Sledding at Hatcher Pass

We braved the Hatcher Pass sledding hill with a group of friends from Church. A long, fun sled hill, fraught with potholes and snow berms and an occasional rock or two. Only one bloody nose (Grayson), one black eye (Grayson), and two sore backs (me and Grayson) - no broken bones that we are aware of, so all in all we fared better than expected!


Brought my skis, but the sledding was fun enough to occupy us for the whole two hours of sunlight we had from the time the sun rose above the surrounding mountain peaks until it set again.

Video above is Landon gliding down the hill to the parking lot below.

This video is of Landon, Grayson and one of their friends racing down the hill. Landon made it down first, with Grayson close behind.


Jolene at the top of the hill.  An Alaskan beauty surrounded by Alaska's beauty!


The A-frame and cabins below the sled hill look tiny from the top.


About as high as the sun would rise above the peaks. Not much time in the sun today, as it was up and back down quickly from our vantage point in the valley - but I still managed to get a sunburn on my Scotch-Irish face.


Independence Mine in the distance, as seen from the top of the sled hill.


Landon taking a breather as we climbed back up the hill. Lots of climbing today.


I had a handful of trips down the hill, but Landon and Grayson were relentless, climbing back up much faster than I could keep up with. Until Grayson hit the wrong berm at full speed at the bottom towards the end of the trip, did a flew back flips in what we decided was the most acrobatic sledding showcase of the day, and ended up battered and bruised. Luckily, Miss Amber was nearby in the ambulance RV and patched him up with some hot chocolate and a hot dog. (He had forgotten about the bleeding nose and bruises by the time he had finished the hot dog.)

Christmas Day Walk

It was a very practical Christmas for us. Gifts we gave the boys included some quality outdoor gear: coats, balaclavas, gloves, smart wool socks, and a .30-06 rifle (just in case they draw any of the hunts I put them in for this year). So we took a walk down on the flats to try out the new gear.


Still not as much snow as normal, but cold enough for the wetlands on the flats to be frozen and easy to walk around on.




Standing on the National Historic Iditarod Trail. A good running trail this time of year. Will be a good skiing trail if we can get some more snow to fall.


I'm not sure what makes it so satisfying to view your home from a different angle than you are used to. Like seeing it from above in an aerial shot, or in this case, looking up from down on the Hay Flats. Something about seeing your everyday life from a different perspective, I guess.


Playing chase with Dino around the frozen flats, where he has nearly 44 square miles to roam.


Not much chance of catching him in all that space.


Eventually Landon and Grayson gave up trying to catch him.


He won, and he knew it. This is what it looks like when a dog gloats.


The snow and the frost, and the frozen land beneath our feet make these Winter walks just as enjoyable as my daily walks along the bluff trail during the warmer times of the year.


This is about as high as the sun gets above the horizon these days. Past the Solstice, we are now gaining daylight each day. Today we added almost a minute to our ~5 hours of daylight, so it is kinda hard to notice the change, but the fact that it is increasing makes all the difference (mentally).


Looking back on where we walked, from the top of the bluff in the back yard.


Frozen locks, a good sign that the temperature is starting to return to normal. Still a little warmer than most years, but at least it is staying below freezing.


Tire chains on the Post Office delivery trucks. Roads are fine, but I guess the chains could be helpful with some of the side roads in the foothills.


Christmas morning.


Nine O'clock, not quite dawn yet.


Decided on the Savage Axis XP chambered in .30-06 for the boys' first big-game hunting rifle - good caribou rifle, and with good shot placement it will work just fine for moose as well. Jolene used a .30-06 to take her moose.


Even Dino got to come inside with us for a little bit, but only for a short while before he got too hot. His coat is deceptively thick. He loves this time of year outside.


Landon had an MRI last week on his hamstring. He tore it playing football earlier this year, not sure if they will recommend surgery or not. He's got cross-country skiing with junior Nordics starting soon, so we're praying for either no surgery, or a quick recovery - - and that the loss of part of his hamstring won't affect knee or hip stability as he ages.


More Christmas decorations around the hospital, while Landon was getting an MRI (MRI lasted 75 minutes!!)

With Landon's baptism yesterday, we've had our best Christmas yet. Grateful to be all together, not on a deployment this year, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and enjoying all our traditions together, and finding a few new ones. Merry Christmas everyone!

