Currently living/working: I’m not sure how many different ways I can explain how an Alaskan summer lasts about as long as a deep breath, yet we all feel pressured to make the most of outside home improvement projects, visitors, adventures and jobs into that time. It’s a relentless pace. Now at August 1, it feels…
I think I already mentioned this on the blog, but we purchased a second yurt with the intention of getting it up as a second rental income property (now officially listed & named Midnight Sun Yurt). For those keeping track, we bought our log cabin where we live in August 2019, the first yurt (Evergreen…
Currently regretting: Not being able to stick to my blog schedule & get this up on July 1!!! Currently living/working: We’re in the thick of it, although I keep pointing out to Justin that I am working more hours at my main job than he is, yet his paycheck is higher than mine! Gotta love…
Currently living/working: What are we doing for work this summer? Fair question! For summer 2026, my main focus will be working (3rd year!) for the education department of Alaska Geographic, one of the nonprofit partners to Denali National Park. Justin’s main focus will be working at Premier Alaska Tour’s Otto Lake property as a naturalist (giving presentations & hikes) for his 2nd year. We’ll split the cleaning of our yurt & the other property we manage/clean for someone who doesn’t live here. There will certainly still be scheduling olympics, but here’s hoping it’s not too chaotic of a summer!
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…
Currently living/working: January has been a mix of work, winter dormancy & play. I actually clocked 35 hours at the library (let me be clear—for the whole month, which prob seems like a joke according to traditional workers lol). Justin has had lots of things come up for his tourism job in the last week keeping him very busy, such as a completely frozen building that could have been avoided and now he has to deal with those repercussions. The month has felt very full!
Currently living/working: We returned from travels 12/3 right in time for what became the coldest December on record since 1989! Temps around our area are erratic, and we live on a hill, which puts us in a banana belt of Healy. So our lowest was -35.5, but that same day, we went over to a friend’s cabin 3 miles away and their analog thermometer was recording -60!
Currently living/working: Neither of us have worked since leaving Alaska 11/10, so it feels like November was undeniably vacation mode between our 11 days in Panama and 8 days in Denver. That reminds me … I do have an Alaska Magazine article due pronto!
Currently living/working: We wrapped up so many jobs this month! Justin’s grand total was 90 hikes & 25 presentations, while I did 47 hikes and 41 presentations! We’re mostly here this fall, so we’re keeping the yurt open for rentals as long as the weather doesn’t drop below 0. Going into the winter, Justin will keep up his part-time tourism job & I will keep subbing at the library.
Currently living/working: Most of our jobs are slowing down their pace, which is fortunate since Justin leaves for his Kili climb in Africa 9/4! We’ll have airbnb rentals/cleanings through October, but my guided hikes & presentations will stop by mid-Sept. I am very much looking forward to Sept. 16 when my calendar shows nada for the first time!!!
Currently living/working: Justin & I have made a habit of doing daily check-ins with each other because of all the directions we’ve been going in this summer. Who’s cleaning the yurt? Who’s cleaning the red house? Who’s leading the New Wave hike? Are you working at AK Geo today? Are you doing Discover Denali work…
This might be a tiny bit boring to y’all, but I like to record our annual home improvement projects for posterity, and the blog is a good place for that to live. And I realized I never recapped summer 2023 projects, so better late than never as we are halfway through summer 2024! As a…
Currently living/working: Writing while hibernating, as per the season. But we’ve also been regularly giving weekly virtual presentations (Life in the Last Frontier: Alaska) for libraries! Current mood: I did not rush into any substantial writing projects after the seismic seasonal shift to winter, knowing I needed a minute to recover from the frenetic…
We have a limit on the number of visitors we can host during our work-heavy summers, so people need to “claim their spot,” ideally by November. Justin’s other sister was next in the line of family visitors, and we loved introducing them to our home–especially our 9- and 10-year-old nephews. They stayed in the yurt…
Currently living/working: Neither Justin nor I had any deadlines in April, nor any virtual presentations, nor much cleaning, nor any hours working at the library, so it felt like we didn’t work since we didn’t get paid! But, we were pitching and prepping for future projects, which is a very important piece of the freelance…
This blog post is selfish. It is more of a document for us to remind ourselves of all the cabin & yurt improvement projects we squeezed in during the summer of 2022! The yurt certainly took priority this year in terms of where we focused our attention, between putting in the outhouse at the 11th…
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Currently living/working: We’ve spent nearly the whole month in Alaska, and it’s been so incredible to settle into winter routines at home after so much fall travel. I’ll be honest, this month has been less about paying work and more of a mix of life tasks, relaxation and play during this holiday…
Currently living/working: Our season came to an abrupt end on Sept. 5, when Justin ended up in the hospital! Life went from warp speed to a snail’s pace. But in general, we had a very fulfilling summer and y’all know how I love stats, so here they are! Justin led 61 trips for Traverse Alaska…
Currently living/working: We are still in the go-go-go stage of the typical boom and bust arc of Alaska life. For me, it’s a juggling act of managing our yurt, cleaning other people’s airbnbs, guiding and writing. For Justin, it’s mostly just guiding (like 6 days a week) and writing. Figuring out when Justin & I…
Currently living/working: We’ve started the summer chapter, where Justin & I will likely work for the next 130 days straight. You know Green Day’s song, “Wake Me Up When September Ends?” That’s when we can take a breath. More specifically and beyond any ongoing writing projects we juggle, Justin is guiding for Traverse Alaska, essentially…