Ideas, Plans, Mountains and Moose
Hello everyone,
On my way home from work last night it was sunny for the first time all week so I wanted to get outside. I had not walked around this lake since it was still covered in snow and ice last winter. I get annoyed it is so hard to get anywhere to just sit and enjoy the sun since we don't have much yard now and we live near the largest city in Alaska so there are poeple everywhere. I can't complain if I can take a drive to a place like this though. I don't ever get any direct sun at this lake since the sunny side (in evening) is all swampy and you can't really walk around it. But the upside it you get great photos looking back to the sunny side! The mountains and clouds were very dramatic! This was about 10:00 last night.
I saw a rainbow, a porcupine and a moose on the drive back too.
I have been considering writing and self publishing books (which I have heard is very easy with platforms like Amazon now). I know a number of people here on WA who do it. I think it would be pretty easy to promote my books on my websites if I went that route though you don't need to if they are really good I guess once some momentum gets started.
I want to dive into this but it is summer in Alaska and as always I am swamped with things to do! I will have to put that project off until this winter. For now I will add some content to my websites and focus on everything else I need to tackle. We have a vacancy to fill and there is a local program asking if we will consider taking in homeless poeple which is big problem. During Covid they opened a mass shelter but that just got shut down. Now there is a large park area they turned into a camping location for them but it has already had a death, an officer involved shooting and 5 bears killed as they are attracted to the smells of food in people's tents. We would love to help but of courese that gets tricky. We have not gone that route before and need to make sure we are making smart choices. That is for the building we manage downtown that is always a problem.
Our building here in Eeagle River will probably have a vacancy this fall as well. Our tenant is getting out of the Navy and going to help her parents in Arizona. We will miss our friend and co-pet sitter! Another of our tenants is getting out of the National Guard so we don't know if he is leaving as well. We have had every branch of the military in our building (Navy, Army, Air Force, National Guard and even the Coast Gaurd. My husband was in the Marine Corps. We are quite the crew of red, white and blue around here!
The other building we manage is very different and so much more work. One group owed us 6 months rent (they were supposed to be getting more Covid money and didn't) and then just up and dissapeared overnight. There was an eviction moratoreum last year so you could not get rid of people and some took advantage of all this. We have actually never evicted anyone but this group was going to be the first as they were buying new cars while not paying the rent.
Our regular jobs for the Alaska Dept. of Transportation and the Alaska Dept. of Natural Resouces keep us busy too. And then of course there are the four fur kids and our boy's surgery to have his kidney removed for cancer next week!
I am glad I can dream and plan and stay motivated. I definitly want to get outside more however while summer is here. I go out in the winter too but it is certainly harder when it is cold and the days are super short here. We have 5 hours of light instead of the 20 in summer. So new projects will have to wait until winter!!
I hope you are all doing well in WA land!
Jessica
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Good to see you're writing to us again.
I have had three books published through CreateSpace, and was very pleased. However, they do not offer formatting service any more, so had to hire my own formatter. She's someplace unusual -- Malta, maybe? I'd have to look her up. However, if you need a formatter, let me know and I'll dig up her contact info.
Thanks Fran. I considered signing up with a guy who does training, has templates and then helps you promote it when it's done. He has had students go on to publish books I have actually heard of and I think one of the guys on here mentioned him too. His program is all based on short non-fiction books written by people that have a specific idea they want to get out there. I really want to do it but I know I need to wait for winter. That sounds like a better winter project! And I need to make sure I can use his program for non Amazon publishing since Amazon banned me, or determine that the publishing side is separate and they will take me.
You are busy as always. It's good to take time to walk in nature and be quiet. The homeless problem here in California is really bad. The state is buying motels and putting people up. It's helping but there are problems. Have a good week.
Thanks Jim. Yes, being outside in the peace and quiet (just birds, rain, fish jumping or wind in the trees) is my favorite place to be.
