Life on the Last Frontier

Vocabulary

2011-09-14T21:44:00.001-08:00

We have lived in Alaska for more than 7 years now. But something you notice almost as soon as you get here, is that Alaskans have their own vocabulary.
Some of these unique words come from Native Alaskan words, such as cheechako, which is anyone new to Alaska, who hasn't overwintered here.
Others are just reflective of the unique experience of being an Alaskan, such as sourdough, anyone who has lived in Alaska for a long time.

Termination dust is an obvious example. Termination dust is the first snowfall of the year that is visible on the mountaintops in the morning. It doesn't have to last all day without melting to qualify. It just has to be new snow. I have lived in other mountainous states, namely Utah and Colorado. Neither of those states had a name for that first snowfall. But Alaska does.

Then there are the ways that Alaskans talk about other places. Anyplace not Alaska is "Outside". When people here talk about going Outside, they don't mean they are going for a walk. It means they are leaving the state, headed anywhere else. Never mind that Alaska is somewhat off the beaten track, so it would maybe make more sense the other way around. The other thing people say a lot is when they are referring to the rest of the country. We don't say "the contiguous 48 states" or mainland USA. No, you all are relegated to the "lower 48". And we don't even capitalize it, because Alaskans just don't think they're important, unless they need to go shopping :). And we don't know what to call Hawaii, except perhaps our favorite winter vacation spot.

I think most of this is because most Alaskans, in which category I include myself, although I have not yet reached the revered title of "sourdough", are proud of this state and the life they have carved out here. I have lived in several other states, and it really is different here. And I love everything about it.

Well, except it does get a little chilly in the winter. But I've survived it, and earned the right to complain about it.

- Posted from my iPhone

Long range planning

2011-06-11T22:10:00.001-08:00

This is a cherry tree, that we just planted. We planted two apple trees also. I am not a tree expert, but it is my understanding that the fruit trees are grafted onto hardier roots than the fruit trees normally have, so that they can survive through Alaska's winters.

Planting fruit trees is an interesting experience. All the work goes in up front, for a payoff that is at least two years down the road. But what a payoff it will be, to have fresh apples in the fall.

This is something that we could not have done a week ago, because moose adore tender young trees. But we have a fence now, and we are hoping we can keep the moose out.

- Posted from my iPhone

The garden fence

2011-06-10T22:16:00.001-08:00

James and Ryan have been working on a project for the last week or so... A fence around the garden. The perimeter is 50' x 100'. About 2/3 of the area inside is tilled and planted.
They put fence posts 10 feet apart around the whole area, then strung 5' tall wire mesh around it. They then strung a strand of barbed wire a foot higher than that. There is room on the fence posts for two more strands of barbed wire, which would give us an 8' fence.
It might seem like a lot of fence for a garden, but we live in Alaska. Alaska has lots of moose and the moose's favorite summertime recreational activity is to wander through gardens.
One moose can do a lot of damage to a garden. They eat just about everything you would grow in a garden, except potatoes. They seem to have a particular love for broccoli. And what they don't eat, they walk on. And they have big, heavy feet.
Last summer, the moose ate 75 strawberry plants, all of my broccoli, peas, lettuce, the tops of the raspberry canes, etc. It is incredibly frustrating to walk out to the garden in the morning and see the devastation one or two moose will make overnight. Hopefully we won't have that problem anymore.

Posted from my iPhone

I'm back, and we're building

2011-06-06T21:50:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile, and the only excuse I have is the one I always use, that work has been crazy. But it seems like things might be slowing down some, so I am going to try to start blogging again.
There is lots going on this summer, but I am not going to try to put it all out there at once.
The biggest project is the house. We are putting on an addition with a basement and main floor. The main floor of the addition is at the same height as the landing of our stairs, and it is accessed from that landing. On that level will be two bedrooms and a bathroom. The smaller bedroom will be Becky's and the boys will share the bigger one. The basement of the addition has a concrete floor and walls. It will hold a large pantry, a studio for James, and a sitting area that will double as sleeping space for any guests.
The basement floor and exterior walls were poured last fall. So far this spring, the framing has been done, and the roof sheeted. The roof doesn't have tar paper or shingles yet, but it will soon.

- Posted from my iPhone

It all started with one lightbulb

2011-01-09T22:35:00.001-09:00

My husband does oil paintings. He's very good, I think. One of the drawbacks, though, is that to paint, he requires good, consistent light. For the past almost 3 years, we have lived without electricity, which makes obtaining the light he needs difficult. We do have a generator, however. So he recently went out and bought a compact fluorescent bulb for a lamp we have had sitting around unused for the last 3 years. I came home from work that day to find the generator running, my husband happily painting, and this amazingly bright light in our bedroom.

Since we moved into this house, we have lived without electricity, because MEA wants $30,000 to hook us up. That's a lot to pay for the privilege of paying them every month for the rest of our lives. Plus, we don't exactly have $30,000 sitting around collecting dust.

We have made do with a propane lantern, and some battery powered LED lights that can sit on tables, counters, etc., and provide a minimally useful amount of light.

But coming home to this huge amount of light in my house made us start a new conversation. When we built the house, we wired it for electricity, assuming that one day, we would have some. We just had not put in light fixtures or outlets, because we didn't think it would happen very soon. So we started talking about maybe getting some outlets, switches, and light fixtures, and a pigtail to connect the house to the generator. It didn't take much talking. We now have light in our house, and thanks to compact fluorescents that don't use much power, we can have light in our entire house if we need it, without stressing out the generator, at least for a few hours a day while the generator is running.

This is a huge improvement. It has turned cooking and eating dinner into a completely different experience. I can knit in the evenings without a headlamp. Plus, we can charge the cell phones, the kids' nintendos, etc. We really love it.

BUT. There is always a but, isn't there? In some ways, it feels a little like defeat. Like we compromised for convenience. It is also important to us to try to live in a way that is as friendly to the climate as possible. The generator runs on gasoline. A lot of gasoline. And I am guessing it does not run particularly cleanly. And it is noisy.

We are making plans for solar panels, maybe a windmill, and batteries, and only using the generator for backup. But that is a long ways down the road, after the addition is done. We will have the generator for a while. Two steps forward, one step back.

- Posted from my iPhone

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-01T22:40:00.001-09:00

It's that time of year, New Years. Everyone and their dog makes resolutions about how they are going to change their lives over the next year, and I am no exception. But I always make a bunch of resolutions, and then forget about them. So I have a different plan this year.
They say that if you can repeat something for 30 days, it becomes a habit, something that becomes something you can do without thinking about it. So I think this year, I am going to pick 12 things I want to work on, and focus on each one for a month. At the end of the year, if my theory works, I will have made 12 changes in my life, while only having to think about one at a time. Here is my list, in no particular order:

1. Write in my blog more often, at least once a week. There are a lot of issues that are important to me, that I want to talk about, but I have been ignoring everything because I work such long hours.

2. Quit drinking diet pepsi. I figure I can wean off it in the first two weeks, giving me the second two weeks to get used to it. I had a bone density scan done a few weeks ago, and while I don't have osteoporosis, I do have lower bone density than 84% of women my age. The phosphoric acid and carbonation in pop leaches calcium from bones.

3. Make healthier food choices. I think this one is pretty self explanatory.

4. Exercise regularly, including strength training. Again, I shouldn't need to explain this one.

5. Use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic. We use and throw away way too much plastic, and this is one big thing I can do to reduce my use of plastic.

6. Get back in the habit of regular scripture study and prayer. Go to church every week.

7. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We have put a lot of effort into using less, but have lost a lot of ground lately, mostly because we are so busy.

8. Finish two knitting projects that have been sitting around for months, a sweater for my younger daughter, and an afghan.

9. Get more organized and streamlined at work. Right now, I have cases that are months old, and it is causing problems. I need to get them closed.

10. Get in the habit of taking vitamins, calcium, etc.

11. Spend more time doing fun things with my kids.

12. Quit using bad language.

By the end of the year, I hope to have made a lot of progress. I will tackle #3 first, and I will go more into detail in another post.

Happy New Year!

- Posted from my iPhone

Peak Chocolate: The End Of The World As We Know It

2010-11-14T20:50:00.001-09:00

http://news.discovery.com/earth/chocolate-supply-threatened-by-cocoa-crisis.html

This article, and several others like it, are saying that due to poor agricultural practices and drought, likely caused by global warming, are leading to a significant decline in chocolate production. This will make chocolate increasingly scarce and expensive.
When I first read about this, I thought, yeah right. This has got to be a prank. But it has been a news item on several credible websites, including msnbc and discovery.
As bad as not being able to buy chocolate seems, we can live without it. But the same thing has been happening with many other things we need. In general, food production is in danger due to the same issues facing chocolate.
This is a problem that will only get worse unless we learn to interact with the world around us in a whole different way.

- Posted from my iPhone

Uh Oh

2010-10-05T22:16:00.001-08:00

So, there are several current event type blogs and websites I look at on pretty much a daily basis. Some environmental ones, such as grist, some natural resources ones, such as energy bulletin and the oil drum, some economic, such as the automatic earth.
Well, I was reading the automatic earth today, and today's post really alarmed me, so I feel a need to pass the word.
Please, please read today's (Tuesday's) post over at www.theautomaticearth.blogspot.com.
The first part is just them attracting notice to their speaking tours and cd. The second part includes several graphs that seem to indicate the direction this "recovery" is taking. Short answer- it's not up, and it's not good. But it is sort of what I've been suspecting. I am very afraid that things are going to get very bad, economically speaking.
I've also noticed that the stock markets are getting increasingly volatile recently, which I think means even Wall Street is getting jittery.

Here is a link to that specific post:
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-5-2010-800-pound-gorilla-on.html

- Posted from my iPhone

North Slope oil declines

2010-10-02T20:28:00.001-08:00

Back in July 2007, I looked at the production declines in North Slope oil. At that time, it appeared that production was declining at about 9% per year. Oil production for fiscal year 2007, which ended on June 30, 2007, averaged about 738,000 barrels per day. If oil continued to decline at about 9%, then in fiscal year 2010, which ended on June 30, 2010, oil production would be about 556,000 barrels per day. The most recent figure available on the state website today was for the month of May. In May, there was 19.2 million barrels produced, which is about 619,000 barrels per day. That isn't an average for the fiscal year, so it isn't an exact comparison, but I think it works for an estimate. So it may be that oil production is only declining at a hair over 6% per year, which gives us about 3 or 4 extra years to figure out what to do when there isn't enough pressure to keep the pipeline going.
The good news is that local politicians are starting to talk about it. I am pretty fed up with politicians of all stripes, but they are the only ones that can make the necessary plans on a statewide level. I don't know if an extra 3 or 4 years is enough time, but we will see. This is crucially important, since 89% of the state's revenue comes from oil royalties.
The bad news is that it doesn't seem to be on very many people's radar yet. How can people prepare for changes if they don't know the changes are coming?

New crop

2010-09-20T21:47:00.001-08:00

This is part of our potato crop this year, that we harvested this weekend. I don't think we got quite as much as last year, because it's been a very wet, cloudy, cool summer. But it's a respectable harvest, nonetheless.

Last year, we harvested enough potatoes that we saved 10 pounds for seed for this year, and still had enough potatoes that we didn't buy any potatoes between last August and this June. Almost a year's worth. We also had good strawberry and raspberry harvests, and I made strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and strawberry raspberry jam this summer, all with fruit from our garden.

This is important to us, as we are working towards greater self sufficiency. There are several reasons for this, but the most important one is because we feel we have to. As I have said before on this blog, we are at the very end of a very long supply line, way up here in the far north. If that supply line were to be disrupted for any reason, us Alaskans would run out of food very quickly. And I don't think that possibility is so very farfetched as people would like to believe.
It could happen because of an earthquake, or tsunami. It could happen because the economy tanks, or the price of fuel gets so high that it costs too much to send all the barges up here that we are accustomed to. It could happen when the pipeline shuts down and 89% of the state's revenue disappears.

Better safe than sorry, right? So we grow a garden, and plan for more... More square footage in the garden, more types of vegetables planted, fruit trees, chickens, rabbits, eventually. Maybe a cow, or a goat, later on. Pigs, for sure. Potatoes are a good start.

Salmon

2010-08-02T00:16:00.001-08:00

So, James and Ryan went dipnetting yesterday. They brought home 48 salmon. A few we filleted, but most of them get canned:

That is the first couple batches, 34 pint jars of fish. There are another 24 jars in the canners as I type. Plus, about 15 more fish are temporarily stored in the freezer at a friend's house.

The job of gutting and cutting the heads off the fish was done by the boys. Then I took over. The fish got chopped into jar-sized lengths, soaked in brine for an hour, put in jars, then put in the canners. The canners take time to build up the necessary 10 lbs of pressure, then that pressure has to be maintained for an hour and 40 minutes. Then the stove gets turned off, and everything just sits until the pressure drops back down. Then the canners can be opened, the jars removed, and the next batch goes in.

Sounds simple, and it isn't terribly complicated, but it's a lot of work. Each batch takes about 5 hours, start to finish. While the canners are going, they have to be closely monitored to keep the pressure even. It's a lot of standing, a lot of slimy, nasty work. And the whole house smells like fish for days afterwards. A lot of propane to run the stove for hours at a time.

But, oh, it is so worth it! For lunch today, we opened a jar and made salmon sandwiches, with onions from my garden, and relish I made last summer. It beats tuna fish without even trying.

And even though I know we had to buy the jars and lids, and the propane to run the stove, and the gas to get to the river, it makes me feel a little bit more self-sufficient to do this.

We could have got even more fish. The limit for a family of 6 is 75 fish, and we only caught 48, just because James felt like that was plenty for now. Now that we have a system down, we may get our limit next year. We may try smoking them next year too.

Dying Yarn

2010-06-14T21:13:00.001-08:00

So, the other day I took a class in which I learned how to hand paint yarn. I made two skiens of sock yarn:

I think they both turned out pretty. It was easy, and took about 2 hours. What did I use for dye? Wilton cake decorating coloring. The yarn was mordanted in a mixture of vinegar and water. So, unlike most dyes, there were no toxic chemicals. Definitely a plus.

This was a fun, easy experiment, and now that I know how, I could do it anytime on my own. And I'm sure I will.

- Posted from my iPhone

My garden

2010-05-28T21:31:00.001-08:00

We moved our garden this year, over to the northwest corner of our property. This area gets a lot of sun, so it is almost ideal. The only problem is that it slopes down to the north, but it is a gradual enough slope that it doesn't appear to be a problem.

The biggest problem is the challenge of creating garden space from what was forest until last fall. The big stumps have mostly been pulled out, but the ground is compacted and full of tree roots. Our pulaski's have been getting lots of use this spring.

So far this year, we have lots of raspberries, 75 strawberry plants, 1 rhubarb, some onions and garlic, and lots of potatoes. We still need to create beds for carrots, peas, and whatever else takes our fancy. Beans, maybe. Or maybe we will try broccoli again.

