A Slow Sunday . . . and Sewing Face Masks!

It seems that in the time of Coronavirus, Sunday mornings have gotten even slower . . . longer reading of the New York Times in bed . . . with coffee . . . no rush, especially knowing that it got so warm that the slushy snow wasn't going to be good for much outside.

No pictures, but the crabmeat quiche made for a good late breakfast, and we decided to move ahead with the face masks that are now requested to be worn outdoors (when going to a store we assume, not just if we're biking or skiing.) I found two bandanas that I've had for a while, a pillowcase for good lining, and a pattern with a pocket for an additional filter if desired. The one thing that we didn't have, and that no one seems to have is elastic, but we found some old cording that Brian had from years ago and used that for around the ears.

I wore mine to try it out when we walked to Fire Island Bakery to pick up our order (in the parking lot, enforcing social distancing), and Brian tried his and tried to get Kira to participate when we got home!

Kira was far more interested in laying in the sun on our deck and watching for the pesky squirrel that's eating the bird food.

And I got to pick up a donation of sourdough starter from Corrie Whitmore that she thoughtfully taped to her porch wall so that we could come and pick it up! I can't wait to make something with it! Pancakes? Bread? All in all, another good Sunday!

It's Been Three Years . . . and We're Back!

I've been regretting that I didn't keep up with this blog posting, and I've especially thought in the last few days that during this coronavirus thing we're going through that it may have been useful. Brian and I have still gotten outside for at least an hour each day, and we've taken short trips, around an hour or less, to do outdoor things.

On about March 11, we went to a movie and a quick dinner before with a visiting friend, but since that time, we've only been together the two of us, one trip to Natural Pantry for replenishing fresh food, and our outdoor recreation, alone. So we've been "Hunkered Down" as Anchorage has termed it rather than "Shelter in Place." And even before that, we were largely doing that anyway since returning from our trip to upstate New York 2/14 and a quick trip for me to Seattle returning 2/16.

Days have been kind of long, probably similar to how it is for a lot of you, but I've worked from home a lot for my Wisdom Course accountabilities - on the phone or Zoom meetings online - and I've been enjoying cooking, writing, and watching things on Hulu or Netflix that I'd never explored. A couple that I've really liked: The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, 10 episodes for Season 1; Fosse & Verdon, 8 episodes, I have one left - it's really good; a documentary on Baseball that I don't think I've finished (PBS); and the new documentary on Hillary Clinton, 4 episodes - loved this - and I have one left to watch! And we've been doing a little of this mid-day too!

What I've been cooking: Moosemeat chili, lots to freeze, banana bread, homemade pasta, very good salmon with a little soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil baked at low temperature, and recently almond cookies. I was talking to my son about cooking stir fry and asked if he remembered the Chinese dinners we used to make when he was a child, always ending with homemade almond cookies that I would keep in the freezer for the occasion. He said he hadn't remembered until I said that but then he could even remember the taste right in that moment! He remembered when we made pasta too years ago and asked me to leave him the pasta maker in my will!

And not to make this too long, I have to show you some of the pictures we've been taking outdoors - the weather has been extraordinary, and yesterday we took our back-country skis along a stream an hour south of here in Portage - on the way to Whittier, where Brian did a little maintenance work on Kakwik, the boat that we share with Carl & Diane. With the social distancing requirements, the boat isn't going in the water yet, and it remains to be seen if it will go in this season for shrimping! The day was gorgeous though, and I appreciate that Brian thinks of these perfect things to do with the snow conditions.

I continue to appreciate living here in Alaska!

Our Second RV Trip for Spring Break Went North

We enjoyed the first trip so much to Turnagin Pass that we decided to go north, still with the idea of checking things out - gas mileage (not good news!), dishes etc. needed, where to store things, and so on. Plus we had so much fun we wanted to do it again and for longer! We were also hoping for Northern Lights, which we didn't get.

We thought we'd be able to pull into Denaliview South, but the parking lot wasn't plowed out, so we continued on and ended up in the new state park just north of there on the east side of the road - probably not supposed to be there overnight, but there were people there for the cabins, and no one challenged us. We had a great snowshoe there up a "Curry Ridge" with spectacular views of the Alaska Range and Denali all of the way up and down, about 6 miles round trip.

What a Day - Denali out the entire time! 

"Moose Steps" - you don't want to mis-step into one of these! 

We had a nice snowshoe the next day too from Troublesome Creek, and then a visit on the way home with our good friends Klaus and Laura in Trapper Creek. What a great week, and a beginning of having the RV become our "home away from home." We plan to live in it for 3 months June - Sept!

Early Spring Fun!

We began spring break fun with a fat tire bike ride under the full moon after I had a writing retreat with 10 women and a wonderful weekend of writing together.

