It’s been in the negative double digit temperatures for most of the year so far, but we’re already making plans for summer! With a low of -29° January has been a bit chilly! Fortunately a few warm days here and there have allowed us to get out and have some fun skiing and sledding. The weather has been somewhat of a roller coaster this winter, occasionally warming up above average temperatures, and sometimes doing the opposite. As a new year surprise our chickens started laying eggs again in the middle of the month! Typically they have quit laying for the entire winter and don’t start again ..read more

Photo was taken at the end of December on a clear day with a daytime temperature of -19 degrees.  Wow! What a wonderful year it has been. At the end of a very cold December we look back on our blessings this year.   Starting out, we thought this was going to be a mild winter because of the El Nino effect, but we saw some very low temperatures over the Christmas and New Years holidays. Some days not seeing above zero degrees and the low at night was -20°F for a few nights in a row, Brr! We stayed plenty warm inside the cabin and spent the days working on projects in t ..read more

The wild weather this month has shown us nearly an entire winter’s worth of excitement in just the past four weeks! Heavy snow loads on trees and high winds have nearly knocked down enough trees in the backyard to give us mountain views. You have to look between the remaining standing spruce to see the peaks of the Chugach Mountains across the bay.  Big fat snowflakes fall beautifully on the trees when there is no wind. November started off with lots of snow; Anchorage receiving the most snow in over 70 years for November. Then, around the middle of the month, high winds (70mph) coming ..read more

The Matanuska Glacier on an overcast day at the end of September. September and October had us scrambling to button up a laundry list of projects before the inevitable snowfall. A dusting of snow melts away as the sun comes out in Hatcher's Pass. We find fall to be the busiest time of year; all the major summer projects are finished, but there's a thousand little things outside that need to be finished before the temperatures plunge and the snow piles up. We were able to get many, many things accomplished in the last two months since the snow, thankfully, held off (is that you, el Nino ..read more

Driving past the Chugach State Forest area. With over 5 inches of rain this month and darkness creeping back into the night, August washes summer away. The damp weather has started the amanita mushrooms to grow. We experienced our most successful blueberry picking season yet! Our blueberry patch isn't so secret, but it blankets a large area in our favorite playground, Hatcher Pass. It’s been a bountiful month of harvesting the garden and animals and also squeezing in a bit of fun here and there. Our harvested crops included the thyme, sage, peas, beans, and onions, with the rem ..read more

View from the top of Bodenburg Butte overlooks Knik Glacier. As is typical, the month of July has been near non-stop hustle and bustle! Time to add the roof! Pete and my dad trimming out the pig pen/chicken coop shed. The long list of projects we had made up over the long winter has been dwindling with great satisfaction. It’s hard to appreciate all the progress we’ve made when it seems the work is never finished, but come this winter we’ll undoubtedly recognize the increased efficiency with which our little homestead now operates. Even though it has been a wet summer, we sti ..read more

With a bit of rain nearly every day this month, we are on track for a bumper crop of mosquitoes! A painted mural in Palmer, AK. Now at the end of the month, just after the summer solstice, the sun rises around 4a.m. and sets just before midnight. The extra long days combined with over 2” of rainfall this month has had all the vegetation growing like mad, and the mosquitoes too! This has certainly been a different June compared to the previous years we’ve been here. We had been expecting another hot and dry first half of summer, with regular rains not coming until late in July. Instead, it’s ..read more

With more daylight than we know what to do with, this month has had us busy, busy, busy... Seabirds taking a break on comfy rock. The birds are seagulls and common murres.  We kicked off the month with a week of family visiting. It was great having them here and showing them the amazing scenery we get to see every day. One of the things we did while they were here was a day trip to Seward where we took a boat tour of Resurrection Bay. It was a little early in the season for whale spotting, but we were able to see several otters, sea lions, various seabirds, bald eagles, puffins, a ..read more

The Matanuska River on a beautiful day in April Here in Alaska, season change seems to happen in the blink of an eye! View from the Butte trail near Palmer, AK. (This is about where we turned around.)  Spring has finally arrived after another long winter. Temperatures are now hitting 50° at the end of April, which has melted a significant amount of snow that winter left behind. I’ve even noticed little buds on some willows! For awhile were thinking we would never see summer—it seemed impossible for the cloudy, overcast days to melt the 8' snow banks lining the yard. However, a fe ..read more

Beans enjoying the warmer temperatures while jumping on the snow hills. With daylight stretching past bedtime, the snow is melting double time! C130 flying low heading back to the military base across the bay. Last of the snow melting from the spruce trees. Nearly every day of March has seen temperatures above freezing, allowing the snow base to gradually disintegrate. There are spots in the driveway where we can even see the ground again! Fortunately, all the truckloads of rock and gravel we have had hauled in over the past few years are starting to add up, meaning “mud seas ..read more