IRIGAK II Maverick Seizes the Land (A book Review)

Purchase from Amazon

Local writer Amber Cunningham has released her second book in her series Irigak - Land of the Little People in May (2018).  I purchased a copy yesterday at our Saturday Market here in the village.  I had a very enjoyable read as I stepped into the mysterious land of the Irigaks.

Amber captures the reader's attention with an action-packed read.  IRIGAK II has the added bonus of artwork by Bulgarian illustrator: Ralica Mladenova!  The combination of an intriguing storyline and creative illustrations will draw in young readers from far and near.  Irigak - Land of Little People has a few activities on the author's blog to help enhance discussion and comprehension.

Posted below are photos from my tundra walks.  I get out daily on the tundra as I am fascinated by the vegetation and expanse.  Tundra walking may look smooth, but it is rough, full of holes, water, lichen, mosses, and berries.  I find tundra walking is an excellent workout!


I am sure there is a hidden world that shows itself to those who believe in the Little People!

I often think of the Irigaks' and their magical world.  I have always been intrigued by the folklore of Native cultures.  Amber R. Cunningham now shares this mysterious world and adventures with her readers!

Sky Runner by Emelie Forsberg: a Book Review

I am not too sure how I stumbled across this athlete but over the last few years, I have followed Emelie Forsberg on twitter and her blog.  An amazing lady who loves the mountains and outdoors.  An ultra-long distance runner and a ski mountaineer. Emelie is a person I find interesting and motivating.  I no longer run and I never ever ran these distances!  I find her insight on her training and life intriguing and motivating.  I might be a tiny bit jealous that she lives in a stunning spot on earth with water, mountains, great skiing, and what appears to be a darn cute home.

The format of her book is both relaxing and informative.  Great photos, recipes, workout information, and yoga it is a nice mix and a breath of fresh air in this genre.

Thanks, Emelie for sharing your world with us!

Shipping Food & Fall Fun

Here is part of our fall order from Amazon on a pallet being delivered to our container.  I then unpacked it all and ran it inside to the pantry and any other open space to tuck it all away! Yes, of course, it was raining--August in Alaska is mostly about rain!

The question most asked when people find out we live just over 400 air miles from Anchorage (ANC) is "How do you get your food?"  Over our time here in rural Alaska, this has changed greatly!  We used to buy food at Sma's Club and pay them to ship it out to us.  Then this morphed to buying food from Costco and we packed and sent it all out to ourselves.  All of this no matter what takes a lot of time and costs a lot of $$$$!  We would haul our totes to and leave them in ANC at the motel or a friends, then shop and fill our rig to the gills, haul this back to friends or the motel and pack it up in our totes, haul the totes to the 24-hour airport post office and ship.  The Post Office has changed as well!  Once they had a bay area where you could drop off all your stuff as long as you had enough to make a pallet and this was wonderful!  That went away and then we had to go stand in line in the P.O. and we discover don't ever go when they are processing passports--UGH!!!!!!!!!  The whole ordeal was just that an ordeal and one had to have a good sense of humor and a lot of patience! 

Let's just add 2 dogs, a duffle bag or two full of cheese, dropping off our rig for winter storage and returning to the village as part of this shopping fun!

Fast forward to 2018!  On our way out of the village this spring at the last minute we said, "Ok let's try a grand experiment and not take out the totes and shop online instead!"  Over the years Amazon has become better and better at getting "stuff" out to rural Alaska, and has increased what they carry as we all know all too well!  This year we have been ordering what we would have bought in ANC online and it is GREAT!  No more packing, hauling, shipping hundreds of pounds of food!  It is saving us $$$ and saved us tons of time and running around!

FALL FUN!

I am always searching for a rich hot chocolate with ingredients I can pronounce, organic/non-GMO, and not a ton of sugars.  I have found a real treat!  If you haven't tried this hot chocolate give it a try yummy! After a bike ride in the rain, this is a great treat!

For those of you who follow the Iditarod or the Iknitarod this photo is to show you the checkpoint in the summer.  As you look down the slough here on the right where all the boats are located.  That area is basically the checkpoint.  In the slough to the left of those boats.

