened my eyes to how removed from the real world we are.  There are some things I miss.  Getting dressed for dinner, wearing shirt sleeves in March, and some other such small things.  But for the most part.  I'm happy here.  Happy to be where the wild things are.

Home Away from Home

People, who shall remain nameless, have been pestering me for photos of the inside of our house. The fact is, I didn't take any photos before because, starting over from scratch takes a little bit of time. I mean, really, we started out with nothing. Have you forgotten? 18 totes in the trailer. My entire life in 18 little, measly totes. Seriously people. I had to work some magic!


While Brent was away in Portland, I had plenty of time on my hands to pound, hang, experiment and admire without sighs of impatience. I sewed, I stuffed, I primped and then I photographed, so here they are. If you have no interest in seeing my house. Please skip to the bottom of this entry...now.



This is the view of the living room from the kitchen entry. Dad, the little box under the far window...that's the Toyo I talk so much about. It's efficient, too bad it isn't working right now. See those pillows there, I made those. With my own two hands. A little blood, a little sweat, and a lot of cuss words. I'm still working on the patience thing...

This is the other angle. And obviously Chessa's favorite hiding spot. I often lose my balance stepping around her. She blends in perfectly!

And if you couldn't tell what room this is...it's the kitchen/dining area. I would suggest if it's difficult for you to figure that out, you may want to spend a little more time at home, and a little less time at the Golden Arches.

This room is the master bedroom. If you see the two smaller pillows and the table topper, I made those. Can you imagine, Mom? I sewed. Remember that big cream machine in the closet, that's a s-e-w-i-n-g - m-a-c-h-i-n-e. You can make things with it. Seriously. Dig it out and try it!

This pathetic looking space is the guest room/office/craft room/hopefully-someday-nursery. Phew. It's a little sparse, but I don't want to fill it up with a bunch of stuff to have to empty it out. So, this is an act in patience building. Can you see a theme here?

Okay, now that we're done with that little virtual tour I can tell you what else we've been up to. While Brent was away playing in Portland, actually he said he was working, but I'm not convinced. So, anyway, he was away and I had planned my first Alaska Girls' Night. I invited 8 ladies. I asked them to bring a friend and a dish to pass. We had a great time. I have been doing Girls' Night for years, and they're all a little bit different. The ladies here are a little more reserved. I'm not sure if that's because they're just better behaved, or if I just scare them a little. Guess we'll wait and see how many show up next time!

Brent came home the following day, which was also his birthday. Though he vetoed it and made Sunday his birthday because he was traveling and it was a crappy day. Okay. I'm game. Heck, if I knew I could just veto the day at the end of it, I would have been milking this birthday thing loooooong ago. Score! Just wait until next May...awesome. ((evil laugh))

Sunday we took a trip over to a trail near our house to pick rose hips and cranberries. It was a perfect day, cool, fresh snow, and sunshine to warm our faces. We donned our rubber boots and trekked back into the woods. Wandering the paths, trees and fence lines in search of low bush cranberries and rose hips. We hit the mother load in rose hips and will be steeping hips for tea until eternity. Much to my chagrin I left the woods with not only berries but big, nasty blisters from wearing my new Bog boots without socks. This was a hard lesson to learn, and it will NEVER happen again.

Rose and Brad invited us over Sunday evening to celebrate the old guy's birthday, so we went over to be treated with a lovely Mexican feast, and Brent's favorite German Chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure he was in heaven. I did have to put him back in his place, however, when he told me that he thought maybe he should veto Sunday too.

The following week we were busy trying to catch up from being behind. Brent's been working a lot, though that's supposedly coming to an end. So he caught up at work and I worked at catching up on his laundry. I still don't think I'm caught up.

This past Saturday I made in impromptu trip to Anchorage with my friend, and boss, Courtney. I guess you could say she pays me to be her friend! LOL. Okay, so maybe that's not the best way to describe our relationship. I work for her. Yes. She's my friend. Yes. So, I guess you could say that I have the best of both worlds. Except when she yells at me. She's brutal. :) Just kidding Courtney. Maybe.

