More snow cave adventures

The meeting room...this room is about 5 ft. high and about 15-18 ft. across (kind of round actually) with the kitchen set off to one side. This is where the youth group comes to get warm and watch movies (yes, they have a generator and have a TV and DVD player!)
My son and daughter and their good friend...trying to stay warm.
More friends in the meeting room. Altogether there are nearly 30 high school students and a few leaders, three I think!
One of my son's buddies trying to hide from the camera
One of my daughter's friends in their cave. My daughter and her three friends, along with a little help from dad and another male friend, dug this big enough for the four of them to sleep warmly last night!
The boy's den...the boys had a little trouble. They dug their cave too high and ended up being able to see daylight and had a leaky roof...so they are moving into the meeting room and sleeping there tonight. The wind chill could be -40 tonight, so they certainly need a warm, leak-proof cave!

SNOW CAVE 2007

The boys urinal in the snow cave! Yuck!
Our Youth Pastor getting ready for the arrival of 25 high school students. Notice the wood braces...hmmm makes you wonder...are they holding up the roof??
The kitchen stocked with nutritious food! LOL
My daughter and her beautiful friends, getting ready to dig their sleeping cave
My son and his best buddies, in the beginning stages of their sleeping cave.
LOTS of work...this is Alaska...10 degrees or less with 20mph winds and notice some of the kids in short sleeves!

Moose on the loose...

These pictures are of a young moose on our drive into Palmer. The moose are really hungry this year due to all the heavy snowfall and they will happily eat any tree in your yard that provides nourishment! They will even eat the bark off the birch trees.

SUN!

Notice the 'glow' of the sun in the upper parts of the trees and the valley!
Here it is! The first SUN to hit our house since Thanksgiving! I know this probably doesn't mean much to those of you who have sun each SUNNY day, but for us, living on the north side of this mountain, this means SO MUCH!

And the thaw begins...

Our driveway...no longer full of snow, coated with ice!
Hope that little Hyundai stays put!

Bird Creek...two different seasons, two different views

Bird Creek last summer
Bird Creek this winter...unbelievable!

Friends and family

Dinner out. MY wonderful husband and our friends
My hubby and our neighbor and friend
My amazing son...he is a little cold standing in this frozen cave
My beautiful daughter admiring the frozen falls
Our wonderful neighbors and friends

The trip home...

The trip home...how about some snow?

Notice the snow is above the car!
The frozen Turnagain Arm! We watched Buluga whales swim up this inlet last summer. What a difference.
There are numerous frozen waterfalls on the way home.

Let the plunging begin...

And the PLUNGING begins!


These are the 'belly floppers'
This man was clearing the snow off his boat while the plunge was going on! I thought it to be a bit ironic!

Seward Polar Bear Festival Weekend

My beautiful daughter at the waterfall.

This waterfall in Seward is just amazing when it is half frozen.


This is a young, Bald Eagle who just wanted to pose for all us of interested in taking his picture!

The dock with everyone waiting for the Polar Bear Plunge to begin!

The rescue divers preparing for the 'plungers'

Moose!

It was the day for moose yesterday, January 15, 2007! While driving I saw 6 moose; 1 cow and calf, 1 cow, 1 bull and 2 cows together. On my return trip I saw three of them again. Once home I grabbed the camera and my husband and we went back to see this large cow, and this cow and calf. We were able to watch them for a long time. They were on the main road to our house. It is always a thrill to see these massive animals and one of the things we really enjoying sharing with our visitors!

Okay! This is 36 hours later. We are now up to 35 above and things (mostly all the snow) are starting to MELT! The roads are getting interesting. Living in Alaska...hmmm

Talk about cold.........

Here is our weather station read out. The third line is the actual temperature this morning...

White stuff...

Because I just can't get over how much 'white stuff' there is around here, I just had to add a few more pictures. This is our fuel oil container. 300 gallons! It is BIG! Notice just how much snow has stuck on top!
This is our back yard. Just incredible.
To top it off...this is our neighbor's house. These are stairs going up to their upper deck. Now this is a LOT of snow!