We don't yet have a fence to keep the moose out, which is a potential problem. I lost all my broccoli to a moose last year.
Hopefully, we will get good yields this year, now that it can get plenty of water. I'm feeling hopeful.

- Posted from my iPhone

Wishing well

2010-05-27T22:34:00.001-08:00

We have lived in our cabin for over two years. For all that time, we have had water issues. We did not have a well, and we certainly weren't hooked up to any city water. We have a 150 gallon water tank on the second floor of our cabin, and we have been getting water into it in two ways. For a while, we had been having a water truck come fill it up once a month. But mostly we have been filling up 7 gallon containers at the laundromat and hauling them. This is actually not an unusual thing in Alaska, but it is certainly a nuisance.

So, I was quite pleased to come home from work last night to see this:

This is a well truck, drilling a well on our property. They had to go down 120 feet, at a cost of about $5000, not counting the pump and the generator to run the pump, but we have good water. Our water is maybe a little hard, but not too bad, and it tastes good. Today, James has been working on installing the pump and everything else, so hopefully by tomorrow we will be able fill our tank without hauling water. Plus we will be able to water our garden without worrying about running out of water for the house. This is a really good thing.
This is the well:

and this is the pump:

The pump will go about 100 feet down the well. When we need to fill the tank, we will hook up a hose to the well, start the generator, and let it do it's job.

The pile of gravel you can see behind the well is what came out of the hole, which is a bonus. We will spread it on our driveway.

Pretty exciting stuff.

- Posted from my iPhone

I shouldn't have said anything...

2010-04-14T20:50:00.001-08:00

About spring.

4" last night. And my little plants are already getting root bound in their little starting pots. Guess they will have longer to wait.

- Posted from my iPhone

Spring

2010-04-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in quite a while, mostly because my life in the last several months has been almost exclusively work and sleep. This time of year in Alaska, it seems that people lose their minds. We have had a huge increase in reports of child abuse. Also, over the winter, I really didn't have much to write about. The garden was quiet, and covered in snow, and not much got done on the house itself. So the blog has been quiet.
But now the snow is melting, and the sun is shining. It got up to a sunny 45 degrees the other day, so I put on capri's and sandals. We have lots of tiny onions, leeks, and garlic growing in our south facing dining room window. James planted a few carrot tops, and they are getting leafy, and we are hoping that they will go to seed for next year.
We have lots of plans for this summer. We have about 5000 square feet of garden to get ready for planting as soon as the ground thaws. We want to put a fence around the garden, and an addition with bedrooms for the kids on the house. James is considering digging a well. And we need to build a chicken coop and rabbit hutch. It is probably too late to build it for chickens for this summer, but we can build it this summer for chicks next spring.
So it looks to be a busy summer. I'll keep you posted.

- Posted from my iPhone

Rare Gems

2010-01-18T11:17:00.001-09:00

My favorite sock yarn comes from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (www.bluemoonfiberarts.com). At the end of last year, they sold for a short time what they call Rare Gems. It seems that it is leftover yarn that they overdye to make one of a kind skiens of yarn. They had them grouped into rough categories of earth, air, fire, and water. I ordered one of everything but earth, sight unseen. They are just beautiful. The picture is the skien of fire. It is quickly becoming a pair of socks, and I am totally loving it. You just can't go wrong with Blue Moon, even when you can't see what you are ordering.

- Posted from my iPhone

Not Long

2009-11-19T21:00:00.000-09:00

Less than a year ago, we got a second dog, a malamute. There is a picture of him here:

http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2009/03/monster.html

He was a dog we adopted from someone else without knowing him at all. He was a friendly dog, but he really didn't mesh well with us.
He was afraid of James, especially if he happened to have a tool or stick in his hand, making us speculate about what had happened to him before we got him.
We have almost 3 acres, plenty of room for a dog to run, but he would run too far. And he usually would not come when we called him.
With all of that, he was friendly, very pretty, and gentle with the kids. He seemed like he was bonding with us.
Yesterday morning before I left for work, I went to put him on his chain and he got away from me. I called him but he would not come to me, and took off running. He didn't come back right away, which is not unusual. By last night I was starting to worry, as it is well below zero.
James called me today to tell me the dog had been hit by a car. He was already dead when James found him.
The kids were sad, of course, but seem to be handling it well. We will all miss him. Goodbye, Strider.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Winter

2009-11-15T14:41:00.001-09:00

Winter has arrived, a little late this year. This is the first year since we moved to Alaska that there was not snow on the ground by Halloween.

Snow finally came though, along with sub-zero temps. Night before last, it got down to -15. That's chilly, even for Alaska. For the last couple days, we have had the wood stove running nonstop.

Unfortunately, a couple days before it snowed, our kindling pile fell over, and it didn't get picked up. Now it is buried under 6 inches of snow. We know where it is though, and the snow hasn't melted any, so it hasn't gotten wet.

I am pretty much enjoying these first few winter days, and the kids have been having a blast in the snow. Steven came home crying today though because he sledded into a tree. He's back at it as I type.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's disgraceful...

2009-09-09T21:11:00.002-08:00

Yesterday, President Obama gave a speech aimed at our school children. The text of it can be found here. It is completely non-partisan, not political in any way. He is simply encouraging students to do their best, and get an education.

Our President says to our kids,

"Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself."

I can't find anything in this that I don't want my children to hear. There is nothing partisan. Nothing subversive. I don't understand why people objected to this.

He also says:

"And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other."

I can't find anything wrong with that either. As far as I can tell, there is no logical reason whatsoever for all the commotion about this speech.

And there has been a huge to-do about this speech. People talked about it on the news, threatened to keep their kids home from schools if the schools showed it, accused him of trying to start something akin to the Nazi Youth Corps. I think it would take more than a 20 minute speech to brainwash every kid in the country.

I found out last night that none of my kids saw his speech at school. I called the schools, and they report that their phones had been "ringing off the hook" with parents upset about their kids possibly watching the speech. One principal told me I was the only parent he received a call from supporting the kids watching the speech.

I am sorry, but I find this absolutely appalling. I don't give two figs whether Obama is Republican or Democrat, whether he has made mistakes in office (after all, no one is perfect) or any of that. He is THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. I think the fact that schools have opted to not show a speech made by the leader of our country to the children of our country is embarrassing, disrespectful, I don't know what.

I don't even know what to say, except that I am ashamed that we can behave this way.

socks

2009-09-02T21:12:00.001-08:00

I really like knitting socks. For whatever reason, I decided the other day to sort out my sock yarn from my other yarn to see how many pairs of socks I can make. So, how many?

Well, in addition to the 4 or 5 pair that are on the needles at the moment, and all the socks I have already made, I could make 29 pairs of socks. That is a different pair of socks every day for a month. And what did I do during my break at work today?

Look on the internet at sock yarn.

my favorite? this stuff

getting ready for winter...

2009-08-14T20:56:00.003-08:00

Winter is a big deal in Alaska. It starts the beginning of October, lasts until the beginning of April. It is cold, and dark. Last winter it was 30 below zero for two weeks. Fall comes early; we've already seen some yellow leaves. The fireweed is already blooming only at the top, which in local lore, means that snow will be here in 6 weeks. As a matter of fact, I had a fire going this evening, but only a small, quick one, just to take the chill off.

We heat only with wood. We have a wood stove in the middle of our cabin, and in the coldest part of the winter, it burns continuously. A few weeks ago, we finished filling up our wood shed. The roof slopes, and at the front of the shed, the roof is about as high as I can reach. Last year, we burned about 3/4 of the shed full of wood. All of the wood in our shed, James cut into stove length with the chain saw, and anything too big around he split by hand with an ax. I have not yet mastered the art of splitting wood, but I am learning. James did the cutting and splitting, and the rest of us, including Steven, picked it up from where ever on the property it was cut, put it in a wheelbarrow, hauled it to the shed, and stacked it. Realistically, besides James, only Ryan and I are strong enough to move a wheelbarrow of wood, but the kids are great for picking it up and putting it in the wheelbarrow. This is definitely a job for the entire family.

The other major necessary thing for winter preparation is cleaning the chimney. We have a chimney brush, which is much like the brushes used for cleaning rifles, only bigger. James and Ryan climbed up on the roof and cleaned the chimney, resulting in lots of screeching noises coming from the chimney, and a pile of black soot on the floor of the wood stove. The soot was then shoveled into our ash bucket and taken out to the compost pile. We also caulked the seams in the chimney pipe, and replaced the gasket around the door of the stove. Everything is in tip top shape.

So, the most basic and necessary part of winter prep is done, which gave me a huge feeling of relief. My family will stay warm.

easy come, easy go....

2009-08-12T15:26:00.003-08:00

Just about a year ago, I was posting about my husband showing up with a brand new car. August 6, to be exact. One year and 5 days later, I am most likely saying goodbye to my little car.

At 12:15 this morning, I was on my way home from a quick trip to Ketchikan, and was only a mile and a half from home when a moose walked out into the road right in front of me. I was going about 55, and all I had time to do was think, "Oh CRAP!" before I hit it. It rolled up and over the car, luckily more on the passenger side, which was empty. With the way the windshield broke and the roof collapsed, it would have hurt if it had been on the driver's side.

The really scary part was that as I was driving down the road at 55 mph, with oncoming traffic in the other lane, my airbag deployed right in front of my face. I remember swatting at it, trying unsuccessfully to clear my vision, and focusing on making sure the car moved to the right. Since I couldn't see, my main goal was to NOT let the car go left, into the oncoming traffic. I was able to keep the car straight, and came to a stop on the shoulder of the road.

The moose was given to a charitable organization to be butchered, as is done with all moose roadkill here.

I suspect the car will be totalled. I have full coverage, but the insurance company will only pay resale value, so there will most likely be a gap between what they pay and what I owe. If they total it, we might take advantage of the cash for clunkers program, and trade in our 98 Durango that needs lots of work, and get another car. The problem is that the Mitsubishi dealership in Alaska closed, so we would have to do major car shopping. Yuck.

fireweed jelly

2009-07-24T12:02:00.006-08:00

The other day, I made fireweed jelly. Fireweed runs rampant around southcentral Alaska, and we have lots of it on our property. Since last summer, I have wanted to make jelly with it, and I finally got around to it. Ryan and I picked two shopping bags full of fireweed blossom ends, which left no noticeable dent in our fireweed population. Then we picked all the blossoms off the stems:

Then rinsed them, put them in a pot with some water, and heated them until the blossoms lost their color, which only took a few minutes. Then strained the water, which then was actually fireweed juice. The fireweed juice was an ugly light yellowish brown, not at all what I expected.

To the fireweed juice, I added sugar and a little lemon juice. As soon as I added the lemon juice, the mixture turned a beautiful pinkish-purplish color, the color of the blossoms. Very interesting chemical reaction, I thought.

I then brought the mixture to a boil, added pectin, boiled for another minute, and poured into jars. Sealed the jars, and voila! fireweed jelly, 28 1/2 pint jars. This isn't the greatest picture, but the jelly is a beautiful rich clear pink color. And delicious!

I really enjoyed this experiment, because I was able to harvest something that grows wild and abundantly on my property, and turn it into something delicious for my family.

canoeing trip

2009-07-11T13:19:00.004-08:00

This is a little behind the times, but last weekend we and another family we do a lot of stuff with went camping. We went to Tangle Lakes, which is about a 4 or 5 hour drive from our house, depending on how fast you go, and how bad traffic is. On Fourth of July weekend, with perfect weather, traffic was pretty bad, especially traffic of the rv variety. Motor homes go very slow on windy semi-mountainous roads, and you can only pass so many of them, since there are few truck lanes and the roads are, well, windy and semi-mountainous.

Traffic aside, the trip was wonderful. The campground was full, which we didn't mind, since we don't especially like the campground-that-looks-like-a-refugee-camp scene. We found a nice little lake on very rocky ground, so we could drive on it like driving on a gravel road, something we do every day anyway. No one else was camped on this lake, so we had it all to ourselves, the dogs could run around as much as they wanted(there were 5 of them, 2 of ours, and 3 of theirs), and so could the kids (6 of them, 3 of ours, and 3 of theirs).

James, Ryan, and Steven went fishing one day, and brought back 4 grayling, which were yummy cooked over the campfire. They say they caught and released many more, but no one in the other family likes fish, so they didn't want any to go to waste. (Our malamute ate all the fish parts that we didn't, and seemed to enjoy it tremendously.) We took the canoe out several times, and it was great. The lake we camped on fed into a larger lake. At the far end of the large lake, there was a beaver dam that we portaged across to a small stream that we followed until it got too shallow and rocky for the canoe. It was very pretty, and we found a beautiful spot that we could camp on if we wanted to load everything into the canoe the next time we go there.

We discovered that neither of our dogs particularly likes to swim, although one of the other dogs with us did and almost drowned because he followed behind the canoe for so long.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and very relaxing. This is the first time in a long time we have camped for enjoyment. Two summers ago, we camped on our property every weekend so that we could work on our house, and last summer we were tired of camping. It was great to be reminding that camping can be relaxing and enjoyable. We wore out the dogs and the kids:

first fruits

2009-07-10T23:36:00.003-08:00

Had my first strawberries of the season last night, after the sun had been on them all day, warming them and making them juicy. Yummm.......

alaska's in the top 10! Whoohoo!

2009-07-09T22:57:00.003-08:00

Except it's not something to be excited about:

Budget Nightmare: 10 Most Broke States

Basically, the Alaska state government gets close to 90% of its revenue from oil royalties and taxes. Not only is production decreasing steadily, but now the price of oil is much lower than it was last year.

Problem was, budget people forgot that even if the longterm trend in price of a commodity is up, it can always have dips, and if you make a budget without taking that into account, it will hurt.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

mary, mary, quite contrary...

2009-07-09T21:52:00.010-08:00

Well, my name isn't Mary, but I will show you how my garden grows. Everything is growing SO much better than last year. Our beds are quite rudimentary, hacked out of what was forest until sometime this spring. Hacked out by hand, I should point out, with nothing more than a couple of pulaski's, a couple of shovels, and some elbow grease. Mix it with some all natural fertilizer bought at the mill and feed (my compost isn't ready yet), and some wood ashes, give it some sun and some water, and here we are:

This is everything except the potatoes, strawberries, scallions, mint, and grapes. This does include two rows of raspberries, storage onions, lettuce, broccoli, swiss chard, peas and rhubarb. I know you can't see a lot of detail, but you can see how it had been part of the forest. It's kind of neat walking through the woods, past our campfire ring, and down a little path and suddenly instead of wildness, there are these neat little rows of edible things growing.

Here's the raspberries:

I got a late start on the peas, just planted them a week or so ago:

The storage onions:

Then, over in last year's beds, there are the potatoes and strawberries. The potato plants are much bigger than they ever got last year, and I am hoping the potatoes are as well. Last year we got lots of little potato marbles. We planted those marbles this year, and got:

And, last but not least, the strawberries, my favorite berry. The strawberries are out of control. Lots of nice, big, ripening berries, gazillions of runners everywhere:

I have to admit, although I love the strawberries the best, the thing I am most excited about, most hopeful over, and most anxiously awaiting harvest on, is the potatoes. Potatoes are a staple crop, and are nutritionally and calorie dense. If all else fails, potatoes will keep us alive. And with proper storage, will easily stay good until close to the next harvest. So I am hoping they produce this year. It is only my second year growing them, so I am certainly not counting my chickens before they hatch, but I am hoping I can get them mastered.

