WELCOME!

Stories... about living life in Alaska and building a house in the extraordinary Knik Glacier Valley of the Chugach Mountains.
...and maybe some Thoughts or Ideas about how we can make a difference in the world, even from the end of the road.

10/15/08

Photos from summer vacation


Steve in Glass Butte Oregon . there is so much obssidian laying around you can see it everywhere. be sure you have a spare tire if you go there because there are chunks of it in the roadbed


kelly canyon wall - Northern Arizona


steve and emma on a trail in kelly canyon


talk about incentive...having a four-yr-old ahead of me on the trail was great incentive!

clear creek and part of the canyon trail







my son-in-law fishing for trout in the creek

10/3/08

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I drove 6,000 miles. I had a car in Olalla, WA (across the sound from Seattle) and had to go get it. Steve and i picked it up and drove through Washington, Oregon and eastern Nevada to Arizona to visit our daughter and her family.

We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with them at a beautiful spot in the canyons of Northern Arizona (pics will be posted). Then up through Utah, a corner of Idaho and Oregon and back across Washington to Seattle.
Steve flew back for work and my mom and i drove around Washington and southern British Colombia for a few days, then i hugged Mombo in Vancouver and drove up the highway home by myself, the last 1,500 of those 6000 miles.

That was interesting.

Kept to myself more than I thought I would and I also didn't have much energy by that time so i didn't have a whole lot of gumption to do anything but head for home.
I traveled the Alaska Highway to Prince George and then I went west to the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar is 800 miles, mostly paved and pretty remote. There's one stretch for a couple hundred miles that has no services, phones, gas stations.
Indeed, there were only four gas stations open in the entire 800 miles and two of those were at each end. I saw six cars and eight semi-trucks...that's it (on the Cassiar)British Columbia is big and beautiful, and I live in Alaska so I know big and beautiful. Go there if you ever get the chance.

I drove with a herd of horses, first thing in the morning! No kidding. I stopped at a campground about 12:30 am and slept in the car till 5 am. I got up and peed in the woods, stretched, rubbed my eyes and got in the car - "I need coffee!" - and took off.
Dawn had not yet come so it was still sort of dark. I was pulling out onto the highway and a huge horse jumped out in front of me, then another, another, until i was surrounded by an entire herd, just trotting along. They weren't wild, I could hear their bells. it was crazy and a little bit scary, they were bigger than my car! Amazing, they were beautiful.

So i'm cruisin down the highway, still trippin over the horses, sun's up, I see a "Watch for Livestock" and chuckle since my day started with livestock...in a big way!
Anyway, I come around a curve and there in the middle of the road is a llama. No, I am not kidding. No shit it was a llama. That wasn't the animal I expected to see. Next was a herd of cows and then I didn't see anymore livestock...but I saw seven bears, three at one place and the other four all separately! two were cubs standing on their hind legs playing. It was sooooo cute. By the time I backed up to shoot them they were gone so alas...no pics. luckily i got some video of the first one or nobody would believe me...it still sounds like a bit of a fish story, eh?

Wrote our names in the rocks outside of Whitehorse. There's a stretch of highway where people have been adding names and it now stretches about thirty or forty miles. So I stopped and added my bit of stones.It was a big trip...

This Exciting Life

A Glimpse of Hope

While in the midst of multiple world crises - left and right..i actually have a renewed sense of hope. it is thanks to those 'out there' participating in the push for a more just and equal society...thanks for registering to vote and thanks for getting involved in our democratic process. a new wind is blowing, a new day is coming...

Life in Hunter Creek

It has been a busy summer! This is just a quick post to let everyone know I'm back online and will be posting more frequently... than every three months. I've many photos taken over the summer and will be posting them over the next week or so. The house is almost finished, well the outside. we're digging the septic system now, the water line and well are in, the power line is buried. what a trip this has been!

RANDOM THOUGHTS

"One changes from day to day...every few years one becomes a new being" George Sand