Alaska is a topic that is so BIG, I could talk about it non-stop and probably never run out of things to say. In the twelve years I’ve lived in south central Alaska, I haven’t even come close to getting over my awe.

So before I get side-tracked by the beauty outside my window, here is a little bit about me. I am a native Californian (I know … go figure), growing up in the crowded Los Angeles basin for the first half of my life. I wanted OUT for as long as I can remember and waved good-bye to the traffic, smog and unrelenting “sameness” of the big city as soon as I was able. Although I am not a world traveler by any means, I have traveled across and enjoyed a lot of the United States, some of Mexico and quite a bit of Canada. North America is as beautiful, as varied and as lovely as any continent in the world … and Alaska is the big, brilliant jewel topping the north western corner of this great land.

In 1997, I was happily living my “new life” on a 40 acre hobby farm not far from the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I worked winters at a local ski resort and mastered the fine arts of stacking firewood, shoveling snow and driving on snow packed roads. The rest of the year; spring through fall, I spent hiking wilderness trails, improving my photography techniques and writing stories about my daily adventures to share with family, friends and occasional magazines. I enjoyed tending to my gardens and sharing my life with both the domestic animals I considered family and the wildlife I’d always longed for as a child. Little did I know I was just practicing for the next stage in my life.

I met my husband, Jerry, in February, 1997 and life as I knew it changed directions once again - rapidly and dramatically. By October of 1997, I had left the Great Lakes region behind and was officially a resident of Alaska. I thought I’d seen beauty. I’d toured the Grand Canyon, driven the coastal highway along the Pacific Ocean from San Diego to the Oregon border, stared down upon clear glacial pools from the heights of Wyoming at the northernmost entrance of Yellowstone National Park. I’ve seen the sun set along the rugged, storm ravaged shores of Lake Superior and I’ve wondered at whales in the warm, blue waters of Baja, Mexico. I thought I’d seen it all. Then I moved to Alaska.

There is no way to tell you about Alaska on one page, so I intend to devote this entire website to the endeavor. Whether you´ve always dreamed of getting away from it all and living off the land, traveling by air, land or sea to far away places for pleasure or excitement or hope to move to Alaska to pursue job opportunities, I hope you find what you are looking for here!

I am at heart a writer through and through, but in order to have things to write about, I keep finding new hobbies and interests to add to my list of things I want to learn, see or do before I die. In day to day life, I am a mother of two grown boys, a wife, a hand-spinner of my own home-grown mohair and Pygora fleece (a new endeavor!), a rather novice knitter and an avid animal lover. On our fifteen acres of mostly wooded land about ten miles outside the town of Wasilla, Alaska, we built our home ourselves ten years ago. We live here with four dogs, three cats, a cockatiel and a barn full of Pygmy and Pygora goats. I show my goats at the Alaska State Fair each summer, do spinning demos on request, and take knitting lessons. I belong to the local Arts Guild and occasionally dabble in copper fold-forming and enameling in the metal shop my husband built just walking distance from our front door.

Speaking of front doors … should I mention again that all of ALASKA is just outside my front door? The original Iditarod Trail runs less than two miles from my house! I have actually sat in my car less than five minutes from home and watched the dog sled teams race by. There are stage 5 white-water rafting rivers an hour’s drive away. In winter, I can see Denali from my back deck. I can sit at the top of the Ferris wheel at the Alaska State Fair in August and see three different mountain ranges, fields of lush green spotted with wildflowers and ready to harvest summer gardens – and see a glacier gleaming blue-white in the distance. What can I say? It is Alaska – it is the Great Land! Please join me in exploring it!

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