Almost two years ago, for Shawn’s 40th birthday, we decided to get away for the weekend, just the two of us, to Anchorage. We had a fabulous time just being together. On our commute home, Shawn pulled off the highway onto a side road that I had never been on before. Just offf the road was a parking lot and a trail head. “Do you want to go for a little hike, up to a waterfall,” he said. I had no idea there was a waterfall anywhere in the area and was so excited to trek up the trail for a glimse of the falls. We had a splendid hike through the woods. I took pictures and we talked about all of the different plants in the area that are so different from the plants we have just 7 hours away. The hike was perfect not too hard or too long, and the majestic falls did not disappoint.
That experience is what prompted me to recommend that we detour onto the same side road on our way home from a weekend trip to Anchorage with our family last weekend. Again the weather was glorious, the hike was just right, the falls were majestic, and the company was fabulous.
Yesterday, I delved into the deep recesses of the cupboard above my fridge, and unearthed my seed box that has been sitting dormant for the past 12 months. I plucked the seed packets out one by one, examined the contents, and then sorted them in like piles. Peas in the plant outside pile, broccoli in the plant inside pile, empty packets in the need to buy more pile, and on and on it went.
I came to two conclusions yesterday while foraging through and sorting my lovely seed packets: First, I need a new seed sorting, and storing system, and second, I need to get crackin’ on planting my seeds. Time is running out. The growing season isn’t very long here in Alaska. If I want to grow certain things I have to start them indoors, first. Typically people start their seeds anywhere from the middle of April to the first week in May, so as you can see I’m already behind schedule, per normal.
The plan is to go to the store today and get what I need, and then plant the ones that need to be planted indoors tomorrow.
Here is what is on my to buy list:
Dirt
Tomato seeds
Peas
Sunflower seeds
Cauliflower seeds
Potatoes
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The roads around our house have finally dried up enough to get the bikes and stroller out and go for a walk, so that’s just what we did!
Camdon loved the ride. I kept thinking he was going to start fussing with all of the stopping I did to take pictures, but he never did. He just sat in his stroller as content as could be.
Yes, Mya’s bike really leans to one side. I have no idea why.
And there is still enough mud to make traveling a bit troublesome when you are little and riding a tricycle.
Hannah had a friend over that day and the 3 girls had fun speeding away on their bikes as fast as they could go.
Note: This is a giant puddle not a pond.
Throwing rocks in the water.
At about this point, Mya decided to ditch her bike on the side of the road and walk with me. It was just too hard on a tricycle.
More rocks in the water. The next morning when I drove past, the water was completely frozen over again.
The road leads down to a small airplane runway. We like to stop and have a look at the planes,
and sometimes we are lucky enough to watch one take off or land.
I took these two pictures at the same place, just a week and a half apart.
In Alaska we have 4 seasons: fall, winter, breakup and construction season, although fall is technically construction season as well. Right now we are smack in the middle of breakup (so named because the ice on the rivers breaks up and floats down river.) Breakup is the most anticipated season of the year and is looked forward to with much fervor and excitement, especially once the rest of the world starts proclaiming the beginning of their spring. It means the long, cold, hard winter is finally over, and summer will soon be here. For those of you who don’t live in Alaska I am prepared to give you the good, the bad and the ugly of breakup in Alaska.
Here goes:
The Good
We finally have sun, glorious sun
AND The sun actually gets high enough in the sky to warm things up a bit
My kids can play outside for hours
The birds come back
The snow melts
Don’t have to chop firewood (Jarom’s favorite)
Can use the hose to water the horse, instead of packing water from the house (Logan’s favorite)
Summer is right around the corner
There aren’t enough mosquitoes to carry you away yet
When the snow melts, it melts quickly
Time to start my garden seeds
The Bad
The world becomes a mud bog all around
Every yard has it’s own melting snow lake complete with migrating Canadian Geese
Oh, the mud, mud, mud, mud (Mud deserves to be mentioned twice because of how much there is)
Breakup season is ugly.
The amount of laundry generated at this time of year equals, if not exceeds, the amount generated during the rest of the year combined
All of the trash and garbage on the sides of the road becomes visible once the snow is gone.
The mosquitoes come back
If you build a fire in the wood burning stove you cook to death during the day, if you don’t you freeze to death during the night
Too late for snow machines and too early for motor cycles (from Jarom)
I can’t use my back porch as a freezer any more
Dirty floors ALL THE TIME
The dog sheds her winter coat all over my floors
The Ugly
Can see and smell 9 months of horse and dog poop
**Update–Our horse passed away in the summer of 2015, so while we aren’t missing hauling water and scooping horse poop we are missing our dear MudPie.
I think I’ll start with an update on last week’s storm. In my last post,I mentioned the storm we had been having and how terrible the wind was. That night we had wind gusts up to 55 miles per/hour, that knocked down trees and shut power down to over 13,000 people in the Fairbanks area. (You can read about it here) They ended up closing the schools Wednesday through Friday, because of the icy roads and the widespread loss of power, and we learned today that there are still people in our area without power 4 days later. Thankfully, we never lost power, but it sure makes you evaluate what you would need if the power did go out. Fortunately, we have a wood burning stove and would be able to cook and stay warm. Without electricity our big issue would be water. We have a well that runs on an electric pump. Things to think about.
