Merry Holidays From Antares!

Christmas has come and gone, and with it the shortest days of the year!  The sun is now slowly, but surely, showing it's self more and more each day.  

Mister Walt, Ernie, Hadley and I were lucky enough to receive many lovely holiday cards this year.  Thanks to everyone for making us feel connected even though we're thousands of miles away!:)  

Walt and I went up to Jersey and Maizura's for Christmas fun again this year.  Good times were had by all... even her cats who enjoyed a special dinner and sleeping on a pillow on a bigger pillow...

See you next year!!

End of the World, or at Least the Warmth...

Well, it's Winter Solstice time again!  Four hours of sunlight, and then twenty long hours of darkness.   And this is a COLD one!

The end times are supposed to be filled with fire and zombies and rising tides, but here in Healy we're all just slowly freezing to death.  It's still hard for me to get used to the fact that when I go outside, even for a MINUTE, I need to be wearing gloves or my hands begin burning and throbbing from the shear chill cold in the air.   Yesterday, after I finished washing dishes, I remembered that I had to plug my car in, and went right out.   My hand nearly froze to the handle of the door as I was closing it!  Gloves, gloves, gloves!

Winter in Alaska has it's many challenges, but the rewards are plentiful as well!  The daily visual splendors keep me in awe as I tediously plug, unplug, warm up and dig out my truck multiple times a day:)

OMG... IT'S HAPPENING, THE END!!!!  Oh, never mind... just old Aurora...

Take a Look, It's Blown Away By Chinook

So, last year I was in awe of the dramatic temperature rise that occurred for a week or so in December.   This year I learned that this is actually a normal yearly occurrence... like, what? 

Chinook Winds!

I'm not sure of the exact science behind it, but something to do with warm winds blowing through and pushing out the cold air.   Over the weekend, the winds of which I speak blew through Healy, causing all of the snow from the trees and tundra to swirl and blow across the land.  The temperature went from -20° to 20° above 0 in a matter of HOURS!  

The Chinook caused not only disarray and unrest across the tundra, but also in my cabin.   Walt and I stayed up past three in the morning rearranging our cabin and playing with the cats who also seemed antsy due to the crazy winds.  Full moons may bring out Werewolves, but Chinooks bring out Werecats!:)    

Most of the frost/snow on branches and such around the cabin blew away, but there was some hold outs... like the frost formed from the heater exhaust.  Are there shoes in there?!?

The locals all say that this is the "coldest" Chinook Wind they can remember as usually it warms up to 50 above 0, and this year it only got up to 25 above.   At any rate, it's nice to be able to go outside in just a light jacket and not have icicles hanging off of my eyelashes and nostrils:) 

Is... is that YOU sun!?!?!?  What are you hiding from?  It's okay to come out from behind the mountains... I swear!   Just take a peek...

Holy Cold Snap!

Yes, Alaska is supposed to be cold... but really... it's COLD.

TodayDec 4

-29^°F

-39^°F

Sunny

CHANCE OF SNOW:

0%

 

WIND:

ENE at 3 mph

Details

WedDec 5

-27^°

-38^°

AM Clouds / PM Sun

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

SE at 1 mph

Details

ThuDec 6

-32^°

-35^°

Sunny

CHANCE OF SNOW:

0%

 

WIND:

Calm

Details

FriDec 7

-8^°

-33^°

Mostly Sunny

CHANCE OF SNOW:

10%

 

WIND:

ESE at 1 mph

Details

SatDec 8

9^°

-7^°

Mostly Sunny

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

SE at 4 mph

Crystal Crazy!

We're at Day 16 of clear, snow-less skies.  It has however been surprisingly calm as well, so the wild winds of Healy haven't blown all the snow away.  All the mounds of snow have grown a layer of ice over their undisturbed masses. There would appear to be fields of crystals for miles...

Every few nights when I would go for a walk, I would make a heart in the snow, and they're all still there even after weeks... winter graffiti!

Day 5...

Day 9...

Day 14...

It's frickin' cold...

Sometimes...

...I just don't even believe I live in such a wondrous place...

Horseshoe Trek 2012

The time of holiday has begun!  Thanksgiving!  Black Friday!  Cyber Monday!  Horseshoe Lake Trek!  

I had company this year... and it wasn't the beavers...

The aforementioned rodents were no where to be seen.   There were however traces of their presence left in footprints across the lake.   Walt and I got to add our tracks along side them.   Walking across a lake hasn't lost it's magic yet:)

We also got to see the sun peek over the hills for a bit as well.  The time is swift approaching when we Healy-ites won't see that bright orb all day long...

The cats have been getting a little bit of cabin fever these days.  Birds!  Bunnies!  Why, oh why are we stuck inside??

Oh well, it's not so bad being Daddy's pillow I guess...

And... FINALLY... my afghan (or my death shroud as Walt calls it) is FINISHED...

Remember this?

A year later...

These hands were made for knitting, and that's just what they'll do, someday these hands will knit something new!:)

                     

And a Night of Moon Doggin'

The ice crystals hanging in the sub-zero air, that created the sun dog,  allowed for an even more rare vision of a moon dog.   

I apologize for the blurry picture, but my fingers didn't function for long in the -25° temperature.   Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sun Doggin' in Healy

And you thought it was all gloomy and dark in Alaska in the winter...

Ya, it's like THREE suns!

What Do You Know... It's Winter!

Well, winter's back! 

Seems like just last week I was winding down at work and closing it all up for the season.   Though now, over a month later, I'm in the very depths of winter!  Temperatures are descending into the negatives, and remaining there for most of the day.  

I went on a trip "Outside" to Portland in early October.   As Aurora and Healy were saying their goodbyes there was minimal snow on the ground that was barely sticking, and temperatures were only down to the 20's in Alaska...

Arriving in Portland, it was a warm and humid 60°.   There was of course plenty of that famous PNW rain however.  It sure is different being wet and warm rather than dry and cold.  I spent most of time in Portland playing pinball and walking all around the colorful, damp and dirty streets.  

After spending so much time surrounded by spruce trees, snow capped mountains and miles and miles of tundra, my eyes had a hard time adjusting to all the concrete, power lines and traffic.  There was still beauty in the reflective glass of buildings, the bright fall colors on the trees lining the streets, and of "alpenglow" on Big Pink (urban version of alpenglow on Denali?:) 

 Outside my old job...

                                                                   PORTLANDIA!
                                         Second largest copper statue, after the Statue of Liberty


I even saw some Portland wildlife!

Now, I'm back home to Healy, and it is surely a winter wonderland!

It snowed so much in a couple of days, the top of this poor little spruce was weighed down with a cap of snow...

In final news for the day, the Denali National Park quarter was released yesterday!  They had the launch party right here in Healy at the community center.   The quarter features of course, Denali and a dall sheep.   The dall sheep is what inspired officials to make Denali a park and preserve oh so many years ago...