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.

As summer solstice approaches, we are in the full throes of Alaskan daylight. The sun drops below the mountains just before midnight, but it is only just out of sight. The world is cast into a long twilight, negating the need for flashlights unless traveling into the cover of the woods.

The sun rises again around 4am, and always seems high overhead throughout the day.

Driving home one night last week after dinner with friends, I was inspired by the setting sun to drive past our house and continue another 10 miles down the road to the Anchor Point Beach. First, we stopped at the Baycrest overlook, just outside of Homer.

At Anchor Point, the sun set close to the currently active and obviously smoking volcano, Mt. Redoubt

Even after the sun disappeared, the beach continued to reflect the sky.

And finally:

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.

Today was an exemplary Saturday. We slept, with no disturbances, until 10am. After a breakfast of cereal and hot cinnamon toast, we packed up some snacks and water, and headed into town. We live west of town now, and there is a nice big overlook on Baycrest hill, before heading down into town. Here’s what it looked like as we came in:

Brace yourselves, there are a lot of pictures coming.

First, we headed to the first farmer’s market of the season. There was a surprising number of fresh vegetables, though many were “starter” planters. A gypsy band was playing, and we ran into a few friends as we strolled around.

Our next stop was at the hardware store, to pick up a shower curtain, some squirt guns (doggie correction tool), and some snacks.

Then, we searched out a trail. After some misdirection and a return to town to get an actual map (hurr, we’re outdoor leaders!), we set out on a short 2.5 mile hike down to the ocean. Ashlee and Macgee went with us, and we used the opportunity to let Macgee carry some of the weight.

The first part of the trail was just a gravel road, but it wound through the forest.

Eventually, we hit a parking area, and then the real trail began.

One of the spectacular things about Alaska is how everything goes from frozen and dead to vibrant green and gigantic in the span of a couple of months.

Even with the sun shining fully, the temperature was still in the low 60′s. The trail was not very strenuous, but this was our first hike of the year (sadly), so it was a bit painful. We made our way down, listening to the sound of water running through the canyon below us. After a couple of miles, we started catching glimpses of the ocean. Ashlee also saw it, because she picked up the pace considerably. Macgee trundled along with his pack, occasionally running it into a tree, or my leg.

At the end of 2.5 miles, we entered a clearing and found ourselves on the beach.

There are more big rocks on this beach than any of the others we’ve been to, so Skippy took some time to pose.

It didn’t last long, though, since the rock was covered in barnacles, which are apparently uncomfortable to sit on.

Ashlee, being half labrador and half walrus or seal or something aquatic, jumped right in. We forgot her ball, so we tossed rocks out into the surf, and she tried valiantly to find them.

Eventually, she stopped falling for it.

As I mentioned, there are a lot more big rocks. This one looked pretty interesting. I think it looks kind of like a big melting caramel. But I’m also kind of hungry.

Looking back down the beach, I saw Ashlee meeting another dog. In the background, you can see some of the mountains in the chain that includes our three most prominent volcanoes: Iliamna, Augustine, and Redoubt. But none of them are in this picture. Sorry.

While I was away taking pictures of caramel rocks and volcano-less volcano ranges, I tied Macgee to a giant piece of driftwood. When I returned to trade my camera for his leash, he was ecstatic.

After running around in the fresh water creek on the beach (Macgee won’t go in the ocean. He gets close, but the waves scare the bejeezus out of him. Even the little tiny ones. He jumps back like a startled cat.), we walked further upstream and found a nice little waterfall.

Since no outing with the dogs is complete without a little humiliation, here are some pictures of Macgee with a hat.

We hiked out and returned to town to finish up our shopping for the day, and drove home. For dinner, I made a bbq sauce (ketchup, mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked salt, cayenne powder) while Skippy made a crust, and we recreated one of our favorite Aver’s pizzas.

Of course, we put our own spin on it (meaning we used whatever we could find in the refrigerator): bbq sauce, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, bacon, shallots, red bell pepper, pieces of rotisserie chicken, banana peppers, and fresh jalapeno peppers (on my half). It was amazing. So amazing, I made a second one with the leftover ingredients, and froze it to eat later.

And now I’ve spent over an hour editing photos and creating this post. Saturday is almost over. See you tomorrow.

East End Road, where we just spent the last year taking care of sled dogs, and where we are set to move into our own house next month, is ablaze. A wildfire has burned over 1200 acres so far, and continues to rage. As of now, the damage has all been several miles further up the road from both the sled dogs and our future home. A shift of the wind could change all that.

The fire has mostly burned around mile 17 and further east, with the sled dogs and the house we’re buying at miles 15 and 13, respectively. We’ve spent the past couple of evenings with our friends Jason and Kelly, who live just past mile 15 with their own set of sled dogs, in case the area needs to be evacuated and we can lend a hand. Fortunately, the fire has only come close once so far, before getting blown back down the hill.

Last night, we watched 3 helicopters, 2 spotter planes, and a large tanker plane weave an intricate dance over the blaze. As trees would ignite and send flames shooting up into the sky, the choppers would fly overhead and dump huge buckets of water over the area. The tanker plane would circle to gain altitude, then swoop down and unleash it’s contents. Earlier in the day, Smoke Jumpers parachuted in, though I didn’t get to see that.

Several smoldering patches in the burned out area were identified as destroyed houses, though I don’t think anyone has been injured as of yet.

The fire continues to rage, so we’ll make our way back again tonight. Hopefully they’ll get it under control soon.