Alaska

Moose in the curriculum.

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Some high-school biology classes require you to dissect a frog. In Alaska, the stakes — and the steaks — are a lot bigger.

The following video, shot at Chugiak High School, shows freshman science students field-dressing a bull moose. Well, mostly field-dressing it: The animal had already been gutted before being transported to the school. 

Warning: If you can’t stand the sight of a dissected frog, you might want to skip the video. It’s not gruesome — no guts, remember? — but it’s graphic.

Chugiak is an unincorporated community about 20 miles north of Anchorage. Technically it’s part of the municipality of Anchorage, but both it and nearby Eagle River have their own identities (and zip codes). One of the Chugiak High School’s science teachers decided to go beyond preserved (or plastic) frogs to teach, uh, gross anatomy.

 

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Junk food: Sometimes it just tastes good.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This post, originally published in 2014, celebrates something called National Junk Food Day. This year NJFD is on Friday, July 21, but my blog, my rules. DF and I are still eating quite well, thanks to frugal food hacks, our garden and our never-ending search for good deals. That doesn’t keep us from eating some junk now and then, though. Here’s why.)

It’s National Junk Food Day, apparently. And me without a single Moon Pie in the house.

In fact, I’ve eaten quite well today. Breakfast was oatmeal made with half yogurt whey and half water and flaxseed, plus half of the last banana in the bunch (shared with DF, because I’m kind like that).

For lunch I had rice topped with roasted vegetables – carrots, broccoli, Walla Walla onions and home-grown turnip, plus a dish of homemade yogurt mixed with a spoon of homemade orange marmalade and more of that flaxseed.

If only I’d known about the holiday. I might have gone to McDonald’s for breakfast and Burger King for lunch. Nothing says “bad for you” like a single meal that holds all calories needed for the entire day (with way too many in the form of grease).

On the other hand, I did eat white rice instead of brown. So am I junking out sufficient to the day?

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Pain ’n’ torture.

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Still at a loss for Big Idea pieces, so I thought I’d just catch you up with how life is going lately. (Hints: Non-summer, pain ’n’ torture.)

Spring never did show up, and summer has been noticeably absent as well. We’ve had only a few days of true sun since mid-June. That’s frustrating, because spring and summer are what keep us going through the darkness and the crummy weather the rest of the year. After last year’s snowier-than-usual winter, I’d so looked forward to those endless summer days. Dang.

The lack of sun means a lack of heat. The garden is doing better than we could expect, but not nearly as well as last year. (Then again, last summer was a drought.) At the end of June 2022, we were eating strawberries and cucumbers. I wish. Meanwhile, the potatoes think they’re in Ireland and are exploding with growth. The peas and carrots, however, are complete laggards. I am very disappointed.

The strawberry plants are awash with blossoms, but only two berries have ripened – and they’d turned moldy by that time due to the frequent rains. That was disappointing, but we hold out hope for the rest of the blooms. It can’t rain forever, right? Right???

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The spring that wasn’t. (And the cake that was.)

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The winter of 2022-23 was colder and snowier than usual. DF didn’t mind the snowy part, since up to five days a week he used a senior-discount weekday pass at Alyeska Resort. Since I’m not into downhill skiing (or cross-country, for that matter), I declined to accompany him but was glad he was having such a good time.

I did not have a good time this winter. It was hard to stay positive through gloomy day after gloomy day, and super-easy to berate myself about that: You have a partner who tells you daily how much he loves you, and wonderful family and friends. To say nothing of a comfortable home, good food and a flex-schedule job you can do in your PJs. Why do you let the bad outweigh the good?

My mood has improved, because I finally was able to look deeply at what was really bothering me. Turns out it wasn’t just lack of daylight, but a combination of several other factors. Having been in therapy before, I was finally able to isolate those issues and look plainly at them. But this is an ongoing process, i.e., some days it was easier to eat my feelings than examine them. Which of course led to weight gain and additional dismay and also exacerbated a physical condition, which led to even more dismay/discomfort.

(Physical condition has been diagnosed. Won’t bore you with the details except to say that it is not life-threatening but will require physical therapy. On the bright side, that gives me something to blog about later on.)

But I knew none of this stuff mattered because spring was on the way! May and June are my favorite months here, and the nearly nonstop sun is a tonic that fixes just about everything.

Except that spring is still on the way. Maybe it got lost. Maybe it’s messing with us. Maybe it will show up in July. Whatever the reason, I’ve been referring to last month and this one “the spring that wasn’t.”

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Catching up for Mother’s Day.

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It’s been a minute. A lot of minutes. Life keeps getting away from me. Days go by and I don’t post on this site, then I get anxious because I haven’t posted for a while. And then the anxiety prevents me from thinking of anything to write.

