Stay Tuned!

Stay Tuned. Becky and I got back last week from a 17 day Grand Canyon trip with six other friends. We've been busy cleaning up gear, getting back into our regular routine in Fairbanks and finding time in the few moments in between to look over photos we took. Check back shortly to see more pictures and read a few stories. This photo is of a great group of folks from Maine we kept running into along the river. We happened to catch up with them at the scouting point for one of the largest rapids on the river, Lava Falls. They had just scouted the rapid from above and were loading into their rafts as we arrived so I grabbed my camera and headed for a clean shot of the rapid. They went for a wild ride but all eights of their boats got through unscathed. Our turn was next......

Random

I'm not into writing anything particular this evening. Just wanted to put some random photos out there that I've taken recently to share with folks.Not much snow has fallen this winter but due to a lack of wind allot of frost has been able to accumulate on the top side of branches. It's a pretty cool visual looking up from the base of a birch tree. Dark branches outlined with the white of frost backed by a rich blue sky....Full moon night at the house. House?... Cabin?... what ever you want to call it. It's our cozy little home in the woods.For some reason this door knob on an old dilapidated shed fascinated me. It exuded character and projected a mysterious history which put all kinds of stories in my head. I mentioned frost collecting on branches this winter. This is a great example where the frost accumulated on a young tree making it heavy enough to bend to the ground.

Denali is just down the road

Becky and I frequently go for walks with the dogs around the neighborhood. It's a quiet part of town where you can hear the wind blowing through the trees and the bird singing instead of cars buzzing down the road. We've lived in the same house for just about three years and have been walking the same trails and roads during that time. You would think we've seen it all.... I certainly thought we had but I was wrong. Last week we went for a walk with some neighbors down a road we had walked down too many times to count. The sun was going down and our backs were to the scene in the image above. For some reason I decided to turn around to see where the dogs were. To my amazement there was a clear view of Denali at what seemed like the end of the road. In reality Denali was still over one hundred miles away as the crow flies but what a view. After that walk I've started looking all around me, not just where I'm going. It's become an Easter egg hunt for views. What fun.

West Coast - East Coast

Beck and I recently took a little time off from work to do a bit of family and friend visiting down south. We did not have much time in any one spot so sorry to all the good folks we missed along the way..... next time hopefully.

We bounced around from Washington state to Washington D.C. then down to North Carolina and back. Talk about head spinning visits, we managed to fit allot in in a short time. We were in the small town of Ronoke Rapids, N.C. where my Grandparents live, for New Year's eve. My maternal Grandmother (Gran) is a bit of a social butterfly and asked if we would accompany her to a dance with live music at the local American Legion to bring in the new year. It sounded like fun and something we would not normally do on our own volition so we went. There was allot of dancing to a cover band playing everything from Patsy Cline to Rockabilly. I had a chance to dance with Gran and Becky had the chance to dance with a man three times her age and half her height, and of course we danced together the rest of the time. Out of all the places we've been on New Year's eve, ringing in 2010 will go down in our memory banks as a notable one. My Dad and Agnes were in town so they joined us for the festivities.
After N.C. we had one full day in D.C. before heading back to the sub-Arctic. We had hoped to have lunch with Barack and Michelle but they were busy so we took a tour of the museums instead. To save you some time reading I'll just hit the D.C. highlights: 1)letting Becky pilot the F-16 flight simulator at the Air and Space Museum (spent much of the time upside down), 2)the Holocaust museum was highly emotional and exceptionally well designed... a must see if you can only go to one museum and 3)riding the Metro everywhere and watching people get transported through tunnels underneath their city like mole rats. We are back home now. The days are getting longer and the temperatures are comfortable above normal.

