The Sun and The Moon

Yesterday, on my birthday, the sun came out for a while. I wandered around the Matanuska Valley practicing my photography skills. It's been a long time since I had a real good camera, the last one being a 35mm Film SLR. Among the best quality of Digital SLRs is the number of shots you can attempt. It cost nothing to try. I took over 100 shots yesterday. Most aren't that good and a few are mediocre. But I'll continue to practice. Here are a couple of the mediocre shots. Notice the airplane in the moon picture. He was on final approach to Wolf Lake Airfield, where I used to park my Taylorcraft. He just barely got into my frame before dropping below the trees.

Double Nickel

Today is my 55th birthday.

"Self Portrait in a Palmer Hay Field At Fifty Five"

Thanksgiving Day

On the way to Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers house a young bull moose dashed across the road in front of me. Fortunately I saw him loitering on the edge of the woods, slowed down and got my camera ready. His path across the road surprised me and I was only able to get one quick shot throught the windshield.

The Sun Came Out

The long AWOL sun came out today so I drove up into Hatcher's Pass and tried to find something to photograph.

The Eagle Has Landed

While checking the front yard for moose I noticed a couple of birds in a tree across the driveway. The one in profile was a raven but the one with his back to me was slightly smaller and had a different body shape. Before I could grab the camera the raven took off and what turned out to be a hawk jumped after him. The hawk made one harassing pass at the ravens head and then they flew off into the woods. But at the far end of the property I noticed an eagle sitting high in a tree watching the other birds. He stayed long enough for me to snap a couple of quick pictures. Today is just as gloomy and the light is flat as it's been all week so the picture is not very good.

Winter Wonderland II

I didn't take any pictures of the stupid snow. First because I had a long tiring week and slept in until 9 a.m instead of my work day 4:30 am. Then I lazed around the house until noon when I finally got out and fired up the snow thrower. Three and a half hours and a sore back later I was in no mood to take pictures of the frakkin snow. Besides in was a gloomy overcast day with no shadows so the pictures would have been damn near monochromatic anyway. Today I went to Anchorage with my girlfriend Kate and her brother to work on a property problem. That was a nightmare but I'll spare you the details. The trip home was similar to my October 24th post. It was snowing - freezing raining all day turning the highway into a skating rink. Predictably there were cars upside down in the ditch and bouncing off each other and the guard rails all the way home. It was another 3 plus hour ride home. It's Alaska! You'd think people would know how to drive in these conditions.

I finally dropped off Kate and her brother and headed home down the twisty country road that leads to TrippingOverMoose Ranch. About a mile from home I watched a Mini-van approach from a side road a couple hundred yards ahead of me. He caught my eye because he was going too fast to stop at the intersection he was headed for. I was right. When he touched his brakes the mini-van turned into a sled did a 200 degree rotation across in front of me and slid backwards off into the ditch across the road coming to rest with the drivers door firmly jammed into a tree. I carefully slowed and pulled into the next driveway about 35 yards beyond the street he had come from. I made my way back to the accident scene on foot to lend assistance. I arrived at the scene no more than 1 minute after the car impacted the tree. There was already another car stopped on the road right at the scene already. That car must have successfully pulled out from the same side road just after I went by. A woman was standing between the 2 cars directing a large group of small children as they climbed out of the car in the ditch and into the car on the road. The ditch diving driver, a man, was still in the drivers seat. I asked, " Is everyone alright?"
The woman, with a Russian accent answered, "Yes, Yes, " and then said something to the driver in Russian.
I said, " I just wanted to make sure everyone was OK!"
She said "Yes, Yes," spoke to the driver motioning to a bag on the front passenger seat. He clambered up and over the passenger seat grabbing the bag and getting into the backseat of the upright car with all of the children. She then got into the front passenger seat, slammed the door and they all drove away, leaving the car, headlights still on, leaning rejectedly into the tree and me standing on the side of the road in the falling snow. I figured they were late for a potluck or he had no drivers license, insurance nor english and damn well did not want to be there when an Alaskan State Trooper Arrived.

