Happy New Year!

2013 in Homer begins with a ban on plastic bags. It's a trend that over 50 communities across the US have taken on. Bravo. Produce bags, trash bags, and a few other exceptions are excluded from the ban. I kind of feel like they should just go whole hog, but then again I am glad trash bags are still okay since trash pick up doesn't exist here. We drive our trash to the dump and sort our recyclables when we get there. It's an onerous task, but at least we get to spend time with a national symbol, the bald eagle. Why on earth we would put a trash bird on our national seal and more is beyond me. I am also sorry that James is deprived of trash day, a beloved day in any toddler household. Don't all little boys get fired up to see the truck come down the street?

Photos taken at the dump with my phone.

We had a very white Christmas when it started snowing December 23rd and didn't stop until we had over two feet by Christmas Day.

Christmas morning sunrise.

Immediately after Kate opened it, James yelled, "Kate you'll shoot your eye out!" Proud moment.

 

This is what Christmas Day should look like (unless of course you have the opportunity to go to Hawaii).

 

Before we left Connecticut, Brian sold the sailboat (boo) and bought 4-wheelers (boo), but one does have a snow plow on the front.

I'll admit it was a little fun to drive, but in the end it seems more complicated than it should be, so we are now the proud owner of a snowblower as well. Maybe we can off load some of the gear in the summer.

Good thing the kids played in the snow all day because it started raining the day after Christmas and it didn't seem to stop for weeks. They were sad to see all their snow creations shrink everyday from more rain.

Kate in her igloo and James trying out snow shoes.

It was gray skies, sloppy puddles, wet basements, and buckling roads for the next couple weeks. I am choosing not to focus on this because the blog is supposed to be all positive and adventure adventure. I am, however, dabbling in light therapy to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder. Not sure if I need it, but it seems wise to be proactive aobut it. The Mayo clinic tells me,

The light from a light box mimics outdoor light. This is thought to cause a chemical

change in the brain that lifts your mood and eases other symptoms of seasonal

affective disorder. Light therapy can also be used to help adjust daily sleep cycles,

which may play a role in mood.

If I am not plowing snow and soaking up fake sun, I am splitting wood. Pretty soon I'll buy a red and black plaid shirt and you won't be able to tell me apart from Dick Proenneke. That's baloney, but it's my blog and if I want it to sound like I'm roughing it with my running hot water, proximity to Safeway, and gas furnace to back up the wood stove then I will.

Before leaving for California, Hickory was sent out to assist Shell's oil rig the Kulluk as it broke free from its tug in hurricane conditions. Three tugs attempted to tow within the days that followed, all with the same result. Brian's account of the weather was horrifying to say the least. All crew members were air lifted off by the Coast Guard before the rig ran aground. The rig has recently been pulled off the rocks and towed to Kodiak following the storms.

I realize I may not have mentioned that our dog Jessie gets underway with Brian. She is a hunting dog and loves having a job or at least loves being at Brian's side with the prospect of having a job.

Jessie supervises the buoy deck.

Not only does Jessie get excited to get onboard, but Brian loves the company. The only downside is trying to get her to pee and poop outside in 20-30 foot seas.

So the winter vacation was a bit rainy and blah, but we did make little trek to Nikiski, a small town on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. They have a large community recreation center with pool and waterslide that we wanted to check out. It seemed strange that such a small town would have this until we passed the Conoco-Philips plant on the way in. Surely the town required the company to invest in the community. It was a little over two hours for us, but we traveled with friends and the kids loved the warm indoor pool on a snowy day. There were at least 4 roadside moose sitings along the way. I still love it. These guys are just laying in the snow.

Once the kids were back in school and in a routine, I went for my first Nordic ski since our class ended in December. It was the first blue sky in weeks. After dropping our sons off at preschool, a friend and I skiied a 5k loop. A huge snowshoe hare bounded across the trail as we started off. There were quite a few ups and downs making for great fun, exercise, and views of the rising sun.

