Remember the mama and baby moose that visited the house a few months ago? These two:

We’ve seen them passing through more than a few times since then, though always when it’s too dark to really get a photo, or when they’re already too far away. This morning, I was playing with the dogs outside when I realized Macgee hadn’t moved for several minutes, and was staring intently across the road. When I looked more closely, I saw the moose pair making their way through the neighbor’s driveway towards our house. I grabbed the dogs and put them inside and managed to get my camera in time to take a few photos.

Mama:

Teen:

After a year and a half in Alaska, Ashlee finally met a porcupine. This morning, just before leaving for work, I took the dogs out for their morning potty break. Both dogs immediately heard/smelled something in the fireweed that surrounds the yard, and ran towards it. I didn’t see or hear anything, but managed to pull Macgee back on his leash. Ashlee wasn’t on a leash, and emerged from the bushes seconds later with a face full of quills. A trip to the vet, some sedation and a steady hand later, and she’s no worse for the experience.

Hopefully she’ll think twice before investigating further strange rustlings in the brush, but I won’t hold my breath.

We had another moose by the house. We saw this one through the window…actually, the cat saw it through the window. We always know when a moose is outside, because Cousteau starts to freak out. He paces between the windows looking extremely concerned. I think he deserves a little credit.

Anyway, we watched the moose approach through the window. When it was about 50 feet away from the house, it stopped to munch on the many green plants growing around here. I, of course, grabbed my camera and slowly moved in for some pictures. This one had no babies, so I was slightly less worried than last time.

“But Ryan,” you might be saying, “couldn’t you put fear aside and get even closer to this gigantic and dangerous beast, so we may see it more clearly?”

To you who say such things, I reply “No” and “Shut up.” However, I would put on a bigger lens, and stay at the same safe distance. Behold the moose in all her beautiful, moosie glory!

Eventually she tired of eating our plants, around the same time I got tired of taking pictures of her. It worked out well for both of us, and she moved on to eat someone else’s yard.

The other evening, I was out in the yard with the dogs, when I heard a crackling from the other side of the house. This being Alaska, and Ashlee having an irrational hatred of mammals significantly larger than her, I immediately grabber her collar and pulled in Macgee’s leash.

This is what peeked around the corner of the house:

I shuffled the dogs inside, and grabbed my camera. Mama moose was on the other side of the house, so I tiptoed around and managed to get a few shots before they got tired of me leaning around the corner and pointing the camera at them.

I also took a short little video with my D90. It’s a little awkward to hand-hold, so please excuse the shakiness. I was not very interested in fumbling around with a tripod, for obvious reasons.

To finish up the story of the last eagle feeding last week, I was sent down by the Homer Tribune to take some pictures of the ceremony. I’m working as a freelance photographer and outdoor/sports writer for them now, so that’s pretty cool. I’ll post some scans when I get published.

Anyway, we went down to the Spit, expecting some sort of ceremony and statue for Jean Keane. What we found was more akin to a yard sale, with tables full of dwarf and frog statues, animal skulls, and wood carvings.

Unsurprisingly, since Jean fed the eagles daily, everything was covered in bird poo.

Eventually, the organizers brought out a box of fish, and started feeding the eagles. There are always a few eagles hanging out on the Spit, but within minutes of opening the box, the air was filled with dozens of giant birds. A few fish were tossed on the roof of Jeans house, and suddenly we were surrounded by swooping eagles.

Most of the fish were tossed out towards the beach, where the eagles would either swoop down and grab the fish, or land and try to grab what the swoopers missed. The wind was coming from that direction as well, so I got hit more than once by fish juice and eagle crap. Delightful!

I shot some video before switching back to stills, so here you go. Sorry about the wind noise, but that’s what it was like.

Unfortunately, none of the pictures got published, since the Trib was hoping for more memorial service and less eagle crap. Oh well.

Flash forward to yesterday. Around 6am, one of the sled dogs started barking. This particular dog is slightly neurotic about Nature, and tends to bark when the wind picks up, or if snow is falling, etc. So we just ignored him. At 7:45, I woke up and thought the light coming through the windows looked weird, so I got up and looked outside. Here’s what I saw:

My exact thoughts: “Oh…crap. Must check AVO (Alaska Volcano Observatory) site!”

Sure enough, Redoubt had erupted at 6am that morning. And not only had it erupted and spewed ash 50,000 feet into the sky, it was accompanied by thunder and lightning emanating from the ash cloud. No wonder it set off the dog! I wonder if it was as spectacular as this eruption in Argentina?

I got dressed and hurried out to feed the dogs before the ash started to fall, and finished feeding in record time. Before sealing up the house, I took a few more pictures.

This is looking northeast from the dog yard:

And this is looking southwest, towards Homer:

And another view, from the driveway, looking west:

Looks ominous, doesn’t it? Luckily, we had a steady wind coming from the northeast, which drove the ash cloud out over the bay before it could reach us! Not a single bit of ash fell on us yesterday, though Homer got hit pretty hard. We went into town last night to go a drama slam, and town looked like someone had dumped a giant bucket of dusty sand over everything.

Redoubt has now had over 5 major eruptions in the past couple of weeks, and I’ve heard that it might continue like this for months. In a week or so, we’ll be moving to a place in Anchor Point, which faces Redoubt on the coast, so I might actually get some eruption shots! (More on the move later, when I wrap up my Bucket List series)