Iditarod! Lets get mushing!

These photos are from yesterday.  I was down on the beach and if you look at some of the previous posts you will see photos of our winter storms.  This is what the beach looks like now.  It is covered in sea ice that was pushed up from our storm surges.  It varies in depth from 5-8 feet thick.  Norton Sound should be covered in this sea ice but it has been warm with several storm surges from the west this winter.

 Massive chunks of sea ice which shows just how thick this ice can be!

I am hoping to get the fat tire bike down here on the low tide and buss up the beach.  There is this sandy stretch for as far as you can see heading north!  Normally there would not be open water!

On Thursday of this week, this was all under water.  Once again a storm surge from the west pushed water up the river and caused massive overflow.  This is the Iditarod's checkpoint in Unalakleet. I post photos of this as we get closer to the 1st racers arrival.  I biked down to check the slough for water and whether or not we could have ski practice over on the Dragon's Back.

This photo shows the area that was under water on Thursday.  The water drained off overnight and yesterday (Friday) it was fine to ski, bike, or snowmachine across. 

Spring Sea Ice

Spring sea ice is a pretty interesting thing!  As I write, the sea ice is 4.5 miles out from the beach.  The sea ice is 3.5 feet thick.  I know this as one of our students was out the other night with his dad setting a crab pot.  They drove out onto the ice on their snowmachine with a sled.  The sled is a large plastic workhorse used for hauling firewood, caribou, crab pots, and gear.  Arctic used a chain saw to cut a huge hole to set their crab pot and thus the report on the sea ice.

Last week, one of our ski families dropped off two brown king crabs for us as a thank you!  This is a normal thing out here to give thanks with food from the land. Always answer the door here!  More time than not, there is food: crab, salmon, trout, moose, or caribou waiting for us!

Brown king crab on the smaller size but so yummy no matter what!

After school today I dashed down to the beach for the dogs to do the dog thing.  Here are just a few photos of the beach and sea ice.  The water on top of the ice is just that overflow being pushed up along the edge and through the cracks.  I hope these photos give a feel for the magnitude of the sea ice across North Sound.

Looking north towards Blueberry Hills

Sea ice as far as you can see

Looking north

Snow and Ice on the beach

Looking northwest

Looking southeast across the mouth of the river.

The beach and sea ice about 50 yards from our front door.

December Happenings (Part I)

December is a busy time for just about everyone I would say!  Either you work retail, or you need to put on a Christmas event for family or friends or gosh the list goes on . . .  I feel the need to bring you all up to date on my December.  It is time to wrap up the year and look forward to 2017!

Early December I spent being miserable as there was no real snow to speak of and the skiing was not the best.  Followed by trying to get ski gear out to kids, finishing up the semester, and arriving at my Christmas HOLIDAY--- of FREEDOM!

Since this is my Blog I am going to go with a bit of a photo essay post! My goal is to get caught up and current before heading into 2017!

Early Dec. saw wonderful sea ice which I was fascinated by.  The girls and I spent a lot of time walking on the beach. It was a very  cold ride on the 4-wheeler to get out on the tundra. How could anyone pass up this amazing jumbled up sea ice!

The girls and I out for a ski on the tundra on the small ponds that will soon be covered in far more snow than this.  This is desperation skiing!

More sea ice this is about 4 to 5 feet high.  It is pushed up onto the beach from winds, tides, and waves.

Just loving being out in the cold!

My Ms. Sadie--my buddy!

Little Ms. Tally my other constant companion.

The ice was just stunning.  I just could not get enough of this stark beauty!

Sunset over Norton Sound part of the Bering Sea.

I melt down chocolate bars and add coconut oil to the mixture plus sliced almonds some dried fruit and let it all cool.  I will cut this up and use it for my ski snack.

A wonderful little set up of tea from my dear friend Lynn!

My wool hand knitted Long Johns!  I have found these to be the warmest things I own.  When the temps drop to below zero I will be skiing in these tights from now on.   PDS DK weight yarn.

More will come on this sweater . . . my current Lopi design knitted with Shetland Chunky and Unspun Icelandic Wool (which I have fallen in love with)!

A project that came out too large . . . before felting.

Saying goodbye to fall as we move to the solstice!

Tomten #2: Oh knitting how you continue to humble me! & Ski Update

Tomten #2

Last night, I thought I should count the sts on the sleeve just make sure I have the same amount on the front  and back of the sleeve. Of course I don’t, why would I, and how the heck did I screw that up, and better yet where?  Oh and I am off a sizable amount of sts as well!  UGH!  Thoughts of frogging came running into my mind and then the epiphany of WHO WILL KNOW, WHO WILL KNOW, NO ONE WILL KNOW, UNLESS I TELL SOME ONE!  (Meanwhile you are all saying you just told the WORLD!) Now I am decreasing under the arm at random places on the back side of the sleeve to get down to 25 sts to match the front of the sleeve!  What is a bit funny is I am actually even marking the decrease sts on the top of the sleeve on either side of the knit sts that will fun down the sleeve something I never do and what happens I still screw up my sts count!  Knitting how you continue to humble me!

A little ski update:

Yesterday, I finally got to day 100 of skiing (April 19, 2015) and it was another nice jaunt up the sea ice in the late afternoon.  Up north you could tell they were getting snow but we seemed to be right on the front line, under northern blue sky.  We had a north wind so skiing back was nice and fast.

"The Girls" and I out for an afternoon sea ice ski.

Spring Sea Ice Ski

One of the many things I enjoy about living way out here on "The Edge" as I often call it is my spring sea ice skis.  Norton Sound freezes over in the winter to varying degrees.  The sea ice moves about all winter long.  Sometimes we get a west wind which floods the sea ice and pushes it under water.  Sometimes an east wind blows it out to sea.  Recently, we had a north wind which pushes the sea ice right back into us here in Unalakleet.

Yesterday's after work ski was wonderful.  Nice sea ice to ski on and we just cruised north along the beach it was perfect!  +16ºF, hardly an wind and sunshine!  The dogs ran around finding caribou bones to chew on and the token left over silver salmon parts to try their best to eat before we caught them.

4/16/15 sea ice ski on Norton Sound

We just love winter and sliding around on snow!

Sea Ice, Fog, & Bláithín Sweater

It is May here in my remote spot in Alaska and spring in the rest of the world.  We are transitioning to spring with many small hiccups along the way.  I think it is a bit ironic, I am working on a sweater in Irish that means "little flower."  The sea is once again covered in sea ice, it is cold, damp, and foggy---I mean thick pea soup fog  due to the sea ice.  The winds have been coming in from the southwest causing the sea ice to be blown back our way.  My tundra walks with the dogs makes me feel like I am in Ireland or Scotland walking the hills with my flock of sheep as fog rolls in and out.

Here is the first flower I have seen out on my tundra walks. It is known as the "woolly lousewort " or "bumble-bee flower."

My Bláithín sweater which I have been calling Ol'Navy now has the sleeves joined to the body.

Color Work yahooo---lets hear it for some color work finally!  These center stitches will be for the sandwich steek.

Color work schematic--my first round will be orange flowers, the middle round will be blue flowers, and the last round will be yellow flowers.

I love working a color yoke after hours of one solid color it is such a treat to really be able to see your progress as the color work motif changes.

May 17th sea ice, with a nice low ceiling for visibility which makes it is hard for planes to fly.  This photo is looking north up towards Blueberry Hills.

Jumbled up mess of sea ice that  has returned due to the winds coming in form the southwest.