But, yeah, I really, really love strawberries.

a learning experience

2009-06-24T10:39:00.002-08:00

These are parsnips. A yummy, white root vegetable very similar to carrots. They are from my garden. But they are in my compost bin. So what happened??? Well, last summer was terrible for growing. Nothing in my garden grew well last year. Well, we were happy to see our parsnips growing this spring, and were hoping that they would finally get to harvestable size....

NO! I was reading the other night in "The Backyard Homestead" by Marjorie Page, and came across a section regarding wintering vegetables over in the garden. I was reading with interest, and it said, regarding parsnips, "be sure to harvest before second growth begins, as they become poisonous at that time." Whoa! This was total news to me. So we promptly pulled all the parsnips up and put them in the compost pile.

This was sort of a learning experience for me. I am not an experienced vegetable gardener. I am just sort of going along, learning, seeing what works. I knew things like rhubarb leaves are toxic, and if potatoes are left in the sun, they become inedible. But I had no idea about this. And these sorts of things are IMPORTANT. This was something I really needed to know before feeding them to my family. I shudder to think what could have happened if I hadn't happened to pick this book up at Barnes and Noble last week.

I guess my point is that it is important when you are embarking on a new project, to learn what you can from other sources, and not do it all by personal experience. Otherwise, you are in for some personal experiences that are less than pleasant.

Happy Birthday Steven!

2009-06-22T20:37:00.003-08:00

I know this is a little late, but on Wednesday, Steven turned six. And on Saturday, we had a party for him. We celebrated with a family that we hang out with a lot, and had cake, ice cream, presents, etc. I think he had a good time. My youngest is not a baby anymore. He's getting all grown up on me...

Disgusted...

2009-06-01T21:22:00.003-08:00

Well, GM fell today, sortof. I hate to say this, but it needed to. I personally think this huge bailout of banks, investment and insurance companies, automakers, etc. is ridiculous, and should never have happened. To put the icing on the cake, GM declares bankruptcy today, and gets another $30 billion in bailout money. What a way to reward failure! And then it turns around and grabs it's retiree's pension plans. Is that legal? I don't think so.....

Two really good blog posts on the subject:
On a Tightrope Without a Net by Sharon Astyk, and
June 1 2009 2: The Rule of Law Revisited by Ilargi at the Automatic Earth

The second blog post includes Ilargi's comments, as well as the text and links to, many financial news articles. I encourage you to read these excellent posts. When you read this, you may find that those "green shoots" are a little less healthy than the mainstream media depicts.

Not good news...

2009-05-23T21:19:00.004-08:00

New article about global warming:

"The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago - and could be even worse than that."

Twice as severe as previously thought. And what was previously thought was pretty damn bad. And if you read the article, it doesn't even account for "possible" methane releases as permafrost melts, as is happening already.

So, you know, the climate change thing is NOT going to be pretty. If we are lucky, we will not have committed mass suicide. We can only wait and see. And do everything we can to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions as much as we can, as fast as we can.

But how likely is that to happen, really? When we are in the middle of an economic crisis? People are thinking about how bad things are NOW, not how bad things will be later. So, in the long run, we are likely in pretty bad shape.

Spring has sprung...

2009-05-10T17:31:00.005-08:00

Well, it's been over a month since I posted here. My apologies, everyone. Life has just been incredibly busy between work and family. However, I have good news.... it is spring in Alaska.

I have noticed before that season change happens suddenly in Alaska. Two weeks ago, it was still winter, and there was still snow on the ground. I was feeling like it would NEVER be spring again. And here it is. Last summer was terrible. It was cloudy and chilly all summer long. But we have had more sunny, warm days so far this spring than we had all summer last year. It is looking good so far....

eruption

2009-03-29T10:07:00.004-08:00

(Photo courtesy of Trisha Sadler and the Alaska Volcano Observatory). Mt. Redoubt erupted four or five times yesterday, sending ash all over the place. Since I am in Fairbanks until Tuesday, I am sort of waiting to see if it continues. If there is ashfall in the area I need to drive through, I will have to delay coming home. I heard from my family that there was some ashfall at our place yesterday, but I wasn't there to see it.

acclimation

2009-03-28T22:47:00.003-08:00

I grew up in Maryland, the southernmost Northern state. In climate, it's pretty much a southern state. We did get snow occassionally, but it never lasted long. Big snow falls were the stuff of legends. I still remember the huge snowfall the winter of 1976, when the Chesapeake Bay froze. But when I learned to drive, I never really had to drive in the snow, except maybe once or twice a year. And when I did, it was just a matter of crossing my fingers.

Then I moved to Colorado, and later Utah. It snowed a little more often, but generally melted off the road within a day or two, usually helped by vast quantities of salt. The other consideration is that even in winter, the sun shone for many hours a day, and was still relatively direct and strong. I hated driving in snow, and did the slow, white knuckle, creepy-crawl every time I had to drive in it. The idea of going down even a small hill would make me nervous.

But in 2004, I moved to Alaska. I specifically decided to move Labor Day weekend because I thought we would be less likely to encounter snow in the Yukon early in September. We did get snowed on, but nothing major, and none while we were in the mountains, for which I was grateful, as I was pulling a heavy trailer with my truck.

So, we got to Alaska just in time for winter. Imagine my shock when I discovered that the snow didn't melt. It started snowing in October, and that first winter, the roads never cleared until March. Because the sunlight is not direct enough, strong enough, or long enough to melt anything, and it stayed cold, the snow on the roads simply compacted down into ice. Everything was covered in ice, several inches thick. And to compound the issue, I got a job in January requiring lots of driving all over town. To make a long story short, I learned to drive on ice and snow. By the end of the winter, I wasn't as frightened of driving on it. By the end of my second winter, I had slid off the road twice, and I learned from it. Fast forward to now, and I find myself today driving 300 miles to Fairbanks on roads like you see above in about five and a half hours, including a couple of potty breaks. Note that the trip from where I live to Fairbanks involves a fair amount of hilly terrain. No major mountain passes, but lots of hills and winding around the bases of mountains. Before living in Alaska, I would have said, NO WAY. But today, it was a nice drive, with no white knuckle moments. I will head home on Tuesday, assuming that Mt. Redoubt doesn't spew ash all over the place, making driving truly hazardous (It's very slippery, and it ruins your engine).

I guess my point is, people acclimate. When they have to, or choose to, people can adapt relatively well to changing circumstances. And circumstances are changing. Resource depletion, global warming, etc. will all affect us, and change our lives. There are plenty of predictions of chaos and collapse. But, if we are careful, we can adapt as things change. Hopefully, we will.

Monster

2009-03-25T19:19:00.002-08:00

This is Monster. He is joining our family tonight. He is a 3 or 4 year old Alaskan Malamute, who is retiring from mushing. This dog is HUGE. I pet him without bending over at all and his paws are as big as saucers. This is an interesting addition for us. Monster is an outside dog; his current owner says he has never lived inside. He has lived in the dog house you sort of see next to him, on a 4 foot lead when not pulling a sled, with about 30 other dogs in close proximity, as is quite typical with sled dogs. Doesn't seem like ideal conditions, but he is a happy, cheerful, exuberant dog.

We will be keeping him in somewhat different conditions, but we will have to keep him chained when not leashed, at least at first, until we are certain he will not run away. Gypsy, our current dog, is never chained or leashed, unless we are somewhere in a crowd where she has to stay with us, such as a playground. She runs around the neighborhood, but never goes far, so we don't have to worry about keeping her chained up. We only have one neighbor close enough for her to bother, and they seem to like her visiting. She is good with other dogs, and Monster is certainly used to other dogs, so we are hoping they will get along ok. We will continue to keep him an outside dog... sled dogs don't do well indoors, as they are conditioned to the cold.

We have thought about putting him to work... we have a huge pile of cut firewood that needs to be hauled to the wood shed for next winter, that is a ways away. We can hook a sled to his harness and fill it with wood, then have him pull it to the house. In addition, he will need lots of exercise, and at least until he can be let loose on his own, that means that one of us will have to get lots of exercise too, LOL. Guess I won't need to do the elliptical machine at the gym anymore. He is a big strong dog, and I hope I can keep him from pulling me all over creation. At least that would give James entertainment :).

I hope he likes it at our house.

a step in the right direction

2009-03-20T09:08:00.002-08:00

First lady, Michelle Obama, is planting a victory garden on the White House lawn.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29787424/

This is great news! Before this, sales of vegetable seeds for home growing had already drastically increased, as people started taking more food production into their own hands, which is a great thing. I am hoping that seeing the fashionable First Lady working with children to grow food on the White House lawn will encourage more people to start growing vegetables. I will post later about the importance of bringing back the victory garden, but for now, I just wanted to highlight this event.

Thank you, Michelle Obama.

Holy cow!

2009-03-19T14:56:00.002-08:00

Could this be the answer? We don't have cows, but with 5 people, we do produce some humanure. Check it out...

http://practicalaction.org/?id=biogas_expertise

Actually, I am guessing that even with 5 people, we probably don't produce enough to be useful as a power source, but it's a thought..... LOL.

utilities... the dilemma

2009-03-18T19:22:00.002-08:00

OK, so the following dilemma we are trying to solve may sound weird to some people that read this blog. The answer, according to some of you will probably be, but of course you should. And the answer, according to some of you, will probably be, but of course you shouldn't. But I don't know.

You see, currently we live in a small (950 sq ft) cabin. We built this as a temporary home until we could get our house built. Since then, we have been vacillating back and forth over whether to actually build the real house, or just figure out a way to add on to the cabin, but we are right now leaning towards building the house. The cabin just was not built with the idea of making it last the rest of our lives, and it likely won't.

So now, the current debate is, if we build the house, should we plan on wiring and plumbing the house for modern utilities. We have already decided that we are going to continue to heat solely with wood, so that is not at issue currently. What is at issue is cooking, water, and electricity.

Electricity. Right now, we have no electricity, although the cabin was wired for it. We use LED lanterns and a propane lantern for lighting. This is not an issue in the summer, when we don't even need a light if we wake up in the middle of the night. But in the deep part of winter, it is a bit challenging, and we went through 2 or 3 12-packs of D batteries and 2 or 3 small tanks of propane this winter. This also means that we don't have a fridge. We have been keeping things that have to stay cold in the arctic entry, which actually has been working very well. But that doesn't work in the summer, and last summer, we had a cooler outside that we kept full of ice from the store. The electric company wants $25,000 to get electricity to our property line, and our house will sit at least 150 feet back from the road. It would be extremely expensive to get traditional electricity to our home. In addition, solar power would probably not be a terrific option, since there are only a few short hours of light in the winter, and the sun stays extremely low in the sky. It would be great in the summer, though. We don't have a steady enough wind in our spot to make a windmill feasible, and we have no little stream for microhydro power. So, what do we do? Do we spend a fortune on electricity, or do we find alternative ways of living so that it is not necessary? There are ways to do that. For example, we have a north facing hill at the back of our property. We could dig into that, and make an ice house, where we could make ice all winter long, and pack it in straw or sawdust, that would likely stay frozen all summer if we insulate the door well, and keep the door closed. We could then store anything that has to stay cold in that. For me, light is the biggie. I really don't want to resort to candles or oil lamps, and I hate using so many batteries. The biggest benefit of electricity to me is to be able to flip a switch and have safe, sufficient light. If we could get LED or compact flourescent lighting, and were diligent about only having one or two lights on at a time, I don't know if we could generate enough solar power to run them. Also, in the summer, with solar panels, we could certainly generate enough electricity to run a high efficiency washer, but what about in the winter? Would I be washing clothes by hand? We currently use a laundromat, but that is certainly not a permanent, sustainable solution.

Water. The only running water is into and out of our kitchen sink. We have no hot water except what we heat on the stove. We have been planning to dig a well for our water supply. Luckily, this area has plentiful water, but because we are on the top of a hill, our well will have to be about 110 feet deep. Without electricity, that is a lot of distance to pump water by hand. In addition, it gets very cold in the winter. It got down to -35 this winter. We would have to find a way to keep the wellhead/pump from freezing. I know they have frost proof hand pumps, but will it work at -35? I don't know. The other option is to collect rainwater in a cistern. It rains a lot in Alaska in the summer, but would we be able to collect enough water from runoff on our roof to supply us all year? I think we would have to be extremely water conscious, and a dry year could be disasterous. Of course, if we get electricity, we can have an electric, underground pump for our well, and this would all be moot. The other water issue is waste. Right now, we are doing an impromtu composting toilet (such as desribed in the Humanure Handbook)Even though Alaska has plentiful water, it bothers me that we use so much perfectly clean drinking water to get rid of poop. We either have to figure out a way to use greywater to flush with, or consider composting toilets, also a great source of fertilizer, if you are careful.

Cooking. Cooking is currently managed by propane. We have a gas range converted to propane and it works quite well, including the oven, without any electricity. In fact, I like it better than an electric range. However, I am concerned about the supply of propane. I have said before that I think we are coming to a crisis point in the oil supply. Right now, it doesn't seem like much of a threat, because this economic collapse has lessened the demand for oil to a point that there is currently a supply surplus. But, as production inevitably declines, and demand gradually increases again, prices will go up, and availability will go down. I don't expect to be able to acquire or afford propane to cook with indefinitely. SO... do I put an electric range in the new house? Or, do I put a wood cookstove in the new house? I guess that all goes back to whether we get electricity or not.

So, all in all, it seems like electricity is a good thing. But again, I worry about future availability. As the economy continues to collapse, and resources become increasing scarce, what will happen? I think remote areas will gradually lose services, as it becomes more cost prohibitive to provide services to them. Already this is happening in rural villages across Alaska that never got a sufficient fuel or food supply for the winter. And what has the government been able to do to help? Talk about it in the state legislature saying what a shame it is. That sure gets people warm and fed. I don't want that to happen to my family. That is why I advocate growing a garden and that is why I am considering other ways of meeting our needs besides relying on the grid longterm.

So, yes, I am actually considering a wood cookstove, and yes, I am considering building an ice house, and yes, I heat solely with wood. And I have a supply of stored food, and I am trying a garden again this year.

Comments, ideas, critiques, PLEASE. And if I do opt to put in the electricity, what backups would be most workable? What do you think?

snow dogs...

2009-03-14T22:13:00.003-08:00

The Iditarod started last Saturday. It starts in Anchorage, and they run to Eagle River, about 15 miles. They then restart the next day in Willow. The reason they do this is that the Knik Arm doesn't freeze all the way across anymore, so they let the mushers bypass that crossing.

A friend of mine has a cabin on Long Lake, a mile or so from where the restart is, and we went out to her cabin last Sunday to watch. The dog teams run right down the lake. We stood outside and watched about half of the teams go by, then went inside by the fire to watch the rest, while my friend's husband took our kids snowmachining. This is Becky with him in the pic. The kids loved the snow machines. I tried it out too, but it felt a little unstable on the back. I think I would have liked it more if I had been the one driving, because I would have felt more in control.

