SnowHawk Farm

We are finally home! After a long stint down in the lower 48, dealing with a host of issues with aging family, we are back to SnowHawk Farm. Mother Nature sure has taken her toll on our homestead - our well has collapsed, we’ve had water/mold damage inside the house due to wind-driven rain, all our hard work creating a large garden has been completely overgrown, the list goes on… While it’s definitely a bit discouraging knowing progress has been erased in such a short amount of time, we are more determined than ever to get SnowHawk Farm back on track and better than ever, it will just take time. We sure appreciate all the encouraging messages from you guys, we love our IG family!

Well, our third year of homeschooling is in the books, on to 3rd Grade! We started the school year at our nearby elementary school in hopes of building community and friends (especially for Juneau), but just after 5 short days, we pulled him and went back to homeschool. There were a host of alarming issues that took place in that insanely short amount of time  - bribery through sugar daily, fear and guilt (he was in tears), having to ask to drink from his own water bottle, the list goes on… We were left each day with an uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs which isn’t something you should feel when sending your kid to school. So we made the extremely difficult decision to pull him before any more damage could be done. 

We had a wonderful rest of the school year going back to our child-led, wild schooling approach, allowing our rapidly growing boy to get some extra sleep in the morning, spending our days foraging, beach combing, exploring, traveling, cooking, dancing, and playing music. These years go by so damn fast, we truly feel blessed we have been able to spend as much time with our kiddos as we have. Juneau is such a fantastic big brother, a steward of nature, a seeker of knowledge, and amazes us every day. So here’s to , , , allowing your kiddos to grow at their own rate, and most importantly, preserving their sense of wonder amidst this chaotic and oppressive world.

Had quite the show last night! First time in the 6 years we’ve lived here that we could watch them from our bedside windows to the south. The last of the sliver moon was setting as lady Aurora started to dance, though it didn’t get dark enough to see the colors vibrantly until nearly 1am. Soon we’ll lose the stars too until they reappear in the fall. Enjoying these final winter-like nights from our cabin in the sky.

Happy Harvest from our family to yours! If you missed it, catch us today on Alaska: The Last Frontier on on episode 3 at 12pm and an all new episode at 9pm. Hope to see you there!

Our Midnight Sun Garden was a success! Last year we didn’t grow any veg as Owen was recovering from a double surgery, but I did manage to rent a BCS rototiller and expand our outdoor garden area in preparation for this year. That thing was a workout! The circle is 30 feet in diameter and outlined with rocks we collected from the beach. The rows with straw housed our garlic beds. The inspiration for the circular layout came from our friend Kathy Irving’s brilliant Seed of Life Garden back in our hometown of Nevada City, CA. So much veg in a small amount of space! We will definitely make a few changes for next year, but overall it was a success. We need to build a root cellar!

After two years of homeschooling, Juneau decided he wanted to try in-person learning at our nearby elementary school this year. It’s a big change for all of us, not sure who will miss him the most, us or his sister, Sequoia. Hoping he has an awesome time in 2nd grade!

Well, this will be the LAST time we plant garlic outdoors. We had a few yummy scapes develop, but ended up pulling all 200+ heads yesterday when we found root maggot in one of our rows. We will salvage what we can, the soil was just too cold as well this year which stunted the growth, looking forward to planting around the edges of our 15x24 cold frame this fall. Hoping for a more successful crop next year!

These kiddos are such troopers, getting up at 4am to drive 70 miles to go fish at the mouth of the Kasilof river in the pouring rain and wind. We are so grateful the fish were in, it’s always a gamble, but we were able to get our annual limit of 55 in just 5 hours, and on Allyse’s 36th birthday to boot. With all this Fall weather we’re having (sorry for the folks that are dealing with extreme heat) it’s so nice to know we’ll have salmon in the freezer for the coming winter.