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Category Archives: Alaska

Alaska Primary Day!

Today is the day for in-person voting for the open primary. Since making ranked choice voting the law a couple years ago, we have these open primaries where you vote for one name out of the list and the top 4 advance to the general (the general election is ranked choice). I asked a lady if she had voted yet and she didn’t know if she could, as she had been previously been convicted of a felony and served her time. Sad to say I didn’t know our State laws concerning that issue so I had to look it up! Alaska is one of the states that automatically reinstates someone’s right to vote after serving prison, (parole and/or probation completed), if unconditionally released. One must simply register to vote again. So we both got educated today!

Do you know your State’s laws about voting and felony convictions? How do you feel about it?

And…

Did you vote today?

More from our Kasitsna Bay Trip.

Photo dump!

Tree roots.
Looks like the perfect location for a little fairy village or a gnome home!
Near Jackalof Bay.
Tree creatures.
Each one teach one session.
Huge tree stump from selective logging.
Forestry hike

This was the first part of the journey, a little forest ecology field trip. We learned that there are naturally hybridized Sitka-White spruce trees here in this temperate rain forest. And they grow huge!

Tree roots bleached from the salt water.
The remains of an urchin, the test.
A sea cucumber me thinks.
Hermie the Crab.
So many barnacles.
Lil Bit walking in the deposits of broken shells. ASMR esq.
A boy in the cleft of the rock.
So many sea snails.
AK Boy found a skeleton of a sea star with muscles and barnacles attached
There’s a tiny little sea star right in the center, on the kelp.

Tide pooling adventures.

Afterwards it was back to the bunkhouse for some much needed rest. Walking miles in mud boots is not advisable. But we were ready for the next adventure come morning!

AK Boy at the microscope 🔬
Lil Bit zooming in.
What type of creatures we might see.
Alexa explaining how the plankton samples are taken.
Lab time!

Lab time was quite eye opening. 🫤🔬🤢 Remember that time at fish camp when pulling nets and a bunch of sea water splashed on your face and some got on your lips and you licked them… Yeah, you ate plankton.

Big chunky sea star.
Color stripes on this sea star.
Lil Bit stuck to the net.
This tank was full of sea stars that are in the stage 3 (super low) tides. Not usually seen but sometimes.
He finally worked up the nerve to pick one up.
The basic bish of sea stars. 🤩
There was a large table of readily found beach combing treasures. Labeled neatly for identification purposes.
A crusty crab! I think this one is a “decorator crab”.
Touch Tank & interactive lab.

That’s it for our end-of-year field trip. Lots of learning and fun was

Read a book, take an adventure.

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Being limited to three is somewhat of a torture I think, but here goes.

Books were an escape for me as a youngster. I could go anywhere, to any time. I remember reading many huge (by teen standards) books but a few stand out to me. Clan of the Cave Bear,  Gone With the Wind, Pet Cemetery. Limitless numbers of horror books, King and Koontz being my two favorite authors. Oy. None of them hold the same meaning for me that they once did. I doubt I would read any of them again, but they were perfect for a certain place in time.

The assortment of books collectively known as the Bible, specifically the Book of Esther “for such a time as this“, Daniel, Ezekiel & the Revelations of John, and the Psalms & Proverbs are all full of meaning.

Once my Dad told me if I wanted to understand him and his philosophy on the world I should read Atlas Shrugged. I did. It is still on my shelf.

Although not a specific title, my assortment of do-it-yourself, how-to resource books are probably my largest topic section! From herb, tree, flower and fungi identification books which are timeless & well loved resources. Then there are my cookbooks… The Sourdough Bible, cheese making guides, Gluten Free Gourmet and Canning books. Animal husbandry, gardening, hunting and home repair manuals. Oy. The list goes on and on.

I suppose every book I’ve ever read has had some sort of impact on me. Little snippets embedded into my psyche.

But the three that I would pack into my last bag would be The Bible, Atlas Shrugged and Edible Mushrooms of Alaska! 🧐

Eleventh Alaskaversary.

It’s been a decade +1 now. Looking back over some timeline photos with gratitude and admiration for the many wonderful people in our lives and glorious experiences. And for the young people (grown-ups?!?!) my oldest two have become (the first becoming the “Legal” for sure grown-up age today!)

I’m often scratching my head in wonderment of how, exactly, the time has gone so quickly. The business of life steps on the gas when you’re not looking.

This summer is getting underway and we are trying to take advantage of every single moment of decent weather! (Two summers of rain and dreary days has us in a deficit !) We’ve got a to-do list a mile long to get done and life moments to pause and celebrate. Which of course leads to the aforementioned warp 9 speed of life.

Near Jackalof Bay, Alaska

I hope you take a moment today to pause, breathe deeply, walk barefoot and be grateful.

Learning Experience Ahead!

