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!

A Wintery Week

This past week has been very wintery. One phenomenon that is characteristic of the winter in Cantwell is the hand-off between cold temperatures and wind. We've been "enjoying" -30 and colder temperatures rather regularly, but when it starts to rise, it's because the wind has started to blow. A -10 degree day isn't too bad to partake in some outdoor activity, but with the wind howling, it makes it much less inviting. Yesterday and today, however, we seem to be getting a dose of both: -30 degrees with a crazy amount of wind. Rob figured out that at -30 degrees and a 30 mph wind, it actually feels like -67 degrees with the windchill factor. That can give someone frostbite in a matter of minutes without the right gear! So, we've been having a quiet, (the kids would say "boring") few days.

I got online today a viewed some pictures of the amazing Aurora Borealis show in the sky on Tuesday. We had cloud-cover that night here, but there was a beautiful display in quite a few locations. Here is a link to the weather channel article and photos/video:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/solar-radiation-storm-ignites-aurora_2012-01-25

Last week I took a few pictures of the mountains just south of our home. A the top of Mt. McKinley you can see quite a bit of snow kicking up in the wind (looks like a cloud).










Doubt you can read it, but Rob got real romantic on me a couple nights ago when we were dishing up some ice cream. He made the following inscription with a knife in the top: Rob + Erin

Instead of playing "catch-up"

So, I've been thinking about trying to update this blog since I haven't published a post on it since our dip-netting fishing trip in July. That is a very dauting task, and I've come up with what I believe to be a pretty decent solution.

Since we started homeschooling Connor and Samantha this fall, one of their weekly assignments has been to keep up a blog of their own. They each post a paragraph or so every week (approximately); usually with a few pictures. This is to teach them to verbalize and write about things that they are experiencing and how they feel about those things. We focus on their thoughts as well as language skills. Also, Connor gets some typing practice in as he types most of his entries. (Samantha is learning to type, but is not far enough along to know all the letters or be fast enough to type more than a sentence or two in 10 minutes. She dictates her thoughts to me, instead.)

All of this is to say that I've decided to link this to their blogs, because they have really touched on a lot of the highlights that our family has experienced from the end of August until now. I am hoping to add a new post once a week myself from now on, so that you all can continue to see what God is doing in our lives with some of the sights and memories that we are having.

Here are the URLs for the kiddos' blogs:
www.rcahomeschoolblog.blogspot.com (Connor's)
www.scahomeschoolblog.blogspot.com (Samantha's)

Dip netting in Kenai

Last month we were invited to stay with a family in Kenai for "fish camp". This is what we Alaskans call spending a few days only fishing, fileting and preping the fish for storage, in order to have salmon to eat the rest of the year. The Peters family met us in July; he is the director of Arctic Barnabus Ministries out of Kenai. The purpose of their organization is to encourage and support Alaskan missionaries and pastors.

This first picture is a bald eagle that landed at the top of a tree in their yard. Majestic.

Anyway, we had an amazing time connecting with their family; they have 3 children the same ages as Connor and Samantha, and Rob and I have a lot in common with Jonathan and Becky.

Dip-netting is a fishing experience like none other. We were at the mouth of the Kenai river, holding up long handled, metal, large hoop nets, waiting for red salmon to swim into the nets. There were people all around us, just a few feet away in a long line along the shore. A lot of fish campers literally camped on the beach along with the fish guts strewn everywhere. (See pictures below!)We came home with 25 fish - both Rob and I were able to catch some. Thank you, Dana, for lending me your chest waders! And the Peters family for your hospitality! What a blessing to us.

Hike up Wolf Point

So, once again my blog has taken the back-burner to a busy life; this summer has flown by - literally. A week and a half ago we watched snow fall from the sky for a few hours! So today I'm sitting down to do a little catching up...

Yesterday, the four of us went on an amazing hike up the Wolf Point trail.
Resting 3/4ths of the way up the hill Kids and dog making a very steep climb to the top of Wolf Point after a few mile hike that was relatively flat A triumphant Connor was the first one to the top. Three hikers (and Cinder) at the top!

Samantha clinging on for dear life... :)

We saw a herd of 9 Dall Sheep far off in the distance on the side of this mountain. They are teeny white specks at that bottom of the green strip toward the middle of this photo. I'm sure you can't see them...

Erin and Connor walking back down the hill

Moments before this photo Connor said, "I like you." Rob replied, "I like you, too." It was a cozy memory for the Mom... :)

Our legs and feet don't hurt nearly as bad as they did yesterday!