Musings of an old man

[Don Alaska]

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.)

John, we live on a small spring-fed lake here and our water table is about 10 feet down although our well is 50 feet. Not everywhere in Alaska is water this available, especially around Fairbanks where the water is notoriously bad due to mineral content. We have iron and calcium but little else according to water tests we had done some years ago. I assume we are tapping into the springs that feed the lake.

Winters, however, are long and hard. Traditionally over time winter here started in September and lasted until April, however in recent years the seasons seem to be shifting with winter beginning in late October and lasting until May as has happened this year. Our ground was still frozen just a foot down as late as the beginning of June. Fruit trees are just now blooming while traditionally they bloom in late May. It is also very dark from November into January with only 4 to 6 hours of real daylight.

 

[Don Alaska]

I went to the baby shower on Friday. It was held in one of the grandest, but at the same time strangest, houses I have ever entered. When Obama was President, he visited Anchorage and did not meet with the governor or the mayor of the state's largest city, but did spend two hours having dinner in this house with the owner of the state's largest newspaper and one of his largest contributors and propagandists. This was her "summer cottage". I think it was listed at 7,000+ square feet and our acquaintance purchased it for an estimated 3.5 million dollars (according to Zillow). It had sat unoccupied for 5 years or more, but was maintained well. Still, quite a cottage! It had a very large teak deck overlooking a small lake that was big enough to fly planes from and almost everyone who lives on the lake is a pilot.

We went into Anchorage again today for a granddaughter's birthday party. So many trips to the "big city"! I haven't been there 4 times in a couple weeks since I commuted there to work. Hopefully we will be home for a while now since I still have so much to do. We don't put in the long days now since we have no children at home and no livestock other than a few chickens. We spend a lot more time sitting on the deck or patio watching the goings-on on our little lake. Getting old and enjoying more of the life we have left.