Sunday, October 4, 2009

Autumnal Somnolescence

There are those who might say that I don't post often enough, but I counted and I have 12 posts. Many would say that is plenty. Like me. But I suppose that for the interested....or bored....it is time for another. Since the excitement of our camping trip, we covered a lot of territory. Dip netting, for instance. We made two separate and only somewhat productive trips back to the Kenai to harvest the bounty of the Red Salmon run. We try and do it every July 18 or so. This year the fish didn't choose to return in large numbers overall and certainly not on the days we picked. We did wind up with in the neighborhood of 50 fish which we hauled home, processed and froze. We even ate a few.

It seems that I can't get enough of concrete work. Two years ago I had built a set of concrete steps that stepped up the hill that the steps out of the back door of the garage emptied out on. Last year I decided that I didn't need to go all the way down the steps from the garage and then back up again, so I poured a slab that connected the two and eliminated the bottom two steps. After examining that again, I couldn't figure out why I had missed the fact that I wouldn't need to go down at all if I just eliminated the steps and poured the slab all the way across. And then once I got that poured, I realized how nice it would be if there were a patio extending away from the house at the same level as the slab that eliminate the steps altogether. As you can tell, there were several episodes of form-building, concrete mixing, pouring, and finishing. And now that it's done, I can't see why I didn't just do that in the first place. Its a learning thing.





I've continued my Baldy adventures. I pretend that I climb twice a week. Realistically, I probably do get up the mountain once a week, and the views have been beautiful this fall. As the blueberries and high bush cranberries have turned pink and red, the hills have been alive with color. The clouds rolling in and out have been dramatic. Our home is often masked by the clouds for a short time, and then is on top of the clouds while the rest of the city is beneath them.

My constant companion for my Baldy hikes is our old dog, Raisin. A friend gave her to us about 12 years ago, and she is a little the worse for wear, as we all are. She doesn't necessarily climb at my pace, but she is always not far behind. I don't even always go get her, but she knows. Last week, Robert and Curtis and I went to hike a 6 hour loop up to the mountain tops and down to the depths of the valleys. We didn't go get her because I was a little concerned about her making the trip. We stopped for a break about 1500 feet up and 2 miles or so away. As we sat there eating, she showed up ready to help us eat. She is deaf and doesn't see well, but her nose still works very well. Here is the Google Earth link, by the way, to our hike. If you click on the link and open it with Google Earth, and then execute the path, you will get an automated tour of the mountains and valleys along our hike. Pretty cool.

The termination dust (snow on the mountain tops for those of you not from Alaska) is coming down the mountains. We have had snow here twice so far and it won't be too long. I still have a lot of winter preparation to do, so I wouldn't complain if it were a while, but I'm afraid it will be here sooner than I am ready for.


Our garden has produced well this summer and we just harvested everything a week ago. Beverly has been trying to can and dehydrate and freeze the produce. We made 39 quarts of applesauce and canned 79 jars of green chili that Beverly's parents brought up from Arizona. We have been eating the salads and potatoes and the grandkids ate the strawberries all summer long. Beverly made blueberry syrup and jam and strawberry jam whenever the kids picked too many.

The Lord has wonderfully blessed us with health and happiness and the bounty of the land. May you have his choicest blessings upon you.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Beautiful Summertime


This has been the summer to remember. Our daily temperatures have been 70's and 80's since the end of May, and that is unheard of here. Last year we never really got a summer, but we are making up for it now. My biggest worry is that all the visitors will think this is normal and will all want to move up here and the next thing you know......California. Pretty soon we'll have even more people from outside telling us how to live and what resources we should use and how we should treat our animals. It would seem to the logical mind that having bears in downtown Anchorage is not a good idea as they tend to kill and eat things smaller than they are...like children. Those who know better than we however, preach the live and let live philosophy. They are willing to sacrifice injury or death to an innocent jogger on a bike trail than try to control the bear population. I deserve the bears; I live on the border of Chugach State Park. But those who live in a neighborhood should be able to expect the protection of their governmental authorities.