It was really fun; we all had a great time. Thanks for inviting us, Christine!

March

2009-03-04T19:41:00.004-09:00

(No, this is not my cabin.) Somewhat of a crappy picture, but I forgot to take one while it was still light. Then, I only had my cell phone with me, instead of my camera, so that makes it even worse. But I think the picture is clear enough to get my point across.

Snow. Lots of snow. We got a foot and a half this past weekend. Then another couple inches today. The first winter I was here, it was trending warmer and starting to melt by the first weekend in March. Clearly not this year. There are big huge piles of snow surrounding every parking lot in the state, I think. And the other morning it was -10 when I left for work. Breakup is looking like it will be a bit late this year.

Good thing I like snow. And also a good thing we still have plenty of wood left for the wood stove. But hey, all this snow will be great for the Iditarod.

Coincidence, correlation or causation?

2009-03-02T12:49:00.004-09:00

This is an interesting graph. There is an article about it here. I first heard about it on NPR the other day, and it was concerning. Essentially, total household debt is aproximately equal to our GDP. This has only happened one time before, in 1929. I agree with the author of the article that the problem is not all the banks. We cannot blame all of the myriad problems that make up this "financial" crisis on the banks. We are as much to blame for buying into the concept that continually increasing debt is a good thing, as long as we think we can make our easy monthly payments.

Our entire society is based on this crazy idea of perpetual growth, with no concept of actual physical limits to resources or sensibility in consumption. All we ever hear is buy more, and more, and more. And every day, we accumulate more and more stuff, and this is supposed to (a) save our country and (b) make us happy. But in reality, our country is becoming worse off, as more and more of us just become fat, lazy, depressed couch potatoes, in debt up to our double and triple chins for our big screen hi-def plasma tv's, who can do nothing more productive that open a party-sized bag of cheetos. Oh, whoops, I am starting to sound a little bit like James Howard Kunstler, there, sorry.

We really are facing so many tough issues, from water scarcity and drought, as I talked about last time I posted, a couple weeks ago, to dwindling natural resources that are become ever more difficult to obtain, at ever greater cost to this place we live, to populations increasing way beyond carrying capacity in many areas of the world.

We have problems with education that are many and varied. On the one hand, students with disabilities often cannot get their needs met by the school system charged with doing so. On the other hand, brighter students are ignored and bored as teachers burden under the "no child left behind" mandate of teaching to the lowest common denominator. While I agree that all students should have a chance at becoming functioning adults, I also strongly feel that the children who truly excel intellectually should have their special needs met as well, benefitting society as a whole as we develop new Albert Einsteins and Leonardo DaVinci's.

We have problems with our workforce. Unemployment, as everyone knows, is incredibly high. In the meantime, more and more things are being done overseas, from cheap plastic toys from China that will poison our children, to customer service reps in India that can read a script in English, but can't answer a question they don't understand. It isn't their fault, English isn't their first language, after all, but it is a difficult situation for all involved when it happens. It seems like nothing is made here in America these days. I have gotten into the habit of looking to see where things are made when I am buying something lately, and I am always surprised if I see "Made in the USA" on it.

We have problems with housing. We all know the problems with subprime loans and other loans that were risky and are now falling apart. We all know that houses aren't selling, and are languishing on the market for months and years. But how many people realize that houses have been getting bigger and bigger over the years? In 1970, the average home size was 1400 square feet. In 2004, it was 2330. And the number of people in them is shrinking, as household sizes decrease. And bigger homes are more expensive, not only because of the increase in square feet, but also because bigger homes are usually fancier homes, so their cost is higher per square foot. More expensive means less affordable, bigger mortgages, that homeowners are less likely to be able to pay when times get tough.

We have problems with agriculture. With global warming. With erratic oil prices. With.... the list goes on and on. And somewhere in there is problems in financial markets and financial institutions, that surprise, surprise, aren't run for the benefit of depositors. They are run for the benefit of their shareholders, or the board of directors. To make a profit. And to continue to make profits when real wealth is declining, they have to invent all these crazy schemes that now are coming apart.

Yes, the banks are a part of it, but not the only part. Wow, as I look at this post, I realized that I am really ranting on and on today, but I am done for now.

is a global food shortage looming this summer?

2009-02-16T22:34:00.005-09:00

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article8768.html

This was an interesting article to read. The analysis is very simple. It looks at which countries produce the most food, and which countries are experiencing drought. Basically, all of the countries that produce large amounts of food are experiencing moderate to severe drought. Just based upon lack of rainfall, it appears that globally, we are going to have at least a 20 to 40% decrease in food production this year. And, yes, here in the USA too.

I have mentioned before that right now, we have the lowest food reserves in decades. Now is a really bad time to not be able to grow enough food, since we don't have enough stored to make up the difference.

We should all be doing the Victory Garden thing this year. Not only for our own food security, but every little bit we don't have to buy is some left over for someone else. But if we don't have enough water for farmers, will we have enough for everyone to have a vegetable garden?

It is high time to look at the ways we use water, and make decisions about what is really important. Is it more important to have a green lawn of grass in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or any of the other naturally dry areas, or is it more important to use that water to grow food? Is it really a good idea to take perfectly clean drinking water to flush our waste away? What can we do to conserve water, individually, and at a societal level, for the most important things?

Mt. Redoubt

2009-02-04T08:29:00.006-09:00

We have a volcano acting up a few miles away:

This is Mt. Redoubt, located just across Cook Inlet from Anchorage. The last time it erupted was during a 4 month eruptive period from Dec. 89 to April 90, during which it erupted several times. In the last week or so, it has suddenly gotten active again, and there is a likelihood that it will erupt sometime soon.

Depending on which way the wind is blowing when it happens to erupt, the ashfall may happen over Anchorage and Wasilla. So all the stores are selling out of dust masks and vehicle air filters, just in case. We cover our computers with plastic bags when we leave for the night, as volcanic ash is extremely abrasive and damaging to electronics, and gets into everything.

Updates on the volcano are available here: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Uh-oh

2009-01-26T20:41:00.003-09:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28808767/

Hello, global warming. This article reports that many farmers in California are not planning on planting this year, or don't know if they will be able to plant this year, due to drought. This isn't just little bitty farms, this is from some of the largest farmers, affecting thousands of acres of crops.

So, water shortages, food shortages, what next? We waited too long, and did nothing. This is going to get ugly. Just sayin'.

Pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off

2009-01-20T21:37:00.003-09:00

Today is a historic day, and for now, at least, I am hopeful. Our new President gave a stirring speech that addressed many of the problems that our country, and the world, are facing. He mentioned the economy, health care, our profligate energy use, the wars we are fighting, climate change. He was very clear that the road ahead will be difficult, and these problems won't be solved immediately. He says, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility." He talks about the fact that we cannot afford to consume more than our share of resources without considering those with less, and figuring out what to do about energy without emperiling our planet or financially supporting those who would wish us harm. He said it was time to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, and get to work. He is right.

Many articles I have read suggest that it may already be too late to avert damage to the planet from global warming, or prevent catastrophic effects of peak oil, due to our inaction. But listening to President Obama, I am filled with the perhaps irrational hope that maybe there is still time, if we truly put our shoulder to the wheel.

Yes, we can.

Brrr...

2008-12-30T23:12:00.003-09:00

I know the picture is a little blurry, but it says -29 degrees Farenheit. It's a little cold out tonight in Alaska. If I were in Fairbanks, as my husband and 13 year old son are tonight, I would be even colder... it is -38 there. And it's not even the coldest part of the night yet.

What does this mean for us, who do not have central heating run on natural gas and/or electricity, seeing as how we have neither in our cabin? Lots of wood. We heat with a wood stove, and it has been going literally all day. Normally, I get it going real good before I go to bed, then start it again for a few hours in the morning, but not tonight. Tonight, I must set my alarm to go off every 2 or 3 hours so that I can get up and add wood to the fire.

Last night, it was -10 or -15, and I let the fire die out overnight. When I woke up this morning, it was about 50 degrees in the house. Not cold enough to be dangerous, but chilly enough that I was reluctant to get out from underneath my warm down comforter to start the fire again. But it is much colder tonight, cold enough to require vigilance. So I will be getting up during the night.

It is interesting, living with a heat system that we must constantly regulate. This is the first winter I have not lived in a house that just automatically stayed at the temperature I chose, without me doing anything, or noticing at all for the most part. It means that in very cold weather like this, I am tied to the house. I cannot be gone too long if I don't want to have to start another fire when I return. It is much easier to keep the fire fed than to start a new one.

In addition, I had, without thinking, planned for the entire family to go to Fairbanks these last few days, to visit my oldest daughter. Then I remembered what all of us being gone for 4 days would mean. The house would get cold. I have pets that would not be terribly comfortable if the house got cold, and we certainly have things in the house that should not freeze. So then, a friend volunteered to come over to the house once a day to light a fire, to keep the house at least above freezing. But luckily I looked at the weather reports and realized that it would be getting this cold. One fire a day just would not be enough. So, I stayed.

I am not complaining. I would have liked to have seen Meghan, but it doesn't really bother me to stay home. I am just fascinated by how differently we think about things when we have to directly manage our needs, as opposed to setting the thermostat at 55 and leaving for 4 days, knowing what temperature the house would be on our return.

I wonder how different our society would be if all of us had to have this level of consciousness of all of our daily needs? If all of us had to bake our bread each week and know how much wood had to be hauled in the house each day, and so on. It seems to me that there would be much less importance placed on status and more on practicality. For example, we have about 950 square feet of living space. We would be cutting, chopping, stacking, hauling, and burning much more wood if we had twice the space. While there is a part of me that would love to be living in a fancier house, most of me is glad we built small. Especially when it is cold outside.

Are you scared?

2008-12-30T11:47:00.003-09:00

OK, so you have to watch ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's puppet, Achmed the dead terrorist on Youtube. My connection is slow, or I would show it here. It is very funny. There is one part on my mind today as I read the news. Achmed turns to Jeff after admitting to being a terrorist, and says, "Are you scared?" Jeff replies, "No, not really." Achmed growls threateningly. "How bout now?" he asks. Jeff replies, "No."

Well, I am. After a year of depressing economic, climate, and other news, I am. I was reading The Automatic Earth (http://www.theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/) and in one of the news clippings there is this qote: "We’re in the midst of a downward spiral and the momentum is building." I know this quote is only part of an article about home prices, but I find it accurate, and chilling. This is how I have been feeling watching the news the past several months. Journalists are talking about how things are looking bad for the first part of 2009 then start talking about a turnaround. Frankly, I think we are no where near bottom, and things are not going to magically get better in the next 6 months. The downward trend is still accelerating, in everything but the stock market. If we were going to pull out of this thing by June, we would be starting to see the numbers slowing their descent, but the opposite is happening.

Home prices are still falling by increasing amounts. Lending amounts are still plummeting, which not only affects home sales, but many businesses rely on lines of credit that are rapidly evaporating. Consumer confidence continues to decline. Unemployment claims are higher than ever. Retailers report the worst holiday sales in almost 40 years. Even Toyota isn't selling cars anymore, never mind the big three lumbering dinosaurs in Detroit that can't see their hands right in front of their faces. This is all bad news for our economy. Our stock market has plunged almost 40% in the last year, the worst since the big crash during the Great Depression.

Economists are still calling this a recession, but I am going to go out on a limb and say we are only in the beginning of a long and deep depression. And we can't climb our way out of this one by going to war... we are already in a war and we are wasting trillions of dollars over there, and it is not helping.

Let's talk about oil. Oil prices are incredibly low, when you compare them to where they were this summer. I don't see it shooting right back up there immediately, but I can't see it staying this low indefinitely. Right now, the price for oil is low because of a precipitous drop in demand, due to the high prices and the tightening economic situation. Now, as prices have fell so rapidly, there are reports that out of the vehicles that are being sold right now, a higher percentage of them are SUV's than when gas was expensive. Toyota is reporting a significant drop in sales of their Priuses. And demand for oil is slowly starting to increase again. China is filling their strategic reserves. I have heard that beginning January 1, we will start doing the same again. I support that. It is much smarter to do it now than when it was costing us close to $150 a barrel for the stuff. But this will increase demand, which will in turn increase the price. Economics 101. I learned about how this works when I was 14 and taking my first economics course. So when prices start going back up, it will just crimp consumers, businesses, governments, everyone just a little bit more. One less thing looking positive for a quick economic recovery.

And then there is the long term aspect of the oil situation. I am not an expert, but I have been paying attention. It is my position that we are close to or perhaps even past a world peak in oil production. What does this mean for our economic recovery? It means that the oil we get out of the ground from here on out will be more difficult, and thus more expensive, to produce. We have already gotten the easy, cheap stuff. The places we are finding new oil now are in places like deep water gulf of mexico or terribly harsh conditions like the arctic ocean. And they are mostly smaller deposits. We are unlikely to find another Ghawar or three. And if the oil we can get is more expensive, then the oil producers have little choice but to shut in the wells that are uneconomic to produce at $40 a barrel. Or, the price goes up. There have already been indications that the less economic wells are being closed, and new projects in hard areas are being cancelled. This bodes poorly for medium term oil production, as it takes a long time to get oil from a new discovery.

There are so many things worrying me right now. I could go on with this post for days, it seems. Lending to business is shrinking, retailers are doing poorly. There are going to be fewer things on the shelves. If that means less cheap plastic crap from China, maybe that is a good thing for us, but not for China. They are having severe economic problems as well. But if less things on the shelves means less potatoes, less rice, less of the essentials, we will find ourselves in a crisis in a hurry. Farmers also need lines of credit. What will next year's harvest look like if the farmers can't get the credit to buy seed? Maybe this isn't critical at the moment, but if credit continues to evaporate between now and April, who knows? I surely don't. But I can tell you one thing for certain. I am planting a garden.

Yes, I am scared. I think things are going to get a lot worse. But I am thankful that at least at the moment, my job looks secure. I have a house that I don't owe a lot of money on. I have room for a garden, and a box full of seeds. I have plenty of wood to keep my house warm. I have health insurance, and a relatively healthy family, and a wonderful husband that can fix or build just about anything. I live in an area that gets plenty of rain and snow, so water is thankfully plentiful. And I was able to give my kids what they felt was a good Christmas, at least this year. My personal angst about Christmas has not dampened their pleasure. I have many things that can help see me through hard times, so I feel blessed. I realize that not everyone has those blessings, and my heart goes out to them, as things get harder.

2009 is looking like it will be one wild ride. Fasten your seat belts.

Christmas hangover....

