Engagement with nature is the same as with people. It requires slowing down and paying attention to details. It isn’t driving past and enjoying the view. It isn’t jogging through a park while chatting with a friend or listening to music. Engagement means walking, looking, pausing, noticing, analyzing, comparing, and appreciating. In this regard, one of my favorite pastimes in the remote part of Alaska where we live, is to identify and interpret the scat and tracks of the wild animals that live here. In winter, the tracks are clear for several days in the snow, but the warm excrement slips be ..read more

I previously posted my article to www.survivalblog.com.  I highly recommend this website for people interested in practical, "how-to" articles for self-reliance.   Throughout the country, kind people volunteer their time and talents to help others harmed by natural or personal disasters. Photo courtesy of vecteezy.com We can only help others if we are first prepared to take care of ourselves and our families. Below are real situations that have happened to us, or people that we or our friends and relatives know. What would you do?  I hope that these real situations ..read more

  In August, my dad died.  I spent a few hours processing the news, but all I felt was an emotional maelstrom and a physical need to go outside and DO something. So I harvested saskatoon berries.  Berry picking has always been a calming and meditative activity for me.  It engenders feelings of gratitude at the reliable plenty of a summer’s harvest.    Today though, my mind was whirling with images of my dad and my siblings as I plucked the fruit.  In the process, the berries soothed my knot of grief. I remembered when I planted these six, spindly little seedl ..read more

  Some people find autumn and winter depressing and prefer spring and summer.  I am not among that group.  To me, the brevity of a gorgeous, Alaskan fall is a very visible message to appreciate each day, each morning, each rapidly changing view.  Part of the reason is psychological: Because THIS WILL NOT LAST, so enjoy it.  Part of the reason is practical: the changes of fall and winter contribute to the fecundity of spring and summer. Sometimes, we need to be hit on the head with important reminders like this.  Autumn does both.  It feels transient but i ..read more

  When I fly into a city, what strikes me most are all the straight lines: long grids of streets and highways bisected at neat 90 degree angles, set with rectangular buildings, miles of telephone wires and railroad tracks.   This is especially striking in flat terrain, like Phoenix and Houston.   Civil engineers can feel rightly proud of their profession.  They have transformed these landscapes into humanscapes, capable of providing transportation, communication, electricity, water, and housing for millions of people. Alaska, of course, is not like that.  Our land ..read more

In this series of articles, I am not really weighing in on arguments about fossil fuels and peak oil.  My lifestyle in a remote Alaska cabin says enough about how my husband and I have decided to live.  I do want to encourage those who advocate against fossil fuel use and investment, those who are, by definition, telling other people what to do, to EXAMINE THEIR OWN CHOICES and ACTIONS FIRST.  The easiest way to crater an advocacy group is to document a lack of integrity.  Hypocrisy is another word for that. I hear a lot of “talk the talk.” I see less of “walk the walk.” So ..read more

  When conscientious people gather to discuss carbon foot print topics and advocate to reduce fossil fuel usage, the elephant in the room may be… the room itself.  Look around.  What is the room made of? Although the carbon footprint of operational aspects of buildings, like lighting, heating, cooling, and cooking have been widely discussed, has your group discussed the structural elements themselves?  According to the UN’s environmental website (UNEP.org) and the BBC.com, the global construction industry accounts for a whopping 37% of greenhouse gases, 33% of global waste ..read more

Although our land is still blanketed by 2 feet of snow and the lake remains frozen, spring has sprung this week.  How do I know? One clue is the first of many flocks of migrating geese and one, lone sandhill crane (where is its mate?) announcing their annual return to The Great Land.  Welcome back!  I have missed you! Birch Sapping in Spring A second is that twice a day, my husband and I stomp through softening snow to collect sap from the birch trees we tapped on April 20.  We drink this bracingly cold liquid as a vitamin rich spring tonic, and use it instead o ..read more

 Dear Readers, Thank you for your visits here, especially those of you who wrote me with comments or questions through the blog or through my email. I am migrating now to substack.  All future content will appear at: https://alaskauu1.substack.com. Blogspot was a wonderful platform but substack has added advantages for both writers and readers that, to my knowledge, blogspot lacks. My newest post is about Trash in America, and easy, creative, and money saving ways to reduce yours or mine. Happy reading.  I look forward to hearing from you there. Laura ..read more

 Please follow these links for articles recently posted on Survivalblog.com:   Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 1, by Mrs. Alaska   Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 2, by Mrs. Alaska ..read more