The Christmas Beauty of Red Dye #40

I know, I know...Christmas is long gone. But I was going through some old pictures today and found these that I forgot to post. I got some good advice from a few people about how to make ice candles (my first attempt), so I wanted to show the results. I had them up and blazing and beautifying the deck around Christmastime, and was excited that they'd be around until April, but then our warm snap came and all my hard work melted away! I was enjoying the brief spell of warm weather while watching little puddles of red and green water form on the deck as my beautiful creations disappeared months before their expiration date! But I took pictures, and while I won't make any more this winter, these will definitely be a Christmas, and winter, tradition from now on.

Finally posted Machu Picchu...

....on our travel blog. I know a couple of friends have really been looking forward to seeing those pics. They're not National Geographic quality, but they're good remembrances of a truly, awe-inspiring place. Next up: Amazon rainforest! Yes, I'm still plugging away. But that's okay:  I'm enjoying doing this slowly. It will be a journal to keep for a lifetime. 20 years from now, I won't remember how long it took me to finish it. But it's getting done, and that's more than I can say about most projects I start and never finish! :)

theperipateticpaxsonites.blogspot.com

Temporary, fleeting bliss!

I am sooooooooo happy!!! After two dreadful, huddling, hibernating, dark weeks of -45F (-43C) and worse!, our temperature today is 30 (-1C) ABOVE zero! It feels so warm! This is a 75+ degree change in temperature. I'm as blissful as a child discovering spring for the first time, and like spring it is! Rain is falling, snow is melting. The deck is wet and sloshy with the snow melting off the trees. We are experiencing the blessed, brief warm breath of a Chinook. A warm wind from the Pacific, and warm it certainly feels on my face: it's astounding! I was curious about the etymology of the word chinook, so just looked it up in wikipedia, and it's a Pacific Northwest Indian word meaning "snow-eater" as it's been known to make snow one foot deep vanish in a day. After a day, or two, or I don't know how many, we'll be sure to be back to normal winter temps, but for now we're exulting in early spring! I was just walking around outside for an hour with only a sweater on, no jacket. How liberating!

The river is now completely open again, but here are some pics from yesterday when the ice broke! It's about six feet from the top level of snow to the water. They're pretty good-sized icebergs!



And a neat little bridge formed over the river, but I'm not going to try walking on it! It's still there today, though starting to droop. All the icebergs are gone. I'm starting to think about kayaking! :)

oh! and a couple of new posts on the travel log, including Cuzco: theperipateticpaxsonites.blogspot.com

Mi luna misteriosa

Here are two shots of lady luna, coming back from a trip to Valdez a few days ago. I just can't seem to do moon shots correctly, meaning the intensity, and brilliance, and uplifting splendor of the rising moon above the winter landscape aren't, in my opinion, adequately felt in the representative photos. But I try. I have much to learn about photography. I gave up using an SLR when I switched to digital, but even when I had the SLR I didn't know how to use it properly.

Why the flurry of blog activity today? Because I'm sick. Dang nasty miserable inconvenient cold. Last week our entire compound was sick, all the mushers and Audie, and I was feeling quite proud of myself that I hadn't caught it. But now it caught up with me, managed to wiggle its way into a momentary lapse in my immune system. I know I wasn't sick with anything (except for a small intestinal parasite in Lima which is unavoidable) the whole year of 2008 and can't remember when before that. So I'm amusing myself with writing....got to get back to my lapsed travel log again!

Freezing our arses off update

About noon now: not too bad.... -5. This feels exceptionally warm after the last few weeks. I swear I'm hearing river ice cracking. We are having some serious ice-encroachment issues going on. Usually our portion of the Gulkana River next to the property never completely freezes. It is constantly fed by 35 degree-or-so spring water that originates from the very deep Summit Lake a few miles to our north. 35 degrees doesn't sound very warm, but it is compared to the air temperature in the middle of winter, so typically there is water flowing year-round here, which is quite unusual. Now, however, the river has disappeared under a layer of ice and there is a most eerie quiet, though if you listen carefully you can still here a low rumbling of a small amount of water under the ice layer. The spring water still must flow, so it has also leached through the soil out to the surrounding land, including our property. This happens a bit every year and is the reason there is a buffer zone between the cabins and the river. However, it's never been this bad before, as this is the worst cold snap Audie can remember in his 10+ years here. 

Here are two pictures from a few days ago, when there was still a small amount of river open:

IF you are a chicken lover...

