Dry Skin Relief in Tok

Fuel oil heat, forced air furnace, tightly sealed walls, and a low-humidity. All the right ingredients for very dry skin.

I have very dry skin to start with and this kind of environment is like dragging fingernails across a chalkboard for me. I’m in a constant frenzied search for more lotion.

Right now, I’m using some high quality face cream from Terralina as overall body cream after running out of their body lotion. I’m finding that their face cream feels even better than their body lotion on my body but this little tub is going fast. What I love about Terralina is their full ingredient disclosure as well as a handy glossary of what common bodycare ingredients really mean.

Road Trip! Fairbanks

We drove to Fairbanks this past Sunday to go to a show (Cherish the Ladies at the Hering Auditorium). What I saw of the show was fantastic, however, I saw less than half of the show. We had our toddler in tow.

Try as I did to find a babysitter in Fairbanks via Twitter, Facebook and email, we got close but just didn’t have enough advance notice to arrange something. So our romantic date night after a four hour drive turned into a frantic example of why parents of toddlers do not go out in public – at least not while their toddlers are toddlers.

We also had reservations for Lavelle’s. We weren’t sure we wanted to risk it, but I ran into the restaurant to check it out.

“We have a reservation. Our babysitter fell through. We have our toddler with us. Is there an out of the way place you can put us?” I said between gasps for breath.

“Sure!” the waitress said with a smile, and that’s what they did.

The food was really terrific and the atmosphere was wonderful. A great recommendation from my PRSA gal pals in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

We stayed at the Wedgewood Resort which, for the price ($95) was freaking amazing – like a 2 bedroom apartment with all the extras including dishes, pots, pans and silverware in the kitchen. The look was very 1980s dorm room but with all that space, we didn’t care one bit.

Pics from the road below.

The Alaska Pipeline – first time I’ve seen it up close.

Ice sculptures were everywhere in town including this bear.

A Little Mountain Goat Stew

Got out the crock pot to make a meal yesterday. Chopped up organic veggies that I picked up at the Safeway in Fairbanks while we were there over the weekend. Then went to the freezer to see what meat I should add.

Picked a package of mountain goat stewing meat. Yes, mountain goat. And I have to tell you, I much prefer mountain goat to moose or caribou although caribou does come in a second.

“So where did you catch this mountain goat?” I asked, kidding around with my husband since I know the proper way of saying it isn’t “catch” a mountain goat but “harvest” or simply “get.” (Note how hunters do not say kill, murder, bump off, etc.)

“I can’t tell you,” he said, looking up from his bowl of mountain goat stew.

“What? Why not? I want to put that into my blog,” I said.

“Exactly. Hunters never reveal where they hunt,” he replied.

Interesting. And I thought he was just being secretive because his wife is a blogger.

What is your wild game preference: mountain goat, caribou, moose or…?

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A Walk in Tok

We walked from our place to Fast Eddy’s yesterday. It was a balmy 10 degrees F, remnants of the Chinook That Took Tok the other day.

When it comes to walking/hiking, I’m very destination oriented. Where my husband is willing to turn off a main road or path and explore a new one, I want to “stick to the program” and get somewhere specific. So for this walk, it was head to Fast Eddy’s for lunch with toddler in the Chariot stroller bundled and blanketed.

We crossed the Tok Cutoff into the “heart” of Tok, taking a more “residential” road before crossing the Alaska Highway to get to the restaurant.

Along the way, we passed a junk yard. Not a junkyard, but someone’s yard with a mind-boggling amount of stuff half-buried in the snow. (Photos below from our first walk in December.)

I can’t wait until the thaw.

June will be a lovely month to bicycle to the store, to the bank, to Fast Eddy’s, to the post office.

It’s Snow Machine, not Snowmobile

My husband likes all those outside toys that move. Boats, ATVs, and we now have a snow machine (as they call them here in Alaska).

“It isn’t a toy,” he says. “It is a necessity here.”

Okay, I’ll buy that.

People do ride around “town” in their snow machines.

They go to the store, go to Fast Eddy’s for a meal, go pick up the mail (as the hubby did today). There are snow machine trails everywhere.

This is not your city driving, baby!

So, is it snow machine or snowmobile in your parts?

Toy or necessity?

A Chinook Blew Through Tok Today

I don’t know what it is about chinooks that feel unsettling to me. The temperature in Tok today is in the 30s. That is PLUS 30 degrees Farenheit for those who know that the temperatures here can get pretty cold. This time of year minus 30 is common.

I should be enjoying this warm weather. But there is something haunting about a warm wind blowing.

I’m not sure what it is about a chinook in the middle of winter blowing across a snowy landscape that disturbs me. Does it remind me of something from my past?

I remember these chinooks  in Wyoming. Maybe this wind is carrying me back to my time spent on the vast open plains of the West, at a time in my life when I was disconnected and alone.

Maybe these chinooks are like the loneliness you feel when you are with someone you love and then they have to go away – deceptively warm at first but intensely cold and empty once they’re gone.

