Boreal Witch

Flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks is surprisingly expensive and it can be dangerous to drive that route in the winter; therefore, I don't usually see my family until the late spring or early summer.

And then they tend to come in back-to-back-to-back-to-back visits. 

Blythe and Dustun visited us first. (My nephew, Josh, usually comes to visit as well, but he was in Wisconsin with my dad. He was a little bit sad that he couldn't join us, especially since we went to the Salmon Bake. Twice.)

We had an awesome time with everyone. Blythe trained with us, which was great. She's been training down in Anchorage with our younger sister, Becky, who really wanted to go on the trip with us, but was unable because she couldn't find anyone to watch her kids while she was gone. She's hoping to make it next year for the Crow Pass hike.

Becky and her family came the same day that Blythe and Dustun left. They actually met on the road and stopped to have lunch together. 

Arthur was really excited to see his cousin Molly. They play together so well. I'm not sure if that's because Arthur can usually convince Molly to do what he wants (unlike his other friends who just do what they want and ignore his demands) or if it's because they don't see each other very often (since they always have good memories of their time together, there's positive rapport).

In any case, I enlisted the two of them to help me pick some rhubarb for Blythe and Becky. They eagerly obliged and were more than happy to run back and forth throwing the rhubarb leaves in the sunken field next to our house. They even helped cut those leaves off and put the stalks in plastic bags. Too bad Molly won't be around when we process potatoes!

Blessed be.

Last year my friend Amanda said she wanted to hike the Chilkoot Trail. She had just had her son in January, didn't realize she needed permits, and hadn't trained beyond our walks at the Big Dipper. Needless to say, she wasn't ready.

So, we waited. We gathered together a few other gals, made arrangements, trained, and prepared for the hike in July. It's been fun carrying 30 pound packs and having some small adventures around Fairbanks. I'd never been to Wickersham Dome before and it's a beautiful sight when you get past the mud and mosquitoes. It was so nice at the top that Loda and I took a nap. I'd love to take the family later in the summer for a family trip. I think Arthur and Balin would love running around the rocks.

We also hiked the full Angel Rocks Loop with Blythe, Dustun, and Loda. We hiked up to Angel Rocks last year with Robinson's dad, but didn't complete the full loop. After we reached the top, a freak storm began pelting us with chilly rain. The wind picked up. Arthur began screaming, which caused Balin to begin to cry, too. Loda found a small "cave" nearby and we raced in. We fed the boys some snacks to calm them down and waited for the storm to pass.

A short while later, the rain stopped, but so did Arthur's drive to finish the trail. He and Robinson turned back while the rest of us climbed higher. An hour later, we reached the parking lot where we found Arthur and Robinson running around. Arthur seemed to have forgotten the inclement weather. He had eaten the Luna Bar Loda had given him. He was fine.

If you'd like to keep up with our adventures on the Chilkoot (and other places), you can visit our blog here.

Blessed be.

We have very little time left before we hit the Chilkoot Trail. I'm very excited to be sans family for about a week and a half. Don't get me wrong, I will miss them, but the lure of Girl Time and the outdoors is just too great. I've been craving any sort of excuse to get away (though I suppose it is my fault for not taking advantage of a babysitter or living closer to family).

Anyway. My friend Amanda has written up a hiking schedule for us. We're meeting twice a week until T-Day ("Trail Day"). So far we've been on a couple of hikes, both up on Murphy Dome. Sunday we climbed up a ginormous hill (about 400 feet change in elevation, according to Loda's GPS) with our packs. I don't know exactly how much my pack weighs because we don't have a bathroom scale at home, but I am certain that it weighs more than Balin, who is about 21 pounds.

The hill was a killer. We stopped to rest for short periods of time during our ascent, with one long break near the top. It was good practice, though, for the Golden Staircase, which is supposed to be one of the hardest parts of the trail.

Look at those flushed, red faces. I wish I could blame the heat for that color.

Even though I still feel mildly out of shape, I'm glad that I actually did some training this winter. Granted, walking at the Big Dipper isn't the best training for the Chilkoot, but I was carrying a substitute pack on my back (a 20-lb baby) and I was walking at a good pace for an hour (about 2.5-3 miles) for two days a week. In addition to any other exercise I happened to get when the weather was nice (which wasn't much).

I hope to lose the rest of my baby weight by the end of this summer. I've been doing a pretty good job watching what I eat, but being active has always been more of a challenge for me. I never played sports in high school or college and I probably would never exercise unless I was with other people. So, here's hoping, folks.

Blessed be.

Yesterday there was a partial solar eclipse. Robinson sent me a link about it Friday and I was so excited about it that Arthur and I made a pinpoint camera that very afternoon. I never had the delight of making one before because I lived so far north and I was a little worried about messing up. Thankfully, it was an incredibly simple (and painless) process that I needn't have worried! For the next two days, Arthur was wondering when he was going to get to use it.

On Sunday we started raking up the leaves and dead grass and getting the greenhouses set up. We paused work to grab the pinpoint camera and view the beginning of the eclipse. Although Arthur is only 4 and doesn't always understand things as fully as an older child, he seems to grasp scientific concepts about the natural world fairly easily. For instance, he's explained to us in detail why it rains and how his pumpkin plant germinated. It's awesome.

Anyway, we continued our work but took breaks every 20 minutes or so in order to check up on how much of the sun the moon had "eaten." The moon had almost devoured half of the sun before some dark clouds rolled in and covered everything up. After the clouds hid our view, we went inside and had some watermelon and made some dinner.

I'm not sure if Arthur will remember these little family activities but I certainly hope so. Maybe someday he'll be able to do things like this with his own children (provided he decides to have them).

Blessed be.

