Friday, January 6, 2017

Keebler/Beaver Adventures 2016











We welcomed the New Year with our tradition of dinner and a movie with Randi and Bill.





January





Mid-month we enjoyed a visit from Mary and took her to lunch at the historic Lon’s at the Hermosa, a top choice for fine dining in the Phoenix area.  Before dropping Mary off at the airport for her flight back to Anchorage, Karen and she hiked at Dreamy Draw, another favorite venue.









Later in the month our two hummingbird feeders hosted visitors we like to think are fellow Alaska snowbirds, Northern Flickers.












February

Jack spent his customary 6 weeks from late January to early March in Thailand and Cambodia.  Meanwhile, Karen got to take Ari to Hawaii in mid-February where they spent a week exploring the island of Kauai’.  Their adventures included visiting a coffee plantation and trips to beaches.















Karen escorted Ari back to Granby, MA where the kids were living while Meg was visiting faculty at Mt. Holyoke College.  Robin was commuting and telecommuting between Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque and Granby.  Before returning to AZ, Karen took advantage of the location and had a coffee date with a young friend, Zandra, from Kenai, AK who is attending Mt. Holyoke and then spent a couple of days visiting Helen and Ray in Natik outside of Boston.  It had been 12 years since we saw Helen and daughter, Monica, at Robin & Meg’s wedding.  Meanwhile, Monica had married Jose and had three children — Poli, Anya, and Annalise.  They live in Rhode Island where Helen and Ray drove with Karen one afternoon so she could catch up with those kids.

Visit with Zandra


Unfortunately, Poli had fallen asleep and was missed
in the photo of Helen, Anya, Monica, Karen, and Annalise
Jose was kind enough to take.

Helen and Ray













































March




We had another opportunity to have lunch at Lon’s at the Hermosa when Doug and Sara came to town in March for their annual visit.









A Costa Hummingbird remains our only pet.












April

For several years we've been hearing from our "Montana Kids," Russ and Erin, about the mountain cabin they've been working on with Erin's family. We decided we needed to check it out and planned our return trip to Alaska with a short side trip to Montana where we stayed with Russ and Erin at the cabin.  We enjoyed visiting with Jim and Kate, Erin's parents and her brother Tyler and his wife, Sierra, who joined us there.





Our "Montana Kids"
Montana Memories


































Arriving back in Fairbanks in early April, we leaped back into catching up on our Alaska social life with brunch at Pike’s with Joyce and Julian and dinner at our place with Ashley, Trevor, Deanna and Roxy (who helped Karen dip strawberries in chocolate for dessert).

Joyce and Julian came up from Anchorage.

An uninvited guest came for salad 24 April.  Note the absence of snow!













May

An uninvited but welcome overnight guest in early May

We continued to work on catching up with our Fairbanks social life while anticipating a spring Tozi trip where we wouldn’t have much social life as our Tanana-Tozi neighbor had planned a trip to Minnesota to visit his brother.  Tom stayed one night with us in Fairbanks before we took him to the airport.  We were able to include him in what has become a Friday afternoon ritual of meeting with our Fairbanks kids — Trevor, Deanna, and Ashley at Hoodoo brewery and tasting room.



Deanna, Trevor, Jack, Ashley, and Tom


We took Tom to the airport.

We spent time catching up with long-time friend Jay who helps us stave off grandchild-withdrawal by sharing time with his grandson, Silas, with us.

Silas


Due to an early spring and a later departure for Tozi, we enjoyed the blossoming of our chokecherry trees for the first time since we moved into our house in June, 1991.  



We also had more time to experiment with recipes and turned out a yummy Dutch Baby from one of the spring’s top recipes on Facebook.









Spring Tozi Time commenced with our flights from Fairbanks 22 May when we were greeted by reminders of the previous autumn’s damage to the yard between the house and the slough.  Water had coursed from the Little Tozi behind the property and through our yard, cresting at about a foot and gouging a 20-30 foot ditch in our front yard.  Nothing had changed with Break-up, which was a relief.



Unwelcome landscaping between the house and the slough.

Jack got to work repairing the Summer House.



