Here is Fluffy, named by our 13 year old neighborhood friend Tim. Fluffy is a favorite among everyone, she is calm, loving to all the birds, lets everyone snuggle into her feathers and I bet she will lay the most eggs.

Trip to the cabin

This last weekend we dragged the little boat-boat down to Homer to head to the cabin with Ashley and Scott. Once again we won the jack pot on weather and enjoyed sunshine on the beach. One day while eating a picnic lunch on the beach a little black bear wondered upon us, we were both and he scampered away. Seth saw a Mama bear and her two cubs playing in the grass, lots of eagles, seals following us in the rowboats and about 5 rafts of 40 otters. Besides lots of wildlife we did some great clamming and mussel gathering, looking under rocks became a favorite, Kerry in honor of you I will put up a picture of a mini peanut worm, everyone else- sorry this is one gross unusual creature.

When Seth and I came back we became parents to four chicks, only four of the 20 eggs hatched and from the smell in the incubator it seems that is all we will be getting. This weekend Mom is coming into town and Seth is building a coop, not to mention solstice celebrations and U.S playing against England ( I don't think we have much of a chance.)

Till next time- enjoy your mid June.

June 1st means lots to do.

You'd think with school out things would start to slow down around here, nope. Since our return from Homer over Memorial day I have been planting the garden, trading perennials and planning my booth for the Farmer's market on Saturday. I've been taking classes through the school district and trying to train for tonight's 12K race through downtown.

The weather has finally turned, almost 2 solid weeks of sun has turned to gray but this picture above makes it seem like gray isn't so bad. After Saturday things should quiet down and Seth and I can work on our chicken tractor, t minus 10 days till 20 eggs hatch and we will need a safe place for the flock.

Just some photos from Memorial Day Weekend

Spent Memorial Day across the bay from Homer at a yurt on a beautiful sandy beach in the sun. Watched otters and seals, ate many cookies and enjoyed a little summer freedom. Hope your 3 day weekend was relaxing as well.

New boat- boat

Seth and I bought a little ocean skiff last weekend and took it out yesterday to Whittier on the sunniest day of the year so far. We might have goofed around in the harbor replacing engine parts until we felt safe than headed back to Blackstone bay, deep bay lined with glaciers. We headed past an old boat wreck to the glaciers until the ice bergs got too big than headed to a beach to listen to avalanches high above us and watch the birds on the low tide line. On the way back we watched three humpbacks breach and finally I saw one flap it's tail. A good day had by all, now if this sunburn would calm down.
Hope your weekend was enjoyable.

Spring?

With school wrapping up, races starting and the leafs budding things around W. Harvard are busy! We are having the house painted so this weekend all the windows are covered, not very pleasant. I burned all my starts in the sun so the garden will be a little thin this summer and the triathlon snuck up on me, today! On Friday Seth and I bought a boat, the perfect boat in Seth's eyes so now we are set! Seth has been working on the engine changing oil, setting up an emergency radio ect.

Below is the boat and a picture of my race set-up, gold bike stand, maybe it's beauty will make up for my lack of training time-wise.

Hope your weekend is warm and relaxing.

I'm on a health kick

What's that you say? You love sandwiches, but plain bread is too boring for your refined taste? You'll love KFC's new Double Down! It's bacon and cheese sandwiched between two pieces of fried chicken, ah there is a heaven on earth, it's conveniently located on A and Norther Lights.

The art of cooking with peeps

HAPPY PEEP CONSUMPTION!

http://juliarothman.com
An artist you have seen around, I like everything she makes, wouldn't you like to have this wallpaper to greet you from a long day?

Iditarod

Just the day we left for Spring Break the big Iditarod started in downtown. My personal fav Sebastian Snuelle has not yet arrived, good times.

