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Mosquitos are back with a vengeance. A few days ago I saw one and now today they are swarming us. Not my favorite thing about Spring!

We still have lots of snow in lots of places on the property. First pic shows Abigail outside the door of the old cabin. At one point the snow was up to the top of the door. We couldn’t even open it all winter. But now we can open it enough to get out but don’t use it yet because the snow is still deep and too soft to walk on – although Abigail seems to be doing okay. If you notice behind her is a thermometer which reads almost 40 degrees. In the second pic you can see a part of the yard where the snow is disappearing fast. The snowmachine has been driving over dirt and grass in some sections. In those areas we’re using the snowmachine like a 4 wheeler! There’s still too much snow for the 4 wheeler but not enough snow for the snowmachine.

The beautiful sunsets here never get old.

April 24, 2021 Watching the moon set over the still frozen Susitna River and Sleeping Lady.

Here’s a pic of what’s left of our old snowmachine trail across the river. Although most of the river is still frozen this little section has thawed and created a little creek for the ducks to start swimming in.

Here it is April 22nd and the woodpile and the burn barrel are still sitting on or under 3 feet of packed snow. We’ve had years where the snow was mostly melted by this time in April. However, this year is taking longer. The temps have been in the 50’s this week during the daytime and an occasional 60 with only about 5 or 6 hours a night getting to freezing. It looks like it’s going to be another couple of weeks at this rate.

Robins started showing up the last few days. Robins are one of the first signs that Spring is here. There’s not much grass yet but they’re ready to get started anyway, even with all the snow in the yard still.

Jeff went out on the river and got stocked up on water right out of the river. I was a bit skeptical as we normally use nothing but spring or rain water but the buckets of water he got were really clean looking. Won’t be able to go on the river much longer. Jeff got his machine stuck in the slush while he was out there and had to dig his machine out. You can’t veer off the trail at all. He managed to get out though and got the water back to the cabin.

The willow ptarmigan is the Alaska State Bird. It changes color from winter to summer. It’s white in the wintertime to blend in with the snow and turns brown in the summertime. Usually when we see them they come in groups and hang out in the willow alder and birch trees where they eat the buds and leaves and twigs.

Keeping the woodstove burning in our cabin in the wilds of Alaska.