Just A Quick Update...

..not because anything exciting has happened. Just because it's been a long time.

Life plods on. Spring will surely be coming soon, even though we woke up to thin snow on the ground nearly every day for the past week-and-a-half. It melts off by mid-morning and the daytime temperatures have been getting into the upper forties down in town, but there is still the chill of winter hanging on around the edges of the day.

Denny and I moved two tall cabinets down into the kitchen this past week. He had been wanting to do that for some time to increase storage space but I resisted because there just wasn't room. There still isn't room--the metal desk is pushed over right next to the wood stove--but he is happier and I have to admit, it is nice having a place to put so many of those things that just seemed to live on the countertop.

We also cleaned out the freezers this week and canned three batches (about forty-five pints) of freezer-burned salmon and halibut for the cats. The house still smells of cooked fish but it is nice to have what was clutter transformed into a treat for the cats.

The other bug Denny has up his butt is to find some vacant land nearby as an investment. So this morning, we were out driving the North Fork Road before ten-o-clock. The portion of the road closest to Anchor Point has been pretty much trashed by gravel pits but there are some level, well-drained areas out further east and some actual view property on the higher portion of the road that heads south over the ridge before rejoining the highway. I noticed that there was still two or three feet of snow up at the higher elevations and that one wouldn't want to live out there if they had a job that they had to get to every day, as I imagine there are several days a winter when you just don't make it into town from portions of the North Fork.

Back at our place, the snow is receding but we are still waiting for the first grass to make an appearance.

Inching Toward Spring

Woke up to another inch of snow on the deck (yesterday's inch having melted away) Ha ha, Ma Nature--very funny... There's still probably a foot of hard-frozen snow in noncontiguous areas of the yard, with the dead grass of last fall peeking out in places.

Lest you think we only have one season in Alaska (and Denny just pointed out if we have just one season, it wouldn't really be a season, then, would it?) the number of Alaskan seasons has been various given as:

Two: Winter and Construction. Or Winter Major and Winter Minor.

Three: Freeze-up, Break-up and Pick-up.

Four: Not Winter, Almost Winter, Winter and Still Winter.

Or five: Winter, Break-up, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Yes, we like to joke about our weather, we do. By most accounts, anyway, we seem to be moving into Break-up. The overnight temperature--despite the snow the last two nights, is hovering around freezing and we are reminded that snow has a liquid form. There are--honest--green shoots coming out of the venerable chive plant that has spent the winter on the front porch. It is always the first thing to green up in the spring and it is reminding me that I need to haul water out to the greenhouse this week. I guess I'll try to find the time tomorrow, between taking Denny into the hospital for a check up, tending the cats and going to work. I don't know what's the point of daylight-savings. My days are always too short.

April Fools!

Yesterday's snow was melted by evening but today dawned cooler and the morning mist turned to snow about eleven. It snowed steadily until after five this evening.

Happy Spring and all that!

If I was perfectly organized, I would have started flower seeds by now but I can already see that that isn't going to happen. Even if I did, it would be a constant battle to keep the cats from eating the sprouts. In another month I can run out to the commercial green houses and pick my flowers for the year. I need to get out to my own green house and see what has survived the winter. Some of the plants I bought last year were supposed to be perennials.