unusual precipitation... AGH!

Record breaking snowfall for the month of November, starting Nov. 12 and turning to rain on the 28th. Sure, I live in Alaska and expect snow but it's been 16 days, barely over 2 weeks and we have had over 9 feet of snow. Seriously.
This is when I could actually see that street light and that house from my door. About a week ago. This is today at about 8 a.m. when another 18 inches had fallen over night
Both vehicles were cleared of snow when we went to bed. Behind the truck (blob on the right) is the snowbank that blocks the view in the first picture... it's been built by a back hoe so it's rock solid mountaineering type snow now.

This roof top snow removal has happened 3 times on the flat part of the roof. It's crazy and exciting all at once, we have doubled or tripled the usual November snowfall in 16 days! But I'm a little tired of digging.

A couple of things...

I'm going to go backward a little because the big news is the weather. Huh. Must be November in Alaska! This isn't "that" storm, the one that whipped the west coast of the state.
That storm was essentially in the Dakotas and I live in Tennessee. This storm is sort of the little brother of that storm, all showing off and fluffy but not as dangerous as the one they suffered. We are getting loads of snow, but we don't have the Bering sea trying to eat our houses.

Any way for the first time since I've been in Haines, the state has deemed the highway between here and the rest of the world "undriveable" I've heard them call it difficult, I've heard them say "fair" driving conditions include ice, snow, freezing rain, black ice and drifting snow... but it's a drive fail today.
This is the usual view out my window... I can't take that picture this morning because the snow on the car is blocking the way!
So this is at an angle to that view, car on the left woodshed on the right... It is beautiful out there but I am glad I'm not trapped out the road today! In the summer I want to live at 26 mile, today I'm happy to live at 1 mile.

Going back in time:
Bull kelp collected by Capt. Norman Hughes of the fishing vessel Chilkat. Turned into:
Pickles! Dill and bread and butter. I never knew sweet pickle coloring comes from Turmeric. It was fun, but my pot isn't tall enough to boil the big jars so they're raw and crunchy... the little jars are perfect, I have a new canning obsession.

When you don't post very often...

You end up with a mash-up of ideas in one post...

Today: a roller coaster day. Snow! but no dog to romp in it...ok, I'll walk to town just for fun. WHAM! don't need to fall again this year, I do a serious crash once a year. Jeezus, I think I was airborne 3 feet of the ground the second time I slipped!

Got most of the way to town and the guy drove past...then turned around to pick me up. We rode over to get coffee and chat with Sarah J. (If you're from here and reading this, please support her, it's the only way we'll keep her little coffee place open). Then we went to a friend's apartment to... change a light bulb??? Does anyone else here get really annoyed when female friends play damsel in distress a little too often? She didn't even know where the switch was for the light, so we didn't know if it was the bulb or... Swallowing a big batch of feminism here.

Stopped on the way home at Olerud's meat and grocery store (again if you live here, they are getting some fine produce there, support!) where I got to gab with a friend (who grumbled about the damsel thing too) and I realized that Faith T. is working there. When I first met Faith, she had a chemo port in her chest and no hair... now she's got a job and a lot of lovely curly hair!!

Painting wee pictures wasn't working, beading little trees is fine and dandy. A roller coaster day.

The missing photos

Here's the current flock of birds, a few with long necks but mostly the short chicken shaped variety. Most of them have party hats unless they were just too cute with out hats. Every year, they crack me up more, silly birds.
...and the cat doing her best to be pet of the month. She's doing a commendable job too... cute when it's needed, haughty when her vastness is insulted.

The cat is doing her best

To take the place of the finest mad dog ever...and she's doing a pretty good job. I dog sat a border collie mix for a few days and the cat growled and hissed it into trembling terror, the old dog was a fierce fighter.

Well crap. Blogger won't upload the cat picture, so I assume it won't let you see the flock of felted birds either.

Life is tumbling towards winter here, Norman brought me more wood so my stove is happily blazing away even on "not so cold" days. The garden is under a load of seaweed and bulbs are planted. I put bulbs and strawberry plants all over the dogs grave.

