Iditarod 2017 Unalakleet Checkpoint

Photos from the top mushers coming into the Unalakleet Checkpoint today March 12th, 2017.

Wade Marrs arriving coming down the Unalakleet River.

In the back-ground Nicolas Petit is approaching.

Wade Marrs

Nicolas Petit

Nicolas feeding/snacking dogs.

Nicolas's dog

Mitch came in loaded food and items from his drop bag.

Mitch leaving . . . he was just here minutes!

Dallas and team arriving

Dallas's team

Wade Marrs' team

These photos I took and the ones above my husband took.  Below the photos didn't load in order but they are all from today.

Walking up to the check point

Mitch leaving--like lighting!

Mushers' bags

One of my favorite mushers!

Sleds and of course Dee Dee's in pink!

Sled for Allen Moore or Aliy!

Wade Marrs coming into the check point.

Receiving his gold for arriving at the coast first! 

He was so sincere and humble!

Mitch organizing and packing food for the trail.

Mitch checking in and organizing

Nicolas Petit so comforting to his team!

One of the vets, he also visited my classroom.

Dallas arriving

One of Dallas's dogs soaking up the sunshine.

Iditarod & SKIKU! It must be Spring!

One of the great joys of living in Unalakleet is that we live on the Iditarod Dog Sled Trail.  Unalakleet is a major checkpoint, as the mushers hit the coast here and have all new elements to deal with as they head north to Nome.

A little bit about UNK only we have about 725 people living here.

Thursday night in the Community Center, longtime musher Junie Towarak was talking about his days on the Iditarod Trail and life with his dogs.  In his time once he got to Nome he would then turn around and run his team back home as he didn't have the funds to fly the team home.

I was heading out to ski practice and the berms have been set in place for the dog teams. Unalakleet is known/named for "When the East Wind Meets the Sea." The berms give protection to the teams from the winds and also quiet time to rest.
  

Last night, I went out for an evening ski and stopped by the checkpoint to see if any dog sleds had arrived.  These sleds are here waiting for their mushers.  The mushers may switch out sleds for the coast run.  These sleds may be lighter for less dogs online to pull, or their other sleds may have been damage and they have a backup waiting for them at the UNK checkpoint.

I love this time of the year here as it is still winter!  The ground is covered in snow, the sea is covered in ice, the sky is blue as can be, the stars are as bright as can be, northern lights are often dancing around for us all to be forever grateful for and LIFE IS PRETTY AMAZING!  In fact, I am constantly thinking nothing can be better than this and need to remind myself this is my LIFE!  I am so grateful for all that I do have and for Mother Nature opening up this great strecth of endless beauty no matter what direction I look.

Recent Northern Lights here in Unalakleet. Taken by a friend, about 2 weeks ago

No matter how many times I see the lights I am truly amazed by their magic.  Grateful beyond words to be able to say I see the lights often!

Yesterday at 3:30:01 Spring Break started!!!!!!!!!!!!  As a teacher, HOLIDAYS are always a treat!  As a ski coach . . . more ski time is a treasure!  On the 8th our first ski coach from SKIKU arrived to work with our skiers.  This is a wonderful organization that reaches out to the rural Alaskan communities to promote nordic skiing.  Yesterday, four more coaches arrived and they will be here until Thursday skiing with our skiers, and offering adult ski lessons. The first thing I do is toss them into the wax room to help wax about 30 pairs of skis for our Community ski race on Monday.  They are all top skiers that have a passion for the sport and can not wait to instill that love of skiing with others.

Yesterday, my Kate Davies Buachaille yarn arrived for a Fair Isle Vest I will be casting-on soon!

Spring break is looking pretty darn perfect, skiing with kids and learning from visiting coaches, watching the Iditarod, oh some Northern Lights tossed into the mix, and a new knitting project!

Thinking of You My BLOG!

This is the time of the year, I think about you BLOG.  I am sad to say that is all I do!  Skiing is busy, work is busy, ski races have started up in the far north, just when everyone else is wrapping up their race season ours has barely begun.  I also love that our ski season is long! This means I am still skiing every day! I am so GRATEFUL for endless days on skis!  I  know this is a WONDERFUL treasure in life!

