Among The Trees

As a MN girl, I grew up with trees of all sorts. My favorites have been the coniferous sort and their aromatic ways. Then I moved to Nome and learned to love tundra, wide expanses and views, willow bushes and thin cottonwoods. I always missed trees though.

Now I'm back among them and the birches around Wasilla have exploded with vibrant green leaves. And we have bonfires in the pit at night. Fueling those fires are dead birches gathered and cut. The smell is great and I have the perfect stump for a chair. Here's one of our beauteous wood piles:

It's so homey with interesting shapes that I hope we don't have to split the logs for fuel. Maybe I'll start a big fort or fence instead. Trees have such individualistic characters and some trees have awesome bark-skins.Look how they peel, crack and flake! When I was little we used those big bark pieces for writing and anything else our imaginations could conjure. 

It's wonderful being in a yard, and back among the trees.

*Amy

Yakutat

Two weeks ago I went to Yakutat for another work site visit, pop. about 800 and located on Monti & Yakutat Bays, off the Gulf of Alaska.  Seriously beautiful country and not far from Mount St. Elias and the Hubbard glacier.It also rains a lot here but managed to stay dry and even sunny while I visited an AmeriCorps Member. During my first morning we joined the 4th and 5th graders for their annual "seaweek" outing. I was amazed by the marine life, so different from vast parts of Alaska. For instance, the young ladies wore very organic earrings!
This is the kind of place where 98% of drivers (in vehicles, not four-wheelers) give you a full wave as they go by. I walked for long while one night to the boat harbor and two neighborhood dogs joined the entire way. I had no control over their leaving home for the journey, especially without knowing their names! They were good company for the bear reports made post-hibernation. During that walk I realized the 2% of drivers who do not make the friendly acknowledgment are probably out of town sports fishermen and hunters. 

My Member works with the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe and their offices are above the Elementary School, here:

The surprising element of the trip was reconnecting with an old Nome friend! During my early years in Nome I house-sat  at a wonderful house with fun and crazy pets. I mean, I spent mucho time in that home-away-from-home until the owners moved to Dillingham, taking their pets (my surrogate dogs & cats) with them. At the airport, and working out of the tribal building like me, was Julie! She's from MN too and we enjoyed seeing each other again--in Yakutat of all places!

For many years if I asked you to call where I was house-sitting, it was her home. While I started Yakking in Yakutat, and haven't kicked the cold bug since, it was awesome to spend time in another cool spot in this cool state!

*Amy

New Toys

Andy and I are very fortunate to have recently acquired two toys. Both items provide us recreation, but in different ways. I got an early birthday present...two wheels from REI! Weeee!I used to borrow or "lease" bikes for the summers up in Nome. It's exciting to own one again. Andy's new toy --without contest--is a bigger deal. This 558cc Grizzly has power steering, unlike the bike. A digital display show the vitals of the ATV.  The Grizzly will help us out around the house with chores and provide a bit of fun for the trails.Andy spent many a night researching which ATV would be the best purchase.  In the end the Yamaha was the right fit and it will hopefully be around for a long time.  

Andy's new BFF

As of yesterday Andy has a new best friend. He's Thomas and lives 4 miles up the road. Thomas is turning 5 years old next month. He belongs to Amy & Pat, friends of ours. When they came over for a bonfire last night Andy learned he was the first guest invited to the pirate birthday party. When asked who could go to his party he said, "Andy, my friend," and something about being best buds. Andy's smile and heart picked up a bit, I could tell. G3 is quick to throw a frisbee and such when he stops by their house, and those fun times have equaled up to a surprising friendship. Andy says he's the #1 Draft pick, but was unaware he reached top status. 

But he can't make the pirate birthday party because he'll be at training in Fairbanks. He now has a big question to ponder: What present to get the cool little guy?

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Lots happening around Ridgeview lately with amazing good weather--so much that the blog hasn't kept up. But we're collecting brush, burning brush, staining wood, reading in the sun, etc. Many more pictures to share and catch up on....

Enjoy the long, holiday weekend!

*Amy

Airplane Show

A couple of weeks back G2 and G4 made a stop in Anchorage on their way to the midwest.  Amy and I met up with them for an afternoon at the airshow.  There were plenty of airplanes to climb aboard and check out.  The size of the military planes is very impressive.  Of course there were some vintage AK planes on show as shown below.  Take note of the giant skis!