OK, enough politicizing. We have been ever busy. Beverly's brother and his children, all of our children and grandchildren (except Jonathon who is still on his mission) and two of our Sons-In-Law who had to work joined us on a mega-expedition to Homer and then across Katchemak Bay to Right Beach where we camped for 4 nights. The weather cooperated and we had a wonderful time. Everyone got along and we got in a little sea kayaking, hiking, campfiring, cooking, eating, and resting. We set up a large camp consisting of a Yurt (already there), a screen tent and canopy, a Costco carport, and 5 tents. All 24 of us (8 six and under) kept each other company and just played together. We got water from a spring and brought the food with us. General Beverly who planned and executed the whole endeavor like a military operation planned for every eventuality. Except that this was the day and time of the lowest tide of the year. The tide changes 23 feet in a day, and we had to haul all our gear down this ramp, and back up again when we returned.

On the way to Homer, Jennifer and Tyson's family and Mon's family left a day early to try clamming at Ninilchik. Unfortunately, after clamming, Tyson's truck got stuck in the sand. After a nailbiting experience for everyone, the tow truck showed up and pulled them out. Sadly, the tow truck wasn't so lucky.

Several of us decided to hike to a glacier and it was amazing. The raw energy of that incredible piece of ice moving down through a valley since ages ago has carved the rock and moved the earth like you wouldn't think possible. We ventured out onto the glacier a ways weaving around crevasses and dodging a stream on the ice that looks like it could have been a water slide out of a water park....except that it was 32 degrees and ended in a vertical waterfall that would have proved fatal for most adventurers.

Rebecca, Tyler, and Curtis kayaked back across the bay where we got loaded into our vehicles and headed north for home. All in all a great trip.

We have worked hard getting the garden into production and it finally is. We are eating our own lettuce and spinach and radishes and broccoli and whatever else looks like it should be eaten. The strawberries are starting to ripen and the carrots and cauliflower are growing. Squash has been a disappointment. It just likes hotter weather. Next year we hope to have a greenhouse to grow the hard-to-raise stuff in.

Fourth of July we stayed home and I built a barrel train for the grandkids. My brother-in-law, Kent Larson, built one for his grandkids in Safford, AZ and I was so jealous that I spent two days getting it together, but the kids seem to like it. Now we just have to deal with taking them for a ride every time we see any of them.

This past weekend, Beverly and I put aside all our guilt feelings of selfishness and went out to the cabin Thursday night. We hadn't been there since January and it was overgrown a bit. The bear had clawed through one corner again so I had to do a little repair work, but generally we stayed completely unoccupied for two days and got home about 11:30 PM Saturday...just in time to prepare for Sunday.

The Lord continues to bless us and we pray that he will continue to do so as we serve Him.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mid-June With Summer Racing By.......

Here it is. My irregular catch up on what is going on in our world. In our last episode, you remember that Beverly had gone to help Sarah have a baby. That worked out and now Sarah is coming to visit this week. In fact, Beverly's brother, Mons and his sons are also coming to visit along with Rebecca and Sarah's husband, Chris. If you hadn't guessed, Beverly has engineered a Family Vacation/Reunion in Katchemak Bay out of Homer. Including the outsiders and those that live here, we will have about 24 souls to haul to Homer, get across the bay to Right Beach where we will camp and kayak and hike and fish and whatever else we feel like for about 5 days. We hope to get in a little clamming as well as general sight-seeing. We are feverishly working on all the details including getting the gear in shape for the trip.
Carolyn and Curtis had a birthday party here for Cayden that was described by the mothers as "brilliant". They had me dump a couple of loader buckets of dirt in a pile and then invited the boys to a Tonka Truck Birthday Party. The kids brought their own Tonkas and dug in the dirt pile for hidden Hot Wheels. I was recruited to give loader rides to the kids, and afterwards they had cake and ice cream served from a dump truck in the garage. The perfect no-mess party.
Besides partying, there is still the gardening, earth moving, manure collection and compost building, working, vehicle repairing, and today camera repairing. We have most everything planted in the garden now. In fact, it was planted in mid-May but it gets off to a slow start here. Beverly has been working on her flower garden and it looks beautiful. My neighbor has horses and I inquired about their poop, because as you might imagine, horse manure makes good fertilizer a year or so later. They told me I could have all I wanted so I took the equipment down there and brought home 3 dump truck loads and should have brought more. And it is good poop, too. Well composted and ready to use. I thought I would be able to mix it with the leaves and grass my friend Jeff brings me from his lawn service, but I was too greedy and started to put it right on the garden. The leaf and grass pile has grown huge. About 12 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter. Our strawberry beds have greened up nicely and I got the rest of the culverts in the side of the hill for apple trees. Unfortunately, mice invaded the apple trees I had grafted over the past three years and stripped the bark off of all of them, so this week I plan to buy some from some friends that have some extras to sell.
My old faithful Fuji Finepix 602 Zoom camera was injured a while back and quit working, but I found a website with great pictures and explanations for disassembly, so I have taken it apart into little pieces, repaired the defect, and now am ready to put it back together. Wish me luck.

