First Sun of the Year and Glissading

We have been waiting for 2 months for this and today it finally happened! The sweet sun has finally returned! Here it is in all its glory.

The obligatory hoar frost/sun photo.

I also did a great trip up the ridge behind the yurt today. It extend my sun exposure by chasing the sunlight to the top. Here is the Eagle River Valley just before the sun began to dip back down.

We glissaded (slid down on our butts) off of the top of the ridge. Here is the aftermath of that adventure.

Welcome back sun!

Baby Prep, Sleepy Moose, and and Young Super Stars

Nicki is well into her 8th month of pregnancy. We are just playing the waiting game now since the yurt is all set up for baby sister's arrival. Part of our preparedness was to empty out the pantry and create a baby closet. The crib had to be taken apart to fit inside and there was about an inch to spare on either end when reassembled.

I also set out to build a bassinet. The first step was to find some quality building materials. I acquired some hot pink skis at a ski swap and wanted to use them for the side boards with the word "RADICAL" facing out.

But, the product manager (Nicki) axed the idea, knocked some sense into me, and I just used some birch plywood. The end product was probably a little more tasteful.

In wildlife news, Leo spotted a moose sleeping near our lower road and we spent some quality time looking at it and other things with binoculars.

The yurt and Leo received some exposure on the Pacific Yurt photo gallery. Follow the link and look at photo 29 (five over and 5 down) to see what I'm talking about. http://www.yurts.com/gallery/photo-gallery.aspx
Nicki and I are taking the stardom in stride, but I think Leo is letting it get to his head a bit.

Though, I think he needs to get lunch off of his face before anyone takes him seriously.

My Favorite Alaskan Photographer

I've been following Nathaniel Wilder's photography work for awhile now. He has an exceptional eye and a lot of creativity with his focus and depth of field. While wedding photography seems to be his bread and butter, he also does some great landscape, journalism, and adventure photography. Most of his stuff in Alaska based but he shoots all around the country. He just posted his 2009 favorites and they are amazing. Follow this link to take a look at the slide show.

http://ngwphotography.blogspot.com/2010/01/thank-you-2009.html

A Year of Yurt

A year long project has finally come to an end. I've been taking pictures of our yurt almost every day from our well for the past year. The following link is to a you tube video of a year long time lapse of our yurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSocyQh8W9s



I was able to take 275 photos from January 1st to December 31, 2009.