We've Got Moose!

I glanced out the window a few hours ago and was delighted to discover our local mama moose had TWINS and Mama was grazing contentedly in what is supposed to be the horse pasture as the babies tottered around. They were so tiny and uncertain on their legs that I suspect they were born within the past few hours. They would venture away a few feet, then come back. One appears to be the leader, and the other one only ventures away after the first one. They nursed, then wandered off. Then they laid down on the lawn and Mama proceeded to lick them. Their little heads were stretched up to her like they were really enjoying it.

I would hate to see one of "our" babies get hit by a car or killed by a bear. Surprisingly, though, dogs are one of baby moose's biggest threats; they often kill the young. We are one of the few people around here who don't have dogs, which is probably part of the reason why Mama brought her babies here. One of the ways they suggest increasing the moose population is to keep dogs tied up during this season when the moose are having babies.

While we will love having them around, they had better not decide to frequent my garden. The fence is a vital part of my garden, and though the moose could easily hop it, I am hoping they have enough food outside the fence that it's not worth their effort.

Enjoy my first attempt at putting a video in my blog! I hope it works for you. All my training last week in Kenai is paying off!

Vegetable Gardening

Like people all over the country, I spent Memorial Day Weekend gardening. It took me exactly 2 full days, from Sunday afternoon till Tuesday afternoon to take the garden from raw, untouched state to completely planted. Let me walk you through my process....

Step 1: Step 1 actually started a year ago when I picked a new garden site, plowed it, hauled out the clods of dirt and hauled in load after load of every type of old manure, ashes, alder leaves and other organic material I could find, and worked it into the soil by hand. I put on about 6 inches of good stuff last summer, built the fence (Note that 1 1/2 sides of it are corrugated plastic. That is to break the wind from the mountain & glacier sides of the garden.), and let it set.

Step 2: Over the winter as my neighbor gave me ashes I spread them on the garden to make the snow melt faster and get the soil warmed up sooner. As it was, I could not get into my garden until just over a week ago (without sinking 6 inches into muck).


Step 3: Six weeks ago I started my cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini and herbs inside, then transplanted them into bigger pots as they grew. My daughter is great with plants, and a wonderful help.
I also drew up a plan of what plants were going to go where, and about this time I also got the compost bin started again (4 pallets standing up and wired together work great for me).

Step 4: The first thing I did on Sunday was dig out the remaining clods of grass that were left from last year. I don't have a rototiller, and didn't want to rent one, so dug all the weeds out by hand. I had at least 15 large buckets full plus a few tubs of grass clumps and weeds, so this was an essential step! I missed putting in manure in a few places last summer, and amazingly, when I watered those sections, the water just sat and didn't drain at all. Where I had added stuff the drainage was excellent. The soil has virtually no organic matter in it naturally, and it is thick and clay-like.

Step 5: I planted spinach and lettuces in the raised beds, watered them and stapled plastic to the top to hold in the moisture and warmth until they germinate. Planting the peas, kohlrabi, potatoes, onions and carrots was easy. I did soak the seeds first so they would germinate more quickly. Then in the garden I made my string line, hoed a shallow trench, scattered the seed, covered up and watered them with my manure tea (fresh horse manure soaked in water for a few weeks and drained--if stinky is good these plant will rock!).

Step 6: Next the kids and I heaped up the dirt about 12 inches high in 4 rows. I probably should have done this for the whole garden, but would not have had enough room for all the plants I wanted to plant. In colder climates, this heaping is supposed to allow the sun to warm the soil so the plants grow better. When I tried this in Michigan the plants in the heaped areas died, so while I was a little hesitant, everyone up here seems to heap their dirt, so it must work.

Step 7: Cucumbers, tomatoes and squash are generally greenhouse plants in Alaska (some exceptions exist). Since we're renting, I didn't want to invest large amounts of money in a greenhouse (My husband finished my greenhouse in Michigan months before we moved to Alaska; I never even got to use it!), so we rigged up a little lean-to greenhouse/cold frame with the corrugated fence on one side, plastic stretched over a wood frame and plywood for the ends. I planted my zucchini and parsley in this, then stretched a soaker hose through it for easy watering.

Viola! Garden done! Well, it is planted. Now I have to watch very carefully to make sure it grows! At the moment my cauliflower is looking a little stressed. I didn't want to plant till June 1, but I am going to be camping from June 1-10, so thought I'd get the plants going a few days before I left. That way, if my transplants die off I have enough time to run to town and buy more and plant them!! All in all, it's a grand experiment. The most expensive part of this whole garden has been the seedling and starter soil I purchased from a local garden shop. Nearly all the fencing, plastic, wood, railroad ties, pallets, ashes, manure (cow, horse & chicken), etc. have come from our generous neighbors, who will share in our bounty when we begin to harvest!

Returning to Homer

My stomach does flip flops and my mouth falls open in wonder when I drive over the ridge heading into Homer after being out of town for a few days. Kachemak Bay, the Kenai Mountains and the Homer Spit spread out in an amazing vista. I'm never expecting it, and I'm actually a little embarrassed about it, but I think it is part of the reason Homer is such a popular destination. It is incredibly beautiful. While the Alaska Range across Cook Inlet, with its soaring, snow-capped volcanoes, takes my breath away too, the mountains across Kachemak Bay are stunning for their immediacy. They are so near. I'm afraid these pictures don't do justice to the beauty. You'll just have to come see for yourself.

