Hibernation - Resist the Urge!



Sun? What sun?

 At last! An update, thanks to the purchase of a new laptop and ample amounts of caffeine here at the coffee shop. I tend to get easily distracted when I try to write from home, and my two other broken laptops were no longer considered mobile or reliable. I'm not sure if it's the ADD or what, but I always did my best college work and got more stuff done at the coffee shop; the habit still lingers even 9 years after graduating undergrad, go figure.

I have been in Alaska for about 14 weeks now. I've worked, I've played, I've seen the leaves change color and the snow fly. And I've been in my yearly winter "retirement" for about a month already! It has gone quickly and I'm amazed at how busy I have kept considering I don't have a job. I had hoped to get at least some intermittent work with the Forest for a few extra weeks, but with the federal budget the way it is, that thought went out the window. I fact, I may not be back to work until May (was hoping for at least April); I am a permanent seasonal and only working for 6 months is "normal", but I could always use a little extra cash of course. ;)

My fall was spent working and completing an EMT-Basic course with the local fire department. I am proud to say I passed! And that class alone has opened some new opportunities that I hadn't even considered. I was unable to get a job as a groomer or equipment operator at the resort, so I put in an application to join the Volunteer Fire Department...and that EMT class sure helped get to know folks. There might be a wait list, but I now attend weekly trainings in an effort to maybe get in sooner than later. If I do get in, eventually this means I'll get paid for those weekly trainings, and get paid if I go out on a call (but unpaid if I'm on call, and nothing happens). But the folks seem great and it will be good to be a part of something here in the community.

Eagles can't be that much different than caring for chickens

For better or worse, November also saw the final dissolution of my 5 1/2 year relationship. As much as I'd like to crawl into a cave and hibernate until the spring, I'm trying hard to get involved with anything fun, that gives me good experience and helps me make friends and keep my mind off the break up. I'm going to start volunteering at a bird rehabilitation clinic and hopefully get to save eagles and owls! I don't want to lose the skills I learned at the wildlife rehab clinic in Colorado, so I'm very excited for this. I also really miss my chickens, but I lost them in the move/break up so I guess the girls are no longer mine. :(  But, I'm sure Tim is treating them well and last I heard, they were all providing him with plenty of eggs so they must be happy. :)

I also applied to the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, since I had such a great time doing SAR on the Yosemite helicopter. The National Park Service was great because most field employees were able to participate on Search and Rescue, but the Forest Service doesn't do that.... so I figure AMRG would be a way to still play hero in the great outdoors. I went to my first meeting last week, and was pleased to hear that the board voted on my application and I am officially a probationary member! I was pretty intimidated because well, this is Alaska, and everything here is more hardcore...I didn't know if I was bad-ass enough to join their ranks. But they were "impressed" with my experience with the Park Service and Forest Service. I will be a probationary member for at least a year before I am considered fully qualified; it involves 2 meetings and 1 training a month, on top of responding to calls when I can. This week is avalanche rescue training.

So we have the Volunteer Fire Dept (but I'm not in yet); the Rescue Group; and the bird rehab clinic. But I have diverse interests. I also don't have a ski pass, and it is rough watching all the happy people sliding down the ski mountain behind me. So, I'm trying to volunteer with the adaptive ski center. After so many hours, I get $10 ski passes (instead of $60). I haven't done anything with them yet, but maybe later this week. Am I busy enough yet?? No??

I'm also starting to consider some other ways to get involved with wildland fire down south during these long cold dark winters in Alaska...but nothing has panned out yet.

Crow Pass Cabin

Speaking of long cold dark winters... Fact and fiction check. It is NOT pitch black outside all day, every day. The sun comes up. Right now, we get like 6 hours of daylight. The shortest day (Dec 21), we will get about 5.5 hours of daylight, and then the days get longer again so it's all uphill from there, right? :) But with all this snow, it seems brighter out for a little longer than that. And snow, yes we have gotten plenty of it thus far! I've been told it's not normally this epic - that freezing rain and ice is more the norm this time of year. I got to experience a little bit of that the past 2 days, but we should get more snow again here soon. We had a cold snap of 0-10 degree days and clear cold nights, but that too is apparently NOT the norm. So when it hit 39 degrees the other day, it felt downright warm! But I'd say 20-30s is normalish.

I did get my normal winter insomnia/weird sleep schedule that always happens around November. I sleep better here than I did in Michigan, however, where those overcast grey drizzle/ice days really made me get cabin fever. Here, my body adjusts itself to fall asleep around 2 am...and wake up around 10 am. Yeah yeah, I'm a slacker. Whatever. It's barely getting light outside at 10 am and I have no reason to get up before then! It suits me just fine! And then I do some p90x or go for a run. See, no hibernating or packing on the winter weight! I'm doing good so far!

Now, only 5 more months of retirement, volunteering, playing in the snow, and eventually doing a little traveling! Maybe even get a couple more journal entries in too, while I'm at it. ;)


I went to Denali too, but slacked off and never wrote about that either. But here's a pretty picture to make up for it. ;)