A Very Special Christmas Eve

Yesterday, during our Sunday morning worship service, Landon accepted Christ in baptism. I couldn't be more proud of him and the man he has become. As our preacher mentioned to me afterwards, my son is now my brother (in Christ).

Old Dog, New Tricks

Diminishing daylight, and colder temps tend to keep us indoors - which, other than some good-hearted family competition playing Wii Sports (older video game, but still a good one), tends to keep us too sedentary. So, we joined the local ski club, and the boys will be skiing with the junior nordics group this Winter (while I ski alongside them to get some exercise of my own).


Problem is, I have never cross-country skied before, so after we made the financial plunge to gear up, I spent the day on a nearby easy trail to figure it out during a ~10 km ski. Here's a group of back-country skiers heading out farther on the trail ahead of me on their overnight trip.


The view was magnificent from Archangel Road. I stuck to classical skiing, on a well-groomed trail, but still did my best Adrian Solano impression most of the trip.


Most people were skate skiing, and making much better time than me, but it'll be a while before I can do anything other than diagonal technique on a groomed trail.


Small amount of fresh snow, and recent grooming, made for a fast trail.  Maybe not the best conditions for a first time - I think a slower track would have felt a little better for me, but I eventually kinda got the hang of it.


I went out early enough to avoid the crowd.  Lots of people were showing up as I left, but during my  couple of hours on the trail, I had it mostly to myself. Interesting demographic of cross country skiers - about 80% women, I was one of only a few guys on the trail. Luckily, others were sympathetic and were happy to give me some pointers when needed.


Took two falls.  One while venturing outside of my "safe" diagonal and double pole techniques and into a short attempt at kick double pole technique (worked for a few minutes, then lost my balance on a kick and down I went).  Second fall was due to the distraction of a passing dog off the leash causing a bit of a commotion - should have ignored the dog. It was a great time, out on a beautiful trail in Hatcher Pass on my own for most of the day. There are lessons available, and now that I have some small amount of experience, I'll take a few lessons before the boys start skiing after Christmas so I can go with them and help out with the junior nordics, while getting in some much-needed outdoor exercise.


The freeze up makes it easier to travel the Hay Flats below our house. So I took a trip down to the flats a couple weeks ago to retrieve a pesky plastic bag that had become visible after last years' thaw, but was too wet in the marshy flats to retrieve it until recently. Here's a picture back up towards the house from down on the flats.

Found this picture recently, from 8 years ago.  The boys were much smaller (wouldn't want to try to put Grayson on my back today!). But it provides a good comparison of the same view from 8 years ago, during a Winter thaw similar to what we're experiencing this month (thus the lack of snow in both pictures).


Our house is on the right side of the picture, and a bald eagle sits in a tree on the left side of the picture at the top of the bluff (might need to zoom in to see the eagle).


The National Historic Iditarod Trail, where it passes the Hay Flats just below the bluff from our house. This trail started in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula where supplies were offloaded beginning in the early 1900's, and moved via dog sled during the gold rush North across the Hay Flats where we live, and then West to the Iditarod gold mine, before eventually reaching Nome. No dog sled teams use it today, but it is heavily traveled by moose and the occasional skiers or snow machines when the snow is deep enough. Last week we saw a family ice skating nearby, as a recent windstorm had scraped off the snow down to the ice.


This is the perpetrator. A white plastic bag that wasn't noticeable last March when I arrived in Wasilla, but was a thorn in my side all Summer after the thaw when it was too wet on the marshy flats to retrieve it. I had to wait until this Winter's freeze to get down on the flats and remove the eyesore.


Panoramic of the Hay Flats, from the historic trail (if you zoom in you can see Dino standing on the trail on the left side).

A quick video from the Hay Flats below the bluff from our house. I'm standing on the National Historic Iditarod Trail, and panning back to the house (and to the bald eagle sitting in the tree in the distance at the end of the video). Gives a good idea of how close the house is to the historic trail.



Here's another 8-year comparison.  Top picture above is of Landon and Grayson shoveling the driveway earlier this year, and the bottom picture above is of Pappy getting some "supposed" help from 2.5 year old Grayson shoveling snow back in February 2010.


A unique Alaskan reserved parking sign, used earlier this month when I presided over a retirement of one of my Navy folks here at Alaskan Command. It's a snow shoe converted to a parking sign.


First (of many) orthodontic trip for the boys. Grayson escaped any procedures being scheduled (for now), but Landon will be in the chair after New Year 's Day to get a mouth full of metal installed. Not looking forward to that.


