loving fairbanks.

i will be leaving fairbanks a week from tomorrow.  i'm heading south for another chapter, this one happening with the backdrop of homer, alaska.  while my thesis goes through the ranks being approved along the way, i've been enjoying myself in my last weeks here.

twice this week, monday and today, i joined jason and others hiking/skin-ing (how would you spell this?) up moose mountain, a local ski area that is only open on fridays and saturdays.  my new-found love of downhill skiing, combined with my adoration of interior alaska, playing outside, early mornings, and my dog's obvious unbridled joy made these two mornings absolutely spectacular. 

sorry about the streak in that picture. indeed, i'm not crazy about my new camera and streaking over/fogging up is only one of my many complaints...

kaya and i have been skijoring nearly every other day, last night blaine and i went to see the kite runner at the blue loon.  the other night jason and i went to have dinner at the vietnamese place (which i really like) and tonight we're going to have thai with some of the folks jason works with.  i've been doing some packing, a lot of getting rid of stuff, walking and playing through the valley on the mushing trails. 

ahhh...life is good. i love fairbanks, and i'm excited about the next step.

so's kaya.

the Yukon Quest 2008: Fairbanks to Whitehorse

  Saturday morning I headed to the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks to watch the start of the Yukon Quest - a 1000 mile race between Fairbanks, AK and Whitehorse, Yukon by dog sled.  24 teams are racing this year, and about half the town came out to see the start despite wicked cold temperatures (though at -23F it was considerably warmer than it's been all week...).

 

It's amazing to think of these dogs & mushers setting off from the start line, with 1000 incredibly tough and incredibly cold miles ahead of them. 

 

the dogs are so ready to go  - the teams are attached to a snow machine to rally up to the start line.  once the team is the next in line the snow machine unhooks and a slew of volunteers take hold of the lines to keep the dogs from running before their turn.  

lulu's was there - who knew they had their own bagel-person?? they needed a few dogs to pull their bagel-laden sled...

check out updates on the race here

home again, home again jiggity-jig

well, the vacation has come and gone and i find myself back in good old fairbanks.  good old cold fairbanks.  indeed the daytime temperatures in town have been getting up to -20 on good days.  today the high in town may have been -31.  my thermometer outside of my cabin doesn't seem to be working, as the lowest it has registered thus far is -10.  not bad - i'm happy to go with that reality, alternate as it may be.  up on the chena ridge we're at least a little warmer, and well above the ice fog.  i can't fully explain ice fog to those who haven't experienced it.  it truly is odd to drive down four miles and once you get near the bottom of the hill you just hit a solid wall of, well, ice fog.  the visibility is well under a quarter of a mile, and the air quality is unbelievably bad. 

all of this being said, however, i love this town.  getting back from thailand has been bittersweet.  jason was a trooper and a good friend for coming to pick me up at the airport at one am on sunday morning. just in time to get some sleep, get some groceries, pick up my dog, start a fire in the wood stove (thanks to karl for finally hooking it up) and watch the superbowl!

really, what more could i ask for?

well....aside from the patriots winning, of course.  blaine and katie stopped by later on in the evening, blaine of course gloating over the pats loss.  whatever. i was still happy to see both of them after being away.

so that's all the sweet part of being back, the semi-bitter part comes with some big news! i got a job!

yep. a job. at least through november, working with the international pacific halibut commission.  in homer, alaska.  yeehaw, ocean here i come!!  it's nothing glamorous, but it gets me to the coast which has been on the post-thesis agenda for awhile now.  the semi-kicker about it is that i start the first week of March!

sooo...my relaxing semester ("pulling a Dempsey" if you will..) consisting of TA'ing at the university, leisurely finishing up my thesis, trapping lynx with knut, submitting publications, and casually looking for work has turned into finishing the thesis, packing my wee-cabin into my even more wee car, saying goodbye (for now at least) to a town and community i adore, and heading south!  aahhh!!  if you know me, you may be aware of how poorly i deal with life changes.  they usually happen around my birthday, but this year is comin' early.

i will be practicing breathing, appreciating all that i have around me - good people good wilderness, and being ready for whatever comes. not only ready, but inviting with open arms, mind, and heart.