2008-12-28T14:33:00.003-09:00

So, Christmas was 3 days ago. The run up to Christmas was exhausting this year. We are perpetually last minute shoppers, and the crowded stores make us put it off as long as we can, because we really don't want to do it. In addition, this year, we have been suffering from a healthy dose of disgust. We are just tired of the consumerism that Christmas has become, with buying Christmas presents being the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do for Christmas. We pondered for some time the possibility of simply rebelling, of not doing Christmas. But recurrent thoughts of Santa coming down the chimney with sacks full of toys for good girls and boys were just too much. We could not figure out a way to just stop the madness without disappointing our children. So, eventually, we caved, and spent a ton of money on Christmas, more than we could really afford. In the meantime, up until Christmas Eve, I worked a LOT, put in a lot of overtime, as usual. So other things didn't get done. The handmade gifts I wanted to make, for the most part, didn't get made. The ingredients for the peppermint bark are still sitting on my kitchen counter. The Christmas cards never got sent. My mother's Christmas present didn't get mailed until Christmas Eve. The house is trashed, with remnants of wrapping paper all over the place, and cardboard boxes piled up by the wood stove waiting to be burned. I have the next week off of work, and am completely exhausted. Bah humbug.

Internet issues

2008-12-06T13:00:00.002-09:00

I have not posted recently... we are having issues with our internet. James was online last weekend, and the modem suddenly quit working, and we could not get it going again. I finally got around to calling AT&T on Wednesday, and we tried a whole bunch of things, but nothing. The next step is to get a new SIM card for my modem... I am going to do that today. My work schedule has been so busy this week, I just haven't had a chance to do anything. If the new SIM card doesn't fix the problem, they will have to ship me a new modem. SIGH.

And as for work? When I say busy, I mean it. 14 hours of overtime this week. Needless to say, I was determined to sleep in this morning, and I did, and totally enjoyed it. What kept me so busy? Well as many of you know, I am an investigator for the local child protection office, and I got assigned a new case with a baby that is a year old and weighs only 10 lbs. So when I saw this tiny baby, my immediate reaction was to tell the mom that we were going to the emergency room, RIGHT NOW. The baby had already been diagnosed with failure to thrive. There are lots of things that can cause a baby to be failure to thrive. If you admit the baby to the hospital, and feed it what it should be getting, and the baby starts gaining weight with no problems, that rules out any organic reason for the failure to thrive. It means that the parents are simply not feeding the baby enough, for whatever reason. So, the baby was admitted to the hospital, and now we just wait and see how she does, and also run some tests, blood work and such, to see if there are any other medical problems. However, from talking to this mom, it is pretty obvious the baby is not getting enough to eat, and not getting the right things.

Why does this happen? There are many reasons. And there are many factors within this family that have led to this. This family is an immigrant family, and there are language barriers. The family clearly has a lack of understanding of how to navigate the system to obtain services for their children. And there are certainly cultural issues at play. This little girl's two year old brother is perfectly healthy, except for a congenital defect that has required several corrective surgeries. Does this family come from a culture that devalues girls? I suspect so. In addition, only dad is working. Mom was fired because she took too much time off for her son's surgeries, so they face a loss of income as well.

All I can do is help mom access services and make sure that she follows up with this baby's medical needs. And if she can't do it, I will have to remove the baby from the home to make sure she gets what she needs to grow properly. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. But I just feel bad for this mom, because it seems as though all the cards are stacked against her.

Tolerance ... and Proposition 8

2008-11-19T21:14:00.007-09:00

As most people probably know by now, Proposition 8 is the initiative that was passed in California on Election Day that provides that marriage can only be between a man and woman. Lots of people are very upset that it passed, and there have been lots of protests. There have been several protests outside the LDS temple in Los Angeles. I am sure that part of the reason is that the church supported the passage of Prop 8. Here are some pics:

I can't get the pictures to line up well, but you get the idea. These photos were taken at a protest outside the LA temple. The gay rights movement is constantly asking for tolerance. If these pics are any indication, I think they are sadly lacking in a trait they demand from everyone else.

When you consider that only between 2 and 5 percent of the voters in California are Mormon, the vote clearly did not ride solely on the Mormon vote. And if most Mormons voted for Prop 8, so what anyway? Aren't we all supposed to vote for what we think is right, regardless of whether other people will like it?

Election repercussions?

2008-11-12T20:41:00.003-09:00

I had an interesting thing happened yesterday. James and I went to a local gun store, and got to chatting with one of the owners. He told us something interesting. In a normal week, he sells 1000 to 2000 rounds of ammunition. In the last week since the election, he has sold over 80,000 rounds. That is many times what he sells in a normal week. Turns out, people are saying they are worried that once Barack Obama is in office, he will immediately start restricting gun rights. Some people are even saying they think he will sign an executive order his first day in office outlawing guns.

I think that is ridiculous. First of all, you have to consider the second amendment to the constitution. As everyone should know, this guarantees the rights of individuals to bear arms. It takes major effort and time to repeal a constitutional amendment, and it would never pass. Secondly, with the recent ruling from the Supreme Court that strongly supports gun rights, he would be fighting an uphill battle to actually create a gun ban that would not be struck down by the Supreme Court. Third, he is a brand new president coming into office already facing many challenges. I really don't think he would want to alienate large numbers of Americans by pushing a gun ban, when he has much bigger fish to fry, such as the economy and health care, that he enjoys huge support for. He will gain political capital by working on those issues, and can only lose it by banning guns.

I don't think we have to worry just yet about losing our guns, but people are sure acting like it. Alaska is already armed to the teeth, but in the last week, gun and sportsmen's shops have all but sold out of guns and ammo.

Siding

2008-11-09T19:46:00.004-09:00

So, the bishop of our ward happens to own a log cabin business. In addition to providing full cabin packages, one of his other products is siding. This siding is made from logs that are sliced lengthwise, so that we have 10' long slices of log that are an inch thick. The slices of log are nailed in two overlapping layers along the sides of the house. The siding isn't done, but two walls are completely done, and the third wall is more than halfway sided. It should be completely done in the next few days, except for the tops of the gable ends. We haven't completely decided yet what we will do there, although James is leaning towards galvanized corrugated metal. The next project will be to weatherize the wood. We decided not to paint because we want to keep the wood appearance. So we will most likely do a colored penetrating stain, that adds some color but allows the texture and grain of the wood to shine through.

We like this siding for several reasons. It is rustic in appearance, in keeping with the character of the entire cabin. It is a local product, made from Alaskan logs that are milled less than 5 miles from my house. And buying it helps a friend.

The last two reasons are especially important from my perspective. It is important to us that we were able to use local products, and we wish it would have been feasible to do this with the entire cabin. If we had wanted a log cabin, we could have done much more of it with local materials, but that wasn't what we wanted, as 8 inch log walls only have a R10 insulation value. With economic problems becoming more severe, and oil depletion quickly becoming a looming issue, it is absolutely vital that local products be used as often as possible, in part to cut down on the distance things are shipped, and in part because I believe it will soon become necessary to rely on local products for many items that will become not worth shipping, so we need those businesses to stay open.

In addition, there is the issue of helping someone I know. Community building is critical with the economic struggles our nation is facing. In times of economic crises, people depend on the people they know for support. Studies have shown that the people that best weathered the Soviet collapse had networks of friends, neighbors, etc outside of the main economic system that they relied upon. If things get worse, and I very much suspect they will, those community ties will become critically important. I buy siding from my friend. Maybe I will give some raspberry jam from next year's harvest to a friend. That friend may drive my kid to school. And so on. And if we all help each other, we will get by much better than each family struggling to do it all. And in the process, develop those social ties that are important on an emotional level as well. That friend that gave you a bushel of potatoes may be the person you call on the phone when your camel's back has been broken by that last straw, maybe something major like a foreclosure, maybe something little like a draining day with quarrelling children, and you just need someone to talk to. And maybe they may turn to you for something big, like space on the floor to sleep if their heat breaks in the middle of winter, or they run out of heating oil, and the barge doesn't come back til spring.

So, yeah, I have siding on my house :)

the canary in the coal mine

2008-10-29T11:02:00.005-08:00

"The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming … and the canary has died.” - Dr Jay Zwally, a glaciologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

http://links.org.au/node/683

So, we did not have a record loss of arctic sea ice this summer as we did in 2007. No, we only had the second largest sea ice loss ever. And during a summer that was exceptionally cool and cloudy. It was cool enough this summer that most crops were several weeks behind schedule, and some things didn't produce at all up here.

I don't want to repeat the entire article linked above, but some of it, I just have to.

"The Arctic is key to the world’s climate, and Arctic changes have the potential to seriously destabilise the global climate system...The danger is that an ice-free state in the Arctic summer will kick the climate system into run-on warming and create an aberrant new climate state many, many degrees hotter. The Arctic sea-ice is the first domino and it is falling fast. Other dominos will inevitably fall unless we stop emitting greenhouse gases and cool the planet to get the Arctic sea-ice back. " [emphasis added]

So see, big deal, huh? Read on....

"And so the conclusions we reached in November 2007 were:
• Because of the dangerous knock-on effects caused by its loss, the Arctic sea ice must be restored to its normal extent as fast as possible.
• To get the Arctic sea ice back we need to cool the earth by about 0.3ºC. If we don’t, we cannot avoid very dangerous climate impacts. There is no third way. This is the new very inconvenient truth politicians seek to avoid.
• To cool the earth fast enough to get the Arctic sea-ice back quickly, we need to move to zero greenhouse gas emissions as fast as the economy can be restructured, and is environmentally safe to do so, and take about 200 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air. We also need to find environmentally-safe mechanisms to actively cool the earth while navigating this transition. [emphasis added]
• Taken together this is a staggering task in terms of the necessary scale and speed of action, but there is simply no alternative if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. "

Catastrophic climate change. We are not talking a little bit warmer. We are talking mass eradication of species, severe desertification of current agricultural land, massive releases of methane from permafrost and arctic seabeds. And to prevent it, we have to not just cut back on greenhouse gasses. We have to stop them. Get to ZERO emissions. Heck, even my woodstove emits greenhouse gasses. The article suggests:

"The climate emergency requires leadership and courage, and an imaginative capacity almost completely lacking in ... politics today. We need to inspire people with the idea of transformative action, the willingness to promote a new vision of the future and make it the number one goal of our society and economy. It requires governments to put much of the enormous wealth generated by our economy into the solving the climate crisis. "

and...

"If politicians cannot lead, then we all must, in building a movement across society that uses the brutal reality of our position to advocate and inspire the nation to take transformative action. We can only play this game once. If we don't do enough, or at sufficient pace, in building a post-carbon economy, the climate system will get away from our capacity to correct it. Trial and error climate policy is not an option. Waiting for the market is not an option. The Arctic is our Pearl Harbor."

Does anyone really need a $150K wardrobe?

2008-10-23T21:58:00.003-08:00

I don't think so. Not even our beloved governor turned vice presidential candidate. According to news reports, the republican party has spent over $150 THOUSAND on clothes for Sarah. Most at Neiman Marcus. She is supposedly donating them to charity when she is done, but so what? For someone that is trying really hard to portray herself as a soccer mom, a typical suburban woman, this isn't working. It's just silly and disgusting.

My economic stimulus plan

2008-10-20T22:11:00.004-08:00

OK, so the title may be a little bit grandiose, but to be perfectly honest, I think they have it all wrong. They being the know-it-alls in Washington that have come up with one harebrained scheme after another to waste citizens' money. They keep saying taxpayers, but I am damn sick and tired of being called a taxpayer or a consumer. Anyway, this is what I think they should do:

1. Bring the soldiers home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep them overseas. We can put that money to better use.

2. Repeal TARP, the $700 billion bandaid for the credit crisis. I have a couple of reasons for this. First, I don't think it will work. There is a lot more than $700 billion in bad paper out there, and once we start, where do we end? There was one bank that said it had over $300 billion all by itself. Secondly, the vast majority of citizens are against the plan, and I think we count a lot more than all the Wall Street corporations put together.

3. If a bank lent money it should not have, or an insurance company insured loans they should not have, or an investment firm made bad bets, they need to take their losses. If I were to invest money in the stock market, and lose it, or to lend money to someone and not get it back, there would not be any government agency standing by to hand me my money back. It should not work for them either.

4. Instead of this new economic stimulus package they are talking about, which is just another attempt at a quick fix, a get-rich-quick scheme on a national level, we should be investing that money in a way that will pay off in the future. Think New Deal. Invest in fixing the electrical grid that is old and worn out and in danger of a major collapse. Invest in alternative energy projects that will help reduce our reliance on oil. Get the railroads back in good condition, as shipping freight by rail is much more efficient than by truck. Get the CCC reactivated for these things. Not only will these things help us in the future, but using something like the CCC will create jobs. Unemployment is relatively high right now, and this type of program would help lower it, and thereby put more money in people's pockets. Slower than sending out a check to everyone, but more effective in the long run.

5. Institute a foreclosure moratorium for families who just had their rates readjusted or are newly unemployed. There should be some guidelines about this, so people that just decide to quit paying their mortgages because they are underwater don't get bailed out, and so that people can't just pay nothing and live there for free. Put in place rules for renegotiating their mortgages so that it is a uniform process.

6. Encourage victory gardens and local food production. Food prices are rising, more people are applying for food stamps, food banks are used to capacity and more. The cost of transporting food across the country is astronomical, and wasteful. For things like olive oil, that can only be produced in certain areas, fine. But Alaskans should not be buying potatoes from Idaho.

7. Create MAJOR incentives for increasing energy effciency. Things like carpooling, using public transportation, switching to higher mpg vehicles. We can save energy in other areas besides transportation too. The better insulated a house is, the less energy it takes to keep it warm/cool. Individual families that make plenty of money may not find this important, but as a nation, it is essential that we use less.

8. Create MAJOR incentives for making things here in the US. Almost everything I buy these days says it is made in China, Indonesia, somewhere besides the US. That needs to change.

I am sure I can think of other things, but this, to me, is a good start. I think it would help get us pointed in the right direction, away from the mentality that the only things that keeps the economy going are consumer spending and banks lending to each other.

as promised....

2008-10-18T19:31:00.006-08:00

Here are pics of my new kitchen:

As I said earlier, I am very excited about having a real kitchen in my house. I have cabinets, a sink, a stove, tile floor... it's all there.

Now for the details... the stove is propane, connected to a couple of 100 pound tanks out back. Turns out a natural gas stove converts to propane just by changing one little part. This stove does not require any electricity to work, not even the oven. This is a good thing, since I don't have any electricity.

I do have running water, however, of sorts. We have a 150 gallon water tank upstairs that has a faucet emptying into the kitchen sink. It will go to the bathroom sink too, eventually. We can't use our pretty kitchen sink faucet however, because it turns out that gravity does not supply enough pressure to force the water through the faucet at anything more than a dribble. So we have a temporary faucet that is just like a typical outdoor faucet, until we have more pressure. What we don't have yet is hot water. If we need hot water, we heat it on the stove, or on the woodstove, if it happens to be hot. Our water situation is by no means a perfect one, but it works for us for now.

So, I have a kitchen. I have lived in this cabin since April 1 without a kitchen (you can see the pics here and here of my previous setup). This is a vast improvement, one I am totally psyched about.

Assault with a deadly spork...

