What's going on?

This. This is going on.

We don't take nice, posed pictures of Thanksgiving dinner at my house, we take pictures of everyone after they've already dug in. The food this year was phenomenal. Seriously. I don't remember the food ever being this delicious. We had turkey, mashed taters, gravy, cranberry salad, stuffing, green bean casserole, poppy seed rolls, olives, fruit salad, cherry pie and pumpkin cheesecake. Yep, we skipped the traditional pies this year.

Did you know that turkeys now come with gravy stuff in them? You mix it with water (I mixed it with chicken broth and added ptarmigan and grouse giblets) and bring it to a boil. It made some damn fine gravy, but it also made me start thinking about the reasoning behind this new insert in the turkeys cavity. And my conclusion is that people are getting too lazy to or are incapable of making gravy. Which makes me sad. It's not a hard process to learn.

This is my "there is glorious amounts of food in front of me and wine in my glass" smile.

We stuffed ourselves so much on the actual dinner that we had to take a two hour break after dinner before even attempting dessert. Well, they had to take a two hour break, I had to take a 6 hour break before I could even attempt desert. I done myself proud.

I swear his face gets sweeter and cuter every single day. Mister Blue is aging so gracefully and he's still as soft-hearted as ever. Just before I made him sit for this picture he was eating snow. I love it when he does that and gets snow on his nose. I have to take a picture really quickly because he licks it off fairly quickly.

We set some snares on Sunday. Naturally I decided to take a picture. The I had the clever idea to...

practically lay down in the snow so I could get this angle. I LOVE IT! Hopefully our labor will pay off with some fur.

These were set on November 30th. The last day in November. Trapping season in our hunting unit begins on November 1st. But up until Friday we did not have snow and for the most of November the river wasn't really safe. Pretty crazy and pretty disappointing. Actually... seriously disappointing. I had three weeks where I was out here in the village to dedicate to trapping before I do some work travel and then spend three weeks with the manfriend out in Montana. What the heck, weather? What the heck?!?!

I thought this was the flipping coolest thing. It looks like a wolverine and fox are best friends and traveling some epic journey together. I'm sure that's not the case, but wouldn't that be magical if it were? They were so fresh and beautiful. I really wish we'd had enough snow to go and attempt to track them and hunt them down on the tundra. But there was no way to get up on the tundra from the river. Someday. Someday, I'll be able to track something.

Freddy's Beach Bar

In my travels, I run across some amazing places. And I end up traveling back to the same areas, in the same cities. And lets be real, some places just draw you back. :) One such place is Freddy's Beach Bar in Crystal City. There are EPA offices just a short jaunt away, along with about five Marriott's in a two block radius (seriously? seriously.) and we always stay in the area for our NTOC meetings. I was initially drawn to the place because of it's color and vibrancy. When I found out it was a gay bar with drag queen bingo on Wednesday nights? It had me forever.

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture.

Everyone that I've met there has been there to have a good time and were welcoming of this Alaskan stranger. It was so packed one night that there were no seats at the bar or any open tables. So I jaunted up to a table that seated four with only three people at it and they totally let me sit down and order a beer and a burger and play some drag queen bingo. The hostesses swung by my table the second time I was there and welcomed me and asked where I was from and thanked me for coming. It's truly a great place and a great time. Bonus: It has glorious drinks with mermaids and flashing light cubes.

That's right folks, I treasured each and every sip.

Bread, flowers, and manfriend

I find myself over half way through 2014 and not a blog post to show for any of the wonderful things (both little and huge) that have happened in my life this year. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be living the life that I am. I'm happy and grateful for things in my life everyday.

This guy would be someone that I am grateful for everyday. And someone that makes me happy everyday.

I don't get to see him as often as I want, but that goes hand in hand with I don't get to be in the village as much as I want either. I missed out on a lot of trapping here this past winter. This Spring I missed out on a lot of gardening on the homestead in Montana. However, looking at the happy side of life, it's filled with people that love and care about me and that want to spend time with me.
Side note: what is my frizzy hair doing up there? Ugh.

It's really difficult having your feet and your heart in two places that are so far away from each other. There are a lot of similarities, which means I feel very comfortable in both places. However sometimes those similarities are just different enough that it feels like an alternate universe. There are huge differences as well, the first that comes to mind: temperatures. I MELT in Montana summers. At least when I'm in the direct sunlight. Definitely something that is going to take me years to adjust to. You can adjust to high temperatures, right?

One of the differences about Montana. Different flowers. :)

Manfriend takes me on walks to see the pretty flowers and take pictures. Talk about a winner. <3

This Spring I decided to dig up some Alaskan irises and sent them to Montana for the garden. Someday I plan on living there and I want a piece of my village there. Montana irises are the same kind of iris but they're paler. One of those glaring differences. Not a bad thing but just noticeable to this village girl. We think that a half dozen of them will survive. Manfriend planted them next to his great great great great (who knows how many) irises that he brought up from Colorado that she brought from some place in the midwest. They're beautiful and glorious and I feel privileged that my little Alaskan irises get to live next to his grandma's irises

Something I'll have to visit Alaska for, for the the rest of my life is pictured below.

Salmonberries. That's right I picked them in the rain because I love them that much.

I had two work trips in July that almost prevented the capture of these little fiends. I was home for less than a week right when the berries were just starting to ripen. They're one of the only berries that will continue to ripen after you pick them. So I picked two gallons when they were hard and shucked 'em with my momma. I left for a week and a half. When I came back they were ripe, some were even too ripe by the time I got back. But I picked and picked and picked the already picked berries anyways. I walked. I fell over. I picked in the rain. I picked in the bugs. And I got two more gallons. :) Not too shabby. My family makes salmon berry syrup with them. It's my favorite syrup on the planet. Incidentally enough it's manfriend's favorite syrup too. He has some pretty good taste, that guy. (Obviously.)

I recently saw that there are a few fireweed plants on the drive up to the homestead from Philipsburg.

Mom and I went on a mini-adventure with Mister Blue and picked fireweed blossoms for jelly and such. The plants took a severe beating this year. There was a pretty big storm during the summer and the wind just thrashed the plants, especially along the coast.

Bread for the homestead and my tummy, of course.

One of the things I've started learning is to make bread. It's kinda trickier at altitude. Jay has a really good recipe. This batch had sour cream and fresh chives from the garden in it. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty darn amazing. My bread is still a little crumbly. :( But I love making it so I'm hoping that I improve as time goes on. :)

The Minneapolis airport is very kind to stranded travelers.

Just a little snapshot of life on the road. My last flight out of DC was delayed and I ended up overnighting in the Minneapolis airport. They have an iPad at every single restaurant table in their bars and food places. It's sooo bizarre. I mean what if you want to actually visit with people you're traveling with. And how the hell am I supposed to know what to tip the person delivering my drink. Ridiculous.