Its snow time!!

It is just starting to get wintery here.  The darkness is starting to take over, but hasn't yet, and there have been a few storms.

But no snow.  At least not at sea level.

There is snow on all of the mountains though, and the snow level has remained at around 2000 ft for the past couple of weeks. 
I have been wanting to get out and touch the snow, but everyone keeps telling me to wait for it.  It will be here soon enough.  But that's not my style.
So today, with Ernie at work and all the chores done at home, I decided to go to the snow.

I chose the fastest and easiest route possible to get there:  I went up Mt. Roberts. 

A view of downtown Juneau from about half a mile up the trail.

The trail is nothing but uphill (unless you are coming down) and I gained almost 2000 ft in an hour.  It was tiring, but I finally got to the snow, touched it, and headed back down.

The first snow that I saw on the trail, just below the tram.  Pathetic, I know, but you gotta start somewhere.

All around the trail there were birds and squirrels collecting food for the impending winter, and I saw deer and rabbit tracks all over the snow.

Mt. Roberts.  I didn't go all the way to the top, even though it is only another 1000 vertical feet or so.

I am satisfied for now, and of course, the snow level is predicted to come down to the 800 ft level in the next few days, so I really could have waited for it.
Except I couldn't.

Looking across to Mt Juneau, down the channel, and towards the valley.

Winter Garden???

Yesterday Ernie and I built a cold frame.

What that actually means:

I built the wooden box for the cold frame several days ago when Ernie was at work.

I decided I wanted to build the top.  I asked Ernie for some advice about something.
And then the engineer took over.  It is probably better.  He is capable of cutting in a straight line (partly because he keeps his eyes open, I'm sure), and the whole thing is probably more structurally sound.  And he got the challenge of building onto something that I had already started. 

You see, I am not an engineer.  I don't think that I have ever heard the phrase spoken aloud, but I'm sure I have been thought of as an "anti-engineer".
And when I built my part of the frame, I just kinda thought about it for a minute, and then started cutting.  And pieced it together as I went.
It worked fine.  But that was also my design for the lid, which is slightly more complex.  (But only slightly.)  And Erno's brain doesn't accept that level of planning.  So he had to turn it around in his own head until he came up with A Plan.  At least it entertained me as I stood watching him work on my project.

And I also got to run to the store for more screws.  And clean everything up.

Is nice though, no?
It is made of real cedar fence boards, and the lights are acrylic sheets, and the hinge is vinyl fabric.
And I have very many seeds to test out in it.  I just hope it is not too late.  And I hope that none of the seeds need direct sunlight.
But it should keep things relatively warm and dry.

We'll see how it goes.  If there is progress and success, I'm sure I will update you.  If everything fails, we may just forget this ever happened.

Decisions

Hi Guys!!
Sorry for the long absence.  I have been in the process of rethinking this blog.

When I first started this blog, it was to keep everyone updated on the goings-on up here in Juneau.  A way to stay connected, if you will.  I had no idea that Ernie would also be interested in having a blog.
For a while I saw his blog as some sort of competition, with his updates making it unnecessary for me to update.  His argument was that we see things differently, and write about different things, which is true, but for awhile I didn't know how I would do that.  I'm still not sure...

The other thing that I have discovered during this process is that I am not a photographer.  I don't think my pictures are that bad, but I am unwilling to spend time with my face behind a camera when there is stuff going on.  Case in point:  during the last two major events in my life, whale-watching on my birthday and our wedding-on-the-roof, I haven't even taken a single picture.  It either didn't occur to me in all of the excitement, or I haven't wanted to give up the big picture to record the little picture.  Ernie, on the other hand, is an aspiring photographer and constantly takes pictures wherever we are.  Very good pictures at that.  And a lot of them.  Thank god for digital cameras, or we would be spending a fortune on film.  Again.

What I am interested in is the writing.  I just have this idea that no one would be interested in my blog if I didn't sprinkle it with interesting pictures throughout.  Which is actually okay with me, now that I think about it.  So I think I have decided to keep writing, and not stress out about not having pictures to put up.  I will leave that part to Erno.  I still have plenty of words.

That said, I also have some pictures...

Turns out, I like to take pictures of ice and blueberries.  So that's what you get.

Look mom!  I got my picture taken with an iceberg!

The Mendenhall glacier visitor center.

I love the clouds in this picture! 

We are currently in the process of clinging to the last bit of summer.  The weather has been good, but it is getting dark early, so we brought our kayaks to Mendenhall lake (3 minutes from our house), and kayaked around the icebergs for a couple of hours.  There is some sort of sign saying we couldn't get within sight of the face of the glacier, so we didn't, but Ernie said it had been there since he was a kid, so maybe they just forgot to take it down.  I'm sure we will give it a try when there are less tourists around.