Blog, my apologies for my neglect!

The Refugio

Refugio: a shelter or safe place, usually one thinks of Refugio up in the mountains or in a remote place (This is my definition.)

At least 5 days a week I spend time in my Refugio as I like to call the place I work out in here in the village.  This is presently my classroom as it is the only place with a large enough open floor space to do yoga and a sit up routine.  The other place is the wax room but that is not possible with ski season in full motion.  I call my room "The Refugio" as it is that space one needs to go to for a break.  It brings up great images of a mountain hut up high in the alpine world I love.

Look at this great Refugio

The above Refugio is located int he Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France.  It looks like a wonderful place to relax, slow down, and to soak up some peace.

Here is Refugio Frey in Argentian outside of Bariloche. If you have never been in this part of the world I can highly recommend a visit.

These are places I think of as I head over for my morning work out in my classroom.  A place of peace, quiet, and open country.

This cabin above is in Montana and you can rent it from the forest service.  In the winter you can ski into Beaver Creek Cabin. During the snow-free months, you can drive, bike, or hike into the cabin.

Although my classroom and wax room at not high alpine cabins I still get a sense of peace and quiet as I start my days.

The other new addition to the time in the Refugio is Salomon TV ski videos!   These are amazing and they really inspire me, plus connect me to the ski world on a different level that I do miss. My other favorite video that I watch through sit-ups and my back yoga routine is this one set up high in the Italian Alps.

I feel it is important that we all have a Refugio. A place one can go to, to draw energy from, that gives us peace, and yet inspires us all on some personal level.

Vest: Carraig Fhada

At long last, I have found a color work vest that I want to knit!  I joined Kate Davies club: Inspired By Islay for the winter.  Last week this amazing vest pattern arrived in my inbox. I became instantly smitten with one of the variations of the Carraig Fhada vest!

I went right to my leftover skeins from the Seven Skein club. This was a previous Kate Davies club.  In this club, Kate introduced her own line of yarn called Buachaille.  I thought for once I will knit a proper swatch for this vest with the colors I do have to get my gauge sorted out.

I am missing two colors for this swatch (new Moonlicht Nicht & Furze) but I was able to put together a reasonable swatch for gauge and colors.  I am using 3.75mm circular needles.  I like to knit a swatch on the same type of needles I plan on using.  The swatch has 3 pattern repeats for a 16-inch circular needle.  The top colorway is using Ptarmigan which is the white, the bottom is using Haar the gray. I do like both but will go with the white.  However, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking about muck/dirt factor of the Ptarmigan.  The Furze is a yellowy gold color that I have not yet met in person.  I used Macallum a raspberry color. 

I am drawn to both colorways, but I do appreciate the brightness of this combination.

More notes can be found on my Ravelry project page as well for my new vest!

Let's just talk about the weather a bit here: We have had a good solid week of freezing your arse off temperatures!  

Things starting to warm up no wind chill!

Living The Dream . . . Reality Check!

These photos remind me of why I do what I do in life.  I live in a rural mostly Inupiaq village on the shores of Norton Sound which is just off the Bering Sea.  Life has it challenges out here and it has great rewards!  It is usually when I come in from being outside with my husband or the kids from here I have to stop and think how grateful I am . . . and I find myself saying, "You are living your Dream!"  Work can be hard and frustrating! Then I get outside and the world opens up and the faces smile and we all have a blast!

Living my dream . . . I am humbled and so grateful!

Last weekend, some of our race team skiers are out for a ski tour.  I am thrilled as there is snow on the trees, no wind, and warm.

Today's sun setting into the Bering Sea as we ski.  Our days are now about 4hours and 40 minutes long and it was about +10ºF out.

Our race team is mostly kids in grades 5-8 and a few high schoolers.

The village in the distance.  Due to our stormy weather, we have to drive out to ski, but at least we are skiing.

Sun set was a burst of color.

New Year's Day ski!  After our storms, the skiing was such a treat and so much better than we had thought!

Trail work: our snow fences we make out of pallets.  They help to build drifts so we can ski on the drifts.  It is quite a project but it works!