Skiing the Homstead Trail

We had so much fun skiing that we decided, against all better judgement, to take the kids on a night ski a few days later. The ski club lit a 2.7km trail with several hundred tiki torches. It was mid 30s and no wind, so we couldn't ask for better weather, but Friday evening often equals tired children. None of the kids had been Nordic skiing, but we promised them hot chocolate at the end and cool experience along the way.

We all donned head lamps and set out. I cannot tell you how stupid this idea was as the trail went down hill to start. Once you got to the bottom you were pretty much committed to doing the loop even if it was past bedtime.

Kate and James were not only troopers, but I would venture to say heros. Kate took to it immediately. She loved the downhilll parts and helped her friend overcome some fears. James just plodded along talking about hot chocolate and cheering on Team K to the finish line. I was amazed. James walked the uphill at the end and of course took a few breaks to lie in the snow, but it was awesome. He didn't even mind when we finished and all the hot chocolate was gone. There was, however, hot Tang (weird). The kids put snow in it to make snow cones because we were all actually quite hot from the work out. Both kids fell asleep on the drive home. I carried them to their beds and dropped them on their pillows. It was the easiest bedtime routine I've had in months.

I'll end with a photo of a moose peaking in our neighbor's window. It's not very clear, but you can see his legs and how close he is to the house. This was taken from my car window on the way to the Tiki Ski.

 

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Winter is Upon Us

It's the Winter Soltice today and the first day of winter break for the kids. We haven't started our chanting or drumming yet, but I'm sure we'll have time to fit it in and probably a few venues to choose from around here. Sunrise is 10:05am this morning and sunset is 4:04pm. As I am typing this, it is 9:11am and the mountains are illuminated from behind and the sky is a fabulous dark blue. I'm not keeping up with the blog as much as I had hoped, but I've decided getting it down is more important than formatting and looking for just the right photo etc. Here goes the report for the last six weeks or so...

November started off with the Homer Ski Swap. This was a much talked about event and supposedly a great way to pick up used ski gear. We make a mental note of the kids' shoe sizes and head in to the Homer High School common area. The first table was the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club, so we sign ourselves up for a family membership and Kate for the Junior Ski Club lessons that begin in January. Lessons come with skis, so now we just need to pick up boots and poles for her. This is great....and then overwhelming. I am stopping at various tables and looking for ladies size 9 ski boots etc. I am always met with the same question:

"Well, what kind of skiing do you do?"

"I want to learn to cross-country ski." (Always referred to as Nordic skiing. I've got it now.)

"Do you skate ski or classic ski?"

"I don't know, but I wear a size 9."

"Well do you want to tour or back country?

"Size 9?"

Perhaps I should just rent from the shop in town until I get a clue.

We buy cookies from the bake sale table and high tail it of there with no more knowledge than when we entered. Kate is beaming with skis on her shoulder and James is in tears because he doesn't have skis and is not in the Ski Club.

Things look up on the ski front when we decide to go to Anchorage for Thanksgiving. We make the trip in part because Brian is here, we have four days, and the roads are clear, but also because we have no other Thanksgiving plans. Cooking the full turkey dinner with bells and whistles for 4 doesn't seem like fun, especially knowing that 2 of the 4 of us will only eat cranberry sauce and pie. There is not much snow to speak of in Anchorage, but enough for a few downhill slopes to be open. I'm not sure why I am determined that our kids learn to ski, but I feel it's important. Maybe it's because I didn't learn until I was in college. My skills are pretty much non-existent and I've only been a few times, but somehow I have decided it's something we can do together as a family our whole lives. I have two college friends who have been skiing since they were little and have been taking ski trips with their dads ever since (shout out to Dr Kate & Judge Lane and Adrian & Norman (I know it's Dr Sas (no disrespect)). You guys have inspired me. It's such a cool thing to do together...family, travel, sport, and the great outdoors!

Driving the Sterling Hwy to Anchorage with a near full moon (above).

The sun is setting as we reach Turnagain Arm just outside the city (below). This is taken from the car window and the sky really does turn that incredible blue.