One Score and Fifteen Years Ago

One score and fifteen years ago a lovely bouncing baby girl was born on December 20th to the Ploof Clan of Minnesota. To celebrate the special day this year Beck and I along with Mother and Skeet took a little trip into the Alaska Range a few hours south of Fairbanks. I reserved the public use cabin at Fielding Lake well in advance of our departure. Food was packed and gear organized and loaded into the car the night before. The morning we were to leave Fairbanks we woke to an obnoxious -32F temperature outside. Damn! That deflated our dream of skiing into the cabin. Even if we were to dress well enough to hide from the cold there would be no assurance that our vehicles would start after sitting in the those kinds of temperatures overnight. We still needed a get away for the day and since everything was already packed we decided to met Mother and Skeet in town and caravan down as far as Delta Junction, two hours south... maybe the weather would change, but unlikely. The drive was so beautiful that even though the temperature was still around -30F in Delta Junction along with a howling wind that was not present in Fairbanks, we decided to keep driving south toward the trail head of the cabin. As we approached the mountains the wind started to blow so hard I had to really concentrate to keep the truck from blowing around. At this point I figured there was no way we would be skiing into the cabin but what the hell, the drive through the snowy mountains was spell binding. An hour later we arrived at the trail head, climbed out of our vehicles and were blown away (figuratively this time, not literally). The wind had stopped and the temperature had risen to around zero Fahrenheit. That is down right cozy in these parts this time of year. It was simply amazing how much the weather had changed while driving through the mountains. It was perfect for a ski into the cabin so we did.

The ski in was perfect. Once we got the fire going in the cabin and warmed up a bit we proceeded to relax for the evening. The dogs ran wild and free outside chasing their shadows while the people stayed inside by the fire playing board games and cooking dinner. All was well for the 35th anniversary of Becky's birth. The next morning we woke to a beautiful sunrise and slowly made the return journey back to Fairbanks.

Winter Grilling

If Becky wants to grill, she grills. I got home this evening around 6pm from work. The sun had set hours ago and the temp was well below freezing. When I turned into the driveway the yard was dark except for the normal path lighting to the house. Standard program. As I open the car door a mouth watering burger odor hit my nose. If figured it was coming through the exhaust vent from inside. As I got closer to the house Becky comes outside with her apron on and spatula in hand.... Strange, I thought. Then she flipped open the grill, flipped the burgers and slapped on the cheese. Wow! What a surprise. She wanted red meat on the grill..... she got red meat on the grill. Who cares how dark or cold it is outside! And it tasted damn good.

Stary Night

Star light star bright,

The first star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

This morning the sun rose at 10:37am and set at 2:48 pm giving us 4 hours and 11 minutes of daylight today. Only 14 days until we round the corner to days getting longer instead of shorter. The aurora has not been to active this year but the stars have been amazing and nights have been warm making for a great star gazing winter.

The Chicken Coop Cam

After endless amounts of fan mail requesting an update on the ladies of Cripple Creek I finally decided to divulge what our laying hens have been up to. In short they are staying warm, laying lots o' eggs and doing great! They have allot of time during the day to socialize in the coop while the outdoor run is closed off to them until the snow melts. At present count we have 16 birds, 4 are the old girls, 12 are this years chicks. Out of that we have been getting between 8-14 eggs per day. Quiche anyone?

Another Denali Sunset

Sunrise 9:40am......Sunset 3:50pm.....beautiful, beautiful light throughout the day...... Is it sunrise or sunset? Hard to tell sometimes. Temps between 0F - 35F.... pretty warm.... very enjoyable temperatures..

Another Denali Sunset.

Denali Sunset

We woke up this morning to the true meaning of an arctic winter.... -35F. Today is a great day to enjoy the relaxing confines of the great indoors doing chores and reading books.

It sounds cold, and it is but beautiful also. The sun rose at 9:50am today and will set at 3:20. It's still a month away from the shortest day with each day getting shorter by about 6 minutes each day. During these shorter days the sun stays low on the horizon providing Alaska with an amazing quality of light most of the day. It's almost like the sun goes right from sunrise straight to sunset without the midday sun.
Who can name the mountain in the background of this photo? Come on now, think... think... Hint: tallest mtn. in AK. This is a photo of Denali taken from our neighborhood yesterday. We can't see it from our house exactly but we do get great glimpses of it while driving through our neighborhood on cold clear days.