Yesterday, we resumed our normal activities. Hannah and KateLynn are taking gymnastics this year and really love it. I signed them up for a Saturday class, because I don’t like to be running around during the week too much. We need to be home so we can really focus on school. Well, Friday night they were up late and so they were having a hard time Saturday morning getting going and finding all of their clothes. I was doing carpool duty on my own that morning while Shawn was removing a tree that had fallen on a church member’s house. My duties that day included gymnastics and then Jarom’s hockey game directly after gymnastics. I decided to take the calm approach that morning, figuring that being a few minutes late to gymnastics with calm children and a calm mother was better than being on time with a crazy mother, and grouchy children. Well, I was wrong. I got to gymnastics and found out that if you are more than 10 minutes late to class you can’t participate. You must come back another day and do a makeup class. Well, do you think the kids and I were calm after that. I was annoyed that I had driven all the way into town,on the terrible roads, and would now have to turn around and drive back to town an hour and a half later to take Jarom to his hockey game, because I had nowhere to sit and wait all that time. And, of course, the girls were disappointed and crying that they couldn’t do their class that they had been looking forward to all week.
On a good note, Jarom’s team won their hockey game, and after 5 games are still undefeated. Way to go Jarom!
Saturday night, I took my 3rd trip to town that day and took 7 young men and young women (3 were mine) to hear an apostle of the Lord speak. He gave some wonderful counsel to the youth. I will post more about what he said in an upcoming post.
And now what you have all been waiting for: Pictures of that cute baby! Hannah took these last Sunday while I was eating my Sunday dinner. I thought she did a great job. Maybe I’ll hire her out to take pictures for me. Should I feel good or bad that her pictures are as good as mine?
It’s midnight and I am waiting for Shawn to come home. He went to Anchorage today. His 9:00 flight home was canceled, because of bad weather. Luckily, he was able to fly out just 2 hours later than expected. He just landed and he should be home soon. I’m praying the roads aren’t too bad and that God will get him safely here. The wind is howling wildly tonight, in fact it there are supposed to be gusts up to 40 miles/hr, which is odd for our neck of the woods. (Right now, I’m mentally going through everything in the yard that could possible blow away). The wind very rarely blows here, which is nice. I mean if it’s going to be in the negative digits 9 months of the year, who wants wind on top of that.
Right now it’s 40*F, and that’s above zero. Weird for this time of year. Public School was canceled because we had snow mixed with freezing rain today, and it will most likely be canceled again tomorrow. Yippee, that means I don’t have to get up early and take Tabetha and Jarom to seminary. Whoops, did I say that out loud? I tell Shawn all the time, usually at 6:00 in the morning, that there must be a special place in heaven for all parents who get up and take their kids to early morning seminary, especially in the winter in AK.
Monday, I was too lazy to take them. Is that extremely terrible of me. Shawn had the day off (Veterans day), and Sunday night I thought about how nice it would be to just sleep in and enjoy not having to get up and go out into the icy winter. So that’s just what I did. I slept in and enjoyed it. I can’t sleep in on Saturdays, the girls have gymnastics. And I can’t sleep in on Sundays, because we have 9:00 church, and this Sunday I had to get up extra early and finish writing my talk that I had to give that day. Anyway, on Tuesday, after enjoying a wonderful sleep-in morning on Monday and enjoying not going anywhere that whole day, Tabetha says to me, “Wasn’t I supposed to go to testing yesterday.” I about peed my pants right there. Tabetha had mandatory testing for all juniors on Monday that she was ABSOLUTELY not supposed to miss. How could I forget that???? And how come Tabetha can remember first thing on Tuesday morning, but not remember Sunday or Monday. Aaaaahhhhhh, I contacted our homeschool teacher, very reluctantly I might add, by email, so I didn’t have to talk to her face to face, I might add, and Tabetha is scheduled for a make up test on Friday. Here’s to hoping I don’t forget.
I was supposed to take all of the kids into the dentist today, but I called and rescheduled because of the bad weather. I told the receptionist that since Shawn was out of town I had no one to rescue me or pull me out of the ditch if I went off the road, so we are officially rescheduled. Usually, life just carries on normally around here no matter the weather, but with the freezing rain and wind it’s scary outside.
Yah, I just heard the truck door close. My prayers were answered. He’s home! Life is always sweeter when he’s home. I’m going to bed now, and hopefully, I will get to sleep in again tomorrow.
Welcome to my blog. My name's Kimberly. I moved to Alaska from Utah, when I married my wonderful husband, and I've been in Alaska for 14 years now. Little did I know, when I got here, what an eventful life it would be. Surviving the "Last Frontier" while raising and home schooling 7 kids is an everyday adventure.