Presents are starting to find their way under the tree.

While looking through old blogs, I found these three pictures below from Christmas Day 2009.  Wow, we had a lot more snow then. Sad. Maybe we'll see some significant snow fall before the 25th - but we're running out of time!

Colony Christmas

Colony Christmas in Palmer, Alaska. The history of the town of Palmer began in 1935 as one of the rural rehabilitation colonies set up by FDR's New Deal during the Great Depression. The colony was settled by 203 pioneering families chosen from among Mid-West farmers, in an effort to relieve the hardships of drought-stricken parts of the U.S., and start new communities in the nation's frontier. Those families settled in the Matanuska Valley, and initially lived in tents at the site that would become Palmer.

I enjoy reading about the criteria utilized to choose these families: strong, self-sufficient families of high moral character, with cold weather farming know-how, characterized by determination, ingenuity and initiative, and (maybe most importantly) of child bearing age to grow a healthy colony. The families drew lots to receive a 40-acre tract of uncleared land. It was the colonists' responsibility to clear the land, build homes, build the infrastructure required to support the colony with minimal outside help, and most importantly to till the soil of the glacier-silted valley floor into productive farmland. A hard first winter and measles outbreak took the lives of some of the initial colonists, and others left after failing to thrive, but the families that survived and persevered, succeeded in transforming a wilderness into a healthy and thriving borough (county) that today is the size of the state of West Virginia. Palmer is one of the last true examples of the pioneering spirit that made America great.


Lots of crops were attempted, and some successful, but the most successful was potatoes. Potatoes thrive in cold soil, and grow large in the Valley, as does some other fruits and vegetables, like pumpkins, lettuce and cabbage. We planted twelve pounds of Yukon Gold seed tubers this Spring in our small plot on the bluff, and harvested about 165 pounds of potatoes four months later.  Almost 14:1 ratio, not bad for our first year back.

I don't take pics of food normally, but here's a dish we had the other night that might have been a typical dinner for those colonists during their first Fall - sockeye salmon pulled out of a local stream and potatoes grown here in our garden (the beans are from a can, but they probably had that too). Only thing missing is some Pilot Bread (hardtack).


Horse-drawn sleigh in downtown Palmer. The first Winter we lived here in 2008, on Christmas Eve, I heard "such a clatter" before going to bed, and opened our front door to see a horse-drawn sleigh that looked very similar to this one (might have been the same one), with a sleigh-full of people, gliding down our snow-covered street in front of the house. We had a good bit of snow that Christmas, and the sleigh was on skids (not wheels like they had to add in this picture due to our current warm-up and lack of snow). Jolene and the boys missed it that Christmas Eve, but I assumed it would be a common occurrence. Unfortunately I've never seen it gliding down our street since that first year. Maybe it will be back one day.


Colony Christmas is a celebration in Palmer in December every year, including a parade and fireworks. This year Jolene and Grayson ran the 5k to the Alaska Picker antique shop.  Landon and I met them there at the finish line and gathered out back of the store to watch as the Palmer water tower was lit (for the first time).




The tower was built in 1935 during the Colony's first year.  It still stands (but no longer provides water to the town) and has become somewhat of an icon for Palmer. We kind of expected for the tower to be lit all the way, like the mini-tower in town square in the picture below - but the real tower had less lights, but we enjoyed seeing its first time to be lit up, regardless.



Klondike Mikes Saloon, viewed from the depot (tracks not in use anymore, so I'm safe standing there).


Alaskan Christmas lights.


The finish line, outside of Alaska Picker. Grayson ran a personal best, even on the icy streets.


The parade was neat. A night-time parade all decked out in Christmas lights.


The "floats" were covered top to bottom with Christmas lights.

Right after the parade, we turned around and walked less than a block away to get a front row seat at the fireworks display. Alaska doesn't often do fireworks on the 4th of July very well - it stays daylight nearly all night in the Summer, so instead we have some spectacular fireworks displays at Christmas and New Years, when we have plenty of darkness. There is simply no way to describe how awesome this display was in words -- you had to be there. Imagine the best finale you've ever seen at a fireworks display, and then make that finale last for the whole 20 minute display, AND then stand right beside the launching platform and look straight up in the sky at the show above you. It was loud, big and spectacular. You could taste the gunpowder in the air, and we felt every boom in our chests. Best. Fireworks. Ever!!!

For some reason, we didn't go to Colony Christmas any of the years when we lived here last time, but it will now be a must-see every year.