Christmas Weekend

 

Some pictures from Christmas Weekend. It was a fairly low key Christmas Season for me this year. Stuey is in Latvia and Nora was with her mom.  But I do appreciate that we were blessed with a white Christmas.  Snow wise we have had a very good December.  So mostly I skied with the dogs.  I also went sledding at the golf course with Nora and the cousins, had Christmas dinner with uncle Dick, and Nora and I checked out the ice at Abercrombie. 

I'm glad we checked the ice because this morning prior to leaving on our trip I went skate skiing with the dogs in the dark under a full moon at the lake.  Over night we got 2 inches of new snow and it was fantastic flitting along on skis with the dogs chasing me in the moonlight.  One of the highlights of weekend and no photos!

And now Nora and I are leaving the Kodiak 'Winter Wonderland' to go skiing in Japan. It's always a bit tough to leave Kodiak when the sun is shining and there is new snow on the trees.  But Tokyo beckons!

Patrick

Tanner Leftovers.

 

Late last week I was gifted 4 live tanner crabs. The top photo is of my crabs after I cleaned and cooked them.  I cooked them up on my kitchen stove using my 2 pressure cooker pots - and just after the cooking time from full boil had elapsed (18 minutes), I put them into an ice bath (kitchen sink full of water and ice cubes).  The ice bath really helps because it separates the shell from the meat and make them much easier to pick.  And after cooking my crabs I did a lot of picking and eating.

As I picked and ate I saved the choice pieces for later and filled up two leftover containers.  Leftover crab is about as good as it gets, and for the next 2 days I ate crab a bunch of different ways.  Seen below is the crabwich on rye and the crab salad.  But I also added crab to Campell Soup's 'New England Clam Chowder' (REALLY good), had crab with crackers, and just snarfed it up plain too.  

Leftover crab never gets old!

Patrick

Sunset on High

 

The last couple of days I have caught the sunset from near the top of Pyramid with the dogs.  Both days I have started up with the light just beginning to get golden, and it has set on my way down.  Not that this is occurring very late - the sun is setting about 4:15 these days.  

Yesterday I tried to get pictures of the dogs silhouetted against the mountain.  This is tough to do because they do not hold poses very often.

After skiing someone mentioned that it was the solstice.  I had forgotten that!  So I caught the sunset on the shortest day of the year.  But unlike most people this always makes me a bit sad.  It means that from now on the days will be getting longer and that Winter is beginning to die.  But Winter will get stronger before she gets weaker!

Patrick

Ice Fog

 

Yesterday we got a dusting of snow in the morning and then it cleared off.  I drove up to the pass expecting sunny skies but the fog stuck to the mountain tops.  Halfway up I realized that it was freezing fog and that ice was building up on my ski poles and on my skis.  My hair was full of ice and the doggies were frosted white too.

On the top the sun was trying to break through and everything was pink and golden.  The skiing was not very good.  The new snow was not enough to soften out the bumpy ice and breakable crust underneath it.  But it was sure was pretty!

Patrick

Sunday

 

An eagle as seen out the car window on way home

On Sunday I was part of the Christmas Bird count, and, as usual, it was my job to climb up into the alpine and find a ptarmigan.  And I did!  The skiing was terrible - all ice and breakable crust.  But it was sunny and not much wind.  Still as soon as I saw a ptarmigan I turned around.  I took my good camera with telephoto lens, but this year I did not get a picture.  The dogs scared up the bird and it was flying away by the time I got out my camera.  Still, I did see black line by the eye - so clearly a male rock ptarmigan.

Then on the way home things got interesting.  The road was a sheet of ice and at the switchbacks a truck and trailer with snow machines on the back had gone into a ditch.  And above the truck in ditch was a stalled out boat on a trailer trying to go the other way.  It was a mess and I had to wait parked by the side of the road above the switchbacks for 2 hours for it to all to get sorted out.  

Patrick

Before and after the storm

 

Yesterday morning Nora and I took the dogs for a walk at Buskin beach before the sun came up.  We knew it was supposed to get nasty so we went for our walk before the storm arrived.  At the beach it was just starting to get light, and it was just starting to get a little stormy too.  But it had not yet started to rain.  We walked along the beach towards the lights of town.  The big high cliffs with trees on the top created a black shadow to our left.  We got in a good walk and then just as we got back to the car it started to rain.

By the time we got home it was pouring and super windy.  Nora went to work and I took a long nap and read a book.  Then after lunch I decided to take the dogs skiing.  

It was still a little stormy when I left town and the mountain tops were all socked in with fog.  And then as we climbed up it cleared off.  The sun came out as we skied down the mountain.  The snow was warm from the storm and the skiing was actually not bad.  One the drive home all the mountain tops were lit up with alpine glow.

Patrick

Icy road on the drive home