an afternoon at Independence mine

 i always love the bright red windows out there at Independence Mine.  it was a bit windy out there, the ski trails were pretty blown over and i was bummed i'd forgotten my scarf, but no frostbite...which i guess is better than i can say for my brother in Boston.  chatted with his daughter and then to him for a bit.  Boston is getting their butts kicked with snow dumps this year.  he was out shoveling for like 4 hours and when he pulled off his gloves his hands were apparently blackened.  the color has returned but he still is numb at the tip of his middle finger.  he thought stuff like that only happened on K2 or something.

 woke up to Rio fast asleep and covered with this blanket. it was so cute.  of course, as i tried to sneak off and get the camera she woke up.  still kinda cute though.

 trying to patiently wait for the last of the pictures to load.  sometimes blogger has issues.  seems like sometimes i try to load them repeatedly and then suddenly they all just appear.  so annoying!  will just write and hope they load eventually.  a few just loaded. scary...it just takes off. just missing one picture now i think.  so silly!  all are loaded.  yippee!!

 these are the shoe trees on the way up Hatchers Pass.  no clue what the story is.  guess i could try googling it.  all things are on google.  a few other things on my list to google.  want to get an email written and off to the new Director of Habitat Division.  i'm not fulfilled until i get a form letter back from all these guys. actually have never heard from anyone i've written except in the group letter. i suspect that the only reason i heard from DVL was because he believed he could just ditch Round Island on WARIS.  

 of course at the time that he was trying to ditch Round Island on WARIS we had just opened a bank account with our first donation of $10....so just so just 99, 990 short of the cost we needed.  we've come a ways on increasing our bank account, but we still are nowhere near $100,000.

 as i've said, it's pretty obvious i need to learn how to raise funds...for now my skills seem to be more in the being annoying skill set.

 probably can barely make out my "Walrus Rock" writing in the snow.  really should have brought my colors.  tomorrow....is Portage more frozen now?  there were some photos on facebook of a friend ice skating out there apparently.  doubt it's frozen enough to get back to the glacier yet..anyone know?

 Rio opted to stay home again today.  wind blew much harder in Anchorage last night, but in Palmer it made me nervous a few times.  my element is not the most wind hardy, it's a big empty box and then i have the Yakima on top so that catches the wind as well.  felt like i could go flying today while driving a few times.  had to hold tight to the steering wheel.

 kept Blossom on leash. can be lots of skiers out there. i try not to tick people off and have my dog off leash in places where they are supposed to be on leash . not many folks out there today so i probably could have just taken her off.  it's good for her to walk on leash some days.  a bit of training is never a bad thing for my girl, no matter her age and maturity.

 several families were out taking advantage of the sledding hill they have out there.  i have never stayed at the little huts there, but i really should do that.  looks like fun.

 they do allow dogs...:-)  always a good thing.

 just such a different place in the winter.  beautiful

 old buildings lend themselves to black and whites.  just stuck to the wide angle today.  i get lazy at times.  with the wind blowing it was just easier.

 these big buildings were the boarding houses for the workers...i read the sign.

 on NPR on the drive they were talking about various falling stories.

 just because it seems that time slows down when one falls, it really doesn't.

 also a vet in New York wrote a paper about cats falling from high rises,apparently a fairly common occurrence there. cats fared pretty well if they fell less than like 5 stories or more than 14...?  can't remember the exact floors, but there was a section in the middle where they pretty much died.  the record fall was a cat surviving a fall from like the 40th+ story.  something about at their weight they fall super fast until they get to a point where the wind pressure actually slows them down and then they can get their bearings a bit turn themselves around so feet are down and splay themselves out.

 don't think it's possible for this to work on humans.  not something one should test on their pets or random stray cats either.  they were saying that years ago cats freaked a lot of people out and they did terrible things to them.  one of those things was throwing them from great heights, it probably just made cats seem even freakier that they survived.

