About Justine

About Justine
Justine worked at three different jobs for this year and also started grad school! For the first 5 months she was at the Alaska's Suicide Prevention and Someone to Talk to Line as paid counselor. Then in Minnesota she taught kids to read (remotely). Now she's been hired as Youth Programs Manager at the Denali Education Center and is working toward a masters in Environmental Education from Prescott College (remotely). Fairbanks has become home! Nonetheless Justine & Josh spent 7 weeks in Northern Minnesota (Justine's field work was cancelled and Josh was learning how to fly float planes) and then another 7 weeks road-tripping around the lower 48. Thanks to COVID she has been perfecting her ability to work remotely all over the place...
...whether that be a hangar with a plane in Tower, Minnesota...	....or an Airbnb in Palmer, Alaska.
Remote work allows for lots of wonderful outside time in all types of weather
Shoulder surgery (fixing a torn labrum) in February.	But paddling again 11 weeks later! She & Josh took a canoe trip down the Clearwater and Tanana rivers
Justine spent a fair amount of time in small planes this year, as Josh's co-pilot and study buddy.	And got to fly over the Yukon while the Captain ate snacks
By an amazing stroke of luck, Josh is just as happy to be outdoors as Justine, whether in Alaska, Minnesota, or while driving from Tower to Vermont to the Outer Banks to Colorado to California visiting all sorts of scenic spots and lots of family & friends (mostly outside visits!)

Lots of time running and biking, both in the snow (this is how frosty you get breathing hard at -40)...	...and in the unfrozen world.
When not outside, Justine finds time for her two other favorite things - reading and baking. (Josh appears to be a big fan of the baking.)	And in return he goes hunting for moose and caribou, which Justine happily helps carry & cut up
Lots of animals to give love to while in Alaska and while road tripping, including funny dogs, tiny kittens, a horse, nest box for a friendly boreal owl, and Don & Anne's new puppy Tula!
Justine also got to see BFF Emily, twice: in February she convinced her to volunteer at a Yukon quest checkpoint while it was -35F (!)	And again when Josh & Justine made it to California on their cross country tour

Justine is very thankful that in this all-around weird and difficult year she still got to see family, do the things she loves, find a new job, start school, and spend lots and lots of time with her quarantine buddy (summed up well in the picture above: Eric's bus, bikes in a box, heading back home to Alaska, with Josh).