Ice and Snow

Yesterday September 18th we had ice in the puddles!  I was up at 5:00 a.m. walking the dogs like all work days.  We had stellar northern lights the last few nights. I heard there was a large magnetic storm thus the great lights.  Talk about being lucky as I can look right out our bedroom window and often watch the lights.  I love seeing them dance and shimmer across the northern night sky.  

This morning the official first sighting of snow for me this year is September 19th.   We have groppel or graupel.

For those of you not familiar with this term here you go:

Graupel

 

(also soft hail), a solid type of atmospheric precipitation in the form of opaque, white, frosted spherical pellets with a diameter of 2–5 mm. Graupel particles, in contrast to snowflakes, do not have a discernible crystalline form. They are created by coagulation processes (seeCOAGULATION OF CLOUD ELEMENTS) as snow crystals pass through clouds containing supercooled drops of water. Upon collision, the drops settle on the crystals and form snowlike pellets. Graupel generally falls when the air temperature is approximately 0°C.

Alaska Fall

First official day of FROST!

As you would imagine Fall starts well before the Fall Equinox here in Alaska.  When you live this far north life is on a different time scale.  Right now it is moose season and most the natives in the village are out hunting a moose.  This makes for a quieter village which I do enjoy.  Fishing for salmon has mellowed out as well and berry picking is slowing down unless you are after cranberries.  The cranberries this year are bountiful, huge, and every where on the tundra.  We have had a frost but only one and the temps are mostly 40ºF at night and still hitting the 50ºF during the day.  We have not taken the full plunge to a serious fall yet.  The tundra is a glow in its fall blanket of yellows, oranges, reds all heading to browns and greys soon.  The fall is fast and quick here as the changes just jump out at you from day to day.

Shopping

Every year before we return to village life and work we have to shop in Anchorage.  This event is not one of my favorite things to do but it is a must!  We have two small stores in the village.  I have to admit they carry a reasonable variety of foods.  No matter what  it is still nice to have a larger selection of food for the year.  We head to Costco and buy a lot of food to ship up north for the school year.

Now that we don't eat wheat we are buying less process foods like cereal, snacks, and what not.  This certainly helps, but no matter what we spend about $2,000 on this shopping trip.  Once all items are bought we then take them back to the motel, pack the goods into totes, zip tie them.  The final stop is the airport post office to mail our food to ourselves.

We do buy cheese and salami meats but those are frozen and we carry them in our bags that will fly with us.  Some salamis don't need to be cool until you open them which is great as they go in the totes.

All I can say is thank you Christian a million times over for being such a great packer/organizer.  I totally fail in this department!

Yarn

Once back in the village my first package was yarn that the Knit 'N Needle  sent up to me from Montana.  I love Harrisville Design yarn it is one of my favorite 100% wool yarns.  They have rich colors and the yarn is full of life!

This yarn will be used with some quivit that I have been given.  This Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

Malabrigo most likely for a hat or felted baby booties.

Blue Sky Suri for linings in mittens, hats, or cuffs.

Once back in the village there have been a few changes.  The radio station now has a fun bright mural on the little addition they built.

We now have these huge rocks lining the beach road to help protect the shore line from erosion from our fall storms.

Work, yeap I am here to work.  August inservice with a bit of knitting, lots of tea, while learning the ins and outs of our new math program.

Tundra mushrooms which have been plentiful this year.  I am not picking these mushrooms.  I just enjoy seeing them popping up through the tundra ground cover.

When we return tot he village the Fireweed is in full bloom and coming to the end of summer.  When the Fireweed reaches the top of the stalk with blooms then summer will be coming to end.

Cotton grass which is always fun to see.  It reminds me of snow and a Jan Brett's book: Trouble With Trolls.

Tundra berries: top photo we have cranberries, the middle photo you can see blueberries, and a pale salmon berry also known as cloud berries in Sweden.  Salmon berries are not my favorite berries.  Finally having a nice hot tea break on the tundra in the rain!  Thus the reason rain gear was made . . . I am not one to wait for a nice day every day is a nice day as long as I can get out!

PDS DK yarn left over from some other projects.  I am knitting up a pair of opposite socks as best I can . . . I know I am going to run out but that was the point.

A Great Raining Day Ride! 

My friend Robin called one morning wanting to know if I would like to ride up to North River Bridge, and then shuttle her dog Kuvi back home.  Well of course I would!  Robin has a packraft and she hauled that up on her back.  This is the point of the packraft it is design for being hauled over the place and when needed you inflate it and paddle.  It is a really cool thing!