 falling into a black hole seemed like a super bad way to go to me.  first you get stretched out until you split in half, then the physicist said you would likely not die right away as it's probable that you would detach at the base of your spine so your legs...but it would take time to bleed out and you would implode from the pressure squeezing you as it stretches you.  nasty.  there is little likelihood that many of us will find ourselves falling into a black hole though..so that is good.

 they had a name for that falling thing we all do right as we start to fall asleep.  can't remember it though . not sure anyone knows why we do this, the one guy they were talking to figured early man slept in trees to stay safe from wild animals.  who knows. that falling feeling is a big part of the novel i began to write.

 haven't worked on my novels for some time.  i really should be less lazy and get some crap done in life.  lack of ambition is a sad thing when you are capable of so much, right?

 the sun was on the road as i walked up but it pretty quickly falls behind the mountain range.

 you can see the operating portion of the mines below.  it's falling apart pretty rapidly.

 love the big doors and the windows though.  they have kept a few buildings in as good of condition as they can and others they have allowed nature to take over.

 about 4 feet of snow on the bridges there.

 usually i hit Gold Mint Trail.  will have to return in the next weeks and walk Gold Mint and Arch Angel.  all good trails.

 Blossom looking thrilled.  she is pretty tired.

 almost good to keep her on a leash just so she doesn't over do it.  she was happy smelling stuff and visiting all the skiers.  there were some down hill skiers that we met up with.  they were pretty stoked to see my cute doodle. i heard them talking about the labradoodle as they skied off.  she's a charmer!!

 this place was bustling at one time, during the gold rush.  now it's a ghost town.

 i'm sure there is still a bit of the gold in them thar hills.

 cool in black and white. love, love, love the reflections!

 what to do tomorrow?  walk...but where?  always a conundrum.  so many options out there.

 a grander view of the windows and doors.

 the snow gets pretty deep when you step off the main ski trails so that limits my photo ops a bit..of course, i could have gotten the zoom out....lazy photographer!!  boo!

 once we'd wandered a bit it was time to head back down the trail to the car.  Blossom about took me off my feet a few times.

 that deep snow can be killer on her joints.

 there are the skier dudes.  Blossom was a bit concerned about those super wide skies at first but she quickly decided to put her concerns aside in order to visit with these happy looking skiers.

 she's very brave!

 we are about 25 signatures away from 7500...it has slowed down a lot this week.  still 7500 is a goodly amount of signatures i think.  gives me a bit more credibility i think going forward and a bit more confidence as well.

 in the distance you can see the terminus of the Matanuska Glacier.  pretty cool.

 was chatting with my niece.  pretty sure she is 10.  anyway, she called me....so sweet.  at some point in the conversation she announced to me that she started her period.  she understands that her body is capable of making babies but she felt she would wait to have any babies until she is at least 21! i totally encouraged this wise decision.  too cute.

 of course, chatting with my brother, he was saying that the funny thing was...he and his partner had just decided they had better sit her down with the books and such and explain everything to her.  this conversation happened the night before her period started.  perfect.  i told him i wished i'd had gay parents as my parents never did any such thing as sit down and explain to me what a period was.  sure i had this flowery pamphlet from the grammar school.  i remember hunkering down in my closet and reading it....i was less than impressed or excited about this trip into womanhood. that pamphlet was not fooling me....becoming a woman was not looking to me like the happy event it tried to say it was.

 short but lovely sunset on the drive home.

 i do recall hearing my mother talking to my brothers at breakfast as i got ready for school one morning.  she was telling them that i was wearing a bra for the first time and admonishing them to not tease me...of course, that was very helpful.  haha! Thanks Mom!! i also remember being in a pool at the Shurtliffs with my brothers and my brother pointing out that i had hair in my armpits.

 the joys of life...! guess i shall try and work on this note to the new Director dude before i crash for the night.

thankful for.... X.  preservation of historical sites.  i have a new appreciation for the work that goes into making something matter to people who probably could care less.  Y.  down jackets and down skhoops..warm things are quite helpful.  our equipment is so much better than what people had years ago.  Z.  snuggly scarves made for you by totally cool friends with mad skills!! Thanks Q!!