Indoor Gardening Experiment

This past summer we planted all our tomatoes in pots and grew them on our deck. Summer in Alaska is never warm enough for tomatoes to thrive; they just kinda held on, but didn't grow very fast. Toward the end of August we had lots of small green tomatoes, so we decided to move the plants inside to see if we could keep them growing. Whenever we've moved plants inside in the past, aphids typically overrun everything, killing the plant as well as any fun that indoor gardening may provide. This year we have all been tending the plants closely, shaking the plants to get the aphids to fall off, and squishing the buggers still obstinately hanging onto the plants. So now...Success!

Here is Rick and Sunny with our "Enchanted Tomato Forest" in front of our living room window.

We also have here African basil, banana peppers, and a volunteer sunflower.

TaDa! We now have lots of fairly large, red, ripe tomatoes that are sweeter than tomatoes grown anywhere else. Extra summer sunlight hours adds extra sugars to the plants. We'll have a decent crop from this time around, and we have new flowers growing at the tops of the plants that we can get a new crop from if we can keep the plants alive.

Here are more gardening experiments with Aerogardens, a hydroponic system that comes with grow bulbs, seed kits, and nutrient tablets. Once they're set up you just keep adding water and nutrient tablets when the little lights come on telling you to do so. We bought this one for a reasonable price at Costco. Even so, I would consider it a fun hobby that happens to provide you with beautiful plants, healthy food, and pleasing light (a real plus when stuck living at this wretched parallel!), rather than an economical way to produce food. Replacement bulbs, seed kits, and nutrient tablets are pretty expensive.

Here's the Aerogarden planted with an herb kit containing basil, chives, dill, oregano, mint, and thyme.

And here's our second Aerogarden that Rick won in a promotional drawing! This model costs about $220 full retail, so we really got lucky. The lights raise high enough to accommodate full size tomatoes, and it came with the heirloom tomato kit. Here they are after about 3 weeks. A potted sage plant is behind the garden growing in the spillover light.

We've found that people can be really obsessed with their aerogardens, and a good site to view is at www.aerogardengrowers.com.

Good times!

Michelle

Fungus Fun

Lately I've been interested in mushrooms. May as well be, they grow like crazy here in August and September. Gemma and I have attended mushroom lectures, gone on mushroom walks, and collected various mushrooms for guidebook identification. At first she was unimpressed, but she's actually quite good at identifying different types of mushrooms.

This is called fly agaric or amanita muscaria, and they are poisonous. They grow huge here in Alaska, so I included my fairly large water bottle for scale. These are the classic red-capped, white-spotted mushroom that you see in fairy tale books...

...like this :) Here are Gem and Rick at the Girdwood Fungus Fair ;)

And speaking of huge, here's a grand champion vegetable at the Alaska State Fair. It's a puffball mushroom, and those are typically-

sized fair ribbons!

Here are some normal sized puffballs that I found growing in the park behind our house.

They're edible, so I fried them up. They tasted pretty much like sauteed nothing. Just...no flavor so we ended up throwing them away. It was a fun experiment anyhow!

Run For Your Life!

For the first time, all three of us participated in a running event, the Anchorage Big Wild Life Runs held on August 16 this year. Gemma and Rick did the 2K Kids fun run, and I did the 5k.

Rick and Gemma got to run with a T-Rex. Who do you think had the most fun? ;)

Orca Bay Adventures

Mom's August 2009 visit took us to Cordova, a tiny fishing town whose motto is "No Road." As you probably guessed, you can't get there by road, only by plane or boat. We took the ferry from Whittier, where Gemma fed this cute reindeer.

Cordova is located in Orca Bay, a beautiful, quiet spot great for fishing, hiking, kayaking, and in the winter, heli-skiing. We stayed at Orca Adventure Lodge, a converted fish cannery that now provides lodging, excellent gourmet meals, equipment, guides, and very friendly people :) Our room is in the picture below, facing the stream and waterfall.

Local wildlife:

Mom in downtown Cordova.

50 miles upstream from the mouth of the Copper River (home of the world-famous salmon) is Childs Glacier. It frequently and spectacularly calves into the Copper River, providing outstanding entertainment even in cold, wet, rainy, typical Alaska weather. Interestingly, you can watch seals chase fish this far up the river. I guess this is how the freshwater seals of Russia's Lake Baikal got their start!

