Easter Day Ski

After 4 years of amazingly warm winter weather, this winter has been a "real winter" and I have skied more this winter than the past 4 years combined. To top it off, we have the special treat of spring skiing.  With nights below freezing and days above freezing, the temperatures are perfect for "crust skiing"--the glorious activity of just heading out cross-country, off-trail, with perfect snow conditions everywhere! 

Easter Sunday I got out late--about 1:00--so the crust was just starting to get too soft to ski (breaking through the crust) so I had to stick to the trails. But with all the new trails at the McNeil Trail System this year, this is amazing!  The Homer Ski Marathon (25k & 42k) and the Homer Epic (50k, 100k and 150k) races both utilized this trail system this year so grooming has been extensive, winding up, down and around the hills and muskegs. I have always appreciated this little town having 70k plus of impeccably groomed XC ski trails, but with the additional trails offering wide, sweeping panoramas of the Kenai Mountain Range, and a feeling of being on top of the world, the trails at McNeil are now irresistible.  Oh, the portapotty at the school parking lot trail head helps too--also a new feature this year--since in the past it was a "find some bushes" situation.

The Homer Spit is a thin line in Kachemak Bay from the McNeil ski trails

Glorious views from the trails that serpentine higher and higher up the hills

The Easter Day ski was doubly delightful:  no hat, no gloves and no jacket! With temperatures in the mid-40's, it felt balmy, and the stiff breeze was welcomed.  Just a day later, on Monday, serious snow melt had happened and shrubs were started to poke through the snow on the trail. The groomers are likely done for the season, which is always a sad time to admit another ski season is nearly over.

On the same day of the glorious ski at McNeil, the 'bench' looks nearly bare of snow.
The harbor sits in anticipation of another busy season.

We know spring has arrived because the eagles are busily building nests, here, there and everywhere! This one is near the deep water dock off the spit. A high tide swept last year's nest off the metal platform.

Weird Weather the New Norm

It has been four years of above-average winter temperatures in Homer, with winters feeling like spring or fall, with the grays of those seasons more common than the white of winter. This year is the all-time record high temperatures since recording began in the early 1900's. We now know that the poles are warming faster than the equator, and the uncertainty around skiing has become the new norm:  the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club now puts TBA for many events--date and place dependent on snow, and rather than committing themselves to saying when and where it is going to happen, saying it will happen, snow dependent.

I've seen ice flows before--just random places where water seeps out of the ground and creates an icy patch on the trail, but this year, it seems like at the McNeil trails, which are dominated by boggy areas, there were many more ice flows than usual.  The groomers adjusted by just going way out of their way around it, where they could, creating a new groomed trail.

Water flows on the ski trails

More flows

Luckily it is not all like that!

Warming and thawing, which is the new norm in Homer it appears, is wreaking havoc on roads, which are just breaking apart, with giant potholes appearing seemingly overnight. On our road, the ditch has overflowed because of frozen culverts so instead of running under the road the flow is now all over the road, an icy, slushy mess that will continue to get worse till the borough gets out and thaws the culvert.

Temperatures in the 40's is now common, and while some folks like it, it also means that many times the precipitation is coming down when the temperatures are at freezing, creating insanely icy conditions. A few nights ago it was 24 degrees, but drizzling, turning the roads into random slick spots. Oh what fun! 

The Big Shake!

The earthquake that shook Alaska early Tuesday morning was a very large shared event for folks in Homer, who got the double whammy of the quake, along with a tsunami warning. I had the good fortune of sleeping through the whole thing. I awoke Tuesday, turned on my light and wondered why all my dresser drawers were open. I was able to shrug it off, until my husband said, "The pool is closed--we had a big quake last night and school is delayed."  That got me awake quite quickly, and the rest of the day was a series of folks sharing "their experience".  Here's a few slices of experiences.

My husband was barely awake through the quake itself, and he rated it a 6.5 or 7.0 maybe, rather than the 7.9 it was rated at. What woke him up was the slew of texts and phone calls he started getting once the tsunami warning was put out. The high school is one of the "safe places" in Homer, along with the hospital, because it is 300 feet above sea level and just over a mile inland. Somewhere around 50-70 folks in the tsunami evacuation area came into the school (along with a variety of pets such as gerbils, hamsters, etc.), while others just parked in the parking lot. The assistant principal lives in the evacuation area so luckily she was in and unlocked the doors.

A co-worker of mine also lives in town. She said that when the tsunami tower went off it sounded like it was right in her living room. Then emergency vehicles drove up and down the streets sounding alerts to evacuate. Finally, the City of Homer Public Works evacuated their heavy equipment across town to the high school parking lot, since they are located by Beluga Slough and at virtually sea level and would get the brunt of a tsunami. All that was quite noisy, so even if one would want to fall back asleep there was plenty of action to keep one awake!

Another co-worker of mine lives 4 or 5 blocks below the hospital. She said lots of folks were walking up the hill to the hospital, the moose on one side of the street and the people on the other. The birds were going nuts like it was morning, and of course the dogs were adding to the chaos.  Some folks just drove to the top of the ridge that Homer rests on, which is about 1000 feet high.

The tsunami was called off sometime around 3:30 or 4:00, so folks could go home. At that point the school district decided to have a 2-hour delay for Homer schools so folks could get some sleep. Many people had a hard time getting back to sleep after that. We did end up getting a 1.5 to 2 foot tsunami, which would be slightly noticeable from other waves coming in, primarily by it's longer wavelength.

That day, folks were just very tired, and also a bit wound up. As I was getting dinner ready that evening, a series of 4 quakes within a minute shook the house a bit and light fixtures were swaying. Apparently there were dozens of aftershocks. Damage has been minimal. I did find a cracked wall at work, and some folks had things fall off their shelves and break, but for the most part it was not destructive. My husband said it was less scary than the last one last year, which had hard jolts that shook things violently, and which created much more damage even though it was a smaller magnitude.

