On A Walk

This morning Hawken and I took the dogs for a walk and we took our new wagon too. On the way back I decided Koda should pull it for me and he loved it. He pulled Hawk up a hill and the whole way home. I'm holding a leash that is also attached to his collar for safety. It's a lovely spring day here in Alaska. Jax only has a few weeks of school left now. I can't believe it's almost summer or that I'm opening my store in 2 1/2 weeks! Wow... wish me luck :0)

Stop Trashing The Planet

http://www.adn.com/2010/04/19/1240654/garbage-in-stomach-of-whale-found.html

Read this article and then tell me, "what are we doing to our world and all the poor animals on it?" Pretty sick that our garbage is killing wildlife and sea creatures. Rubber gloves, plastic bags and sweat pants? Come on people, what's it going to take to keep this stuff out of the water and animals stomachs? It's bad enough it's piling up on land faster than we can bury it into the poor earth. I was also appalled to find out this week that ships at sea are still allowed to dump trash and human waste into the ocean as long as they are a certain number of miles off shore. WHAT THE HELL!? It's the ocean, it won't matter where and when they do it, it's still in the ocean and now free to roam or be eaten. The swirling garbage fields of broken down plastic and trash that have been reported need to filmed or photographed so the public can see how gross and disturbing this problem really is! I'm not exempt either, I don't litter but I do have a family and in this day and age it's pretty hard to create no trash at all. We do burn what we can and recycle when we can, I also pick up other peoples trash when I find it (recycling is yet another challenge here in Alaska). I don't have an answer to this problem but would urge everyone to be conscious of all the trash they make, help clean up after others, never throw anything into the water and maybe help advocate for the animals out there that can't speak up for themselves. I also think something should be done about waste from ships. They need to adopt the wilderness motto "If you pack it in then pack it out!" Even the mountain climbers here take responsibility for their own waste, you always know when they are headed up there because they are carrying around their "honeypot" Basically a personal toilet bucket with a screw on lid. It isn't a pretty topic but I have decided it's one we have to start talking about anyway! We only have one earth, let's be nice to it...

Alaskan Biker Chics Ride Snowmachines

It felt like we were biker chics headed out for a nice Sunday Morning ride. But it's Easter, Winter and Alaska so we were actually getting on our snowmachines to ride off into the Alaskan wilderness, from her driveway. It was a gorgeous ride that reminded me alot of Colorado where I learned to ride snowmachines. Just two girls on their hogs in the woods. We followed a well worn trail, almost a wilderness highway, that winds up hills, through the forest, over frozen lakes and swamps then up a big hill to an open space and full circle view. It was overcast so Denali and the mountain range were not visible but all of the "close" mountains were. We stopped for a snack and photos at "the boulder" before heading even further up the hill then down into a ravine (that by next week may not even have snow in it) and back out to the view point. At our furthest point up this mountain we were only a little over 10 miles from my friends house, that's trail miles of course, as the crow flies we were probably alot closer. (So don't worry Mom, yes it's the Alaskan wilderness but in this day and age of cell phones we had plenty of rescuers just a few miles away! :0) We may make Easter a last chance yearly ride tradition just for the girls! Because it was obvious winter is coming to an end this was my last winter adventure for the year. There is already no snow on our road and I have also had to retire my dog sled for the season. On to the craziness of summer, stay tuned for updates on that...

New Batiks

Here are a couple new Soywax Batiks I have made. They will be in the upcoming Group Fiber Arts Show at our Sheldon Community Arts Hangar here in downtown Talkeetna, the reception is 4-7 pm on the second Saturday in May and will be up until early June. They are also using one or both of these photos on the flyer advertising the show. This summer at my store I will be participating in the "Second Saturday Art Walk" each month. Several galleries, gift shops and cafes feature an artist and put out some refreshments so people can walk around town and stop at them all. Should be a good way to get the word out about my shop and put out some extra art too, I have quite a bit right now. We are keeping busy, I'm making stock for the summer and getting ready to start spiffing up my space downtown. Hoping for a busy summer, we have a great spot. I will add photos of it in May when I open for Mother's Day.

Happy Spring to All & Love from Alaska!