Knitting, Biking, Berries, Paddling, Art, & Hiking

I am busy enjoying summer here in Montana.  June started off pretty wet and then summer arrived in full force.  They say by the 4th of July 97ºF! Yikes, that is too hot for ME! My grand niece has been here visiting and will be taking off later this coming week.  She is a great person and it is always fun to have her visit.

I think the best way to show what we have all been up to is a bit of a photo essay post.  The weather has been great and we have been out playing under Montana's Big Sky!

This is a great little fast knit in Malabrigo Rasta Yarn.  Downtown Crossing is a fun fast knit that produces a great hat.  This hat will head over to the Knit Girls in WA.

I need some new dish clothes and this is the first one I knitted up in Lion Brand Cotton.  The design is Sea Salt.

One of the things I look forward to all winter long is returning to my front porch.  This is just a great space, flowers, nice light, ceiling fans, a nice view, and so relaxing.

I just love getting a yarn order from Schoolhouse Press wrapped in tissue! This yarn is for swatching out my new Norwegian sweater design.  This design is currently running around in my head.  I am not sure of the colors yet.  I ordered a variety of colors to mess around with.  I promise myself I will not touch this yarn until my vest is done.

I currently have a plain pair of socks on my needles.  This yarn is from Knit'N Needle.  It is called Tender Foot which is their locally dyed yarn.  The colorway, I named, actually is Summer Storm.  I thought of huge charcoal gray clouds to light gray clouds rolling in with the hint of summer flowers such as Fireweed.

No summer is complete without a bike ride up Going To The Sun Road in Glacier Park. The road is closed while the road crew is removing snow to the pass.  There are sections that bikers can bike during this time.  We biked from Avalanche Campground up to the loop.  Heavens Peak is in the background there which is my favorite mountain in the Park.

Biking up in one of our favorite spots close to home.  This ride has many small creeks for the dogs to cool of in and nice shaded sections.

Lupine on a rather hotter ride and we will leave it at that!

Heading back to the rig as we finish up a ride in a new area for us.  Nice country but a bit of a dry ride.  We all even the dogs carried extra water which was a great idea!

Worn out pups happy to be back home, cleaned up, cooled off, and well fed.

We grow Haskap Berries and most people have never heard of them.  We love these berries and find their flavor fascinating.  Here are a few links about this great tasting unusual berries: http://haskap.ca/about-haskap-2/, http://haskap.ca/, https://lahavenaturalfarms.com/what-is-haskap/

I have been making a Haskap Crisp this summer with our berries and sever it with ice cream or whipping cream.

The Huckle Berries are now turning to reddish-purple-blue!  These are an all time favorite here in Montana.  We know a few great secret picking spots!

Time for paddling both on the river and the lake as the temperatures heat up.  Our boards are called Versa Boards.

Last weekend we paddle from Les Mason Park home on the river.  It was a great 2-hour paddle. 

Heading down to the lake to start our paddle home.

We paddle about 2/3rds of Whitefish Lake and then floated/paddled down the river.

There is always time to rest in the hammock or the hammock chair with a dear 4-leged buddy.

Another summer goal is to try to sketch and paint.  The goal is to get more art into my life and to challenge myself in developing this skill.  I am a stick figure one dimensional artist at best!

I enjoy working with watercolor pencils.

Hiking into Link Lake in the Whitefish Range.

Link Lake surrounded by snow but it was totally open.  The trout were surfacing!

Sadie is always up for a cool down!

Indian Paint Brush is looking stellar this summer.

An old favorite hike to Lupine Lake.

Bear Grass is outdoing itself this summer.  Every 5-7 years the bloom is amazing.

Little Miss Tally doing her thing---she loves the air time as she splashes into the water!

Yesterday, I discovered the joy of Glacier Park's Shuttle service!  Why I have not been using this over the years is beyond me.  The service is fast, smooth, FREE and wonderful!  I knitted all the way from Apgar to the Pass and never had to worry once about tourist and their lack of driving skills.

Garden Wall in the background and tons of snow at the pass.

Just a great morning hike as the shuttle got us up to the pass in about 1 hour.

A little sock knitting with Bear Hat peak watching over.

This is why I travel with socks. They are portable, small and easy to pull out and knit.  Nothing like a nice knitting break on the trail. 