While we enjoyed having a month on the Tozi to ourselves, Russ and BJ provided a welcome break with a few days’ stay at their place down river at the end of May.  They came up on the 31st with tools and steaks for a day’s work on clearing trees and brush from the airstrip followed by a steak dinner.



June


We spent three weeks of June in mosquito-land, but we like to get in at least 4 weeks on the Tozi and we got a late start.  Jack continued to work on wrapping the Summerhouse.














Our social life even suffered from a dearth of wildlife although we found some wolf tracks in the sand by the river.  We had a few swallowtail butterflies and learned they are particular about the color of flowers they patronize when we saw them pass up pink roses and yellow arnica while checking out a blue tarp.  They like bluebells.





















We got to spend our 50th funniversary weekend, 11-13 June, in our favorite venue; we celebrated with favorite foods and local wild flowers.

Coffee & coffee cake in the Summer House


Eggs Benedict Brunch


Big Burger


Candy & Flowers








At the end of our Spring Tozi Time we finally had a visit from wildlife larger than a bird.  A cow moose with two calves sauntered down the gravel bar in front of our property.


It seems this was Karen's most "liked" 2015 photo on Facebook.




Back in Fairbanks we celebrated Fathers’ Day with brunch at Pike’s.



July - Mid-August


From Summer Solstice in late June to early August community events taking advantage of the long days and warm weather provide Fairbanksans and visitors with plenty of activity.  It’s a good time for us to catch up with our Alaska social life at First Fridays, the Farmers’ Market and the Tanana Valley Fair as well as at home with Jack’s famous barbecued baby back ribs.  It seems we were too busy to take many photos, but here are a few.



 It seems the best way to get an unblurred photo of Energizer-bunny, Roxy, is to squeeze her between a pair of surrogate grandparents or to get her to show off her face painting at the fair.


Deanna & Trevor
We ran into Fairbanks “kids,” Trevor, Deanna & Roxy and Ashley & Odin at the fair in early August. 
Odin & Ashley


Mid-August - Mid-September - Fall Tozi Time



On 13 August we drove to Anchorage where we met Robin and Ari at the airport and spent the night and next morning with Mary, Eric, and middle son, David, at their home in Eagle River before driving to Fairbanks. 

Dinner en route to airport - catching up on Eric & Mary's arctic float trip




14 August Mary and Eric joined us on the first leg of our drive to Fairbanks.  We stopped for brunch at The Cadillac Cafe where they had a chance to catch up with Robin and Ari.



















The rationale for Robin & Ari flying into Anchorage was so Ari could experience the drive between Anchorage and Fairbanks that had become so familiar to her dad growing up.  So, we planned several stops at special places like Hurricane Gulch where Robin unleashed his drone.

It's a bird, it's a plane . . . Oh, it's a drone.

















Once we arrived back in Fairbanks, we scrambled to get to the Tozi for our Fall trip.  On 16 August Jack, Robin, and Ari boarded Wright Air’s commercial flight to Tanana to spend a day and night visiting.  Charlie and Ruth made their home available.  Russ provided his truck.  Tom provided tour guide services.  They visited Pat & Tom's fish camp where Ari found a new friend with whom to explore.  Robin got to float his drone and get aerial video.


Ari on back of Russ' truck

Ari at Charlie & Ruth's
Robin & Tom at fish camp


Pat, unknown & Tom 








Drone's Eye View of Tom's Place in Tanana





On 17 August Karen boarded Wright’s heliocourier for a charter to Tozi.  Once she was on the ground with all our freight, pilot Matt flew to Tanana to pick up Jack, Robin, and Ari.

Pilot Matt, Jack, & Ari on the ground at Tozi Airstrip





After an easy 3/4 mile trek with the 4-wheeler from the airstrip to our Tozi homesite, we were greeted by an extended erosion of our front yard by July or early August flooding from the Little Tozi diverting through our yard to join the main river.  The Summer House was threatened as it had been last August when Robin, his friend Josh, and Jack pulled it out of danger with the chainsaw winch.






Ditch extended 25'-30' since last August





People often ask, “What do you DO on the Tozi?”  Our standard answer is, “We battle Entropy.”




