Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

We are fully recovered from last weekend’s trip up the Dalton. Steve has gone back to work and the truck has been washed both inside and out. We’re still reveling in the memories of that fabulous drive and look forward to doing it again sometime. I’d like to drive at least a portion of the road in the fall.  I can only imagine the vibrance of autumn colors across such a vast and beautiful landscape.

My last blog entry has drawn quite a bit of attention, and I want to thank all of you for taking the time to leave comments. It is always wonderful to see comments from my regular readers, and I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my new readers as well. I hope you’ll continue to visit.

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We have had so much rain lately! While it is much needed for our wildflowers, and most importantly to keep the risk of wildfires down, it’s not making too many of us very happy. With summer being so brief, I’d much prefer to have sunshine everyday. However, if it’s a choice between rain and smokey air - I’ll take the rain. I don’t melt.

The rain has caused our lawn to positively EXPLODE with growth. We are thrilled about this, but it is in need a mowing - badly! - and we can’t do it while everything’s wet. The fescue and other grasses in the seed mixture have come to life and the lawn is starting to look like a pasture.

My wildflower garden in the rear of the yard is also doing well, but I have no blooms yet. I wonder now if the seed was sown too thickly. I hope not. I would like to see color back there before autumn comes.

Steve’s zucchini and tomato plants are producing now. We have three zucchinis so far. His tomato plants have four tomatoes. I do hope there will be more. I’ve enjoyed watching the growth process, which seems to move in fast forward with the long daylight hours.

I took Sedona with me on errands Friday and, as always, we made a stop at Creamers Field for a walk.  The front field was aglow with yellow flowers and there were about a dozen sandhill cranes visiting. The cranes stop at Creamers in great numbers in both the spring and the fall. I was pleasantly surprised to see them on Friday.

I called Creamers Field Visitor Center to inquire about those gorgeous yellow flowers, and was told that the plants were safflower. Amazingly, the crop was planted many years ago and continues to come back every year (when not mowed down or plowed under). The contrast between the yellow flowers, the green grasses and trees, and the blue skies was stunning.  Add in the rusty brown color of the cranes - with their bright red crowns - and I couldn’t resist the photo op.

The fireweed is blooming at Creamers too. In mid to late summer fireweed begins blooming in the middle of the stalk, with each successive flower blooming just above the one before it. As the last flowers are blooming at the top of the stalk, the earliest blooms seed and turn to “cotton”. When the fireweed turns to cotton, Alaskans say there are about six weeks until winter begins. Needless to say, while I love fireweed and the brilliant magenta it sweeps across the landscape, I’m not very happy to see the blooms reach the top of the plant.

At creamers, the fireweed was growing in pockets, surrounded by tall grasses and wild iris.  There are still quite a few fireweed plants which haven’t started to bloom yet, but it won’t be long.  I also noticed that the bird vetch is making its appearance now. Vetch is considered by some to be a potentially detrimental species in areas where it is not native because it may crowd out native plants. I did a little reading online and discovered that bird vetch was introduced to Alaska in 1909 as a forage crop. Some are referring to it as Alaska Kudzu, because of the way it quickly moves over anything in its path - to include fences, trees and bushes. The species is very difficult to eradicate once it’s established.  You can see a photo and read more about it here.

Here are two more photos I took at Creamers Field:

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I slept in this morning, which was welcome. Generally I sleep much better in summer than I do in the winter. In the winter, I get a mild case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), which brings insomnia with it. In the summer, despite the light, my sleep patterns return to normal. That’s as long as I take myself up to bed at a decent hour. There are times I find myself engrossed in something online, or on television, and before I know it it’s midnight and I’m still up. Because it’s not dark, I lose track of time.  Last night was one of those nights. When I looked at the clock, I realized it was after midnight. By the time I actually fell asleep it was closer to 1am. I must have slept hard because I didn’t hear Steve come home from work early this morning.

When Steve’s on night shift, he has a morning routine when he gets home. First, he feeds the cat - who meets him at the door howling as if she’s dying of starvation. It’s the only attention he gets from Airborne, as she is truly my cat. I’m the one she cuddles with. I’m the one she sleeps with.  And I’m the one she allows to pet and scritch and love on.  But Steve is the provider of food, and for those few short moments in the morning, she focuses all of her yowling attention on him.  She even lets him pet her for a few minutes. But after that, he’s invisible to her. We both think it’s amusing that she ‘uses’ him in this way. Cats aren’t dumb, that’s for sure.

After he feeds the cat, he makes a fresh pot of coffee. He doesn’t drink coffee when he comes home, but he gets the pot going so that when I wake up - it’s made.  (Awwwww!) I love that he spoils me in this way. This morning, when I came downstairs, not only did I find the coffee made, but I also found that he had made a stop at the store and picked up a few donuts. While donuts are not the best thing for my hips, they do make me happy! They’re not a regular thing, so finding them is a sweet (pun intended) surprise.

But not only were there donuts and coffee waiting, but there was a vase of beautiful mixed flowers too! Shades of orange and purple and pink and green add a gorgeous pop of color to my kitchen. It’s not a special occasion, but I suspect they caught his eye and he knew I’d like them. And I do! I’m a lucky woman to be sharing my life with such a wonderful man.  (Thank you, sweetheart! xoxoxoxo )

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This upcoming week and weekend, there are several celebrations going on in Fairbanks. On June 30th from 4-7pm, there will be a 50th Statehood Celebration at Pioneer Park. Come out for free food, music, kid activities and giveaways. (I think it’s pretty neat that I share my birthday with Alaska (statehood), even though I won’t reach the big 50 until December)

On July 4th, there will also be a celebration at Pioneer Park, which will include food, family activities, a craft bazaar, entertainment, military colors ceremony, an Air Force fly-over, and much more. Here’s the schedule of events (pdf).

North Pole will also be celebrating the Fourth starting with a pancake breakfast, and including a bike decorating contest, a parade, and a bed race. You can read more about the celebration here.

Happy July!