Spring Has Sprung!

Yes, that's right, in March! Anchorage really is balmy!

Here are my tulips peeking their slender green heads out - I'm so proud they came back after I completely dug them up, redressed the soil, added bonemeal and then put them all back afterwards! Some were buried too deep under straw...they are a weird yellow color and I hope I didn't smother them on accident. We'll see I guess!


And of course I'm thinking about starting some of my vege seeds, top on my list are the tomatoes, and the watermelon. Many of the others will have to wait until we make the raised beds and mix up some growable dirt!

And I couldn't resist the packages of flower seeds too - I have a thing for blue flowers this year! I also hope the sweet peas will grow around our front porch and smell as good as the magazine said they will.

Becoming An Outdoors Woman

For Valentines Day, Richard registered me for the most awesome thing - "The Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program" or BOW for short. Now, you may be thinking that I'm already quite the accomplished outdoorswoman, and you'd be right. But we all have lots more to learn about the outdoors - and how often do 130 adult women get together and learn without kids or husbands or chores distracting them?

Victory Bible Camp - in Chickaloon, Alaska. Very posh. Probably the nicest camp facility in all of Alaska.


Here I tried to learn fly fishing. I learned how to tie flies years ago, and because it's a lot like embroidery, I can still tie them easily. Getting the fly out into the middle of a stream... a little harder. I would like to try this class again when I could actually cast into water, instead of the frozen parking lot.

This was by far my favorite class - field dressing a caribou. In this case it was a reindeer from the commercial reindeer farm. Apparently no-one was naughty and illegally shot any caribou this winter! Caution - it's a bit graphic if you're not used to dead animals!

I have already processed an entire caribou that Rich brought home two years ago, and I'd like to bring in my own someday. The meat is just so good, and for a good meal I don't mind hunting. Trophy hunting I won't do though.

Look at us go - sawing away! The best part is that we cut all but a small amount of the meat off the carcass before we ever opened the gut sack. A really cool way to dress the animal and keep gut and ureaic fluids from tainting the meat.

Ahhh, field map and compass. This should have been an easy class, but our instructor was a bit confused. I did find the great big mountain though...hard to miss!

And then Karin and I went sledding, in the dark, on inner tubes, down a really steep hill. Yeah it was pretty darned awesome!!!!

Here we are going down the hill as a human chain!

And then later that night, at the cabin, someone broke out apples to apples and some licorice - and we had a blast. I haven't had this much fun since girl scout camp!

Cross Country skiing was wonderful. Even though I knew the basics I still learned a lot, and won the cool green neck gator you see here. The class instructor was a fabulous, world famous skiier, and she also happened to be a great beginner instructor.

Some other gals were ski-jorring circles around us...

And I ran into an old friend - Katrin from Fairbanks. Good times and lots of shenanigans!!!


This is Angela and Panther. She really love the mushing session. I may take this next year. It looked really, really fun!

I just got the Mona Lisa in the mail

On Monday I went to check the mail. Upon opening our mailbox I saw a small package. I couldn't tell if it was a Christmas present or not. It didn't really say. So I opened it rather than waiting until Christmas - I'm sure glad I did.

Inside the package wasn't the Mona Lisa, but it may as well have been. My friend Marta crocheted the most beautiful lace piece for our house-warming present. She told me she started it while traveling in Nome, and I can only imagine how many hours she put into this. It's a beautiful tulip pattern and clearly shows her talent - all sections are even and gracefully worked. It measures about 18 inches wide - I wish my quilts would turn out this wonderful!!

So enjoy, as I am, this work of art. I am so thankful for the good friends I have in my life. Thank you Marta, for giving me this exquisite piece of art to decorate my humble house.
Shan

Making Mutant Cookies

On Sunday a very strange elf came to visit, along with my sister and Rinkie Dink!

The neighbor girl came over and we made sugar cookies - the cookies turned out fine, but the recipe for the frosting didn't work so well...


MUTANT COOKIES!!!!

They still tasted pretty good though :)

A busy weekend!

Paul came down to lend us his mad handy-man skillz. Together he and Rich re-plumbed our walls for a new utility sink, and to move our washing machine. They drank a lot of beer and went to Home Depot three times a day :)

On Saturday night we had a fancy-pants company party. We clean up pretty good!

Thanksgiving Alaskan Style

“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” ~Edward Sandford Martin


Most people here in Alaska celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional way, with family gathered round the table at home. My husband and I, along with a group of friends, did it a little differently this year.

Our friends own a remote cabin just south of Denali State park, in an area known as Trappers Creek. It’s an old mining area, so there are a few roads winding through the hills and valleys. These roads aren’t maintained, which means that in the winter they are left to be drowned in snow, and all of the many marshes, rivers and creeks freeze, creating a vast network of ‘roads’ for those of us with snowmachines. People in other parts of the world call them snow-mobiles or sno-go’s…but in Alaska it’s snowmachine, or sometimes just ‘sled’.

