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Happy Anniversary!!

Today is our one year anniversary in Alaska!

This was our first glimpse at the beauty surrounding Homer last June.

June 2013 overlooking Kachemak Bay

June 2013 overlooking Kachemak Bay

We’ve seen all four seasons cycle, bears, moose, a wolf, a few caribou, and so much beautiful scenery. One never grows weary of it all! We’ve been awed, inspired, stuck in the mud, stuck in the snow, on adventures we never even dreamed of… Alaska is a good fit for us. Being surrounded by nature, learning, exploring, living and loving…. a great way of life!

We are looking forward to new adventures this summer! Spending time at the beach searching for treasures beyond measure, maybe doing a little fishing… who knows??

To all of our loved ones, we miss you and send you lots of loves!! XOXOXO

Dip Netters

English: Traditional Salmon Fishing, Fraser Ri...

English: Traditional Salmon Fishing, Fraser River, Canada Deutsch: Traditionelles Lachsfischen, Fraser River, Kanada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, dip net season is open. Dip nets
are huge fishing nets, that fishermen use to catch large quantities of salmon
at once. The season opened on Wednesday. Lots of travelers and tourists here in town now. People from Minnesota, Texas, North
Carolina, Canada, Sweden… Washington, California, & Japan. All
over the world, they come here to catch our red salmon. And drink,
boy can they drink. Once the nets come in, they head to their
campers/tents/hotel rooms and sauce it up… Fish fast, drink faster.
Talk about a different experience.

We have avoided the beach since it’s
“combat fishing” down there. And plenty of dead fish carcasses
and litter. As soon as dip net season is over, we’ll head back down
with lots of trash bags to start cleaning up the mess they
leave…
Until then, we’ll stay off of the beach.

Related articles

Muddin’

June 21, last Friday, was the day that we had set aside to ride out to the cabin, for just a day trip, to check the trails and hopefully do a little trail grooming/clearing and playing in the mud. We rode out to the end of the road, unloaded the wheeler, parked the truck and took off for the beach. We rode out on the beach half way to Leif’s Creek and then went up “Jacob’s Ladder” to the trail above. Four wheeling on the beach was fun, but wow, what a muddy, messy ride up Jacob’s ladder. Lots of holes and a really messed up trail from all the rough riders ripping and tearing through there. 😦 Really hard to navigate plus you are right on the edge of the bluff.
Finally made it to the main trail, remember, still have about 5 miles or so to go as Leif’s Creek is the half-way point. Through mud. Some places were so dry that we kicked up some dust, but mostly, it was thick, sticky mud, and water holes covered with stagnant water and mosquitoes.

The first part of the ride “my driver” (ha ha, I sound like Miss Daisy) took it easy on me and went slow through the mud. We got stuck in a deep hole that we just couldn’t get the wheeler out of, so we had to use the wench and pull it out. I fell into the mud bog trying to move around in the middle of that big mud hole, holding the rope tied to a tree and the wench. Muddy pant legs from the knees down. Muddy gloves, mud in the gloves. While stopped there I saw some large wolf tracks in the mud. (that’s for you Makayla!)

We went on up the trail till we met some friends on the way, Tami and Mike. Stopped to visit with them a bit. Mike gave us a good summary of the trail in front of us, told us where to avoid and where to go around the bigger mud bogs. Talked about mosquitoes because they are big news this year, they are so bad! And talked about Dad. Heard more stories about him, I don’t think I’ll ever grow weary of hearing people talk about him.

Then we were off again. We forded a water crossing with water up to mid-calf and away we went. The rest of our trip went well, since we had good instructions from Mike about the bad spots and we made it to the cabin with only a few more “stuck” spots. We saw some bear sign on the trail (that’s the nice way of saying bear poop) and lots of moose tracks.

Checked on the cabin, watered the garden, killed some mosquitoes, ate some lunch that we packed in, smashed sandwiches taste pretty good when you’ve worked up an appetite battling the mud! 😉 After a short break, back to the trail to get out. We had to be back in town by 4 pm, and we were racing the tide, needed to be off the beach by 3:30 or so we thought, so we had to get going.

For some reason, the trip back was a little more muddier than the trip in. Someone decided that it would be more fun to baha through the mud more and although he was right, it was a lot more fun, it was also a lot more muddier and bouncy! I nearly bounced off that wheeler a couple of times. My arms are still sore from holding the rack. It was quite the initiation to the summer Gray Cliffs mud and trail, and 4 wheeling.

Ran into Tami and Mike again, who had a few extra friends with them. I love being introduced to new people as “This is Chuck’s Daughter”. LOL Some of them actually ask MY name, others are just fine with Chuck’s Daughter. I need a name tag that says “Hello, my name is Chuck’s Daughter” and just wear it around town. While we were stopped we saw a cow moose and her twin calves coming down the trail at us. She got pretty close considering the noise the 9 of us were making!

