each day an adventure in alaska: old and the new...

spring....well break up, doesn't always come with stellar photo ops. so i often will scan old pictures and post them on the blog. above is the church on st george island in the pribilofs. the community is loaded with photo ops.
currently it is snowing here. big fluffy, wet flakes. perhaps we will get those last 3 inches we need to make the record. my half of town has already surpassed the record snowfall i'm sure, but they don't do the official measure here, they do it closer to the airport, which means it may be raining there. slackers!

this mama and calf were right on the trail having themselves a lovely rest the other day. i bogged it again today, but only do a partial loop before heading out into the neighborhoods and back down patterson street. the bog is getting mushy and more difficult to walk. each walk for the next several weeks will be an adventure into the unknown. a few years back i was in kincaid and those trails were icy as hell and i'd forgotten my cleats. i was coming downhill and was very focused on my feet and staying upright. when i got to the end of the ice patch i finally looked up, only to see i was now standing right next to a moose. i was quite literally within a foot or two of the thing. my guess is that my bizarre behaviour saved me from a well deserved stomping. that moose just thought, "that human be crazy!!" gave me a look and took off.

my sasquatch footprint photo is getting more attention. the travel channel has contacted me to do a little interview for thier show. of course, i find it pretty sad and funny that of all the pictures i take that i love, the only picture anyone seems interested in is this silly footprint one. life is crazy. being interviewed for a tv show is not a usual experience for me and of course i worry i'll look hideous or sound like an idiot or that as a result i will be inundated with sasquatch related attention. sometimes in life though, i think it's good to do things that make you uncomfortable or nervous. it's good to get out of that comfort zone and take chances. so i've written back and we'll see what happens. will finally send off the note to the writer who is interested. probably should request some sort of fee for the photo use. maybe not from the writer as he was the first who showed interest and he lives in ketchikan. (that was my home once)

find it more likely that if there is a sasquatch it lives in a place more like southeast alaska over anchorage. much easier to go unnoticed down there. i walked right past a few bears that i know were less than 25 feet from me, but the brush is so thick in southeast that it's easy to hide.
of course, so far i'm a fan of sasquatch. if it exists it's never attacked anyone that i'm aware of, they would have gotten a dna sample from the wounds, and sasquatch is obviously extremely neat and tidy. they have never found any fur on the trees where it's been sighted or any poop. surely sasquatch poops. even if i don't see the bear or the moose, i see the poop. so unless sasquatch has some impressive system for dealing with thier poop we should find some one of these days and there will be dna on that.
the photo is what it is. i can't rule out sasquatch. my first guess is bear, but, what the hell, the tv thing could be fun. we can have a cool sasquatch party when it airs.

so these are back to st george island. it really was an amazing place. only about 100 people live there. we ended up meeting the local biologists and there were a few guys out there from the world wildlife federation so it was like having awesome tour guides.

those are fur seals. st paul island advertises as a the place to see the wildlife so it hadn't really occurred to me that st george would also have fur seals and all the birds. i realize that was pretty dense on my part, but we were happy to see so much life on st george. the island is far more beautiful and spectacular than the other island of st paul. there was obviously a little competition between the two islands. i would say if you are headed to the pribilofs, don't miss st george. now this will extend your trip and make it a bit more complicated, but it's so worth it!

the cliffs are just amazing. they also had the larger population of some red footed bird according to the biologists. some sort of gull. i know my lack of birder skills is embarrassing considering i've been to some of the most dreampt of birding locations. i'll try and do better this summer on round island.

everyone had walkie talkie type things and that was mostly how the community communicated. the store will open for a few hours, the plane has landed, the mail is in....stuff like that was just announced.

alot of wind and weather so many of the buildings look a bit rough. this was an old boat.

thought it looked pretty cool.

we had an election this week. the results were quite disappointing to me. our conservative, freak of a mayor will continue on in that role. guess some of the polling places ran low on ballots so there was a good turn out, but bad in that this ballot issue made voting more difficult. i had no issues, walked in, voted and was out in a few minutes. there was also a bill to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, being transgendered or otherwise sexually oriented. a few local religious leaders worked hard on scare tactics to prevent this from passing. it apparently worked. very sad. of course, if you discriminate against people and prevent them from working does this mean you would rather them just go on the government dole. then if you want to further discriminate against them and not allow them housing to rent, well now they can be out of work and homeless. our society already has too many slackers. anyone who wants to work and wants to pay thier rents, hell, let them. i was happy to see a few religious leaders actually come out for this bill, but jerry prevo and his political party...i mean his religion, were full guns ahead to defeat it. it's just sad that there are so many out there who bought into his arguments.

