el ártico bar and grill

Maybe it is because it's Breakup, Alaska's distant cousin to Spring. Maybe it is because we are already spending our Permanent Fund Dividend checks, despite not knowing how much (or little) that will be. Or maybe it is because "just because." Whatever the excuse, I've noticed several folks around here are suddenly spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave. Or like sun-deprived Alaskans who are emerging out of their cold-induced funks into the manic glory of 24 hours per day of visible sunlight. I am one of them. Which is sort of odd because I generally do not like to shop. I especially do not like to browse. If I have to buy something, I want to get that one thing, and bail. I do not want to linger. I do not want to surf. Brick and mortar. Virtual. Do not matter. Buy and bail, that's me. Usually. During Breakup that changes. And that change is predictable. It starts with the arrival of my garden porn, aka seed catalogs. Suddenly I am for...

I t's a new month already and Spring is a mere 3 months away! It's becoming that wickedly busy time we get here when the sun comes back (we are well over 10 hours of daylight now) and all of a sudden there is almost a manic quality to life. For instance: this weekend will make the third weekend in a row that I have been to a concert, and there's more to come. For me all of this means it is time to start making serious plans about my garden. It's now to the point where I'm even going to be taking a Cooperative Extension course to become something called a "Master Gardener". Actually, aside from probably learning just how much I don't know, the part that I'm looking forward to the most is the volunteer commitment. For someone like myself who is doing this on the cheap, I have to do 40 hours of volunteer gardening - which apparently includes a mandatory stint booth-sitting at the Tanana Valley Fair this August. But other than the Fair gig, we are ...