I finished my ride home, fixed something for dinner and fell asleep on the couch for awhile. When I woke I stood up and glanced out the front window just in time to see something move in the darkness just to the left of the porch. I quickly killed the interior lights and moved to the kitchen window in time to see a big healthy moose calf stop at the corner of my shed just on the thin edge of the light from the porch light. As I watched her twin stepped out from behind the shed and the two touched noses. Then their mama followed the first one out of the light and the three of them slowly walked down my driveway into the dark.

It's still snowing. Tomorrow more snow removal.

Winter Wonderland

It snowed 8 to 10 inches at TrippingOverMoose Ranch last night. The snow is pretty wet and it's suppposed to be warm tomorrow so clearing the 600 plus feet of driveway is going to be a workout for me and the trusty snowthrower. This being Alaska in November, it was dark when I left this morning and it'll be dark when I get home so I'll try to get pictures tomorrow.

Boo!

My costume? Old guy waiting for retirement!

Happy Halloween! I awoke this morning, and drove to work in the pouring rain. The snow will all be gone by this evening. Well, it'll keep the trick or treaters off the street. Are there trick or treaters any more? The last ones I saw were my niece and nephew about 6 or 7 years ago. Admittedly to get to my house, children have to walk down a long dark driveway through Trippingovermoose Ranch, (btw...cow and calf moose just off my back porch last night.) Also most of the families in my neighborhood are Orthodox Christians that don't celebrate Halloween. So maybe there are still children trick or treating. I buy candy every year, but I end up eating it myself. When my kids were young I tended to take them to friends and relatives, malls and school parties. We didn't do random trick or treating like I did as a child.

A 4 Hour and 45 Minute Commute

This afternoon a 18 wheeler jackknifed just past the Ft Richardson overpass, blocking the one and only road between Anchorage where I work and Wasilla where I live. No one was injured. We left work at 4 pm for what is usually a 1 hour commute. I got home at 8:45 pm. For those who know the area, we had an errand to run on Muldoon Road across from the Fred Meyers. After the errand we attempted to return to the Glenn Hwy via Muldoon. It took 2 and a half hours to move the 3/4 mile back to the Glenn. Then the 3 lanes of five miles an hour traffic crept along to Ft Ricahrdson. That stretch took 45 minutes. At Ft Richardson, right where the wrecked 18 wheeler lay in the ditch the traffic suddenly spead up to normal speed. It turns out the accident had been cleaned up 3 to 4 hours before. We were just experiencing the backlog, it took 6 hours for the traffic to return to normal. We really need another route to Wasilla, but thanks to the press and "The Bridge To Nowhere" the chance of the Knik Arm bridge being bult in my lifetime is nonexistent.

Talkeetna Mountains

Government Peak, taken from my front porch 20 minutes ago.

That Didn't Take Long.

Two inches of snow this morning...

Winter Project

I bought a used motorhome. Twenty five years ago, not fully understanding what the ravages of time would do to my joints and spine I snickered at the old fogies in their motor homes. "Why bother going camping if your if your bringing the house with you," I'd say as hiked into the backcountry and slept in a 2 pound tent with only a 1/4 inch thick piece of foam between me and the tree roots and rocks. Just another example of the ignorance of youth. I can and will sleep in tents, when neccessary, for instance in hunting camp. But when ever I can get the motorhome close enough I will sleep comfortably and snicker at the young kids and thier tiny tents.

The motorhome needs some repairs. It's 29 feet long and "Just" fits into my 36 foot long garage. At my son's suggestion last night I took "before" pictures of all the areas that I will be working on. In the coming weeks you can expect a series of before and after picture as I complete each repair. Won't that be fasinating. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking the pictures before I scraped off all of the skulls, pinup girls, and biker slogans off the windows. The previous owner had a "different" philosophy of aesthetics than I. My aesthetics are over the top U.S.A patriotic symbols. Yes, I realize that some people will find that as objectionable as I found all the skulls, barbed wire and moral anarchy slogans that I removed. Yes it does make me feel good to irritate people who find American Patriotism objectionable. Deal with it!