Alaska

Reading the Bible in Yup’ik.

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Yet another reason to be delighted by my partner: He reads the Bible in Yup’ik, the language spoken by indigenous folks in western and southwestern Alaska (and the Russian Far East). That’s because DF has been doing home visits for his church, and one of the parishioners is an elderly woman who is much more … Read more

Giveaway: Artisanal chocolate from Alaska.

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Not everyone gets a Valentine’s Day treat from a loved one. In fact, some of us don’t particularly want them. Still, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel a little bit special, so I’m having another Chugach Chocolates giveaway. If you didn’t get a Valentine, then treat yourself (or someone else) to this one.

Chugach Chocolates is a “bear-to-bar” that creates delicious (and sometimes scary-sounding) items here in Anchorage. Right down the street from us, in fact, which is particularly dangerous since they’ve opened a nice little coffee shop/retail space.

Since DF’s doctor wants him to eat an ounce of dark chocolate per day, we decided to support the local economy and buy solely from Chugach Chocolates. Happily, they offer a volume discount so we’ve taken to buying a dozen bars at a clip. It’s a health issue, you see.

About the “scary-sounding” chocolates: We’ve found that you don’t need to be afraid of confections such as Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne or Mat-Su Valley Potato Chip chocolate bars. They’re all good. Well, except for the Espresso Beans bars – I’ve never been a coffee fan. DF loves them, though.

The winner of this giveaway gets to choose from among: 

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Giveaway: Alaskan art jewelry (Valentine’s Day, anyone?).

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Welcome to the first giveaway of the year! This time around, it’s jewelry that I sure hope the U.S. mail can deliver in time for Valentine’s Day. Three winners will have a shot at three pendants made by my friend Linda B.

Her jewelry is always a hit, and for good reason: It has style, energy and personality. If I wore jewelry, I’d definitely be wearing hers.

This is also part of my ongoing “support the local economy” efforts. Sure, I give away a lot of gift cards, because they’re useful to readers. But I also like to focus on local artists and retailers. (Watch this space for an upcoming Chugach Chocolates giveaway.)

Valentine’s Day will be here in a month, and these pieces would make great gifts. Each one is unique, i.e., she has never made and will never make another one exactly like it. 

Or the winner might choose to keep the prize, in order to brighten up their winter doldrums. I chose fun, specific designs rather than abstract ones. Here’s what’s up for grabs:

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We ring in the new year, cautiously.

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Some believe that whatever you do at the start of the new year, you’ll repeat all year long. DF and I made sure to ring in the new year with moderation and frugality. This wasn’t exactly a stretch, since we tend to live moderately and frugally all year long. We aren’t particularly superstitious people anyway.

Still: Why take chances?

It started the morning of Dec. 31, when he dumped the boiling bag in the slow cooker along with some vegetable cooking water from the freezer. By midday he had a very savory-smelling broth cooling outdoors. In the evening he put some black-eyed peas to soak overnight.

This morning, he caramelized onions and some garlic scapes from our garden (which made the house smell divine), then dumped them into the slow cooker along with yesterday’s  broth, sliced carrots, dehydrated celery leaves* (also from our garden), frozen green tomatoes (from a not-successful-enough** foray into frying) and some ham chunks. That’s because DF’s mom was born in Texas, where hoppin’ john is a New Year’s tradition alleged to bring prosperity for the coming year.

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Our Christmas miracle.

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Early Wednesday afternoon, DF went to the medical center for a stress test. Generally, a Christmas miracle story doesn’t start that way but bear with me.

Lately, he’d been plagued by serious fatigue and breathlessness, and working his way through medical testing (blood work, EKG, etc.). The stress test was just the latest arrow in the quiver. Or would have been, if they ever did it.

But before they could get started, the medico noticed that DF’s heart was beating as few as 20 times per minute. The average adult’s resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 BPM. Into a wheelchair and off to the ER in the adjacent hospital, from whence he called to report that nurses and doctors were “swarming him.”

Soon after that, he called to say they wanted to implant a pacemaker –and they’d given him the option of doing it then and there, so he could sleep in his own bed that night.

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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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