Mud---yeap it was muddy and wet ride!

Old cabin for a dry out, tea break, and raft inflating.

This huge bladder is used to inflate the raft really in minutes!

Packraft ready to go!

Where all the trees are in the distance is the river that we left Robin.  Kuvi and I are riding home and the fall colors are just beginning to change.

Tundra and landscape . . . I just love it!

Windmills which help cut electrical costs to the villagers.

Lets say enough!  I agree, Tally! I am caught up with the blog.  I feel like I can now work on my new goal!  Stay off of Facebook and use the nice old fashion blog which is a bit out of style but so am I!

Blog Update: This is going to be a long one . . . get your favorite beverage . . .

I have come to the realization and I have known this for some time but I really enjoy Twitter and my blog far more than FACEBOOK!  Instead of posting stuff directly to the FB I figured out that if I write a post on my blog first this way I will stay off the dread FB!  I also will not let myself just click on "LIKE" I have to write a reply if I am going to add some communication.  Like is not an option for me any more.  I am off my soap box!

 I need to post lots of photos that I wanted to posted and then forgot about.  Once work starts back up I get behind and I am going to try to change that!

This photos should have been posted before the last post but oooops!

Knitting

This summer I knitted five yes five Crowned Jewel Hats.  A friend of mine designed this hat about 10 or so years ago.  I finally got around to knitting this great hat up this summer.  I fell in love with the pattern and of course who doesn't enjoy knitting with Noro Silk Garden.  The two hats at the bottom were knitted with GINA.  The two bottom hats were knit with the same colorway I just reversed skein.  Yarn and pattern can be bought at my very favorite yarn shoppe Knit 'N Needle in Whitefish, Motana.

These hats were knitted for one of my most cherished knitting fans!  My niece and her girls, and husband. 

They are currently working on their land to build a home that will be off the grid.  I am so proud of them and just love their desire to have a different life.  Since they are off the grid wool is rather key we all think and thus the hats.

Once again wonderful yarn that is hand dyed in Whitefish at the Knit' N Needle by a fantastic independent dyer.  This is a super wash yarn.  I use this mostly for gifts and smaller knit items.  I have knitted a sweater as well and everything turns out great!  I highly recommend PDS Yarn.

Tomten #2 that really needs to get off my needles to be sent to one of the little girls above.  This was home in Montana in my hammock.  That is one of my favorite places to knit, read, or rest.

Very Random 

One of my favorite chocolates!  My favorite is the 88% dark chocolate.  Just a little posting on dark chocolate in case anyone is interested in a good dark chocolate of not sure what to get me for a gift!

Sunflowers!  yahoo who doesn't love sunflowers?  the only bummer is I had to leave Montana before they were blooming but a photo is worth a few words!

I stopped eating wheat which means no more beer.  I have become a hard cider lover and this one if you are interested is really very good. 

I miss BBQ-ing once we are back up in Alaska.  Yum! 

Burgers and veggies on the grill . . . ahhh summer time!

Construction

 No summer is complete with some construction around our place.  This is a never ending job!  Remodeling a 100 year old house is a ton of work!

Front porch this project is out with the old and in with the new all of which will be done this fall in theory.  It will be perfect and wonderful in the end.

Our 79 year old carpenter!  This is my FIL and he is an amazing person.  He has pretty much done it all you name it he has done it.

New front walk way was poured and no long straight we have a nice twist to our front door.

All this work is so we can sit on a nice deep front porch and enjoy the days, sunset, sunrise, visit with neighbors, relax, have a coffee or a cold beverage.

A Little Bit of Whitefish

Nice mud graffiti on my morning bike ride this bridge is a must for my early ride no matter what!

A neighbors nice way of taking a care of the dogs and reminding owners to me respectful.

Whitefish Lake with early morning sun.

Ah Huckleberries!

Big Mountain NOT Whitefish Resort!

Knit 'N Needle yarn shoppe and I had a blast helping a wonderful knitter from Ravelry pick out some yarn.

I am so glad I was able to explore this great little tea shop this summer.  Steeps Tea is a treasure!  I will be ordering tea from them online I know. 

I treated myself to this great tea mug as I find having these little treats in rural Alaska is a must.  When you live most of the year in a place you can only get to by plane treats are a must.

Honey, I discovered whipped honey oh so dang yummy!

If you have made it this far you are a real trooper!  Thanks for taking the time to look into my world and I hope you find it relaxing.