Currently living/working: I mentioned last month that winter freelance work has been busier than any other winter—between writing projects, virtual presentations, pet-sitting, cleaning, and my library gig. We are grateful!! But I’m personally trying to slow the roll a bit for April, knowing that summertime means double time productivity. I wholeheartedly believe in off seasons, resets and self-nourishment. It is the only way I can keep up with the hustle of the freelance life!!
Current mood: We celebrated spring equinox this month, which means we officially have more hours of daylight than darkness and the hunkering down part of winter has passed. Everyone in Alaska loves March with the return of the blinding sun reflecting off the roof-high white snow piles contrasting against a cobalt blue sky. However, March can be full of surprises weather-wise. The early part of the month was cold AF. Temps warmed up (30s!) in the latter part, but that brought the vicious windy. Today it is snowing. Happy March!
Currently excited for: Justin and I both have a fair bit of travel planned for April, separately! Justin is currently in San Antonio with his buddy Jason playing golf and watching the Valero Texas Open (to be clear, he is not competing in it. That is his alter-life dream though). I am heading to NJ for a week. And later this month, I am going on an all-female backpacking trip to test some sweet gear for Outdoor Life. Theoretically, it’s work. But that is definitely the kind of work I love!
Currently proud of: Justin cranked out a whopping 5 articles this month versus my 3! Quantity versus quality?? (JUST KIDDING!!) In my defense, I write fewer gear reviews than he does, and more introspective and interview-based pieces these days. Plus, I worked 30+ hours at the library this month … Anyway, here are all the links if you want to read about the best hiking boots for men, camping stoves, socks, composting toilets, fire pits, weather stations and more about the Alaska Long Trail.
Currently not excited for: I finally finished our taxes and mailed everything off to our accountant, but I know the reason I was procrastinating: a lucrative self-employment year translates to owing a bucket of money. UGH.
Currently worried about: We have our first guests checking into the yurt April 30. We are hoping Mother Nature does her transition to spring before that date. Leading up to our yurt opening last Memorial Day weekend, we had a community pool in our front yard, a floating outhouse, a snow berm blocking the road and snow drifts in all the wrong places. We did some work last summer to divert the drainage and have been keeping up on the snow this winter, but April 30 feels like it is right around the corner …
Current confession: One of my published articles this month was about weather stations. I am obsessed with the weather, so when Outdoor Life asked Justin to write an article about home weather stations, I quickly snagged the assignment from him. Give me all the stats and I’ll talk weather with anyone who will listen.
Currently thankful for: Our well house has been the bane of our existence since connecting water to our cabin in the fall of 2020. We updated the electrical load, switched out heaters, insulated every nook and cranny we could, replaced heat tape, but nearly every time we leave during subzero temps and the water goes unused, we come back to frozen water pipes. Usually it happens in the 3-foot box connecting the well house to the cabin. And usually it takes 3-5 days to come back on. Going without makes me wax poetically about on-demand water … don’t take it for granted people!! By day 5 of frozen pipes, we decided to take showers at our Vitus Gas Station in Healy (best $5 you’ll spend after not showering for 5 days). Wouldn’t you know, our water started working just 2 hours later?!
Current guilty pleasure: It’s Girl Scout Cookie time! Justin’s sister sent us a mighty care package full of them!
Currently amazed by: We are definitely Iditarod superfans after our second volunteering experience. And while I give the mushers and sled dogs oodles of credit, there’s actually a simultaneous race that gets little attention, but keeps growing. That’s the Iditarod Trail Invitational, which has a 350-mile option, or the full 1000-mile ultramarathon, for bikers, walkers and skiers. I have a fellow writer/author friend (Jill Homer) who has competed (and wrote Into the North Wind about it), and her husband (Beat Jegerlehner) has attempted it 10 times, finishing 7. The cool part is he just so happen to come through our checkpoint in Shageluk while we were there, so I got to meet him! For the record, he finished walking in 25 days! This year, 97 people entered, and 51 finished! Justin tells me he is thinking about doing it and I had my typical eye-rolling reaction to his outlandish dreams …
Currently regretting: Are we the only people that churn cars? We just bought a second car for summer. Then I realized this is the 5th vehicle we’ve owned in the 4 years we’ve been in Alaska. That seems abnormal.
Currently reading: I’ve apparently been picking really long books in 2023, slowing my reading progress. Champion of Alaskan Huskies by Kate Mangelsdorf is 318 pages. I initially picked this up because it’s the story of Joe Redington Sr., who was the Iditarod’s biggest cheerleader, and I like reading Iditarod books during the month I’m volunteering for the race. The book was meh. While I loved learning about Joe’s journey from a cheechako to sourdough (good glory, true Alaskans are hardcore!), I didn’t love the autobiographical storytelling method. It was just a bit chunky and long-winded for me. Still, it was cool that I was reading this when Joe’s grandson, Ryan, came through our Iditarod checkpoint and ultimately went on to win the race!! Ryan was the first Reddington to win after a long line of Reddingtons competing over the years. I was routing for him since I met him last year at our checkpoint; he is just such a nice and humble person who loves his dogs, just like his grandpa did.
Currently watching on Netflix/Hulu/HBO Max/Starz/AMC: Below Deck on Peacock still has shackles on us. We jump around from the Caribbean to Mediterranean seasons, and honestly, if you have wanderlust and have ever worked in the hospitality industry, I highly recommend watching this series.
I can’t believe you people are enjoying Girl Scout cookies while here in Union Beach I couldn’t find any! LOL
I forgot to come here and read your post! March sounds like an amazing time! So cool you go to meet Beat! I can see Justin doing the 350mi version! Start training, Justin! I’m in a reading slump right now, need to kick it into gear again soon.