Inside Summer House

Summer House tipping






Rear view of tipsy Summer House













They say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”



Jack & Robin prepare to outwit Entropy once again.

As Summer House is raised, our rhubarb sees the light of day again.





























But there are creative and recreational opportunities on the Tozi as well.  Ari started Romaine lettuce plants in glasses and picked rose hips from which she made jelly.






Anticipating fishing, we searched high and low for Ari's tackle box. Her dad finally found it caught in the debris at the mouth of the ditch.  It needed some cleaning and organizing.



Cleaning rescued tackle box



The pair of juvenile eagles that entertained us a year ago were still around.













Fence Maker
Once the Summer House was pulled back out of the ditch, Robin and Jack got to work on a 200' fence designed to divert water flowing from the Little Tozi through the yard.











Ari watered her lettuce every day and watched it grow.  She built an airplane out of scrap pieces of lumber.


Salad!
A chip off her Daddy's block




















Then there was fishing for Northern Pike and grayling.  Ari caught the grayling, which she prefers to Jack's famous fried pike.


















We took another day off and went blueberry picking up Dag Creek by boat.  Ari used her own recipe to make blueberry shortcake.




Karen's birthday was celebrated 25 August with handmade gifts from Ari and a cake.




And then the tough got going again.  The lightweight plastic wrapped around the bottom two stories of the cache has been flapping in the wind for a decade or more and Robin's shed built 3 years ago has never been wrapped.  Robin and Jack got the newer heavy duty plastic fabric wrapping done this trip.

Wrapping the cache

Wrapping the shed


















Age eight seems like a good age at which a girl should start developing rifle skills.























Ari needed to be back in Hamilton, NY to start 3rd grade at her new school.  So, Robin and she were scheduled to depart the Tozi 3 September.

The day before their departure was sunny.  So we went by boat up Dag Creek to Moose Slaughter Slough where Robin had a chance to survey the lay of the land -- ever changing due to changes in the river during break-up and flooding -- and Ari got to fish.



As in the old days, the photographer (under the camouflage coat) blocks light to see what his camera sees.
Drone on the ground










En route back down Dag Creek from Moose Slaughter Slough, we saw a creek foaming at the mouth as it drained the tundra.  Robin and Ari got out of the boat to investigate.  We're not sure what causes the foam.













We saw Robin and Ari off 3 September . . .

Waiting for the plane

Bye!

















. . . and then it was just the two of us dealing with the freight that came out on their flight and the chores Robin assigned us on his departure.




We've had a variety of titles for Robin over the 40 years of his lifetime, but the most recent is "The Slave Driver."

Robin left us with three tasks to complete before our departure.

1.  Cover sawed boards with tarp.  This took a couple of hours although we never did find the big tarp we bought for the purpose.



2. Sort through stuff removed from shed, separate trash from useful items and put useful stuff back in shed in an orderly manner.  This took a couple of days, but there are no more piles of stuff on the ground outside of the shed and the inside looks pretty tidy.




3.  Collect rocks from gravel bar and place them on geo-fabric of fence.  We never collected as many as needed, but there are rocks, rocks, and more rocks and all the edges covered.  Ari gave us a good head start, but she was getting $1 a bucket.





We had two weeks to ourselves at our special place.  In addition to attending to tasks set by "The Slave Driver," we enjoyed relaxing in the Summer House and enjoying the view, caught one more Northern pike of a perfect size for just the two of us, explored our domain revisiting Northpeaks camp where we determined a bit of work removing the tree from the roof and repairing it and clearing up the mess of a decade of visits by various critters could return the camp to usefulness and we picked low bush cranberries ripened by a first frost.

Time for an afternoon snack in the Summer House


Relaxing in the Summerhouse



Northpeaks camp may need a bit of work to restore its usefulness.





Frost-ripened low bush cranberries (lingonberries)


The highlight of September had to be the sighting of a lone wolf whose howling we'd heard a couple of nights before Robin and Ari left.  We both had a chance to see her on the gravel bar and Jack was able to get some good still photos and video.