Spring Break in Washington

A good time was had by all in Washington, all two of us, that makes it unanimous, nice to see a little sunshine. Tales of "The storm of the century" were heard, apparently it really snowed in the Upper One while we were enjoying sun, rock climbing with no hats on and watching the grass green. Gail and Melissa's new house was a real treat as was Gail's cooking, whew, have to come home to fat camp. Staying with M & G and their cats made me realize how lazy Spycat is.

The picture below is of a newt I first spotted on the trail near the Columbia river, very large and slow, and I thought pretty far from any water.

Other pictures are of climbing at Vantage, the feathers and Frenchmen's Coulee, those three might all be the same spot, or different spots for different names, or all different spots and all the wrong names, ah well.

Back home it is sunny non-stop, light till 8:oopm and world class skate skiing. Seth and Caroline surprised me with new skiis and poles, makes a world of difference. Maybe Arctic to Indian this weekend, the ski that really marks the coming of Spring for me, only worth it to make the annual trek through a mountain pass with full sun and lots of good food in this opinion.

Cat has made a beautiful full recovery from her "incident" a little surgery after an epic sounding battle with Stan the neighbor cat, she is quickly using up her vet quota around here. Nick took excellent care of the birds and cat while we were gone, I had no doubt.

Jan, Feb, Maaaarch

The Olympics.

Fantastic skiing.


Wedding of the year which happened to involve my best friend.

Nasty cat fight, resulting in unpleasant baths and surgery.


Now there is trip to Ellensburg, ahhhhh.

Did I mention that this time of year never flies by, 2010 welcome!!!!!

SUNLIGHT in California found

Seth and Bonnie enjoyed their winter break in California and was the sunlight welcome. We spent our first few days in the financial district of San Fran very downtown than to Laguna Beach through beautiful green Salinas Valley, than home via Highway 1 taking a few days to do it.

Seeing a big city was fun, staying on the 29th floor was something, the view was hard to pull yourself away from, though the city with zero dirt (we found kids playing flower pots and felt very, very bad for them.) We hit up the King Tut exhibit and than MOMO - so fun! We saw more famous than I thought possible in one city!!!

Met up with Seth's Uncle Eric and his family to take the boat to Alcatraz, cool place, I refused to go into the solitary confinement rooms.

Laguna Beach was incredible, like a tiny gem suspiciously close to L.A. Seth and Chip surfed and paddle boarded, I soaked up vitamin D and will store it until February.

Highway one was cool, elephant seal colony was great, we stayed to watch one particular family, a male had just rolled over a baby and 2 hours later the mom was looking to take someone else's baby as her own making for lots of fighting.

The amazing pictures of the coast are all from Big Sur, wow, that place was incredible.

Now back to Alaska, we are gaining 3 minutes of light a day.

Rusted Root concert tonight.

Hope your break was lovely and restful.

Skiing, skiing, skiing

This last weekend the hoar frost made for excellent skiing. An entire week of thick fog made us all itchy for sunlight so we headed to the mountains above the fog, where we found sun and good skiing. I snagged a few photos of my new car without looking obsessed, of course now I am outed, not obsessed, just excited how it fits our needs so well. Just need to mount the rocket box for longer trips with more people, 4 people and 2 dogs fit alright, not lovely but safely. Now I count down the days until school ends and we spend another weekend skiing, this weekend resort though. Seth headed out Sunday and found more snow and sun too.

oh Christmas branch, oh Christmas branch

The perfect Christmas tree became obvious to me when I came home yesterday, it was hanging above the driveway. It took us a few minutes to clip it down, set it in a bucket and ta da, decorate, automatic Christmas.

Hatcher's Pass and Thanksgiving

We spent this weekend eating at Grandma's, looking for the perfect car than spent the night with favorite people up in Hatcher's Pass. We skied a few beautiful runs in great snow, a little bushy but great than snuggled up in tiny cabin and froze the next day at avalanche class. The pictures might lead you to think it is around 6/7 at night, ah no, probably around 3:30, getting close to solstice around here, no small thing, and I believe solstice means Scott's birthday ah?