The dashboard thermometer registered 10 degrees when we rolled in to town at 5pm, and there was a line outside Sears. They still had five hours to go waiting outside for their... TVs? Washer/Dryer sets? That's commitment. We would have arrived earlier if we did not stay until the bitter end of the Lions's Thanksgiving loss. C'mon guys...you were so close to winning AGAIN!


Anchorage also has Target, Play-It-Again Sports, and every other chain store we might "need" to visit before Christmas. I've never been out shopping for Black Friday. I guess I lack the drive to navigate the crowds and I hate getting up early. I do, however, think that Black Friday shoppers in Alaska are much more devoted than their counterparts in the lower 48.

Tangent: People here refer to the lower 48 as if it's one state. I do this often when I talk about New England, but somehow that seems legit to me. If someone says they are heading to the lower 48 for the holidays that leaves a great deal ambiguity as to where they are going.

We stayed at the joint Army/Airforce base in Anchorage. When there is space available, we can stay in their furnished apartments for a very reasonable price. Having a bedroom or two where we can put the kids to bed early and a kitchen makes for better sleeping than the four of us in a standard hotel room. We can shop at the Commissary on base and load up on groceries and drug store supplies. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant/cafeteria on base. Unfortunately, the stuffing and pumpkin pie ran out just before we arrived. Those are the only items I care about, so in the end I probably will make a Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us at a later date.

We spent the next couple of days wearing out the kids and shopping for winter gear like used skis and snow shoes. Kate and James both took a downhill ski lesson. Kate spend 1/2 hour on the bunny hill and then was ready to head up on the lift. We could hear James badgering his instructor to take him on the big swing with Kate. Brian and I almost fell over 15 minutes later when the instructor said he was ready to go up (or he just lost an arugment with a 3 year old). But he went up and came back down and loved it. Kate wanted more, so Brian rented some gear and skied a couple more hours with her.

The kids spent the next day jumping their little hearts out at Bouncin Bears while Brian and I took turns shopping. On our next trip to Anchorage we will drive directly here so the kids can jump after the car ride. We did pay them $1 and a piece of chocolate for every hour of good car behavior on the trip. I don't care how ridiculous it sounds, I'm not above good old fashioned bribery for my sanity in the car. I often feel like the Griswold's on any road trip except Kate and James argue more than Audrey and Russ.

Even Brian and I got in some jumping and sliding.

The morning before we left, we hit a sports bar in town to have breakfast and watch the Michigan v. Ohio State game. We were pleased to walk in to a bar full of Michigan alumni complete with inflatable wolverine and maze and blue decorations everywhere.

With a $10 in singles, a bag of Hersey kisses, a DVD player, and the iPad, the drive home went well. The best part was running into a mess of Dall sheep hanging out in the rocky, mountains of Turnagain Arm driving out of Anchorage. Why do I never have my good camera? Like all photos in this post, these were taken with my phone.

I stuck my face in here as proof that I'm not stealing these photos from the interweb. This was a band of male sheep (we saw at least 8).

We also saw a few moose on the side of the road as we got closer to homer. This is only my second moose sighting so still exciting.

The sun was setting in Cook Inlet as we drove down the Kenai Peninsula. This is Mount Redoubt.

 

A dusting of snow and a bit of rain mixed with cold temperatures equals a town full of ice. Our driveway is a sheet of ice. Now I know why everyone here was blathering about their studded tires as soon as the first snow hit in October. Thankfully, I followed suit and bought studded tires for my car. I am happy to report the Subaru is driving well on the ice. My new boots appear to have a lot of tread, but it must be purely fashion tread. I looked like Benny Hill in the parking lot of James's preschool trying to get from one side of the car to the other. I let myself slide to the back of the car, but could not take a single step up the very mild incline to get around to the other side. Finally, I lunged for the bumper and held on the the underside of the car, scooting around like a 3 year old does on the edge of a pool.

