Goodbye, 2016

This year was a year of change and adventure in our household. We traveled all over the United States and Canada, we moved to a tiny bush village in Alaska, and we learned to live our lives intentionally as a married couple. Much like I did in 2015, I'd like to take this first post of the year to reflect on my favorite moments from the last twelve months.

January... The beginning of 2016 brought big snows to our little island in Lake Michigan. Cody and I enjoyed a couple of well deserved snow days, and we celebrated by getting some much needed r&r and fitting in a couple of hiking adventures. Beaver Island was picturesque in the snow and provided a peaceful retreat on those breaks from school.

February... The weather in February took a nasty turn and it seemed to be endless weeks of temperatures just above freezing. We tried our best to get out and enjoy ourselves as a way to fight off the winter blues that are so common in the north. Thankfully, the dogs kept us outside often and our awesome island friends kept us busy by going out on the town.

March... Unseasonably warm springtime weather crept into northern Michigan in early March and stuck around for awhile. The snow completely melted and it was warm enough that the dogs happily took a dip in Lake Michigan.  We also got to get out and hike Little Sand Bay Nature Preserve, which is one of our favorite short hikes on Beaver Island.

April... At the beginning of April, Cody and I officially made the announcement that we would be returning to Alaska. I had been feverishly interviewing with potential districts for two weeks leading up to our decision.  While we were sad to be leaving our island life, we were stoked for the adventure unfolding before us.

May... One of my favorite trips of the year occurred this month. My sister, after living the last three years in Hawaii, had moved to Virginia (just outside of DC) and I was able to travel to see her for spring break. I had an absolute blast spending quality time with my nieces, sightseeing in Washington DC, and exploring a new state.

June... Our last month on Beaver Island was fairly stressful as we wrapped-up housing, jobs, and said goodbye to friends that we'd grown to love and cherish over the last two years. We did our best to find some time to enjoy life though because the weather was stellar. My aunt and cousins came to visit two weeks before our move and we had a blast kayaking around the inland lakes, watching sunset on the beach, and just hanging around.

July... July was a complete whirlwind. We crammed in as much family time as we could before heading off on our Alaska-Canada Highway (ALCAN) adventure. We left Michigan in mid-July and spent weeks camping our way through some truly spectacular places.

August... As July turned into August we found ourselves still on the road. We traveled to Banff and Jasper National Parks for the first time and were in awe of the views. We also flew to our little village for the first time and I took off for the most incredible teacher inservice ever. Our inservice included flying to a remote wilderness lodge, learning to fly fish, and collaborating with some truly awesome educators.

September... In September we started really settling into life in our village. We began learning to subsistence fish and we frequently went berry picking on the tundra. By the end of the month, our freezer was stocked with 50+ fillets of wild caught salmon and bags and bags of frozen blackberries, blueberries, and cranberries.

October... We started feeling very "home" in the village this month. We hosted two potlucks in October at the school and learned to make aqutak (eskimo ice cream). I also traveled to King Salmon for another teacher inservice late in the month.  While at inservice, I was able to take a class on skin sewing and learned to make fur mittens.

November... Even though our first snowfall was a month earlier, November was truly a month of beautiful fall weather and colors. This was my first experience with the tundra changing colors, and it was absolutely stunning to watch. I also tried to spend more time doing photography with my nice camera, which helped me capture some cool shots.

December... As we wrapped up the year, we began enjoying true Alaskan winter weather. We saw temperatures in the -20's and snow fell more often than not. The students put on a cute holiday performance and then we released them for three weeks. Cody and I decided to stay in Alaska for the holidays, only traveling to Anchorage for a few days near New Years. It was the perfect ending to a busy year.

With all of that said, I am more than ready to start another year of adventures. 2017 is already proving to be a big year for The Middle(tons) of Nowhere. Stay tuned for new adventures and changes as the year begins! 

Your turn...What were some of the highlights of your year? 

Currently listening to... Shenandoah - Trampled by Turtles 

Stacking Firewood

This is our first year heating our home with wood, and I've got to tell you, it's quite the adventure. Before this year, I'd always romanticized the idea of heating a home with only wood.  The thought of cutting our own wood and providing our own heat seemed very idyllic and homestead-y, which is sort of my goal in life.

To be fair, I do love snuggling up by the fire and reading a good book, or cuddling with Cody and the dogs. It is romantic and ideal in many ways.  It is also a huge amount of work though.  Aside from cutting the wood, which we did only a minimal amount of this year because of how late we moved in, there are many other chores. We clean the inside of the stove each morning before starting a new fire and this requires venturing out into the brisk morning air to dump the ashes into our designated ash bucket, which never sounds fun at 5 o'clock in the morning. 

