. Kaija and Rush love water. They don't care it it's a big puddle full of slush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ravin' Ravens

. My first boat ride of the season was yesterday. What a beautiful day. I took tons of photos that I plan on sharing over the next few days. I'm on my way to Fairbanks until Wednesday for work so I will post photos from the boat ride while I am gone. As we were crossing Kotzebue sound boating along the ice these two ravens were having a midair fight. . . . . . . . . . . . .

First Things that Grow

. As soon as the topmost layer of soil on the tundra thaws just a bit things start to grow. . I'm not sure what these are but they are already starting to poke out. . This is Hairy Lousewort. . Soon it will be blooming with purple/pink flowers. .

. These two photos were taken around 1:10 am last night.
. Oh and by the way, this is the 1,000th post on this blog :) .

Breakup

The ice is breaking up and moving out. This is the best time of year. It's not very dramatic right now, but when the ice really gets moving it can put on quite the show. It jumbles and piles up, sometimes into huge piles. Too bad I'm stuck in the office all day. When I look out my office here is the view that tortures me all day long. It is so nice out :)

Isingak

. The other day Ahna Lena and I took drive on the road behing Kotzebue. The dogs ran around and Ahna picked Labrador Tea on the tundra. While we were out there we saw several long-tailed jaegers. Ahna said that in Inupiaq they are called Isingak (IH-sing-uk. She said "We also used to call then 'shit hawks' in english. I asked "why is that?" And she replied, "I dunno, we just did". .

. .