Just because you’re “in town” doesn’t mean you won’t run into devil’s club. It’s smart to stay on the trails, particularly if you’re not confident spotting it.

If you’re visiting, most locals are friendly & willing to help keep you safe if you have specific questions.

But if you want to learn how to identify it, here’s a good tutorial.

How to Identify Devil’s Club: What to Watch For

This tall, extremely thorny plant has a few noticeable giveaways to watch for:

• very large, wide green leaves
• in late summer/fall, red berries shaped like a cone (or “club”) at the very top
• long thorns on the underside of leaves, leaf stems, and main base

Devil’s Club Versus Cow Parsnip (a common lookalike plant)

There’s a common lookalike plant with similar leaf structure and coloration called cow parsnip.

It’s really difficult to tell these plants apart just based on their leaves. Devil’s club is often a little bit bushier & will have more leaves than cow parsnip. But this isn’t always the case.

Another good giveaway is that in the summer cow parsnip has a large, flat white bunch of flowers that sticks up from the top of the plant – unlike devil’s club, which has a large, bright red berry cone that pops up from the top of the plant.

Also, cow parsnip doesn’t have thorns, whereas devil’s club is completely covered. Devil’s Club even has hidden thorns on the underside of its leaves.

If you’re hiking in Alaska, it’s a good idea to always wear long pants. Even if your leg just gently brushes by a devil’s club leaf, you’ll probably get scraped by its sneaky thorns.

Exploring Alaska’s outdoors is an incredible experience – just make sure to be aware of your surroundings if you’re leaving the trails.

The post Identifying Devil’s Club Plant appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

Pumpkin BOO-berry Muffin Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes Jiffy brand blueberry muffin mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain pumpkin
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix everything together. Spoon into a 12-muffin pan. Bake 15 minutes @ 400F.

Toddler Halloween “Snacktivity”?

This is a simple recipe that could also be a fun toddler ‘snacktivity’, meaning an activity that involves your kids getting to snack as they play/learn.

When you’re trying to include kids in the kitchen, toddlers or older kids can help mix, pour, and “taste test” certain ingredients.

In this recipe, your kiddo can “help taste test” the pumpkin and the milk, help pour/dump ingredients into the mixing bowl, mix the batter as ingredients go in, identify shapes/colors/counting, and whatever else you can think of! Then after 15 minutes in the oven (just enough time to clean up after your little “helpers”), a fresh yummy batch of pumpkin blueberry muffins are ready for snack time. :)

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Here’s an overview comparison of three different kinds of mints that grow well for me in Anchorage, Alaska: spearmint, apple mint & chocolate mint.

I’ve heard mixed feedback on whether mint acts as an annual or perennial in Anchorage, Alaska. 

In other climates, mint grows so well it’s comparable to a wild weed that’s so successful it can be tough to contain! But some folks here say our long, cold winters kill their outdoor mint, while others are able to over winter it. 

Anchorage has many micro-climates, so whether mint will survive the winter in your yard may depend on where you live & exactly where you plant it.

Spearmint

I intentionally chose a garden area close to the house, hoping the extra bit of snow protection & warmth would help overwinter it. We’ve now had that patch of spearmint for 4 years – it comes back strong every spring.

Spearmint is a dependable cold weather mint. It stands up well in the wind, doesn’t get burnt by Alaska’s summer midnight sun, doesn’t mind if our summers get hot or stay cool, & it has proven to be very winter hardy.

Spearmint leaves are smooth. The edges of the leaves look like they’d be spiky or sharp, but they’re flexible and gentle. 

When we don’t actively harvest it, our honeybees love the stalks of tiny purple flowers it sends out.

Apple Mint

While we’ve had the spearmint for 4 years, we decided to try a new type, too: apple mint. The mint stalks get much taller than spearmint, and the leaves are much larger & softer. 

Apple mint doesn’t hold up as well during hot, hot days or in aggressive wind conditions. But it has a nice, sweet mint scent and flavor. 

Even though its leaves get massive, I’d consider apple mint to be a more delicate and fragile mint than spearmint. 

A patch of outdoor apple mint also doesn’t seem to grow in as densely as spearmint or chocolate mint. It seems to want to spend its energy growing taller rather than sending as many runners out and covering more ground. 

Apple mint leaves are actually fuzzy!

You can see their fine little hairs under the leaves and running along the stalks. These fuzzes aren’t obtrusive or annoying when you’re eating it, though. They’re very soft, not abrasive or sharp.

Chocolate Mint

Chocolate mint smells how you think it would – like if you mixed a strong peppermint mint with subtle hints of cocoa. 

