Spring?!?

We are starting to sound like a broken record around here.

Will spring ever arrive?

While the sun is above the horizon for 14 hours and 19 minutes today and it is glaringly bright (even shining in the north windows in the mornings now), the temperature at 7:30 AM Alaska time was -21 degrees Fahrenheit. Did I mention it is almost mid April? I mean, sure, we all know that the summer season in Alaska is short and intense but usually winter does not stay through mid April. There is only a small amount of melt in evidence…a few patches on the plowed road that show through the snowpack, a widening of brown at the base of the spruce trees, the slow slide of snow and ice on shed roofs. But overall, it is still cold, we still have a lot of snow, and while I have tried very hard to be positive and accept that I have no control over the weather, with the howling windstorm two nights ago that shook our house and now the bitter cold of sub zero temperatures, I am over it. Time for spring already! I have plant starts that are not super happy with cabin window life and I have delayed starting any more the last several weeks as I am unsure at what point I will be able to fire up the greenhouse this year. Space inside is at a premium and I am running out of indoor room.

I have spent more time dreaming and planning with this winter weather. I want to finish our root cellar and build a passive solar seed starting house. I want to streamline and organize some of the ways my farm business operates so that it is more efficient, especially spring seed starting. I would like, after spending 19 years in Alaska doing the best I can with whatever materials I have, to make something from scratch, or with new materials, or with a real plan. Something that will be pretty, useful, and long lasting. It is a pipe dream. I don’t have any paying work lined up this summer and the farm barely pays for itself. But that does not stop the dreaming! In April I walk a couple of miles nearly every day on the McCarthy Road for our annual 30 miles in 30 days fundraiser for our local fire department. It is good motivation and a good time of year to watch our world transition to the summer season. Another perk is running into friends traveling the road, especially this year when we have been cloistered in our cabin, a world of only 4. Social distancing is easy when a truck pulls up and you can chat for a while from the side of the road. I love these spontaneous visits. You never know who you might run into! Last week I ran into a good friend of ours and we covered a lot catching up since the last time we had seen him: businesses stuff, weather, backcountry trips, homeschool, summer plans. While talking about the woes of trying to build out here with no money, no labor force, and few supplies, he told me this quote.

We have done so much for so long with so little that we can now do practically anything with nothing.

Anonymous

While attributed to arising in the U.S. military, I have never heard a quote that better described rural Alaskan living. This is true and I admire the ingenuity of the folks around me. Still, I dream of building something from a plan, from scratch, with all new materials. I can not help it. Luckily dreams are free!

The upside of an extended winter is that we have been able to enjoy the fun parts of the frozen season a bit longer this year. Last weekend we cut some firewood for the greenhouse and fished for a rainbow trout dinner at a nearby lake.

• 

• 

The weekend before that Tim and Sylvia went on a father/daughter fishing trip to Paxson Lake and caught 2 burbot and a lake trout. I have wanted to eat burbot for over 15 years and finally got the chance! It is the only cod with a fresh water habitat and having grown up on the Maine coast with the lore of Grand Banks cod fishing my whole childhood, I loved getting to try our Alaska version. They are extremely slow growing so you are not allowed to keep too many. We cooked a poor mans lobster recipe by dropping it into boiling salted and sweetened water. Then we ate the pieces dipped into butter. Yum!

• 

• 

• 

• 

We still have plenty of snow to scoot the snowmobiles around and every few days the past few weeks, it has snowed a little bit more. Some years the snowmobiles have been put away for the season by now or are perched behind the house on the last clump of snow in the yard. We had an egg hunt for the homestead cousins last Sunday and several eggs got lost in the snow! It was hard to be clever with hiding brightly colored eggs in a primarily white landscape but we all had a lot of fun.

It has warmed up some, or should I say, we have had a few warm days. It is not the deep freeze of mid winter and the sun, when the wind is not blowing, is deliciously warm. It was warm enough to melt out the chicken coop which rapidly gets disgusting in the spring. All winter long the coop stays frozen and I sprinkle fresh straw over the accumulation of droppings. The layers of straw and poo get pretty deep by spring and it gets really wet in there when it starts to thaw out a winters worth of frost. It is pretty important for the health of the chickens and the cleanliness of the eggs to muck it out as soon as possible. I spent March 30th tackling that project.

• 

Three or four snowmobile sled loads later…

• 

• 

The chickens always crack me up during this process. Every forkful of old bedding uncovers something new and exciting (for them). They scratch and peck while I maneuver the mostly still frozen bedding chunks through the doorway and into the sled. But they really get excited when the new straw is forked inside.

• 

• 

Just over a week ago we got a dozen Ancona duck eggs from Corbin Creek Farm in Valdez and put 11 of them in our new incubator (one was cracked).

So far so good. When Sylvia and I candled them on the 7th, all 11 showed normal signs of development.

• 

• 

While it is clear, cold, and brilliantly sunny today, our forecast is predicting a change in weather. A change, perhaps, in seasons. A chinook wind bringing rain and warmer temperatures should transition this frigid landscape into the wet, squishy, muddy mess that is usually April. Break up is not usually my favorite time of year but in all my 18 years of Alaska living, I have never looked forward to it quite this much! Bring on the mud. Bring on open water. Bring on the smell of earth waking after a long slumber. I have never been more ready than now for Spring!

From my (still frozen) garden to yours, I wish you happy growing!