#WinterInAlaska

[3kw3dogs]

A weekend calm, and a storm?

The saying, of course, is “the calm before the storm”. But it was pretty stormy this week, so I’m going with “the calm and the storm”. Ha!

We have been doing better these days about buying in bulk at Costco and stocking the pantry & fridge/freezer. We can always throw together some kind of meal (whether or not that’s the meal we want is the question ha!). So Saturday, we opted to not do any grocery shopping, and instead just do some fun errands. First up, the used bookstore! We got a pretty good haul! And all for $14! One of those was free, thanks to the punch card!

It was snowing pretty much all Saturday, and we were getting a decent accumulation. But it wasn’t till we woke up Sunday and saw how much new snow there was that we were really surprised! I measured 17″ outside our front door, on a surface that had been cleared prior to the snow.

Our snowpack reached 40″, which is almost a record (top 3 April snow pack depths). We did break some weather records though. For snowfall amount both on Saturday and Sunday. And for consecutive days without breaking +40F (about +4C). We are up to 178 days now! And we’re in a cold snap (got down to -18F/-28C last night), so we won’t really stand a chance to break the record until at least early next week. So Sunday was a lazy day! We took the dogs outside, and just walked them through the fresh snow to tire them out. We didn’t even attempt to drive anywhere. Some roads are still not plowed as of this morning, the road crews are really struggling to keep up with the massive dump of snow we got! We read, played with dogs, I baked some muffins with last year’s frozen blueberries. We made a pasta dish as meal prep for the week. We cleared a good amount of snow. And we just relaxed. Sunday was a lovely, relaxing day, overall!

This pic is me sitting on the bedroom floor, looking out our sliding glass door. It really shows how deep the snow is from ground level:

And standing up taking the pic for a different perspective:

Muffins turned out really good! It was my first time making muffins from scratch!

I suppose this brings us to the calm before the storm part. The literal storm happened this weekend. But our life is about to get pretty crazy I suppose. I still don’t really believe it, and I don’t think I’m really excited about it yet. We’ve had such bad luck with building contractors that I still wonder if it’ll happen.

With that said, we’ve been in communication with the new builders we hired, and they plan to start framing Friday!! Like, as in, a few days from now! I really have no reason to doubt them. They’ve responded to all our inquiries, asked us questions in return. We’ve met them in person. Someone answers the phone every time we call. It’s a very different scenario than the last set that we had to chase down for answers. So I really have no doubt they’ll be there Friday to start framing. But I just... I can’t get excited until I actually see them there. Or maybe until I know we’re ready for them.

“Ready” means snow is cleared. It means we have a cleared driveway (which we did before this latest 20″+ in the hills). And a cleared turnaround area for them to back up to the pad. And the concrete is cleared. We started on the turnaround area, but didn’t finish before the snow. The pad we haven’t started yet, and want to wait until the last minute, since the snow is insulating, and it’s still pretty cold out.

That brings us to this:

That’s the turn off to the road before our road. So this road & our road do have road service. But they obviously have not been plowed yet! Holden had a snow day yesterday (adult snow day! whaaaat! lucky!), so he drove up to check the state of things. Not super great, ha! We obviously can’t get in there, not even with the truck, until it’s plowed. Look how high that is! I contacted our subdivision chairperson, and the plow contractor apparently tried to come out Sunday, and got stuck. He said he’d be there asap as of Monday morning. We’re hoping he plowed it last night. We’ll take a ride to check this evening.

Once it’s plowed, we are going to hire someone to clear the snow for us. We just cannot move that much snow in such a short amount of time with the equipment we have. Luckily, we have a friend with a loader who lives not too far away!! We’re hoping he can come clear us tomorrow (Wednesday). Then we can snowblow the pad off Wed/Thurs, and we’ll be ready for the start Friday.

All depends on road service plowing at this point. So here’s hoping it all works out! If not, I’m sure we can be ready by Monday. But we’ll just have to see how it goes. Wish us luck!