Market Moments were a short lived blog feature a few years ago, now bookstore moments come to mind. I was receiving an order of books from our usual distributor last week when I came across something called "Wishes and Stitches". The author's name looked familiar... Rachael Herron. I bought it right away, she writes the blog Yarn a gogo. Check it out, she's very friendly and has a striped cat you can enjoy since blogger won't let me show you another Biscuit photo.

Rest in Peace, Dear Friend

She's gone to that great field in the sky where she can pounce on voles and dance by the light of the moon. Love and laughter old dog, thanks for sharing your life with me.

It's that time of year again. There's snow creeping (running!) down the sides of the mountains and the leaves are falling. The last cruise ship cancelled their docking due to bad weather in the gulf, they were trapped in Seward by a storm. The local news has a running tally of moose harvested in the fall hunt. 12 with one illegal animal killed and unceremoniously dumped in the Fish and Game parking lot.

...and it's time to switch from summer beading to fall/winter felt birdies! The new model is fatter and shorter than the last years bird. The blue dude above is a last year bird, I haven't taken a picture of one of the more stout version.

It's been raining like mad, land sliding and rivers flooding type rain. The garden went from zucchini over load imminent to rot and mold in less than a week. I hope it turns to snow before November because dark and rain is just not nice. To put it mildly.

drive to the rest of Alaska

Happy Duck (seen early spring in Haines at the annual Norman Hughes Birthday Bash/Aloha Party)


Happy Duck and I took a little trip to Anchorage this past week. That involves a drive through Canada, but first a duck needs some clothes. So I knitted him a little sweater. Happy Duck became sweater duck with a little sock yarn and some careful tailoring. Wee little wings and a big belly.



First thing is making it to the summit of the pass... Sweater Duck is posing by the lower right side of the sign, glad to be wearing his new gear.


It's summer so there's a lot of construction on the way to the rest of Alaska, we stopped to wait for pilot cars at least twice, maybe 3 times.

The 3rd time, I drew the picture for a little variety...I'll find that and add it in, sort of like the new pie picture down below in the other post.

Baking a pie, want some?

The cherry tree is dripping with cherries, birds are gleefully eating all the fruit and the nosy neighbors are again suggesting bears will come attack the tree. They're warning me about a bear that was in the neighborhood 4 years ago...
It's a pie cherry tree but some of them are pick off the tree and eat them sweet! So... of course I decided rather than bead a necklace I'd make my first cherry pie with my first real (not mom's hippy cheater recipe) pie crust.

I've been buying and swapping and collecting cookbooks lately, bread books and classic books and crock pot books and healthy books and potluck books. This town is mad for potlucks. I looked in all the logical places including the pies and tarts book for a recipe for fresh cherry pie filling. Yeah, I know it's that easy... but you'd think the beginner book would at least mention how to make really easy cherry pie filling. Nope. Internets.



Cherry picking helper was way more useful than the multiple pretty pictures cookbooks. Nothing like a cat that doesn't mind the rain.





edited to add the pie, long gone now but oh so delicious! After the road trip (above) the birds had eaten most of the cherries so this pie is a one-off for 2011.

summmmmer

That's a sweet pea flower in one part of the garden... I'm thinking the whole "mixed" package is pink unless pink blooms before all the others. Oh well, I like pink. pink pink pink.

The 3rd cord of wood is languishing in the driveway... it's hot out! Look at that thermometer, I mean really it's all the way above ... ok, so it's not nearly as dreadfully hot as all that. Nothing like what they're suffering in the midwest and the way east. It's only approaching 80 in really sheltered areas like right in front of my woodshed. BUT. I can't stack wood above 60 degrees, it's in my contract.
That is pure compost geekery! I stuck my meat thermometer in the pile... nearly 150 degrees of composting goodness. I have been getting coffee grounds and lettuce from the job (see below) that I am probably going to quit soon. Is it wrong to keep a job for the composts' sake? (yes)

Got wood, got jobs, got summer... need more time? I think I need to quit the secondary job so I have time to paint the house (again, some more) make art for the fall fairs, make beadwork for Extreme Dreams (even though they're charging a higher consignment rate this year) and most importantly so I don't work with those bitchy girlz any more.