Currently living/working: In typical winter routine for us, March was a combo of travel (Iditarod) & work. Justin has still been managing Discover Denali, I’m still subbing at the library, and our writing projects have been plentiful!
Currently living/working: February was a weird month. There was a blend of dog/housesitting (mostly me), press trip travel (Justin), travel to NJ/CT to take care of my mom (me), travel to Denver to see family, but perhaps more importantly, go to some concerts (Justin). And in between all the travel, we both worked a little. I started subbing at our local library again (like I did 2 years ago), just 2 days/week, while Justin continues his part-time Discover Denali visitor center job.
Currently living/working: We’re still in the winter season where we wake up & spend some time finding our day, which is absolutely a privilege of our lifestyle. I had my last day of my 1 day/week job stocking the Alaska Geographic store inside Denali National Park’s winter visitor center, 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.
Currently living/working: Uniquely this winter, we both actually have 1 job outside of the house; both allow us to make our own schedule. Justin is still working part-time for Discover Denali, our borough’s visitor center that promotes tourism beyond Denali National Park into the surrounding gateway communities. My job is with Alaska Geographic. Some might recall I worked for this company during the summer as an educator. This winter, I am stocking the tiny store inside Denali National Park’s winter visitor center while my friend (who is the manager) is traveling. Regardless, I am loving it as it brings me back to my Hallmark days (where I worked for nearly SIX years from ages 16-21).
Currently living/working: Most of this month was spent living on a cruise ship, while the second half of the month was spent in Denver visiting Justin’s family. Current mood: The weight of my mom’s estate has lightened on my shoulders since I sold her house, but somehow I don’t feel 100% free? Could it be…
Currently living/working: We finished cleaning out my mom’s house in NJ & returned to Alaska’s heatless sun. Not for long since we are now in sunny Spain! Anyway, most of October, Justin has been busy with some writing deadlines & his Discover Denali job (it’s still part-time, but year-round), while I continued on the crash course of managing my mom’s affairs.
Currently living/working: We wrapped up our summer work in Alaska earlier this month with the last guided hike on 9/14 and the last yurt guests checking out on 9/17. Then we promptly headed to New Jersey to complete the cleanout and hopefully a sale of my mom’s house! Current mood: September has been a whole…
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…
Currently living/working: July sped by in what felt like a loop-de-loop of time. Somehow we both guided a lot of hiking trips, cleaned a lot rentals, did our respective admin jobs and enjoyed bits of free time here and there. It’s hard to describe the rush of an Alaskan summer, but another Alaskan came up with a great analogy. Just imagine you are at a music festival & all your favorite bands are playing simultaneously. No matter which stage you pick to watch, you always miss something else.
Currently worried about: As many of you might have already heard, a fire broke out near the entrance of Denali National Park on 6/30. Fortunately, crews are working hard to contain it (25% contained so far) and it hasn’t spread very far (388 acres so far). However, it certainly disrupted some tourist activities (closed the park, halted the train, etc), wiped out power in the canyon business district of the park, which displaced workers from their seasonal housing and put jobs on hold. This is heartbreaking for our area where businesses depend entirely on tourism squeezed into 4 short months.
I am grateful at this point because our wood-sided homes surrounded by an enormous forest of natural fuel are not yet affected. It’s easy to downplay volatile weather and our crumbling Earth when viewed in isolated snapshots of events on the news. But when it’s unfolding before your eyes … that’s an entirely different perspective. In general, I’ve always told people it’s not a question of IF there will be a wildfire in our area, but WHEN. This summer has been unbelievably hot and dry thus far after a very low snow winter (as evidenced when our seasonal pond dried up by June 10 versus July 10). So we wait and see and hope for the best and roll with the adaptations in tourist operations.
Currently living/working: Justin and I are up to 4 jobs each!! Many are shared roles, like cleaning our yurt, cleaning another Airbnb and guiding for New Wave Adventures. It turns out, New Wave has an evening hike booked for the next 100+ days, so we will never see each other all summer from 5pm-9pm because one of us will always be hiking!! There are additional New Wave hikes booked during the days, but those irregularly sprinkled through the summer. As for the individual jobs, I mentioned last month Justin is the manager of Discover Denali, which is part-time-ish and flexible. At the very last minute, I decided to take a “support staff” role at Alaska Geographic, a nonprofit partner of Denali National Park & Preserve, which is also part-time-ish and flexible ( and I love it so far!!!). The central theme of our summer: spending an excessive amount of time squinting cross-eyed at our various work calendars ensuring they seamlessly align so we don’t miss a beat.
Currently living/working: I’m ecstatic to say that I’m back in Alaska! TONS of big changes around here for all our summer hustles & beyond. Most notably, Justin is the new manager of Discover Denali, an organization dedicated to promoting tourism beyond Denali National Park and into the surrounding gateway communities. It will be sort of…
Currently living/working: My time as the dutiful daughter in NJ will be winding down mid April as I’ll hand off the caregiver torch to my sister to take over the hospice care in her home (in CT) while I return to AK in time for our typical robust summer work schedule. Current mood: I’m trying…
Currently living/working: Justin joined me in NJ for a few weeks this month! Thank goodness for gig work and our convenient side hustle of virtual library presentations because trying to incorporate the tide of personal responsibilities and work goals into the caregiving seems impossible to me. Also, I sold at least 6 Between Each Step…
Currently living/working: I took a leave of absence from my job … Wait, who am I kidding? I’m a freelancer who makes her own schedule. For the foreseeable future, I’m an unpaid—but much appreciated—caregiver to my mom in NJ. It’s what I dubbed as my limbo life. Meanwhile, Justin is battling the dregs of winter…
Currently living/working: It’s been an eventful month, and I’m so grateful for the carefree time in Mexico, because it’s all gone downhill! Let’s see, where to start? While we were in Denver visiting Justin’s family for Christmas, Justin ended up in the hospital. Apparently, he had a bacterial infection—unrelated to Mexico, but related to one…
Currently living/working: We’ve done minimal work this month. We both wrapped up a few projects before jet setting to the East Coast and we’ve been in Mexico since 11/21. This is the chunk of the year when we live off our savings thanks to our seasonal work as well as the random freelance paychecks that…
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…
Currently living/working: We survived another summer of wrangling what seems like a 30-gallon bucket worth of income streams and logistics!!! From guiding to managing/cleaning investment properties to freelance writing/speaking gigs to passion projects, I love the diversity of our safety nets, but it is always admittedly exhausting. Now we’ll both make the shift to solely…
Currently living/working: As the summer season draws its curtains, I would say we more than earned our keep jam-packing the season with multiple jobs (guiding, cleaning, writing). I guided 15 trips in August, and Justin 18, making for the busiest month for both of us thus far! Current mood: I always mourn the loss of…