in this world so filled with hate i personally feel that any love should be embraced and celebrated. i'm sure there are some exceptions to that. there are some sick jobs out there who believe love is what they practice when it's not at all, but you get the idea. people who want to love and work and live thier lives...let them. prevo apparently wants to put some garrish, huge cross out at their church by my house here. tacky!! really, jesus wants 200 foot crosses out there, this is what jesus wants him to do with the money people donate to him? i think it would be even bigger...can't remember the demensions the paper had mentioned. it's tacky though i can assure you of that!!

this was the only "diner" in town. they opened a couple times, so we did get some fish and chips i think there. friendly folk and food wasn't bad eiher. i always laugh as no matter how rough the houses look they all seem to have a lovely sattelite dish on them.

there were some cars there, but mostly people use 4 wheelers to get around. i'm sure that changes to snow machines in the winter.

hard to tell but that is a kayak out there. a few of the biologists went out. we were quite jealous as we all would have loved to have joined them. the water was lovely and calm. the next day, however, things changed and those same biologists all put on dry suits and went surfing.

lots of lupine. tons of amazing wildflowers out there. can't wait to see all the wildflowers on round island.

had a trek to the vets this week. all the females of the house had check ups due. that left pogi home alone for a few hours. ms breezy chatterbug cried the whole trip out and blossom is the biggest chicken at the vets. poor girl. she gets so scared! she was so happy when it was all over. such drama! blossom did drop 4 pounds since her last check up! yeah blossom! now ms breezy has been informed of her excess weight! the vet did check to see if ms breezy chatterbug goes by all that name or if they should shorten it. that is her name. she's a cat...you can give pets goofy names.

had a patient, a baby, with a goofy name. luckily just her middle name, but still...what some people do with these names. it's just crazy. the names might be fine if you have a dog or a cat, but i really feel for these poor kids when you see some of the names that people come up with. yikes!!

these are a few more old pictures. this is blossom when she was a puppy. she was maybe 5 months old? her coat didn't come in til her next year. she looked pretty scrappy that first year and i really had no idea how she'd end up looking. i loved my scrappy doodle and she turned out beautiful! her coat is perfect for me.

her first months here were spent with my dog, babyhuey (above). sadly, his kidney failed and he left us when he was just 11 years old. so it was just blossom and i for a bit, then i found rio catalina. these pictures were actually taken in huey's last weeks of life. he taught blossom a little about swimming before he died. below is blossoms first swim at cheney lake.

went to the olive garden with friends the other day. we enjoyed hanging out and catching up. do not go there if you are in any kind of hurry. i would have invited more people, but i'd heard that the wait was bad and the service slow. all true. the food wasn't bad, just took forever to get seated and fed. i'm planning a gathering for tuesday. i'll make pizza crusts and then do a make your own pizza thing and play pool. hopefully, that will be fun. tomorrow i need to try and clean house a bit in prep for party. i'd like to also make a few pizza crusts early, test out and get an idea how much stuff i'll need. it's been awhile since i've done the pizza thing. was fun years ago so looking forward to it again.

few more pictures of the dogs, together again.

hopefully, i can enjoy my week off. last 2 nights of work in the past. pleasantly surprised to discover that last night was holiday pay, good friday!! works for me!

rio says hello to a friend on patterson, keva! she always greets this dog when we pass, even when the dog isn't there. it's quite entertaining.

me with my bunny ears. thanks to my brother jeff and his family for my fun box o goodies for easter!! no girls wardrobe is complete without a good set of bunny ears. of course, hugh hefner never offered me a set from his collection. just one of lifes' disappointments. haha!

moose shedding on the trail. the hair was everywhere.

the pets exhausted after thier trip to the vets.

met up with tanya tuesday for a trek out at prospect heights. beautiful day. the next day i'd planned on meeting amy, but i woke with a migraine. i do get headaches on occasion, but when i get the whole nauseated thing with it, it knocks me out of commission. poor beasts...not walk that day.