Learning New Things

 Have you ever seen an eagle's nest?  It is huge!  There's an active eagle's nest right in down town Homer, complete with two parents and a chick.  It's awesome and often traffic-stopping.  It's been fun to watch.  See, even eagles know that two parents is best!

All you who live in central Pennsylvania are used to tractors.  They are essential to work on a farm and are used for lots of tasks.  But have you ever seen one used as a boat launch?  Yes, I'm serious----a boat launch!  There's a beach near here where dozens of boats go out to the bay daily.  The boats are launched with the help of big tractors.  It's like a valet service.  With the people on the boat and the boat on the trailer, the tractor hooks up to the trailer and drives onto the beach and into the surf.  The boat slides off the trailer into the water and takes off.  Meanwhile the tractor parks the trailer on the beach where it will be picked up later to reverse the process and bring the boat out of the water.  Slick, right?

So what happens if you have a good-sized pick up truck and decide to do the same thing yourself, sans the tractor?  Then you will probably find yourself sans a truck!  We saw such a situation  a few days ago.  It was quite a scary sight watching the water coming up higher and higher onto that truck.  It was completely stuck about 30ft out in the water.  Just happens the tide was coming in.  Did I mention that the tides are huge here?  Yep, there's 20-25 ft difference twice a day everyday, unless there's a storm.  Then the difference increases!

Fortunately, the tractor driver finally took pity on the truck owner and pulled the truck out of the water.  The tractor operator took over an hour to make the decision to do that though.  Apparently, there was a money dispute between the two men.  

Then there was the horse fiasco in our yard. Those of you who have a lot of "horse knowledge" will be able to picture this easily, I'm sure.  Instead of moose in our yard, we had two escaped horses last night.  Three people showed up to try to corral them.  After much yelling, chasing, shooing, and flapping, one horse was harnessed.

As one of the people was trying to saddle the harnessed horse, however, the other horse decided it was a great time to try making baby horses!  Off fell the saddle and the blanket. Then there was even more yelling, chasing, and shooing, but the flapping turned into wild, frantic flailing at the male horse, with a few curses sprinkled in.  This went on for more than a few minutes.  The male horse was very determined and quite obviously ready!

Finally one person started running through the brush toward home leading the female.  The male horse followed, still bouncing around trying to position himself.  The rest of the party was at the end of the parade.  I could only see flashes of the horses above the brush as they proceeded, but every so often an arm could be seen high in the air, flapping wildly.  Apparently the male horse was still being-----determined!

Now, would I have experienced all this in PA?  Most definitely not!  See how traveling teaches you new things?

This Is Not Pennsylvania!

It took five days, but finally, Friday night at 11, I turned on a light in the living room for the first time since we've been here!  Oh, I had used the lights in other parts of the house, but the living room has a wall of windows.  We never bother to pull the shades down; so there's enough light coming in until about 11 to do whatever you want to do, including reading.  Amazing, huh?  At least now I know I need to buy more powerful light bulbs!  Tomorrow is the solstice.  We intend to go out at 2 in the morning for a walk just to say we did it and to see what it's like outside at that hour.  We will not need flashlights.

There's a store here called Ulmer's.  It's like an old fashioned, expensive WalMart in that they carry a WIDE variety of stuff.  We have been there almost everyday.  It's not just the store of choice; it's the ONLY store you can find most of the dumb stuff you need to establish a household-----everything from wastebaskets to greeting cards to a clam digging auger-like thingy.  It's the place to go.  We're starting to establish relationships with the workers in there!

Then there's our post office.  But wait!  It's a combo deal, Folks!  You not only get a post office, but also a liquor store, a grocery/convenience store, a gas station, AND a bakery/restaurant!  What more could you need when you're in a hurry?  Between Ulmer's and our "post office", we're covered! Here are pictures of our post office/everything else.  Notice the signs and notice the clever drop box on the door inside the entryway.  Yes, that's the entryway!

I imagine I will be learning numerous new skills while we're here, but I already am committed to one-------making a great pizza crust.  To me pizza is the staff of life.  I get withdrawal after about two weeks.  We have found that the farther away from New York/New Jersey/ Pennsylvania you get, the lousier the pizza; so you can imagine what the pizza is like here.  To add to the problem is the price!  I have one word for it-----------YIKES!  So I tracked down some yeast (a dirty word to me in the world of baking), flour, a small package of pepperoni (worth it's weight in gold), and other required ingredients and made my own pizza for the first time in many years.  It was horrible!  But I will have fun continuing to try!

Perhaps you heard about a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in AK a few days ago.  The epicenter was only 90 miles from here.  Funny, we didn't even know it had happened until I got an email from a friend in Kansas wondering about it!  In retrospect, yes, we felt it but obviously not greatly. Apparently, even though it was of a size to do damage, it didn't because it was so deep.  Later in the week we had lunch with an acquaintance who has an amazing house on a hillside with the most beautiful view I've ever seen from a house.  They have earthquake insurance!

Where there are earthquakes there are volcanoes.  Our nearest active ones, Mt. Redoubt and Augustine are about 60 miles away and awesomely beautiful.  Every now and then (like a year ago) there's an eruption.  We can see them from Homer but not our house.  It's exciting to watch plumes of steam rising from those mountains during an eruption.

