Living the Alaska Dream

Jari went to the post office yesterday and brought in a nice size pile of mail last night. I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that I ripped open the electric bill faster than anything else. We've been doing the winter money juggle again. We decided to try something new this winter. Jari picked up one of these I heaters ... well maybe he didn't pick it up. They were gracious enough to deliver to Alaska for us. We've added more insulation downstairs and wanted to see if keeping the basement a bit warmer would help with not running the heat upstairs as much. The wood stove certainly goes through wood, but the heater would still kick on in the middle of the night. Now it doesn't. Once in a while I have to turn up the dial in the morning for a bit to warm it up in here a titch, but this thing is working. We've had a cold spell lately as well, so it hasn't been a balmy 30 degrees out there. Anyway .... the electric bill was down about $100!! I'm thrilled!! We have to finish paying for this one and then we're getting another one for the cabin. Still running space heaters in there that are probably using incredible amounts of juice ... one mountain at a time.

Our beautiful Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Made stringing lights a challenge and ornament hanging even more so! Ain't she a beauty? Jari and Brock plucked it from the side of the driveway. :) For some reason there were ornaments on the floor yesterday. Hmmm. Do you s'pose Oreo has been in the tree? No one has seen her in action, but am guessing she has been busy when we're not paying attention. I was going to start putting a gift or two under the tree ... and I will ... I'll just have to make sure that they are well wrapped. Oreo loves paper. Kind of like having a little kid in the house who can't wait to open things!

I appointed this little lady on my tree as Guardian of the Tree Angel. I'm not sure she's doing her job tho'. She does look like she has a bit of the "get after the cat" attitude, doesn't she?

In other great things. As long as I'm being a bit positive today. (I'm really working on the positive thinking here. When Jari replaced the alternator and battery in the VW last weekend ... I reminded myself to be happy we had a car ... and thrilled to be paying insurance on it.) This other thing is really great. I mean REALLY great. Carolyn, a lovely coworker, brought me a pair of cross country skiis last week. I can't remember if I told you that or not yet. I put my feet into the boots on Sunday and did some spins around the yard. It felt soooo good! I've been wanting to start skiing since we moved here. Thank you Carolyn!! Yesterday I had this urge to set the timer for 30 minutes and take my usual nap after dinner. Not an every day occurrence, but quite often I find a quiet place to close my eyes. Probably only end up sleeping 15 minutes but wake up refreshed. I moved right past that urge and down to the basement. Put the boots on, locked into skiis, attached a head lamp to my hat and set the timer for 30 minutes. As often as I can, I am going to grab 30 minutes and go for it. We had fresh snow and the snow was falling as I circled the yard ... over and over. Talk about energy afterward. Baked cookies and only taste tested one of them. Got the bathrooms and living room cleaned. Straightened out the laundry room and ran a load of laundry. All to the joyous sounds of Christmas music with candles lit. We have company coming over this evening ... I hope I have a moment to plow through the yard first. I have a fair amount of this yard practice to do before I dare go anywhere else ... even up the road.