Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

We’ve had overcast skies and rain over the last week or so. Add in cooler temperatures, and it certainly doesn’t feel like summer. I’ve seen lows in the 40s when I get up in the morning, which I don’t recall seeing last year. Steve said his truck registered 36F on the way to work (4am) a couple of days ago. Fairbanks isn’t the only town in Alaska dealing with these unseasonable temps. Anchorage is having one of the coolest summers on record. Makes me happy to be living in the interior, where it’s a little warmer.

A few days ago, we had sunshine for a few hours, and we took advantage of it by weed-whacking the front yard. If not for the weeds and wildflowers, we wouldn’t have anything but dirt around our house. Every summer we plan to sow some grass, and then summer comes, and the camper and nice weather beckons, and we take to the road.  Last year, we lived with mostly dirt. This year, the plant life that was turned over when the house was built, seemed to be reborn. We’ve had bluebells, prickly rose, mustard ball, horsetail, fireweed, primrose, dwarf dogwood, and fleabane growing at some point this summer. I don’t mind a wild look, but when the stuff gets to be knee high, it’s time to cut it back. The front yard is done. The back yard….. well, maybe this weekend.

After tending to the yard, I replenished my bird feeders, suet cages, and even filled a flat dish up with sunflower seeds for Mr. Squirrel. With his own stash (which he has covered over with foliage and debris he’s gathered from the yard), he stays away from the bird feeders.

While filling the feeders, I heard the familiar sound of the chickadees, as they started flying in from every direction. They know the sound of seeds being poured.  At least a dozen perched themselves in the trees around me, low enough where I could have reached out and touched them, watching me with tilted heads and singing their beautiful song.  They were on the feeders immediately.  I love the chickadees. They are a joyful sight in the dead of winter, with their big round “baseball-sized” bodies and their insatiable appetites.

There were fresh moose tracks in my yard a few days ago. I know they were fresh because there was also a fresh deposit of moose nuggets accompanying them. The ground had been disturbed, and I could see where the moose had used her hoof to pull and push against the ground, digging a shallow hole. It was in an area beneath several large birch trees. I don’t know what she was after, but she did it in several places. I just wish she (and her calf, as there were smaller tracks too) would come back to visit when I’m actually looking out the back door.

Yesterday (Thursday), I spent the afternoon with my friend Abby. I’ve mentioned Abby in prior journal entries. She and her husband Bo are glass artists and create jewelry. Bo’s specialty is lampwork, and Abby’s is fused glass and assembling her husband’s gorgeous beads into bracelets, and necklaces, etc.  She also has her work at The Stash and sells pieces via her ETSY site too.

We decided to have lunch at Brewsters - a local restaurant that I’ve never had a bad experience at, but which had been getting less than favorable reviews in the local Newsminer online forums.  Brewsters wasn’t the only restaurant targeted for bad service, lackluster food, too-high prices, and uncleanliness. It seems only a few local eateries consistently got high marks from the locals.

Before we walked into Brewsters, I told Abby about the recent readers’ comments and how almost all restaurants in Fairbanks were targeted negatively. She has her own “Three strikes and you’re out” list (as do we): those restaurants which have disappointed us three times, and will never get another dime of our hard-earned money. We both hoped for an enjoyable lunch.

I can only assume that the manager and/or waitstaff has been following these online reviews, because we were greeted immediately upon entering the restaurant, shown to a table, and had no less than two waitresses - and the hostess - stop by our table to make sure our beverage glass was full and we didn’t need anything.  And service was definitely with a smile. I even checked the light fixture above our table and there wasn’t a cobweb to be found. Our meal was good too (burgers).  I hope the other restaurants do something to improve their image too.

After lunch, Abby and I ran a few errands together and then stopped by to see our friend Dawn, where she works at Michael’s Crafts.  She was waiting for her MIL to arrive, after getting stuck in Salt Lake City, courtesy of Delta Airlines. I had immediate flashbacks to July ‘06, when my SIL Diane got stuck in SLC for almost three full days during the July 4th week.  With only one flight a day from SLC to Fairbanks, if you miss your connection, or you’re bumped - you’re going to lose a day (or more) of your vacation.

Today, I met my friend Hannah for breakfast, and then we went to Chena Lakes to walk the bike path. The portion that we walked (which is the same portion I walked with Nicole last week), is just short of 4 miles roundtrip.  I was a little stiff afterwards, but it was a good feeling.

I took Sedona out for a walk in the yard, and came across a golden leaf laying on the forest floor. It really stood out against the dark soil, and the green leaves surrounding it. It reminded me that autumn will be upon us in only a few weeks.

A walk further into the woods brought me to a few clumps of Goldenrod:

After our walk, I was busy doing a few house chores, when both the cat and the dog ran to the back door (it was open and fresh air was coming in through the screen). They both looked in the same direction - towards the woods - with their ears turned forward. I looked but didn’t see anything. They stayed there for a good five minutes. I had my camera nearby, so I took a photo. I wonder if Ms. Moose was out there somewhere?

I want to publicly give kudos to my youngest son Brandon, who has decided to further his education and seek a degree in business management.  Brandon was a manager at CompUSA in Madison, but a few months ago, they went out of business and laid everyone off.  After talking about it with his wife, Brandon made a decision to enroll in college (distance learning via online classes) and take advantage of his GI Bill benefits.

He just posted in his MySpace blog that he scored A’s on both of the final projects he recently turned in. I am so very proud of him and I am so pleased that he has decided to go back to school.

Brandon had a very hard time in school. He wasn’t very motivated, and preferred socialization over education. He barely got his diploma. There were never any doubts that he was a bright kid, but he didn’t realize the importance of an education and didn’t apply himself.  I hoped that someday he’d have the desire to return to school and that time has come. Yay Brandon!!!  Keep up the good work!

I was going through some things in my china cabinet tonight - dusting and arranging - when I came upon a jar that Steve brought home from Iraq after his deployment in 05-06.  He got the jar from a Turkish merchant who was permitted to set up shop on the FOB (military base). This merchant sold jewelry, rugs, fine clothing (which was custom-made), and various other trinkets, to American soldiers and contractors.

The jar is made of meerschaum - a soft white mineral found primarily in Turkey.  Meerschaum’s chief use is for smoking pipes and cigarette holders, but this man had a variety of vessels and boxes carved from the stuff, in addition to pipes.  My jar has a carved lid and is about 8″ tall.

A close-up of the lid:

Another beautiful item that Steve came home with, is an oil painting from an Iraqi artist doing his best to support his family.  The painting is on canvas, which was stretched around a frame, but Steve had to remove the painting from the frame, roll it, and place it in a map tube, to bring it home with him.  I love the colors in it, and would love to know if it’s a real location in Iraq, or just a creative work of art. For the time being, it’s tacked up on the wall in our walk-in-closet, until we can stretch it over another frame and decide where we want to display it. It’s about 20×30 in size. It will probably end up on display in our home office, where Steve keeps most of his military memorabilia.

Steve met quite a few very nice Iraqi and Turkish men, who enjoyed talking about their families and expressed just how much they missed them. Steve certainly understood that sentiment.

In a few months, our local Stryker Brigade will be returning to the Middle East on another year-long deployment. It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since I said goodbye to my husband and began a long separation.  While we’re relieved that Steve’s army career is over, and we’re not facing another deployment, we continue to keep all our military families in our prayers, and we hope for an end to this war.