Musings of an old man

Today is the 37th anniversary of our move to Alaska. It was a big deal then as we had 4 kids and a lot of stuff when we lived in Georgia. We arrived in Alaska on the Easter after the Exxon Valdez disaster and flew over the oil spill on the way. First big impression was the mountains that were snow-covered. I have seen lots of mountains, and Alaska's are among the most beautiful as they rise up almost from sea level, not from a plateau. as most do. We arrived in a bush village later and took up residence there for three years. There were children everywhere and something was always going on . The kids and wife adored it there, which was something I did not quite expect. I liked it too, since the whole move was my idea, especially the river. We could be in total wilderness in five minutes if we hopped in the boat and headed upstream. My work schedule was grueling, however, and after three long years there, I called Anchorage and offered my services and was quickly hired. I moved in and rented a house while wife and kids stayed in the bush for another month getting stuff organized and waiting for the movers to pack stuff up. We had most of our household goods in storage in Georgia, so that had to be loaded on a truck, then a barge to be sent to the more "civilized" part of Alaska.

After about 6 months of house hunting, we found our little paradise here and have live here ever since. Who knows? I may die here. There are certainly worse places to pass on from.
 
Don Alaska said:
Today is the 37th anniversary of our move to Alaska. It was a big deal then as we had 4 kids and a lot of stuff when we lived in Georgia. We arrived in Alaska on the Easter after the Exxon Valdez disaster and flew over the oil spill on the way. First big impression was the mountains that were snow-covered. I have seen lots of mountains, and Alaska's are among the most beautiful as they rise up almost from sea level, not from a plateau. as most do. We arrived in a bush village later and took up residence there for three years. There were children everywhere and something was always going on . The kids and wife adored it there, which was something I did not quite expect. I liked it too, since the whole move was my idea, especially the river. We could be in total wilderness in five minutes if we hopped in the boat and headed upstream. My work schedule was grueling, however, and after three long years there, I called Anchorage and offered my services and was quickly hired. I moved in and rented a house while wife and kids stayed in the bush for another month getting stuff organized and waiting for the movers to pack stuff up. We had most of our household goods in storage in Georgia, so that had to be loaded on a truck, then a barge to be sent to the more "civilized" part of Alaska.

After about 6 months of house hunting, we found our little paradise here and have live here ever since. Who knows? I may die here. There are certainly worse places to pass on from.
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Wonderful story.
 
Congratulations to you and your family, Don! I am grateful that your story is still being written, and declare that the best is yet to come! "Home Sweet Home"!

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I don't know that the best is yet to come, @Joe Riley. We had some fantastic times when the kids were here. We are cutting back the garden this year since we have been growing enough food for the old family of eight. This will be our last major garden year unless I just can't stand it. Next year, we will not plant the greenhouses and will only plant crops that can take care of themselves I think, unless something changes or we get someone to live here for the summer. I think that I will no longer buy seeds unless I just find something I can't resist. I think my life is winding down. Wife and I hope to spend most of next summer (2027) traveling around the country if it is still possible. We have old friends all over the country that are still alive, so we may try to visit old haunts. We'll see.
 
We set up the plant light shelves in the garage, and kicked the car out of the garage. Guess what? A dusting of snow fell the next day. The exact same thing happened on the same date last year with the same dusting of snow. I guess things are cyclical.

I watched a fascinating (to me) movie--The Reluctant Convert--the autobiography of C.S. Lewis. I don't know if there are any other Lewis fans here, but he is among my favorite authors, but I admit that some of his writings are beyond me. It is free on Amazon Prime if anyone is interested in one of the important Christian writers and thinkers of the 20th century.

It was a busy day today with shopping and daily goings-on, but tomorrow should be calmer. My wife uses Yahoo Mail as her primary email provider and has for years. Yesterday she received an email from an old friend who had just turned 70 and there was an invitation attached, or so it appeared. The mail was not from her friend and the invitation contained nothing. She thought something was wrong, so she kept trying to open it with other software. It turns out that her email was hijacked by this message. She had used it sometimes unwillingly to receive codes for various accounts. Usually she uses her phone to receive the codes, but at least one account provider attached to the church accounts switched to her email and refused to use her text account. Needless to say, I was very concerned that financial stuff from other areas and accounts had perhaps been breeched. She got in touch with Yahoo and they spent hours on the phone with her (after she got past the AI) and it appears that everything is back in order. I am sure that even with changed passwords and all that, there may be stuff at risk.

All I can say is for everyone to be very suspicious of any messages, especially those with attachments even if you think you know the sender.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
A few weeks ago I received an email from a former coworker. Nice to hear from her, but she died in 2017. Needless to say, I did not open the message.
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I've got the same thing going on. A guy I knew was in his 80s ten years ago when he left the area. He always sent joke emails you kinda just tolerated. A few years ago some of his Email content took a political slant that was the polar opposite of his worldview. He was married to a much younger woman. I think she's the one sending them out.
 
