March Goes Drip Drip Drip

Look closely at the dripping water. Do you see the inverted landscape in each droplet?

Spring is in the air! Though only reaching daytime high temperatures in the mid 40°s, with the sun climbing higher and higher in the sky and the remaining snow blanket reflecting and intensifying it, we’ve actually had a couple days of T-shirt weather. It’s obviously a good time for getting the first sunburn of the year as well.

As the snow slowly melts each day and turns to water which eventually soaks into the ground, our new and improved driveway is holding up like a champ. We do still have our annual mid-driveway pond, however, this year there is rock and gravel at the bottom, rather than a bottomless mud pit. We are proud to say no vehicles have gotten stuck in the driveway (yet)! ​

Driving into Anchorage from the Matsu Valley with the iconic view of Pioneer Peak.

The moose activity is also picking up, confirming the season change. There have been several mornings where we wake up and look out the window to see a moose right next to the cabin. Like open the window and pet the moose close (not advised). While they are mostly preoccupied eating willow branches, we do give them their space. One of our dogs was charged when he got too close to a mamma with a baby. Luckily, he was the quicker of our two dogs and was able to out maneuver the large, lanky moose. While it is tempting to just watch your feet as you walk around on the ice covered ground outside, we remember to keep our heads on a swivel as we go about our chores. For such large creatures, they are able to move about in near silence, regardless of snow depth.

Marv wanted us to share some of our breakfast with him one morning.

Mama moose made quick work clearing the 7'+ snow piles to charge at Rez while protecting her year old baby. No humans or animals were hurt in this small encounter.

There is still about 2’ of snow anywhere that hasn’t been plowed, but it steadily melts a bit every day then freezes again at night. This slow and controlled melt down is a good thing, there can be major issues around here if things melt too fast. The rivers overfill and wreak all sorts of havoc with broken up ice chunks taking out bridges and water flowing over roads. My best guess is most of the snow should be gone in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Rez waiting for mom to catch up so we can adventure towards the lake on this beautiful 'spring' day.

We have been staying plenty busy with our many endeavors, but there is a long list of projects which we can’t touch until the ground is clear of snow and the mud has dried up. Things like working on the foundation for our shop building and working the new garden plots and setting up another greenhouse. It is nice being able to thoughtfully strategize these sorts of projects without feeling like we need to be working on it as soon as we make the decision. Sometimes the delay between decision and action is a good thing as it allows us to refine the decision and prevent wasted action. However, it’s also possible to think way too much about something, to the point nothing ever gets done. We have been learning to ride the median between the two extremes; being mindful of the future and calculated with our plans, but also being able to mobilize and tackle a project quickly and efficiently. ​

I took a break on the deck with this old soul to warm the bones.

This March, on full-sun days, the top of the greenhouse thermometer clocked a high of 113 degrees! Still trying to get that snow in the bottom melted though--goes to show how much snow accumulated on the ground this winter.

With the weather gradually warming, now usually staying in the 20°s at night, Pete has been able to get his greenhouse project to a usable point. On the last day of March he planted the first seeds of the season; about 50 onion plants. There is no heat source in the greenhouse, so it is still getting below freezing in there at nights, but we have a large warming mat which is able to keep a few seed trays at about 75° all night. According to the planting calendar Pete put together, we are only about a month behind schedule. That isn’t bothering us though, since that calendar was put together assuming “ideal” conditions, something we’ve yet to achieve. ​

We are thrilled to have created a hospitable environment for starting our seeds. In our climate, as we discovered last year, there are only a few crops which can grow to full maturity in the limited outdoor growing season. Without the greenhouse, our only other option for starting seeds would have been inside the cabin and, with only 320 square feet shared between 3 people and 2 dogs, that isn’t really an option at all. Now, when frost danger has passed in mid-May we will be able to transplant strong, healthy plants into the field and expect to harvest in just a few weeks, rather than months. Last year we were just learning to catch a ball, this year we’re going to be learning how to juggle!

King Hawaii, the rooster our daughter named last summer, does a decent job protecting his egg-laying ladies. Hawaii was the 'wild card' chicken that the vendor gave us with our large chick order last summer. The black and white egg layers are quick and agile. They are smaller and don't consume as much feed in the winter months which helps with the farmstead's efficiency. Their eggs are deliciously rich in flavor--makes for easy scrambled eggs in the mornings!

As we patiently wait for the ground to thaw, we have been staying very busy with Wild North Design! In the month of March we’ve attended several new shows and started developing many new designs. We are most proud to now have a presence on the Elmendorf-Richardson joint army/air force base, a massive military base just outside of Anchorage. With 40,000+ residents, it’s its own small city filled with amazing service & veteran men and women. It’s an honor to create for these heroes who have given so much for us.

LED lit salmon with Kenai blue resin filled Alaska birch. Everything about this piece tells a story about Alaska. Pete has made a few prototypes that we plan to continue development on to add to the Wild North Design website for purchase.

We also have scheduled our biggest show to date: the Alaska Vintage Home Market! Covering a large portion of the AK state fairgrounds, this is a gathering of some of the most amazing artists and craftsmen in the area. We visited this market last year and got some great inspiration from the wonderfully talented vendors. This year, we’re thrilled to be showcasing our own work there!

An Irish themed wood piece made for St. Patrick's Day.

This market runs from May 13th-15th, and we’ve been trying out new designs and slowly building an inventory for the three day show. Though, that is mainly in our “spare time” since our priorities are always on our current custom orders and making sure we have inventory for our weekly shows. Our new foray into epoxy resin art, while beautiful, has added another level of challenge when it comes to planning and timeline management, due to the 3+ days it takes to make a piece. That’s okay though, we just learn to optimize our space and plan ahead.

Hot off the press: custom color mix epoxy painted laser cut caribou. Ready to hang on the wall.

Epoxy "painted" brown bear on a one-of-a-kind acrylic painted background, framed in Alaskan spruce.

Other homestead developments include getting connected to the internet! This has been probably one step below electricity, when it comes to life changing events! Until now, we had been using a mobile hot spot, which would have worked fine if we had cell reception at our place. Unable to upload anything from home, pretty much every blog and video we have posted until now has required us to hop in the car with the laptop, power inverter, and hot spot device and drive a few miles to the nearest cell tower were we could get a good enough signal to upload. Not anymore though – now I am sipping coffee, sitting barefoot by the wood stove posting this to the world. Amazing! ​

Pete made this beautiful and rigid coffee table with Alaskan birch. I love that Kenai blue he uses!

Of course, we are now having to pay for this wonderful new service. One of our commitments to ourselves is to help offset this new cost by posting more content for all of you! Since we no longer have the excuse of the uploading process taking so long, we now plan on posting more videos to both of our YouTube channels more regularly – stay tuned!

Rez standing in the snow while I am on plowed ground. It's been hard to tell just how much snow accumulated this winter but I'd guestimate at least 4-5 feet in our area.

Well, that’s about it for March, everyone! I’m sure we’ll be complaining about the mud next month, but check back anyways just to see. Thanks for reading!