Spring Is Moving Along

Wooly Lousewort




Willow

This Old House

Crazy Dog Part 2

Rememeber when I said that my dog was smart???? Consider this an official retraction of that statement.



Here is Kaija chasing ducks in a pond. She swam about 5 circles around this pond chasing them.




The ducks would stay just out of her reach. I really think Kaija though that she was going to catch them.




She wasn't going to give up. It got to the point that I thought she would tire out and drown....so I hollered at her to quit and come back. I had to holler plenty before she gave up.

Red Necked Phalarope

More Breakup Pics

Wordless Wednesday- Spring Shower

Memorial Weekend

Excuse my absense these last few days. I got lazy over the weekend and didn't go through my pics.

In Kotzebue, Memorial Day is a day where many people spend some time at the graves of their loves ones sprucing things up. Last years artificial flowers are thrown away and new ones take their place. It's a time to cut back the bushes and give crosses a fresh coat of paint. Here are a few pics from Memorial weekend taken up on Cemetery Hill...













FYI...I will be leaving on Sunday for a two week trip to NH to visit family. During that time I will still be posting but it will be pictures of NH. I'll be back in Kotzebue June 14th.

Open Water

The Noatak River is open all the way to town. Here is a picture of the mouth of the river. People are already boating up to hunt ducks and geese and gather seagull eggs.





Every year spring feels like a miracle to me. When it is January it sometimes feel like it will take forever for it to warm up and melt the snow and ice. I think the opening of the river was earlier this year than last year. I would have to go back an look through my old pictures to be sure.





Noah and I decided to go up on the hill and have a picnic. I still wasn't feeling well but I was tired of being cooped up in the house.





It was pretty windy. About 15-20mph from the south. At least there were no mosquitoes.





Kaija was having fun chasing all the little birdies...





...but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't catch any.





On the way home we saw a flock of swans (or are they geese?) flying over town.

Breakup

Here is a photo of the Noatak River taken yesterday. All the ice was broken up into pieces that were grinding against each other with no place to go.




This photo was taken today. WooHoo!!! Open water. The ice is cracking up, and moving down the river to bunch up at the mouth and wait until the ice opens un in front of Kotzebue. When it does that it will open a path that goes out the river mouth along the current in front of Kotz and out to sea.

(These two photos were not taken by me)

Google MD

I seem to have come down with a cold. That's not surprising seeing that it has been a few months since I was sick. I had intentions of going to bed early last night but that never happened. I ended up watching TV most of the night laying in bed coughing and feeling sorry for myself. At around 12:30am I happened to look out the window and see a beautiful sunset. I fell back and pulled the covers over my head telling myself that there will be a hundred beautiful sunsets to come this summer......but I couldn't let it go. I headed out to take some pics. Here are a few that were taken at approximately 1 am.....














So I woke up this morning and immediately needed to suck on my inhaler. The cold hadn't improved. I stepped off the edge of the bed and a terrible burning pain in my instep shot up my leg. Geez what the heck is that? I literally could not walk on my left foot. I hobbled/hopped/crawled my way downstairs to the computer to look up my latest malady. Being the professional Google Doctor that I am I have diagnosed myself with Posterior Tibial Tendonitis. No, really, I think that is what it is. If that's true I am pretty much screwed because it's one of those things that you basically can't do anything about. The recommendations are rest, ice, and arch supports. Well, it's either that or something equally mysterious and technical sounding. This really cramps my style, especially since I am leaving on vacation in 9 days.

Empty Husks

Photo Friday

Idols, Rivers, and Fog

I went to my friend's house tonight to watch the American Idol season finale. My friend, Kathy, has been faithfully watching Idol for years. I, on the other hand, watch sporadically. I figure I will wait until all the second rate singers have been weeded out and then I'll watch. I wanted David Archuleta....Kathy wanted David Cook. Oh well, win some lose some.


So I haven't taken any pics for a couple days. It has been too foggy...that is unless people want to see pics with a lot of gray in them.



If I were to take a picture this is what it would look like, courtesy of Photoshop.



Here is a pic of the Noatak River today...not taken by me. As you can see the ice is rotting away and has some big potholes. I think it is open from the Aggie River up. Pretty soon the open water will come around the corner and be visable from this vantage point advancing every day. I will post pics of the river as I get them in anticipation of open water...woo hoo.

Wordless (almost) Wednesday

Check out Wordless Wednesday

A couple Photos

Chewing Grass

Today's View

Outdoor Boy