Sadie the ski dog!

My yoga partner . . .

Christian the groomer!  His dad was a groomer on Big Mtn.  It runs in the family!  I get fresh groom corduroy daily!

We have two sleds we pull for grooming and this is the older one but perfect for where we have to ski now.

My latest creation which is almost done.  A combo of chunky Shetland and Unspun Icelandic wool.  During our storming Christmas holiday, I was able to knit like a crazy lady.  The end result is I may have a new sweater this weekend!

Happy New Year & Welcome 2017!

Good Morning 2017!  

Another new year is upon us. I always like a new beginning.  I think this may be why I love the mornings so much!  A new start in life daily . . . who could ask for more?  I write an email to my dear friend Lynn most mornings and I often feel she gets all the good stuff in those letters. Somehow, I want that writing to be present in my blog. 

Here it is January 2nd.  I am not a person so much for resolutions but rather challenges and changes for myself are a good thing.  

Two years ago I gave up wheat and have done well with that challenge.  I think about eating it every once in a while but truly I know I will never go back to that unhealthy food.  The main reason is I feel GREAT NOT EATING WHEAT!  I would recommend giving it a try but first please read Wheat Belly and Dr. William Davis work and be educated about this choice.  I would also recommend Dr. David Perlmutter work as well. Be well informed and educated before you give this HUGE lifestyle change a try.  One of my goals for this year is to get back on track with this healthy lifestyle by watching the carbs I eat as I don't keep this under control like I should.  I am presently cutting back on sugars as much as I can and trying my best to stay away from the NO-NO carbs.  I love eating healthy organic food, foods that are not processed and from a bag, box or who knows where.  I want my foods to be organic, non-GMOs, and I want to know where it comes from!  I know what the food industry and big business have done to us!  All you have to do is look around . . . it is disgusting!  

Next on the "To Do List" is to continue the daily workouts.  I love this routine and it works for me!  Five days a week I head to my classroom to use the SkiErg a great piece of exercise equipment from Concept Two. This equipment is for nordic skiing and I have been impressed with how great it works.  It has certainly helped to strengthen my upper body don't be fooled!  The SkiErg works your whole body!  If you have never used exercise equipment from Concept Two I would highly recommend taking the time to try some of their pieces.  I also include a simple 8-10 minute sit-up routine and a yoga routine for my back.  After work, I ski with the ski team or on my own just about every day in the winter.  I always get to 100 ski days a year but am always trying to push my days to 125 or more on skis.

Knitting:  I need to use up my stash as I have a healthy amount of yarn that needs to just be knitted!  I hope to knit another Lopi sweater for myself in an upcoming KAL on Ravelry.  The other sweater I hope to knit this year is a Norwegian as I call this style.  This sweater I will be designing myself and it will be a traditional Norwegian sweater. I have some ideas for motifs which will need incorporate snow, northern lights, and may be some kind of pine tree . . . I also have these amazing buttons with cross-country skiers on them a true treasure!

Blogging is something I have ended up really enjoying!  I have said many times I am not a great writer, but I do enjoy blogging.  I often think of moving this blog over to WordPress and I never follow through on the migration . . . still thinking about this possibility.

I went back to last year to see my Goals & Challenges from 2016 which are concise.  I will just leave them here and add 2017!

Goals & Challenges for 2016 & 2017

1. Continue with the No Wheat and No Grains eating, try to eliminate corn especially if it is not organic, and reduce meal size and carbs.

 
2. Learn more about Wheat Free/Grain Free and eating and improving good gut health.

3. Ski, hike, bike, walk, morning workouts---stay as consistently & active as possible!

4. Read more!

5. Keep work simple and be efficient and effective.

 
6.  Remember it is often best to keep one's mouth closed more often than not!

7.  Certainly not least but be positive and spend as much time as I can with my wonderful husband and our two fantastic dogs!

Christian and I at the Christmas tree lighting 2016.

Sadie, my girl!  I love this 4-legged companion of mine she has taught me a lot over the years!

Tea and knitting . . . life is grand!

Current sweater which will be done today or tomorrow . . . Knit On!