2008-10-17T21:26:00.002-08:00

James called me earlier today to read me this story he found while reading the Anchorage Daily News. I think it is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Apparently some guy had lunch at KFC, and must have gotten some serious indigestion or something... he stabbed a guy with his spork, oh excuse me, hybrid fork spoon utensil. When James read this to me, my reaction was, are you KIDDING me?

http://www.adn.com/crime/story/558820.html

I love Alaska.

long time no see

2008-10-15T15:35:00.002-08:00

Well, I knew it had been a while since I last posted, but not until I looked at my blog did I realize it has been over a month. WOW. I have been insanely busy at work, getting lots of overtime, and the commute is taking up just about all the rest of my waking hours. Add church activities, sick kids (even just the minor colds and stuff they have require attention), listening to news about the financial mess, the excitement about having an oven to bake with, I have no time.

BUT DID YOU HEAR THAT???? AN OVEN TO BAKE WITH. I am leaping with joy. I am absolutely, completely ecstatic because I have a real stove. This weekend, I will post pictures on my blog of my beautiful new kitchen.

I have three days off this weekend. I am absolutely thrilled to have all that free time. I don't know what I will do with it all.... oh wait, I will bake bread. I will knit. I will play piano. I will post pictures and erudite soliloquies on my blog. I will spend time with my kids, maybe playing in our snow. I will plant daffodil bulbs and hope they survive the winter. I will.... wait, what happened to all my free time????

welfare

2008-09-10T08:12:00.003-08:00

I have to start this post by saying that my mom is one of my favorite people. And I don't really want to pick on her. But recent events have me thinking a lot about something she said recently. See, my mom and I get along pretty well. But we totally disagree on a lot of political and economic issues. My mom is a staunch republican, and I am independent, but lean towards the democrat view when it comes to economics. So my mom and I were talking the other day, and she was saying that she votes Republican because "they seem to take better care of my money. They don't try to give it away in welfare to people that are too lazy to work."

Well, no, I agree the Republicans don't give money to the average Joe. Or the poor Joe, who may be poor because he is lazy, or does drugs, or may be poor because he has limited abilities, or poor health, or something else completely outside of his control. Or poor Joe's kids, who are also poor through no fault of their own. But they sure as hell give it away. Who do they give it away to? Um, let's see.

Oil companies that make the biggest profits ever seen get huge ~~welfare~~ subsidy payments.

Banks that make stupid lending and investment decisions, lose BILLIONS of dollars, and still pay their worthless CEO's hundreds of millions of dollars per year, get huge ~~welfare~~ bailout funds (um, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, maybe Lehman Brothers soon).

The Big Three automakers, who couldn't see high gas prices coming (I could see it coming, and I am not getting paid a gazillion dollars a year to pay attention to what direction the market is going) and now can't get loans at a "reasonable" interest rate, looks like they will be getting more billions of dollars in ~~welfare~~ low-interest, guarenteed loans from the government to retool their factories so they can stay in business. Never mind that an individual that made stupid decisions and blew their money can't get a loan at a "reasonable" interest rate either... it's common sense not to lend in that situation, but let's hand out money to the Big 3.

Airlines, who also didn't see the high gas prices coming, are getting huge ~~welfare~~ subsidy payments. They are going bankrupt anyway, one by one.

I could keep going. But individual people, who didn't see high gas prices coming, can't get any increase in the heating assistance program, even though heating costs, especially for those dependent on heating oil or propane have gone up astronomically. Individual people, who didn't see high food prices coming, and whose salaries don't keep up with inflation or the rising cost of medical care, can't get increases in medicaid coverage for their children. Soldiers who risk their lives everyday on the battle field, and too often these days sacrifice everything for their country get paid so poorly that their family back home scrapes by on food stamps.

My mom's beef is that helping these people comes out of her pocket, and that of every American lucky enough, smart enough, ambitious enough, whatever, to make enough money to pay taxes. But how much is bailing out Freddie Mac going to cost her, me, every other taxpayer? A hell of a lot more than funding a program to help people keep their homes warm. How much do we spend every year in subsidies to oil companies that make $40 billion in profits? More than what it would cost to pay a soldier enough to be able to provide for his family, or give him adequate healthcare if he is injured.

I just think that individual people and their families, matter a whole lot more than corporations. And I know that all these industries are important to our economy, but I think that if people have no safety net in hard times, then businesses should not either. It is much more tragic for a child to starve or freeze to death, than for a corporation to fail, no matter how large.

For me, the bottom line is that Republican care about big business, and making money. Democrats care about people. That's why I tend to agree with them on economic issues.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

nature's bounty

2008-09-05T16:41:00.003-08:00

On Labor Day, we went hiking with some friends at Hatcher's Pass. While we were there, we decided to do some berry picking. The blueberries were plentiful. They are more tart than cultivated blueberries, but they are still delicious. We picked til we got tired of picking, then came home with close to a gallon of blueberries. We could have gotten lots more, but this wasn't a serious berry picking expedition, and our hands were getting cold, so we quit.

from my garden...

2008-09-05T16:33:00.003-08:00

Yummy! These were picked off the raspberry bushes in my garden for the sole purpose of breakfast the other morning. They were absolutely delicious. It is things like this that make me glad to have a garden....

raindrops on roses

2008-08-25T19:09:00.003-08:00

and whiskers on kittens....

A while back, the kids brought home a stray cat that looked pregnant. She wasn't. However, with the combination of her and an unfixed male cat that we thought was too young to accomplish anything (after all, he was just born in November), she quickly became pregnant. So, we now have, in our 950 square foot cabin, two adults, three kids, one dog, and six cats. At least four of the cats are tiny and only temporary residents. And right now, they stay put in their little box. But I know that at some point they will be underfoot, and we will all have to be very careful. I have never had a cat have kittens before, and they are just adorable little creatures. Not any of them look like either of their parents, though.

the perfect s'more

2008-08-25T11:20:00.002-08:00

One of the things my kids really like to do is build a fire, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We do this every two or three weeks, and it is a lot of fun for them. James has figured out how to make great s'mores.... check it out...

stone

2008-08-10T21:45:00.004-08:00

We got the floor for the Arctic entry in. I think I may have talked about this in a previous post, but now I have a picture :)

James found some natural stone on sale, and bought enough for the arctic entry, plus some. He laid the stone, and I put in the grout. I am really happy with the way it looks.

I really enjoy projects like this because in such a small space (5 x 7), you can do a lot to make it look nice and improve the functionality of the area without spending a fortune, and get it done fairly quickly.

Once sealed, the stone will be perfect for the arctic entry. It is an area of the house that will be subject to heavy traffic, mud, snow, water, ice, dirt, etc. being left on it, and frequent temperature changes. Stone handles this well, as it is naturally exposed to all these things anyway.

Seduction

2008-08-06T19:23:00.003-08:00

So, remember back in March, I said: "We could have gone out and bought a new car, no problem. But it just didn't seem like the sensible thing to do. We just paid off our Dodge Durango in January, and I am very happy to be free of car payments. And if I can't get a $20K new car that can match the gas mileage of a $750 car, I just don't see any benefit to it at all." (http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html) Well, that was my common sense speaking.

But I guess I don't always think with that. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know we have been having issues with our little Geo. Well, yesterday morning halfway through our 55 mile commute, we lost one of our three cylinders. We were able to nurse it into Anchorage, but it was clear that the engine rebuild could not wait any longer. I spent a couple hours yesterday calling around to try to find out how much it would cost to fix, and how long it would take.

Late in the afternoon, James called me. "Come outside," he said. So I went outside, and saw him sitting in a sexy little red car.

"What do you think?" he asked me.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. He was test driving it. Then I test drove it. And I liked it more. I kept thinking, "I don't want a new car. I don't want car payments and full coverage insurance. I don't want a new car."

"We could fix the Geo," I said, trying to maintain common sense.

"What do you want to do?" he asked me. And the rest is history:

I am now the proud (and somewhat abashed) owner of a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer. It has been averaging just over 30 mpg, so it isn't totally extravagant, but boy, its a long way from my Geo Metro. And I love it.

Quick update

2008-07-31T21:15:00.002-08:00

Haven't had a lot of time to blog, even with the new computer. Work has been crazy busy, and home life has been crazy busy, and between the two there is not much time left over. I have been working lots of overtime at work. I am working again Saturday, but I am going to try out the new computer with the working from home thing.

James found some beautiful stone tile on sale at Home Depot, and we are in the process of putting a floor in the arctic entry. We have the tile laid, sealed and grouted, but we need to touch up the grout a little bit and reseal it. When it is done, I will post a picture of it. We also looked at cabinets and we think we have some picked out for when PFD's get here.

A friend of a friend gave us some foam blocks about 4 inches thick that we are putting around the bottom of the house to keep the underside of the house warm. It will save us a lot of wood this winter. (this friend also has cashmere goats and gave me a bag of their fur. I am very excited, but I can't bring it in the house til I wash it, cause it smells goaty.) Also, James has the plumbing for water out of the house done, and is working on the plumbing for water coming in to the house.

Ryan has been ordained a deacon, and Becky is getting baptized this Saturday. Like I said, lots going on.

technology on the last frontier

2008-07-25T20:56:00.003-08:00

So, my little cabin in the woods now is on the leading edge of technology. I have no electricity, no phone lines, cables, or satellite dishes on my property, or anywhere nearby. But I am online. I now have a laptop computer, and an internet connection. I bought a car charger for my laptop, and I can also plug it in at work. I am looking at getting extra batteries too. But the cool thing is the internet. You see, my cell phone service is through AT&T, and they have this cool gizmo that hooks into a USB port in my new laptop, and voila! I am connected. It is essentially a cell phone for my computer. It is very cool. So I am sitting here at my kitchen table, blogging. It also means that I can work from home one day a week or so, to cut down on the commuting. This is especially good since my little Geo is going through oil at the completely alarming rate of a quart every time I get gas. We are thinking we should have rebuilt the engine when we fixed the head. Now we will have to take it apart again, it looks like.

thought provoking

2008-07-18T17:00:00.001-08:00

A recent post (http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/16/sleeping-beauty-and-why-you-should-think-about-peak-oil-even-if-it-seems-much-nicer-not-to/) on Sharon's blog got me thinking. She says:

"Is it possible to imagine any other time in American history when we would have consented to see an entire major city laid waste, without ever rebuilding even its most basic infrastructure? Is it possible to imagine another time when we would have shrugged and accepted the knowledge that our basic infrastructure, things like highways, sewers and subways, are simply falling apart and that we have no intention of fixing them? Is it possible to imagine another time when we knew we were in danger of handing our children a future of hunger, poverty and drought, and sat around debating whether congress might want to consider raising fuel efficiency standards? Has there ever been a time in history when citizens felt so powerless to stop the forces that were driving them to disaster? ... Few of us have put all the pieces together, but when we failed to rebuild New Orleans, when we accepted that we can't afford the tax base to keep bridges from falling on motorists and sewers from backing up, when we accepted that electric grid failure will kill people in the inevitable heat waves, we implicitly acknowledged what we have not yet faced up to consciously — that things have changed, and many of our problems are going to continue getting worse because we either lack the will or the money or the energy or the time to fix them."

You should read her post. It is very thought provoking. Essentially her point is that we keep talking about what will happen when TSHTF (when the sh*t hits the fan), with peak oil and a host of other problems we are facing, but that it is happening now. It is no longer a matter of when. Even before reading this article, after much discussion between my husband and I, we are convinced that it isn't a matter of when. It is happening, all around us.

eklutna lake

2008-07-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we decided to do something fun as a family, so we loaded up all the bikes, and went for a bike ride on a trail that runs alongside Eklutna Lake. It was absolutely beautiful. We made it probably halfway to the glacier, about 6 miles, before we had to turn back because we didn't want Steven to get too tired to make it back. He made it the whole way, though, on those little legs. It was really cool to watch James pedal alongside Steven, holding onto Steven's handlebars, helping him up the hills.

the hills are alive with the sound of music...

2008-07-08T16:37:00.001-08:00

I bought this piano last week. It is in great shape, seems like it only needs minor tuning, and best of all, only cost $125. I am very excited. Now I can have music in my house without electricity!

XON SUX

2008-06-28T12:24:00.001-08:00

I saw this on a personalized license plate the day before the verdict came out from the Supreme Court regarding the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and thought it was great, but it was something I would have easily forgotten. Then the next day, the entire state of Alaska got pissed off all at once. Now, I have not read the decision, but I have read a summary of their explanation. The decision limits punative damages to an amount equal to the compensatory damages ONLY in cases involving maritime law. I never took a class in admiralty law, and have not dug out my notes from my law school classes in remedies, but this seems to be a drastic departure from current punitive damages cases, and a very narrow decision that only affects... Exxon.

Let's talk a moment about McDonald's, specifically Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants. A woman spilled hot McDonald's coffee on her lap. She was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, including medical bills, pain and suffering, etc. She was then awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages. Later, the appeals court reduced her punitive damages award to $480,000, more than twice the compensatory damages.

in Philip Morris USA v. Williams (2007), the Court's decision was based on the idea that more reprehensible misconduct justifies a larger punitive damage award. Let's think about this a little bit. So, McDonald's had to pay more than twice the compensatory damages for a woman that spilled hot coffee on her lap while trying to add cream and sugar holding the cup between her legs. The court found that the woman was partially at fault, and she was still awarded more than twice the compensatory damages in punitive damages. But Exxon, whose drunk boat pilot ran aground and spilled millions of gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, effectively damaging hundreds of miles of coastline and completely trashing an ecosystem, only has to pay an amount equal to compensatory damages, even though they were clearly wholly at fault???? WTF?

Exxon argues that they paid their money, fixed the problem, cleaned up the mess. Baloney. There are still shellfish fishermen pulling up globs of oil from the ground under Prince William Sound. The fishing has still not recovered. The mess is still there.

It amazes me that the 9 people entrusted by the citizens of the United States to DO THE RIGHT THING, all the time, can put the interests of a huge corporation, who makes the largest profits that any corporation has ever made (in case we have forgotten, $40 billion in one quarter), ahead of 600,000 people living in the State of Alaska, who would very much like to be able to swim, fish, live in and around Prince William Sound without worrying about contamination from oil. Who can't catch enough fish anymore to even make it worth putting the boats in the water.

The entire idea of punitive damages is to PUNISH the corporation, so they think twice next time. What are they going to think about $500 million in punitives? 1/80th of the amount of their profits in one quarter? No biggie. Makes me feel like the U.S. Supreme Court thinks of Alaska not as a state with many American citizens that they should be protecting, but as a pretty cheap whore. Thanks, guys.

Exxon Sucks.

vacation

2008-06-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

"Vacation, all I ever wanted. Vacation, had to get away" - The Go-Go's

Last week, Ryan, my 13 year old, and I flew to Maryland to visit my mother. We spent 3 days at the beach at Ocean City, Maryland, and a day and a half in Washington DC. It was a week of constant motion, as Ryan seems to have an unlimited font of energy.