We have not yet been fishing because Nels wants some professional guidance at first.  He will be in DC all next week so we're waiting until he gets back.  The salmon are running, though, and everyone else here is fishing! This is Alaska, not Pennsylvania. We can't get chicken breasts at the ShopRite but we can get halibut!  Sounds tough, huh?

Reporting From Fox Meadow

It's 43 degrees and raining outside.  Very gray all around except for a thin carpet of grass and the green fingers of spruce pointing to the sky.  The mountains across the bay are completely shrouded.  I have often thought about the reaction of first settlers when they arrive at such a  spot as this---- how their breath was probably taken away when, after seeing nothing but gray, the clouds lifted and there before them was a knock-your-socks-off scene.  I think God planned that the weather here should be fickle and sometimes frustrating so that the scenery is REALLY appreciated when it emerges.

We have been in our new space here in Homer for two days now, schlepping boxes and suitcases from car to house, trying to find the best place to store everything, doing a record-breaking grocery shopping, opening a bank account, visiting gas and electric service centers.  You get the picture.  It's been more than ten years since we have moved, but the process comes back like riding a bicycle.  As of today Nels and I have been married 43 years and have moved 14 times!

We are by no means settled but are working at it with something a bit less than vigor.  You'd be surprised how exhausting it is to drive 5,000 miles!  The house is great.  It has everything we need and more, and it is very attractive.  The weather has been typical for June here, as I understand----very cool, overcast, sometimes rainy.  The temperatures have been mostly in the 50's and the clouds heavy during the day.  But late in the day they start lifting slowly to reveal more and more of the mountains  so that by evening they are fully visible.  There is still lots of snow on them.

Of course the evening is very looooonnnngg here.  It's the most uncanny thing to be reading at 11:00 PM with the window shades up and no lights on in the house.  Suddenly you realize how late it is and that you should be going to bed, but the bed-time cues are absent.  Waking up through the night is confusing.  You look at the clock and it says 2:00 but there's light seeping in around the window shades.  We are at 59 1/2 degrees north latitude here, whereas Pennsylvania is at 41.  This takes some time to get used to, but we haven't had a hard time sleeping.

Yesterday we went into town to do errands.  Grocery shopping was an adventure.  There's one main grocery store---ShopRite.  We spent several hours there and thank heaven Nels went with me as I was really overwhelmed by all we needed to get and sticker shock.  Some of the prices were not bad; most were shocking.  We knew that's how it would be, but experiencing it was an order of magnitude more intense.

Then there was the bank experience.  The clerk asked us our mailing address which we gave.  Then she wanted a "physical" address, which we didn't know.  She said that was ok, just give her an approximate!!  So we said ten miles out East End Road, and she was satisfied!  I have no idea what that was about.

So far we haven't been out much but are about ready to change that.  The people we have had contact with have been very friendly and nice.  We really look forward to more activity this weekend and going to church.  The compound here has our house and three smaller cabin duplexes, most of which are rented.  We have dogs of all sizes and colors around the property belonging to the cabin residents.  Alaskans love their coffee, ice cream and dogs!

Every morning we look for moose around the property but haven't seen any yet.  We'll keep watching.  It's not hard to stare at the scenery here.

Last Leg

I am sitting in a 108 year old hotel looking out the window at yet more amazing mountains with lots of snow on top.  This is Haines, AK.  The town is about 2,000 people strong and 1,990 of them work at fishing or in gift shops!  It's a charming little place.  There used to be a fort here and the hotel is where the commander lived. 

Today has been a day of rest for us.  We got off the boat (ha ha) around 9:30 this morning, did a little exploring, and then took naps, or in my case, tried to nap.  I hate sleeping in a situation like this because I'm afraid I'll miss something.  :)

The trip on the ferry was great.  It was a large ferry and so, had many amenities------observation room, game room, bar, cafeteria, but not internet or TV.  We had a "state room" which was a way of saying VERY tiny room with bunk beds and a closet-sized bathroom.  The room was so small that you had to back up to turn around, and if you felt the ship sway while you were in the
 bathroom, there was no reason to worry.  It was way too small for anyone to fall down!

No matter about all this.  There was such incredible scenery to watch out on the many decks that  in the "state room" was not where you wanted to be.  Of course it was rather cold and windy on the decks.  The temperatures during the day were in the 50's but the wind took care of any feeling of warmth .

Tomorrow we head out early to Tok (pronounced with a long "O").  We have been told to watch out for moose and bear.  It's a two lane road through  more than 400 miles of very remote area.  Can't wait!  We are both enjoying this trip so much.  It's a real gift to be able to do this, and we are grateful.

A couple days ago Nels found a coin on the ground.  I commented to him that he's really good at that, and then he told me this story.

It seems there was a young boy who was good at finding pennies on the ground.  He was so skilled at spotting them that he purposed to always be looking for them so he could save them.  By the end of his life he had collected $17.94, but he had spent his life looking down and had missed all things seen when looking up.

Nelson and I spent the last few weeks literally looking up at the glories of nature.  We have spent the last 38 years looking up symbolically.  And that, my friends, is the only reason that we will be celebrating our 43d wedding anniversary right at the time we move into our Homer house.  I highly recommend "looking up".  Sometimes dreams come true.  Sometimes they don't.  But God is good either way.