Spring has Sprung and Other Reflections

Ashfall cleanup continues in Homer, with larger businesses such as Safeway and the college bringing in water trucks, pressure sprayers and sweepers to remove ash from parking lots, while small businesses get out the garden hoses and brooms to whisk away the ash. "Please wipe your feet" signs are more common than mud right now on shop entries.




Meanwhile, Mt. Redoubt continues to steam away day and night, with a lava dome building. I was in Anchor Point today for my daughter's basketball game and got to see Redoubt clearly. Redoubt is not visible from Homer, so we have to drive up the Sterling Highway a ways to gaze at it! We're losing our hypervigilance and are a little calmer now that the ash has come and.....life goes on!



Snow is melting at a fantastic rate. So quickly, in fact, that it overflowed the road near our house creating a nice waterfall, pictured in this video. Unlike the Lower 48, where things keep on getting warmer and warmer, we know that a warm spring day may be about as warm as many summer days will be. Fifty degrees is tanning weather! Get out the bikinis! Who needs Hawaii?!

More Ashfall Reflections

Driving into Homer today, I was on the lookout to see just how much ash they got and what the "hit hard" that some people had said was like. I my nose started itching before I was visibly able to see the ash. There is very little snow past Fritz Creek (mile 8 of East End Road) heading into town, so it already looked like a typical dreary, gray spring day. At about mile 3 of EE Road my nose began to itch and I could see what looked like it might be ash on the side of the road. The more I looked (and the further into Homer I got) the more I saw. Where snowpiles in parking lots were melting, a sludge of ash was created. As cars drove down the road clouds of dust? ash? billowed up behind them. Thirty minutes in town and my throat was sore. A few people were wearing masks, but not many. It wasn't something I could smell or feel, but looking closely I could see the signs, and when walking it was even more obvious (and distasteful, and I'm not a particularly finicky person).

ATM's at banks have gone on the blink because of blowing ash and have been shut down, my hearing aids have been behaving erratically in the past few days (they are "delicate electronic equipment!"), I feel grit on my computer keyboard too often (and that is without ashfall here), cars that were dirty before are even dirtier now. People swap stories about "cleaning up" and "how bad was it at your place?" Aaaaaahhhh....nothing like being an Alaskan right now!!


Up where we're at the snow is melting in the warm spring sunshine and the "old ash" from a week or so ago is being exposed again in strange patches like in the photo above. I keep wanting to ski, ache to ski, but it's just not appealing to ski on ash. I've taken up running again, and I'm thinking this is a good summer not to be in Alaska! Normally I relish the clear, untainted air of sea and mountains, but from what I hear, when the snow melts the ash is blowing all over the place. Someone jokingly told me today that the air quality issues we now have remind him of Los Angeles! I'm shaking my head, but not laughing. Of course, this is "natural causes," and who is going to get angry with the Earth for being "earth"?!

OK, fine, another eruption!

I woke up this morning, looked out the window to see this dark "cloud" moving our way and dashed to the computer to check the AVO website, sure that that dark cloud to the west was ash and not cloud. Sure enough: Redoubt had erupted again and it was blowing our way; no ducking it this time. I ran outside, put the car under the lean-to, ran back in, unplugged and wrapped up the computers and electronics, then waited for the ash to hit. The phone kept ringing, with coaches announcing that all of my daughter's basketball events were cancelled for the day.

The ashfall advisory was till 10 am. At about 10:30 the dark clouds had moved closer but had lightened. The advisory was extended until noon, but I was convinced that we were going to be missed! I could see the darkness heading over Kachemak Bay to the Kenai Mountains, but it wasn't getting any nearer to us. At noon we decided to drive up the road to McNeil Canyon School and go skiing--or at least check the conditions. At McNeil, when we looked very closely at the snow we could see a bit of ash (individual specks), but decided it wasn't bad enough to keep us from our ski. We did a loop, and I shook my head in consternation because on the way back our tracks from 20 minutes before had a dusting of ash collecting in them. The wind was blowing from the north (not the direction of Redoubt), so I wasn't expecting ash to be blowing, and we certainly couldn't smell it or feel it, but it was there.

Our friends who live 5 miles up East End Road got a good coating, and apparently Homer got hit pretty bad, while 15 miles up the Sterling Highway to the north, Anchor Point got a half inch of ash. Right now: the kids just came in from playing outside and it is a beautiful sunny day. One would never know Redoubt just blew from looking out the window. You can bet that I'm counting my blessings today. Now I just hope my hubby makes it back from Anchorage. That's a lot of ash to drive through!

