waiting..

ellie's definitely still prego. this baby is already on mason time..

dog madness

i did my best to protect poor little pella from all the delta farm dogs, but this just ain't condo living... we had 9 dogs over for dinner, and 6 spent the night...

christmas feast

Tamales, King Crab, salmon cakes, stuffed eggplant, homemade cookies and truffles... we had an incredible feast here with good friends and of course the best bartender in fairbanks...

1st skijor

Caz got a harness for christmas, and we finally got some good snow... so I hooked her up for the first time christmas morning. I hooked her up with Sky, and Kumi and Phil were up ahead with their 'professional' mushin dogs so she had someone to chase, the trail was perfect condition... she did great!! Of course there's been lots of rough memories of last christmas, so it just felt incredible to be out on the trail again...

white christmas here...

Wish we could share our white christmas with you! Beautiful christmas eve morning here with several inches of fresh snow. Merry christmas all - love, jules.

(and no, i haven't heard any news from the masons yet...)

playing house

I'm housesitting for my friend Mark this month. In addition to the heated garage, hottub, wood stove, great views and warmer temps, indoor plumbing...I'm also enjoying the wireless blogging. I'm hoping for lots of change in the new year, I'm thinking it really is time to upgrade from the outhouse and dialup internet.
View from the bedroom, you can see the alaska range from here...

bryce's present..

all my 3 year old nephew wants from santa this year is a chocolate chip cookie. that's what i'm talking about, easy to please! so mine is on it's way... sorry i'm so late getting things in the mail, i hope my box gets to Maine in time! and i know it won't look anything like this, so i took a photo, so you can appreciate the thought if not the crumbs. for those of you who can't appreciate my artwork - that's a B for Bryce, not an 8.

dea's kapusta

Dea had a holiday party on saturday - all the pics are on their blog. never thought i liked saurkraut but damn her kapusta is good.

mro - this torte maybe rivaled one of your deserts. we'll have to have a bake off when you get back to see who can make the most decadent desert...

"last chance" party

Laura finished her phd comps last week, and is getting married next week... despite her chaotic schedule we managed to squeeze in a bachlorette party and send her off in style (or at least exhausted). Even tho the band was a no-show we had a great night of dancing. I can't post the incriminating photos but here's a few.
It was laura's party, until Nancy showed up with the 5 mo. old twins and you just had a group of women going gaga over the babies...





too many butts in the kitchen!

view from the outhouse

a few nights ago. sorry, can't do northern lights photos with this little camera. but you get the idea, it was gorgeous...

white mtns

first trip out to the whites yesterday. great snow, warm temps, fun ski. here's the gang (dea, ben, stac) and a classic action photo of caz and pella...

anchorage film

jimmy -an old friend from anchorage made a short film and got it in the anchorage International film festival. you anchoragites should go check it out Sunday @4 @ the Anchorage musuem. you can preview the movie here -http://www.myspace.com/121780997

thanksgiving - fairbanks style

we had the best polish (dea's kapusta)/mexican (stacia's chilli rellenos - i swear the best i've ever had)/alaskan (fresh caribou and low bush cranberry chutney) thanksgiving. no turkey, but tim did wrestle down a wild boar for us. and Martin topped it all off with these to die for deserts... no wonder i love this gang! more photos on dea's blog...

the best of eat local...

tuesday afternoon to thursday afternoon...seared caribou with carmalized rosemary shallots (pronounced chalets).
i also made a cranberry chutney that was pretty daen good too, with berries picked in standard creek in august.

Brooks range in November

I went on a crazy trip last weekend with a friend from anchorage,alex. We drove up to Atigun Pass for him to hunt Caribou with his bow. It can be crazy up there this time of year (crazy meaning 50 below windchill) but we were incredibly lucky and had a great trip. We set up the tent on the side of a mountain the first night - it was cold but incredibly clear with dim aurora - it was so ridiculously beautiful that first night. The next morning we saw our first group of caribou as we were taking down the tent, but still it would be a few days before we got close enough for alex to shoot. It was indeed cold - one day it was cold enough that I couldn't get either of our stoves to start, and a gasket on a propane canister must have cracked so when i went to start this little propane heater we had it almost blew up, yeah kinda scarry. i think i told alex on day 2 the trip had already exceeded my expectations by 97%, it was a great trip and we made it back just in time for thanksgiving...

the hunt

Pam Houston (great author, i met her in Juneau last year. Read Sighthound - her most recent book) describes it way better than i can. She writes, "hunting is a work of art, a feat of imagination, a flight of spirit, and a test of endless patience and skill." 20 below, a 70 yard shot with his bow... it was definitely impressive. look closely at this photo - can you see the bou? alex shot one from this group.

butchering

Fortunately I have good friends that were happy to come over and help butcher. Kumi spent a lot of time with reindeer herders in Nome as part of her graduate research so it was great to have her expertise. and Tim has chopped up a few moose in his time and is very meticulous with his meat, good one to learn from. THANKS you guys!

old friends in town

Fun and crazy weekend with Shiway and Ellie both back in town. We had a little baby shower for Ellie yesterday - she's due in little over a month - yikes! Some pics... Shi holding all the home-made baby hats
Owen, the host and ham of the party...
Cletus the fetus obviously has their mom's soccer genes, quite the kicker...
The michelin sisters - Brooke and Shi - going home for the night. We all look like this these days, 20 below here most of the weekend... 

6 min 42 sec

of daylight lost today. i'm in my november cocoon, the daylight thing always kicks my ass this time of year. but got sunset and moonrise on my sunday afternoon run on the trails behind the cabin...
 
  

i'm begging you...

please vote next week!!

ok that's the extent of any political statements on this blog. but i just got hopeful reading the latest of my now almost daily emails from al gore. looks like there are really close races in NH (i wish spence could vote! just a few more years...) and CO among other places. here at home, the polls are really close in the governor race so i'll disown any friends of mine that don't vote - no field work, no cars that don't start - no excuses!!

skiing again...

i was psyched to dust off the skate skiis this week, it feels so great to ski again! still not much snow here but enough and conditions are remarkably good at birch hill. we took the dogs up moose mtn today, dea and ben broke out the tele skiis - they were a little overzealous there. but the sledding was awesome!   dan - before he switched to the stomach technique and went down at 20+ mph - with the 5 dogs in hot pursuit.
  dea with her classic 'hey doc look at me' smile. no kidney, 1/2 inch of snow, and still that girl has better turns then i ever will. 

lazy weekend...

sunday morning coffee and dog walk with dea and ben... 
the snow is a tease. enough to send all those idiots without snow tires on yet into the ditch, but not yet enough to ski. i'm hopeful by tomorrow tho... 

gilmore trail

 
 
just a nice saturday trail run on one of my favorite local trails. just me and caz. literally, just the two of us - 2 hours out on a great trail just 10 min out of town and we saw noone. a good reminder of why i love fairbanks. it was snowing pretty good by the time we got back to the car... 

my friends...

 

i almost died laughing when i saw this photo, there's more on ellie's blog...