i will also be exercising, which on a different note has been sorely lacking in my life lately.  i've learned that heat/humidity and exercise don't really work out so well for me.  tonight jason and i hit the frozen chena river for an exhilarating (read = COLD) skijor out and back from the pump house.  my only regret is being unable to have a beer afterwards for the need to run home, feed and leave the dog, and run over to goldstream to babysit. yep. and so here i am on my computer, fabulously happy 2-year-old sleeping upstairs,  with the thesis-monkey (who i decidedly did not miss while on vacation) hanging over my shoulder.

so with that, i'm back to editing & formatting my thesis.  more pictures from my trip to se asia will go up on flickr at some point soon. 

love to you all from the frozen north ~

Holiday, part II of III

Ahh...another Christmas holiday come and gone.
The entire family on my mom's side converged upon my grandparents house in Amherst, MA for this holiday - 15 of us! It all went off incredibly smoothly, with wonderful laughter & food.



Here are my cousins Tim and Sam, in a blurry picture from Christmas morning. It's the only one I had with the Christmas tree.
There was a little bit of a tussle over baseball allegancies...my cousin Eric lives in Kansas, and as such just doesn't know any better. It's true - he's a Yankees fan. Uncle Russ put his Yankees calendar in the wood pile for burning. Unfortunately Grandpa didn't understand and thought it had just been carelessly misplaced by one of the kids. So he unwittingly saved it from its firey fate.
Post-presents playing outside in the street. Here are four of the five boy cousins (I'm the other cousin, aside from Curren, and the only XX chromosome represented in this generation). Left to right, Sam, Tim, Chris (my brother), and Eric (the misguided Yankees fan who we love anyway)
Walking down to the pond to play on the ice. Left to right, Aunt Patty, Aunt Meg, Uncle Russ, Grandpa, CurrenTed ran into the woods to get one of the fast-flying toys the boys got for Christmas. Russ is ready with his slippers. Shortly after this, Ted was struck in the face with said fast-flying toy causing bleeding.

Tomorrow my brother heads back to Bend, Oregon. On Wednesday I fly out to Bangkok, Thailand to begin part III of III for this vacation season. It's been a lovely trip back east to visit with family and relish the beautiful beautiful New England weather.

vacation: part 1 of 3.

Tonight's my last night in northern Maine, up here on East Grand Lake in Danforth with my dad brother, and Donna.
Things done:
-snowmachining with dad to get a christmas tree
-decorating said charlie brown christmas tree
-hooking up the new 'entertainment center' that dad and donna built (picture to come)
-baptist church service this morning
-shoveled snow off of the roofs of seven cabins and the house
-coffee in houlton at the organic grocery store where they still don't make enough money to actually pay the employees, but happily they're in business another year
-watched football on the new hdtv (fancy-shmancy). oh, and tom brady is amazing. it's reiterated that he's an amazing quarterback, and really hot (only when he has a hat on)
-discovered the best movie ever, fever pitch, combining two of my favorite genres: romantic comedy and inspirational sport. even better is that the sports end is all red sox!!
-recieved a phatty new grundens sweatshirt from dad for christmas
-thoroughly enjoyed the maine accents...i wish i could bring it home with me.

so sad to go, but i'll be back. someday soon it will have to be for longer than four days. i want to do an extended east coast stay, including a trip to nova scotia and newfoundland.

happy solstice!

so somehow i posted a few post-defense pictures to my little brother's blog (which he himself doesn't ever ever update...)


http://valleyoftherogue.blogspot.com/


i'm currently sittin' on the couch at my dad's, watching high definition television with my brother. i more or less just woke up after days and days of waaaay too little sleep (though completely not regretted..). the sun is shining out on the snow and it's nearly blinding - this morning i felt so disorientated.
the agenda is pretty chill -
take a shower, do some laundry.
go snowmobiling (as they call it down here) with dad and get a christmas tree
knit
head down east tomorrow with chris to say hello to the ocean
apply to jobs
generally kick it with my wonderful family who i have missed dearly!!!

it's unfortunate when good people are spread across the country/world as you can't be two places at once (try as you might). that being said, i'm always reminded that you indeed CAN come home again, both literally and figuratively. home is truly where your heart is, and that can move with you - keeping all good people in your heart till you see them again.

happy solstice!!

the "other" White Mountains!

Last week, Justine, Cory, Nathan, Michael, Michelle and I headed up north to the White Mountains of interior Alaska - very different from the Whites of New Hampshire I grew up with!

