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.

Christmas at the Yurt

We had a great Christmas this year with Leo being aware of things like presents, Santa, and decorations. We were also lucky enough to share it with 2 of our Seattle friends and former Nature Center volunteers Steve ad Eve. Here they are with our friend Lia skiing up the Eagle River Rapids.

Eve is the speck on the left. Lia is in blue in the middle. And, Steve is the orange topped one on the right.
Here is Georgie cuddled up by the tree.

We had a similar shot of her last year with the tree in a different spot.
Steve and Eve forgot to bring their stockings, so here is Eve with our newly named "Alaskan Stocking." A mud boot. Steve got one too.

The most popular toy of the year.....A cork gun.

Once you become really good at it you earn your cape a goggles.

(Superhero outfit brought to you by S and E Ltd.)

Holy Snowfall Batman

The biggest snow fall of our yurt stay just ended last night. We got 2 feet in 4 days. It's been cold to so it is nice fluffy skiable powder. I have been cross country skiing a bunch lately, but hopefully we'll be able to make some turns this weekend. So here are some recent snowy pictures.
We started out like this on Monday.

And, on Friday we look like this.

This photo was taken on Wednesday during a momentary break in the storm, and we got another 8 inches more afterwards. The snow started toppling off the railings before the full load could be taken.

Snowy yurt.

Snowy nature center cabins.

Snowy moose.

Snowy viewing decks after the weather finally broke.

In a non-snowy note, here is the cutest pregnant woman ever.

Christmas Trees, Fata Morgana, Fog and Movies

Like all kiddos this time of year, Leo is a little bit Christmas crazy. He has been wanting to decorate his yurt ever since he saw the decorations go up at Fred Meyer. Here he is with his masterpiece tree.

Don't worry folks that's not my camera he is holding. Whoa there cowboy!
The weather in the Anchorage area has been inverted and foggy. While these conditions are a bit of an annoyance they also create some really cool effects. One of those effects is called Fata Morgana, or mirage. During an inversion, warm air on top traps cold air beneath. When light passes through that shift in air temperature it refracts light and acts as a lens. On a recent ski trip we looked over the Knik arm and saw a mirage looking band going across the mountains. It kind of looks like the middle of the mountains have been stretched out vertically. Right where that band is located is where the temperature is shifting from cooler to warmer. Click on the photo below for a better look at this.

Another fun thing about fog it that, when the temperature is in the single digits, you get some awesome frost. Here are some Eagle River trees.

Ans some frost on our railing.

And, here's more frost on our railing.

Those crystals were approaching an inch long. It is snowing again here today which is covering and collapsing many of those crystals.
We have been feeling a bit under the weather here at the yurt. Not much outside play, but lots of movies! Here is Leo getting comfortable in his self made movie throne.