Anyway, we headed out at an ungodly hour to see a man (and a woman and a child) about a horse. For her. Not me. Are you kidding? Me and a horse? I. Don't. Think. So. The weather in Delta was good, cold, but good. As we traveled South and higher in elevation we didn't have as much luck. We stumbled upon snow and slush, and just as we reached the Summit Lake area, ice. Slick, slippery snow and ice. Fortunately it didn't last long, and since Courtney is a long-term Alaska resident, I knew I was in good hands.

A little further down the road we caught our first glimpse of wildlife in a bald eagle, and then a golden eagle. Pure and simple beauty. Unfortunately neither of us thought to bring a camera, which was disappointing considering what lay ahead. As we neared the Paxson/Paxson Lake area we were amazed at the number of hoof prints on the road. I'm not talking a smattering, the entire road was laden with hoofprints as far as the eye could see.

We passed cars pulled over on the edge of the road. And while we didn't see what they were seeing, we were hopeful we might catch a glimpse of something up ahead. It wasn't about a mile up the road and we struck furry gold! Caribou. Caribou, caribou and more caribou. Big ones, little ones, boy ones, girl ones. We just stopped in the middle of the road and watched. It was brown, horns and white butts as far as the eyes could see.

As we crept forward on our journey we came to Paxson Lake. At one point Courtney looked down and asked if those were caribou in the water. Of course, being the observant smart alec I am, I promptly told her that they were not caribou and they were most definitely trees. I think I need my eyes checked. We didn't travel more than a hundred feet when I could clearly tell that they were indeed caribou. Hundreds and hundreds of caribou. We pulled over just as a group of animals hit the road to shake their coats free of water, and dash off into the woods beyond.

It was beautiful and while I wish I had had my camera to capture it, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'm happy I just got to watch. We watched as they stampeded down the bank on the opposite side, hit the water, and swam in large groups to our side of the lake. It was wonderful. Wish you could have seen it!

When we had our fill of caribou we continued on our way to Anchorage. Past Lion's Head, road construction, the Matanuska Glacier, a terrible car accident, more road construction, only to get lost in the hills of Anchorage. To be fair, the roads are whacked down there. They turn from one into another back to the other. Goodness. We finally arrived to check out Maggie the wonder horse.

When our quest for all things horses was complete we headed to heaven, er, I mean Target, for a little hands-on retail therapy. We power shopped, and filled our carts in record time, loaded up the back of the SUV and headed North towards the mountains, and home.

We were blessed with a beautiful night for travel. The moon was full and high and lit the whole way home. We were fortunate enough to see a fox, a coyote and an owl. And even more fortunate to see the port-a-potty up on the hill at a much needed moment in time. And thank goodness for headlights, and Taco Bell napkins...we'll just leave it at that.

Sunday I was feeling particularly domestic and whipped up a lovely beef stew, some homemade buttermilk biscuits and peach pie from the peaches we bought on our trip to Valdez. It was delightful and we were stuffed to the gills.

We have lost most of our snow now, and we've been having beautiful, albeit chilly, weather. We are predicted 40's and 50's for this week, and while we didn't reach 40 today, the sun was beautiful, and I'll take every single last drop of it that I can get.

Today has been hard for Brent, for us. His Grandma Helen passed away this morning. We pray for her peace, and are grateful that God has taken her home and ended her pain. But we miss her. Tonight we decided to clear our heads, so we headed to the woods. When Brent is upset, or happy, or sad, or mad, his favorite place is the woods, with gun in hand.

We didn't see a bird, or a moose, or anything else, but we enjoyed the peace, the solitude, and the sun light as we walked the pathways of Bluff Cabin Trail. It has been a glorious summer, and beautiful fall.

Have a happy day!

Let There Be Light

I've been meaning to take the above photo for awhile. My Grandma Lusignan, who writes me the nicest letters, has been asking if I have neighbor's that live close to me. The answer is yes. Too close! So, this is where we live. The door on the left is ours. The door on the right are my neighbors, who are very nice people, but not very social. The space in the middle there is where my laundry area is. So, this is home. And also living on the property is another family, whom we've met once, and then the owners of the property.

