Icewind's Ramblings

I had a great weekend with my friend Mark Evans in town after his long motorcycle ride from Texas to Alaska.   He made it all the way up past the Arctic Circle and on to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay at the top of the world a feat many people will never experience.   Congratulations Mark, driving a vehicle is tough enough but doing it on a motorcycle is a feat in itself! We met up on Wednesday and I took him to see Sarah Palin’s house on the lake and drove up about an hour where we enjoyed lunch in “Beautiful Downtown Talkeetna”. We wandered the streets and airport seeing the crazy sights and listening to all the sounds of a busy tourist season.   We drove back to the cabin he was staying in Wasilla where we enjoyed sitting on the porch of a two room cabin built in 1931.   Totally rustic with a gas lamp and outhouse we sat on the porch for hours talking and getting to know one another after communicating on FB for several years. Sipping from bottles of Jack & Crow...

Life is what it is, and you have the immense good fortune of being here, right now, to live it. Have a great weekend everyone! Ice

Many people hold on to their past and for some it is like an anchor that holds them back from being happy or living an abundant life.   To truly live abundantly in the present, we must dismiss the past and in many ways the future. Life concepts intrigue me as we must learn to accept this universal truth, now is all there ever is. We are here right now . . . in the present . . . no past, no future . . . Only now. Nothing else exists, besides this present moment. Think about that for a minute.   Now that is a reality check for sure. Fantasy Land is where you are when you spend your time thinking about the past or the future.   The power of our mind, we can make the past feel very real, however it is not real.   Your fantasies of the past may seem very real, our mind is quite powerful, but they are gone in an instant. Have you ever heard of placing a picture of a new car you wanted on the mirror and everyday looking at the picture and telling yourself that ...

It’s been two years since I last updated you on the ‘cool’ family in bush Alaska.   “Storm & Icy” live above the Arctic Circle in a little spot on the 400 mile haul road (Dalton Hwy) between Fairbanks and Prudoe Bay called Livengood, Alaska. You can check out the back story in my archives from January 1 found here & 2 found here 2009. Again special thanks to a neat lady, June Dilley who has imagination bigger than mine and continues the fun with her creations.   (I just have the weird mind set to think up a story for these highlighting the uniqueness of Alaskan lifestyle.) As we begin again, life in rural Alaska has its challenges and also rewards.   Those of us who live in a small town adapt and become self sufficient in the everyday things most take for granted.   Many villages still have no running water or indoor plumbing.   Cell phones and internet are slowing bringing communication into areas which has never had an easy time in talking with ...

Happy New Year everyone! 2010 is here so out with the old and somewhat bad times during the last ten years and in with the new decade!  I want to wish all of my blog readers a very Happy New Year.  I hope that 2010 is a great year for everybody!! One dilemma I have been having as this day approached is how to say it or talk about the year.  Writing it seemed easy but in conversation it brings up somewhat of a debate between us. I remember when the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" came out, the title rolled off the tongue so easily.  TWO THOUSAND and ONE.  It sounded right and it never occurred to me that perhaps that naming was not consistent with other year naming practices, if not downright incorrect. So, as the millennium approached, and we all began to get caught up in the excitement . . . or dread . . . of not only the year changing, but also the decade, and also the century, we all named the year TWO THOUSAND. When the next year rolled around, I wa...

This has been another busy week flying by with many things happening and it seems too little time. I have been surprised this summer with better weather in a few weeks than several past summers combined. It has been great . . . what have we done to deserve this? Yesterday it jumped up to 76 degrees and for a short while reminded me of past lives when I lived in Atlanta . The humidity was much less here but for a few fleeting moments it was awesome. I was making my way home driving the round about for the entrance ramp for the Seward Highway and as I made the circle I noticed two geese had taken refuge in the quiet space between the hustle and bustle of city around them. As I continued the turn I saw that they also had several goslings swimming in the small retention pond. They will stay there until the small ones learn to fly and can move on. Geese mate for life and it still amazes me to find different pairs here and there in places you...

In the continuing saga of a cool family living in the wilds of Alaska where the Alaskan Pipeline parallels the haul road as it makes its way from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez , Alaska in a little village called Livengood. Many families living in a rural area face many challenges and ours is no different from those found in our area. We live a subsistence lifestyle living mainly off the land seeking out berries, fruit, and the abundant fish around. Taking time out of our day for play time and the occasional trip into Fairbanks to stock up on food we enjoy time spent together with family. I spend some much needed quiet time with the baby . . . While the children do their work home schooling . . . While Icy washes the car . . . And there is always laundry to do . . . ...

Happy New Year everyone and to start off with something slightly different I present a family living in the far northern reaches of Alaska, out in the middle of nowhere and a figment of my imagination upon seeing some pictures in the Anchorage Daily News . My mind kept thinking of these pictures all night awaiting the approaching New Year. About 2 am under a clear sky and cold night I remembered a small spot on the road on my drive to the Arctic Circle a few years ago to see the Arctic Ocean . I drove from Anchorage to Deadhorse where the oil companies have their camps for the ‘slopers’ who work in the oil industry. As you can see I have too much time on my hands during my one day off to celebrate the New Year. Enjoy. Welcome to Livengood Alaska , population 26 in the summer and the 6 of us in the wintertime. It’s a quiet place where you can let your kids play with no worries unless the abundant moose and the occasional bear wander too close to the house. ...