Seriously, we live here..

Sometimes this place is just so beautiful I cannot believe I'm so lucky to live here. I still feel like a tourist on most days.

Driving back from Anchorage yesterday it was the most gorgeous day (Though a tad chilly at -15'C)

Whenever you see cars pulled over on the side of the highway, you know there is some kind of wildlife on show. Trying not to cause a crash, we pulled over and saw 4 mountain goats digging for food in the snow-

I don't blame these dudes for coming down the mountain, it was probably -100 up there.

Gorgeous alpine glow all the way home!

Solstice Anyone??

So This is basically surise it happens around 11:15am we are usually all in the van driving to the drilling rig at this time. I look out the window before we leave and it is pretty much dark but it seems like when we get out there in the dark you can see just a bit.

This is High Noon


This is 1:00pm

This is 2:00pm

This is sundown it happens at 3:00pm

This is 3:15 it is totally dark

I was a little excited to see the 24 hours of darkness, but it just never happened. Although we haven't seen the sun in a few weeks we still get about 4 hours of residual light in the sky. The pictures make the sky look blue when it is in fact quite gray all the time... The oil rigs are all lit up like a christmas tree so its hard to really tell what the sunlight situation is unless you pay close attention.

Robin In the Nest!

Hike to Tonsina

Saebo and I borrowed my friends Dog 'Doobie' and hiked down to Tonsina, its only 2 1/2 mile hike through the woods and comes out at the prettiest beach.

It was the most gorgeous day, pretty dang chilly but no wind makes all the difference. When I lived in town I would run here and back, it was my favourite.

Just wanted to share our beautiful Alaska!

Twinkle Twinkle...

Seeming we have so many hours of darkness in the winter up here, I couldn't wait to get lights on our new home.
Though it was easier said than done...Craig bought a new mega ladder and was scaring the complete crap out of me while he was 20ft up in the air.






Just to make me slightly more nervous he turned around on the wobbly ladder that had its feet on an icy deck.

But he managed not to kill himself in the process and now we have beautiful christmas lights! Hoorah!

Our 1st Christmas Tree.

Off we venture to find our christmas tree..who needs Lowes when you have the Alaskan wilderness.

After punching though some deep, crunchy snow we came across this beauty..

So Amy gets out her electric saw for the speedy crime..

Though I'm too much of a weeeeed to carry the thing out of the woods so I give the balls back to Craig.

It was a 007 mission to get the tree on the car without being seen from the highway, but once safely on the road we had 'our story' worked out (just incase the tree cops decided to bust us).

Most of the small spruce you find in AK are charlie brown trees but this one isn't bad at all.

Thanks so much to the Creers for the decorations...being our first christmas together we are lacking some serious ornaments!

(How great too than I managed to capture Brad Pitt on the tv screen)

Additions to the CAS family.

Running errands this week in Anchorage I stopped by Petco to get Saebo a new collar and some dog food which he seems to consume at a ridiculous rate.

I really enjoy cruising Petco, I always look at the birds and dream of my own someday.

I had a thought while staring at the Canaries, I actually sent out vibes to Craig hoping he might miraculously get me some birds for Christmas. Super duper freaky Craig texts me later that day that there was an advertisement on Craigslist for some birds free to loving home!

I called the nice lady, Michelle Appel and drove to her house in East Anchorage-of course all the birds were gorgeous and luckily Michelle trusted me to be a good Mum to all her babies, some of which she raised by hand.

I was so excited to get home but I ended up driving in a complete snow blizzard the entire drive, I don't think I went over 40mph ( I saw a couple of bad car wrecks, poor people I can sympathize).

After the hella drive, I get home and Craig gets quick to work cleaning the cage so our new little angels were all good to go!

A little finch was so excited by such an adventurous day that they left us a little present in the box!

We have 1o birds in total, 7 zebra finches, 1 yellow canary, 1 spice finch and 1 rainbow finch-

I'm completely in love with them already, its like having abit of Australia in our Alaskan home!

Craig and I went to our friends house for dinner later that night and I couldn't stop worrying about the birds, I don't know what could possibly happen to them in 2 hours but I was just a nervous new parent! I couldn't sleep that night, I actually had to get up and look up some finch facts as I couldn't remember what food is toxic to them. (Its Avocado I was thinking about).

What a bird dork I truly am.

Getting the Boat Out

Due to the new boat yard policy or previous policy that I have ignored, it is mandatory for all boats to be blocked on exposed ground, to prevent boats from sinking and falling in the spring thaw.



It was a little bit of a goat rope trying to thaw the ground with flamethrowers. This was what the boatyard savants said was the best way.

After about 40 litres of propane and a lot of wasted energy I gave up and got a digger on the job. It was a 15 minute dig and the site was ready.

Boat gets lifted on the slings and driven out to the boatyard.

Block it up, throw some jackstands around it and the threat of sinking fades away.

My Aussie Sister

My eldest sister Lucy lives in Perth in Western Australia with her husband Dave and 2 lovely dogglies. I spend 6 months there last winter and was going to make it my home before Craig came into the picture!

My Sister and Dave have bought this amazing piece of land south of Perth ,near a town called Margaret River-they are building this fab modern-eco friendly house its going to be very cool.

Until building began is was our handy camping spot; the picture about was taken last October soon after I got to Australia. I can't wait for it to be complete for lots of family holidays!

Here's the house design by a very hip Architect:

Here's looking south on the property-bordering endless national park filled with kangaroos and emus!

I took this picture below while I was in Margaret River this April: base underway.

Here's latest pics from the house construction..yay we have concrete!

Here's the beach down the road: not bad.

And here is Boris and Doodles, my two other favourite boxers who like to frolick in the ocean.

Here's My Bro in law Dave, he's an fun bloke who likes to kill fish as much as Craig does.