Eagle River Weather

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Midnight Sun Mania

Steve and I just got back from a sunny, 11 mile hike up the valley to some waterfalls. I had my first run in with a bear this year and the first one ever on the trails. It's a good way to get your heart pumping. We saw it as we came around a bend in the trail and stopped about 30 feet short of it. It was a medium sized black bear and luckily it decided we were not something it wanted to mess with and moved quickly off the trail. Sorry no pictures. I got my bear spray out before my camera.
Since we are only a week away from solstice, it is daylight here for almost 24 hours. Here is a recent picture of the yurt at about 11:30 PM. The sun is still barely touching the mountain tops.

All this sun is creating some great growing conditions for our garden. Compare this picture to the one 2 posts ago that shows this same veggie box 10 days prior.

Nicki is currently out there right now thinning and harvesting our radishes.
Leo got to go on his first rafting trip a few days ago. We joined our friends Jenny and Eric on their inaugural trip of their "new to them" raft and floated down the Eagle River. The great thing about it? The put in is only a few miles from our house and we got to see a view of the Valley we had never seen before. Here is a picture of Nicki calmly rowing with the other occupants freaking out.

It has also been bird-palooza around the yurt. I was working inside when I heard 4 or 5 different angry bird calls going on at once. When I looked outside robins, magpies, and wood peckers were harassing this owl.

It had set up shop about 15 feet from the woodpecker's nest and the little birds were not happy.
I spent this past weekend at the Anchorage weekend market selling puzzles. Here is a picture of the tent I shared with my friend Sarah.

You can see my puzzles and the butterfly jewelry shat she sells. It is pretty cool stuff and is made out of real butterfly wings. Check it out at www.socialbutterflyjewelry.net. I sold 8 puzzles and only 2 of thse were to people I kow. I also did some trading with other venders and got Leo a new wooden trainset and Nicki some wooden jewelry boxes. Now that the market is over, I have begun my online selling. You can check it out at www.yurtmade.etsy.com.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Selling Puzzles

I'm going for it! This weekend I'll be huddled under a tent trying my best to sell puzzles to who ever might be interested. Let's hopes for lots of customers. This is s big experiment to see if this puzzle making is going to be viable or not. I'm hoping for it to be able to at least pay for itself but won't be too disappointed if I actually make some money. Here is a photo of a puzzle I did showing off the Eagle River Nature Center logo.

Anything I don't sell at the market is going to go on sale later this month on an online market place for handmade goods called Etsy.
Wish me luck!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Visitors, Hikes, and Veggies

Our good friends Steve and Eve have come up from Seattle to work at the nature center for the summer. We are super excited to have them around for so long and got them quickly integrated into yurt life by roasting marshmallows out back.

Leo once again over does it with the marshmallows. Everything in moderation buddy.

Eve, Ben, and Steve out on a hike. Hey! We lined up in spectrum order! (look at our shirts)

The family hiked up to the top of Mt Baldy (just outside Eagle River) after a recent snow. Yes! in May.

Two and a half weeks after planting our veggies, things are going strong. We have squash, radishes, onions, sugar peas, broccoli, lettuce, collard greens, and carrots all coming up already. Go 24 hours of light.

We are looking forward to a busy summer of visitors, traveling, and of course harvesting