How many of you thought “dipnetting” had something to do with chewing tobacco? As with so many Alaskan things, you probably wouldn’t know the term unless you live or visit here frequently. Dipnetting is a type of fishing. Available to Alaska residents only, you use a large diameter net to dip into a river and…
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If we could have predicted anyone who would come to visit us in Alaska, it would be Justin’s sister and her wife! So it’s no surprise that Jamie & Rachel officially kicked off our summer as our first visitors. These two are natural adventure travelers and really didn’t need us to “guide” them, as…
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Currently living/working: Most of you know we haven’t had “traditional” 9-5 jobs in years. Actually, a decade. We always make the claim that we sling a lot of mud at the wall to see what sticks. So even though we had no idea what our summer would entail, it turns out there’s a lot of…
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Well, for all the stressing, researching, calling Canadian government/public health and asking others’ advice, I can now say our drive north through Canada to transport our camper van, trailer & us back to Alaska was easy peasy! We drove through Canada in FOUR days, a record for us. Justin’s first trip driving north in 2003…
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Wait, we’re already a few days into May?? I believe I’m fashionably late with my April Currently post! Currently living/working: Home has been where the toothbrush is! After staying put in Alaska for the past 14 months, we’ve been on the move most of April, and it’s been hectic! From AK to NJ (me) to…
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Justin has been in Colorado since 4/8, but I joined him 4/21! It has been so wonderful to see so much family after way too long (I’m sorry to those who haven’t been able to reunite with families just yet …). There’s a lot of moving parts to our trip down to “the lower 48,”…
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I realized it’s been 15 days since my last blog post and I have a very good reason. My cup is overflowing with love from my family (and a few friends) after not seeing them for 16 months!! I’m in NJ for 14 days, while Justin went straight to Colorado (I will join him there…
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Currently living/working: We’ve been consistently full with contract work all of March. And actually, we’re trying to stay ahead—or at least on top of it—since we know we’ll be traveling most of April. With that being said, we’ve also been getting out to play during our longer and snowy days. So win-win for work-life balance…
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I blogged about the aurora borealis (northern lights) last winter, but I have a follow up! Because this year, they’ve stepped it up a few notches. Here’s the scientific recap of what the auroras are: the sun sends electrons & protons zooming into space creating “solar wind.” The solar wind’s magnetic field is lined up…
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If you look at a relief map of Alaska, it’s clear it’s a massive land full of glaciers and mountains. In fact, there are 30 different mountain ranges and 100,000 glaciers (only 616 are officially named)! Justin and I are lucky enough to live outside of Denali National Park with the Alaska Range in our…
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Currently living/working: It’s still been quieter work-wise around these parts with a long lead out for deadlines, but it’s been an adequate balance of paying work and fun! Current mood: Now that the bright orb is back in the sky for more than fleeting moments and we’ve enjoyed more much-needed snowfall, how could I not…
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Dear Dad, How can 2 years seem like forever and nothing at the same time? It’s been a full year of the blandemic, and I think of how it would have impacted you. Particularly your last months of your life when you were hospitalized and in a nursing home. Had Covid-19 been a thing between…
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***Fair warning. Our neighbor’s house burned down recently, so this could be sensitive material for someone to read.*** Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle. “What’s that noise?” Justin says. We were watching a movie on our iPad in bed, but that semi-distant crackling noise was too much to ignore for my alarmist husband. “Do you think our…
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Currently living/working: It was a quieter month, but I appreciated the balance of it. We have several projects underway, but we had zero deadlines all of January, which made it more relaxed (but it also means I tend to procrastinate more). And shouldn’t be surprising, we are still at our cabin in Healy; in fact,…
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Most of you all know we are cat people. But in Alaska, it’s all about the dogs. Alaskan Husky is the unofficial breed of “sled dogs” here (Siberian Husky might be the other breed you’ve heard of), and there are plenty of dog teams all around the area. Dog sledding, also known a “mushing,” is…
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Let’s talk about money! Well, kind of. There just isn’t enough transparency in publishing, so I figured I’d blog about my own experience, which again, is minimal, but nonetheless, hopefully helpful to any dreaming authors out there. I’ve talked previously in one of my book blog posts about how everyone’s publishing journey is unique with…
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I wrote a “Gear Testing 101” blog post back in 2018 about how we penetrated the world of gear writing back in 2013, and the ins and outs of the business, but I thought it’d be fun to revisit some details. As Justin & I wrapped up 2020, I realized about 70% of our workload…
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Currently living/working: The grind of our multiple income streams continued in December with intense deadlines and edits back and forth for both Backpacker and The Voice (the trade magazine for SNEWS). These quieted down and wrapped up right before Christmas, and we were determined to recharge our batteries for a solid reset, which included 2…
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Today is winter solstice, the first “official” day of winter. (Although, it’s very much been Jack Frost here for months, as evidenced by the snow cover since mid-October and several days of below zero temps already. But I digress.) Solstice in Alaska also distinguishes the extreme variance of seasonal daylight. Winter solstice marks the shortest…
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My trail memoir, Between Each Step, released 11/15/20, which means today it turns 1 month old! And because my book is now our bootstrapped side business, we’ve been busy bees during this first month. Justin has been a serious rock star partner—he has played the simultaneous role of secretary, office manager, sales manager, accountant, shipping…
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