Christmas

We were invited to a Christmas Eve Party with some wardies. It was a bit strange as we were the youngest couple, and the only ones without kids, it's still strange to me that I'm in the same "class" as parents. We stayed late talking. Gordon left their kids a Santa Claus note and ate all the cookies. We got home around 3, and Gordon insisted it was already Christmas so we needed to open presents. I relented and we opened our gifts and took turns taking fun pictures with our cool new gifts.

Warmest socks ever - thanks to Alecia

present to myself (those Yak-Trak grippies for shoes)

Gordon and his socks

MORE SOCKS! (I feel a bit like Dumbledore)

Blurry awesome earrings - Thanks again to Alecia

Santa's BIG gift this year - a car emergency kit

Awesome wrist warmers and bracelet - Thanks to Mie

Installed moments after this photo was taken. Love this!

More Momma Mie gifts - Oliphant Skirt and scarf (the scarf has shiney glitterly parts)

Gordon trying his toothbrush

CHOCOLATE!!!!

OOOOOHHHH Yea! Loverly necklaces

Octavious has no idea what to do about this. 

Thanks for all the love this holiday season!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The days have started getting longer again. Sun rises at 11am and sets at 2:30pm. The sun doesn't get high enough over the trees by our place for direct sun light. The world is covered in ice and snow. Luckily we haven't had any accidents. As Gordon is volunteering at the station he tells me how bad the roads are for other folks. It's rather handy. We know where the accidents are and the parts of town to avoid.

Gordon and I are working through the holidays. It gives us a reason to get out of the house. Which is nice. Income is nice too.

We have been invited to a friend's home for Christmas eve dinner. Christmas day will be full of present opening and skyping with family. Traditions we have decided to implement: Big Christmas breakfast, opening presents one at a time with space to play/ use/ put the new present away. Opening sleeping-related present on the eve (this year is slippers :)) Gordon convinced me into letting him cook a duck for dinner. We've made friends of the current missionaries, one elder is from the Philippines, so we're making a Filipino meal on Saturday for him. 

I posted on Google Drive a folder of Alaska Pictures I took this past year with my nice new fun camera. If anyone is interested in printing them off and wants the original photo, just let me know. 

 Picture from Campus. The only place I can see the sun because campus is on a hill with few trees.

The sun peaking though the clouds and above the ice fog. This is about as high as the sun gets.

We have had a warm winter so far with lots of fluffy snow. Some trees are getting really heavy. There is one tree on the country road we live on that is bent over the road. We're just waiting for it to snap.

October!

Honestly between working, school work, and basic survival, I have not have time for a good blog post. So again I find myself scrambling for a quick update. And of course, I don't have my nice camera, as I am just doing this quickly between classes. Luckily I have taken some pictures on my phone

It has snowed here! a good foot in places - with drift. The weather has been nice though, in the 20s. (I say nice because the snow isn't melting to form ice by night, but still warm enough I can make due with just a coat (no heavy gloves, hats, layers, so forth)

Gordon has been finishing up training at the fire station. He will soon be going on calls as a medic with them. He's already on the text message alert system, which makes him excited. Because of something firefighter related (not entirely certain what) Gordon is keeping his face bald. He also shaved his head a couple weeks ago, but that's growing back. 

I am doing a Hogwarts Celebration get-together with some couples we know around Halloween time. 

And I've been making some yummy jalapeno poppers, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

Our tortoise is a bit disappointed that I've stopped bringing in veggies from our garden, and have been buying it instead.

I posted some pictures onto Google+ I'm not sure why it wont let me post them here too, since its all through my google account.

The start of September.

Gordon shaved his face and head last night. I don't have any pictures, but I thought I should share the word.
I cut my hair right before school started. I forgot to take pictures of it (I'm not doing great with remembering to document events in pictures). I was able to take a picture of myself today, just now on my computer. I can say I did nothing with my hair, which is why it looks like this.

 

School has indeed started up. I am taking more biology classes and finishing some general requirements which include economics and native performance appreciation. Overall a fun semester. I am also finished up my summer job ( I do in a couple times a week to help finalize prep for winter). I've also started my school year job at the museum and have jumped right back into full swing.

Gordon has gotten a part time job at the bookstore and just got a second job as a personal trainer (they're putting him through the training). He's putting in his papers for volunteering as an EMT at a local fire station. He had a scare earlier this week when he discovered that this associates program had been split and transformed. The path he was taking now lead to nowhere. Luckily he quickly switched back on track and is getting prerequisites out of the way for entering the paramedic academy.

We're regularly finding frost in the morning on our car as Gordon wakes me up at too-early-o-clock to hit the gym before classes start at 8. The Alaskan birch trees have golden leaves and many plants are undergoing winter reddening. I'll post a slew of nature photos hopefully soon.

I'll also post summer pictures and stories when I have time. unfortunately I seem to be short of that right now.

