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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Life as farmers

If you have followed this blog for a while, you already know that the concept of house sitting is strongly present in Alaska. This is due to the fact that most people have animals (goats, chickens, dogs...) so when people leave for a holiday they need someone to take care of everything.

Since Scott, Kerry and the girls wanted to spend the last two weeks of September in Pennsylvania ("Outside", like we say in Alaska about lower 48 states) visiting their families, and Julien didn't go back to work until October, it was Julien's job to take care of the animals and other tasks that needed to be done by winter.

Like we have mentioned before, Kerry and Scott have goats, chickens, ducks, a rabbit, a quail and dogs and cats that needed to be taken care of. Julien's job was also to cut and till some of the fields in the property and getting ready for winter. Piia was also able to stay at home because we did a lot of extra hours at work before. Her tasks were mainly food related, meaning baking, cooking and making cheese. It was a perfect setting, since we had unlimited milk and egg reserves.

It is useless to tell you how we enjoyed this farmer life!

In the morning Piia took care of the barn while Julien fed the dogs. Sometimes we would wake up with a beautiful runrise...

It took us usually one hour to do the chores, and then, since we have lots of eggs, Julien baked some crepes for breakfast. Then it was time for Julien to go outside to take care of the fields, the tractor, the wood or whatever was needed. In the meantime Piia did some cheese or yogurt experimentations and made something really good for lunch or for dessert (we had a lot of desserts :) ).

Usually Piia went for a walk or for berry picking with the dogs during the afternoon. The dogs enjoyed running around the fields and forests, and despite the relatively high average age of the dog group, they have a lot of energy!

At 6 pm it was time to feed again so Piia went back to the barn for feeding and milking and Julien took care of the dogs. He also had to take care of the electricity, since the solar power is decreasing the closer we get to winter, so a generator had to be run whenever the power was too low.


After we had a good dinner with salad, cheese, potatoes, eggs and cakes... And sometimes pizza, with homemade mozzarella...


And we watched a movie with the company of the two cats, Clyde and Lenny.

The sunsets were pretty amazing as well.

For the night we just run to our cabin on the other side of the yard...


Now the two-weeks-as-farmers is coming to an end, though we keep on helping with the chores as usual. It was an amazing experience, and despite the couple of lost nuts of the tractor, never-stopping pain in the hands caused by milking and near freezing temperatures in our cabin (since we didn't warm it because we didn't spend any other time there than sleeping) we consider this as a success and we enjoyed it more than we could have even imagined.













We also wanted to get more involved with the Two Rivers Dog Musher Association, so on Sunday we volunteered in a Rabies vet clinic, where people brought their dogs to have a vaccination. We certainly saw why it is said that in Two Rivers there are more dogs related to the population than in any other place in the world. We met many mushers with their dogs (almost 400 dogs were vaccinated) and it was exciting to help. Here is a video of the day, by TRDMA.

For Julien it was a nice holiday month full of amazing colors and fun outside. And on Sunday, WE GOT THE FIRST SNOW, that got Piia jump out of the bed faster than you could say "freezing"...

Now it's time to go back to work at SNAP, also for Julien, and wait for the winter!

 

 

New and old experiences at home

Last week was again a busy week at home.

Although summer is still here, we are fully getting ready for winter. That means making lots and lots of firewood. Every day. Well luckily Piia has already got over her childhood minitrauma about making firewood, and is really enjoying the hard work. And Julien is working like he was born with a chain saw in his hands. We are quite a good team for cutting and splitting!

It is also time for harvesting some of the hard work Scott and Kerry have done in their garden. We have now plenty of different kinds of lettuce, other greens, herbs and zuccini to have nice dinner every night. Easy, basically from your backyard!

Watch the video for prove...

Since we are not so good with mushrooms in kitchen, we just settle for photographing them. Plenty of them around our cabin, of course not all would be even suitable on a plate.

We were also very busy at eating cake last week. Kerry made delicisous ice-cream cake, a piece of heaven! We celebrated somebody turning, as Evie phrased it, 102 years old. Too many candles to blow, help was needed!

And we tried Scott's ATV as well. And got stuck. In mud. For half an hour. Funny story...

Sunday was an, well, interesting day. Scott's friend Tom came to help to butcher three goats that needed to be put in freezer. One of them was Little Man, who was born in May but suffered from some deficiencies. He was a happy little kid, but couldn't hear or move, and maybe even see very well, and since he hurt his leg badly some days ago, Scott and Kerry desided it was better for him to be butchered. Two other kids were about six months old and were ready to be dads, so they needed to go as well.

Luckily, we missed the action for Little Man, it could have been pretty hard to watch. But with the other two goats Piia decided to help. Julien didn't want to see that and rather kept company for the chain saw. For Piia, it was a lesson of anatomy and a reminder of the costs of eating meat. And she was even more convinced on her eating habits. Tom was very respectful and did his job very well, so Piia felt it was a good experience, even for Alaskan vegetarian.

The Sunday afternoon and evening we spent on a hay field, since Kerry and Scott are preparing for the winter themselves. The day was perfect for hay work: sunny, dry and hot. For dinner we had caribou and salads from the garden. And Finnish chocolate!