Devil’s Club is a common wild plant in Alaska that’s large & covered in hidden sharp thorns, growing everywhere from remote forests to even well-groomed Anchorage city trails. Just because you’re “in town” doesn’t mean you won’t run into devil’s club. It’s smart to stay on the trails, particularly if you’re not confident spotting it. If you’re visiting, most locals are friendly & willing to help keep you safe if you have specific questions. But if you want to learn how to identify it, here’s a good tutorial. How to Identify Devil’s Club: What to Watch For This tall, extremely thorny ..read more

Here’s a delicious fall-time spin on classic blueberry muffins. If you’re a solo adult who likes good food, this recipe is for you. Or if you’ve got extra kitchen “helpers” around (read: kids who need entertainment), turn baking these Halloween muffins into a fun toddler snacktivity. Pumpkin BOO-berry Muffin Recipe Ingredients: 2 boxes Jiffy brand blueberry muffin mix 2 eggs 1 cup plain pumpkin 1/3 cup milk 1/2 tsp cinnamon Directions: Mix everything together. Spoon into a 12-muffin pan. Bake 15 minutes @ 400F. Toddler Halloween “Snacktivity”? This is a simple recipe that could also be a fun ..read more

Mint is a reasonably cold-hardy perennial, meaning it grows back every year under the right conditions. Just like there are many different kinds of tomatoes (cherry, beefsteak, roma, etc.), there are plenty different varieties of mint, too. Here’s an overview comparison of three different kinds of mints that grow well for me in Anchorage, Alaska: spearmint, apple mint & chocolate mint. I’ve heard mixed feedback on whether mint acts as an annual or perennial in Anchorage, Alaska.  In other climates, mint grows so well it’s comparable to a wild weed that’s so successful it can be tough ..read more

Do chickens still lay eggs in the winter? That’s a common question many curious poultry lovers ask me. The answer? It depends. Egg laying chickens will naturally taper off and cease egg production in winter months, assuming you live somewhere that gets darker in winter months than summer. In Alaska, where our winter months might only have a handful of daylight hours, many chickens stop laying eggs altogether – unless you supplement their light.  If you want to continue collecting eggs all winter long, you’ll need to add some sort of lighting in your bird’s coop to keep them awake. It doe ..read more

2019 was our third season keeping honeybees, but only our first year actually getting to harvest honey. We borrowed a 3-frame manual honey extractor from a friend. There are a few styles of honey frame extractors, but most are designed to spin uncapped frames very quickly, using the momentum/force of the spin to pull honey from each little comb cell. Depending on how much you want to spend, certain extractors hold more or fewer frames, and some extractors are electric instead of a hand crank, like the one photographed below. Beehives are filled with ‘frames’, which are exactly what they sound ..read more

In late July, we stumbled upon a seasonal clearance sale for edible perennial plants (meaning plants that come back every year). We walked into the hardware store needing a part for a miscellaneous house project, and we walked out purchasing 2 apple trees, 1 sour cherry tree, 4 blueberry bushes, 8 strawberry plants & 5 haskap berry bushes. Honestly, we weren’t sure exactly where they would all go. But it was a great deal, all of the fruit trees were Alaska winter hardy varieties, & we were confident we could find space in our Anchorage front yard. We called it a late birthday present ..read more

Baking a homemade pie in your own kitchen doesn’t have to be complicated. This fun recipe for rhubarb strawberry raspberry jam pie turns out great with minimal effort. Make your own crust or use a store bought – it’s completely up to you. Fresh vs. frozen fruit ingredients is also completely optional. (Just make sure to thaw everything first if you choose to use frozen.) Rhubarb Strawberry Raspberry Jam Pie Recipe Pie Filling Ingredients: 1 cup rhubarb 2 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries in sugar syrup 1 cup raspberry jam 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch Recipe Yield ..read more

After running out of dried birch leaves this winter, I decided to try a new kind of chicken coop bedding: ground hemp. I bought the dried hemp from a local livestock feed store that also sold wood chips and straw as chicken coop bedding options. I honestly had no idea what to expect, so I went into it with zero expectations. After using this new hemp bedding for a few weeks, I can safely say that love it – and so do the chickens. I posted a YouTube video review, too, here. What is hemp chicken coop bedding like? Hemp chicken coop bedding is completely dry, ground bits of plant material. It was ..read more

Winters in Alaska are long, cold & dark. At the end of December, most Alaskans only see 5-6 hours of sun each day. By March, the daylight hours have made significant enough gains for Alaskans to start looking forward to summer months in the land of the midnight sun. In Alaska, one of the surest signs that spring has officially sprung is the sight of rhubarb’s annual crowning from the barely-thawed earth. As soon as the snow has melted, still weeks before Alaska’s safe garden planting date, spring rhubarb begins to emerge. Rhubarb is an edible perennial plant that grows extremely well thro ..read more

I recently started fostering a litter of 5-week old, husky mix puppies. When I picked them up from the cargo plane, there was a note taped to the kennel, along with a small box of liquid antibiotics.  The note said the ‘blonde boy’ needs .5ml of antibiotics, twice a day. Once I got the puppies home, it was antibiotics time. I’ve had pets all my life. With household pets comes the responsibility of animal healthcare. I have vivid childhood memories of my mom’s cats needing to take pill-form medication. The slim plastic apparatus invented to force feed a cat a small, hard pill was both tra ..read more