As the ice slowly fades from the lake and the willow ‘s bud, Joe and I have entered into a whirlwind of springtime preparations. Guests will begin arriving in a couple weeks, and despite the long hours of daylight we still find ourselves problem solving projects and planning as we crawl into bed at night

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For the last few weeks, we are awakened almost every morning by a robin singing in the tree outside our bedroom window. Joe thinks she sounds like a complaining old woman, I think she sounds like spring. The air seems to be a constant serenade of bird songs, the most notable is the gold crowned sparrow. Its distinct three notes can even be heard in the middle of the night. The Ptarmigan are everywhere, even Howie is loosing interest in them.

We seem to be getting more and more visitors passing though, in one day we had a moose walk through the back yard, another moose with twins walk down by the lake, and a black bear wander onto the property. (Which Howie promptly chased away, I have never heard him sound so vicious!)

I have been putting my limited gardening skills to the test, all the vegetable plants and flower seeds I started are coming along nicely. The dining room table has begun to look like a jungle, and I am beginning the process of getting plants moved out to the green house. My mom always loved her garden and as a kid, having had to do my share of the weeding, I hated gardening. I am now experiencing how rewarding it is to grow your own food, I love cooking with fresh herbs from my little herb garden.(A fresh lemon, basil cream sauce….yum!!!) There is a new appreciation when we sit down to a meal and we taste the fruits of our labor.

Joe is constantly in motion, tackling projects left and right. ( I have to smile as I write this, because at the moment, he is crashed out on the couch beside me.) He got the spring line up and running, so exciting, no more hauling water for a while!!! Laundry has become a breeze! His big project this spring has been redoing the guide cabin. We have three regular guest cabins, but wanted to make the guide cabin ready for guests as well. He did such a nice job, I think its my favorite cabin now. I told him I wanted to move in there, not only does it look good, but I love the smell of wood. (Especially cedar.)

We are re-staining decks, raking, leveling steps (the ground frost heaves terribly, so everything has to be straightened and leveled as it warms up), and working on the walkways. The next big project is digging a new outhouse hole.

We are trying to learn a good balance of working and playing. Its easy to spend seven days a week tackling projects, since we don’t have work hours and we live at our workplace. We have started trying to set one day aside on the weekends to relax, hike, and re-energize. During the week we try to sneak in jaunts up to bear point to glass after dinner, or to sit on the deck soaking in the sun as we eat our lunch. I am learning to savor the simple pleasures in life, the moments that suspend and become memories. A few nights ago , Joe and I were up on the hill watching two beavers, we must have watched them for an hour or more. We saw one dive down and come up with a bunch of mud and then go plop it down on its dam, watched them eat their dinner, then one of them ( I thought it looked like a boy showing off) scrambled onto the hillside and ran around in a crazed, surprisingly fast, fit of some kind. No idea what it was doing, but we both laughed so hard, and as we sat there watching them while the sun went down, I was fully aware that this is the good life. Yesterday, we saw a newborn moose calf taking its first wobbly steps, as its mother frantically tried to distract us. One day, when I am old and gray, these are the stories I will tell….. days filled with hard work and laughter, sweat and tears, tales of life in the alaskan wilderness.