Winter Blahs

It's been a year since I last posted! Where did the time go?
Well, since this blog is just a hobby, I never feel obliged to blog if I don't feel like it -- so, yes, I got bored with it (as often happens after a year or two), and, well, LIFE got in the way. This last year was busy, crazy & full of stress factors (health and otherwise) -- perhaps someday I will blog about them, and perhaps not...
We're past the Spring Equinox, but it still looks like winter. Everybody is TIRED of SNOW. We've had near record-breaking cold and snowpack this past winter-- anybody who doubts that spring will ever get here -- patience! THE SUN IS OUR FRIEND and always wins this time of year. Just look at the clear blue sky and feel that solar power: it's bound to melt all that snow before long-- June, July?!!!

I leave you with a picture of a bunch of kids (my own plus a few borrowed ones) on a Nature Center outing several years ago: we're on the frozen Eagle River in mid to late March -- the peak in the middle is Polar Bear Peak.

Cabin Fever

Winter in Alaska is no reason to stay cooped up, even if we sometimes don't feel like getting out of bed. But the days are getting longer, and when the sun shines on those craggly spruce trees, it is an outright "Winter Wonderland"!Here are some photos from a recent cabin trip to Byer's Lake in Interior Alaska. Two women and a total of 3 teen-age children (both of our husbands had to bail out last minute on account of work). But this trip was long planned, the temperatures were reasonable, so darn it: we went, we saw (Mt.Denali, "The Great One", even if only briefly), and we conquered (snow-shoeing, sled-packing, firewood-carrying, etc)!

That's was the view from our cabin overlooking frozen Byer's Lake with the Alaska Range as backdrop. We went skiing and snow-shoeing on the lake, and youngest built a fire, using only flint from her 5th grade survival kit -- she was determined & worked HARD!


And here cabin life at Public Cabin #2, where we stayed cozy and warm, and played many roaring rounds of Taboo!

New Years Wishes, Reflections, and Pictures

Wishing everyone a very good New Year!
Just cooked up a proverbial storm of New Year's food (recipes at Borealkitchen.blogspot.com).

As is typical for this time of year, it's cold here, with temperatures below zero Fahrenheit. Here are some pictures from yesterday when we drove to the Mat-Su valley. The first part of the drive was in the sunshine (view of Talkeetna Mountains from Chugiak):By the time we got down to the Knik River, we were very much in the fog -- looks cold and grim, doesn't it? It actually is amazingly beautiful, I think -- reminiscent of the Dr. Zhivago, which we just watched -- a tradition for us during the break between Christmas and New Year.
By the time we got to Wasilla, we could see the sun again.

We've entered a new decade -- I hope that it's a better one politically compared to the last. The post 9-11 decade (a.k.a. George W. Bush era) sure seemed full of fear. Fear of terrorists, fear of economic collapse, fear of reform -such as fear of "socialized" healthcare. I say "Bring it on!" I'd like to see healthcare reform continue to be "tweaked" and improved over the next decade or two, and hope that we adopt more and more green energy policies, that we reform agriculture to be more sustainable, and that US foreign policy become less about fighting wars and more about peace-making!
On a more personal level, our family has entered our second decade of living in this beautiful valley, and feel very blessed. While we still sometimes miss Fairbanks and Colorado where we lived during the last millenenium, we have grown very fond of this valley. The children are growing into lovely young ladies and gentlemen, and bring us parents much joy and pride. We feel very satisfied in our jobs as well -- we're truly blessed!

Happy Solstice!

It's all uphill from now: we'll be gaining sunlight from now on!
Only a few minutes at each end of the day, but by mid-January we'll start seeing the sun again at our house, which is currently being blocked by the mountains surrounding our valley, such as in the picture below, with just a tad of evening light hitting the top of Polar Bear Peak.

We had the shortest day of the year today, and it was properly celebrated at our house by SLEEPING IN!

Around Lake Tahoe in winter

Subtitle: It's true, we went to Tahoe and did NOT hit the slopes...

There's a lot to do around Lake Tahoe, but downhill skiing was not on our agenda, due primarily to various family members' injuries, but also to the prohibitive high costs! (AND the lack of fresh powder snow!!!)
We tried to go cross-country skiing one day along the Tallac Historic Site Trail. The skiing conditions were, shall we say, less than ideal, but it was a fun destination: this is where the RICH and FAMOUS built their houses and vacationed into the 1920's. The site is now preserved by the Forest Service. I loved the TALL pines, and tried to capture them in these photos. The boathouse is now a venue for concerts during the summer.


