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!
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