When I stepped outside today, I was overcome with a feeling of foreboding, as if the warm winds were bringing bad news or sad feelings amidst their swirls and gusts. Even though the sun was shining and the sky was promising blue, I wanted to retreat back into my car, back into my house, and wait it out until the warm winds stopped blowing through Tok.

Am I the only one who feels haunted by chinooks? Tell me I’m not crazy.

UPDATE: Kay noted in comments that there is a study about women 20-49 and chinooks. Fascinating excerpt:

Autonomic reactions and skin disorders were found to be significantly related to chinook conditions. None of the psychological symptoms was related to chinook conditions. However, a significant relationship was found between symptoms and chinook conditions in women with a history of emotional disorders. This type of information is important to educate chinook-sensitive women and health professionals as well as for hospital emergency departments in order to be able to prepare for potential increases in workload.

Marja J. Verhoef¹   , M. Sarah Rose¹ and Savitri Ramcharan¹

(1)	Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, T2N 4N1 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Received: 4 February 1994  Revised: 14 December 1994  Accepted: 15 December 1994

Guess this means I AM crazy, eh?

What in the World is the “Tok Crud?”

Image via Wikipedia

I’m posting a question to Tokites who are following this blog:

Have you ever heard of – or come down with – the Tok Crud?

We’re stymied by this diagnosis from our local clinic.

My husband has been sick since Friday of last week (while we were in Anchorage for the week) and getting sicker each day. It started with him feeling a little achy on Friday morning. By Saturday morning, he was feeling weak and his muscles ached even more although he did drive us most of the way home.

Sunday, he had a sore throat and his chest hurt. He was feverish. It has gotten progressively worse each day although last night he thought his fever broke and figured he was getting better despite increased congestion.

This morning he had no energy. He felt really weak and his muscles were still aching. He has also been spitting up phlegm with some blood in it. His chest still hurts and not just when he coughs. Oh, and he has had a flu shot this year (I haven’t).

Without running any tests other than checking his blood pressure and listening to his chest when he breathed (he was told he has “good lungs”), the diagnosis was “Tok Crud.” He is to call Friday morning if he is still feeling bad. Then they will prescribe an antibiotic without any further testing.

A quick Google search of “Tok Crud” doesn’t bring anything up. Hmmmm…maybe it is rarer than we thought.

Someone suggested that a trip to Fairbanks might be in order, just to be sure. (For those unfamiliar with our medical care out here, the closest hospital is 3.5+ hour drive to Fairbanks.)

We’re playing it by ear right now, but thought I’d put it out there in case this sounds familiar to anyone. We’d love to know:

• How long does it last?
• What did you do about it?

Thanks for any input you can give!

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who has been asking how my hubby is doing. Jackie’s comment prompted me to post an update. Husband is still coughing but the bulk of the congestion did slowly diminished over time and his fever finally broke for good. We pumped him up full of Airborne, echinacea and vitamin C but can’t say for sure if that helped or if everything just ran the course it was supposed to run.

We ended up going to Fairbanks that Sunday not to see a doctor but to see a show, but he still wasn’t 100%. I felt so bad for him. By this past weekend, he was probably 90% other than that nagging cough, and he did say he still feels weak – not up to his usual strength – but we feel he is slowly on the mend.

Getting All Social in Tok

Before we left for a 2-week stay in Anchorage, we had our first dinner party. Before our daughter was born, we used to have people over to our house for dinner fairly often. Then we became parents of a newborn, and “socialize” was not part of our vocabulary for a while.

I was excited to plan an easy dinner of moose meat tacos with all the fixings and asked that people bring things. My husband put an invitation into everyone’s mailbox at his office, and I handed out a few invites to people I’d only recently met. Someone joked (at least I think they were joking) that we should just put up a couple of fliers on the local bulletin boards and invite everyone.

At one point in the planning process, my husband asked to see my guestlist.

“Some of these people probably don’t know each other,” he said. “They most likely don’t even socialize with one another.”

That was the point, I told him.

Best Kept Secret: Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

Since my husband is now in the National Wildlife Refuge system, I’ve been learning a little more about refuges and particularly those in Alaska. I recently learned about the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. Their mission statement as published on their web site is:

Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the conservation of the natural resources of all the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. The Friends promote understanding and appreciation of these refuges and assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in meeting its mandates.

The goals of FOANWR include:

• Educate the public and decision makers on local, national, and international levels about Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges.
• Assist the refuges in accomplishing their missions through wildlife management and habitat improvement projects.
• Fund refuge-oriented projects through grants, memberships, donations, and other activities.

Basically, FOANWR gives everyday citizens the opportunity to volunteer for a variety of activities.

Events from Tetlin Refuge

Got notice of several events at Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge that are open to the public.

Friday, Feb. 13 will be the 3rd annual CANnes Film Festival at Fast Eddy’s @ 6pm. Admission is one can of food to be donated to the Helping Hands Food Bank. All of the films are from the Fairbanks Far North Film Fest held every November.

Feb 13 – 16 is the Great Backyard Bird Count. This is an easy way to get into bird counts. Check out the website at www.birdcount.org or call Mary Timm for more information – 883-9419.

If you have a Tok event you’d like to have listed on this site, just send it to babyfruit AT gmail DOT com or drop to my PO Box.