Transplanting and planting continue here, but the snow is slowing melting. There are bare spots in the sunnier regions and we can walk through the snow over much of the property. It snowed yesterday but little accumulated, so no big deal. The snow blower is still on the tractor, but I may get it off today or tomorrow as the drive is slushy and muddy, and it needs s little maintenance done. I got the mirrors for the tractor recommended by @Jake Smith and I have them on the machine. I will get them adjusted when I next take it out of the shed.

Wife and I went to a funeral "seminar" last night. It answered some of my questions about the process. They had religious representatives, funeral home reps, and cemetery "caretakers" to answer questions and take inquiries into services rendered. We have discussed the stuff between ourselves, but have not consulted our children as they don't want to consider the demise of mom and dad. Our youngest two kids want us to move to a warmer clime as they think it will extend our lives. They may be right on that.
 
Don Alaska said:
Transplanting and planting continue here, but the snow is slowing melting. There are bare spots in the sunnier regions and we can walk through the snow over much of the property. It snowed yesterday but little accumulated, so no big deal. The snow blower is still on the tractor, but I may get it off today or tomorrow as the drive is slushy and muddy, and it needs s little maintenance done. I got the mirrors for the tractor recommended by @Jake Smith and I have them on the machine. I will get them adjusted when I next take it out of the shed.

Wife and I went to a funeral "seminar" last night. It answered some of my questions about the process. They had religious representatives, funeral home reps, and cemetery "caretakers" to answer questions and take inquiries into services rendered. We have discussed the stuff between ourselves, but have not consulted our children as they don't want to consider the demise of mom and dad. Our youngest two kids want us to move to a warmer clime as they think it will extend our lives. They may be right on that.
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Do you and your wife want to move?
 
Don Alaska said:
We are torn. I love Alaska, but the winters dictate that much of our time is spent indoors. When we were younger, much of the winter was outdoors and active. That is no longer the case. There are also warmer areas of Alaska, but they are more like Seattle and that climate is depressing in winter as well.
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Is snowbirding an option for you?
 
Marie Miller said:
Is snowbirding an option for you?
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I suppose, but I don't think I want the issues of maintaining two properties. I don't think we would ever find another place as nice as the one we live on. It would just be the weather. Half our grandchildren are here, and the others are spread around the country. We couldn't find a place with a location close to all the others. Plus, I don't think my wife and I could agree on a place. We really don't agree on anything and only come to decisions by one of us giving in. It has been that way for 50 years. We are both pretty happy here though.
 
Spring seems to have arrived at last--the snow is gone. No trees budding yet, but the apple grafting is complete. most of our end of our small lake is open, but no kayakers or canoeists have passed by yet. I suspect the ice along the edge is still keeping them from putting the boats in. No power boats allowed as it is salmon spawning territory and it wouldn't be a practical thing anyway. It was interesting to hear the ice break up as the water warmed. When we lived in the bush, the river break up was a big thing, and the roar was hear for miles when the ice finally moved. The river was the lifeline there as there are no roads, so the time between when the ice was solid and when it was open for boats was not good for the residents.

The latest excitement here was the arrest of a human trafficking ring that was using "Day Spas" as a front for drugs, prostitution, and who knows what else. Everybody arrived and set up business during the Biden Administration's open borders. There was one 72-year old American male arrested and the remainder (7 males I think) were all of apparently Chinese origin. The victims names and nationalities were not made public, so I don't know how many there were or where they came from. There were 7 "spas" involved, two around here and 5 in Anchorage I think.

I heard Jillian Michaels mention the Alaska LNG Project in the video posted by @Jacob Petersheim. The Democrats here and the RINO Republicans are trying to block the project for no good reason. All of the scare tactics really went away with the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline that has been operating pretty flawlessly for over 50 years. Wildlife has actually increased along the pipeline route despite the alarmism of the environmental lobby in the early 1970s. It would bring in tremendous tax revenue to the state and the nation were it to go through, and the customers in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines are already lined up and on board. A previous governor tried to bring China in to build this and basically sell some of the State of Alaska as payment and it would be constructed using Chinese labor. This would be built with U.S. labor and materials. I guess that is why the Dems are against it...that and it is under Trump's watch, although I don't think he was involved in the planning.
 
As I posted in the Gardening thread, I am transplanting and hardening off preparing to sell some plants and get the garden going. I got the water hooked up to the little greenhouse and we have plants out there now and the heat turned on, but nothing is yet in their permanent location. A few things are beginning to break dormancy, but most of the trees are not budded out yet. There is still some ice on the north side of our little lake, but most of it is ice-free now. No grass growing yet, but it should come to life in a couple weeks.