Remember to get out and enjoy the world around you! Let your feet take you on your next adventure . . .

Alaska Fall

First official day of FROST!

As you would imagine Fall starts well before the Fall Equinox here in Alaska.  When you live this far north life is on a different time scale.  Right now it is moose season and most the natives in the village are out hunting a moose.  This makes for a quieter village which I do enjoy.  Fishing for salmon has mellowed out as well and berry picking is slowing down unless you are after cranberries.  The cranberries this year are bountiful, huge, and every where on the tundra.  We have had a frost but only one and the temps are mostly 40ºF at night and still hitting the 50ºF during the day.  We have not taken the full plunge to a serious fall yet.  The tundra is a glow in its fall blanket of yellows, oranges, reds all heading to browns and greys soon.  The fall is fast and quick here as the changes just jump out at you from day to day.

Shopping

Every year before we return to village life and work we have to shop in Anchorage.  This event is not one of my favorite things to do but it is a must!  We have two small stores in the village.  I have to admit they carry a reasonable variety of foods.  No matter what  it is still nice to have a larger selection of food for the year.  We head to Costco and buy a lot of food to ship up north for the school year.

Now that we don't eat wheat we are buying less process foods like cereal, snacks, and what not.  This certainly helps, but no matter what we spend about $2,000 on this shopping trip.  Once all items are bought we then take them back to the motel, pack the goods into totes, zip tie them.  The final stop is the airport post office to mail our food to ourselves.

We do buy cheese and salami meats but those are frozen and we carry them in our bags that will fly with us.  Some salamis don't need to be cool until you open them which is great as they go in the totes.

All I can say is thank you Christian a million times over for being such a great packer/organizer.  I totally fail in this department!

Yarn

Once back in the village my first package was yarn that the Knit 'N Needle  sent up to me from Montana.  I love Harrisville Design yarn it is one of my favorite 100% wool yarns.  They have rich colors and the yarn is full of life!

This yarn will be used with some quivit that I have been given.  This Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

Malabrigo most likely for a hat or felted baby booties.

Blue Sky Suri for linings in mittens, hats, or cuffs.

Once back in the village there have been a few changes.  The radio station now has a fun bright mural on the little addition they built.

We now have these huge rocks lining the beach road to help protect the shore line from erosion from our fall storms.

Work, yeap I am here to work.  August inservice with a bit of knitting, lots of tea, while learning the ins and outs of our new math program.

Tundra mushrooms which have been plentiful this year.  I am not picking these mushrooms.  I just enjoy seeing them popping up through the tundra ground cover.

When we return tot he village the Fireweed is in full bloom and coming to the end of summer.  When the Fireweed reaches the top of the stalk with blooms then summer will be coming to end.

Cotton grass which is always fun to see.  It reminds me of snow and a Jan Brett's book: Trouble With Trolls.

Tundra berries: top photo we have cranberries, the middle photo you can see blueberries, and a pale salmon berry also known as cloud berries in Sweden.  Salmon berries are not my favorite berries.  Finally having a nice hot tea break on the tundra in the rain!  Thus the reason rain gear was made . . . I am not one to wait for a nice day every day is a nice day as long as I can get out!

PDS DK yarn left over from some other projects.  I am knitting up a pair of opposite socks as best I can . . . I know I am going to run out but that was the point.

A Great Raining Day Ride! 

My friend Robin called one morning wanting to know if I would like to ride up to North River Bridge, and then shuttle her dog Kuvi back home.  Well of course I would!  Robin has a packraft and she hauled that up on her back.  This is the point of the packraft it is design for being hauled over the place and when needed you inflate it and paddle.  It is a really cool thing!

Mud---yeap it was muddy and wet ride!

Old cabin for a dry out, tea break, and raft inflating.

This huge bladder is used to inflate the raft really in minutes!

Packraft ready to go!

Where all the trees are in the distance is the river that we left Robin.  Kuvi and I are riding home and the fall colors are just beginning to change.

Tundra and landscape . . . I just love it!

Windmills which help cut electrical costs to the villagers.

Lets say enough!  I agree, Tally! I am caught up with the blog.  I feel like I can now work on my new goal!  Stay off of Facebook and use the nice old fashion blog which is a bit out of style but so am I!