Dragging my Feet

Good Morning!  

I am dragging my feet here a bit this morning.  I usually or used to get up at 5:00 and now am getting up at 6:00.  Coffee is on a timer so it is ready when I get up which is always such a nice treat.  I know I use a percolator pot and hard to believe anyone still uses one but I like my coffee to stay hot.  Plus, I was fed up with all the plastics in other options.  It works and the caffeine is in my blood with no hassle at all.

Yesterday we got out for a ski on the BC (backcountry gear).  It was ICY, rutted, with some overflow on the two sloughs we have to across to get out across the tundra.  It was a bit windy and cold too but nothing more than normal just not typical April spring skiing.  Out at the Hide Away trails there is a good amount of drifting.  This is great as it will groom out really nice today and make for some more great skiing.  I love this little section of ski trail as it is through the trees, protected from most of the winds, and you feel like you are at a ski touring center.  

We use pallets as snow fences that help to collect the blowing snows when we have winds which are more often than not out here on the edge of Norton Sound.  Little tricks of the trade for ski grooming in rural Alaska.  Photo on the left is us practice ski social distancing! You have to joke and make the best of things out here for sure!

My other favorite thing is conifers with snow on them against a rich blue sky.  I remember when I discovered this great combo in my college accounting class at Paul Smith’s College.  I remember sitting there in class trying to pay attention but always drifting off to gaze out the window at the combo of blue sky and fresh snow on the branches of green needles.  I would be dying to get out of class to head out for a ski.   

Here is why I am dragging my feet a bit this a.m. 0ºF and a wind chill of -9ºF.  UGH!  I just need to walk over to what I call “The Refugio” the skiroom/waxroom.  I work out over there 5 days a week using ERG and the extra-room space for my knee PT, sit-ups, push-ups, and yoga space as our housing has limited floor space.  I am so grateful to have The Refugio and to consistently be able to use that space it is just a great thing for me!

SIDE NOTE! I really wish that blogger would allow me to use all the functions on my ipad but it doesn’t dang it all!  Anyone have any suggestions?  It seems to work far better on Firefox than Chrome interesting.  

Enough time to get out the door!  Like the Norwegian saying says “The longest mile is to the door!”

Good Morning!

I sit facing the computer screen trying to come up with yet another blog posting topic. What have I done lately that would be interesting, what should I be doing, WHAT WHAT WHAT . . . I look out my filthy window into this amazing amount of sunshine pouring into my home in between the dirty spots on window glass and whaaala MORNING!  As many of you know who stop by to read the blog know I love my mornings!

I love routine!  I love getting up with my dogs, Tally and Sadie. Taking them out in the cold, dark, windy winter mornings often under the northern lights.  I don't mind bundling up for the morning walk.  It is the routine. Meanwhile back in the house, the coffee is on a timer and it is brewing away . . . ah, the essence of the morning start!

Now it is officially spring and the puddles no longer have ice on them, the snow is almost completely melted in the village, the mud is drying up, and the temps are staying above 32ºF at night.

The morning solitude, peace and quiet in the village is delightful.  It is rare to see anyone up at this time most of the year.  Now it is bird hunting season and I will see bird hunters heading out as I walk to the tank farm. We all grunt at each other as we pass unless the hunter is one of my former students and then I am greeted with a "Hi, Mrs. P!" Followed by, "You want a duck if I get one?"  "Yes," I reply as most of the bird hunters know we like duck better than the other dinner choices flying overhead this time of the year: geese (a wide variety), crane, or swan.

Once years ago in our staff room, a non-native teacher was looking out the window and said, "Oh look a swan, they are such beautiful birds." The native next to her replied, "Yum they are such good eating!" Thus the different cultures meet!  

I love watching the day emerge from darkness to light, the fresh morning air, dew on the grass, the light shooting across the tundra, the start of a fresh new day full of new possibilities and challenges.

Starting your day early and knowing the day is yours, yours alone to make it the best possible day is the reward for an early start.  This is your time for you and you alone, enjoy the start!

Good Morning!

Morning is my time of day and I love to be left alone to enjoy my time! Some folks are night people something I can not understand at all, just like night people don't get morning people.  I know it is a genetic link somehow as my father was the before the crack of dawn guy. Nothing is better than that first cup of coffee early in the morning---just wonderful!

When in Montana it is great to be out on the deck or yard with my coffee, or sitting on a porch.  Our neighborhood is a great place as several of our neighbors will be out with coffee too. We might all visit together in some one's front yard looking at flowers or sitting on one of our porches. Speaking of porches, once back in Montana, I will have a new front porch not done but very close to being done!  I can not wait as last summer we were front-porch-less a horrible thing but on our way to new porch a great thing.

Back to mornings . . . This fall in October '15, I started my morning workouts up again at the school gym.  They are not huge workouts but consist of 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, situps from an APP, I use which is actually a great workout full of a wide variety of routines.   Then I follow it all up with a yoga routine which focuses on back stretching.

Sadie comes with me as I really don't like being in the gym alone.  Not to mention our school years ago was built on top of an old grave yard . . . I sure you get my drift!  Out here in a native village ghost are very real to the culture and I have heard some interesting ghost stories.  My workout buddy is Sadie who is half Akbash guardian dog!

Now that the roads are clear Sadie and sometimes Tally will join us for a 2 mile "Good Morning" walk out to my friend "Lynn's Sign."  Lynn has since retired and left the village but as I should say the "Lynn's Sign Post" is there but the sign is gone.  No one is up early here in the village just us!  I will add it is now bird season so there are a few hunters heading out to slay the returning migratory birds.

These early morning walks started with me wearing a headlamp and now I don't need to wear one at all.  We are currently at 16 hours and 46 minutes of daylight.  First sunlight is now 5:10 a.m. and last light is at 12:13 a.m.   The amount of daylight is fastly changing and to be honest it is nice but I get tired of so much light.  It doesn't really affect me at all. We go to sleep with the window open no shades pulled.  We fall asleep in a room full of light looking like noon and will soon be waking up to that amount  pouring into our window.  Others cover their windows, but I can not stand feeling closed in and I have no issue going to sleep.  Sunrise and sunset are stellar, and much like the northern lights, I never tire of see what Mother Nature can paint.

Recent full moon 4/25 over the slough and village.  The ice in the slough and river have since departed to the ocean.

April 29th sunrise on morning walk.  Low tide on the slough and the ice has headed out.  In the far distance you can see the Nulato Hills and a fog bank to the south-west.

Looking east as the sunrises up over the Whale Back Mountains/hills, the slough and tundra.