Clouds, Mountains, and Light

It is as clear as squeaky clean glass outside today, except, of course, at the tops of the mountains.  Right at the peaks of the mountains is a line of puffy clouds looking like lace trim on the bodice of a dress.
The water is very calm.  In the very far distance---60 miles----I can see Mt. Augustine, Douglas, Iliamna, and Redoubt, all magnificent volcanoes.  There's a cruise ship docked on the spit, its big white body clearly visible from my 10-mile vantage point.  Every once in awhile I see the sun reflecting off a boat motoring in the bay as though sending signals with a mirror.  The temperature is a very pleasant 70.

It was clear like this a couple days ago too when we ferried across the  bay to Seldovia, a very small town that can only be reached  by plane or boat.  The water was amazing.  It was sparkling so much it would hurt your eyes without sunglasses.  We saw a sea lion, many otters, cormorants, murres, several kinds of ducks, loons, and puffins.  We had a delightful time wandering around the town taking pictures of interesting spots and reveling in the gorgeous weather.

One of the things I love about this place is how much and how fast the weather changes.  Yesterday it was cloudy and somewhat dreary all day.   This actually was good because Nels and Nevin, our friend from home, went river fishing for salmon and trout.  If it's clear when you fish, the fish are more likely to see you and avoid your tempting bait.  They are not dumb.  But lucky for us, it was not clear yesterday; so Nels and Nevin came home with numerous salmon and trout, almost their limit---a good catch for their first attempt at this kind of fishing.  We had a wonderful fresh salmon dinner last night.  From stream to table was only a few hours!

After dinner Kitty, Nevin's wife, and I played cards and watched the weather transform.  It was fascinating.  After every hand of Oh Pshaw we'd look up to see an entire new scene!  Little wispy puffs marching across the front of the mountains, huge blankets of clouds draped over the peaks and part-way down the sides, long cotton-like rolls laid out along the middle of the mountains, fog at the top with the feet of the mountains showing through, fog at the bottom with the peaks jutting through, and eventually, fog everywhere. The more shrouded the mountains became, the closer they looked until eventually we couldn't see them or the water at all.  All this in a couple hours!  It's quite a show and never boring.

The sun was still shining brightly when we all went to bed.  It's been just over a month since the solstice though, and we can already see a big difference in the amount of light at night.  The sun is setting earlier and dark is getting darker.  I'm actually looking forward to the seasons and the long stretches of darkness because it will be such a different experience for us.  I'm eager to see the stars, which I haven't seen since we left home, and the aurora especially.  So what I'm really saying is I'm eager to see points of light in the darkness.  There's a lesson there!

"You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game."
  Psalm 76:4                                                                                                              

Ready For The Day

On the beach around six A.M. the sun is bright, the water calm, the tide high. The birds are busy doing morning callisthenics. A large brown bird, perhaps a cormorant, streaks by as though on a mission, his long neck stretched out like the prow of a ship.  The gulls seem to prefer solo exercises, dipping and swooping alone.  The loons, on the other hand, are far more organized and group-oriented. One might even say, regimented.  Every few seconds there is a flash of white from a line of loons crossing the sky.  Their formations are like ribbons, some long, some short, all of them shimmering as they flap in concert with each other.  Usually they  travel south to north, in which case their white bellies are rhythmically punctuated by black wings flapping. This makes their flight look like a coded signal to those of us stuck on the ground.   When there is a line going north to south, the tilt of their bodies show mostly  black backs with just a hint of white underneath flicking on and off as their wings beat. 

It is not a time for feeding.  Even when the birds are drifting on the water, they don't seem to be that concerned about food.  Every so often a tail  flips up as an individual bird dives for a fish.  But generally, they are either flying or lounging.  It seems as though they're getting ready for the day.  There are no arguments or disagreements.  Eagles are noticeably absent.

Around the end of the spit a stream of boats is going out of the bay  toward open water for another day of fishing.  The boats almost seem eager as they progress quickly.  Nelson is on one of them.  I watch as his boat grows smaller and smaller until it disappears around the end of the island.  In about twelve hours, when the tide is high again, all those boats will reverse their path and come home, hopefully with a big catch.

At my feet is a large log still smoldering from a camp fire last night.  It's sending smoke signals that the breeze is from the southwest. I take a deep breath, whisper a thankful prayer, and head home.  It's going to be a beautiful day!

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.