In Memoriam

I'm posting this photo in memorial to the lovely flowers in Anchorage's Town Square Park. They are all being removed right now to clear the way for winter's white blanket.

Tess's Flag Football season has also come to a close. They had their last game yesterday evening and ended their season with a record of 9-1. Tess played some quarterback last night as she has a pretty good long distance throw. Not a lot of catches, but some good attempts. They won the game 30-0. After the game, the team and parents went out for Mongolian BBQ.

Saturday Drive

We spent yesterday driving around the Montana Creek area looking at recreational cabin properties and enjoying the autumn splendor of Alaska. Denali was visible against a bright blue sky. It was really a beautiful day for a drive.

We looked at 3 cabins, all in the same "neighborhood".


From left to right, the prices are: $95k, $45K, $39k. Each has 10 acres and are surrounded by woods. But none has a lake or river nearby, so we're holding out to find that. Even if it means buying a piece of land and building our own log cabin.

After the cabin hunt, we popped over to Talkeetna for a brief visit. I went to my favorite chocolate shop and we walked down to the river to toss a few rocks into the water.

On our way home, we stopped at a woodcarver's shop near Wasilla and ordered our grizzly bear holding a salmon. The carver there is very pleasant. His name is Mike McVay. He's apparently been carving for 50 years. He does nice work.

By the way, I've attempted to add a few more photos to the Dropshots page...

4 Wheel Drive & a Gun

We're going to do a little "house hunting" today. Okay, actually, "recreational cabin hunting". The realtor listing the properties said we'd need both 4WD and a gun. Some Home Owners Associations are more finicky than others, I guess.

The two properties we're looking at today are up near Montana Creek and Talkeetna. Both have 10 acres and a dilapidated log cabin on them. They're basically across the trail from one another about 6 miles off a maintained road. Thus the 4-wheel drive. In addition, there are lots of signs of bear and moose -- beds and poop... Thus the gun. One property is listed at $39,500 and the other is $44,000. Anyone want to be a recreational neighbor?

The photos are from Stephen's recent hunting trip. No moose, but they did eat a rabbit like true woodsmen. Stephen enjoyed the simplicity of living off the land. He's excited to start pursuing our own spot in Alaska's wilderness.

I just finished reading One Man's Wilderness. This is exactly what we'd like to do. At the moment, life's encumbrances preclude the total embrace of this lifestyle. But it was a great read. I highly recommend it.


Base camp on the banks of the Knik River.

Loading out supplies.

Big Bear print near camp.

Hide

Last day of moose season. I'm meeting Stephen by the river at 5pm to haul him and perhaps a moose back home.

If they do get a moose, I'm hoping they'll at least haul a portion of the hide out of the camp. I'm hoping to learn how to work with moose hide (and other furs) to make stuff like mittens and mukluks (boots).

I have some marten furs I got at a yard sale this past summer, and there's a book at the library which tells about the Eskimo ways of sewing furs. Those marten furs are big enough to make some slippers for little Alicia May...

Here it comes...

One day your basking in the midnight sun... the next you wake up to find yellow leaves drifting past your windowsill and termination dusting cloaking the tops of mountains.

Summer is over. Terminated. Kaput.

The air is crisp. Especially when it's not raining. Fall is upon us. And any minute now, we'll be donning the snowshoes to walk the dog.

Today was my day off... every other Monday. The fact that I woke up feeling flu-like only put a slight damper on my day. I figure I've caught whatever has been ailing Alicia these past couple of days. Despite her runny nose and slight cough, she seemed pretty perky, so I carted her off to her "new school" by 10am and ran some errands in Eagle River.

Later I met Stephen and his hunting buddy at the river to deliver some additional supplies (read: FOOD). They're having a good time. They've yet to get (or even see) a legal moose. They have seen lots of grouse, a beaver, and a lynx. And they've smelled a bear (which apparently reek).

After I left them at the river to return to their camp, I stopped by the house to change into jeans and hiking shoes and headed for the berry hill in Eagle River. I spent more time climbing to the top of the hill than I did picking blueberries. But I did end up with enough to make either some muffins or syrup.

The trail goes up past the blueberry bushes and the treeline. Once you top the ridge, all sound disappears and it's as if you're the only person on the planet.

If I weren't in such horrible shape, I'd hoof it up there every chance I got. It's such a peaceful, beautiful, inspiring place.

While I was up there, I found some bright red leafed low bushes loaded up with blueberries. But it had taken me so long to get up there, that I didn't have a lot of time left to pick berries before retreating back down the hill to pick up Tess from football practice and Alicia May from her "new school".

Big Wild Life Continues

This summer the city of Anchorage launched a new marketing campaign for the tourism industry. The slogan is "Big Wild Life".

Today is a big day in our Big Wild Lives...

It's homecoming for the older kids. I'm not sure to what extent Donald will be participating today. He slept over at a friends house last night and has to work at Taco Bell today.

