Currently living/working: We’re still in the winter season—essentially meaning we wake up & spend some time finding our day, which is absolutely a privilege of our lifestyle. My 1 day/week job stocking the Alaska Geographic store inside Denali National Park’s winter visitor center ended this week, but I’m hoping to find another part-time job getting me out of the house to finish out the winter. It’s in the works & TBD. Justin is still working part-time for Discover Denali, and usually goes into that office at least 1 day/week.

This is the full moon providing more light than the sun would this time of year!
Current mood: I’ve been feeling all the feels lately. I officially give having to take care of parents a 1-star rating!!! I hate to sound self-righteous, but if you haven’t been a caregiver yet, then you don’t understand the grenade that explodes in your life. No matter that I am nearly 5,000 miles geographically from my mom, and my sister is her primary caregiver, and I’ve completed the sale of her house, and streamlined all her accounts into a manageable system … we are all just so exhausted. My mom’s dying is a journey of 1000 unfinalized losses, messing with me in ways I could never predict. It doesn’t help that I’m spending a lot of time in the past going through stuff I boxed up from my mom’s house. Swimming in this sea of nostalgia and traumas I never resolved with any therapists puts me in this constant cycle of processing. I’m holding space for all the feels, but ho hum, it gets heavy at times.

Exploding my childhood in the north wing of my cabin.
Currently not excited for: You know what helps when you are flirting with depression? Petting a cat. Cats (and dogs) are the purest form of unconditional love and offer the softest landings in life. We’ve had Ted staying with us for the last month, but now we say goodbye. You might remember Ted, the “temporary cat” we cared for 6 months in 2023. Ted’s owner, Sandy, had a week-long trip planned in January so naturally asked us to watch Ted for it. Then I said, “but what if I just took Ted for like the whole month of January???” I love that Sandy has been letting us share custody of Ted!

Currently worried about: The weather has been completely wonky this month. I’ve declared it Apriluary because it’s like someone is just flipping the switch weekly on the thermometer from one extreme—our normal arctic blast—to the other—abnormal too many degrees above 0. The cycle of the month has been snowfall, frigid temps, WIND, unseasonably warm temps above freezing, thawing, ice, mercury drops on thermometer. Repeat cycle. We’ve been on a bit of neighborhood watch for tree blowdowns & other weather carnage from the wind, as about 20 friends’ cabins/yurts/containers/campers/vehicles sit & store empty. TWO of the brand-new street signs even blew down! That’s how strong the wind was. I returned one to our borough office, so hopefully they can put it back up!

Pendulum swing from -20 to +40 to -20 … that’s been our January

Currently excited for: We gained about 2 hours and 36 minutes of daylight in January and I am honoring our upward climb to the gift of sunlight!!! Good vibes are tough to maintain through winter in interior Alaska as we all collectively lose our minds without bright direct light and proper vitamin D. We are just a bunch of pale humans who literally look like we got dressed in the dark and walk around in public places with blank stares. So here’s hoping the return of the sun will fix our brain chemicals!

Currently amazed by: Anyone who knows Justin knows he is full of ambitions. Climbing mountains will always be one of those ambitions, so it’s no surprise Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania was on his list. In September, 2025, Justin and a handful of others—including his high school buddies Luke & Jason—will be climbing Kili. But this isn’t just any climb. The team will not only be getting themselves up the mountain, they will be helping Jeff Harmon—who is confined to a wheelchair due to a neurological disease—to summit. If you want to read more about the team and climb, check out their site. The mission is called “My Impossible,” and Justin recorded a podcast interview to talk about his own “impossible” by living boldly with Crohn’s disease. They are also fundraising for the climb, if you feel so inclined to check into that.
Current guilty pleasure: My uncle still lives in Fairbanks, so we have vowed to go up often in the winter, not just for our “town chores.” It’s been fun! We’re taking it as an opportunity to play tourist a bit around town, but also create new memories with him. This month, we saw the comedian Josh Blue perform. It’s not often Fairbanks attracts famed artists—especially in the middle of winter—so it sold out quickly & was quite a treat!

I spy Patrice, Justin & Uncle Fred in the left side of the audience!
Currently thankful for: Thanks to our atypical above freezing temperatures, we’ve been able to avoid showering in a bucket & instead drain out the pipes. Reminder, we live in a “moist” cabin. We have running water piped into our cabin and have a real stand-up shower, BUT we have no septic (thus the outhouse) and our grey water drains are not insulated. So we use the bucket system in the winter. For our shower, that means standing in a round metal bin—the same one people might use to put beers on ice.
Currently proud of: My 2-year commitment on the Community& Outdoor Recreation Committee for the Denali Borough has come to an end, and it was really fulfilling to be a part of something significant in our community. The 9-person committee met every other month and diligently worked on numerous projects, including a long-term plan for community & outdoor recreation in the borough, which will be adopted (hopefully) by the Assembly this month!

Current confession: Justin loves his gambling, and thankfully wins more than loses (nervous laugh). He plays weekly poker here in our community, went to Atlantic City in early October where he won, then won TWO football fantasy leagues shortly thereafter! He did have a trip to Vegas this month with 2 friends where he didn’t win. So I suppose it evens out!

Collectively, that’s probably what the 3 of them “donated” in Vegas …
Currently reading: Three nonfiction books about Alaska this month! I might have to take a fiction break for next month!
I read Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William Iggiaggruk Hensley & freaking loved it. I probably never would have discovered it had it not been for my local book club. The person hosting (a long-term local) proclaimed: “you’ll learn more about Alaska than you have from any other book.” That’s a tall order given the number of Alaskan nonfiction books out there, but it’s a 100% accurate statement. This first-hand account of growing up Native Alaskan is unique because this is a Native who played a key role in Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the US government thereafter. I think these 2 quotes summarize his conclusion about living among the maelstrom of changes in Alaska in the 20th century: “I realized with dreadful clarity that all the political & economic activity of the past 15 years had not really brought better lives for our people.” And: “The new way does not equal a better life.”
I love all the wildlife we have in our area, and continue to educate myself on each species. Given the fact that one of the wolf packs have shifted their territory into our neighborhood this winter (still seeing tracks/scat), learning more about wolves has been a goal. This past summer, I moderated a Speaker Series sponsored by Alaska Geographic with local author, Tom Walker, about his newest book The Wanderer: An Alaska Wolf’s Final Journey. The room was packed with 110 people, so I didn’t see any of his presentation as I was outside turning people away! I’m finally getting around to reading the book, the subject of the talk. It follows Wolf 258, who dispersed from his pack & covered between 2-3000 miles in 6 months solo around Canada & Alaska (according to his GPS collar) before succumbing to starvation. I’m a big fan of Tom’s writing—his ability to weave research and boring data into stories is inspiring. This book was just as good as his others, and hopefully I will catch Tom speak about it some time.
I’ve crossed paths with Michael Engelheart in Fairbanks, as fellow writers and authors in the travel and adventure genre often do. He’s published a handful of books—most about Alaska, but some not. Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range was my first read from him. I enjoyed how the book blends together historical, ecological, and biological education with Michael’s background and experiences.
Currently watching on Netflix/Peacock: We are at the point in our Below Deck binging where we have to wait for new episodes of the latest season (Below Deck Down Under Season 3) to load to Peacock each week! So we have to branch out & are watching movies from our list, and a few other limited series.
Discover more from Wandering La Vignes
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.