Alaska 101

I head back to WI in 4 days! I am excited to return home for a couple months to see all my friends and family.  I will continue this blog though out the summer since I will be working at a moose calf orphanage.

My Fairbanks trip did not go as planned; some car trouble left me stranded 250 miles north of Willow and 90 miles south of Fairbanks. Hopefully I will be able to get to UAF campus later in the summer.

I just wanted to finish off these 5 months with a little bit of Alaska knowledge.

Top 10 things to expect when you come to Alaska:

10. If you come in winter, it is cold. Plain and simple be ready for and dress appropriate and its not so bad.

9. Everything in Alaska is long distance.  Yes they have sprint racing... but honestly when a state is as big as Alaska why not host all the long distance cold weather events... like ultra running, winter biking, cross country skiing, and of course the Iditarod.  It is easy to get lost on all the trails around here for all sorts of training.
    Here is a link of Deedee's friend, Dave, who ran 85 miles a day: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140228/eye-popping-iditarod-invitational-record-setter-covered-85-miles-day
Here is a link about the bikes on the Iditarod trail:
 http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2446218846/

Just some of the trails around the Willow area..

8. Unless you live in a large town, Anchorage, Wasilla... get use to 4 legged friends.  There are more dogs than people in Willow, Ak :)  Though this also means you better be able to sleep through some howling.

 7. Get ready to move some snow... if you don't like snow stay away from AK in the winter....

 6. Most houses don't have running water to start with so get use to hauling water to cook and clean with...


5. In the winter if you are lucky enough to work outside you will see a sunrise and sunset everyday :)

4. The wildlife here may be able to hurt you, but are amazing, beautiful, and majestic.  Most also taste pretty yummy :)

I have tried: moose, black bear, musk ox, caribou, and cod

3. Grab a book, you'll most likely loose power a few times, plus internet and TV go out a lot as well.

2. You will constantly be stopping to catch you breath because of all the incredible sites you'll see.

1. Last but not least... do not come to Alaska if you are not ready to go to the bathroom outside. :P
     Many house do not have running water/ toilets, you get an outhouse or good old woods... :)

Hardwork Never Stops

Hello,

The Iditarod has come and gone but there has still been plenty of work to do around the kennel. Lots of cleaning and organizing everything that came back from the trial, that 2,700lbs of stuff we packed up for the race. Well the cool thing is all the dog food stays in the towns at the check point and the villagers get to use it. Everything else, however, comes back to us. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to around here lately.

I am excited to be heading to Fairbanks next week Monday to see the campus. Then I'll be on a plane home to WI the following weekend! I am so excited to see friends and family back home for a couple months.

Again if anyone needs and yard work, house cleaning, etc while I'm back I'll be looking for cash side jobs to help fund my return to AK by July 1st. 

just some cool melting of snow...

My #1 boy Chase

My amazing girl Lucy

Love to see the kids sharing

Deedee's house dogs and Chase and Lucy all on a walk with me

10:30pm still watching a sunset

<3 Sunsets

Fudge sun bathing on his house

Almost all of the sled we used this year...

They all had to get stored away

Another Sunset... I know, I really like them

It was finally time to change out the studded tires! Spring has arrived!

Deedee's race sleds this year. We had to pick them up and clean them all out each sled was a little over 200 lbs (the broken down sled was so it fit in the plane to come home.)

More cleaning and organizing of the sled barn. Saving all the dog food bags for use throughout the year

Cleaned out a couple chest freezers that stored fish all winter

This is just very exciting seeing the ground around here. 

I have only ever seen snow on the ground here till now.

 Had to organize all the booties and coats that came back in.

Yum... food for next year... fish anyone?

So Mike and Deedee were gone for April Fools well the other handler came up with this idea for an April Fools joke.  What do you think?  Dee got a kick out of it.