This year I’m bringing the stuffing and the rolls for the Thanksgiving dinner. My challenge was how to prepare these foods for the 40 minute snowmachine ride – and to be ready to cook right when we got to the cabin.


Trappers Creek is really the foothills of the Alaska Range, so it’s mostly rolling hills with spectacular views of Denali and the multitude of other mountains in the range. Our friends Casey and Kristin host Thanksgiving at their family cabin every year. There are no direct roads to their cabin, the only way to get there is by snowmachine. We have to bring all our supplies for the four day weekend by sled. From sleeping bags to breakfast we need to bring it in. Each year ten or so people head out by snowmachine to come together and have a thankful meal in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

What a view!

The cabin itself is pretty fancy by Alaskan standards. It has a generator and propane tanks, so wood isn’t necessary to heat or cook with. Honestly, having cooked and heated with wood in the past…it ain’t that great. It’s a lot of work and you have to watch it like a hawk to avoid burning or undercooking. The generator means that we can have standard lights after the dark falls (around 4:30 or 5:00 in the evening). This is wonderful if you’re playing cards or reading, as kerosene lamps don’t put out a whole lot of light.

Me and Colby, reading Glamour

The property has a crystal clear natural spring. When you’re standing at the spring house filling up your five gallon jugs, you have an awesome view of Denali if the day is clear. Can’t get much more ‘pure’ than that for water!

The spring, being flowing water, doesn't freeze - here you can see it peeking through the new snow! The small green shed houses a gathering cistern, and is where we gathered the water.

Next to the cabin is the older, much more rustic ‘trappers cabin.’ This is where my husband and I usually sleep and it is heated by wood. This year there was a fly invasion during the summer, so we slept inside the main cabin.

The Trappers Cabin - made with local logs in the old fashioned way - each log was fit to match the one above it. No fancy millwork to make the logs all the same size.

The most beautiful outhouse - if that's possible!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we usually play all sorts of card games and lay around being lazy. Big events include getting water, skiing excursions, and of course, snowmachining. Usually this time of year is a mix of cloudy skies and brilliant blue skies pierced by the snowcapped mountains. I love being able to go for a quick cross country ski out the cabin front door and down onto the wide frozen river. If the snow is good there are many valleys full of fresh powder that are flat, wide and easy to zoom through on your snowmachine. It really does feel like you are gliding on top of air if you hit the powder just right. If you hit it just wrong you sink…and then you dig yourself out. I am getting good at digging myself out now!

We wish everyone reading this warm, safe, and happy holidays!
Shannon & Rich

A beautiful sunrise on our way home from the cabin.

Our friend Karina came with us...and fell off her snow-machine onto the ice and dislocated her thumb. She didn't get a picture of the dislocation (thankfully!) before some nice strangers came along and pulled it back out straight for her. Check out the beautiful bruising!

Now that it's snowing...

I finally have time for some of the many projects I've been putting off.

Here's the dining room BEFORE, note the pale walls, and lots of oak. This is the DR as decorated by the previous owners. You can't see it, but there was a hideous 1980's vintage hanging light in gold, oak and glass.

After, you can see I kept some oak, but I really wanted to go for a hint of Europe. so I sewed up some black and white striped cafe curtains, and painted two walls a light apple green. I painted the chairs black and painted a cheap chandelier that was rust colored to glossy black. My great friend Wendy came down and helped me do all this in a weekend!

It took Rich and I awhile to find a dining table, we finally found one on Craig's list for a reasonable price, and we saved up and purchased the shelving unit you can see from Crate and Barrel. There is a matching desk unit coming, but it's on back order, so for now the card table will stay.


The best part is that we are finally able to showcase the cool stuff we received as wedding presents. The wine rack and wine glass storage, the candlesticks, and the dishes were all gifts. So are the little white frames, we put black and white pictures of the dogs in them, and hung them from crystal cabinet knobs. Looks totally cute!



















And here is the outside of our home - the trees look like the ones in fairy tales. I love this time of year! We're both hoping for some more snow, because there isn't enough to snowmachine yet!

Little Wilco Bluefoots

Rich and I have a very cute, very white little dog, named Wilco. Take a look at the picture below. Notice anything off?

Like the fact that his little feets are blue? How did he get them so blue? He ate a pen in the middle of our carpet. Imagine my surprise to see his little blue feet while doing laundry in the garage…and the slow mental gyrations that eventually led me to kick him outside and find the ink blots on the carpet. Fortunately I was able to get them out because the ink hadn’t dried yet.

Dogs. Sheesh.

Shan