I picked another pound of raspberries in the backyard over the weekend. After soaking them, we spread them out over wax paper and placed them in the freezer. Once frozen, we transfer them to a large freezer Ziplocs. It looks like we’ll be able to fill 3 or 4 of those bags before we’re done!

While picking the berries, I found this moth resting on a leaf. When I got close with my camera, it started fluttering its wings in warning. I slowed the shutter speed of my camera as much as possible to try to capture the movement.

Home Food, insects

We’re just past summer solstice, so the days are getting shorter. The slow descent to winter has begun. Eventually, it will get dark again at night, and we’ll have to start using headlamps and flashlights when we go outside to walk the dogs.

But for now, it’s light all the time. It took some getting used to, and I still fell like I’m wasting precious daylight when I go to sleep.

Here’s what it looks like around here in the middle of the night.

And here’s our little house we rented three days after losing the house we had intended to buy.

Don’t worry, all the windows are on the other side.

Home Alaska, Light

Yeah, we hope so. We’re about 80% of the way through buying one! We still have the appraisal to go, and then filling in the gaps for our down-payment, then it’s ours. I’ll go into more detail when the deal is closed, but it’s a 1 bedroom house with a bathroom and a shower (yay, running water!). It has 2 outbuildings, one is a workshop/storage building and the other is mainly a place to store firewood. It also has a chicken coop and fencing! Plus, the view is pretty good.

It also comes with 2.6 acres of land, a spring-fed well, and a little pond.

Announcements, Home Announcement, House

• I took my first dog sled run yesterday, it was quieter than I had imagined.
• All the warm weather last week didn’t manage to melt all the snow and ice, and another 6 inches has fallen in the past couple of days.
• I have a 10-year plan, and will share details as it unfolds over the next few years.
• We get this weekend off!
• The hardest part about it being dark for 18 out of 24 hours is how tired it makes me. My body says “it’s dark, you need to go to sleep,” but I can’t. Even 8 to 9 hours of sleep doesn’t seem to be enough!
• Ashlee and Macgee keep bumping my arms, telling me it’s time to feed them. Now!

Home Home

The temperature has been above freezing here for the past few days. That knee-deep snow has melted down to just over ankle-deep. Where we walk has been compressed into slick ice.

Most of the day we were in fog, with the sun behind the clouds. Around 3, about an hour before sunset, the sun broke through and lit up the fog for us.

A couple of hours later, well after the sun had disappeared, I stepped outside to get a photo of the lingering colors. The two dots of light in the sky are Venus and Jupiter.

The moon is about 3/4 full, and already provides a lot of illumination at night, especially reflecting off the snow/ice cover. This shot it lit entirely be moonlight.

The boss let me borrow her reflector telescope, and I spent a portion of the evening figuring out how the thing works. I’m going to have to wait for daylight to get it focused properly, and I might have to recalibrate the mirror alignment. I’m hoping to find a camera adapter for it, so I can try out some astrophotography!

Home, Photography Photography, Sunset