Currently: February (delayed)

Better late than never! I still wanted to encapsulate February … so let’s pretend like it’s March 1, and February just ended. 

Currently living/working: I arrived to my sister’s in Connecticut 2/6 and returned to Alaska 3/1, so my “jobs” this month were caregiver & funeral planner. Justin, on the other hand, worked 78 hours for his part-time-turned-temporary-full-time job with our borough’s tourism department!! There’s a whole story as to what’s going on with that further in this post. 

Current mood: February was a mood in itself, basically a special kind of hell to be with my mom as her body kept her spirit hostage and deteriorated slowly day by day more than we ever could have predicted. I am relieved it’s all over, but also sort of still processing it all. 

Currently amazed by: Winter in Alaska is a lesson residents always fail to learn, mainly because you never know what you’re gonna get & you really just can’t win. February vacillated between getting pummeled by a massive snowstorm or being stuck in a -40 polar vortex. I feel bad because Justin literally shouldered the snow load from our 3 properties since I was absent from the state. He had to move SO.MUCH.SNOW solo and by hand. 

Currently regretting: Our snowblower mocks us from its inoperable position buried behind our shed under snow. That thing will receive all the TLC this summer & you better believe we will be ready next winter! 

Currently thankful for: People definitely come out of the woodwork when someone dies, and I’m a lucky girl to have SO many wonderful people in my life. 

Currently proud of: As I mentioned earlier, Justin worked 78 hours in Feb, which is atypical for his role as Discover Denali tourism manager; it usually requires like 40 hours/month. What changed? Well, unfortunately, the new director hired in July didn’t work out, and the volunteer Board of Directors, along with Justin, were stuck cleaning up a literal mess. Routine operations, like paying the bills, were not addressed. Those unpaid utility bills caused one of the borough buildings to go without heat, which meant frozen pipes. Big headaches and building repairs that could have been avoided. It’s been a lot to untangle, but everyone is pulling together in a team effort to keep the organization afloat and restore normal operations. So proud of Justin for really stepping it up in this part-time job!

Currently not excited for: The state is planning to auction off 56 acres of state-owned land near our cabin & yurts. We obviously cannot gatekeep this amazing area we live in, and recognize the need for more livable land across our borough. We recognize it is bound to all grow & change eventually. However, we’ve seen so much development already on Hilltop Road (our road) just in the 7 years we’ve lived here, so thinking about new development across 56 acres stings. We submitted our comments to the state to consider things like road maintenance (I can’t even begin to fathom how many MORE potholes there will be), speed limits, foot traffic, flooding/drainage issues that occur from tree removal … I guess our hope is that the state does us a solid by thinking about selling land sustainably. 

Current confession: The business side of dying is icky. My mom prepaid her celebration of life/viewing at the funeral home, which included the casket & cremation, which helped the sticker shock. But would you believe we tacked on another $10K of expenses for all the other incidentals that people don’t think about when it comes to hosting funeral services—hotel rooms for my sister’s family and mine (now considered “out-of-town” guests since selling our mom’s house in 2025), flights for 3 people, car rental, flowers (we ordered the bare minimum as there were so many others who ordered flowers for my mom’s services), church/church singer, the repast meal, etc. Not sure what the lesson is here other than dying is expensive & we are grateful my mom had the means. 

Current guilty pleasure: The upside of being on the East Coast for quite a bit of time: Jersey pizza! 

Currently excited for: Our livelihood comprises many things, and thanks to continual networking, planted seeds, and flexible life plans, a very unique opportunity once again landed in our laps for summer 2026 (and beyond?). We will be guest naturalist speakers on two different Disney Cruise Line Alaskan cruises (one in May & one in September)!!!!! Obviously I have tons more I need to divulge about this gig, but I think I’ll wait until after our first cruise in May to share more details. The short synopsis is we will give 4 presentations during two different 7-day cruises. Justin & I went on an Alaskan cruise in 2006 (when Justin worked for a year as a land tour guide in AK—the cruise was a perk of the employment!). Anyway, I’ve been wanting to go on another Alaskan cruise because I doubt I appreciated the Alaskan landscape enough back then. So I am extremely excited!!! In terms of how we scored this—it was all through word of mouth & knowing the right person! Thank you Lindsey for recommending us (go read her blog post here about her experience as a naturalist aboard the cruise!). 

Currently worried about: For something roughly the size of a phone booth, our well house/pantry has been our arch nemesis. Since getting it built in 2020, we’ve upgraded the electrical panel, tested different heaters, installed fans for heat circulation, added insulation, and set up temperature sensors that we can monitor remotely. We strategically organized a supply hierarchy with liquids up top and chips down on the ground.  The last few winters it behaved itself, creating a false sense of security. But with so many things, our record-breaking frigid winter sent the temp to a low of 27 degrees … conveniently when we were traveling. Everything is still functioning, but oy vey. 

Currently reading: I finally used our Inter-Library Loan system, and tracked down 2 self-help books I’ve been wanting to read for the past 2 years about caregiving. Were they worth the wait and helpful? Not really. But they did normalize my psychological trauma from being hyper vigilance about another person in another state … In case anyone feels inclined to read on this topic, they were: Run Walk Crawl: A Caregiver Caught Between Generations by Sarahbeth Persiani and Stand By Me: A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving by Allison Applebaum.

I have so many Barbara Kingsolver books on my list, and Pigs in Heaven became available as a library e-book loan, so I read it. I actually didn’t love it, but it kept me interested. 

Currently watching on Netflix/Peacock: Justin & I finished Adolescence on Netflix before I departed for the East Coast, which was just okay. Whilst I was gone, Justin watched Alone Season 11 randomly (one of the many Alaska shows people tell us about).