The chocolate scent is nice, and once you’ve smelled/tasted at least one other type of mint side-by-side, it’s easy to tell which is the chocolate.

Chocolate mint plants have purple stalks and veins in their leaves. The flowers are also purple.

Overall, in my experience:

• Spearmint is the hardiest for outdoor gardens in cool climates.
• Apple mint is the prettiest and makes the best edible bouquets.
• Chocolate mint has the best mint flavor.

I hope this helps you make some decisions for your own outdoor gardens. Happy planting!

The post Comparing Mint Plants: Spearmint, Apple & Chocolate appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

The answer? It depends.

Egg laying chickens will naturally taper off and cease egg production in winter months, assuming you live somewhere that gets darker in winter months than summer.

In Alaska, where our winter months might only have a handful of daylight hours, many chickens stop laying eggs altogether – unless you supplement their light. 

If you want to continue collecting eggs all winter long, you’ll need to add some sort of lighting in your bird’s coop to keep them awake. It doesn’t need to be any special sort of light, like a plant light spectrum. Something as simple as string lights will do, as long as they’re bright enough.

I chose to let the feathered ladies have a break from laying this winter – and I wanted a break from collecting several times a day! (When the winter days are freezing here, you need to collect eggs before the freeze and crack open.)

We did have to buy a few dozen eggs this winter to get us through, but now the chickens are back to laying a few eggs a day. And that number will only increase as Alaska’s midnight sun begins to make a return.

The post Chickens Laying Eggs in the Winter appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

We borrowed a 3-frame manual honey extractor from a friend. There are a few styles of honey frame extractors, but most are designed to spin uncapped frames very quickly, using the momentum/force of the spin to pull honey from each little comb cell.

Depending on how much you want to spend, certain extractors hold more or fewer frames, and some extractors are electric instead of a hand crank, like the one photographed below.

Beehives are filled with ‘frames’, which are exactly what they sound like –  frames for the bees to build out their wax comb & eventually lay eggs or fill with honey.

Once the bees fill each tiny cell in the comb with honey, they cap it with a thin layer of extra wax to protect the honey and hold it in place.

Between our three hives, we took 11 deep honey frames from the bees.

(There are two main sizes of frames – shallow and deep. They’re both the same width – one is just taller.)

The first step to harvesting honey is called ‘uncapping’ the frames, which is running a knife (or whatever tool you prefer) along the top of the honey cells, just scraping off the thin top layer of wax to reveal the golden honey underneath.

Once we uncapped both sides of a frame, we set it in the honey extractor.

We waited until we had it filled (so 3 frames uncapped) until we closed the top, turned the crank & started spinning.

This is what our frames looked like after we were done spinning.

You can see the comb cell structure is still in place so the bees can reuse it next year, but the honey has been spun out of it.

After spinning two rounds of frames, we put a food-grade bin under the extractor spout & unplugged it. Watching the fresh, raw honey pour out was so cool!

In this video of the extractor honey flow, you’ll see little white pieces mixed into the honey. Those are thin chunks of beeswax. The next step was filtering…

Once honey stopped dripping from the spout of the extractor, we used a spatula to scrape it down.

Then we used metal mesh filters set up directly over our honey containers, swapping out bottles & jars as they filled up.

Every couple of containers, we’d need to scrape out the wax build-up from the filters. Then we’d scoop more honey into them to keep going.

We didn’t heat our honey or run it through a second filtering process.

This filtering set-up took a little while to get through the whole harvest, but gave us time to clean up the kitchen.

From beginning through clean-up, it was a full day’s project.

If we get a nice-sized harvest next year, too, we’ll probably get an XL-sized metal mesh filter & filter the whole batch directly into a food-grade bucket, then portion it all once it’s done.

Out of 11 deep honey frames, we ended up with about 3.5 gallons of raw honey in an assortment of glass jars & squeeze bottles.

What a fun project & cool first-time learning experience!

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We walked into the hardware store needing a part for a miscellaneous house project, and we walked out purchasing 2 apple trees, 1 sour cherry tree, 4 blueberry bushes, 8 strawberry plants & 5 haskap berry bushes.

Honestly, we weren’t sure exactly where they would all go. But it was a great deal, all of the fruit trees were Alaska winter hardy varieties, & we were confident we could find space in our Anchorage front yard.

We called it a late birthday present to both of us & were excited for the adventure/challenge.

Once we got the new edible trees & bushes home, we surveyed our space and took measurements to craft a plan.

Here’s a ‘before’ photo of the front yard. We already had 4 fruit trees planted from 3 years ago.

Brian came up with a plan for a raised garden bed in the center of the trees.

After buying lumber, he brought out his tools & started building a beautiful custom bed for the blueberries & strawberries.