What you don't see is that the main driveway runs right in front of our home. It's where I'm standing when I'm taking the picture. And, it's a working farm. A very busy, working farm. So we have little peace and quiet. And directly to the left of where the photo ends is a STOP sign, so, yeah, we have people stopping in our driveway quite often. Annoying. So, we're looking for a new home, with a few less neighbors. Hopefully. After all, I didn't move to Alaska to be surrounded by people. Sheesh!! But have no fear, I have no plans to go too remote. I'm really attached to my indoor plumbing and electricity. The neighbor (behind us- he's about 90) just got electricity last year. No thank you. Seriously.

Last night we headed out to the Clearwater River area. It's so peaceful out there, and I really like it out here. It's beautiful. Anyway, we went out to snap some pics with our new camera. I can tell that this is going to be the best purchase ever. I was playing around with the manual settings here and managed to snap a semi-decent photo, in my opinion. So, this was my favorite picture of the evening. Enjoy...awwwwwwwwwww... ha!

And this. This my friends, is a photo of the SUN at 10 p.m. We have had very cloudy skies the past few days, but last night the clouds broke up to give us the most lovely late night show. Honestly, I found it hard to sleep. I nearly took a walk at 10:15 last night, but decided that I wasn't quite that brave. Though I certainly could have.

Yesterday Ches and I walked a nice, long walk. It's nice out here during the day, when most others are at work. So we wander the roadside out front. Ches loves to sniff the ditches to see what she can find, and it's just refreshing for both of us. Then after our walk we came back and I raked up some dead grass and sticks around the back of the yard. Today I plan to hit the front portion, and then clean up the winter leftovers from the previous tenants dog.

Also, I wanted to thank those of you who have sent birthday greetings. Most people only get a birthday but somehow I managed to wrangle a birth week. Aren't I a lucky girl?! Anyway, so thank you Grandma Lusignan for the nice card and gift of money, also Darryl & Audrae, Mom & Dad, and Sandy & Wayne for the cards, gifts and letters. Thank you for thinking of me. It's truly appreciated!

So, welcome to spring! I hope Northern MN managed to miss out on the snow that was predicted there, and hopefully you'll be moving on to warmer temps and spring-like temperatures soon!

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.

Home Sweet Home

I'm hoping that I'll be back with daily posts next week. We don't know if we can get DSL yet. EEK. Since that's how I was planning to work and go to school this could be a potential problem. I'm really, really hoping we can get it.

We're settling in and exploring the area. Each day we find another place. Yesterday we stumbled on a great little coffee place, who need Starbucks!?! And today we're going to check out the local thrift store for treasures. :)

It's 25 degrees ABOVE zero today. We're getting about 6 hours of daylight. The sun rises about 10 a.m. and is dark about 4 p.m.

Other than that we're busy unpacking and settling in. Hopefully I'll have some pics for you soon!

Stay Warm!

Settling In

This part will temporarily have to be documented sans photos. I'm all pictured out. Seriously. But soon enough when our home is beginning to look like a home, I'll post pics. With all the white it's hard to pick out the sky from the filed from the road.

We arrived in Delta Junction, AK about noon on Saturday. We filled out our lease, got our keys, dropped off Ches and some of our stuff and headed straight to Fairbanks. Well, straight isn't accurate, we headed DIRECTLY to Fairbanks.

It was a beautiful drive and the roads were good. I drove there to give Brent a little time to rest and relax. Immediately when we entered Fairbanks we encountered ice fog. It's thick and inpenetratable and really hard to see in. Add to that a new town, complete exhaustion and I experienced a total breakdown. I actually had to leave one store because it was absolutely so overwhelming. Folks, when I can't shop, you KNOW we have problems!! lol.

We managed to get groceries, and some necessities and then we managed to find our way out and home. We were exhausted. I think we both slept about 11 hours on Saturday night.

Sunday we laid around in pj's all day. I unpacked and thawed out our belongings. Brent hauled them to the porch and then I hauled them in and such from there. So far all we've lost in some nail polish, and I can handle that. Our dishes survived!! I thought we wouldn't have a single one left. I broke out the pots and pans a made a nice hot beef stew complete with homemade biscuits.