Jessica, my sister and her hubby are in Juneau now on their BMW, they stopped for the night. She FaceTimed me just awhile ago complaining about the cold and rain there. Yes because it’s near the water and lots of rain in that area. They will be traveling to get to Seattle. My sister complains that the cold 🥶 wet rain is making her feel so exhausted. I ask if they can just rest in the hotels for a few days to get their energy back because she wants to go home, they were planning on visiting me in Portland, Oregon. I begged them not do that, just rest few days once they enter Seattle, next week we be in our heat wave all week then it be much easier for them to travel here.
Yeah, my sister did talk about the killing of the bears due to human food that homeless leaving around. It’s like that here except we don’t got bears in the city but in the cascades yeah, more wolves or coyotes around.
There was a brush fire 🔥 outside of my building because homeless camping and making campfire due to the rain and cold recent weather. Took a few hours to get the homeless people out of the area, they refused to move lots of gunfire. Too many shootings going on in the city here, it’s scary.
Thanks for sharing your update with us and glad you are back.
It was very, very hot and dry all spring and summer. In fact it was the driest summer here for decades and we were in a bad drought. It was over 80 degrees many days which is hot for us. But then last week it finally started raining! Yay! We needed it since we had over 3 million acres burned in forest fires already this summer!
So it has been very rainy but it isn't permanent. It is supposed to clear out and get sunny again. The weather always changes in Alaska! I hope they stay in Juneau and the weather gets better!
It looks like my sister and her hubby are riding up to Skagway then will enter BC Canada. They texted that it is raining in that area while en route to Skagway. It sounds like homelessness problem is serious issue for many people especially over the west coast Pacific side seems to get worse of late.
Yes, it is terrible in California and terrible in Hawaii I know and getting the same here. How do you balance people's right to live outside if they want to with the cost and dangers? There is garbage, needles, drugs, alcoholism, mental health issues, trespassing, vandalism, cost of police, locking them up for a night or taking them to the hospital and then they are out the next day. It is an endless cycle. Some advocate for them to have their own housing (actually cheaper than hauling them off the street every day), some say they just need a job (there are some who do want a job but a basic job doesn't pay enough to live here) and some are too disabled or addicted to work a job. We need better mental health treatment (we have hardly any now). Some advocate large shelters but no one wants those in their neighborhood. Then there is the camping option but that has all it's own problems like people freezing in winter and bears and theft and assault in summer! There are just no good options.
When people cause too much trouble in the Native villages they get banished. They end up here but we have no way to help them all. We also get people from all over the country ending up here somehow. We have a lot of homeless military vets too.
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I always enjoy your beautiful pictures.
It's really rotten what the government has done to you and to so many other people with their eviction moratorium. They let so many people skip out of paying rent, bailed them out, but offered no help to the landlords who still have to pay mortgages, taxes, etc.
I know some people need help, but I wouldn't want to take part in housing the homeless either, and the above is a great reason why. I sure hope all turns around for good for you soon. 🙂
I hope all goes well with your boy's surgery. May he recover quickly and completely.
Thank you. That building is my Mom's so we are not losing the rent ourselves but of course we don't want her to either. We manage it for her.
It is very hard to find good tenants in that part of town. You just can't escape a bad location. These ones were already in the unit with a signed lease when we discovered the electric company wouldn't let them have an account...that was a red flag. They probably owned the electric company money from before. So we raised the rent and paid the electricity for them. I think now they probably go from place to place and do this. Owing money and skipping out. The wife was nice and I think she really was trying to pay so we felt bad. The husband was a jerk though (a personable sort who was good at BS'ing people). When he started getting new vehicles while they weren't paying rent my suspicions were confirmed. He would blow the money even if she wanted to pay the rent. So we felt sorry for her and didn't kick them out sooner. We also thought they were going to get another government rent check since the last time we got 6 months of rent at once.
Oh well. Now we know to be ruthless I guess.
I understand. I have such a soft heart it's easy to say I'm going to be firm, but sometimes it not so easy to actually do it.
You do have a very good reason though to be leery of taking in any homeless. Let your head rule over your heart on that one. I will send good wishes your way.