Monday, May 25, 2009

It's about time

I have been informed by virtually everyone that cares that I have not made a blog entry for some time. Guilty as charged. Spring has been busy and we have had the most beautiful of springs. The entire month of May has been in the 50s and 60s almost every day. Last year we didn't hit 60 until mid-June, and then only had about 5 days over 60 all summer. Consequently, I have been inspired to work on my outdoor projects, of which there are many. We expanded the garden and invited the kids up to plant and tend two rows a piece for their families. I have worked on my mechanical junk to get and keep it running. I put 6 planting wells in the side of a hill to plant apple trees. My bees arrived and I got them hived and have been babying them while they get up to fighting strength. I got enough for two hives this year. I'm not sure why. I have been accumulating a huge pile of compost from a friend with a lawn service who brings me the yard waste. I have to stir it with the excavator to keep it cooking. I have been working on a rock wall to keep the slough from the cut bank from eroding. I've continued to climb Baldy twice a week, and I still have a job so have been working on the side there. Sarah had a baby on May 17th and Beverly has been in Colorado Springs with her for the past two weeks. Finally, being the Bishop of our ward has had its own time demands. This tiny list of the accomplished pales in comparison with the list of things I have yet to do. And you should be gratified that this blog entry sprang to the top of the list this morning.

They say things that keep you engaged keep your mind and body young. My mind feels young enough, but I can tell that the body isn't as young as it used to be. The kids are coming over for a Memorial Day barbecue this afternoon, but I will post some pictures with this blog entry later. I promise. When I have time.

P.S. OK, I finally had time. And ambition. And so on.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Climb


I made a commitment this year. New years resolutions are fine, but I made my commitment in October. The commitment was with the 16-18 year old boys in my Ward at church. We actually committed together that we would climb Mt. Baldy once each month for the entire year. I had been climbing fairly regularly before that so I was in pretty good shape, for the shape I was in. Our home happens to be on Baldy, and according to Google Earth, the elevation at our front door is 1912 feet and the top of Baldy is 2992 feet. For those of you who are Google Earth inclined, there are grid coordinates for the house and the top of Baldy at the end of the post. Instead of hiking the traditional trail, we start at my front door and go up. The trek is considerable steeper this way, but the climb is more interesting. In this photo taken from my office in Eagle River, you see Mt. Baldy and our house is the one on the extreme right side. We begin climbing up through the woods for several hundred yards and come out into a saddle where you get the first view of the city. There are beautiful blueberry bushes there and in September, Robert and Bethany and the kids and I picked a bunch right there.

Our first hike was up through the frozen blueberries. There was no snow and we stopped to eat several times, but made the summit, enjoyed the view for a few minutes, and came down again. The trip up was about 30 or 40 minutes and down was about 15.

The next hike was in November and it was getting dark by then. We were hiking on a snowy evening in the dark. Headlamps are useful, but everything is white and the reflected light from the city and the sky makes it reasonably well lit even without. The night was beautiful and it was ghostly beautiful with the snow and the clouds and the fog and the light. Two adults and three young men made the ascent that evening. We adults were fortunate that the young men are patient with us. The lights of Eagle River and Anchorage make a beautiful sight from half-way up the mountain.




