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.

1 comment:

Amanda B. said...

Ben!!

I am so happy to see you here! Your yurt and your Nikki and your Leo all look beautiful! I am jealous. Ryan and I have talked about going to Alaska. Maybe someday we'll make it and we can come see you in person. Great garden, too!