Future embarassing and potentially hazardous incidents have been mitigated with a pair of ice cleats that stretch overy my shoes. I keep them in the door of my car. It's no surprise that Kate thinks the ice is cool. She has been putting on her skates after school and skating around the driveway.

Not only is Homer filled with interesting people, but extremely friendly people. As I've said before this is our ninth move and I do think it is a bit easier to meet people with school aged children, but still the peope here stand out as genuinely friendly. A girl I met one time at the gym invited us to her Christmas party where Santa would be arriving by helicopter to hand out presents to all the kids. She lives "up the hill," about 4-5 miles up and outside of town. There are breathtaking views and abundant snow up there for anyone willing to brave the drive throughout the winter. The dusting and rain that turned our driveway to into a skate pond left just enough snow up the hill for the kids to sled at the party while waiting for Santa to circle around. The helo landed on their hot tub deck and Santa came inside to pass out toys. It was the coolest.

December was also the start of our classic ski lessons. Classic Nordic = what anyone else would call cross country. There are over 75 miles of groomed Nordic ski trails in Homer. The town is crazy about skiing. The Women's Nordic Club has organized workouts twice a day six times a week. There are organized night ski outings with tiki torches, races, and more. The ski community is also very inviting. There are many highly competitive racers, but they still invite us to ski and seem to take pride in the number of people who use the trails. Our first lesson was at a resevoir since there was not enough snow for any of the trails. Although well frozen, warmer temperatures early in the week made the frozen water groan and echo. At first, I thought the ice fisherman across the way had bass thumping music coming from their tent. It was a little eerie. Despite cold toes (toe warmers are a must for me in the future) the lesson was great. Our instructor was a retired Humanities Professor and local artist.

We ran into Atz Kilcher again skiing on the resevoir. He stopped to chat with our group and again I failed to get a photo. The Last Frontier show is a bit overly dramatic and staged, but I have to admit I still love watching it.

Each week, we would ski a new spot. Week two was a small loop (3 kilometers) at the top of the hill with some breathtaking views of Kachemak Bay. There were more downhills than I would have thought and it was a lot of fun.

Week three we tried skiing in groomed tracks. This felt a lot more like the Nordic Track at the gym. There was a 2-3 kilometer, relatively flat loop with tracks (used by our class) and also a very technical course with lots of valleys. It is the home course is used by the high school Nordic team. Although my skill level is not there yet it is kind of my goal now. I have no idea how to get up such a steep hill on skis...yet. Hopefully I'll be able to try it out at some point. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from either week two or three because it was unseasonable cold (or at least I hope it was), and it's quite difficult to get your mittens and poles off to get the camera out.

We returned to the resevoir later to cut down a tree for Christmas. Alaska opens up most state forests for tree cutting (one per family, cut by hand) between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most of the evergreens here are tall and very skinny.

 

I thought it would be cool to have a sparse, Charlie Brown-esque tree, but Brian was determined to find a full one, and he did.

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Nice looking tree! We are ready for the holiday to begin!

 

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Hickory Returns

Daddy's back...back again. Daddy's back...tell a friend. Daddy's back Daddy's back do do doot.

We've been singing this song for years and must thank Eminem for the Slim Shady tune that we love so much. Hickory pulled into home port October 24. They were out for 7 weeks this summer, back for 3 weeks and then out for 8 more. It goes without saying that we are glad the ship is back.

Both the kids were in school when the ship pulled in, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and started snapping pictures. It was just after 9am and the sun was still rising. The late sunrise has turned out to be an unanticipated bonus for me as I am not an early riser. I get the watch the sun rise and set behind the mountains everyday. It never gets old.

I realize the days are getting shorter, but sunrise just after 9am and sunset at 6:30pm is not so bad. So, the ship spun around and tied up at the end of the Homer spit. The spit is a very thin, 5 mile strip of land that juts out into Katchemak Bay. The Homer boat harbor is at the end of the spit along with all the deep water docks.

Docked behind Hickory is the oil rig Endeavor. It arrived in Homer in mid-September for a two week stay, but they are still here updating structural components, trying to secure permits to drill in Cook Inlet, and generally making Homer residents hot and bothered. Understandably, drilling for oil is heavily debated around here.