[edreamworld]

Ice Road Trucker #Coldfootcamp #gatewaytothearctic #daltonhighway #daltonhighwayalaska #Alaskawinter #winterinalaska #arcticwinter #iceroadtrucker #iceroadtruckers #kidsinthearctic #arcticcircle #iceroad (at Arctic Circle @Dalton Highway) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYxgOWBLujZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

What a difference a day makes! It snowed early Thursday morning. It continues to show off and on through Friday evening. It is supposed to reading for the next four days... #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #winterinalaska #kenai #kenaialaska #kenairiver #alaska #alaskaphotography #winterishere #thedeathofautumn #afterthefall (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVpM32fFrhO/?utm_medium=tumblr

[donnamphotography]

Snowy days are my favorite<3

[ak49guide-blog]

Yes, more snow please. . . . . #neverstopexploring #travel #explore #outdoors #lifeofadventure #adventure #naturelovers #hiking #beautifuldestinations #letsgosomewhere #wilderness #hikingadventures #winter #winterinalaska #alaskalife #ninilchik (at Kenai Backcountry Adventures)

[phungthaihy]

Baking Sourdough Bread at Home | Step by Step Guide http://ehelpdesk.tk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/logo-header.png [ad_1] Learn how to make your very own ... #adayinthelifeoffgrid #acrylicpainting #alaskahomestead #bakingsourdoughbread #beginnersourdoughbaking #breadbaking #cabinlife #coloredpencildrawing #dogbehavior #dogtraining #drawing #eft #feedingsourdoughstarter #figuredrawing #homemadesourdoughbread #lifeinalaska #lifestyle #makingasourdoughstarter #neuro-linguisticprogramming #offgridcabin #offgridliving #oilpainting #painting #pencildrawing #portraiture #procreatedigitalillustrationapp #sketching #soapmaking #sourdoughbasics #sourdoughbreadathome #sourdoughbreadbaking #sourdoughbreaddutchoven #sourdoughbreadrecipe #sourdoughguide #sourdoughstartermaintenance #sourdoughtutorial #tipsforbakingsourdough #watercolorpainting #wintercabinliving #winterinalaska

[beamjaruwan]

Missing snow mobile #snowmobile #snowmachine #alaska #anchorage #seward #fairbanks #unitedstates #snowtime #snow #winterinalaska #wintertine http://ift.tt/2kpTx0l

[elavateddogmom]

I was in love with the way the sky looked while walking to work

[3kw3dogs]

Northern Lights!

When I first got the alert on my phone, I was shocked to see it said it was a KP 7 night!! I ran to the window, but of course, it was cloudy. As is the way of things in Fairbanks, HA! But, thankfully, the clouds cleared eventually. The lights were putting on quite the show last night! Enjoy these super blurry pictures. I keep saying I need a tripod, and I do, but I just don’t want to buy one right now. And I’m happy with blurry pictures, over no pictures. There are tons of pros to take professional aurora pics, and I do enjoy looking at them. But I also like having my own pics, of what I see right outside my door.

[banegar]

THE WORLD IS COLD AND SO ARE MY FEET

[edreamworld]

The Arctic Circle, Dalton Highway #gatewaytothearctic #daltonhighway #daltonhighwayalaska #Alaskawinter #winterinalaska #arcticwinter #iceroadtrucker #iceroadtruckers #kidsinthearctic #arcticcircle #iceroad #TransAlaskaPipelineSystem #alaksapipeline #alyeskapipeline (at Arctic Cirle) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYKUTrnL_ZH/?utm_medium=tumblr

[philadelphos]

Winter Bicycling Boom by Douglas Brown on Flickr.

[sistercarri]

Good morning from Homer Alaska where it's going to be 52 degrees and Sunny! #winterinalaska #mycommute

[shawriveraphotography-blog]

Tubing #winterinAlaska #winter