Breezy, with a chance of snow.

It’s currently 3°F, and we’ve gotten around 14″ of snow. Maybe more. It’s hard to tell, because the wind is gusting around 20 to 30mph, creating drifts that are waist-deep in places. I’m about 5 minutes away from suiting up and spending the next 90 minutes out there, feeding the dogs and making sure their houses are snow-free.

I first went out at 6am, in the dark, because the wind shifted and was blowing snow into the dog houses. I could tell, because a lot of them started barking and it woke me up. I’d only been in bed for a few hours anyway, and had been sleeping fitfully. I stumbled around the yard, completely blinded by the driving snow and fogged up glasses, turning houses and trying not to think about all the tacos and margaritas I had consumed at a party last night, rolling around in my upset tummy, occasionally reappearing in wet burps. Blarg.

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It was very gray here today, so here’s a video to brighten up your Monday:

We woke up this morning to 3 inches of snow. Then, the clouds rolled in.

The cloud eventually passed, but the bay was still completely obscured for the rest of the day. It snowed off and on all day, and there may be another 4 inches accumulating overnight. And this is fall, not winter!

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Two days ago, there was 4 inches of snow on the ground here. Yesterday, the weather turned, and it rained most of the day. Walking around on compacted snow (aka “ice”) with a layer of water on top while carrying buckets of food, water, and poop (not all at once) was exciting. To an outside observer, we must have looked like a couple of special needs kids, randomly flailing around as we walked.

Today, the snow was gone. In its place came rain and gusting winds all morning. This evening, the temperature rose to a balmy 42 degrees F, and the sun came out just in time to set. It’s supposed to rain all weekend, and possibly snow again next week. Such is fall on the Kenai Peninsula, according to our boss. Basically, the weather is like Indiana, only without the random thunderstorms, and better scenery.

In other news, Skippy and I have been craving brownies something fierce. We’d fed the craving a couple of time in the past week, having purchased a mega-pack of Ghiradelli brownies. Even after two batches in 2 weeks, we kept wanting more. Today we decided to put an end to the addiction, and split an entire pan in one sitting.

This was not one of our brightest ideas.

Imagine an extreme sugar rush, combined with the overstuffed feeling you get after a really big meal, and stir in a bit of “haven’t really interacted with anyone else in a couple of weeks” social withdrawal, and you get: me making funny voices and running around the cabin pretending to run into stuff (speaking of special needs…), and Skippy laughing until she abruptly starts to cry. 20 minutes later, we’re out feeding the sled dogs their dinner and cooking salmon in a big vat (described in a previous post).

We’re skipping dinner tonight.

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I had planned on setting up my video camera this morning, to catch the sunrise. Right as I went to the door to setup, it started sleeting. I held off on recording until it finished, and you’ll see the results later.

This has happened before, this sleeting in the early morning hours. Usually the sun comes out, and the temperatures rise to the mid-fifties.

However, later today, I looked outside and saw this:

Yes, lots of snow falling! It stopped before we went out this evening to feed the dogs dinner.

I seem to be crashing big-time today, after a month straight of working with no time off, so I went back inside to rest and snooze while Skippy did some last minute cleaning before the boss arrives home tomorrow night. After a couple hours, I got up to feed and walk Ashlee and Macgee. This greeted me at the front door:

Now it’s accumulating! I don’t recall seeing snow on the 3rd of October before, in Indiana. I wonder how long until it actually sticks around?

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The nights (and days, thankfully) have been clear up here for the past week. Last night, I took my contacts out, then went outside to check on something, and I could make out the Milky Way overhead. It was a generally whitish, blurred stripe among many whitish, blurred dots.

Not coincidentally, it has also been dropping below freezing almost every night (To Scott: Yes, IT’S COLD). We wake up to frosty, crunchy grass, and slippery deck stairs. In fact, when I take out our current invalid, Opal (recovering from spay surgery), I have to go down the frozen deck steps on my butt, so I don’t get yanked down 6 steps by a sled dog on a leash. Face first.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to walk a sled dog, let me give you an idea of what it’s like. Imagine tying yourself to a car with a 6′ to 15′ piece of rope. Put the car in gear, and hold onto the rope. Now, try to stop the car by pulling on the rope. That’s a small sled dog. To simulate walking a bigger dog, have someone hit the accelerator while you hold the rope. Fun!

Anyway, it’s getting cold here. The proof is on my car:

The sun rises a little after 8 now, and sets almost exactly 12 hours later. That’s an hour less daylight than we had 3 weeks ago. This is where the sun sits at around 10am right now:

Tomorrow, I think I’ll setup my hd camera and capture the sunrise. Hopefully it won’t be too cloudy.

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