Flower Power Alaska 2013 - Crossing the Great Plains

Now that the container is on its way to Alaska, we were ready to pack up the truck and head on up ourselves.

We said goodbye to Taylor

and waved goodbye to Rafael, who will be staying at the house and taking care of the dogs and cats for us.

On the first week of our journey to Alaska we crossed the great plains of the US.  First stop was in St. Louis to see the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Then we shot over to Kansas City for dinner at my favorite steak house,The Golden Ox. The steak house is in the old cattle stockyards and has a rustic, old west atmosphere and the best steaks I've ever had!  I took this photo of Dave with my cell phone, and I know he looks really stoned, but he was just smiling!

The next day we turned north and headed up to Sioux City, IA,

where we saw a Hudsonian Godwit

in a puddle along the side of the interstate.
We stopped at a lake on the side of the road that had a little park and pond

and stretched our legs a bit.

We found a tree full of Cedar Waxwings eating apple blossoms.  So cool!

At Sioux City, we turned West and headed toward the Badlands of South Dakota. 

FLOWER POWER ALASKA 2013 - Loading Up Gear

Today begins the first day of heading up to Alaska for the Summer 2013.  The 40ft container arrived at our farm in Liberty, Indiana and we will be shipping our large equipment for the Alaska farm in the container.   It will leave Indiana on a tractor trailer on Friday, May 3^rd, go to Chicago, be put on a train to Seattle, then barged to Anchorage, back on a train to Fairbanks, and by truck out to the farm in Two Rivers.  It should arrive on May 24^th. Amanda looks small inside it.

Michael and Dave spent most of Wednesday afternoon loading fenceposts and equipment.

A neighbor came over with his forklift and helped out a lot!

The new plow we got to build our raised beds arrived and it just fit inside the container.

I can't believe how much stuff we have!  Loading the trailer was like playing a game of Tetrus, lots of contemplation and re-arranging.

Neighbor Marc came over and helped us quite a bit with his little loader!

Dave and Marc loaded the posts that will be part of the fencing around the farm as well as boards used in building a shed.

Here's Jay helping load the mower

Cooperi, Rafael, Dylan and Jay stopped over later in the day and did most of the heavy work moving equipment and supplies into and around inside the trailer. Loading continued well into the dark, and we had to pull out some flood lights and light up the place to see what we were doing!

After two exhausting days, we got her filled, sealed and she is on her way.  38K pounds of stuff!