The biggest chore that we are focusing on now is stacking the wood.  It took us quite some time to stack all of the wood that we had acquired for the winter.  Many, many hours of serious manual labor were put into this endeavor.  We have stacked about seven face chords of wood total (I think).  We don't fully know how much wood we will need for the winter, but we are crossing our fingers that we don't need to find more mid-winter.

Half of our wood went into our hut, which is an insulated building that sits next to our house. It actually has electricity and heat, so it has been used as a "tiny" house before, but we needed a designated wood shed. It's the perfect place to keep the wood dry.

The other half of the wood is stacked on top of pallets on the opposite side of our house.  The stacks that are outside are covered with tarps to help keep the rain and snow off of the logs.  We plan to gradually move more logs into the hut as winter progresses.  We may start moving them sooner though.  Wet wood is a big worry.

We also keep about 40 logs in the house at one time. These logs sit in a small wood closet next to our front door. Typically, we have been hauling these in on Sunday, but I assume this will get more frequent now that the temperatures are dropping drastically. I anticipate that we will have to fill it 2-3 times per week, but at this point it is all guesswork for us.  Lots of guesswork is going into keeping the house heated right now.  I've heard from others who heat exclusively with wood that it takes a while to figure out what is right for your house.  Here's to hoping that we figure it out soon! 

Your turn...Have you ever heated your home with wood?
Currently listening to...American Heartache - The Wood Brothers

Apple Pizza

Mondays mean cooking class for all of the early elementary students (kindergarten-3rd grade) at my school.  We are very lucky that a wonderful retired teacher comes into our school once a week to cook with students from 2:00-3:15.  My class always looks forward to cooking and eating delicious treats. Some of the older students even beg to join from time to time, which means it must be a blast.

A couple of weeks ago the class tried a recipe sooooo delicious (yes, I stole a bite) that I had to recreate it at home. The recipe was for apple pizza.

Apple Pizza
1 package biscuit dough
5 small or 3 large apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T cinnamon
2 T flour
3 T butter
Directions: Mix dry ingridients together. Roll biscuits flat on a cookie sheet. Cover with chopped apples. Sprinkle dry ingridients on top of apples. Dot with butter. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Hello, beautiful dessert! I actually added a little Asiago cheese on top of mine for a little added melt-y goodness. When my students made it at school they served it with vanilla ice cream, which was sheer amazing-ness. Both ways (cheese or ice cream) are super tasty!

Your turn...What are some of your favorite treats to cook?
Currently listening to...Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men

Little House in the Big Woods

We moved into a new house! It's been very quiet around the blog lately.  The move is the main reason why that's been happening.  Our new rental house was only about 1000ft from our old rental house (it's literally right around the corner), but it still took a ton of work.  We are finally all moved in though!

Our main reason for moving was because our old house was totally furnished, which is nice, except that you are constantly tip-toeing around other people's stuff.  And when I say furnished, I mean furnished down to the last dish, blanket, towel, and even cleaning supplies.  It was a great house, but we've outgrown having other people's stuff around.

One HUGE bonus to our new house is the wood burning stove! We paid roughly $300/month for heat last winter, which we weren't super keen to do again. This year we are lucky to have an (almost) brand-new stove to heat the house.  We've already started using it, which is awesome because we got our first snowfall this weekend.  Yikes!

Things are still in the "unpacking" phase at our house.  As soon as we get things a little more settled I will post pics of the inside.  It's a very cute house and we are excited to be living in it!

Your turn...What is your favorite thing about your house?

Currently listening to...Hold On - Alabama Shakes

Little Luna

World, meet Luna.  She is the newest member of The Middle(tons) of Nowhere.

Luna is a three month old Australian Cattle Dog mix (the same as Specks) and she came to us from the Little Traverse Bay Humane Society (LTBHS).  Before LTBHS, she was living a pretty rough life that alternated between the streets and death row at an Illinois kill shelter.  I've been wanting to adopt a companion for Specks for quite some time.  We've even gone to meet potential adoptees, but Specks is an extremely passive dog with no tendencies towards aggression, prey drive, or even barking.  Because of this, we've been holding out for the perfect brother or sister for him.

Luna (formerly named Joplin) seemed like a wonderful fit.  She is awfully timid right now, but she is already shyly curling up next to Specks and sneaking kisses to Cody and I.  The three of us are positively smitten with her.  We decided to change her name to Luna in honor of Luna Lovegood (from Harry Potter).  Luna Lovegood has always been one of my favorite book characters and I think our new, baby Luna will live up to all of her silly goodness :)

Your turn…Have you ever adopted a pet? 
Currently listening to…Can't Feel My Face - The Weekend

Rosy Mound Natural Area

Rosy Mound is a park in Ottawa County that is comprised of huge dunes, heavily forested areas, and long stretches of pristine Lake Michigan beach. The walk is moderately strenuous due to 1,000+ feet of stairs and dunes that you have to climb and meander along as you hike.  It is only .7miles from the parking lot to the beach access (one way), but if you want a little more length to your hike you can do the 3 mile loop instead.

