Living in Alaska: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Preparing for Winter: A Parka and Mukluks

Mike and I were out at garage sales this morning, when we came across an estate sale. I came home with this Yukon Parka made in the late 70's in Whitehorse, YT. It has an outer rain shell and an inner wool parka that is fur trimmed with flowers around the bottom. It is absolutely beautiful! Mike came home with seal fur mukluks, which he kindly let me borrow for taking pictures of the parka!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Garden and Wildflowers

As if June hasn't been busy enough with camping, fishing, hiking, and solstice activities, Mike and I have been working hard in the garden. On June 3rd, we planted a variety of fun veggies including tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, egg plant, broccoli, lettuce and cabbage. In the last 22 days, the plants have almost doubled in size! We now have baby tomatoes on our vines (which didn't occur last year until the end of August)!

We also have been watching a variety of wild flowers bloom in the woods around our house. The prickly roses' petals have dropped and rose hips have replaced them. The bluebells are no longer in bloom, but we now have fireweed. There are also these pretty yellow daisy looking flowers (not sure what they're called) that dot the edge of the woods.

I bought this hanging tomato pot.

The lady promised that it would produce LOTS of tiny tomatoes.

I'm waiting!

The first tomatoes on our vines!

Broccoli

Over-sized cabbage

Last year's cabbage weighed 27 pounds!

Cucumbers

Egg Plant

Lettuce Pots

Squash

Fireweed

Someone once told me that once the fireweed has bloomed all the

way to the top means that the first snow is only 6 weeks away.

Cute, yellow flowers (obviously, I don't know the name).

Sunday, June 24, 2012

2012 Midnight Sun Festival

The Midnight Sun Festival was held in Downtown Fairbanks, today. It starts at 12:00 p.m. and goes until 12:00 a.m. After sleeping late and trying to recover from last night's Sun Run, Mike and I dragged ourselves to enjoy in the festivities.

Food seemed to be at the top of Mike's list of things to "do." First, he ate a pulled pork sandwich. Then, he went for Big Daddy's ribs. Shortly after that, he had a scoop of coffee ice cream. When I couldn't finish my falafel, Mike came to my rescue and ate it for me. Then, when I couldn't finish my raspberry smoothie, my hero swooped in and saved me! Finally, kettle corn was the last item on the menu! Whew, I think we need another 10k or maybe even a full marathon to work off the calories we consume today!

After leaving the Festival, Mike and I were driving to Sam's Club when we spotted the most interested contraption we had ever seen. It was a Ford F-350 with a full sized ski boat on top of it and a bicycle on the front pulling a 5th wheel with a motorcycle on the back of that. We took a quick detour to get a good look at it. The license plates were from Arizona. Go figure!

Mmmm....ribs!!!!

When nature calls......

there's a place to go (even includes hand sanitizer)!

Mike refuses to share his kettle corn.

I had to sneak bites when he wasn't looking.

Uh oh! I think I better get some anti-wrinkle cream!

A balmy 84 degrees! Cooler than yesterday, though.

So, a guy drives a boat, bicycle, 5th wheel

and a motorcycle from Arizona to Alaska.

How far can he travel on one tank of gas?

I wonder how much drag that boat creates and affects his gas mileage?

It doesn't look terribly aerodynamic.

For the 4th year in a row, Mike and I walked the Midnight Sun Run (10k). Some people dress up for a costume contest, some run, some jog, and some walk like Mike and me. We finished the 6.2 miles in 1 hour 32 minutes and 30 seconds.