Today (Monday) we are hoping to hook up some phone, tv and internet. We need to switch over the electric, and then we're going to nap, nap, nap. It's warming up here in Alaska. DJ is -5 today. The rumor is tomorrow will reach 25 above!! Holy Buckets!!

We'll be back with pics and town information soon!!!
STAY WARM!!

A place to call home

This is our new home. They are situated on a farm, about 6 miles North of the town of Delta Junction. I found it on a whim. And I couldn't be more thankful. Our new landlords sound great. Just great. And I'm very much looking forward to meeting them upon arrival in Delta. We've put down our deposit and we'll see what everything else brings when we get there. YIKES!




Above is a pic of the kitchen/living area. The unit is small. It's a duplex. But it's new, and efficient and it has indoor plumbing, which is a bonus if you ask me! It's 2 bedrooms, and we should have plenty of room for guests. I guess we'll see in time.

In other news we've managed to get a good portion of the house packed up. There is still much to do. MUCH. but I'm confident now that it will all be accomplished in time. On time. So, for all the positive things that are taking place despite the Southern Minnesota blizzard, I'm so happy. I'm jumping up and down...can you tell?

So, for now, I'm looking forward to making it ours. I will certainly have a lot of shopping to do! Have a very happy, merry, safe and warm Holiday!

Down and Out...

I celebrated a successful moving sale by acquiring a cold. A bad one. Snuck right up on me that sneaky little devil. So I took Sunday and Monday off from all things moving. Well, maybe not all things, but most things. Sunday I managed to pack up a few things, and attempted to get them put in the vehicle, they didn't make it there. Monday I managed to go to work, though I think I spread my vile germ parade to everyone there, which was not a nice thing to do. I also managed to sell my armoire. So that is moved out and standing in its new home. Sunday I slept most of the day, and Monday night I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. So I feel much better today. And now we move forward.

There are two properties that are potential rentals. One is too high for rent, but they told us to name our price. Hmmmm. I don't know if they'll go low enough for me to live there. Brent likes it though. I don't know, I think I'll trust my gut. The other is a modular (trailer) that is newer, looks great from the outside, and the agent is working on getting us inside pics. It's within our range for rent (yay) and Ches is not an issue. Though she wouldn't be an issue in the other rental either. The agent is checking heating costs on the other modular units and then we'll make our decision.

Today I had my exit interview at work. I thought that I would just feeled relieved. One more item checked off the list (sorry work friends). But I was sad. Really sad. While the job may not have been my best fit, the people there are top notch. I will miss the Brain Trust and all the laughter that keeps me from reading my smut books at break time, and I'll miss the genuine caring and kindness that I think is lost in workplaces around America today. Thanks for a great stay! It's been fun. If you ever make it Up North you had better stop in!

So, we're trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our belongings. I have a lot of interested parties, now it comes down to timing and if we can just get them here to pick stuff up. I want it out of here. Gone away. So, we'll see. Then it's hopefully to find a renter as I'm growing infinitely more concerned on that level. Then we're gone. Just like that.

Are you enjoying the ride? You can leave a comment too. :) Happy day!

Hmmmm...

Well, nothing really wonderful happened in the land of the movers today.

We did get a line on a home sweet home. Newer duplex built in 2006. She emailed in connection with the ad that I placed, so I'm hoping that something comes from it. It's actually an ad that I had called on previously, and was under the impression that the property had been rented. At the time I spoke with the husband, it was the wife that contacted me. So, time will tell.

Woobs seems to be settling at the "Other Kings". :) So, I'm feeling infinitely better about that. I'm sure it will take a little time for me to stop missing her. But I will, in time. And let's face it, now she has 6 hands to pet and love her. Thank you!

Well, it's been a long week already. I've gotta get moving on my letter of resignation. I'm not looking forward to that. I am, but I'm not. I know that doesn't make any sense. I'm looking forward to having everything out there, and I'm not going to miss the job much, but they're great people. And I feel like I'm letting everyone down these days. I'll get over it.

Happy day!