Here are a few more human/wildlife interactions that have made the news in the great state of Alaska recently. Life in The Last Frontier sure keeps you on your toes!
Calf moose stops in for some groceries in Wasilla
(Although these ladies sure sound like they could be Minnesotans. 😉 )
Bear pays a visit to Anchorage Target
Last but not least, this poor guy hit a seal while driving to work on St. Paul Island. Yikes!
We’ve always been a family that tends to buy garage-related things new, but will often wait for a sale, discount, or inventory clearance to get nice things at modest prices. Gone are days of dropping by Home Depot and sifting through their clearance inventory, or hitting up slickdeals.net for stellar deal on a set of wrenches (it’s almost never a stellar deal after shipping to Alaska). Since we live in reality where money doesn’t grow on trees, that means we’re buying more items used. Our two most recent purchases just also happen to be purchases you really don’t want to be lemons: expensive items.
First, we purchased The Beast. We haven’t taken it out for a spin yet, but all signs point to a good purchase there. Next, I needed a means of moving that sucker around. We’re also in the middle of our real estate hunt, looking for a piece of land on which to build our next home, and plan on doing as much of the work ourselves as we are able. If I learned anything from renovating our last home, it’s that a 6.5′ pickup truck bed is nice, but a 16′ trailer is better. 12′ sheets of drywall, a pallet of tile or wood flooring, lumber, PVC, etc are all easier to transport with more space.
I set out to find myself a tandem axle flatbed trailer, at least 14′ long. We could use it to haul The Beast today, to haul construction materials tomorrow, and to haul whatever our hearts desire in the future. After a week or so of hunting, I found a few options on Craiglist and settled on a 16′ flatbed with 18″ side walls at an affordable price. The seller seemed to know the ins/outs of the trailer and had recently brought it up from North Carolina so it was road worthy. Unfortunately, it was in Soldotna (about 90 minutes away).
No surprise, living in a coastal area we see a lot of overcast, rainy days. We try not to let that get in the way of having fun outside, though. Saturday morning, while Papa B was working in the garage, Little B couldn’t resist playing in the puddles that had formed in the driveway. It’s the simple things in life, isn’t it?
Read more Saturday Morning ShowersBountiful (spectacular!) hiking trails are one of the many reasons we chose to move to Alaska. Neither Papa B nor I are experienced or knowledgeable hikers. It’s something we’ve done occasionally while traveling, and we’d like to do more of it. Since moving up here, we’ve explored several of the shorter local Homer trails, but hadn’t made it too far from home. Frankly, the thought of tackling some of the larger trails alone with a toddler in tow was a bit intimidating, especially since we recognize we’re novices.
As fate would have it, in mid-September a couple of ladies on the Kenai started up a new branch of Hike it Baby, a nationwide group for parents with little kids to hike together. Anyone can lead a hike, and they range from “urban strolls” on paved paths with strollers, to toddler-paced hikes through the woods, to carrier-only treks up a mountain. We’ve been on a couple of hikes so far, and it’s been a fun way to meet other parents with small kids in our area and learn about great hiking destinations. In addition to the social aspect, it’s appealing from a safety standpoint as well. There were a few bear maulings that happened on the Kenai this fall, so having a little bit larger group to hike with is a plus here in bear country. Read more A Rookie Adventure on Slaughter Gulch Trail