We chose to do the 3 mile loop with a few stops thrown into the mix. Lake Michigan was the warmest I've felt it all year, which meant my toes needed to be submerged as much as possible.  The hike was very fun and we (luckily) caught it on a slow day.  It was overcast and not too hot, so most people weren't doing a ton of swimming.  You can hike Rosy Mound and set up your beach stuff for the day on one of the two beach access points.  The beach was nice and clean here, so it would probably be a great place to spend the day.  Plus, there were two very nicely maintained public restrooms, which is always a positive.

Overall,  we really like this scenic hike and I would recommend it to others looking for a fun way to spend the day. The views are spectacular and the hike is actually decently strenuous due to all of the ups and downs the dunes cause. The only negative to hiking here is that the county collects a parking fee of $7/day (only during peak season).  I'm still used to Alaska where all of the parks and hiking trails are free.  Plus, $7 to complete an hour long hike seems a little steep, in my opinion. I think I'll mostly stick to hiking there in the October-April season.  I've heard it's absolutely beautiful there in the fall when the colors are changing.  Maybe we'll head back in October and get some new pics!

Your turn…How do you feel about paying to hike? 
Currently listening to…October-Tunng

Mt. Baldhead

Mt. Balhead is a cool, little spot in SW Michigan where you can climb 282 steps to the top of a dune.  At the top of that dune, there is an old WWII radar tower and some great hiking trails.  As a kid I LOVED "climbing the mountain" when we came to this area for vacation.  I remember racing to the top (my stamina was much better at the age of eight) and not-so patiently waiting for everyone else to climb to the top.

These days, this is a spot that I like to go to workout because the climb itself is intense.  The stairs are steep and there are kind of a lot of them.  Once you get to the top I would recommend checking out the trails.  The lookout point at the top is pretty fantastic, but the view from the trails is waaaay better.  The trails are nice and they wind through the top of the dune and some heavily wooded areas.

On the other side of the trees you will break into a great dune overlook.  From this spot, you can climb down the dune and enter Oval Beach (FOR FREE) and enjoy a dip in the water.

If you're just there for the workout I would highly recommend climbing to the bottom of the dune and back up again (on the sand side), then trekking back on the trail to the first scenic overlook and heading back down the 282 stairs to the parking lot.  It makes for a seriously sweaty trip, which is why I don't see anything wrong with sneaking down to Lake Michigan for a dip before heading back up the dune :)

Your turn…What whacky places do you like to workout?
Currently listening to…Paris - Grace Potter

Impromptu Hike on Livingston Trail

Last week, Cody and I decided that we wanted to head to the Shore Acres Disc Golf Course in Saugatuck, Michigan.  We both totally dig disc golf as a sport (see: excuse to play around outside while potentially drinking a frosty beverage) and this course is relatively close to my parents house.  There must have been a tournament going on or something this particular weekend though because it was PACKED.  Frankly, I don't need a bunch of hardcore frolfers not-so-patiently waiting for me to play through a hole.  I'm slow and not that great at it…meh.

As we walked back to our car, we noticed a trail sign near the entrance to the disc golf course.  Naturally, we followed it and we were not disappointed.

Livingston Trail in Saugatuck Dunes State Park ended up being the perfect short hike.  We hiked about 2 miles total, no biggie.  We did end up spending a fair amount of time at the end of the trail because it opened up onto Lake Michigan.  We were the only people on the beach, which is basically unheard of in SW Michigan at this time of the year.  I suppose the hilly hike was enough to deter most of the families.

I definitely recommend this short hike, especially if you're looking for a semi-secluded beach.  I'd venture a guess that you wouldn't have to fight for a spot on this beach, even on a hot day.  The trail was hilly and ran through some steep dunes.  The trail was a good mix of wooded and beach-y scenery.  Check this out if you are ever hanging in the area!

Your turn…Have you ever been to Saugatuck Dunes State Park?
Currently listening to…Cough Syrup - Young the Giant

Basketball Games and R&R

This week has been crazy.  I've been truly astounded at how tired I have been every night.  It's like a freight train ran me over. After a week of standardized test preparation, professional development, coaching, and life in general I was ready for the weekend.  First, I had to coach and attend the Alumni Basketball game on Friday night.  It was a HUGE community event, complete with a martial arts demonstration, violin performance, singers, and a chili cook-off.  Lots of fun!

Friday at about 9pm...I was ready for a weekend of nothing but binge-watching Netflix and taking naps.  Ok, I guess I'll go grocery shopping and walk the dog.  I am committed to the boring-ness of a weekend holed up in the house though. It will be a glorious thing. 

Your turn...What are your weekend plans?

Currently listening to...When The Lights Go Out-Black Keys