February Family Projects

We have had some fun projects for our family over the last week and a half. The first was a new experiment for us: during our trip into town, we bought the materials needed to make candles. We melted wax, set the wicks in clear glass containers, dyed some of it, and poured it. The kids enjoyed the process and Samantha specifically requested this pink, 3-wick, heart candle. Then, Connor and I got out the recipe and ingredients he received from Grandma Albers for her "Foolproof Dark Chocolate Fudge". He made the batch of fudge with only a little oversight by me; Very Tasty!

Then, we made a fort/tunnel inside a huge snow pile. We started work on it one evening from 8-10 pm and the kids had a blast. Rob and I had fun, too, of course, but our shoulders hurt after a while! It is a work in progress as we continue to lengthen it, but it is already big enough for three of us to be inside. Connor and Samantha have been studying biology this year, and we just finished a unit on insects. One thing we learned about last week is the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis. We made each stage of a butterfly undergoing complete metamorphosis: egg, larvae (catepillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (butterfly).

Cross-country Ski

I had a really fun afternoon today with a couple of ladies from church. I was invited to join them on a cross-country ski. Carol, Cynthia and I, along with Cinder and Cougar (the dogs), skiied for about 2 1/2 hours from Old Cantwell to Cantwell Creek, up Pass Creek, and looped around back to Old Cantwell. It was a beautiful day (10-20 degrees), no wind to speak of, and the sun was peaking through the clouds most of the time. The Alaska Railroad train passed us just as we headed out, and I was able to snap this picture of the passenger train. It runs north from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Saturdays and south from Fairbanks to Anchorage on Sundays during the winter months, and the tracks run right through Cantwell.

We saw some beautiful scenery as we made our way along Cantwell Creek.Cougar (Carol's dog) discovered a small beaver lodge. If you look closely, you can see the air/breathing hole to the right of the sticks where warm air has melted the snow.

Carol pointed out this otter trail to me, just beyond the beaver lodge.

We came to a steep hill and I went up the whole way without taking off my skiis! I was very proud of myself.

This was taken from the top of the hill, to give some perspective to how long and steep it really was!

Then we had quite a long slope down before completing our loop. I got going a lot faster than I anticipated and felt like I was downhill skiing like I had when I was in high school!

It was a huge workout, but a great time!

Winter Camping in Cantwell

About a week and a half ago the kids were interested in camping in a tent outside in our backyard, in the snow. The temperature had risen to about 20 degrees, so of course we thought that night would be the time to do it! We purchased some military issue sleeping bags last summer that are rated to negative 40 degrees that we wanted to try out, so preparations began... Rob and Connor worked on setting up the small tent in the garage, and then Rob and I moved it out to the yard. We found a flat, protected area on the walkway from the house to the shop, and then both kids prepared to bring their gear outside. They had great fun for a while and then called us (we loaned them my cell phone to have with them outside) at about 10:30 to let us know that they couldn't fall asleep. The wind was blowing, making noises on the side of the tent and Cinder, our dog who was out with them, was having trouble settling down. :)

So we decided to try it again the next night as a family in our bigger tent. Again, it was 20 degrees so we felt pretty confident that things would go well. The kids and I set up the tent outside that afternoon, and got all of our gear inside. That evening, we enjoyed a campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

Then we snuggled into our sleeping bags, I read a chapter in the Sugar Creek Gang book we were half-way through and then tried to fall asleep. Once again, Cinder wanted to stick her nose into our sleeping bags to find our faces. Rob couldn't fall asleep, so he went to work in his office at about 11:00. I ended up bringing Cinder in to the house at about 11:30 because she was being such a pain. The wind started to pick up and it made quite a racket on the tent. Then Samantha woke up at about midnight and told me she was cold and wanting to go inside. I sent her in and she promptly fell asleep in her cozy, warm bed. I stayed outside because Connor was still asleep in his bag. Rob came back outside, feeling bad that we were still "sticking it out". Then at about 3:00 am Connor woke up and said his face was cold and I was just waiting for an excuse to get back in the house. The air was getting quite chilly, and I learned in the morning that it was back down to -10 degrees!

The next morning we had strong winds, cold temperatures and blowing snow to contend with as we dismantled "camp" and put away our gear. It wasn't quite the adventure we were hoping for, but it was a learning and memorable experience!