A 747 was also in the line-up.  This thing is flat out gigantic.  Amy made 

a very feeble attempt to look big next to one of the jet engines.  How does this hunk of metal fly?

Of course G2 and Simon couldn't help but check out the vendors.  Apparently Cole was satisfied with something inside vendor's hangar, I'm just not quite sure what.

Cole and Gavin successfully climbed aboard this plane without breaking anything.  Do we have future pilots in the making.  Probably, if their father's have any say in the matter.

It was a great afternoon at the airshow.  The weather was great and it was nice spending time with the family.  Thanks also to the Kinneen's for making an appearance and spending time with the Gorn's.

New Stuyahok

The end of April I went on my first AmeriCorps site visit for work by flying to New Stuyahok in Southwest AK. The village of about 500 people is along the beautiful Nushagak River, which was breaking free of its ice-hold while I was there. I had to fly through Dillingham and hop a couple-seater plane (just me & the pilot in a Piper Saratoga). 

The Member is part of my youth program and it was great to see her in her friendly home setting. 

I've slept in some interesting village locales over the years and this time I un-expectantly stumbled upon some brand-new vacant teacher housing. It was comfy and awesome. I was supposed to stay in the City building, where my Member is based. It's big, warm, but lacking hot water and shower facilities. This would have been the sink I utilized to wash my pearly whites and face. I think the sink is mostly used for making coffee.

Like I said, I visited during spring break-up and the changes were evident. For one, snow melt created a vast puddle/lake in front of the brand-new school. Some kids used the puddle for recreation, finding pieces of building insulation as rafts. I think you can see the scope of fun with the four-wheeler driving through their watery paradise.Funny enough, this is not the first time I've seen kids floating on insulation pieces-that was in St. Michael probably six years ago! Other amounts of water wreaked some havoc. Down by the Nushagak River, sled dog lots were floated with the high water level. One young musher had to relocate his more than 30 dogs to dry, safe land nearby. He showed me the set-up as he cooked sockeye salmon and rice for the dogs (lucky!).Local kids were obviously happy to play outside, I noticed as I watched a game of sorta baseball. This little guy wasn't interested in the game, just hopping over or wading through this stream of run-off.And this girl played on the outskirts of the ball game. With spring comes BIRDS! Geese, crane-hunting, etc. was big excitement and activity. Gun shots were heard frequently; many of the ones I heard came from a rooftop "down by the river," not far from the City building. This young guy was hiking over the tundra after school for his "shot" at birds. Common sight.I enjoyed a long walk on the airport road and through melting tundra with the Member and some of the teenage girls in her youth group (that's part of my program). It was fantastic to connect with those gals amidst wide-open undeveloped space as a chilly but fresh-feeling wind beat on us. A development debate for this region of Alaska is centered on the prospective gold-driven Pebble Mine. The general tone seen around New Stuy was anti-Pebble Mine. Even this pre-school student showcased that strong feeling (his hat)!The village's only church is Russian Orthodox. Typically, villages have one faith denomination from long ago exploration and claim-staking, or sometimes Churches actually "divied-up" villages, so there are pockets of Catholic communities, Covenant, Lutheran and so on. I had never seen an Orthodox rural Church. I didn't go inside, but was interested in the grave-markings.The nice thing about going back home from a village trip now is returning to Andy! Before I left New Stuyahok though, my Member's Gram gave me some local goodies to take along and eat. Agutaq and king salmon strips! 

I have more site visits coming up, including one to Yakutat!

*Amy

Staggering Sunrise

The advantage of leaving for work on a one-hour commute every day at 5:45-6am is that eventually the daylight schedule allows for the sunrise to happen as you're driving. That was the case earlier this week, and we had clear skies. Talk about colorful and dramatic scenery! 

Also during those days, I had to drive myself into Anchorage, so I took the camera. Despite Andy's raised eyebrow, I took aimless photos while driving.  Of course a sunrise is never captured the way it touches you, but here's some of the images I got...the first one is about 1-2 miles from our house when both Andy & I left for work at 6am Tuesday  (that's his cruiser).

There's a B&B on this dairy farm property, about 5 miles from the house. I'd like to book the entire B&B next summer for a few wedding guests.And now starting on the Parks Highway, headed for the office in Anchorage!Hope your spring mornings are full of sunrises!

*Amy