We had some kind of excitement nearby two days ago. We heard siren after siren going by and we wondered what was happening. When the story came out, it involved a woman who called 911 several times and threatened to kill any law enforcement officer she encountered. The only law enforcement out here is the Alaska State Troopers, and they didn't take to being threatened in such a manner. Two Trooper cars were dispatched to the woman's location, and when they arrived she stepped out of her dwelling and opened fire on the officers, who returned fire. The woman dropped her weapon and ran back into her dwelling. 18 more Trooper cars arrived shortly--that is probably all the Troopers there are in this area even counting the ones off duty. Somehow it was determined that the woman was no longer a threat, so the officers entered her home and took her into custody. She was charged with some weapons charges, threatening and firing on law enforcement , and even terrorism, so I don't know what the whole story was. Troopers generally work alone, so when even two show up at the same time, it is generally time to surrender as they do not mess around and are very good marksmen. I assume the "rest of the story" will come out eventually.

Grandson is graduating from high school tonight. He is the second-oldest of our grandkids in Alaska. All our older ones live in the Seattle area, and one of them (our eldest) is getting married in a few weeks. We also have a few in Omaha.

I had hoped to get some wood cutting done today, but it was raining when I got up, so I may wait until the weekend since it is supposed to be drier then. If the gardens dry out a bit, I will till them and get some stuff--mostly root veggies--in the ground.
 
Well, like I posted in the weather thread, the trees are starting to bud and it has been dry now for almost three straight days, so I will try to get tilling done either today or tomorrow. I also still have several down trees to cut up and a few to cut down. As I think I posted a while ago, my wife cut down her first Tree this spring using the small cordless chainsaw, so she is anxious to tackle another. We found a candidate for her just off the font lawn, so perhaps she will tackle that this weekend. She hasn't ever, and will likely never, use the bigger gas-powered saws. Those are strictly my territory, but I never fall trees without someone else nearby.

We are busy every day now carrying flats of plants in and out to harden them before sale or panting. This is likely the last year we will be doing this on so large a scale, and I have reduced the number of plants even now. Next year we hope to take the year off for our 50th wedding anniversary. We may plant some crops such as potatoes, beets and such and let them care for themselves, but the large- scale garden are likely finished. It is sad to see that ere end, but we are just getting too old to keep up the scale of gardening we have been doing for decades. I started gardening when I was about 12, and re-started it when I discovered it was a hobby I enjoyed that did not cost me anything (net) as I got more food than I ever spent on seeds and equipment. I remember my wife complained about me spending $30 on seeds the first time, but in recent years I have spent thousands on seeds and she hasn't said a word other than amused encouragement. :)
 
Back from granddaughter's wedding. Her sister got married last fall, so it may be a while until the next "grand" wedding as they were our two oldest grandchildren. Three high school graduations this year as well. We returned to burgeoning gardens and greenhouses, so there is work to catch up on. I had heard from many that the security lines in airports were terrible since so many TSA agents quit due to the two shutdowns that left them stranded, we had had the best security transit at both Anchorage and Seattle that we have had since TSA started. Anchorage has all the new CAT-scanning equipment now, so nothing needs to be removed from carry-ons and they just glide through unless you have a full water bottle in your luggage. When I flew a lot, Seattle was the worst airport in the country for security lines, but we zipped right through this time, although they still have the old scanning equipment, so electronics need to be removed from your bags. The return flight to Alaska was not even full, and that was something we haven't encountered in years, so over all, it was a good trip.
 
Don Alaska said:
I suppose, but I don't think I want the issues of maintaining two properties. I don't think we would ever find another place as nice as the one we live on. It would just be the weather. Half our grandchildren are here, and the others are spread around the country. We couldn't find a place with a location close to all the others. Plus, I don't think my wife and I could agree on a place. We really don't agree on anything and only come to decisions by one of us giving in. It has been that way for 50 years. We are both pretty happy here though.
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Don't do like we did and wait till one pf you are pasing. Dying is hard enough without feeling bad about where.
 
The winters are the tough part of living here. The summers are generally delightful but short. We used to be very active in winter with skiing, dog mushing, and other things, but as we age those things become much more difficult. Our two youngest sons want us to move to Arizona, mostly so they have an excuse to go there. I would miss winter, fall, and spring though. I have always loved the change of seasons, and I need to be near water (not just swimming pools) so a lot of Arizona would be out of consideration.
 
Don Alaska said:
The winters are the tough part of living here. The summers are generally delightful but short. We used to be very active in winter with skiing, dog mushing, and other things, but as we age those things become much more difficult. Our two youngest sons want us to move to Arizona, mostly so they have an excuse to go there. I would miss winter, fall, and spring though. I have always loved the change of seasons, and I need to be near water (not just swimming pools) so a lot of Arizona would be out of consideration.
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Your mentioning moving Arizona causes 2 questions to come to mind:

1-How long are the winters where you are?
2-How is your water situation in Alaska? I assume you are on a well. Is the aquifer long-term reliable? (I think the water situation in Arizona would be a constant source of stress.)
 
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