Still photo by Jack

Karen figured out how to get a still photo from Jack's video.
Mid-September - October

We arrived back in Fairbanks in time to celebrate Jack's birthday with our traditional dinner at The Vallata, to see Seth off for his winter home in Costa Rica, and to entertain the Campbell Kids from Tanana, Colin and Ruby, along with Colin's girlfriend, Morganne.

Birthday cake at The Vallata




See you in the Spring, Seth!



Morganne, Colin, and Ruby



The view of Denali from our bedroom window in mid-October suggests Snowbird Season is upon us.




November - December 

We escaped the darkening days to Arizona 4 November giving ourselves plenty of time to clean the condo, shop, and decorate for the holidays.  We got in a few games of Bridge with Deanne and John who joined us the day after Thanksgiving for leftovers.

Short sleeves and flowers at Birt's Bistro 5 November

Short sleeves under full moon on the patio
  






























We made several trips to Algodones, Mexico in November and early December for Jack's dental work.  The drive is tedious and there's not much going on in a border town that specializes in serving U. S. citizens' dental, optical, and pharmaceudical needs at bargain prices.  


The one great thing about that trip is being able to dine at Julianne's Patio Cafe in Yuma where we renewed our acquaintances with six macaws and a peacock named John Henry.  The garden atmosphere, food, and service are attractions as well.  


We saw only six macaws where there had been seven last year.  It seems "Fred" died of an infection en route to the nearest exotic animal vet in San Diego earlier this year.













The photo of John Henry was taken before his patience was rewarded by Jack setting his bread down on his bread plate allowing JH to steal it.

John Henry eyes Jack's bread plate





















We had plenty of time in December to bake cookies and banana bread and to decorate for the holidays as Robin, Meg, and Ari, after spending Thanksgiving at Club Med in The Dominican Republic and Christmas in Connecticut with Meg's sister's in-laws, scheduled their holiday visit with us for the days between Christmas and New Years.  Meg is visiting faculty in economics this year at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.  Robin continues as a principal scientist at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM while telecommuting and physically commuting between there and NY and numerous other places around the world for conferences and collaboration with other quantum physicists.

                                                              
Karen always warms up with chocolate chip.

Jack strung the lights.


















We had a surprise package from the Montana Kids, Erin and Russ, with homemade sauces and a piece of venison backstrap.  We enjoyed a Christmas dinner of rare venison pepper steak, baked potato, and bacon-wrapped Brussels sprouts.  Yum!






The day after Christmas, a bird Karen had never seen nor heard of came to feed on one of our hummingbird feeders.  She identified it as a verdin, which appears no further north than southern Arizona and may be diminishing in numbers.  It returned the next morning when Robin and Ari got to see it.
This is a typical feeding position for a verdin.




























Once the kids arrived, Grandpa, Grandma and Ari spent a day at the World Wildlife Park in nearby Litchfield.  Ari and Grandma made up their incomplete grade in pie baking, having not had time on the Tozi, by making a cherry pie in Sun City.    Ari and Grandpa did their traditional chocolate candy making.  Robin and Ari joined us on the warmest-sunniest day of the week in one of our recreation center pools. We exchanged gifts, among which were games like trivia and bingo we found time to play.  The night before they flew back to New York, Robin and Meg treated us to a delightful dinner at a new-to-us Japanese sushi/steak restaurant, Uni.




Flamingos greeted us at the World Wildlife Park & Aquarium

Ari enjoyed feeding a giraffe.






























Every time we make a pie, Ari does more and more of the  work . . . 

.  .  . including cleaning out the cherry filling cans.


























Ari's also very good at cleaning chocolate  off her fingers.
















Pool Fun










Grandma, Ari, and Meg played Bingo







.





Our last night of Christmas at Uni Sushi and Steakhouse


And so 2016 came to an end.  We did our traditional movie and dinner with Randi and Bill on New Year's Eve.  We enjoyed the film, Loving, and another excellent meal at L'Amore.


We're pleased to get this newsletter published in time to wish everyone a Happy Three Kings' Day as well as peace and joy in 2017.  As always, we look forward to seeing many of our family and friends in the new year and remind you that we have guest rooms in Fairbanks and in Sun City.