Snow, Moose, and Phonelines

The snow line has been dropping nearly everyday and is currently about 2000 feet above the yurt. Ski time!! I told a friend recently that I was thinking of hiking up and skiing something. He said, "Dude, winter lasts 7 months up here. No need to rush." He's probably right. I'll just let the snow come to me. New winter project: Splitboarding. Here is a picture of the snow across the valley from our yurt.


This morning we were visited by a family of moose. I never knew they traveled in herds, but a herd of them (5) walked behind our shed this morning. You can see two of them here. It might be a bit like playing I spy.



You see that white line running across the ground behind these two bull moose in the next picture. Yeah that is my temporary phone line, and when they decided to leave they both got tangled up in it (one with it's horns) and snapped it in two places. I was so enthralled with the imminent demise of my phone line I forgot to take a video. It was pretty funny......until I had no phone service.


Here is one of my splices. And yes the phone is working once again.

Wildlife and a Yurt Tour

There has been a lot of wildlife around the yurt lately. Looking across the valley with binoculars I've spotted a bunch of Dall Sheep and some black bears. Below is a picture of the mountains across the valley. In this picture there are at least 4 black bears and a herd of 20 sheep. The red circles are where the black bears are and the blue circle is where the herd of sheep is.



Here is a close up of part of that blue circle and pat of the herd of sheep.


Today we also had a flock of about 100 crane/stork like birds fly over the yurt. We think they are sandhill cranes but are not entirely sure.

I put together a quick yurt tour. Careful, it might take a bit to down load and I might have swung the camera around too fast a few times so don't get dizzy. But, here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPbYYrIK_is

Fall Colors and Berries

Here are a few fall photos.

An aspen leaf that fell near the yurt


The yurt (in the center) with changing colors


Lia and Will on top of Mt. Eklutna looking toward the Cook Inlet


Berry Picking on Mt. Magnificent


And finally, Leo double fisting it with corn.

Bikejouring, Fairs, Fish, and Ealges

Life in Alaska is steadily working toward the colder side. Yes, with the coming of the state fair is the going of summer. Leaves are beginning to turn color, air is getting crisp, and, oh man, before you know it (gasp) it will be winter. We have a few more things to take care of in order to get the yurt ready, like installing some more insulation and getting a standby generator for when the electricity goes out. Georgie is also getting ready for winter. She has a new skijouring training program which includes a new sport, bikejouring. No joke, that is the name of it. Here is Nicki reaping the benefits of Georgie's training.



At one point I had Georgie pulling me and I was pulling Leo in the trailer. The family train full speed ahead.

We also went to the Alaska State Fair and saw some of those famous giant Alaskan vegetables. Here are Nicki and Leo demonstrating the size of a cabbage (green thing in background).



And, yes, that orange thing in the lower right corner is a pumpkin. A thousand pound pumpkin. Also at the fair were reindeer. Even Santa gets the chance to win a blue ribbon.



Here is picture of Leo checking out the salmon spawning near the house. We have Sockeye and Chum salmon that migrate up the Eagle River.



Georgie rolled in a dead one while I was working trail crew in the park. It took 3 bathes to finally get the stink out. She loved it, the smell part I mean.

And last but not least we had the fortunate chance to watch an eagle release. A local group called Bird TLC rehabilitates birds and releases them back into the wild. This was a juvenile bald eagle and here is the video.



Wish us warm thoughts as we begin our decent into colder weather here. Yurt be good to us and hold your heat!