Fallout from an Eruption

Yesterday as my daughter and I were about to head out the door to go running I commented, "Oh, it's snowing." She looked at me with a question in her eyes: "Are you sure?" An hour later I made the same comment and my husband said, "Are you sure it's not ash?" That is what having a volcano in our backyard has done to us: we question whether snow is really snow--at least when it is a light snow like when we had our ashfall last week.

Other fallout:
Dirty cars: the first few days after the ashfall here in Homer every car in sight was dirty, covered with ash. The one local car wash has had an incredible spurt of business as people gradually get over there and get the ash washed off their vehicles. Because the ash is so hard and abrasive (unlike wood ash), it is not recommended that one use a brush; it might scratch the finish or even the windshield. The power sprayer comes in handy for this. Our cars are still so filthy I wouldn't even want to put a picture of them up.

Dirty snow: You know what dirty snow along the edge of the road in the springtime looks like, right? Well, the snow was like that everywhere! Big yuck! Then it finally snowed and covered it up, but now it is melting and exposing the dirty layer again! As much as I love snow, I cannot say how much I want it to melt away so I don't have so much dirty snow around! Of course, it's April 3 and I know the snow will stick to about mid-May unless something bizarre happens. This is all at elevation, where we are; in Homer there is virtually no snow so it already looks like drab spring there, and the ash blows around worse there as well.

Fun stuff cancelled: This past weekend I was supposed to be the skier on a team in the Sea to Ski race (5k run, 7k bike, 5k ski), but it was canceled due to snow conditions (who wants to rip up their impeccably waxed skis??) and health concerns (breathing ash-y air). It ended up being a blustery day and the ash was blowing some, so it was a good call, but still disappointing. Our local ski/boarding slope, Ohlson Mountain, was closed that day for similar reasons, which bummed out my daughter. With the few inches of new snow earlier in the week, the groomers finally got out and groomed the ski trails, but I'm still a little leery. When I snowshoed a few days ago every step broke through the new snow into the ash layer, so looking back on our trail was like looking at a line of dark snow.

Now we're back in watching mode. There have been 18 eruptions so far in the past 2 weeks (it seems like much longer than that), and the volcanic activity at Redoubt is ongoing. Supposedly the radar shows a haze of volcanic ash in the atmosphere over the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage Bowl and Mat-Su Valley. My throat has been sore for the past couple days without any other symptoms, so it makes me wonder what I'm breathing.

When we travel or head into town, we check the AVO website first to see if there has been a recent eruption and which way the wind is blowing (no guarantees that there will be an ashfall even if it is blowing our way). And my "mom" question as my family walks out the door is: "Do you have a mask?"

Staying Busy in Homer

Before moving to Alaska, I was sure Homer had little to offer and was, literally, at the "ends of the earth". Having lived here nearly 2 years now, my view has changed. I still feel like we live at the "ends of the earth," since the road literally ends a few miles past our house, but I have discovered just how much Homer has to offer, and the longer I live here the more amazed I am at the number of opportunities and amount of talent found in this quaint little hamlet.

My daughter's favorite sport is now rock climbing, and Homer boasts 2 public climbing walls (though some private homes are decked out with climbing walls as well, if what I hear is true!). A vibrant community education program offers nearly private lessons with an experienced climber at only $1 per hour long session of climbing, which boggles my mind.

My daughter's second favorite sport is basketball, and though she is in 5th grade, she is on not one, but two different basketball teams! One is offered through the community education program, and the other through a local church. Between practices and games, we have 3-5 days a week accounted for!

My son just joined the Popeyes, the local wrestling team. He has practice 3 days a week, and if we wanted, he could be in a wrestling tournament somewhere in Alaska every single weekend of March and April. As it is, 3 of the next 5 weekends will see us heading up to the Anchorage area. Amazingly, this team for kids ages 5-18, boasts of 60-70 members. Even optional Friday evening practices get at least 25 boys and girls to turn out for open mat time. This past year 4 boys from Voznesenka, one of the Russian schools, went to the state meet, which might help explain that group's enthusiasm for wrestling, and in 2004, Tela O'Donnell, a girl born and raised in Homer, made the U.S. Olympic wrestling team, which contributes to the female interest in the sport here.

Hockey is popular here in Homer, and even the youngest teams (6 year olds!) travel away for weekend tournaments, missing school for the priviledge of competing. A women's league is active here as well.

Ice racing on Beluga Lake in Homer is a perennial favorite for both kids and adults, with built-from-scratch vehicles entertaining the crowds that show up to watch on Sunday afternoons. The ice freezes in November and stays into May, so there is a long season. The first time we went to see it, I was skeptical about whether I would enjoy it (I'm not a big car racing fan), but I was surprised that it was actually fun to watch. If I were a regular I know I would get to know the people and the cars and it would be even more entertaining.

