First Baby of the Spring!

While driving through the canyon yesterday, we spotted a mama Dall Sheep with her little lamb!   They were only about 60 feet up the mountain side off the road.

Super cute!

It still amazes me to see new life springing up so soon after the long, long, dark and cold winter.   Truly awesome!

I can't wait for the first baby moose:)

Summer is Here! Well, Spring Anyway!

Breakup has FINALLY come to the land of the midnight sun!  OMG!

This was the latest breakup in the 97 year history of the Nenana Ice Classic contest, where people guess the day and time the tripod placed on the frozen Tanana River will float away.   

May 20th, 2:41 PM

My guess was almost a month early at April 27th, 5:01 PM... so much for an early spring!  A married couple from Kenai won the total jackpot of $318,500.   

Here is a picture from the raising of the tripod on March 3rd...

And here is a screenshot of just moments before the tripod fell on May 20th...

It truly is hard to make wagers with tricky Mother Nature!

With the weather being sunny and warm these past few days, we've made the move to June Creek!   Well... Walt and I are actually house sitting in Healy for a couple of weeks... but the kitties have officially moved in:)

Hadley had a lot of fun today, spending hours just exploring her new home.  She unsuccessfully hunted a vole, and went springing through the tall, dry grass like a cheetah through the Serengeti!

Mostly though, she just rolled around in the gravel that IS NOT SNOW ANYMORE...

Ernie still hates me for having to wrangle him into a carrier and take him from his home.   Hopefully it won't take half a year for him to warm up to me again... *sigh*

Now that the snow is mostly gone, I can't wait for green things to start popping up, and cute little baby animals to wander around!   

Geez, I guess no matter how much I think I've changed, I'm still identified as a damn hippy... *sigh*...

Steward of the Park... Not Voles

A case study of a dead Red Backed Vole... thanks Hadley!

ANYWAY...

I started WORK!

Welcome to my office...

AND... 

NPS... National Park Service... I am a public servant for all that is Denali... Green and Browns 4 Life!:)

 

So... my commute is pretty cool anyway...

P.S. This was a cloudy, overcast, COLD... summer? day

YES... WINTER... STILL... HERE...

This is... so far... the second longest winter since 1939!

Here's the Nenana River as of May 15th, 2013...

AND... here's the Nenana River as of April 24th, 2012...

Break up 2012: April 23rd

Break up 2013: TBA as of May 16th

LONG, LONG WINTER

Next blog brings SPRING... for real!   I swear!

It's Baaaaaaack...

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii,
Garlands of flowers everywhere,
All of the colors of the rainbow,
Maidens with flowers in their hair.

Now...

May Day is Snow Day in Alaska,
Snow and ice everywhere,
All shades of white and grey,
Trees with frost on branches still bare.

*sigh*

Due to the ever lingering winter here, the June Creek move has been postponed for a couple more weeks.  Not only is it kinda miserable living in an unheated cabin in this weather, but it's kinda depressing as well.   I'm having a hard time motivating myself to continue work on the new place.   Who wants to saw wood and hammer nails in driving snow and wind?
Not me.

The nasturtium sprouts look hopefully towards the thin sunlight while wondering what they possibly did wrong in a past life to be planted in Alaska.

Sorry guys!

Ernie concurs with the plants... winter... *bleh*