Three days after the Hickory pulled in, my parents arrived. My dad should get some special award for coming to Alaska twice in a three month time span. Not sure if it's the grand kids or the fish that's got him hooked.

Brian's parents spent a half day charter fishing during their visit in September and they packed our freezer with halibut for the winter. It's so tasty and I feel lucky to be in the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World because I don't particularly care for salmon. I keep trying it in all its forms though. Several neighbors and new friends have given us smoked, canned salmon as a welcome gift. One jar was canned with jalapenos and it was my favorite thus far, excepting the salmon bagel sandwich from the Farmers Market (unbelievably delicious).

So my parents we lucky enough to be here for Kenai Peninsula's famous Haunted Hickory. Brian's ship has been turning itself into a haunted house for the community for well over 10 years. I walked through with a group that drove 2 hours to see it. The ship collects canned goods in exchange for a tour and stocks the local food pantry for the winter. This year, there were over 700 people who came through and 2200 lbs of food collected. Kate has been talking haunted hickory for weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the PG tour given during the first hour for kids. James not so much. He bailed after a few minutes. It's near impossible to take photos in a black room with a strobe light, so I tried to take a picture of the pier as people started to line up and the crew was lighting 55 gallon drums to warm and light up the pier.

The sunset was a bit ominous looking that night as well. It was very cloudly so the sky was dark except this small space on the water where the sunset was burning through. This photo was taken with my phone so I couldn't capture the outline of the mountains that we could see in the orange sky.

Halloween was the next day and thankfully the neighbor's tipped us off that our neighborhood is THE place to trick or treat. We had somewhere between 200 and 300 trick or treaters. It was very fun and also a bit hazardous as the streets were crowded with kids and cars as most everyone drove from rural areas.

Carving pumpkins with Grandma

Trick or treating in the snow

This month James has also started doing a half day a week at Yurt Preschool. A yurt is a wooden platform round tent. There is usually a window a the top to let in light and let out smoke from the wood stove. They are pretty popular in Alaska as temporary or permanent dwellings.

This yurt is loosely connected to a woman's house and is used for tumbling classes and preschool. I think it will be a perfect compliment to James's other preschool. One is overly religious and academic for a 3 year old while the other promises to be non-academic, has a trapeze, and marimbas (of course).

The inside of the yurt is crazy good times. James's new schedule also allows me to get to a gym class at least once a week. Once a week is better than nothing.

This month has also been good for celebrity sitings. We saw Atz Kilcher from Alaska: The Last Frontier at the coffee shop. Much to my dismay he did not ride his horse into town and barter for his coffee. For all its ridiculousness, I will continue to watch the show though. Brian and I went also to the world premier of The Alaska Sessions, a local surfing documentary.

We've always enjoyed surf films, but it was even more fun in a packed theatre where the film maker and the cast of characters are all locals. The surf around here is surprisingly good (if you have a very thick wet suit). We haven't tried it yet, but I feel like I might give it a go sometime within the 3 years we are here. I can pretty much guarantee Brian will do it. Cast members included that guy from the Farmers Market that we like to talk to and buy stuff from and a girl from my gym class. Here is a brief description of the film and a link for clips and photos.

Mr. McCune sells his house and buys and old fishing boat to embark on an epic surf

adventure. He and his eclectic crew travel up the isolated Alaskan coastline in the

dead of winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and these guys aren’t exactly pro-surfers,

but in the words of one crew-member, “when your stoke is hot, you can endure a lot.”

To see more check out www.alaskasessions.com.

 

We have also started watching a show called Buying Alaska, essentially House Hunters in Alaska. Most of the house searches have taken place in and around Homer. One of the home buyers checked my parents luggage on their outbound flight to Anchorage yesterday and we bought our lawn mower from a featured home. I find the "celebrity" sitings are much more interesting here than they were living outside of LA. Small town for sure.

 

 

 

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