Tess will be having her team and individual pictures taken under the homecoming arch at the football field. Last year she was in a cheer uniform. This year she'll be holding a football... Then the team will be having a pizza lunch at the school and watch the varsity flag football game at 1:00. That's followed by a pep rally at 2:15 and I believe the boys varsity football game. Then she's off to her girlfriend's house to get ready for the homecoming dance at 8pm.

Stephen will spend his day setting up camp near the Knik River, just downstream from the Knik Glacier, with the intentions of stalking some of Alaska's big wildlife. Moose, to be specific.

He and a buddy from the AK Defense Force plan to spend about 5 days camping and hunting for moose. The buddy has a boat which they're using to get up the river to their previously scouted camping spot. Stephen's excited and probably feeling a little like a boy scout again as he prepares for this chilly, rainy adventure in the Bush.

This is his first Alaskan hunting trip. I hope he stays safe and gets his moose.

Here's Mud in Your Eye

A little rain yesterday... Mud on the football field.

I thought, SURELY, Tess would not stoop to coating herself in mud. I was mistaken.

Sigh.

After the game, which they won, many of the girls on each team decided to use the field like a giant slip-n-slide. Remember those? Long sheets of yellow plastic that you laid out on your lawn with a hose keeping them slick. Then after about a $20 investment and 30-minutes of use, the fad was over and your lawn looked similar to last night's football field. Oh, the good old days....

Anyway, you can see in the photo that Tess's mouth widener is working. The orthodontist says her upper jaw is too small to fit her teeth. So before the upper braces go on, she has to crank her mouth bigger for 35 days... Bigger? Who'd have guessed?

All About Tess

Tess had a great birthday yesterday. She started the day with family gifts and a nice breakfast.

After school, her football team had a couple hours to wait before the bus took them to their game. So they had a party where everyone brought food. Her friend Victoria brought a birthday cake with footballs and basketballs on it.

Their game was in Anchorage. They won the game and Tess played well. After the game, they were given Haagen Dazs ice cream bars as part of this week's Spirit Week festivities.

I also handed out team sweatshirts which came in yesterday.

Homecoming is at the end of this week with a dance on Saturday. Tess is going to the dance with her new beau hunk, Tony. (Grrrrrrr-eat!)

Sunday, Rainy Sunday

The cake tasted pretty good actually. Next time I'll roll the fondant a little thinner. I used a homemade variety which contains mostly marshmallows and powdered sugar. It supposedly has a better taste than ready-made fondant (Wilton).

Today, after church, Tess, her friend Melissa, Alicia May and I all went to the Bear Tooth Theatre Pub in Anchorage to see Evan Almighty. If you haven't seen it... that's a super movie. I was glad to find it still in a theatre. The Bear Tooth lets you order a meal and eat it while watching a movie. The movies are generally those which have been out of the theatres a little while. The food was great and the atmosphere was really neat. We sat in the balcony area.

Here's a photo from my recent visit to Ohio. This is my nephew, Little David, with my great-nephew, Little Billy. Nice shirt, David!

SemiSweet 15...

Tess is having her birthday slumber party this evening. I made her a lovely flag football cake... My first attempt at using fondant in this way... Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. Of course, we haven't tasted it yet.

We're having a Taco Bar for food and she rented a couple of movies to keep them occupied.

DC Trip

Mom and I had a nice, short getaway to Washington, DC. We stayed at a hotel near Washington Circle for 2 nights. It was hot there, but clear skies, so really pretty pleasant.

Mom's still recuperating from knee replacement surgery, so I didn't make her do TOO much walking.

I went to the Washington Mall myself and saw the fairly new WWII Veterans Memorial. It's very nice and glisteningly new. It reminded me a little of the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.

I saw the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument from a short distance. I also walked by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I suppose someday there'll be an Iraq War Veterans Memorial and an Afghanistan Veterans Memorial...

Maybe we'll even have a War on Terror Veterans Memorial and then... a War on Drugs Veteran Memorial.

I think it's wonderful to build a memorial to these people who have given the highest sacrifice for their country and for freedom. But it saddens me as well.

I'd rather we never had another reason to build such a memorial.

On the "road" again...

Well, I just completed my web check-in for tonight's flight to Ohio. I'll be spending a few days with Mom and visiting a little with the Ohio gang.

Mom & I are heading to DC for a couple nights. I have an appointment there on Tuesday. It'll be nice to have a girls' weekend of sorts...

I picked up a travel pillow for 1/2 price at JCPenney yesterday. I'm always jealous of those folks who have one on flights. Not jealous enough to pay $25 for one at a connecting airport... but still. I got mine for 7 bucks. :o)

I've stocked the freezer with easy to make meals and washed a sufficient supply of Alicia's potty training Princess undies to get them through till I return late Thursday evening.

In typical Alaska style, my flight departs just minutes from midnight. I'm positive the vast majority of airport business takes place between 11pm and 1am at the Anchorage airport. We're just so conveniently located halfway to everywhere... At least I'll be in good company tonight.