Time to leave Alaska

So arrived the 22nd of April, marking the day we are leaving, first our home in Two Rivers and then in couple of days, Alaska.

The last weeks we have been extra busy house sitting the farm at our home. Taking care of the dogs, cats, goats, chickens, ducks and other birds was again lots of fun and of course lots of work. This time we weren't alone though and sharing the chores with Nick helped to save some time. Nick also introduced us some nice American treats, like S'mors, and some weird ones, like strawberry milk. The weather was very springy at first, then it got cold for a week and we also had a snowstorm and a few inches of new snow on the ground. Now it's warm again and snow is melting fast. 

Days went by feeding the animals, milking the does, walking the dogs and then feeding everyone again. In between Piia tried to keep up with the big amount of milk we got from the barn and made some cheese, mainly feta and halloum. We also had many eggs daily so it was a good chance to bake things to eat for our upcoming road trip to Canada. Julien was busy doing chores in our other housesitting place and also creating a real website for us and for our travels. So the days were pretty much full.

Reedy saying Piia's in his place

Besides the animals that live in the farm, we also dogsitted friend's four-month-old husky puppies and one Saint Bernard, so you can say we had our hands full with happy energy. 

It got busier and busier at the end, since we had two cats and two convalescent dogs in our cabin, the other one recovering from a leg amputation and the other one from a surgery after eating a glove. So there was no time or room left for packing and organizing, but we didn't mind. The main thing was that the animals were doing fine, we could do our preparations later.

Sugaree, the strongest three-legged dog ever

And that we did. On Sunday we finished the house- and dogsitting and started clearing out our stuff. And it kept going until late Sunday night and continued until 3 pm on Monday. Yes we slept a bit and had the last dinner with Kerry, Scott, girls and Nick. But other than that, there was no time for anything else.

Preparation pictures

So now the car is packed and the other stuff are waiting for us in Two Rivers for when we come back in fall. And it's time to go.We are very excited to see Canada and how it's gonna feel like living on a road for a while. Of course we are going to miss Alaska but it's time to continue the adventure.

Again we want to thank everyone who was involved in our Alaskan escape, we had a blast and enjoyed our life here fully! We want to also thank the blog readers, we were extremely happy to see people liked and read our blog since one of our passions is to share our travels with other people. Stay tuned for updates from Canada!

And speaking of which, we have created a website where you can read about us, our travels and adventures and check some pictures. On the front page you can also see a map that shows our location everyday so you can follow us on the road and later on the hiking trip. 

Hope you like it! :) http://escape-life.net

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Farewell to SNAP

Today is the last day we can say we work at UAF and more precisely at SNAP, Scenarios Network for Alaska & Arctic Planning (which will, by the way, look good in our resumes!). One year went past way faster than we would have ever imagined.

During this year we were given an amazing opportunity to learn a lot. To gain new skills and to strengthen old ones. To be independent and to work in teams. To work in interesting projects. To work with great talented people. To go floating and flying. 

We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to say we were part of SNAP, which is well recognized and highly respected institute nationally. This job was a dream come true for us.

Yesterday we had our farewell potluck and we got a chance to say goodbye to everybody. We can't thank enough people who have helped us, supported us and made our working days in Alaska that much more special. It was a pleasure to come to work every day and we felt our efforts were truly appreciated. It leaves a nice warm feeling. 

SNAP, also known as Super Scientific Neat Number of Academically Awesome Productive People, will be missed!

And if someone didn't know yet, it's a holiday time for us now. Six months of holiday.  Yeah, you should be jealous!