Once the frame of the raised berry bed was built out, we lined it with cardboard to help prevent weeds from growing up through the bottom.

After a layer of cardboard, we layered in organic potting soil & compost from our backyard hot compost heap.

It’s always fun when a project arises that requires a large amount of compost. Seasoned compost is like brown gold in a garden bed – it’s phenomenal natural fertilizer, plus it’s free.

Between mixing it into the raised garden bed and mixing it into the new tree holes during planting, we used 4-5 wheelbarrows full of compost on our edible perennial landscaping project.

Once the new trees were in the ground (lots of digging deep holes, whew!), we brought out the berry bushes to start figuring out placement and what would fit best where.

The blueberry & strawberry bushes we bought on a whim all fit pretty perfectly in their custom new cedar bed.

After we finished planting the haskap berries on the side of the yard, we were finally done – for this year, anyway. :)

A month later, all of the perennials are still looking great. Nothing immediately died, which is a good start.

We noticed some sunburn on the apple & sour trees (= browning, sad leaves), but we realized afterward that those trees were kept indoors at the hardware store and we didn’t slowly introduce them to their new direct-sun home, so some sunburn & light sensitivity makes sense. The trees weren’t used to direct sunlight, unfortunately.

But they stayed alive & all of the new growth on those edible trees looks healthy – woohoo!

The post Transforming Our Yard With Edible Perennials appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

Make your own crust or use a store bought – it’s completely up to you.

Fresh vs. frozen fruit ingredients is also completely optional. (Just make sure to thaw everything first if you choose to use frozen.)

Rhubarb Strawberry Raspberry Jam Pie Recipe

Pie Filling Ingredients:

• 1 cup rhubarb
• 2 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries in sugar syrup
• 1 cup raspberry jam
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Recipe Yield: 1 average-sized pie

Pie Crusts:

Choose your favorite homemade or store-bought crust, depending on fast you want to eat pie. If you’re looking for a super easy pie, go ahead & buy a crust – I won’t judge you.

Remember – you’ll need 2 crusts for this pie. A bottom crust & a top crust.

Fruit pies are awesome because you can use almost any kind of fruit, and just adjust accordingly.

For the pie in the photo above, I used frozen organic rhubarb I harvested from my yard last fall, frozen sliced strawberries in sugar syrup (from the store), and a few jars of raspberry jam I made last season (also from organic raspberries from my yard).

The reason I didn’t need to add any sugar to this pie recipe is because the sliced strawberries came pre-sugared & there was also sugar in the raspberry jam.

After mixing together the rhubarb, raspberry jam & sliced sugared strawberries (don’t drain!), I tasted a spoonful of the raw ingredients, and it seemed plenty sweet. If you’re using a different combination of ingredients, keep in mind if your fruits are already fairly sweet or if you need to add more sugar to taste.

Cornstarch is what thickens the fruit to the consistency of pie filling, once it’s baked. Cornstarch works its magic once it’s hot, simmering with the juices & sugars of the pie filling.

Stir together your fruit & cornstarch, then dump it into the pie crust.

With fruit pies that require a top crust, I like to get fancy with it & make a lattice, then top with large-grain clear sugar sprinkles.

Creating a lattice is fun & not too complicated, as long as you have a rolling pin, a good flat counter top surface & extra flour.

Some folks actually weave the perpendicular layers in & out of each other – I don’t. You’ll notice in the photo above, I lay all of strips running one direction first, then I lay all of the other direction down on top. It looks just as nice, but it’s less of a hassle.

Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until the crust turns golden brown and you can see the filling is bubbling.

The post Easy Rhubarb Strawberry Raspberry Jam Pie Recipe appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

I bought the dried hemp from a local livestock feed store that also sold wood chips and straw as chicken coop bedding options. I honestly had no idea what to expect, so I went into it with zero expectations.

After using this new hemp bedding for a few weeks, I can safely say that love it – and so do the chickens. I posted a YouTube video review, too, here.

What is hemp chicken coop bedding like?

Hemp chicken coop bedding is completely dry, ground bits of plant material. It was softer than it looks – almost fluffy.

It comes in a compact brick that expands as you start to dig your fingers into it.

It’s not like wood chips, which stay relatively dense, even after you spread them around. Ground hemp almost puffs up, the way shredded newspaper does.

Wood Chips vs. Straw vs. Ground Hemp

I’ve used wood chips before in the chicken run area, and I have friends who use straw.

While wood chips aren’t a bad option (especially when you can find them for free from tree removal companies in the summer), I have a difficult time working with them bare-handed because of splinters and pokey chunks of wood.