Winter Settles In

Temperatures have remained low for a few weeks now. Winter feels like it's finally here to stay. With day light savings switching over recently and the rapid shortening of days we are waking up and getting to work in the dark and leaving work in the dark. Days seem really short but the mid-day sun is now beautiful low angle light if one remembers to get out of a building and enjoy it. Snow..... has fallen and is starting to accumulate a few inches at a time. Right now is the time for us to really savor the cold because soon it will be dropping down to the -40F temperatures and we will become selective about recreating outside.

Our Last Summer Walk

Winter has taunted us with it's elusive coming long enough. We've had some cold, but not much, enough to freeze some lakes but not the normal temps for this time of year. It's been really nice though. With the soil frozen but no snow on the ground it has allowed us to explore areas along our neighborhood trails that we normally wouldn't due to the boggy nature of some of the lower areas. Last weekend Beck and I went on our last snow free walk until Fairbanks thaws out 6 months from now. The walk was spectacular. We found trails we did not know existed although we had walked past them dozens of times. One trail in particular lead us to the top of a nice little wood knob, maybe 100 feet of elevation above the surrounding area, covered in moss and an old forest. The trees on the knob were primarily birch and aspen which really stood out from the surrounding scrawny black spruce forest. The soft moss forest floor made for a really nice spot to lay down and soak it all in.

Shortly after our walk interior Alaska finally got the respectable snowstorm we've been expecting, leaving behind 4-5 inches of snow and cold temperatures to prevent the snow from melting.
This weekend, Halloween weekend, our temperatures finally reached subzero. Oddly enough winter is starting to feel really good. I know you are probably thinking it's nuts to desire subzero temperatures but the air feels really clean and crisp once your body adjust to it (or you go numb from hypothermia or frost bite).

Bubbles

Winter keeps on playing games and taunting us, seemingly hiding just around the corner like a little kid playing hide and seek. Everyone is ready for the snow to show itself and stay so they can start playing on their skis, snow machines and dog sleds. At the same time folks are really happy to have the extra time to get out and go on one last bike ride or hike and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. While there is no real snow on the ground yet the temperatures did finally start dropping to seasonably reasonable temperatures this weekend. I did not really appreciate how much they had droped until Sunday when I drove past Balaine Lake and noticed people gliding around on ice skates. I thought they were nuts at first for skating on such thin ice so I pulled over to watch. After all just two weeks before UAF had a log rolling competition in that very spot. To my surprise the lake had frozen deep and crystal clear. It was as if I had just crossed over to a wintry Alice in Wonderland so I pulled out my camera and started marveling at all the shapes frozen in the ice. These bubble particularly caught my attention. The way they were layered and textured under the ice blew my mind. I have never seen anything like it. I was not the only one. Many folks that day were stopping by to marvel at the newly frozen lake. I'm sure a few of them returned the next day with skates.

Fall Canoe in the Hot Sun

Fall arrived right on time this year in it's normal fashion. Leaves turned brilliant red, orange and yellow colors, frost rested on the cars at night, then snow started to fall. We even had a few inches of snow sticking to the ground for a few days. Winter was on it's way!

We were convinced it was the end of summer. I'm not goofy to the idea that each year temperatures dip down fooling folks into a sense of winter then rise for a brief period before cooling off again. Indian summers aren't an anomaly. But since our last snow record warm temperatures have surprised everyone. This past weekend was so warm and sunny that Becky and I decided to get the canoe back out and go for a float with our good friends Dave and Amy. We could not have asked for a nicer paddle. We knew the weather would be good but we had no idea how good. By mid-day I was roasting and wishing I had brought a baseball hat and sunscreen to hide from the sun.I was talking with a friend that remembers skiing in early October in the early 90's. Not this year..... Who knows, maybe we will get out for another good paddle before the rivers freeze over and we seeing ice fishing huts on the water instead of canoes.

Fairbanks Fall

It is really hard to beat the beauty of a boreal forest fall with all the berries, vibrant colors, cool crisp morning air and the arrival of dark nights so we can see stars again.Need I say more?
Enjoy your fall.