We spent a day paddling sea kayaks along the shore near our lodge, and enjoyed many beautiful waterfalls...

wildlife, such as otters, eagles, and shorebirds...

and salmon...Nice catch! And yes, mom paddled--she's good at it!

After a great time in the Cordova area we ferried to the town of Valdez. The marker in the picture below marks Bligh Reef, the place where the infamous Exxon Valdez ran aground.

I don't know if my photo captures it, but the streams in the area were just thick with spawning salmon. Very fun to watch!

We rounded out our trip by camping near the tiny town of McCarthy, and touring the Kennicott mine (pictured below).

Thus ends a great trip to parts of Alaska I had never visited before. Good times!

Michelle

Rafting "Expedition"

Ok, it was a float trip down the creek that runs along our back yard, but I wasn't brave (crazy) enough to do it! This is Alaska after all; not warm enough for shorts, let alone risking dunking in a glacial runoff stream!

Here are the intrepid explorers going downstream...

and the intrepid salmon going the opposite direction.

Booker

Our critter menagerie has recently expanded to include Booker, Gemma's new hamster. As much as we really didn't need another animal in the house, I have to admit, he is adorable. Sunny, in her feline way, thinks he's adorable too!

Pedaling and Paddling Eklutna

Picturesque Eklutna Lake, just 15ish miles from Anchorage as the crow flies (30ish road miles) is the source of Anchorage's drinking water.  This glacier run-off provides the coldest, best-tasting water of any place we've lived.  It also provides lots of recreational opportunities.  

We rode an awesome trail that runs the length of the lake.  The glacier has receded so far back that you must bike about 10 miles before you can see it. 

We also paddled kayaks, Gemma's new favorite outdoor activity, and were lucky to spot a bear foraging up the mountain.  

Fun paddling

A cool little fireweed-covered island in the middle of rushing glacial outflow

Eklutna Glacier

Nice lunch spot!

Enjoy!

Michelle

Bear With Us

Ok, it was a small, adorable bear, but a thrilling encounter for us just the same!  We camped at Exit Glacier campground outside of Seward, and walked to Exit Glacier from the visitor center.  This little black bear was foraging around the visitor center and crossed the trail right in front of us (and a couple dozen other thrilled hikers :)

Here's a close up of Exit Glacier; probably the most accessible glacier in Alaska.

This sign we're standing by marks where the edge of the glacier was in 1999, when Rick and I visited Alaska for Rick's research.  The distance that this glacier receded in the past decade is impressive.  Rangers stated that the weather has been so warm that the glacial outflow is currently at flood stage.  Here's a point that I'm totally with Sarah Palin...Drill Baby Drill!  Drive Baby Drive!  Whatever it takes to promote global warming while I'm stuck in this wretchedly cold climate!  (Just kidding, sort of)  By-the-way, a danged bug flew in my eye in this photo. 

Gemma is typically reluctant to expend any energy on physical activity, so to get her to hike, I went ahead and hid individually wrapped pieces of chocolate along the trail for her to find.  I hid them by things I found to be interesting, then Gemma had to tell me why she thought I hid them where I did.  This photo shows a tree that had fairly fresh bear scratchings on the branches.

Enjoy!

Michelle

Sea Kayaking Prince William Sound

While in South Dakota, I spoke with my niece about a kayaking trip she'd done.  It inspired me to finally try sea kayaking, something I've wanted to do for years.  We took off from Miller's Landing (camping, guides, sea kayaking, fishing charters, water taxi services) in Seward AK.  The whole experience was really terrific!  We're all excited about doing another sea kayak trip :)

We took a water taxi to this spot in Humpy Cove

After a brief lesson, we set out with our guides across the cove.  The water was very calm, so we were able to paddle along the cliff edges.  The water was so clear we could count sea stars and spot jelly fish.

We paddled into this secluded spot and beached our kayaks so that we could see...

this beautiful waterfall.

We're already thinking about possibilities for the next sea kayak trip :)

Big July 4th Fun in Little George IA

A run is my idea of a fun time :)  Rick and I, along with niece and nephew ran the George 4th of July 5K celebrating the opening of the new paved trail which loops around George.  

Nephew placed third in his age group!

Nephew, AKA Smoothiemeister, made post-race smoothies.  Mine was made with mulberries hand picked by nephew!  Good times!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Big strawberry fun at Getting's Gardens, Sanborn Iowa

Got carried away (literally, by the StrawBerry Express) and picked 3 big baskets full ;)