Wood chips can also be large, meaning not as much surface area for absorption. They also take longer to break down in our compost pile.

From what I’ve seen and heard of straw, it works very well when it’s fresh and dry – but you can go through it fast. It quickly gets soggy and needs changing or another layer.

In my experience, hemp bedding doesn’t hurt/scratch/poke my hands. While it looks like it would be sharp, it’s deceivingly soft on your skin. It has also been holding up well. But to be completely transparent, it’s still cold & winter as I write this review.

As soon as I toss a layer of fresh hemp bedding in the hen house, the girls form a line on their ladder, pushing each other to get back inside the coop to check it out.

They seem to enjoy it, scratching through, occasionally picking out pieces to eat while mixing a new layer of deep-litter compost bedding.

Chickens eat everything – dirt, rocks, dead grass – anything they can fit in their beaks. When I used wood chips, they would scratch through and pick up small bits to eat. Same with birch leaves. A little hemp in their digestive system doesn’t scare me.

Although I wish I had saved more dried birch leaves from the yard last fall (free bedding is the best!), purchasing hemp bedding from a local supplier is a close second.

Overall, I’d give hemp a positive review. If you’re buying bedding, I definitely would recommend giving hemp a try & seeing if it works as well for your chickens as it did for mine.

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In Alaska, one of the surest signs that spring has officially sprung is the sight of rhubarb’s annual crowning from the barely-thawed earth.

As soon as the snow has melted, still weeks before Alaska’s safe garden planting date, spring rhubarb begins to emerge.

Rhubarb is an edible perennial plant that grows extremely well throughout much of Alaska. ‘Perennial’ means it comes back every year (with proper care, of course), unlike most garden vegetables that need to be replanted each spring then die off in the fall.

When rhubarb grows up from the ground after a long winter, it looks pretty funky. First it pops out a hard, dark red head. Then it pushes out its first leaf, in the form of an odd-shaped ball of wrinkles.

Wait for more leaves before harvesting…

Before long, more & more leaves push their way up from the ground, stems grow thicker and longer, and the leaves turn green.

Once there are multiple large stalks, it’s ready to start harvesting bit by bit for the season, as needed. A mature rhubarb plant that’s a few years old can be safely harvested from spring to fall as it continues to grow.

Only rhubarb’s stalk is eaten – not the leaves.

When pulling rhubarb stalks for mixed home grown fruit pies & muffins, I cut the large rhubarb leaves off of the stalk and toss them directly into my large outdoor compost.

A well-placed rhubarb can live for years & years with minimal maintenance, making it a fantastic option for an edible perennial in Alaska.

The post Spring Rhubarb: an early edible perennial in Alaska appeared first on Alaska Urban Hippie.

The note said the ‘blonde boy’ needs .5ml of antibiotics, twice a day. Once I got the puppies home, it was antibiotics time.

I’ve had pets all my life. With household pets comes the responsibility of animal healthcare.

I have vivid childhood memories of my mom’s cats needing to take pill-form medication. The slim plastic apparatus invented to force feed a cat a small, hard pill was both traumatic and hilarious.

(If you’re not familiar with it, go ahead & search ‘cat pill shooter’. It’s a modern-day feline torture device, but still one of the most effective ways to get a cat to swallow a pill.)

A technique for administering liquid medication to your puppy

Getting a puppy to take a liquid, oral medication might seem intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but once you’ve gone through the motions a few times, it can be a quick, easy process for both you and the puppy. 

First, take the antibiotic out of the refrigerator and choose your dropper or syringe. The bottle itself will usually come with a dropper top with measurements down the tube, but I find it simpler to use a syringe.

If you have pets, it may be a good investment to own a syringe that pulls apart for efficient washing and drying. They’re fairly inexpensive, and last a long time.

Here’s a link to the 1ml liquid capacity syringe I use: 
https://amzn.to/2QWphxA

Once you’ve measured out the correct dosage based on your vet’s prescription instructions, hold your puppy in your lap. With one hand, put a finger or toy in his mouth – something to get him to open his mouth. You don’t need the puppy’s jaw all the way open, just barely wide enough to sneak in the small syringe. 

With your other hand, quickly slip the syringe in the back of your puppy’s mouth, and push the injector. When your puppy notices a cold liquid suddenly in his mouth, he will probably pull his head away from you and swallow a few times, then start licking his lips. Watch this, just to make sure the antibiotic doesn’t drip out of his cheeks. 

That’s all there is to it. Once you’ve done it a few times, it will start to feel very natural. The most important part is just doing it fast – before your puppy realizes what’s happening and tries to squirm away from you.

Now, here’s one more picture of adorable, tiny 5-week old puppies. 

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