Here is the Valhalla Estate, built by business tycoon Walter Heller (the skier is my husband, the Prof, who is not a tycoon!)

This next set of buildings, if I remember right, belonged to the Pope estate, nicknamed the "Vatican Lodge". I love the twisted wood detail on the cabin below.


On our drive around Lake Tahoe, we stopped at the overlook for Emerald Bay, with it's Teahouse on that little island below, only a short boat ride from Vikingsholm. This is a scandinavian-style estate built for Lora J. Knight, a wealthy Illinois woman in1928-9. We were not able to hike down because the steep trail was trecherous with ice and snow, so I'm including a summer picture of the estate.

I thought I'd seen some expensive real estate in South Lake Tahoe, but North Lake Tahoe seems to be where the real money is! All we could afford there was a cup of coffee and a glimpse...

Another daytrip was to historic Genoa, Nevada's first settlement. The first picture is of the Mormon Station, which was a stop along the Pony Express route. The next picture is the Genoa Courthouse -- we had a picnic at the city park right across it. The rest of the pictures are of the surrounding countryside: Patty and I would have loved to stop at every old barn!


The highlight of the day was swimming at Walley's Hot Springs (last picture above). We also visited the Genoa cemetery. I admit, I love to visit old cemeteries -- I hope that does not make me morbid -- I like to think of them as a celebration of people's lives! We saw several graves that featured "man's best friend" in stone.

This cemetery is where Snowshoe Thompson is buried: he was a Norwegian immigrant who brought skiing to the Sierra Nevada. Here's what I found on Wikipedia about Snowshoe Thompson (Interestingly, the spelling is inconsistent with his gravemarker): Between 1856 and 1876, he delivered mail between Placerville CA and Genoa, and later Virginia City, NV. Despite his nickname, he didn't use snowhoes (they're native to North America), but rather would travel with ten-foot skiis (which he called "snowshoes"), and a single sturdy pole held in both hands at once. His skill was legendary, and he saved many lives. Despite his twenty years of service, he was never paid for delivering the mail.

If you're interested in reading more about Snowshoe Thompson, go to this website to find out more.

Visiting the "Former Alaskans" in Lake Tahoe

Ok, our friends who moved away from Alaska are not exactly IN Lake Tahoe (brrrrr!) -- they live in the town of South Lake Tahoe. It's situated on the South shore of the famous clear blue lake that straddles the Nevada-California border. Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America -- impressively beautiful!

Mike and Patty had moved to Alaska as newly-weds about a decade ago, built a beautiful log home in our valley here, and had 3 lovely children. Our youngest became friends with their oldest in Kindergarten, and we moms hit it off right away -- quilting, knitting, gardening, hiking, etc... But sadly for me, they decided to leave Alaska 2 years ago and move back to where they grew up, to be closer to their own families.

Sooo, we made good on our promise (threat?) to visit them in their new home, and for our mid-winter vacation we flew to Nevada right after the New Year. Our eldest daughter from college joined us in Reno, where we first spent 2 days at a Nevada ranch to decompress.

On the third day, we rose again -- and climbed up the road to the land of Milk & Honey/ condos & casinos/ ski-lifts & jetboats. It dawns on me just how much of a country bumpkin I am -- I've rarely seen such a display of expensive real estate as there is on the shore of that lake! WOW, if those mansions are "second homes", then what do the "first" homes look like?

But on to our friends, who're doing a wonderful job of raising their children in this land of contrasts.


We descended on their house, and doubled the # of inhabitants from 5 to 10! It was great to catch up, and the kids seemed to pick up right where they left off 2 years ago -- legos and chasing each other thru the house... The youngest, nicknamed Baby Zilla, was only a year old when they left Alaska. She eyed us a little suspiciously at first, but warmed right up to us -- she melted my heart when she dragged out the baby quilt I had made when she was born, and said "You made this for me!"

Feasts were cooked, long breakfasts lingered over, hot tubs soaked in and and sights seen. Patty and Eldest hit the slopes one day while we took the kids to the Nevada Beach -- there was a brisk wind, but our gaggle of kids had fun burying Liesl in the sand. Only Alaskans would play at the beach on such a cool day! But we loved the sunshine we got there EVERY day!!!

We had a great time, and our friends were wonderful hosts. We did move into a vacation-rental that opened up on the third day there (there's that old saying "Guests are like fish -- on the third day they begin to stink") -- we felt VERY welcome, but realized how big an impact it is to host a whole family! Plus, Peter's sister and husband flew in to join us for the remaining days. It was wonderful to see them.

