On Christmas Day, the date of my most recent post, my little blog hit a milestone: 10,000 views.  It’s at 11,164 today; oddly, I’m getting almost as many page views per month now as I did when I was actively posting!

WordPress, the blogging platform I use, provides me with these and other interesting statistics on my blog. It tells me how visitors arrive at my blog, and what countries they come from. I’m amazed at the thought of people from all corners of the world checking out my blog, and curious to know why they come. The search terms give a hint.

Canned cream: not for the weak of heart.

Not surprisingly, the most common search terms are from people specifically looking for me and my blog: indeep alaska, in deep alaska, and variations like account for over 200 searches. Searches related to off-grid or primitive living in Alaska, and things like “people who go deep in the wilderness and live off-grid, self-sufficient, and isolated” are next, totaling about 50, followed closely by searches looking for Alaska terminology. The fourth most popular search is a surprise: “canned cream,” which accounted for 26 searches.

Our resident snowshoe hare.

Other popular search terms are less surprising: snowshoe or arctic hare, mushing, Alaska tundra or range or winter, various searches on snowmobiles and cabins. Many visitors, I hope, found what they were looking for:

Small cabin bedroom storage ideas
Snowmachine or sled hauling wood
Brilliant sunset photography
Extreme cold mukluk
Frozen outhouse
How to break a frozen river

Gary reopening the water hole in -48 degree weather

Others, I’m convinced, left my site disappointed:

A sled filled with 20-fifty pound wheat sacks with its tracks frozen in the ice which is to be pulled by a dog
Heavy equipment art
alaska costco anchorage solar snow ocean breeze
yoga pants thongs
wolf pack cafe blueberry pancakes atv

Some had questions or thoughts of their own, and a few were mysterious:

My dutch ovens in the “freezer”

Does the DMV in Fairbanks have a long line?
Why do people have outhouses in Alaska?
Do you turn off freezers in winter in Alaska?
Can Alaska wildlife troopers pull people over?
Best way to stack firewood
snoopy i think my feet need a sharpening
thawed bananas look awful
sometimes i dig a hole stand in it and pretend im a carrot

Rub-a-dub-dub

Of the photos, the most clicked-on award goes to the photo of my first Saturday night bath at Brushkana, rub-a-dub-dub!  Second is a shot of Gary pausing in his work building the addition onto the cabin. A picture of the snowmachine with a wood-filled sled parked in front of the cabin came in third, followed by several other views of the cabin, inside and out. A photo of me just off the snowmachine in -38° below weather and full winter attire was next, and the snowshoe hare got a lot of play as well.

Visitors come from all corners of the world. Most come from the US and Canada, naturally, but I was surprised to see that Bulgaria came in third, followed by Germany, India, the Netherlands and Italy.  Visitors also came from Bhutan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Romania, Macedonia, Estonia, Namibia, Georgia (not counting my brother in Atlanta), Mongolia, Iraq, and many more countries.

I’m amazed, though Alaska’s draw certainly has no bounds. In Deep (Alaska) has been great fun for me, and accomplished my goal of staying in touch with friends and family and creating a photo journal for myself. I was surprised and thrilled to make new friends through the blog, too. Thank you so much for your friendship and encouragement!

Though my Alaska story has come to an end, my adventures continue. I’ve bought a beautiful, neglected 120-acre farm in southern Washington. Gary and I are in the process of moving and making plans to renew the soil and fix up the cabin, which is, in its own way, far more rustic than our little Alaska home.  I invite you to join us, and to stay in touch by checking out my new blog, In Deep, at www.indeepblog.com.