EE 2

That is the error message that a toyo stove shows when it's had a "mis ignition". Why do these thing wait until the first real cold snap?

Wood stove is blazing, waiting for daylight around 8:30 to go dip the oil tank. I had a full tank last spring and the stove burns about a gallon a day when it's burning a lot. That suggests to me that there's still fuel in the tank... that would not be a good thing. That would mean the solution is more difficult and more expensive.
Burn baby burn, it's all up to you right now!

Hours later... 15 gallons diesel in tank.

Hiked out to Norman's property to get into the v.w. van that stores "lots" of clean fuel jugs. No go, door to van wasn't budging even with some vigorous hammering with my trusty rubber mallet. So I got the other not so clean jug out of his storage container on the other side of the property... awfully glad the snow is frozen enough for surface scampering.

Next to the diesel store to buy two more jugs (total of 3 at 5 gallons each) and then to the hardware store to buy a funnel because the new spouts on the new jugs are next to impossible to use mid winter with only two mitten covered hands.

Woodie woodstove kept it plenty warm in here, the oil stove doesn't need to kick on yet.

I am really glad to live in town with 3 different ways to heat my home, this could have been pure hell instead of an annoying inconvenience!

Gwenn Seemel, portrait artist

"Non-folk contemporary art tends to get a little convoluted and inbred. These artists choose to overlook the larger community and focus instead on peer acceptance. They make art for other artists or for a creative intelligentsia, effectively shutting out the average person."

This woman has had me dancing all over her blog reading and learning, what a great way to spend a soggy Sunday!

new stuff!

Trying to get a jump on next summers gallery sales by starting a load of new cuffs... and maybe even finishing a few!

Trying to photograph black beads on black fabric with a shiny background is silly, so I put the birds on my beading mat to see if it doesn't look better. I like the retro look of the old wood door back ground but the mat is better, really.

Both kinds of cuffs seem to sell pretty well, abstract gemstones (with pearls of course) and pictures of birds and flowers. It's a very good thing because doing one or the other all the time would be mind bending. Not a lot of bright colors in the rocks and pearls designs or in the big black birds. Not a lot of glitz in the flowers. Balance and all that rot.

I have noticed a lot of blogs lately that are like anthologies or the Utne Reader. Collections of other people's works and examples of inspiration. Many are just a picture with a link back to where that came from...and that might be another photo of the same thing with a link to somewhere else. Like passing around flash cards or something, interesting.

It is NOT a resolution, sheesh.

It's keeping a good attitude for the winter months. Starting with the 10 days of sun salutations at Ekhart Yoga. I'll be doing more than one a day, but it's the daily habit I want to keep up. I get stiff and sore in my upper back and shoulders shoveling snow and moving firewood from here to there to here to there.

I'll be getting my teeth-flossing habit restarted too. It really works to prevent "that" lecture from a dental hygienist and the one we have here is fierce. Oh and it's good for the teeth and gums.

Walking with out the dog sucks and is even worse when it's a sideways slush storm day so that will be a weather dependent git through the winter habit.

The return of Snowzilla. Snowmageddon II.

or how one small bag of sand made me giggle and laugh and scream with joy.

Yup, it's back at about an inch an hour. The flakes are falling so thick and fast I actually choked on one when I took a breath, little f-ers. The road wasn't plowed this morning when I tried to get back in to the driveway so the car got high centered on the berm as I drove in. So I dug and shoveled and... spun the tires making it worse. Then I shoveled the berm out of the way so I could back up a little and... spun the tires making it worse.

Not enough ashes left in the wood stove to make a good path of traction. Spin spin spin.

Looking out the window an hour later, I couldn't stand it so I went out to at least re shovel what I had already cleared. Then... *pop* on comes that lightbulb! There was a bag of sand in that unused dog house up there under that great big tree.... through that waist deep snow and, YES!! 50 pounds of sand. And the angels did sing and there was much rejoicing, at least in my head.

Shovel shovel, sand sand spin spin shovelsssssss sand.... Car is in its spot, the giant back hoe came by and pushed the berm away and the angels in my head sound a bit like Jimmy Buffet.

Start your new year with some happy snoopy dancing!

potential t-shirt art

Dorking around with the drawing tablet and software. Doodles get multiplied and become mandalas through the power of pixels.

Bamboo Tablet

Just got my Christmas gift from me in the mail... a Bamboo pen and Tablet set. I wish Dad were here to see this thing! Under 200 bucks and it seems like just the thing for drawing on the computer... even going through the tutorial, I'm able to draw with the pressure sensitive pen 100% better than with a mouse. Oh my!

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.