Feliz Navidad!

On Christmas Eve, I took Starbuck-A-Roo to see our Friends at the Denali Center. She Loves to see her Friends!


Then we went home, and I made 60-some-odd tamales:


My fingers were wrinkled!


I also made pico de gallo:


And guacamole:


Mmmmm!


Super tasty!


The next day, which was Christmas, the pile only had to be re-heated for Christmas dinner! (We only ate about 10 on Christmas eve.) However, we saved our leftover pico and guac for breakfast. At about 8:30, there was an unexpected knock on the door... HD came by with cinnamon rolls! So we popped them into the toaster oven and had them, too!


Oh, as long as I'm doing food photos, here is the spinach and artichoke cheese dip I made for a Solstice party. It was a hit!


It's been cold. Brrrrrrr!


My morning run leaves me frosty!


And the snuggly dogs are extra snuggly!


"Come Snuggle Us!"

Happy Holidays

I dropped off my holiday cards on my way to work today at the World's Prettiest Post Office, our very own in Ester, Alaska:


This is not my photo. It was taken by one Renee Waters. The photos I attempted this morning were nowhere near this pretty (it was too dark).

Our tiny local post office does not have one of those self-serve stations where you weigh your packages, put in your credit card, and it makes a stamp for you. But there is never any line at the actual counter, so that is no problem! I suspect that most of their duties involve receiving mail, not delivering it. The several neighborhoods surrounding it almost all have PO boxes there, as our mail delivery is not secure. (except me, I still use my campus box.) Our postmistress sends out Facebook messages on our neighborhood group, "Hey please come pick up your mail! The boxes are overflowing!" The neighbors comply. This is a veeeerrrry small community. :)

The other day, I went in to mail a few boxes and my holiday cards going outside of the U.S., as well as pick up the stamps for my U.S. cards. I had a brain fart and lost the words "domestic" and "international" and informed the Postmistress that "I need some stamps for these foreign cards. And I also need to buy several books of stamps for my 'Merican cards, which I will write this weekend." She sold me the international stamps and then informed me that the price would be increasing on them after the New Year, and asked, would I like to purchase more now?

Would I.
Like to purchase.
Stamps.
For next year.
To save.
Fifteen cents.

I told her that I Very Much appreciated her thoughtfulness, and that I was very, very, very flattered by her evident enormous faith in me to keep track of the whereabouts of three postage stamps for A YEAR. But I declined.

The other awesome thing about actual post office human contact instead of the machine is that you get to choose some cool stamps! I GOT DINOSAURS!! Holographic dinosaurs, at that!


AWESOME!!

Here are some gratuitous snuggle photos.

Look how much they love to snuggle! Awwwwwww!!


Roo sez, "Hold my paw!"


Cricket sez, "Ahhhhh, my sister's butt! It's the sooooffffest and beeeestest pillow."

Photos from a day of Brrrrrr...

Climate change is pretty undeniable in Fairbanks. Decades ago, periods of -40 to -50 degrees would linger for weeks. When I first arrived in Fairbanks even just 12 years ago, -40 would last for 4-5 days. Now, there are winters where it never gets to -40 at all, and when it does, it's only for a few days. Today was the coldest day so far of this year, and it wasn't that cold by that standard:


It's not difficult to stay warm with light, puffy layers of down. Although these boots! So disappointing! The rubber got hard in the cold! I suppose there are reasons that Sorels and LLBean boots are still the gold standard. A high percentage of natural rubber keeps them pliant even to -40 and -50!


Cricket selfie in front of the fire!


Aaaahhh but then she flipped over for a belly rub!


This is them this morning before our run. I thought, "Ohhhh I'm gonna have a hard time convincing them to go." But nope. As soon as I put on my coat, they were at the door making Noises. ("Rooooooooos" and husky yelps)


I thought it would be a poop n dash kind of day, but they were REALLY enthusiastic! So we ran our short loop of 2 miles. When we got home, I was all frosty!


Time to bust out my turd coat!


We heat predominantly with wood, but we have an oil stove that has a programmable thermostat so that the cabin doesn't freeze up when we don't have a fire (which is after we go to bed, or while we are at work). Because I like to sleep cold, and the huskies don't care if the cabin is cold when we humans aren't home, I leave the thermostat at 52F/11C. Just enough to keep the cabin unfrozen. The thermocouple for the oil stove is on a rather short wire, so the stove tends to undershoot, blowing warm air on itself and concluding that the whole cabin is warm, then shutting itself off. So the opposite side of the cabin can be quite a bit colder than the side with the oil stove. When Autumn and Linden were still alive, we'd have stretches of -40 temps when I'd come home and find a sheet of ice on top of their water bowl! (Although there'd be a paw-sized hole punched into the middle, such clever girls they were!)

So the cabin is pretty cold when I get home. It's nice and comforting to light a big fire and hover near it. Red wine is nowhere near a decent drinking temperature, so I warm it up. Starbuck-a-Roo sez, "I'll sit nicely for a photo if you hold my paw."

I love her paws!

Report from Deep Winter

We are in for a brrrrrrr-tacular next few days:


And we are now less than a week from Solstice, so here are my Notes from Here and There...

11:45 a.m. sunrise over the Alaska Range from my office windows!

I can always pick out Mount Hayes out there. Here is a photo of it up close.

Kerfloppular dogs!


Mmmmm secret ingredient...


... to The Best Chile!


Office dowgs help me with my APPLE! THEMLOVESAPPLES!!


The other morning on our morning run, a very kind neighbor pulled over in her truck and handed me this vest! She said that despite all our blinky lights, the vest would help even more! What a kind-hearted and caring neighbor!


Once upon a time, Fairbanks had a Gottschalks. The building had been empty for a few years, but I just learned that next year it is going to be turned into an indoor hydroponic farm, to supply Fairbanks with fresh veggies in wintertime! This photo is NOT from there; it's not set up yet as contracts are still being worked out. This is from a test site at the Food Bank:


Have I reminded you lately that Starbuck has a Heart on her Chest? nnnggg...


Oh I got my biennial haircut this week! Yay!


I pulled some blueberries and cranberries from the freezer to make biscotti!

I put orange zest with the cranberry one, and lemon zest with the blueberry one:


Then bake them!


Then slice them and bake them again until they are crunchy!


And voilà! A way to mail Alaskan berries Outside! (These to my mother-in-law in Florida)

Scenes from a snowshoe hike behind the house

Deep winter in Fairbanks is really (quietly, gently, hushedly) beautiful. Yes, the days are short, but the twilights are long, and the sun never rises too high in the sky. It seems tethered to the horizon: straining to rise, never getting a chance to rise high enough to ignite, smoldering orange, red, the color of egg yolk, then with a sigh, slipping back down to sleep.

Starbuck, the Amazing Boneless Husky, looks very regal in the dim light in the woods:


Here is the sort-of-fire-break that State Forestry workers put in manually last summer. They sure went to a lot of (appreciated) effort to make a pretty thinned line instead of clear-cutting the forest!


The sun rising over the trail:


Happy girls!


DL:


The dogs are crazy enthusiastic!


The sun peeking behind the ridge:


Roo pauses to reflect:


They were very contrary last weekend! Running farther away than I'd like!


They look back over their shoulders and then take off again! Contrary huskies!


DL:


The light on the trees:


Me!


Approaching the back of the cabin. The Contrary Huskies are waiting.


Yup. There they are.


Oh! So pretty! Let me take some photos!"


"RRROOOOOOO!!!!"


"ooo"