At Ocean City, we spent lots of time on the beach, walked the boardwalk, ate yummy boardwalk food, and let Ryan ride the amusement rides. The only ones I do are the carousel and the ferris wheel, as I get motion sickness very easily. Ryan seemed to especially enjoy the bumper cars. Playing in the ocean was a lot of fun; it has been years since I played in the ocean, and I had forgotten how much fun it was, and what salt water tastes like. I had a really hard time leaving the beach when it was time to go. I brought 50 SPF sunblock and it was a good thing that I had it, as my pale Alaskan skin was not used to all that sun exposure. I managed to get a little sunburn anyway, especially on the backs of my knees.

In DC, we had great Indian food in Georgetown, and I bought some Godiva chocolate. We spent a day at the mall (no, not a shopping mall, but a large grassy space with the Washington Monument at one end and the Capitol at the other, with museums and such on the sides) and saw the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and the National Archives. Ryan wanted to climb the 555 steps to the top of the Washington Monument, but we ran out of time. Then we had dinner in Chinatown. My feet were sore enough after the museums that I insisted on riding the Metro 4 blocks from the mall to Chinatown instead of walking.

The flight was 9 hours in the air each way, with a layover in Dallas. Each time, the plane leaving Dallas was delayed due to mechanical problems. On the way to DC, the plane from Dallas to DC was delayed an hour or so due to a problem with the toilet. The valve was broken, and I guess they didn't want to drop sewage all the way from Dallas to DC. Eeew. On the way back to Alaska, the plane was delayed about 3 hours because of a wiring problem. It turned out to be absolutely ridiculous. First we waited while they tried to fix the wiring problem. Then we waited while they located another airplane (which by the way, was clear across the airport in a completely different terminal). Then we waited while they got that airplane ready and transferred our stuff from the broken airplane. Then we waited because our "paperwork" had expired and they had to get new "paperwork". Then we taxied out to the runway, and waited some more because we needed to file a new flight plan. By the time we finally took off, we were 3 hours late, and everyone on the plane clapped when we got off the ground. When we got to Anchorage, we waited some more because another plane was parked at our gate.

I guess I find it interesting and concerning that two of the four airplanes I was on had mechanical problems that delayed the flight. I am not even remotely suggesting that we should have flown with mechanical problems. No, I would much rather be confident in the plane's ability to reach our destination safely. What I find concerning is that half of the airplanes had mechanical problems that were not discovered until just before boarding the planes. We know that the first priority of any corporation is to make a profit. Are the airlines cutting corners in an effort to scrape by? Does that put the safety of air travel at risk? We know that companies do that... look at BP and the recent pipeline leak in Alaska. They were cutting corners to minimize maintenance costs, and a large leak was the result. Cutting corners to minimize maintenance costs on passenger airplanes could be lethal. I hope that is not what is happening.

"We need a dramatically different energy policy for our country"

2008-06-11T08:44:00.001-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25010939/

Gas prices, as everyone knows, are up. Way up. Out by my house, "cheap" gas is $4.26 a gallon. And drivers are struggling with the higher prices. For the first time in recent memory, people are actually driving less (and gas prices are still going up). From reading this article, even mass transit programs are struggling. Ridership is increasing because people are driving less and taking mass transit more, but the increase in the number of fares paid is not keeping up with the rising cost of fuel to run the trains and buses.

The airlines are having huge difficulties, and I think they are caught in a catch 22. They can't afford to fuel their planes, so they are cutting down on flights, imposing baggage fees, and so on. In order to meet the rising cost of fuel, they need to dramatically increase fares. However, if they do that, many fewer people will travel, and the airlines will be flying emptier planes, and still not able to pay for the fuel.

The thing is, people don't understand what is going on. The last time gas prices climbed like this, there was an oil embargo. Somebody saying, "No oil for you." This time, why are gas prices climbing? Why are oil prices at $135 a barrel? It's because there is not enough of it. Between stagnant production, declining exports from exporting countries due to their own internal rising demand, and rapidly increasing demand from developing economies like China, which has recently discovered that they, too, should be able to live the American Dream, there simply is not enough to go around.

Then there is the other problem with our energy use... what we are doing to ourselves in the process. We are a bunch of frogs sitting in a slowly heating pot of water, oblivious to the trouble we are getting ourselves in because it is happening relatively slowly. At least, climate change, although accelerating, is happening more slowly than our gas prices are increasing, and we don't ever solve problems until they are PROBLEMS that have to be dealt with RIGHT NOW. And by the time it has to be dealt with right now, it will be too late to avert many of the consequences.

Can't people see that we need to do something different?

Hello??? McFly???

update...

2008-06-10T15:29:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I posted... I had to look at my sent items on my email to figure out the last stuff I posted, and a lot has happened since then. I took a trip to Utah, which was great, although the last two days I was there it was in the 80's and very hot. I got to see lots of family, and my best friend, Aonika. It was my good luck that one of James's cousins had her baby while I was there, so I got to hold Eric, my new first cousin once removed, or something like that. He is beautiful.

On Memorial Day weekend, James built a tool shed. It is a simple 8x12 saltbox, and incredibly useful. Our tiny cabin had tools literally every place we looked, and now there is not a single one anywhere but in the shed. I am pleased.

Our garden is doing much better than I expected the first year, at least so far, although I must admit I have not been able to eat out of it yet. By "much better than I expected" I mean that things are growing and not dying. Our peas are a good 3 inches tall now, both shelling peas and snow peas. Our strawberries are doing great, except something is eating some of the leaves. The rhubarb is growing like a weed; it's at least 3 times its original size. Our squash, tomato, brussel sprout, cauliflower and zucchini plants that were given to us are surviving, the potatoes are starting to grow, although I haven't got any sprouts poking out of the dirt yet. (We know this because James got curious, and dug one up.) The raspberries are doing well. Out of about 30 canes that we transplanted, only 2 don't look like they are going to make it, and some of them are setting blossoms. And, as an added bonus, 4 of the 6 we planted last year survived the winter! Our onion and leek starts are about an inch and a half tall... soon they will be ready to transplant into the garden. I also planted parsnips, carrots, green beans, two kinds of lettuce, broccoli, and scallions, but they haven't come up yet.

I had one major goof up. I have staked off each bed and written on the stakes what is planted there, mostly. MOSTLY. Last night, I planted 2/3 of my green beans, and then realized, only after they were planted, that I had planted them in the same bed that I had just planted the lettuce, broccoli and scallions a few days ago, as I had forgotten to write on the stakes what I had planted. I guess we will just have to see what comes up. Unintentional companion planting, LOL. I think I am probably about done planting for the year. There are plenty more seed packets in my dining room, but I have over allocated my water resources already, and my backyard is beginning to feel like the seven western states fighting over the colorado river. I hope it rains soon.

its getting up there...

2008-05-27T11:46:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken on Saturday at the gas station about 4 miles from my house. It's getting pretty expensive these days, and all indications are that it is going to get much, much worse. It makes me really glad that I got my Geo running. While I was at the gas station, my 13 year old son was asking me when they were going to start issuing gas rationing cards....

tipping point?

2008-05-22T14:12:00.001-08:00

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR yesterday, and there was a story about rice supplies. There was one sentence at the end of the interview that made me pay attention. "Global demand for nearly every major commodity has outstripped supply."

Whoa. This is something I have been concerned about for a long time now, and here they are saying it on a mainstream news show. Things are getting serious. Now is a good time to be sure that you are ready for a rollercoaster ride, because this is just the beginning. I know some people that read this might think I am crazy, but I think we are fast encroaching a tipping point.

signs of life

2008-05-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

Things are looking good in the garden! I was outside watering last night, and was totally excited to see the peas starting to grow. I have included a picture of one of the snow peas. Also, my strawberries are doing great! They are all growing, even the one the moose stepped on.

Unfortunately, the onion starts I have sitting on my dining room table got walked on by the cat, and three of them got knocked completely over and spilled. Since they haven't germinated yet, I know I lost those three.

Tonight I am planting parsnips, and tomorrow carrots. Thursday, I have to cut up my potatoes (which are sprouting nicely), so they can harden in time for me to plant Saturday. Friday, onions and lettuce are going in. At least, if I get everything done according to plan.

So, we drove the geo yesterday. We got gas right after leaving the house on the way to work, and filled up again as we were getting home, to see how much we used. In total, we drove about 120 miles, both the commute and the driving around I had to do for work yesterday, and used 3 gallons of gas. I was pleased.

relief

2008-05-19T08:18:00.001-08:00

James fixed the Geo this weekend. It turned out it had burnt valves, which required taking the head off, having it machined, and the valves replaced. Cost about $400, and now it runs like a champ. It would have cost a lot more if James didn't do everything but the actual work on the head and valves himself. When we fill up the truck or James's work van, it has been costing between $70 and $80 recently, because they both have 20 gallon tanks. And we would fill up the tank on the van three times a week, since we were commuting in it. When I filled up the Geo this morning, it only had 1/4 of a tank in it, and it only took 5 and 1/2 gallons to fill it up. That was very cool. I am going to keep track of my mileage between fill ups to see how many MPG we really get. Regardless, as long as it keeps running, it will save us a LOT of money.

preschool graduation

2008-05-16T09:24:00.001-08:00

My four year old graduated from preschool yesterday. There is something silly about a graduation ceremony for preschool, as if it is a huge life accomplishment... I somehow don't think that twenty years from now, when applying for a job, he will say, "Oh, and I graduated from preschool" as part of his qualifications.

However, for Steven, it IS a big deal. Not the graduation itself, but in progress made. See, his preschool is a special education preschool for children with speech problems. Steven has apraxia, which is basically a motor planning issue. The act of speech, while basically effortless for most of us, actually involves a great deal of planning, which then must be implemented in the act of speaking. Steven has had a very difficult time in this area. See: http://www.apraxia-kids.org/. When he was two, he had maybe 4 or 5 words. And to make matters worse, there were some words that he had been saying (such as "eat") that he lost and was then unable to say them. We started teaching him sign language, so that he could communicate with us, and that was a great success. When he started preschool at age 3, even with over a year of speech therapy, he had 10 words, but about 50 signs.

Now, he can carry on a complete conversation, and his vocabulary is huge. He rarely uses any signs now, except as an accent to his speech, like most of us wave our hands around when we talk. There are still some times that we have trouble understanding him, especially when he is tired, but I would say he is about 90% intelligible. It was amazing yesterday to watch him, and think back on how he was a year and a half ago.

He will actually attend preschool through the summer, thanks to extended school year services, but he will start kindergarten in a regular class, with only minor supports and speech therapy twice a week, instead of the four-day-a-week intensive stuff he was getting in preschool. I am very excited for him. Way to go, Steven!

garden update - and a story about a tree

2008-05-15T12:16:00.001-08:00

So, my garden is expanding, little by little. On Monday, I bought 20 pounds of yukon gold seed potatoes, and they are currently sitting spread out on my kitchen table absorbing sunlight to encourage them to sprout. They will have to do this for a week or so.

I planted 20 more strawberry plants that I purchased from a gardener that lives a few miles down the road from me. That brings the total to 45 strawberry plants. :)

I planted 3 20' double rows of peas, and a 4' x 16' bed of snow peas. Snow peas can be grown in intensive beds instead of rows because they don't require the support that regular peas do.

In the starter containers my first set of strawberries came in, I started leeks and ailsa craig onions (a storage variety). I am going to do the same in the containers from my second set of strawberries in the next day or two.

I still have a large pile of seed packets that need to be started soon... lettuce, broccoli, parsnips, and carrots among them, as well as some that need to wait til after the last frost date (June 1), like beans.

James started work on a tool shed/firewood shelter a couple days ago. The first step, obviously, is to cut down the trees where it will go. This is all done, but there was a heart-pounding moment. All but one of the trees came down where they were supposed to go with no problems. Ironically, the very last tree was not cooperative. This particular tree was a largish birch that stood approximately 20 feet away from the north side of our cabin, and as it got taller, it leaned ever so slightly towards the cabin, which made it tricky. We wanted it to fall north-west, away from the cabin. James cut a notch out of the trunk on the northwest side, then started to cut into the southeast side of the tree. What was supposed to happen was that because the notch had been cut out, the tree would lean that way. It didn't want to. So, I stood by James and pushed on the tree, as high up as I could reach. I about had a heart attack when I felt the tree start to push back. Luckily, (or maybe because of the way James cut it, at an angle) it only shifted a quarter inch or so, and stopped, leaving the chain saw stuck between the two pieces of tree. With stern instructions to the children who were watching to stay on the far side of the house and run towards the road (to the south) if I hollered at them, we wrapped a tow strap around the trunk of the tree and lifted it with branches as high on the trunk as we could, and pulled it towards the northwest. Nothing happened. We then attached a come-along to a tree that was in the general direction we wanted it to go, and slowly ratcheted it tighter. Slowly, slowly the tree started moving. When it got so it was straight up and down, it paused, and we all held our breath to see what it would do. Finally, slowly at first, then all of a sudden, it was down, with a big thump, right where we needed it to go. I could breathe again, but I could hear my heart pounding.

scary stuff

2008-05-13T16:35:00.001-08:00

Although the following article is an opinion piece, not an article, it comes from someone that is well-known in climate change circles. Basically, his point is that even though we might not notice drastic changes right now, things are getting very bad, very quickly. And in order to avoid TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It), we have to virtually stop in our tracks, right NOW, and make immediate drastic changes. As individuals and collectively.

I know this sounds impossible, and I totally understand that. In fact, it feels impossible to me. I am flying twice and my 13 year old son is flying once in the next month, thousands of miles each trip. I drive 55 miles to work each way every day, and I can't just stop, because my family depends on my income, and the kids I see every day deserve a chance to be safe. It's a pickle, to be sure.

But there are things that I can do, even if they aren't really enough. As soon as I can get it back on the road, I will start driving my Geo, which uses much less gas, and has much lower emissions than either my truck or James' work van. And we are planting a large garden, to try to eat as much as we can off of what we produce. It's a small step, but at least I am making it. You may not be able to stop in your tracks, but you can slow down. And you should. We all depend on it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-mckibben11-2008may11,0,2392815.story

first planting of the year!

2008-05-12T09:26:00.002-08:00

I planted my 25 strawberry plants last night. This is exciting because strawberries are my favorite fruit. Eventually, we hope to at least quadruple our strawberry patch. Yay! By the way, I took these pictures at about 11:00 last night, with no flash. I love the summer light.

south side of kitchen

2008-05-12T09:20:00.001-08:00

And here is the cooking and washing side of the kitchen. The buckets holding up our impromptu counters are filled with food, rice, flour, oats and sugar.

north side of kitchen and dining room

2008-05-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

It appears that I can only add two pictures at a time when posting via email. So here is the north side of my interim kitchen ... the storage side. This picture was taken right after we moved in. It looks a little different now, as I have greatly increased my food storage since then and most of those shelves are completely full with canned goods. I also have included a photo of my dinner table, which is in a space just to the west of the kitchen.

more pictures

2008-05-10T15:58:00.002-08:00

Above the stairwell is the peak of the roof and the last part of wall that we do not have sheetrocked yet. The reason for that is the informal scaffolding above the stairs that will let us finish the peak of the ceiling. Once the peak of the ceiling is mudded, primed and painted, we will take down the scaffolding and finish the wall.