The Weir

Auke Creek--looking towards the ocean

Every morning for work the first place that I go is to the weir to count sockeye (and all the other types of fish mentioned in the last post).
The weir spans Auke Creek entirely, and the only spot where fish are able to move upstream or downstream is through a little (1 foot) opening that leads into a big trap.  This allows us to get an exact count of all the fish moving up the creek.  In the winter the weir is in the downstream position, and all of the out-migrating fish can be counted.

Auke Creek--looking toward the lake.

Auke Creek is a fairly short creek that drains Auke Lake, and runs into Auke Bay.  The weir is located just above tidewater.  The salmon are collected into the trap and once or twice a day we come down and count them and take a tissue sample to extract DNA from.  Then they are released into the creek on the upstream side of the weir to go spawn.

The trap.  It is about 12x24 feet.  I could go back and take a picture that is in focus--but I probably won't.

Fishes in the creek--upstream side.

 

So that's the weir.  It's not a bad place to wake up (most mornings).  There are eagles that hang out there, and berries, and it is quiet and forested, and until recently it even smelled good.  Now, not so much.  But the live salmon aren't rotten yet, so that's a plus. 

Now I am gonna go play.  It is a gorgeous Saturday that is supposed to hit 80F, and we are going to hang out at a beach barbecue, and go hiking, and other fun stuff.

And I will go buy shoes another day, when it is raining.  I have a pair picked out though, I swear.

Also, it is salmon derby weekend, which seems to be some sort of weird holiday here.  It pretty much means that we can't go kayaking, even though the water is supposed to be perfect.  Oh well, we will have all winter to go out in the boats.

And just like that, it is raining.
And we turned the heat on.

So now I will have plenty of time to babble on about my life to you all.

And now its time for 5 things make a post:

• As I turned on the highway this afternoon, on my way home from work, a little black bear bounded out of the bushes, saw that I was there, milled around on the side of the road like he found something interesting, then galloped across the road as soon as I passed him.

• I love Alaska!!

• Every morning for work the first thing I do is check the fish weir.  There have been a couple hundred fish holding in the trap the last few days.  The species:  Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus  gorbuscha), Sockeye salmon (O. nerka), Chum salmon (O. keta), and some Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma malma), and Cutthroat trout (O. clarki).  We should get a king salmon (O. tshawytscha) or two in soon, but it is too early for coho yet (O. kisutch).  

• The pinks are the main research subject of one of the grad students, I work on sockeye, and the chum are all strays from a hatchery called DIPAC.

• Tonight we went out and ate mexican food, and it didn't suck nearly as much as I remember!  It is still impossible to get a burrito in this town though.

That's all!

Juneau Summer

Juneau is beautiful. 
It is a tiny (relatively) strip of land that is surrounded on all sides by magnificence. 
There are trees, and mountains, and forests, and wildlife surrounding us all of the time.
And mostly, the people that live here know it is beautiful.

But Juneau is also in a rainforest.  Statistically, any day is more likely to be rainy than not, and even if the rain isn't falling, it is a fair bet that the clouds are edging their way towards sea level, sometimes sneaking down the mountains, while other times things disappear into the fog before you even noticed it was there.
It's as if someone is lowering the ceiling.
The fog swirling along the mountains and forests can be breathtaking too.  And even, sometimes, rain is beautiful (actually I usually think it is pretty, I am just guessing at how others may feel).

But it doesn't take long for people to forget what is behind the clouds.  Yeah, they can look at pictures, but pictures are never the same as the whole view.
And people go on about their lives, knowing where they are, but not thinking about what is obscured by the mist.

Luckily, rain doesn't last forever, and eventually the mist is burned away to expose the complete landscape.  And even though we knew it was there all along, somehow we had forgotten the details.  And the colors, and the views, and the feeling that someone is opening your cage to release you is quite intoxicating. 
Summers are short in Alaska, and when it is sunny the residents are driven to absorb every precious minute of it.  Every sunny day at work we remind ourselves that this could be the last day of summer, no matter the month, and we should enjoy it now.  There will be plenty of time to accomplish things in the winter, and anyway it is nearly impossible to be productive with the sun shining in the windows.

It is fair to say that I hated summers in Portland.  I dreaded them for months beforehand, and hibernated in the basement during the hot spells.

But Juneau summers have meaning to me.  They are things to enjoy.

So that is why I don't post when the sun is out, or answer my emails quickly. 
I am out hiking, or kayaking, or sitting on the beach absorbing every possible moment of the sun (note:  this is different than getting a tan, the sun is usually too far away to burn even me).

Summer won't last forever, and even now the darkness is gaining. . .

For mama

                                               Die sicht auf der Gletscher ist fabelhaft.

Hi everyone.  The weather is great around here right now, but I have failed to take many pictures.  Posting will resume with the rain.  We have been spending a lot of time around the glacier, trying to avoid the tourists that are trucked there by the bus load.
I hope everyone's lives are going well.