Ahoy mates! We’ve shoved off and we’re underway to the Kasitsna Bay Research Facility to explore our marine and forest ecology! This is an overnight trip across Kachemak Bay. Seas are mostly calm, overcast skies, it’s supposed to rain but so far it’s just cool and overcast.

Aboard the Discovery with Captain Victoria!

I’ll be sure to post more about our adventures when we return home! You can see our adventures here!

Quick Trip Outside

I made a quick trip to Oklahoma 3/6-3/13 to visit family after my mom had a health scare. When I left Alaska it was cold and snowy, of course there was a climate shock and jet lag to deal with upon arrival in the 63° Okie heat of early spring. It was nice to see my family and thankfully, B’H, my mom pulled through and is doing better.

While there I didn’t leave the farm except for a trip to the grocery store. I enjoyed the quiet solitude of the back road farm scape and the warmer weather was nice! I had more warm 60°+ days in one week than all of last summer. I should have brought better deodorant.

Some of the remnants of Vera sprinkled all around the farm.
I spotted three different colors of daffodils all totalled.
A crepe mertle in bloom by Uncle Steve’s (blessed memory) house.
These little wild grape hyacinth are everywhere.
Kitty, I got my cat snuggles fix with this one and Binx.

Spent as much time as possible with Ma and Rickerd while staying at my sister’s and enjoying their little homestead. Got to visit with lots of family as everyone came to see Ma and got to see me as a bonus. 😜

While at my sister’s  & John’s place I was able to help with her baby chicks and little kune kune piglet Mr. Wiggles.

Mr Wiggles has breakfast.

Between the chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, cats and dogs, there’s a lot going on! I baked a few loaves of bread in my spare time and tried to make some cherry mashes but that’s another story for another time. I made a few meals too. Normal stuff.

One week is a short time to fly that far but life back home calls. Return I must.

Waiting to board.

The valuable people were seen, the important things said. I’m grateful for the opportunity. 💞

Mom & her 4.

Back to the daily grind now. And what’s left of the snow, it’s rotting fast. I’ve got ducks, turkeys, goats, rabbits and dogs to deal with now. And children. Can’t forget them.

4 H Farm Life

Spent the afternoon at my friend Barbara’s White Gold Farm observing her milking operation and made mozzarella cheese. She has dairy goats as well but we focused on the Holstein side of things this time. She has two cows in milk, Sadie and Sally.

Barbara is our 4H Leader in addition to being our friend for our entire tenure here in Alaska. I met her through an ad I ran for childcare way back in the day. She’s been a constant ever since!

Before we got started on the mozzarella she let us sample a Monterey Jack cheese she made back in January. So good. The flavor is just so much better than commercial/store bought cheese. We are inspired to try making some different types of cheeses now!

Heating the curds.
Beginning the stretching process.
Whey byproduct
The recipe book we used.

While there, we got to see the cutest little calf ” Sir Loin” 😁. He’s about three weeks old and belongs to Sally. Nothing cuter than a baby cow. 😍 Except maybe a cute little boy experiencing a cute lil calf for the first time.

Cowlicks
Sadie, she’s a big girl!

The kids got to experience the shear size of these cows, much larger than previous experiences! And learn a few things about milk production. The cheese making was the best part, because it tastes so good!

Good food and good company, nothing compares!

What were you doing 60 years ago today?

Today, at 5:36 AKST pm (4:36 AKDST) we Mark the 60th anniversary of the 9.2 magnitude Good Friday earthquake.

131 people lost their lives here in Alaska. 16 people in California and Oregon.

$311 million dollars of damage, in 1964 money, that’s $3,087,314,110 of today’s money (adjusted for the 900% loss in value).

Valdez and Chenega were completely destroyed and a resulting Tsunami of 200 feet high was registered at Shoup Bay near the Valdez Inlet. The surge touched Canada, Hawaii, Japan, and Australia.

The quake registered seismically in nearly every state in the union with the exception of three. Seattle’s space needle wobbled.

4 year old little Dean remembers all the appliances, the wood stove and cabinet contents toppled onto the floor. He also remembers that the snow was gone, an early breakup that year. Funny the things that are left with indelible ink.

There’s still visible scars of that day on the way to Anchorage near Portage, the remnants of the trees killed when the land dropped below the water table. Time takes its toll and Alaska reclaims it’s dead. There are fewer trees standing now than when I first moved here. The little garage that was shuttered after the quake finally fell down a few years back. The landscape is healing, reminders fading. But we must remember.

Sources: History , Must Read Alaska, Oral History of Thelma Barnum & Fred Christoffersen, Dollar Times

Tis the season.

That’s just one side’s worth

Link Up

Lil Bit is participating in the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Link Up program. It’s a great opportunity for youngsters to hear the orchestra perform and participate in the performance, both in choir and playing recorders and violins.

The finale was a little touch of Boogie Woogie with Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry. It seemed like the kids really enjoyed it!

Tomorrow afternoon she plays the same program in Kenai with different school kids and a few other orchestra members.