Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Winter is coming - and it’s coming soon. With recent morning temps well below freezing, it’s been a mad rush for us (and many others) to complete all the chores that need to be done before the snow flies.

This morning I woke to 15F. The only leaves left on the trees are the few that haven’t let go yet. Other than that, the trees are bare. It’s a little sad to say goodbye to another spring/summer/fall and prepare for winter again.

A SHED FOR STEVE

The one major project that Steve wanted completed before the snow flies, is a new storage shed.  We both did a lot of research on sheds and the options available. First, we checked out the shed kits available through Home Depot and Lowes. Priced at about $1100 (for the size we wanted), we’d have to build it ourselves. The kits also didn’t come with floor lumber, roof shingles, or a ramp for ease of loading equipment, etc.

While we’re not inept at construction projects, Steve and I do not work well together when it comes to things like this. We both have strong personalities, and our way is the best way. *grin*  Also, with Steve’s work schedule, there really wasn’t going to be much time to tackle such an extensive project.  But another deciding factor against purchasing a build-it-yourself shed kit, was the poor quality of lumber included in most of the kits we saw.

So, despite the added cost, we decided to hire Great Northern Sheds to build a shed for us. We are quite pleased with the work they did, the quality of the lumber they used, their attention to detail, and their swiftness in building the structure.  The shed was up in a day and a half.

I took a scrap piece of house siding to Home Depot to match the paint for the shed to the house.  I decided to try the new Behr Primer & Paint in one. It’s pricier than buying paint and primer separately, but saved me the priming step - which I was quite thankful for. The shed was up by 11am on the second day, and I had roller in hand immediately. By the time Steve got home from work, all that was left to paint was some of the higher trim. He was so surprised to see how much I had done!

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What an amazing day in the park we had! The weather was absolutely perfect, and Mt McKinley (Denali) was out from top to bottom all day long!

I set the alarm for 3:30am, so that I could take my time getting ready, enjoy my coffee, and read the paper. I left the house a little after 5am, and picked up Sherry and daughters.  We stopped at Sunrise Bagel for breakfast sandwiches and were heading down the highway by 6am.

I haven’t been out driving in the dark since last spring. I try to do all of my running around during the daylight hours, as I have a hard time at night with being blinded by bright headlights. I especially don’t like those really bright LED/NEON type headlights, as they truly hurt my eyes. Driving at night also keeps me on edge because I’m worried about hitting a moose. While I’ve missed the stars, sunrises, sunsets, and the aurora, I’m not looking forward to the long dark days ahead.

Driving down the Parks Hwy, I watched the sky turn pink in my rear view mirror. There was quite a bit of fog in the valley, and the Alaska Range was barely visible on the horizon. We had our fingers crossed for a good day in the park, but even a bad weather day in the park is better than no day in the park.

As the sun came up, and the sky brightened, we could see that the sky was absolutely cloudless. And when we were south of Nenana, we saw Denali on the horizon.

There were about a dozen people ahead of us in line at the Wilderness Access Center. You have to take your winning letter there to get the necessary placard for your windshield as well as pay the entrance fee and permit fee. With Sherry’s Denali Park Pass, the $20 entrance fee was waived, so we only had to pay the $25 permit fee.

Only a few miles into the park, there’s a pull-out where you can view Denali when she’s out. And there she was, in all her glory! I was so excited!

As we approached the Savage River area, we could see a thick fog hovering not only over the river, but blowing through the mountain passes and valleys. It was really thick and tall, and I worried that it would detract from our drive.  Fortunately, as we got closer, we could see the fog was only in that particular area, and things looked clearer on the other side of the river.

Only about a half mile from Savage River, the fog crossed the road and thickened. As we entered it, visibility was greatly reduced and we were enveloped in a cool, bluish gray mist. The faint silhouette of the surrounding mountains would come in and out of view as the mist moved through the valley. The grasses and small bushes on the hills in the area were cloaked in hoarfrost. It was magical!

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Late last night, I was getting ready to power down my laptop and glanced one last time at my Facebook page. It was full of aurora alerts from my local friends. So of course, I ran out into the front yard and looked to the skies. A wide green band stretched overhead.

My camera was not set up for an aurora shoot. I had to swap out my lens for my wide angle. While I would love to have all Canon lenses, I did purchase a 20mm Sigma f/1.8 for aurora photos, as it was much more affordable than a Canon equivalent. It does a great job, and I’m quite happy with it. However, trying to get a good focus when it’s pitch dark, can be difficult - if not impossible.  Because of this, I lock in my focus during the day, using the trees as foreground, since they’re always in my photos when I shoot from my driveway or yard. Unfortunately, my focus wasn’t locked in, so I had a few minutes of fudging with the focusing ring before I achieved acceptable shots.  The Live View feature is a godsend, as it allowed me to zoom in on the shadowy trees to dial in some sharpness.

The green bands danced above, undulating and shimmering in the night sky. At times, they were fringed with purple. I kept snapping photos, moving my tripod throughout the yard - first in the front, then on the road, then in the back and side yards. I wish I would have put on my long lens to get a closer photograph of Jupiter, which is the brightest star in the night sky right now. Perhaps tonight if we have clear skies.

Here are a few photos from our first light show of the season:

You can see a satellite trail in this photo:

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