Other reflections:
The snow: it's mostly gone (At our house anyways. As you can see from the pictures, there is a snow line. On the Homer side of the bay there is just maybe a few hundred feet above the current snow line)
The traffic: My husband says it's weird driving down the road and seeing so many people and cars he doesn't recognize. I agree. The increase in the population is amazing, and the traffic, which hasn't been an issue since last October, now has to be factored into driving times. Yuck. (But all you dear blog readers are still welcome to come visit. Just introduce yourself so you're not strangers!)
The colors: Wow! Green! I can't get used to it! I know it happens everywhere, but it seems so late. Actually, it has been green in Homer for awhile, but it is only just beginning up here at 1300 feet.
The light: I'm still not used to it. I think I need to get dark shades for my windows. I was up at 4:30 this morning.....
The funkiness: This is one of my favorite things about Alaska. Anything goes. Image just isn't as much of an issue as, say, practicality. Driving into town yesterday, it was funny seeing a guy biking down the road with a fully loaded backpacking backpack on. And the beards. I really want to do a blog entry on beards; the variety is amazing. And we're not talking these little goatee things; we're talking great, flowing beards on young men, old men, and lots in between. Homer attracts an interesting crowd!
Home: I know Homer's home because store clerks know me. I enjoy the familiarity of going into a store and being treated as "me" rather than as a "customer". There is something to be said for small towns.

A Week in Kenai

The college I work for is paying me to attend a training in Kenai for a week. They automatically make reservations at a hotel in Soldotna, but I didn't want to spend a week in a hotel, so asked if I could stay at the Diamond M Ranch instead. They have a B&B, cabins, restored Victorian rooms and an RV park. I was put in the Upper Foremen's Cabin (see picture below), a cabin that was built in 1998 from spruce beetle killed logs harvested from my aunt & uncle's ranch in Ninilchik. There is an upstairs and downstairs apartment. I am upstairs, and have a beautiful view of the bog that leads to the Kenai River (about a 1/2 mile from here) and the Alaska Range. Ronna Martin, one of the owners of Diamond M (and my cousin) has told me that many people that come to visit the ranch say it is very peaceful. Now that I have spent some time there, I agree. Although the busy K-Beach Road is a few hundred yards away, when I am in this cabin it is like there is nothing else and no place else. I have had a very peaceful week, and if I ever have to stay in Soldotna/Kenai area again, this is where I'm going to stay!

Subaru Row

I had to chuckle the other day when I stopped at Fritz Creek to pick up my mail and I pulled into a row of Subaru's! When you consider the sparse population of Alaska, the percentage of Subarus around Homer is amazing. The funny thing is I'm getting sensitive to them, so now I can often pick out whose Subaru is whose even though they're the same color! As you can tell from this picture, there is a huge variety in age and condition. Since they don't put salt on the roads around Homer, rust, a Subaru's main plague, is factored out. Thus you can see some 20-30 year-old cars around (from the 70's & 80's).

More Daylight!

It is no longer getting dark at night, and we're still in the stages of getting used to the long hours of daylight. This morning I woke up and was thinking, "It must be late" because it was so bright out. It was only 4 a.m. I went upstairs and Denver was sleeping on the couch, fully dressed. He must have woken up and thought it was time to get up too! Last night I put Aurora to bed and an hour later, at 10 p.m. the neighbor kids were up and outside yet. We find it harder to go to bed at our normal times because the signal of darkness isn't there. We look at the clock and suddenly realize it is nearly midnight though it is still light out (Or, like the neighbors, our kids are still outside playing at 10:00!). We still have a month to go till the longest day of the year, which will just about be the 1 year anniversary of my blog. What a year!

Trash Pickup Day for Razdolna

Picking up trash on the 5 1/2 miles from East End Road to the village of Razdolna is an annual event for the students at Razdolna School. The kids were disappointed because normally the weather is beautiful and sunshiny, but today there were snow flurries and 20+ mph winds. The girls looked frozen in their dresses with no hats or gloves, and the guys weren't dressed much warmer. I had on my heavy 4-wheeling garb and was toasty, though would have appreciated some hot chocolate all the same! The whole school K-12 got the road picked up in 2 1/2 hours. We had two vehicles and two 4-wheelers and hopscotched down the road, dropping off kids past the previous group. We left the bags on the side of the road and the villagers pick them up when they go by and take them to the transfer station.

An anthropologist studying the trash might come to one major conclusion: the Russians only drink beer. Nearly all of the dozens of bags of trash was beer bottles and beer cans. When I mentioned this to a teacher she suggested that maybe that's the only thing they can't take home so it gets thrown out the window; everything else they take home and put in the trash. Upon talking to the students about it, they said that most of the beer is from visitors who come for weddings or from other villages. How do they know? Nearly all the beer was Budweiser, and they said no one in the village drinks Budweiser. Gee, is that a sign of a small town or what??

I was expecting some soda cans, but I didn't find one. Treasures I did find: a one dollar bill and a cell phone. We would have found even more trash if all the snow were gone, but there were spots at the higher elevations that still had 2-3 foot snowbanks along the side of the road. Did I mention that it has been a late spring??!!