If you were to go around that corner to your right, you would see the window, and then the stairs to the loft. To the right of the stairs, going around the corner again, is the wood stove. You can see my pretty paint even better in this picture.

Re: sardines, anyone?

2008-05-10T15:57:00.001-08:00

OK, so several people have asked me for pictures of how all five of us are squeezing into this little cabin, and how we do without electricity, running water, etc. So, here are some pictures. I am posting by email, so I have to divide the pictures up into groups, or blogspot rejects the post.

If you look at my post with the cabin plans, you can tell which part of the cabin each picture is showing. http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2007/11/cabin-plans.html

There is one showing our couch, that wraps around the intersection of the bathroom wall and the north living room wall. See our pretty paint? To the left of the couch is a big tool box, that I did not bother taking a picture of. To the right of the couch is the stack of mattresses the kids sleep on. Every night, we spread them out, and every morning, we pile them back up again so that we can walk through the house and sit on the couch without walking on mattresses. Once we get the rest of the ceiling mudded and painted, we will set the bunkbed back up, and that will alleviate this big mess. Past the beds, you will see the toy boxes in the corner. Each child has one, and every inside toy they own must fit inside it with the lid shut, to control the mess.

Nenana Ice Classic

2008-05-08T08:29:00.001-08:00

The Nenana Ice Classic is an interesting Alaskan event that is held every year. On the Tanana River, they set up a tripod on the ice with a wire connected to a pole on shore. People buy tickets, and specify what time they think the ice will break up enough to move the tripod enough to detach the wire from the pole on shore. If you pick the right time, you win a lot of money.

Well, the tripod tipped at 10:53 Tuesday night. Later than last year, which was April 27th. The jackpot this year is just over $300,000. Someone got really lucky. I was going to buy a ticket this year, but was really busy with moving and so on, and forgot. Check it out:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/399617.html

Alaska food prices and the search for rice

2008-05-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have been noticing that when I go grocery shopping lately, it seems like it keeps getting more and more expensive. Everything just seems like it costs more each time I go shopping. Anecdotally, it is obvious that prices are increasing much more than the official annual inflation rate of 4.6%. Well, I was right. In Anchorage, grocery prices have increased 10% in the last three months. Check this out:

http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/389900.html

And if you read the article, you see that while food in general has risen 10%, most staple items have risen much more than that. Rice is up 85% if you can get it at all, ground beef is up 18%, eggs 22%, cheese 61%. Flour is way up too, if you can get it, although the article doesn't say by how much.

I also suspect that prices are rising exponentially in the bush, where everything costs at least twice as much as it does in Anchorage, because of the transportation issues. Their fuel costs have been much higher this winter too, and there are some villages that never even got their fall shipment of diesel and heating oil. I have talked to more than one family that has moved into town for the winter because they can't keep their house warm.

I mentioned earlier that rice and flour are costing more if you can get it. I was serious. For the last week, there has been no rice at Costco. When they do get it in, it sells immediately, with long lines of people waiting in line for the store to open. Costco has had to post security guards at the rice pallets because people have been fighting over it. I'm talking fistfights and bags being torn because people are playing tug of war over them. At Fred Meyer, there were a few one-pound bags of rice last week, same with Wal-mart. I was at Wal-mart last night, and there was no rice except the boxes of flavored or instant stuff, and no flour. At all. No rice and only a little flour at Three Bears. Here in Alaska, we are at the end of a very long supply line, and I figure that when there are shortages, we may very well be the first in the US to feel them.

http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/394730.html

I am taking my garden very seriously this summer. I have a 20 x 40 plot dug up, that I will plant intensively in 4' wide beds with peas, cabbage, squash, beans, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, some hardy corn, onions, leeks, garlic, salad greens, etc. I just bought 25 strawberry plants, and will be getting more fruits. And I also have a separate spot for potatoes, which don't require the ground to be well dug before you plant them. I am planning on planting lots of potatoes. Potatoes are exceptionally easy to grow even in Alaska, which is good since I am a beginner, have very heavy yields, and grow a calorie dense crop that stores well without requiring canning or other preservation. Just put them in a box and keep them someplace cool and dark. Easy to find in an Alaskan winter, LOL.

http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSN0830529220080415?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNews&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

I also have been working on my food storage. I have lots of rice and flour (bought before the current problems), oats, sugar, beans etc. I have been slowly stocking up on other foodstuffs, such as tomatoes, canned chicken, oil, etc. As I do my normal grocery shopping, I have just been getting more of it than I normally would. For example, if I need a case of diced tomatoes, I buy two instead of one, and date them when I get home so I use the oldest first. Or when I need a case of canned corn, I buy two, then one each of green beans, peaches, pineapples, tomatoes, etc. I also try to buy a box or two of canning lids everytime I go to Wal-mart. A little at a time, and it adds up. Makes me feel secure, becuase I know that even if there is a shortage, I can keep my family fed, for a little while at least.

Wow

2008-05-02T11:22:00.001-08:00

I know, its been almost a month since I posted. A lot has gone on in that time, both here on the homestead and out in the world. Hopefully, I will be able to post fairly regularly from now on.

Once we got moved into our cabin, it meant we no longer had internet access from home. Turns out I have missed the internet access at least as much as the running water. And the lack of electricity has only been a problem in that it contributes to the lack of internet accessibility. To compound the difficulty in blogging, the computer system at work has been modified to make it impossible to update my blog from work in the traditional manner (signing into blogger and creating a new post, then looking at it on the blog to make sure it is good.)

I have finally figured out how to post via email, and I can get to my personal email address from work, as of right now. Turns out I could have figured it out a long time ago as it is not difficult, but I have had lots of other things on my plate distracting me. This is my first attempt at posting via email, so I hope it works. Someone who can look at my blog should post a comment and let me know, as I get email copies of all comments. Thanks for your help!

I am still working in Anchorage, which is 55 miles from where I live, and my husband and I commute together. However, the neat little car we bought now needs a new engine, so we are currently spending over $200 a week in gas to drive James's work van back and forth, as the van only gets marginally better gas mileage than the Durango. We plan on purchasing an engine or taking the one we have apart and rebuilding it as soon as the mud in our driveway dries enough to let James work on the car without the jack and engine hoist sinking in. Right now, regular gas is $3.74/gal in Anchorage and $3.81 in the Mat-su Valley, where I live.

The mud issue was compounded last weekend, when we got a record breaking spring snow storm, leaving us with almost a foot of new snow. It's gone now, but everything is wet.

busy

2008-04-10T13:06:00.003-08:00

I have not posted in quite a while. The reason is that we have been incredibly busy. We moved out of our apartment, and into our unfinished cabin (finally!), and are settling in. I intend to resume posting regularly very soon. I have also been asked by several people for pics of the cabin now that we are moved in, and I should post those soon also.

cheap fix

2008-03-25T08:26:00.002-08:00

So, when we bought our little geo metro, it would not start. If you pop started it, it worked great (you know, pushing it until it is going fast enough to start running if you give it gas and let out the clutch). But if you tried to start it with the key, it would not start. It would turn over, but not catch and drain the battery very quickly. Jump starting it did not work either. We were told the starter was bad by the guy we bought it from. Taking it on faith, even though James did at one point say that it just didn't seem like a starter problem to him, last night he took the starter out and took it to the auto parts store to be tested prior to shelling out the $61 for a new one. It was fine. James came back and frowned at the car for a little while, occassionally reaching in and fiddling with things. He checked the ground wire and it was fine, same with the connections to the battery. Hmmm.... Then he looked inside the battery to check the water level. It was EMPTY. bingo! So I went to the store and bought a gallon of distilled water for $2.29, James filled up the battery, hooked the jumper cables up to give it a jump, and it started right up. Let it run for a few minutes to charge the battery back up, and it works fine. I am thinking the guy we bought it from knew it wasn't the starter, but didn't know what it was. If he knew it would be a $2 fix, I am thinking we would not have gotten it so cheap.

42

2008-03-20T08:00:00.002-08:00

Is, of course, the answer to life, the universe, and everything. I talked about a commuting problem here: http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2008/03/well-shoot.html. The answer to to that problem is also numerical, and the number is 50. As in miles per gallon:

This is a 1997 Geo Metro. We bought this last night for $750. It needs a starter and a passenger side window, but James can fix both of those. We have looked around previously, and to get a new car that comes even close to the Geo's mileage, you have to fork out $40K for a hybrid. Otherwise you are looking at something in the mid 30's in miles per gallon. Plus, you wind up with a payment and full coverage, which would quickly eat up a large chunk of the savings in gas money.

We could have gone out and bought a new car, no problem. But it just didn't seem like the sensible thing to do. We just paid off our Dodge Durango in January, and I am very happy to be free of car payments. (James actually does have a payment on his work van, but since that is just for his work, he takes care of it... I don't even have to worry about it.) And if I can't get a $20K new car that can match the gas mileage of a $750 car, I just don't see any benefit to it at all. Except maybe a warranty, but we have had a Geo before, and we already know that James can fix anything that breaks on it, as they are very simple little cars. (Even when someone happens to hit a bump too hard and shear off the piece of the engine block that is attached to the engine mount. Then you have to buy a new engine. Even then, James could have fixed it, but chose not to. And, yes, that was me.)

So, if you do the math, it turns out that if we commute 55 miles each way round trip five times a week in a Geo Metro, we will spend less on gas than I currently spend to drive my Durango around town every week. What's not to like about that?

more sheetrock

2008-03-17T18:16:00.004-08:00

This weekend, we put sheetrock on the lower 2/3 of the back wall of the cabin, which is the hardest wall of all, as it goes straight up to the vaulted ceiling. We also did most of the stairwell. Take a look.

Before:

After:

We still have to figure out how we are going to put sheetrock on the top 1/3 of the wall, as it is a minimum of 12 feet off the ground. James may be able to borrow some scaffolding from work. We'll do something. I mean, we figured out the rest the house, including placing the roof beam by hand. We can do this too.

bits and pieces

2008-03-10T21:22:00.006-08:00

Got a lot of little things done this weekend. I did the grout on the tiles surrounding the wood stove:

James got the doorway to the cupboard under the stairs (tiny pantry) framed, sheetrocked, and mudded, along with a bunch of other mudding:

Ryan cut away the piece of bottom plate across the doorway (by hand, need I mention?). Steven stood on it to hold it still:

well, shoot....

2008-03-09T20:48:00.002-08:00

So, here we are making plans to relocate to our cabin by the end of the month. Doing this will mean that unless we can get jobs closer, both my husband and I are facing a 75 mile commute to Anchorage every day. James is working something out, but that won't happen til end of June, looks like. Openings with my agency in the Wasilla office are few and far between. Therefore, it is likely that at least I will be commuting.

So, this evening, I see this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23550921/, saying that gas is expected to rise another 20 to 30 cents next month. Gas right now is about $3.20 for the cheap stuff in Anchorage. If it goes up to $3.50, I figure it would cost us $1000 a month to drive my truck to Anchorage and back every day for work. That's as much as I am paying now for rent.

There are a couple options. If James can find work that does not mean commuting, and only I am commuting, I can either ride with someone else and split the cost of gas, or ride the bus or a rideshare van. The bus would be the least favorable option because it would put me away from home the longest, but it is easiest in terms of startup. I just look up the schedule on the internet, and get on the bus. If we commute together, then we either just pay for the gas in the durango, or buy a cheap car that gets really good gas mileage.

Lots to ponder, before we make the decision.

blueberry syrup

2008-03-03T21:43:00.002-09:00

Another post about emptying out my freezer. I had this big bag of frozen blueberries in it that I had great plans to mix into yogurt for my breakfasts. Never happened. So I have this four pound bag of frozen blueberries to figure out how to use. I didn't want to do anything with the whole berries because freezing them changes their texture, making them soggy and mushy. So I made blueberry syrup, in which you crush the blueberries, simmer them to get the juice out, then strain out the solids. Then you cook it with sugar, put it into jars, and process them in a boiling water bath. Piece of cake. I got 11 half pint jars of absolutely delicious syrup:

the wood stove is in!

2008-03-03T21:05:00.006-09:00

This weekend, we installed the wood stove in our cabin, lit a fire in it, and warmed our cabin up. It worked great. It was somewhat weird cutting a hole in our roof for the chimney. Seemed almost sacriligious, after all the work we did to make sure it had no leaks to then put a monster leak in it on purpose. Check it out:

We gave our landlord 30 days notice once we got home, as this was the last major hurdle to our moving into our cabin. Yay!

stocking up

2008-02-28T08:13:00.004-09:00

I am reading a lot these days about food. Specifically, about whether there is enough to go around. The general consensus seems to be that there is not, despite the apparent abundance in our grocery stores. Here are a few examples:

The United Nations is reporting that they are not able to continue to feed the numbers of hungry people they have been feeding. The article states, "With voluntary contributions from the world's wealthy nations, the WFP [World Food Program] feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world's undernourished. But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations

China is facing renewed fears that its growing demand for grain to feed the world’s largest population may lead to imports from international markets, driving prices higher and spurring further food inflation. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41345
Venezuela is experiencing severe food shortages, and is halting exports of many food items. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23277253-1702,00.html

The world’s wheat stockpiles have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years, and stocks in the United States have dropped to levels unseen since 1948. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/business/13wheat.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork processors in the United States, is reducing its U.S. breeding herd by 4% to 5%, or 40,000 to 50,000 sows, because of rising grain costs. That means Smithfield ultimately will produce 800,000 to 1 million fewer market hogs annually, the company said. Smithfield currently raises 18 million market hogs a year. This article was on CNN Money, but is no longer available online.

In the wheat price surge this week, the leading wheat contract has risen by more than the entire worth of the contract just months ago. Prices rallied by $5.75 a bushel on Monday, being up by nearly 30% at one point compared with Friday’s close. Eight months ago on June 19, the lead wheat contract settled at over $5.00 a bushel. http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=48995

All of this is making me distinctly nervous. Food shortages around the world, record wheat prices, and our idiotic president is encouraging more of our corn be turned into biodiesel and ethanol. It is enough to make me really glad I am starting a garden this year. And determined to grow a lot of potatoes. We also did this:

These are five gallon buckets. Two each of rice and flour. One of sugar. It's not enough, but its a start. Makes me feel at least a little bit better.

salmon

2008-02-24T22:43:00.003-09:00

James likes to fish. Plus, we all like to eat fish. However, when the fish is buried in the bottom of the freezer, it doesn't get eaten very quickly. We are going to be moving into our cabin sometime in the near future, and we won't have a freezer once that happens. Why? Because we won't have electricity. And it is almost March and the snow will start melting soon, so we can't even bury our frozen meats outside. So, I had to do something about the bags of fish in the bottom of our freezer. I got out my pressure canner and glass jars, and canned it. We now have 2 pints and 24 half-pints of salmon. (The 2 pints are because I ran out of half-pint jars). Every single jar sealed. I was very pleased, especially since it was the first time using my pressure canner. Check it out:

I am feeling like I had a productive weekend.