Days are getting dramatically shorter. The sunrise this morning was at 7:05 (9/12) by the end of September (9/30) the sunrise will be 7:58. Sunset is moving from 8:25 to 7:20.
DURING THE COURSE OF 18 DAYS I WILL HAVE TWO HOURS LESS DAYLIGHT EACH DAY!!!
This trend will of course continue until December 22nd when the sun will be up from 11:00 to 2:30. Only three and a half hours of sunlight. (Most of 'day light' I will be in windowless classrooms, of course)

Story Time: Spiders

Today, while working, I was weeding a part that is heavily flooded. I know, why weed in flooded areas? Well these obnoxious bird vetch plants can survive the waist deep water, and still produce seeds, which, because of the flooding can be transported even farther than normal. So I put on chest waders, and flippers and a little fishing inter-tube we use to float out to islands (usually we can make it there in the waders with the water being chest high. But due to the high flooding here, this island was under waist deep water, in which vetch grows plentifully. As I'm maneuvering around the willows pulling the nasty weeds, I see something on my forehead. And so I flick it off, of course. And I look where I flicked (the lake) and saw a couple leaves floating in the general area, so I assumed it was just a leaf that had gotten stuck on my forehead - or so I was hoping. Until, a moment later I saw a spider bobbing to the surface and quickly making its way to a willow shoot. I just about died knowing I had that HUGE guy on my face. He is the size of a dollar coin, and hairy and UGLY! Now I should mention that I am usually not afraid of spiders. I like them, and usually don't mind them. In this situation I will admit I stared in shock. Realized no one would believe this - so I took a picture. And trying to maintain steady breathing backed away and paddled back to the coast where I then zipped away as quickly as possible. I then texted Gordon that I couldn't go back there, and so here I am now, hours later, sitting in my office instead of enjoying the day because of one very large spider. I am planning on returning to the area.

I think the spider might be a thin legged wolf spider pardosa xerampelina.

Summer! (from work camera)

I know I haven't posted recently. Summer has been exciting and beautiful! At my work, I've had the oportunity to take lots of pictures and identify the organisms there. I've found quite a few interesting things that no body knew about. The most terrifying was a 5 inch leech!

I had the opportunity to watch Boreal Chickadee and Tree Swallow chicks from egg to fledgling in our nest boxes. Here are my favorite pictures of newly hatched chickadees. I love their Mohawks!

I have taken pictures of what butterflies I could (they don't like holding still).

common alpine

Canada tiger swallowtail

arctic skipper

common sulphur

Green Comma

Western tailed blue

Unknown Moth

I've found other insects, namely cool looking spiders, and such.

I have a story behind these next few photos. I started taking pictures of this flowering plant (Chamaedaphne calyculata), then saw a moth (Coranarta macrostigma), I started taking pictures of the moth, and It wasn't until I was looking at the pictures on the computer later that day, that I noticed something strange. Crab spider legs. In fact an entire crab spider (Misumena vatia) had used its coloring to look like a flower, attracting the moth, and now it has caught it. I took a couple more pics of the spider too. So COOL!!!!

Speaking of moths and butterflies; I have taken pictures, and taken some caterpillars home to raise and identify (it's easier to identify adults). All the caterpillars have either hatched parasitic wasps (next blog), or died. But here are pics of them!

These little dark guys grew into this guy below

This guy grew into a wasp. See the little egg behind his head?

Arctia species

I've seen LOTS of spiders! Many aren't easy to take pictures of, even if I wanted to. Here are more cool insects.

Hudsonian Whiteface

Garden orb spider

And of course pictures of bees for Dad :)

There are many types of bumblebees in Alaska. I have not yet learned to identify them. I've seen at least two distinctly different varieties, but I haven't been able to photograph the other type.

This guy was very friendly. He really liked my blue shirt. He wouldn't leave!

I have heard to identify birds by call and by sight. There are over 50 bird species I have learned this summer. Here are a few I've managed to take photos of:

Belted Kingfisher female. I love the spiky hairdo! I'm tempted to do the same with my hair. Mine is getting boring and long.

Mew Gull. These guys dive bomb me when ever I get within 200 feet of a nest. They've hit me with their wings, feet, and poop!

Sharp-shinned Hawk. For work, for bird experience, I spend some time helping at the Bird banding Station. I got to hold and release and see many song birds up close. This guy was an unexpected find.

Spotted Sandpiper. With heavy rains in June, the lake flooded. This guy was enjoying the flooded trails.

more spotted sandpiper enjoying our flooded trails

The old point and shoot camera I use at work, has poor zoom for photographing birds, but I've gotten some good pictures using the old fashioned, take-a-picture-through-my-binoculars!

Through Binos

With cropping! Semipalmated Plover

Semipalmated plover. Isn't he cute! They walk up and down the coast at the lake.

There are many plant species, and many flowering ones. I only have pictures I've taken with the work camera on this post, and only the pictures I took. So here is a limited amount of pictures.

Alpine Milk Vetch

Bane Berry (VERY toxic)

Chiming bells or Blue bells

Non-native choke cherry with bee

Cinquefoil

Dwarf Dogwood

Frigid or Arctic Arnica

Grove Sand-wort

High-bush Cranberry

Tamarack or Larch Tree. This tree is in the pine family, with needles, yet it looses its leaves each fall and grows them again in winter. The needles are soft and flexible and are rather fun to 'pet.'

I know it's not a plant, but these mushrooms are cute!

An invasive plant.

Columbine (planted in a garden)

I have no idea what this plant is. I've been trying to identify it, but so far no results.

Paintbrush. These plants are EVERYWHERE in all of the colors. It makes the place so lovely!

Labrador Tea (yes you can make tea from this plant. It smells really nice)

Lingonberry. Very small plant and flower. These carpet the forest floor in areas.

Prickily Rose. They grow wild everywhere as well. 

more rose

Pyrola variety

And more rose.

This red part of the spruce tree is a gall. Inside that red swelling is some wasp larva or eggs.

more spruce galls

Wild Strawberry. These are a delicious snack as I work :)

Wild for-get-me-not

Wild Iris. Dazzling and majestic.

I have the most amazing work job. I love it. And I've gotten a great Alaskan tan. While I've been trying to be very non-specific about where I work, I want to add these photos of work to prove I have the most awesome summer job.

Whats not to love? Does this not look like paradise?