I'm always a little relieved when we get quakes. I'd rather have the pressure relieved than have it build up. I'm not sure if my logic is solid or that's just wishful thinking, but I'll take that hopefulness!

Hiking Carter Lake

Carter Lake, with a skim of ice on part of it

My husband's first weekend off in three months led us to a Cooper Landing getaway last weekend. The weather was outstanding for hiking: in the 30's and 40's so things were mostly frozen and not mucky from our months of rain, and comfortable for hiking. We hadn't hiked the Carter Lake Trail a few miles south of the Seward Y on the Seward Highway, about 10 miles from Cooper Landing, for many years so we decided to check it out.  It was a good choice; the hour-long uphill trek got us warmed up, but it wasn't so steep we were sweating. A light crust of snow at higher elevations made traction good. We made it to Carter Lake in an hour, though did not press on to Crescent Lake and the Crescent Creek Trail, which may have been possible at this time of year. Many times the trail through is overgrown with grass.  Here's a photo journal of our hike.

Cat tracks in the snow....likely lynx. We saw 3 ptarmigan on the hike up to the lake,
 and saw them again on the way back down

I'm a sucker for pictures of bridges. Maybe because I love what they do for me (dry feet!)

Mid-range trail, right at snow line (the snow quite literally starts at one spot)

The lower trail--below snow-line and looking like fall

Beautiful Harbor

The other evening I was out walking on the spit around the Homer Harbor and was struck by the distinctive lighting and still water. Normally my pictures don't turn out as beautiful as the reality, but these pictures turned out well enough to share. The outdoor lamps almost look like moons at first glance, which adds to the interest of these photos. Somewhere in the picture (second row of boats) is likely the Time Bandit, famous for being seen on the TV show Deadliest Catch.

Alaskan Wildlife

Not all wildlife in Alaska is "wild".  Here's some photos and videos I've gotten in the past couple months of 'wildlife'.

Cute little squirrel hanging out on the railing of the Ship Creek trail in Anchorage

I came out of church in late September and was impressed by the squanking of sandhill cranes going overhead. What impressed me more is that they kept coming...hundreds of them, all heading north. The lady standing next to me was saying that sandhill cranes cannot fly over the water so have to migrate over the shore, so they head north, following the shoreline. It was a treat to witness this, and I was expecting more but that is the only time this fall I have seen sandhill cranes fly over.

We don't normally get bull moose with large racks in our yard, and we definitely do not get bull moose with a cow in the yard, but so it happened last week. The cow took the rosebush out front, and the bull took the raspberry patch. Each was quite systematic about their work of eating them!

Another view of the munching moose:

Harvest Time

This was a strange year for growing, seems to be the consensus among people that notice.

The summer was cool and things seemed not to come at their usual time--like the berries! But then we have been spoiled for two years of exceptionally warm summers and July harvests of berries, so we're not sure if this is normal or late. So to pick blueberries mid-August seemed late; I used to always plan my girls' weekend of berrypicking Labor Day weekend. So mid-August is still early!

June 26th when I returned from Michigan, my apple trees were still blooming. As of yesterday, look at them now!  One hundred apples on my single tree. I thought I needed at least 2 trees to pollinate and when the rabbits took my two other trees and left me a single one I was going to cut it down too. But I left it and now it is producing a delightful crop!

Not sure what type of apples these are, but they are tasty and tart!

Pushki was blooming in July in places.  Lupine was blooming as late as last week--a crop flower that should be done in July. Elderberries were later too, with the cloyingly sweet scent of the blossoms not happening till the end of June, when at times it has happened in late May.

The lawn was going nuts and had to be mowed every five days, if we could squeeze it in between rains. In the garden the broccoli didn't form heads but the cauliflower was huge and early.  In the greenhouse the tomatoes just finally started ripening the last week of August. The parsley is quite happy and growing prolifically. 

The root crops have done nicely. Carrots, potatoes and onions all were average crops, but are still growing. The slugs never arrived in my garden this year, despite the rain, which was a puzzler. No slugs and no wasps meant better raspberry and serviceberry crops since both of them feed on my berries. I'll admit I got tired of picking berries this year--a first in my life I think!--and so invited friends over for a berries, wine 'n' dessert event:  pick berries, then drink wine and eat dessert. It was a hit!

Red and white potatoes contrast nicely with carrots

Summer temperatures were in the 60's almost every day and 50's almost every night. Since mid-August, the temps are now 50's during the day and 40's at night, here on the bench in Homer. Up top they've gotten a nip of frost already. We might have been nipped too--my cucumber plants were a bit droopy in the greenhouse, but I admit to being derelict in my duty and forgot to water for 5 days in September so that could be it also.

With such moderate temperatures I'm not too worried about getting the last of the potatoes and carrots in. I've been harvesting enough to store in the fridge for a week or so. My favorite recipe at the moment is carrots, onions and potatoes cut into chunks, drizzled in olive oil and grated garlic and roasted in the oven for 25 minutes. Yum! I admit to having frozen kale left over from last summer still, so I've been making kale meatballs regularly to use that up. Zucchini keeps producing and I keep giving it away, eating it and freezing it. The kale keeps growing and I keep giving that away as well with my file of favorite kale recipes (kale chips, massaged kale). I thought my lettuce was done but it took off again so I can stop buying it and start eating it out of the garden again.

Our dinner table is a reflection of the garden, and it is a favorite time of year for me to have such a bounty to choose from. The days are getting shorter and the trees are yellow and mountainsides red. I used to miss Midwestern autumn's, but now this is what autumn is to me:  subtle but delightful color plays and the change of lighting. It feels good to be here.