....then you really must visit this site:

BackyardChickens.com

Those you know me well, or any who read this blog intermittently, will know that I love chickens: raising them, talking about them, pampering them. I was so happy to discover this website recently as it is devoted to those who, in an urban or rural environment, raise anywhere from one chicken to an entire barn full. There are some wonderful, inspiring photos here of creative, architecturally-imaginative coops. Also an extremely active forum, which I plan to make use of, and a learning center where you can learn how to even get to Step One in the raising of chickens.

It is typical for those like myself in a rural location to raise chickens, but what I love are the increasing numbers of people in cities and suburbs who are building small coops in their backyards and welcoming a small number of chickens into their lives. Seattle is one city in particular that has a very active chicken community, and some great backyard coops....apparently, there are coop tours! 

If all of us can take even a small proportion of our food production into our own hands, like vegetable gardening and egg producing, we can go a long way towards reversing the incursion of factory farms and all the destruction, environmentally and socially, that they cause. Raising chickens is so easy. The eggs are so delicious and ten times more nutritious. And chickens are just a hoot to keep around. I'm always surprised at the number of our guests each summer who are enamored with our chickens, take pictures of them, pet them, feed them. We had some guests this last summer who returned after a few years and were so excited to see the chickens again, even remembering some of their names!

Freezing, and writing

Cold-snap update: -46 (-43C) this morning. Moved up to a whopping -42 at 3 pm as I write! A little problem with frozen pipes in the kitchen this morning, that was quickly solved with only a slight risk at burning the house down (the flames were quickly extinguished). Chickens are miserable, though their coop does stay about 30 degrees warmer inside than outside. Sled-dogs are resting, and our little universe is exceptionally quiet as humans, dogs, chickens, and all life hunkers down to wait out the biting cold. 

Oh, so pretty, huh? There is a special strangeness to the beauty of the winter: the small palette of colors (white, brown, green, blue, black); the shadows and stillness; the simplicity. 

Gee, looks like we have plenty of light to go outside and play, right?

Wrong. Same bike ride, photo taken nearly the same spot as the prior picture. But here, through the spruce, you can see the level of the sun, about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, I suspect. Back in the shadows again! I do a walk, or a bike, or a ski, every day, but I usually try to stay in the sun as much as possible. Our house is surrounded by trees, so remains in shadow, hence when I go out, I try to sunbathe. By the way, notice the fat tires on the bike? 

Catching up on beauty sleep during the dark, cold days.

On another note, I have now joined the Facebook phenomenon, though hesitatingly. Actually, I joined a few months ago through the invitation of my friend, Stu, but only got on yesterday to really discover what it is all about. And I'm uncertain of this new medium. A positive is that I've already reconnected with a couple of lost people in my life, which is good. But still....I hesitate. From what I can see, communication is limited to short sentences or extremely short paragraphs, so I wonder about the potential usefulness of keeping in touch with people in this way. I mistrust anything that decreases writing, that limits expression to snappy one-liners. Writing and reading are so constrained in our culture these days. This is one reason why I love and appreciate the blogging world, and have tried to encourage more friends to blog. Perhaps I am completely missing something with this Facebook? I know many people swear by it, and some of my friends are very active in it and seem to love it. But I just don't get it. I'll keep experimenting around with it for a few months, I'll give it a chance, but I'm not hopeful.

My problem is I'm old-fashioned. I still love letters and appreciate them more than an email any day. I was so happy to receive a handwritten letter, in a handmade card, from my friend Bethany this week....what a treat! 

Gin Gin 200

Such a neglected blog these last two weeks! Oh well, no more Holiday Week excuses...I'm back!

Last weekend, our little village of Paxson, normally a sleepy hamlet of less than 20 souls, and even fewer people,  became a bustling center of dogmushing activity as the Gin Gin 200 race, organized by our fellow Paxson resident John Schandelmeier, took place. With about 50 teams signed up, and 10 dogs per team....you can calculate how many canines were in attendance! Along with our long-term musher renters, we also hosted a number of other mushers that weekend, as well as an Anchorage couple who came up for a cross-country skiing weekend. We were fairly busy.  But not as busy as the mushers, who endured some wicked trail conditions, like 50 mph winds and -50 degree temps! Our guests came back with some heart-stopping tails of the trail. Below is a picture of Sebastian Schnuelle, one of our winter-long renters, after the race. Normally our cabins are "pet-free", but we make an exception for exhausted sled-dogs who survived some of the toughest race conditions out there! They needed some well-deserved R&R.