In December, we had a hard time finding the right day, but finally did on the 30th. Actually, only one young man was available, but Nathan and I were undaunted and Nathan on snowshoes and me with my crampons slogged our way up through snow that was hip-deep in places. It was really cold, like 15 degrees below zero, and my toes got pretty cold.



Nathan and I soldiered on through often hip-deep snow and not only were my toes cold, but I was getting a bit tired so I suggested to Nathan that perhaps we should consider turning around. He then uttered those immortal words, "Bishop, I didn't come this far to turn around half-way to the top." Totally humiliated, I kept climbing for another half hour, but it was by then getting late and my toes were really cold. I prevailed on his better judgment and he saw the wisdom of not having to carry me down, so we turned around and came home.

February's climb followed a thaw and a freeze so the surface was crusty and crampons seemed right for two of us, the other two choosing just boots with ice axes. The summit was breathtaking and the whole trip took about two and a half hours, and sliding down was a carnival ride. Unfortunately I forgot my camera.

The March climb with the boys hasn't happened yet, but my son, Robert, and I decided to give it a go last Saturday. We donned our crampons and after trudging through the soft snow through the woods, we came out on the sunny, crusty south-west face and crunched our way to the top where we spend some time admiring the view and refastening the crampons which had had some problems staying on. Retying crampons in foot deep snow with icy fingers isn't much fun. Anyway, from the top I could hear a far-away voice and when I looked down toward the house, I could just make out a pink object on the front porch. I called Beverly on the cell and sure enough, she had seen us and wanted us to know it. From the top the house is due south and here is a close up of it from there.


These other three pictures are to the north of Blacktail ridge.....



And to the west of Eagle River and the Knik arm of Cook Inlet. We made the trip down in short order using ice axes to self-arrest and control our slide. The year isn't over and the differences on each climb are interesting. It is sometimes difficult to predict what the proper gear is, but we have found on each occasion that it is way too easy to overdress as climbing straight up is a workout.

Grid Coordinates for our home are :
61°19'54.39"N 149°30'1.88"W

Grid Coordinates for the top of Mt. Baldy are:
61°20'9.53"N 149°29'34.81"W

If you paste these coordinates in to the Google Earth search bar, it will take you right there.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Frigidly Yours

Global warming continues to disappoint. We are convinced it is our turn! How great to extend our growing season and enjoy a bit warmer winter, but since Algore began pushing his agenda, we have had colder summers and colder winters. Is that fair? You don't suppose old Al is more interested in making money on selling carbon credits by scaring the world than anything else? Last year everyone was freaked out about the Arctic ice pack melting and being at low levels, but this year the ice levels are what they were in 1979. Go Figure. Anyway, thats not exactly what I came to tell you about.

Christmas brought us some frigid temperatures which hung around for about 3 weeks. We don't ususally get temperatures quite that cold. How cold,you ask? Well, the high was in the neighborhood of 17 below zero. I had to wear a hat! And my hat hair is not a pretty site, which meant I even had to comb my hair! Many were complaining that their heaters would not keep up with the demand. I was shocked to find temperatures of 60 degrees in my office when I came in in the morning. Needless to say, we didn't get much done outside during that period.

Finally, the Chinook came through and all the ice that had formed during the cold melted. A layer of water on top of ice equals........Slipperiness. School was canceled for three days because the roads were disastrous. The parking lots were so slick and the wind was so bad that cars would blow across the lot. We have seen that before, but this was definitely the worst. I put chains on my car and I never really had a problem, but with school out the parents of our patients all wanted their children seen despite the weather, so I had to work the whole time. How sad.

The rain finally went away and I sanded our driveway with three loads of sand and now we are back to normal. The average temperature in January is about 10 degrees. The days are getting longer. Except for the snow all over and the temperatures, you would be tempted to think about Spring coming. How exciting.