Biking!  On the way out to the village this August since we were not shopping, we bought Fat Tire Bikes!  YAHOO!  Our bikes will not be here until later in September.  Last weekend some friends and I were out riding under a rather nice sucker hole (Blue Sky clouds all around to suck you out!).

My old and I do mean old mountain bike on the left in the photo above in the back is looking like an anorexic bike compared to the rest of the Fat Bikes! I can not wait to be able to ride on the beach here, plus ride in the winter when I am not on skis.

The biking crew her in the village---nothing but fun and great energy!

Miss Sadie out on the tundra with me.  Fall colors are coming on and it really happens here overnight! The changes are dramatic int he northern latitudes!

Sadie cooling off in one of her favorite spots.  She knows where these are located on our tundra walks. She just lays down for a chilling soak to cool off!  She always smells so nice and her coat is like silk after tundra-bathing.

My work out girls in the waxroom.  Five days a week I am here at about 6:00 a.m. to do my PT for my knee, yoga, ski erg, and my situps.  "The Girls" tolerate this time with me and try their best to be on the yoga mat!

Closing with a nice cup of green tea from the CHAI Diaries.  Thanks for stopping by!

Knitting: Lopi and odds-n-ends in Wool

First thing Alaska Fans!  I know many of you visitors to my blog are Alaska fans and if you have not checked out some of the blogs I follow you should certainly follow this one: livingthedream-kathy.blogspot.com  Kathy is a very talented writer and her writing is a joy to read.  If you are taken by Alaska and just want to know what people do, how they make a living off the grid for the most part work---get a nice cup of coffee or tea and sit down for an enjoyable read!

Knitting & the Fall Knit Along (KAL)

I start a fall KAL with The Woolly Thistle on Ravelry  I am working with Léttlopi yarn which is an Icelandic wool and yarn.  I have always been taken by the Lopi sweaters colorful yoke designs.  There is a wonderful designer whose work has caught my eye, Jenn Steingass.  It was a great opportunity to order yarn from a new store, The Wooly Thistle (which has a podcast as well) and join the KAL.  I am knitting Jenn's Telja.  I am making a few small modifications tot he pattern which is pretty normal to me.  I love the yoke in this sweater design!

The blue is the main color for the sweater and the other 4 colors will be the yoke and the details on the lower body and sleeves.  

One of the great things about technology is being able to work off my iPad and write notes on the pattern.  It is just so slick!  At this point, I am thinking I will knit a hem for the sweater cuff and body as I did a professional cast on.   This is still up in the air and I have plenty of time to think this out a bit.

Selling Knitted Items

Now that I am retired from full-time teaching I am knitting and selling some of my work.  I have a lot of yarn that needs to be used up, none of the yarn is enough for a sweater, and why not knit up some smaller items and sell them? Well, why not!?  Over the summer I knitted a few pieces and thought I will just give this "Saturday Market" thing a try.  This is the equivalent of a "Farmers Market."  I sold everything but one pair of fingerless mitts!  I was thrilled as the yarn is only sitting around taking up space, and most of the yarn was bought on sale but is very high-quality yarn.  This way I can charge a reasonable price for my work.

That was the first batch of knitting that went to the market.  I am now working on a few hats and felted baby booties.  I hope to knit up a few more pairs of fingerless mitts but that may be over ambitious for this upcoming weekend.

One more very fun hat The Coming Home in PDS yarn as well.  This is a stunning hat and fun to knit!

I don't plan on making a living from selling my knitting at all!  I do plan on using up the odds-n-ends of my yarn stash!  I never want my knitting to feel like it is something I have to do.  I jokingly call myself a Shetlander knitting away to earn some funds.  I do think of these women, men, and children who had to knit and keep their hands working at all times to earn money for their families. How hard this must have been for them all!  Knitting was work and not something to enjoy while sipping tea.  It makes me appreciate these fine artists and their skills even more.  If you follow Shetland Wool Week then you are up on this event and what it offers knitters around the world.  I know I speak for us fiber folks when I say that the Shetland Isle knitters have helped immensely to save and preserve knitting heritage and traditions for all the world--THANK YOU!