I've become a bit more sensitive about the way my front yard looks. It looks like we have kids. I looks like we haven't spent time weeding. It looks like a mess. It's been neglected for five years and it's high time it was beautified. (Honestly, the back yard isn't much better, but because most of it is behind the house, you can't tell.)

So, for Mother's Day I did something a bit out of the ordinary for me. I bought some flowers to place on my porch as a kickoff to "Project Yard." Robinson and I made some flower stands out of some old wood that once were stairs. (We think they were anyway.  It seems that the people who owned the house before us had the nasty habit of buying wood, pounding nails in it, then chucking it in a big pile behind the house. We inherited a large wood pile that we used to make some patio chairs and a small table out of. Now that the 2x4s are gone, there are lots of little scrap pieces and lots of 2x6s.)


I even found a thing - wire shelf? quilt holder? display something? - at the Transfer Station that I wrapped plastic around and placed the tomatoes in as a pseudo-greenhouse. They are looking lovely indeed!

Added proof of how resourceful I actually am - see the door mat in the pictures? I made that out of an old carpet square and duct tape. 

Next year I'd like to get some juniper bushes for the front of the house. I've seen some lovely ferns around town that I would love to have in my yard, but I believe they are shade loving, so I probably won't be able to put them in the front yard. It's much too sunny, which is great for the greenhouse, but not so nice for shade-loving plants. Maybe they'll be happier behind the house or the garage...

Next year I also plan on growing my own flowers so that I won't have to buy any. I have a lot of annual seeds I brought back after my grandmother's funeral a couple years ago. I really should start using them. Maybe I'll grow some extra for my other mom friends (and my own mom!) for Mother's Day 2013. 

The side deck is getting some love, too. After several years of not having a place to sit on our patio, we finally finished two chairs* this summer (one we started on late last summer). We need to sand and paint or stain them, but considering they were made out of scrap 2x4s that we found all over the yard, they don't look bad indeed! We're still working on a table and a bench. Both need some 1x4s which we don't have in our yard so we'll have to buy them. All in all, I estimate that all of our patio furniture (2 chairs, 2 tables, and a bench) will cost us less than $50. Not bad and a great use for old wood!

Blessed be. 

* The chairs and little table were made using a book called 2x4 Furniture: Simple, Inexpensive, and Great-Looking Projects You Can Make by Stevie Henderson. It has lots of indoor and outdoor furniture. It has lots of pictures and the instructions are very clear and easy to follow. Robinson and I bought the book for $0.50 at a Goodwill down in Washington before we got married. It's been extremely helpful in making our home look beautiful!

It's about time to set up the greenhouses, get some seedlings, and watch everything grow, grow, grow!

We planted some seeds well before our trip to Anchorage. Even though we haven't done well with tomatoes or hot peppers in the past, we're going to try again. We also started a pumpkin and zucchini plant...which, come to think of it, we also haven't had much success with but - what the heck - we gave it another go!

When we got home, Arthur pointed at the pumpkin plant in the window and shouted, "MOMMY! Look at that pumpkin plant!"

It was HUGE! It was about a foot tall and already had some buds on it. Arthur has been taking very good care of it. He waters it every few days and examines the leaves and stalk. He counts the buds and watches for changes that take place. He's not very interested in any of the other plants, but he certainly loves that pumpkin plant.

I love that he's so interested in botany. Sometimes he reminds me of the days we need to water the plants.

Blessed be.

For the last year, my dad has been saying that he really wants to clean house, which is good because my parents' house is filled with all kinds of "treasures." It's gotten so bad in some areas that you have to carefully walk around piles of stuff in order to get from one place to another, with the fear that one of those piles will snatch you up and swallow you whole.

He constantly talked of having an auction, kind of like my grandmother and grandfather did in the 1980's, where my sisters and I would bid on items. In my dad's mind it was perfect because he would get rid of all these items he had collected and we would get things that we really wanted (be they family items or just garage sale junk).

Robinson, who loves to tease my dad about all kinds of things, made Sampsonbucks for him last Christmas, picking certain family members to go on various bills. Josh was on the one, Molly was on the five, Balin was on the 10, Dad was on the 20, and Grandma Sampson was on the 50. Dad was thrilled and told everyone that the next time we were all together, we must have an auction.

My sisters and I were less certain of an action, but we all agreed on one thing: everything must be bid on whether we wanted it or not. If we wanted it, we'd fight to the death to claim it, but if not it would come home with us anyway and we'd get rid of it later. We made sure that if someone really wanted an item, we'd let them take it, but if there was indeed something of value (which happened a few times), then we'd bid like there was no tomorrow.

Almost everything in the auction was picked up by my father during the height of his garage sale visits, though there were a few items from our time in Barrow. The Barrow items were the most coveted. Becky bought a whale cup for 50 Sampsonbucks and Blythe (who had about 250 Sampsonbucks leftover after the first auction) got to take home a beautiful pair of beaded mukluks. The only other item to rival that one was the carved duck I bought for 180 Sampsonbucks and a lovely German wine pitcher Blythe bought for about 200 Sampsonbucks. (Robinson thought I was crazy and threatened to release the duck in the middle of Denali Park on his way back.) My dad, generous as he is, also gave us some old Barrow bus tokens.

Family memories are something like leftovers: you don't always know what to expect. As skeptical as my sisters and I were of the Sampsonbucks auction, we all had a blast. Dad commented that it was the most fun we've had as a family in about 20 years.

Most of my winnings have been given away or marked for an upcoming garage sale. A few other items I've set aside as gifts for friends. (The gorgeous brown pitcher in the last photo was a birthday present for my friend Amanda. I won it for a Sampsonbuck.) Only a few of my items are on display in my home, which is how it should be.

Blessed be.