I was amazed when I first found out that there are many kids who take dance lessons in Homer, especially ballet. Alaska--dance?? No way! Yet there are numerous quality productions (The Nutcracker every December; Jazzline in March; Godspell just finished playing this past weekend) featuring young local dancers. These productions also feature outstanding directing, sound, lighting, props, etc. The first time I saw The Nutcracker I couldn't believe the talent was nearly all local--it is a first class production, and they pull it off year after year.

What else to do in Homer? The Homer Soccer Association brings in a coach from the Lower 48 for the summer to run the program, and of course there is a traveling team. Little League and adult softball leagues are active here like everywhere. The Kachemak Nordic Ski Club holds Junior Nordic ski lessons for a couple months January through March and nearly 70 kids show up for that each week. Gymnastics, kayaking, broomball, pilates, yoga, you name it, Homer seems to have it. This list doesn't include all of the artistic groups, painters, writers, poets, photographers, etc. that congregate in Homer, each which warrants a blog all their own.

My fears that Homer was Hicksville, USA with no opportunities for my kids have been laid to rest. In that way it is much like any other place in America: plenty to keep us busy, busy, busy. Part of me yearns for the days when kids didn't have weekend tournaments to constantly be traveling to, and when play meant to go outside and climb trees and explore. Play instead is a sport, and it is competitive. At one point Alaska may have had fewer opportunities than elsewhere, but the influx of talented and ambitious people has led to the creation of developmental programs seeking to maximize children's talents at as young an age as possible.

I'm not complaining; I can hop off this bandwagon as easily as I jumped on. The bottom line is, I am happy these opportunities are available, and it doesn't make us feel exiled to a far planet when there are fun activities for the kids to enjoy. The bottom line: they are having fun!

Ash is Falling!

After the big eruption of Mt. Redoubt this morning, I have been awaiting the ashfall all day, thinking I would be able to tell from my window. Well, it started and I didn't even know it since it is snowing too. I laughed, grabbed my camera and went outside to get these pictures, not realizing that ash is very different from snow. A piece of ash fell into my eye and it has scraped my eyeball. Ouch. My eye still feels a bit gritty, and my computer keyboard is feeling a bit gritty too. And I'm afraid these pictures don't do justice to what this looks like. The one below is of the snow that drips off the eaves of the house and the dark line of ash is more obvious.

Really, it's almost impossible to tell that there is an ashfall going on. The sky is cloudy-looking, like a normal cloudy/foggy day, and not unusually dark. It's only when I look at the ground that the snow is more gray than white, and where my husband's car tracks come in, the contrast is more clear--the white against the gray.

Most school events are canceled for this evening on the Kenai Peninsula and the word is to stay indoors (You don't have to tell me twice. I just learned my lesson!) and drive as little as possible. The ash can rip up a car engine, but supposedly if we put nylons over the air filter it will take care of the problem. I'd rather not chance it.

Mt. Redobut has Erupted (Thanks for Telling Me!)

Photo of Mt. Redoubt on Thursday, March 19, two days before the eruption,
taken from Sterling Highway just south of Ninilchik.

Mt. Redoubt has officially erupted as of last night. The "explosion" that occurred a week ago (Sunday, March 15) has finally been called a "minor eruption." I was grateful that my husband emailed me this morning and told me that Mt. Redoubt had blown; otherwise, I would not have known. Shortly after I found out about the eruption, the electricity went down, and then shortly after the phone line went dead also. This was not looking good. Halfway into Homer I was able to get a cell phone signal and the college had left a message: classes are still being held even though there is no electricity. Hey, flexibility is key here, right?! Come to find out, the electricity was an issue with Bradley Lake Dam across Kachemak Bay and completely unrelated to the volcano (the electricity came back on just before my 10:30 a.m. class), but it certainly added to the suspense! Many of my students didn't even know Redoubt was erupting, and others found out from friends or family in the Lower 48 who were watching the news.

So now we just have the volcano continuing to erupt , though we wouldn't know it to look out our window. Life goes on like usual--besides that "edge" and attentiveness. The windows are covered, electronics wrapped in plastic when not in use, masks and flashlights are handy, extra water stockpiled. According to the AVO volcano watch website (http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php), eruptions could happen at any time and could continue for weeks or months. As of now, "The explosions also destroyed one seismic station near the volcano's summit (RSO), and disrupted telemetry from AVO's obsveration hut." This is annoying; for the past several months the seismograph readings and webcams have become part of my life, like breathing and eating, so it is frustrating not to have these connections to what is going on at Redoubt.

I seriously hope the electricity and phone lines don't go out again, because those are our connections with the rest of the world, and we don't know what's happening if we can't turn on our computer or radio! Meanwhile, home seems like a good place to be!