Dashes are Important

Yesterday, I decided to hit the XC ski trails around our cabin at 10:00AM.  I had noted that when Ben left for work at 6:30AM it was -7 outside.  But when I checked right before I left the house for the ski, I saw that the weather unit registered at 10 degrees.  I rejoiced for the temperature warming up so quickly in just a few hours.   I rejected my warmest gloves, feeling that my mediocre gloves would do the trick in this mild temperature.  I also decided I didn’t really need to layer up because I would soon be warm once I got moving.  As I walked out the door, I quickly unplugged the car outside.  No sense in wasting electricity…the car will start fine by itself at 10 above.  As I was unplugging the car, though, I thought that 10 degrees was feeling oddly cold for some reason.  The air in my nose was freezing instantaneously.  I hoped that I wasn’t losing the acclimatization that I had acquired where 10 degrees felt comfortable.   I started skiing, feeling quite wimpy for wanting to retreat back to the cabin for warmth, or at least for more layers.  I denied these desires and kept going….I was not about to look like a fool wearing all of my warmest gear at 10 degrees!  Within minutes, my eyes began to water….and then proceeded to freeze on my eyelashes.  My mediocre gloves were also not cutting it—my fingertips throbbed in frozen pain.  About 5 minutes down the trail, it registered in my mind that it was not 10 degrees.  I must have missed the little dash preceding the 10 on the temperature display.  After completing the 20 minute ski loop and still feeling frozen to the bone, I knew that I did not need to go inside and re-check the temperature display to see if my theory was correct.  Every part of my body screamed at me that it was most definitely NEGATIVE ten.

I learned my lesson well from yesterday.  Today, I NOTICED the dash before the 20, and decided to wait until it was -15 before starting my ski.  This time, I bypassed the mediocre gloves, grabbing my warmest pair.  I wore multiple layers and included my balaclava to warm the air before entering my lungs.  Thankfully, it was a much more enjoyable ski!   Never again will that sly little dash hide from these eyes!   

Halloween Spooks

On Halloween evening, we were greeted at the door by a bride zombie, Hydra (the three headed monster in Greek mythology), and a cyborg.   It was our delightful landlord’s children looking for Halloween treats!  We excitedly talked to them for a few minutes and learned where they were headed next in the car.  Houses are much too far apart here to walk around trick-or-treating and it is much too cold to do that anyway.  It’s also nearly pointless for the children to dress up because after their costume goes on, then it's time to put on the winter jacket, arctic boots, hat, and gloves to stay warm.  And that pretty much takes care of anyone actually seeing your costume.  But, that doesn’t stop the Halloween spirit from being alive and well in Delta! 

After our visitors departed, Ben and I retreated to the upper level of our cabin where it is warmer to read.   Not long after we had made ourselves comfortable and became engrossed in our books, did we hear sounds coming from downstairs.  It sounded as though a creature was lurking around below us.   We shot nervous glances at each other.  Ben, scared at what he might find (it’s Halloween after all AND a full moon), peered over our railing, scanning the downstairs vicinity.  What he saw was…..nothing.   We worried out loud for a few minutes that maybe the squirrels that lived in our roof were taking over underneath the house too.  Then, we went back to reading.  Not more than a few minutes later, the sound appeared downstairs again, only this time much louder and harder to ignore.  It really sounded like something was INSIDE the house, not below it.  Ben once again shot up and ran to his lookout from the railing.  “Oh no,” Ben said.   “What is it???” I nervously asked.

Good luck finding a new home, Mr. Vole!

Well, as it turned out, our Halloween visitor was not a squirrel or a mouse, as may be expected, but rather a vole.   We spent the next few minutes chasing the vole around the kitchen and then Ben, drawing from his past skills as a high school basketball star, threw a large Tupperware container over the vole as it ran, capturing it underneath.   Phew….problem averted!  Or was it……

Now we were left with an extremely cute vole peering at us from under its plastic prison.  Any normal family in the interior would’ve killed it in an instant.  Even the beautiful, rare, lynx are seen as varmints to be trapped and killed here.  Although Ben and I had our fair share of killing roof-dwelling squirrels already, we couldn’t bear to kill another small creature.  But we also did not want this vole to be back in our house anytime soon.  So, we did what any typical person would do in this situation.  With subzero temperatures outside, we bundled up and took our vole for his very first car ride.  The vole got to experience the thrill of driving down the Alaska Highway under a clear starry sky, illuminated by the full moon.  It was a beautiful, snowy ride for the vole.  When we felt we were many, many, many vole steps away from our house, we pulled over and let the little guy out into the cold, fresh air again.  The vole, obviously loving his first ride on the highway, quickly ran back onto the road and started his trek to his new home………precisely in the direction of our house again.  “No, no no,” we screamed from the car!  “Wrong way!”  Then we saw a car approaching our vole.  The headlights hit the little vole running down the highway and we watched in horror.  Thankfully the car missed the vole by a mere couple of inches allowing it to continue on its nighttime journey, hopefully, with any luck, to someone else’s house. 

Winter Wonderland

Mt. Moffit in the Alaska Range

Cross-country ski season has officially begun.  With about a foot of snow on the ground now, Ben and I have been laying down tracks on the trails around our cabin.  The snow here is perfectly dry and fluffy.  I have never experienced anything like it growing up in the Pacific Northwest and then living in the wet rainforest of Sitka.   There is no scraping of car windows in the morning and shoveling the snow is akin to shoveling air!  It is truly miraculous!  Sometimes, Ben and I have to be reminded how dry the snow is we are dealing with.  For instance, Ben had the idea of pelting one of the teachers we were having over for dinner with a snowball as he arrived at our house (I wonder why we don’t have more friends, yet???), only to realize that it was impossible to make a snowball.  Sneak-attack foiled!  Nearly as sad is the lack of snowmen in yards.  But these are two things I would definitely sacrifice for this amazing powder!   I LOVE this snow! 

 Our cabin appears so idyllic blanketed in white with our skis patiently waiting out front for their next ride.   If I were to have imagined my life living in Alaska 10 years ago, I would’ve hoped it would look just like this! 

BUT……….what you can’t see in this picture is the hours of hauling water each week in subzero temperatures and you definitely can’t SMELL the strong sewage odor that is frequently taking over the inside of our cabin because of a sewage gas leak in a frozen pipe.  Sorry, Ma and Pa Clark….I don’t think we’ve told you about that news update yet ……but WE are still excited you are visiting in a few weeks, even if you aren’t anymore!  To help alleviate the unpleasant odor, we are still using the outhouse as much as possible.   But we are making some improvements before our Thanksgiving guests arrive.   Our exciting purchase today was buying some heavy-duty, non-freezing foam in which we will carve a new and improved toilet seat out of for the outhouse.  No more (literally) freezing our rears to the hoar frost covered seat!   Hooray!   Get excited, Charli and Todd!!!! 

Playing on the fluffy tundra

Ben, admiring Donnelly Dome from afar