Weekend wood, wildlife and wonderful fun!

We had a very busy weekend here in Alaska. Much of our weekend was spent cutting wood from a huge pile of downed birch trees on Elmendorf AFB. The deal is that you cut a cord of wood from their downed trees for $20 per cord with a 3 cord limit. Pretty GOOD deal for here in Alaska. So Ralph, Kyle, Kyle's best friend BJ and I spent Saturday and Sunday cutting and hauling wood. One full bed of our truck equals about 1/2 cord so we had to make four trips. It is one hour each way and took us a lot of time cutting because we decided to go ahead and cut the big logs into 14" sections so we were ready to split them and get them stored in the wood shed. This is a huge blessing. We had no idea how were we going to get our wood for next winter with Ralph gone all summer long, so we are VERY thankful for the hard work this weekend. My biceps are sore and Ralph's back is tight, but overall we fared pretty well!


During this hard working weekend, we also enjoyed some amazing wildlife! LOTS of Bald Eagles and a few moose, but our favorite this weekend was a beautiful fox. We also took Saturday night to enjoy our church's production of Uncle Phil's Diner where our drama team transformed our church into a 1956 diner complete with meal, music, and lots of fun activities as you will see in the pictures to come.

Spring as SPRUNG here in Alaska. We hit 60 degrees yesterday for the first time and it was just beautiful! The snow has almost melted and the Sandhill cranes and Canada geese and Trumpeter swans have come back! Soon the Arctic terns will be here. The moose are retreating back up into the mountains some on the search for new buds and berries. The river is pretty well thawed and is very low at this point. Once the warm temps start hitting it will FILL with glacial melt and SALMON!! There are a few people attempting to fish the fishing hole already. Talked to my local resident salmon expert (Richard LOL) and he said we might give it a try about the 10th of May, just before Ralph leaves. Maybe Ralph will catch a King Salmon before his big deployment. That would be really nice. So, enjoy the sights of our weekend and our beautiful Alaska!

Here is a beautiful fox! We got to watch him play and jump and catch little chipmunks. At one point he had 3 in his mouth at one time!
Here he is catching another chipmunk.
He ran and jumped into this bush! Probably chasing prey, but we didn't see him come out with anything in his mouth that time. Great picture huh! I was so pleased to get it.
This is just one part of the wood pile!

Chainsaw repair is always a necessity with our wood cutting. Ralph's chainsaw is older than he is but he keeps it running pretty well. We purchased a new one at Christmas time, used it for 30 minutes Saturday morning before it quit running. Needless to say it went back to the store and Ralph went back to 'Old Faithful'
The wood pile is near the landing area on base. This C-17 landed right over our heads while we were cutting wood.
This is Della (dark red) and Harry. They are owned by a man cutting wood while we were there cutting wood. Della is 15 years old and completely deaf. She was a therapy dog most of her life working with babies and children who had bad experiences with dogs. They were a joy to have near us as we cut our wood.

The break up continues, the bears wake up!

Same river, just a little closer view of the area where the ice break is beginning.

What is left of the snow caves!
A sure sign of spring...empty bird feeders. In fact, they are being put away today because the news says the bears are out of their dens. Ralph also saw the first porcupine of the year and that is supposed to be a sure sign the bears are awake!

Overnight Break up

These photos were taken one day after the photos below. This is the Knik River after a 50 degree day. Soon there should be large blocks of ice breaking up. This is basically melted snow on top of the ice.

Sights of Spring...

The beautiful 'maple leaf' of snow in our mountain.
Three shots of the Knik River. Break up is just starting and I will try to post pictures of this river as it changes from frozen to flooding in early Summer.

Sledding...Alaskan Style!

Now THIS is a sledding hill! Can you see the truck at the bottom of the road? That is where the kids are sliding to! It must be about a mile.
They take the easy way up, by being pulled by our friend driving his truck. The ride up is as much fun as the slide down because our friend swerves back and forth and they run into each other and sometimes get tossed out of their sleds! Then they have to run after their sled because there is NO stopping the truck on the hill! LOL
Just about to the top...
AND.....they're OFF!! What fun!

Tang Soo Do...Alaskan Style!

Testing for Brown Belt at the Do Jang last night! The evening (2.5 hour test) began with the basics.
Fight stance...floor exercises next.
More floor exercises...side kick
My son and his buddy being tested on one-step sparring.
Showing off the 'flying' side kick.

My son is setting up his double breaks. The first break, called 'Jumping Front Kick', required him to kick once, jump and then break the board with the other leg. The board on the right that would be above his head. The second break, called 'Knife Hand' is what is in the picture. He had successful breaks on both boards! Woohoo!

The last picture represents what is called IN NAE (which is Korean for endurance) and is the most difficult part of the test. They are in constant movement which involves sit-up, push-ups, 6 point squat thrusts, jumping jacks and punches. They are pushed over their limits basically and have to keep going. Kyle hit a wall and started shaking and almost couldn't keep going, but pushed through it and did keep going and made it through his test. Monday he will find out if he is a Brown Belt in Tang Soo Do. We believe he did just fine! We are very proud of him and his Tang Soo Do team members! They are over halfway to being Black Belts!

A few additional teams

Following our favorite musher

Here is Matt and his team getting into place
Into place and being interviewed by the press
On your mark...get set...
GO!

There begins Matt's RACE TO NOME! God's speed Matt.

Our Favorite Musher!

Thanks to some dear friends of ours who live in Hawaii and are part of the e-ditarod program on the internet, we have adopted Matt as our favorite musher and who we will be praying for and cheering for this year. Here is Matt (Number 72) talking to our friends in Hawaii on the phone this morning before the start of the race.
Here is Matt getting his dogs hooked up and ready to start!
Some of Matt's beautiful dogs.
Matt's team lined up and ready to begin their run to the starting line.
Matt ran his team a little different than most teams. Most teams had a handler on all their dogs. Matt had a couple of helpers, but basically took the lead and ran his dogs into the starting place.

Interesting people of the 2007 Iditarod!

The K-9 Fairies...(I have no idea, don't ask!)
Some of our Russian neighbors.
These are HATS! The animal is dead, I promise!

The 35th 'Last Great Race'

The dogs of the 2007 Iditarod!

Before the race, we walked up and down 4th avenue looking at the dogs and here was one pretty baby resting in one of the musher's sleds.
Aren't they beautiful!
These two were in one of the dog trailers, waiting for their turn to RUN!

Alaska's Annual Fur Rondy!

Every year in February, Anchorage hosts Fur Rondy! This is a winter carnival with Alaskan winter activities. Supposedly created to help chase away the winter blues, it is a highlight to our February. Last year we watch the dog races. This year my husband and daughter attended the Snow Carving contest and the Dog Weight Pull contest. They had a blast! This is our daughter and one of the snow carvings.
The start of the Dog Weight Pull contest. They have to pull the sled of weight 25 feet, once off the ice slab and on the snow, in 60 seconds.
Here is a beautiful St. Bernard. Yesterday's winner pulled 2800 pounds! The record here in Alaska is 5200 pounds!
My daughter couldn't resist taking a picture of Mordor made out of snow!