We made it to the beach at 2:10 and the tide was coming in. We probably didn’t have until 3:30. Learning these tides is a whole new experience to be sure. There’s the timing of the tides, and the height or how far in they are coming, and learning where that mark is on the beach, and learning the beach… I feel like I’m cramming for final exams.

I’m glad we went in though, gave me a good understanding of the difficulty of the mud trail, and what all we need to get done before Dad’s memorial in July (which is A LOT!). And the reality of how out of shape that I am! Wowzers! There’s no way we could ride the kids in on wheelers in that mess. Maybe a track rig or a 6 wheeled rig, but not a 4-wheeler!

Next time, with rain gear and taller boots I hope, I will have even more fun. Who knows, pretty soon I’ll be riding in on my own wheeler, then we can race, and eventually I’ll win. 😉

Baptized with mud...

Baptized with mud…

Hiking with little kids….

 

 

The first thing I’ve learned is that kids are amazing. They can do much more than we often give them credit for. My kiddos did great on their first hike into the cabin. Even Little Bit with her tiny self did well. She probably had the most trouble with trip hazards because she just can’t see them with the grass that is as tall as she is. Being the smallest and shortest legs, she was also the slowest which was to be expected. She did get a free ride a few times, up the bluff, through the worst part of the bogs, and over the most difficult terrain. But carrying a 30+ pound pack and a 20+ pound kid is hard work! When we made it through the rough parts, down she went and back to walking herself. She’ll be a resilient Alaska woman one of these days, probably the best of all 3 of us.

 

 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 were great. They had found some walking sticks on the beach that they used to go in and out with. They came in pretty handy too, wish I had one! Each of us had a pack (except Little Bit) in which our clothes, water and food was packed. Thing 1 and Thing 2 were carrying their clothes and some extra water bottles, stuff like that. Dean’s pack was the heaviest, probably 60 pounds at least, carrying in most of our water and food. Mine had water, clothes, emergency supplies, and I was packing the heat on my hip. (Thankfully we didn’t need it, but you just never know, always be prepared!) We packed in 4 gallons of water, which we used 3 of, and there was an additional 10 gallons of water at the cabin that we used to wash and clean up with. 5 people use a lot of water even when trying to conserve it!

 

 

The return trip was much easier since our packs were not nearly as heavy, we only had dirty laundry and misc things to pack out. Lighter loads make for better hiking! And it was easier to carry Little Bit with lighter packs. I can see where a front pack or at least my rebozo would have been a good idea to tie that child on so I could carry her all the way in. But then again, she needs to learn to do this on her own. Thing 1 and Thing 2 took turns walking with Little Bit and holding her hand. That seemed to help her keep her pace up and gave them something helpful to do. Thing 2 was actually the most helpful. It was so cute watching him pick her up and carry her over the mud holes. He’s going to make a good Alaska Man, a gentleman and capable of doing anything. A great combination!

 

I have hopes of going in on 4 wheelers next trip. The trail is drying out nicely and hopefully, if it stays that way (no big rains) we can ride in and carry some extra stuff in. I need to change out Dad’s cookware, most of what is left at the cabin now is aluminum (Linda had requested I bring in Dad’s cast iron for her back in April, so there’s not much left to cook in) and I don’t use aluminum. I need to find a skillet, and a few baking pans to take out and leave there so we can actually cook a full meal with out using one pot to do so! 😉

 

 

I also want to get Dad’s big moose rack back into the cabin. Hopefully we can get that done before his memorial in July. Definitely need to pack that rack in on a wheeler. Much to heavy and difficult to pack in on your back!

 

Our New Life

 

We’ve been in Alaska for a little more than a week, 9 days to be exact. So far we have found an apartment, I’ve interviewed for a job, and we’ve done an amazing amount of exploring in such a short time. The kids are settling in well. One of our neighbors has a child the same age as my son. They are becoming friends.

We’ve been to the beach numerous times, collected ample rocks and shells, which are scattered to and fro through the apartment.

We’ve been to Homer to see the mountains, and the plethora of eagles.

We’ve made a few new friends and found an awesome park in Soldotna.

We’re adjusting to the daylight but still working on bedtime! 😉 It’s hard to go to sleep when you are a kid and it’s still bright outside! It’s hard for Mom too!

The kids got to see their first Moose last week, a young bull right in the next door yard!

I got to see my first newborn moose calf last Saturday. How precious!! And my first wolf tracks.

Nature is so close and still part of daily life here. Not removed or pushed away by civilization.

The one drawback, or complaint, if I could have one… the mosquitoes. They are vicious, and so numerous coming at you in swarms. The locals are saying that this is the worst year that they’ve seen in a long time. What a welcome!

On the bright side, the weather has been simply amazing. High 60s to low 70s since we’ve been here. The kids were even able to wade in the inlet without freezing themselves this week. Not a drop of rain since we’ve been here, but the fire danger is also elevated due to that. Today it is cooler, only in the 50s so far. Need a sweater on today!

I’m blessed with a few faithful friends here. Going above and beyond to help us settle and make our new life here. I thank YHVH for them.