It is amazing how difficult it can be for a LARGE group of people on vacation to get going anywhere -- just deciding on where/what to eat took a while, let alone organizing an outing!
We did drive around the lake one of the days with just the adults -- at that point it seemed easier to just let the kids stay home and play! I'm sure our friends breathed a big sigh of relief when we were gone and their lives returned to normal.

I think the visit was hardest on Eldest. She is now used to living her own life at college, and not used to having to be part of a family, let alone two and a half. It seems to me that she had a very hard time being flexible, which showed itself in how critical she was of her siblings and parents -- I was probably just as hard to take when I visited Germany during college (sorry Mutti & Papi!).
On top of all that rubbed her the wrong way, Eldest got news that her paternal grandmother died in Florida (my ex's mom) -- it was really a damper on the end of the vacation! But our family did pull through it all, and we're all still talking (of course)! We're looking forward to her moving back to Alaska after she graduates, but realize how much she needs her own place and be in charge of her own life...
Here's a picture of Eldest holding Baby Zilla (dare I point out how good she looks with a child on her arm?!? -- hush). I have more pictures of Tahoe to share, but that will need to wait until another post...

Winter Sunshine -- and nearly all is forgiven!

A rant, of sorts, about the weather

The sun is shining! This may not be news-worthy where you live, but to me, this is BIG. You see, since mid-November I've not seen very much of the sun at my house or my workplace. This is a beautiful valley, but valleys have mountains, and they do have an annoying tendency to block out the sun.

I've often thought about getting a petition getting going where either the month of January or February is abolished -- I'm not asking too much, am I?

This weekend I taught an outdoor class at the Nature Center, and the sun ACTUALLY shone on us during the whole walk. Even though it was barely above zero Fahrenheit (-17 Celsius) when I went to work, the sun managed to warm the air up to the teens! One month ago there was NO sunshine in the low-lying areas, and daytime temperatures did not vary much from the night.

I saw a coyote crossing the road on my way in, a bald eagle was perched on a tall cottonwood when I took my group outside, and the snow just sparkled in the sun! It felt great!
Later I'm sitting on the couch in the living room, and sunshine is streaming in and illuminating all the dust bunnies. Dust - Schmust! Right now I'd rather have sun than a clean house!

This winter has been cold (duh, it's Alaska!) But really, here on the coast there are some years where we get rather mild temperatures, AND, our bane, warm winds and rain!
We did get some of those warm rains briefly in mid-January, right when we returned from out vacation to sunny California. We had left right after New Year's Day and it was something like minus 20 degrees F, but when we returned to Anchorage in the upper 40's with wind and rain. As you can imagine, all that rain over snow and the road were TERRIBLE. Like most Alaskans, we have 4-wheel drive and studded tires on our cars, but we still could not get up our driveway when we got home. I took a picture of youngest pulling a sled of groceries up the driveway a few days after we got back. Not to complain, but it was impossible to walk on that driveway without some sort of grippers or crampons!
But then, thankfully, cold temperatures returned, and we got some snow to cover the nasty ice, and now I can walk and drive up and down without risk of injury. Sooo, as much as I can complain about the lack of warmth in Alaska during the winter, when we get unseasonably warm weather in the middle of winter, then I complain about that even louder!

Here's a children's book by Elsa Beskow, an author I remember fondly from my childhood. I was so tickled when I found a couple of her books at the local Waldorf School.
This one is called "Ollie's Ski Trip": after Ollie received a pair of skiis for Christmas, he wants to go out and use them. He meet King Winter, who's responsible for nice cold snowy weather. But along comes Old Mrs. Thaw, who threatens to melt all that snow away. King Winter manages to chase away Mrs. Thaw for now, and Ollie gets in some more skiing. But eventually, when Spring comes, Mrs. Thaw is welcome to chase away Winter.

Wolf has felt a bit like Ollie under house arrest. When he injured his lung in December, he was told not to exercise for at least 6 weeks, which included no skiing in Tahoe! Poor kid. By the time the doctor cleared him for skiing, we had had that visit from Mrs. Thaw... It did eventually snow again, but not enough to build up much base until this weekend. So my Ollie will finally be able to strap on his Cross-country skiis and get out there -- and hopefully it will still be a while before Mrs. Thaw shows up again in our part of Alaska.

And I guess we don't need to abolish February --it's a short month after all!