Sunshine at Sunset

 

Monday was one of those days where it rained and snowed in the morning and then cleared in the afternoon. I got up to Pyramid just as it was clearing off,  and when I got to the summit I could see sunshine on the snow down below me, but a layer of clouds was blocking the sun.  I knew that if I waited the sun would creep below the cloud and bathe me and the mountain tops in sunshine.  But I thought, 'maybe it will not happen, or it could take a lot longer than I think it will'.   So I started to ski down and immediately the sun peeked from below the cloud.  By the time I got to the parking lot the top of Pyramid and all the peaks all around were bathed in golden light.  As I drove to town I took in the sunset, and thought, 'damn - I should have waited 5 minutes'.  It was a spectacular sunset in town.

But I still got some sunset pictures, and I got even better ones yesterday (another blog post to come).  So no worries.  And on Monday the ski down in the sunshine was sublime.  Like perfect.  I heard that just a bit later it started to freeze up and get crusty.  So maybe if I had waited for the sunset I would had to negotiate breakable crust ski conditions on the way down.  Indeed this happened yesterday when we got a spectacular, atmospheric sunset but also encountered terrible ski conditions (post to come).

Patrick

Weekend Skis

 

A few pictures from last weekend's ski adventures that I never got around to posting.  Skiing with Stuey on Pyramid.  We went late after school on Thursday and there was a marine layer of fog down low.  It was very atmospheric.  

Then on Saturday we went skate skiing at the golf course. Perfect conditions in the sunshine and the dogs got to do some chasing.  They love chasing.  

And then on Sunday it snowed.  A lot.  We got over a foot of new snow on Pyramid, and it was snowing all the way down to the parking lot.

Patrick

Unicorn walk

 

Unicorn helmet where we found it on the beach

Saturday afternoon Nora and I took the doggies for a walk on Buskin Beach.  The wind had dropped and a storm was rolling in and the sun was already obscured in high overcast.  With all the recent storms and higher than usual tides there is a lot of new driftwood and debris on the beach.  I actually collected a few logs to cut for firewood - really high quality yellow cedar branches that are generally snapped up pretty quickly.

We also found a child's unicorn hat propped up on top of a driftwood tree branch.  I wore it for a bit and then Nora did too.  Funnily enough, this past fall I had found the same style of helmet on the beach on Sitkinak Island. I was wondering if it might even have been the same helmet.  But more likely a bunch of them were in a container that fell off of a freighter and are all now floating up on beaches everywhere.  Unicorns for beachcomber's pleasure!

Anyway, on the drive home I was telling Nora a story about a kid I knew in 9th grade who used to have unicorn posters all over his room. He was obsessed with unicorns.  Nora wondered how he did in life, and so we googled him and found out he is a successful commercial real state developer. There was nothing about whether or not he still liked unicorns.

Patrick

Nora putting on the unicorn helmet

We left the unicorn hat on a post when were done wearing it

This one is actually a weekend dog walk in Abercrombie

Bull kelp, snow and sand

In coming storm clouding up the sun

91 pounds of elk burger and deer sausage

 

Last weekend Philip and I finished up the last task from the 2022 hunting season - the annual burger grind.  This year we used the elk to make straight burger and all my deer to make Italian Sausage.  We added Bells Flats pig shoulder scraps and fat to the sausage.  So our Italian Sausage is 'all Kodiak' meat.  We added Safeway beef fat to the elk burger.  We ended up with 50 pounds of burger and 41 pounds of sausage.  That's a lot of meat, and it also a lot of wrapping.

Of all the meat in the freezer I think I like the burger and the sausage the best.  They are certainly the easiest to use.  For that reason I actually added 'good' cuts of elk and deer to the respective piles.  Even some big roasts.  I'd rather have more burger!

Anyway 2022 Hunting season is complete!

Patrick

This is just the 50 pounds of elk burger - another 41 pounds of sausage to go!

Taste testing the Italian Sausage

Stormy Weekend

 

Over the weekend Nora and I went for a hike with Uncle Dicky and the dogs.  It was an awful, dreary day so we went for an off trail beach and woods hike.  We first checked on an old archaeological village site that I have never had the chance to check out.  I have photos of the site from shortly after the earthquake in 1964 when the land sank 5 feet and the whole site was eroding and falling into the sea.  A thick shell midden.  Now the site has rebounded a few feet out of the sea and is totally stable. There is now 50 feet of grass between the site and the active beach.  

Don Clark had told me that there was a 'fake' City of Kodiak in the area during WWII.  They had lights set up in the trees here.  So if Japanese bombers came by they could turn on the lights and fool them into bombing the wrong spot (Kodiak would be blacked out).  So we also looked for wires and lights in the trees - evidence for the old fakery.  But we found nothing.  

Patrick

In. this photo you can see the old erosion scarp just behind those alders

weekend ski - dreary on the mountain too!

This is where we looked for old wires and lights in the trees

Nora and Dicky standing in an old house depression

Pictographs!  But modern

Modern Navy camp

After School Ski

 

These pictures are from Tuesday when Stuey joined me for a ski.  He does not get out of school until 3:25 and it gets dark around 5:15.  So we had to hurry.  It was very windy in town so I was a little worried about the conditions on the mountain.  But somehow there was a slight lee and the wind was not so bad.  And the skiing was GREAT!

Nothing quite like skiing down a mountain in the pink light of sunset.

Patrick