“Tomorrow,” I promise myself.

Riiiight.

Another dilemma: What to write? Sometimes I think I should post only about personal finance in general and frugality in particular. This is true even though my personal writing topics tend to get more reaction and feedback. Then again, sometimes money and frugality are extremely personal topics. 

I’ve been doing this since May 2010, and while I don’t want to give it up, I do want to feel less pressured to write. Interesting how the only person putting pressure on me is me.

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Gardening: The definition of hope.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This post originally ran on May 6, 2021. Since it was snowing this morning, I decided to re-read this post for its reminder of hope. And there IS reason to hope: We have celery seedlings popping up, and DF put tomato and marigold seeds into little peat pots this morning. Sooner or later, the snow will melt and the ground will warm up enough to accept plant starts. Hope it’s sooner.)

(Note: This was a gardening post I started to write and then dropped. It was begun in the second week of April and picked up again on May 3. Sorry for any confusion.)

It was nine degrees when I got up today. And we’re at sea level! And it’s April!

Then again, it was minus 18 in Fairbanks this morning. So I guess I’m still ahead on points, but come on.

Fortunately, DF bought flowers for his mom on Easter and thought they looked so nice he’d get some for us, too. They stuck around for a long time, and having them on the table to look at was a good antidote to weather-related grumblies.

Nearby is a miracle plant: a pot of snapdragons that we nursed through the winter. The foliage is a bit pale, but it survived despite low-to-no light levels. The plant had widely spaced buds instead of the usual tightly packed stems. As a result, each bloom was wide-open and on its own, looking as though it’s ready to take flight.

Sun and semi-warmth returned on April 21, so we put the snaps outdoors to take advantage. (Brought them in at night because cold.) On April 22, I got a photo of the first honeybee* of the year.

I think it was pretty confused: “Flowers? At this time of year?!? HELL YEAH!!!” 

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Easter giveaway: Alaskan artisanal chocolate.

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Why should kids have all the fun at Easter? For the grownup palates in my audience, I’m giving away a delicious treat from Chugach Chocolates, a bean-to-bar chocolatier right here in Anchorage, Alaska.

(In fact, it’s located down the street from me, which may or may not be too close for comfort.)

I’ve given away Chugach Chocolate items in the past, as part of my desire to support the local economy. Given that Easter is on April 9, I figured it’s time for another chance at delight.

“Bean-to-bar” is exactly what it sounds like: The company roasts raw cacao beans and turns them into fascinating flavors. Some of them, such as the Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne, sound a bit scary. But that bar – like the others Chugach creates – is in fact great fun. 

Chugach has single-origin bars made with beans from Fiji, Guatemala, Madagascar, Vietnam and other countries. As for its Alaskan flavors, you could sample flavors such as Dark Chocolate with Alaskan Birch Syrup Toffee, Dark Chocolate with Mat-Su Valley Potato Chips (that’s a local chip company) and Dark Chocolate with Prince William Sound Sea Salt. 

The winner gets to choose one of the following items:

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Aurora sightings.

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As you may have read, an intense solar storm has caused the aurora borealis (aka “northern lights”) to be glimpsed as far south as London, England. Apparently the aurora put on quite a show at Stonehenge, too. The image that came to mind was a bunch of neo-Druids pointing and yelling: “It’s the elder gods sending a message! Does anyone speak Aurora???”

The photo in the illustration was taken by my niece, Alison Willis, and is under copyright so don’t use it to make a T-shirt or something. The colors would likely have been brighter outside of town, due to Anchorage’s light pollution, but it was past 10 p.m. and she didn’t feel like driving an hour or two out and back on a school night.

Instead, she took these photos at Earthquake Park here in town. Throngs of other shooters were there, and the roads to Pt. Woronzof and Flattop (also here in town) were apparently parked on both sides for up to half a mile out.

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Midlife love rocks! (Ask me how I know.)

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(Happy Throwback Tuesday! I know it’s generally “Throwback Thursday,” but my playground, my rules. This post originally ran on Valentine’s Day in 2013. It’s a message that bears repeating, I think.)

I find myself in the middle of a Lifetime movie: Middle-aged woman leaves long-term abusive marriage, goes broke, wins a scholarship, stumbles into an unexpected career – and finds a man who’s perfect for her.

A man who’s smart, kind, funny, well-read, musically talented, astoundingly physical and – bonus! – extremely handy around the house.

A man who only gets her jokes but embroiders on them, and who wrote a smutty double dactyl in honor of her birthday.

A man who wants her for who she is, not for the person he thinks he can turn her into.

The experience has been startling, and humbling, and oh so gratifying. I never knew emotions came in this size.

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