The night before I ran out to the store and purchased materials to construct a homemade pulk - a sled for Kaya to pull with my gear in it! I managed to come up with a remarkably work-able setup!! She was great, and pulled hard the entire 7 miles in and out, towing both a Paris sled with all of my stuff and me on skis behind that.


Here's Nathan and Michael (who forgot his ski boots and so ran the trail out - Nathan ran the next day -- these guys are rockstars!!)


We stayed at Lee's Cabin, one of the great little cabins maintained by the BLM up here. It was a wonderful night of **great** food (thanks to Michael, who created a fabulous dinner that morning which we only had to heat up), games leading to mad scientists and Jesus in a chicken basket, and a veritable sauna while we tried to sleep.










The next morning we awoke to an incredible sunrise, and leisurely got our things together for the ski out. Michael set up a line and hooked Yugi (one of the other dogs who was along) up for Yugi's first skijoring attempt - what a dog! He had a difficult time at first leaving the giant log he had enjoyed playing fetch with, but once he got going it was a great success!

Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful couple of days! Let's do it again, yeah?!

my favorite season has arrived!!

hay nieve!!!

winter has arrived! yeah!!!
it snowed awhile ago, and though i don't have too many photos to share as of yet, i wanted to at least put up a little preview of my favorite season. kaya and i have been skijoring (for those of you unfamiliar it involves her in a harness, attached to me on skis!) and it is so.much.fun.!!!!

my thesis is coming along, my new cabin is wonderful! life has been a little up and down, but always always a learning process. it's been a great and interesting (and always so quick) transition season between fall and spring, but it don't fool around up here ... when winter arrives she arrives. no days of spring thaw from now until april/may...

you won't hear any complaints from me!!!



here's kaya at our new home...her spots, both inside and outside.

nothing startles me beyond the Moment.
The setting sun will always set me to rights
-- or if a Sparrow come before my Window
I take part in its existence
and pick about the Gravel.

*John Keats

Tangle Lakes!

for Labor Day weekend, Seth, Blaine, Katie, John,Kaya, and I went down to Tangle Lakes & the Delta River for a canoe trip! (well, canoe, skanoe, & kayak trip to be correct...)
We put in at mile 22 on the Denali Hwy, in the Tangle Lakes area. After paddling through the lakes you hit the Delta River. Our takeout was at mile 213 on the Richardson Hwy, just under 30 miles away by lake/river.
We were out for three days with beautiful weather, wonderful company and lots of fish to catch and eat.
Katie and Blaine were in John's canoe, while John manned a kayak.

Seth, Kaya, and I were in 'skanoe' borrowed from my friend Dave. Seth was a great skanoe captain, skillfully navigating us through lakes and rapids alike. Kaya was incredibly comfortable in the boat, almost to a fault. To her credit she never jumped ship, even when another dog tried to bite her face...we were there with paddles in hand to defend her. (happily we only saw two other groups of people on our entire trip once we entered the river)

my first fish! Blaine, John, and Katie set me up with a fishing pole and line (i.e. string) and tackle for my birthday...The grayling were plentiful & I felt successful.

Brunch. rum and chocolate. and peanut butter. and cheddar bunnies. and a luna bar. and sausage (for them, not me). and more rum. we ate, and ate a lot, on this trip. It's possible that we were all carrying our own weights in food...with grayling to supplement.

fishin'
there were so many blueberries, we were in heaven. kaya enjoyed herself in the tundra

the portage was a little bit longer than we had anticipated, but we managed.

at our second camp there was still more fishing to be done. here there was a fish caught that got off the hook and slowly swam over by the boat. blaine, seth, and john tried to catch it with their wit and good looks alone. here is john giving up, leaving the ridiculous task to the other two. (they were ultimately unsuccessful)

mmm...grayling.

intrepid fishermen at work
the last hoorah down some "rapids"
we did actually hit some rapids earlier in the trip. but these were far more manageable.


i got to steer for the final 1/2 mile. well, a little bit. mostly seth just pulled us over the rocks.


Driving home after a fabulous long weekend.

craftin'

i made a hammock!
and that seemed worthy of photographing and sharing with folks...
that and a few pictures of the dog.
ahh, summer. (which is quickly quickly coming to a close)