Posts filed under Cabin Life

365 days ago - In Alaska

 

Flashback Friday

    I took a short break from the blog. I do spend a lot of time when I want to write on my blog. Sometimes I can think about a million things I want to talk about but lately I have been so busy. I just got a new job a few weeks ago and I am going to balance that (it's only 50%) with the writing of my dissertation... Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about Alaska lately, and that's one o the reasons why this theme exists.

 
 

Memories

    I have discovered that I am really good at collecting memories, well who isn't? I love taking pictures, and sometimes I actually don't have time to look at them immediately, and then I forget about them. I love going through my photo album on the computer and rediscover old memories. I don't think I would ever be able to rediscover old memories in the same way with only text.

 
 

    I really need the pictures. What about you? Do you keep a diary at all? I know I tried to use one when I was really really young, but it didn't really work that well, and well here I am. I guess you can say that this blog sometimes work as a diary, less private of course, but still a way for me to reflect on my thoughts about different subjects.

 
 

Where were you a year ago?

    In Alaska, as in many other places up north, you start to see Aurora already in late August early September. Last year I remember seeing Aurora almost every night, kind of mellow, was still waiting for that big show to arrive....which kind of didn't happen until I was going in to work early one morning and was completely unprepared for it. Either way, I have seen so many Aurora shows, and back then it was more like a thing you saw on a regular basis, so you didn't really react that much unless it was a great show. Now, well now I really miss it of course. 

 
 

    Last year we also had a pretty bad snowstorm, that took down lots of trees, most of them broke in half literally. We got this really heavy snow that covered the landscape for a few days/weeks before it melted off again. I know people sometimes talk about a fifth season, well I would argue that in Alaska we have six seasons. Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. It is that in between space that you can or can't call one or the other, it's very interesting to experience. Sometimes we tend to list the seasons based on dates, but that doesn't always work at more northern latitudes. Other times we list them based on what we see, like snow on the ground during wintertime, but what is it if the leaves are still colored and we have snow on the ground, and then a week later the snow is gone?

 
 

    Heavy snow, falling trees and power lines don't mix well. We lost power for about a week (well off and on), others were without power for almost 3 weeks. I am lucky because I have the wood stove, so even without power I could still prepare food on the wood stove. 

 
 

    The snow came and then it went. Typical Alaskan weather. 

 
 

What did you do around this time last year? Was the weather different from today? Obviously here in Madison it's very different from Alaska. Lately we have had colder temperatures of course, they are creeping closer to the freezing point, almost there. 

Happy Friday you guys!!

 

The Sound of Aurora Borealis - Have you ever heard it?

 

Flashback Friday

Aurora Borealis - Norrsken

    A few years back we were coming back from a backcountry ski trip in Alaska. A friend of ours told us that tonight will be a spectacular night for Auroras. It's so funny, if there is a big chance for aurora, the whole town will now about it (or so it seems) at least all your friends will now about it. One of the great things about having an outhouse is that it actually forces you out, sometimes in the middle of the night, and a lot of those times you end up stargazing and watching the Aurora as it flares in the sky above you. Either way, I was ready for Aurora that night. It's really a hit or miss. Sometimes the conditions for Aurora are optimal, and yet nothing happens. Sometimes the forecast is low and you witness a show out of this world just because you had to pee in the middle of the night. 

 
 

    This night I was out for several hours taking pictures. I hadn't been doing much aurora photography back then so the quality is not great, but I think you get the picture. 

 
 

The Sound of Aurora Borealis

    This is also the one and only time that the Aurora made me scared, I don't know of what or how, but It just made me so scared. Like this really uncomfortable feeling, and it happened along with the sparkling sound I heard. It was almost like too overwhelming, and I felt as if the sky would fall down, or at least the Aurora, because the light was so intense. I remember that my cats were freaking out too, because I was outside and they were inside. It was a debate before if you could actually hear the Aurora or not, but it's confirmed, you can, or something.

    "A recording produced Sept. 9, 2011 during a geomagnetic storm by using three microphones and a VLF antenna picked up 20 similar clap sounds," Laine reported last week on his website. "Some of them were close enough in order to be detected by all three microphones. The collected data allowed the estimation of the location of the sound source. The sound source was the open sky." - ADN
 
 

    Isn't it amazing, that there are so many things we still don't know about. We have only discovered a tiny little percentage of all the universe, and we keep finding more and more species on earth, almost at the same rate as others go extinct :( .

    Have you ever heard the Aurora?

 

Once Alaska is in your blood, you'll never shake it

 
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will ensure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter
— Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
 
 

Wednesday thoughts

Life in Alaska

    They say, either you love it or hate it, after a few years. Life in Alaska is hard, dark and cold, especially if you live in a dry cabin, which the majority of grad-students do. Winters get down to 50 below, or 40 below as the picture below will show. Life continues at those temperatures too, you’ll ski or sometimes even bike to work. You chop wood, or heaven forbid your car breaks down. But people in Alaska are kind, their mentality is sometimes a lot different than in other places across the US. They know that it could have been their car breaking down, and before you know it, four cars have already stopped to help you out.

 
 

When darkness turn to magical light

    With the dark cold nights comes the aurora too. Fairbanks is the epicenter of Aurora watching in the world. Sometimes the conditions for Aurora are optimal, and yet nothing happens. If you are lucky enough it will put on its best show just for you. In the darkness in the wintertime it gets quiet, but I have heard the Northern Lights sing. It is scary, and I can understand why there are so many legends about the Northern Lights.

 
 

We still Love it, with all of our Heart

    Many many people have gone to Alaska, for research, army life, adventure or just to get away from the law (or so I have been told). I know many friends who have left Alaska as soon as they are done with their research/degree, and never ever looked back, while others have left and keep coming back, for one reason or another. Then we have the group that finishes, acquire another degree, job or anything, and stays, forever and ever. Because although we sometimes complain about Alaska, and the life it brings, we still love it, with all of our heart. From the tundra up north, and the mountain ranges that spans the state, to the west where we can see Russia (well almost..), to the east where no mans land and Yukon merges like the braided streams do across the landscape, to the south with its majestic cliffs and hanging glaciers.

 
 

Love Changes You

    You will not understand the tight relationship with this state unless you have lived here, it's hard to come by. Alaska changes you, how you act as a person, what you wear, what you do, what adventures you go out on, what seems reasonable and so on, the list goes on. From appreciating the warm sun on a bright spring morning, to the Aurora over your head when you visit the outhouse at 40 below, or fight with mosquitos on those summer nights when the air is full of smoke from wildfires. You learn how to live, how to survive pretty quick up here, and before you know it it is in your veins. You chop wood like nobodies business or haul water from the water wagon on an early Saturday morning while listening to “this American Life” on NPR. Before you know it you’ll live the Alaskan life.

 
 

The Lower 48

    It changes you to the point that you have to rethink your ways and how you act as soon as you get on a plane to fly somewhere else, and yeah, from Fairbanks to Seattle, which is the closest town in the lower 48 (as they say) it's 3-4 hrs, by plane. But as soon as you are on the plane, you will see her, Denali, she's beautiful and will make you peaceful for at least a couple of hours.