Chester Creek Trail under the Full Moon 

Thank you Patti Clayton and everyone who attended the retreat for a weekend of inspiration!



Brian and I took our "newest" RV out for some winter camping and to try it out for our longer stay coming up this summer. We went south for one night staying in our favorite big parking area at Turnagin Pass - we had company - another skier overnighting just in his car! We snowshoed the first day, then skied on our backcountry skis the next.

Someone had left a very nice snow cave but we chose the RV overnight! 

Fresh baked muffins in the RV the next morning! Just like home! 

The next day we were skiing/exploring the area, which was
just beautiful and pristine - instead of going up like we did snowshoeing, we stayed lower, but still with some ups and downs.




When we finished, we moved the RV up to Portage and skied out to the glacier - unfortunately, it had gotten cold and windy, and Portage Lake was quite icy out to the glacier.   We didn't wait around long, and the entire way back was into the wind (whine, whine, whine!)

Fur Rondy Time and the Iditarod

We didn't do a lot of Fur Rondy events this year, but we did do the Fat Tire Bike ride with about 500 other bikes, and watched some of the sprint dog races. And of course, the beginning of the Iditarod Ceremonial Start!

We found Marilyn & Steve at the Finish Line - Marilyn is a traveling nurse that we met last year, and we've enjoyed spending time with them - they're back again this year! 

Fat Tire Bikes Heading Down the Trail! 

We missed the fireworks this year though we heard they were wonderful - we had tickets to the Anchorage Symphony, and we had already given our tickets away once this season. And we have really good seats! The sprint dog races are always fun to watch and take place the Saturday before the Iditarod start.



It's always fun to watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, and several people from the university have parties along the trail - which is right in back of their houses! It was cooooolllllld, but we were ready for it! We're complete with mink and beaver hats here!

2017 is off to the races!

I'm going to start with Feb. 11 here at home, ready to go out and run to the store before dinner guests arrive, and here's what we see!  I guess we're not going out THAT door!

So we took pictures for a few minutes then snuck out through the garage in the car - texted our friends to watch for the moose as they arrived.  Ten or fifteen minutes later, we arrived back home, and the moose was now attached to chomping on a tree right next to our driveway.  We couldn't decide whether to try to drive into the garage and hope she didn't follow us in, try to scare her off, or ???  We hit the garage door opener, and she took off down the street.  They are MASSIVE -- and known to hurt, even the "urban moose" who are fairly used to people.  You still want to stay away - when our guests came, she was back across the street.

We made homemade pasta last night for the first time since we've lived here - 6 1/2 years now - the pasta machine still worked, and I tried plain and spinach pasta with 3 different sauces - so we had "little plates" in order to try everything.  I think they weren't "little" enough judging by how full we were - arugula pesto, roasted red pepper sauce with buttermilk, and red clam sauce.  It was fun to do, and I hope we don't wait another 6 years to make it again!

Okay, back to January - we went to upstate NY for my mother's 90th birthday, and all 6 of her children were able to be there.  We had a quick stop in Waterloo first and got to babysit one of our granddaughters, 5 months old - we took her for a long walk in this picture, and she is super easy to babysit for -- and VERY cute!  We also got to have dinner with Brian's two sons and their wives, and Brian was able to be at the inspection for Al and Sarah's house they just bought.

And then the birthday!  Judy's mother is in incredible shape for 90 years old.  Still living in her own house but thinking of selling for something smaller - she has a big big lot and flowers, trees, bushes, lawn, etc. to care for.

And then back to more skiing and fat tire biking.  Judy came back from New York with a bad cold that lingered for nearly 3 weeks, so Brian got more of that in, but we're both back out now! This weekend was cold but beautiful, and it's warming up - probably more than we want! Come on February - give us some more winter!

Mid-Winter in Alaska - Looking Back and Ahead!

Wow!  We just noticed that we haven't entered anything here since October.  Very bad.  We've had a busy winter for sure -- Judy was in California for a conference in November, then we were both in Mexico in December for a Year-end course with the Wisdom Course Area of Landmark - Los Cabos. After that kick start to ending one year and beginning a new one, we spent Christmas with our friends (and former landlords for the first 4 years that we lived in Anchorage) who now live in Juneau.

So first things first - Mexico - great temperatures, wonderful course and a gorgeous room with a swim-up just off our patio - it was great to slide in the water right from our room, and temperatures perfect for me - sunny but not too hot, high 70s to low 80s.

We weren't back long before we were headed to Juneau for Christmas -- and we loved spending it with our friends!  The weather was change-able, but we skied a couple of times, hiked, ate wonderful food and played pinochle every night!

And then home - for some great skiing and fat tire biking over New Year's before we headed for New York for Judy's mother's 90th birthday!