snow day

Today was a crazy crazy snow day. The snow started falling last Friday, actually, but we finally dug out from that, had one sunny day on Sunday, then back to heavy snow Monday morning and by 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, the snow situation was out of control - blowing winds, heavy snowfall, drifts all over the place.

But this morning, when I opened the door, I saw a wall of snow like I have never seen before here. Easily 4.5 feet tall, it was so high that the dog couldn't even get through it to go pee.

arrrrggg

BLIZZARD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AKST TUESDAY AROUND
KACHEMAK BAY...

THE BLIZZARD WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AKST TUESDAY
AROUND KACHEMAK BAY.

A POWERFUL STORM WILL TRACK ACROSS THE WESTERN GULF TODAY AND
THEN MOVE INLAND OVER THE EASTERN KENAI PENINSULA TONIGHT. AS IT
APPROACHES THE KENAI PENINSULA EARLY THIS EVENING WINDS WILL
SHIFT TO WEST TO SOUTHWEST 30 TO 45 MPH ALONG KACHEMAK BAY. THESE
WINDS WILL COMBINE WITH SNOW TO PRODUCE VISIBILITIES OF ONE
QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
TO CONTINUE THROUGH EARLY TUESDAY MORNING WHEN THE SNOW WILL
TAPER OFF.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS
AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITE-OUT
CONDITIONS...MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. ALL TRAVEL AND
OUTDOOR ACTIVITY IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED.

the crazies

There are weeks when you feel like you could be living anywhere and you ask yourself, "What's the big deal about living in Alaska?"

This was not one of them.

After Matt took the kids on Thursday night, I went up to a friend's house for a visit and a sauna. As the evening progressed, the snowflakes multiplied and the wind began to build. It was pretty obvious I wasn't going anywhere. By morning, the flakes had accumulated to several feet of snow, and the wind picked up.

I worked all morning from Crossman Ridge thanks to a laptop and an internet connection, hoping for a break in the weather. No such luck. The storm intensified, the wind got worse, and resistance was futile. Saturday morning revealed much of the same and more snow fell and made a mockery of the paths I had shoveled in a vain effort to make order out of the now-waist-high drifts between the house and the woodshed.

Saturday afternoon, the snow finally abated enough to chop some wood, but then the wind kicked up again and the temperature dropped. A ski to assess the car situation proved dangerous when my gloves were inadequate for the conditions and I wound up having to ski back in without using my poles so I could keep my frozen fingers in my coat pockets.

Finally, on Sunday morning, the weather broke after 3 days of madness and I made the trek out and freed the car from its tomb of drifts. At home, I was greeted by more crazy drifts, and then, even better, the heating oil in the monitor stove had run out, dropping the temperature in the house down to 40 degrees. I quickly lit a fire in the woodstove and started shoveling. Matt brought the kids up around 1 p.m., and after some lunch and outside time (it was a beautiful bluebird day at this point ) Thea went down for a nap and Liam and I went back to work on the shoveling.

After about an hour, I went back to the house to check on Thea and heard a strange noise when I walked in the mudroom. Was the washing machine on? No, there was a flood coming from the laundry room. A pipe leading to the outside faucet had burst, flooding the house with several inches of water while I shoveled. I quickly turned off the fuse to the water pressure tank, and started to clean up the mess using every towel in the house while plugging the kids into an Elmo movie to keep them happy in the living room for a bit.

After the mess was cleaned up, we headed into town to find parts and pieces that might work as a fix. I got the typical not-so-helpful advice from various hardware store people who had a hard time dealing with my description of the copper-to-pvc-to-cpvc-to-metal set-up. But I got some parts and pieces, and some pipe glue and brought it all home. After dinner, I took a saw to the pipes, then gingerly and with lots of prayers and pipe cement applied a cap to the line.

Then kids to bed, and two hours wait until I could turn the water back on and see if it worked. At 9 p.m., I flipped the switch, and yes! it held. Another successful chapter in singlehood drew to a close.

This morning we woke to another blizzard, and a third (fourth?) on the way this evening. The fuel guys said they might not be able to make it up there today with the storms, so I'll probably go home at lunch to stoke the fire. What an adventure this week is turning out to be.

quote du jour

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow."-Dorothy Thompson

boxes, funerals, etc.

On Sunday afternoon, after many letters were written, drawings created, and heartfelt thoughts expressed, Liam, Théa and I finally managed to hold a funeral for Breton. It is amazing to me how important these rituals are to Liam, but you could see he really needed to do it properly. We cut out pictures of her that I had found from over the years and put them in plastic ziplocs with ribbons threaded through them. We hung those from the tree over her grave. We painted pictures on two rocks we got from the beach and varnished them so they wouldn't fade too quickly. Liam placed flowers all around her grave, and then we said a few words about how important she had been in our lives. Liam, I think, may be a natural at writing Halmark cards in his adult life. He certainly is now, anyway. And then I played a song on the fiddle, and we said goodbye to Breton. Both Liam and I choked up as we walked away. Théa ate snow from her mittens. So it goes.



It's been an interesting week - a little winter returned, just enough to remind us where we live, but not enough to really ski on much. We spent some time doing more box deconstruction - the mileage I get out of cereal boxes and tape continues to baffle me. But with temps hovering around 35, I sent both kids outside today before dinner. They went onto the deck and threw snowballs at Hannah, who caught them in the air, much to the delight of both children. Peels of laughter rang from the deck. It was great. I made dinner, played the fiddle a little, and didn't get badgered for at least a half hour and they blew off some steam. Outside=mutually beneficial. I'm really looking forward to spring and spending more time out there this year with two fully mobile and vigorous kids.



Part of my recent trip to Anchorage was to purchase the supplies for the greenhouse I'm constructing this spring. It's a hoop structure, 12x33 feet, modeled after a co-worker's design, which I toured earlier this month. Simple materials, simple construction, and a lot of growing space. Yes! So on Sunday, anticipating being able to plant in this structure on May 1, I planted my tomatoes and peppers, or at least the first batch of them. A little exciting to think that if all goes well, I may actually have the space to grow enough tomatoes to keep us happily in spaghetti through next winter. My, but that sounds vaguely familiar. I guess the apple, or the tomato, doesn't fall far from the tree. I just hope Théa and Liam get to climb this tree, too. It's a sturdy one that makes you feel whole inside.

puzzle

I never blogged about the puzzle Liam is holding in the previous post. We got that at the local toy store, and I scrambled it up for him. He worked on it for two weeks before he figured it out and got it. I tried one night to get it back together and couldn't. But Liam's brain works like that. I'm in awe. Look out world.

heat wave

It has been 40 for most of the past week, which is crazy. It hasn't been freezing at night, and the snow is melting so fast. We've had several days of rain, too. In town, there is no snow at all and even up on the hill, a walk in the woods fills your nose with the scent of spring and life. But even with climate change factors in our midst, it just cannot be. March can be an amazingly wintery month up here, and I have no doubt that we will get back into the snow and cold zone before this season lets go it's grip.

That said, it has been a wonderful break - almost like going to another place. The sunshine is up in the sky far enough that on a 40-degree day, you can actually feel heat coming from it. I've taken almost daily skis and walks in the forest lately, and felt the promise of another season that is ever-closer. And running is blissfully pleasant, though it still surprises me how warm I get. What? No hat?

The kids have been thoroughly enjoying the weather, too, and wow, is it nice to send them out and not have to tend to them so much or have them come hollering back in after 10 minutes complaining of cold fingers. They can walk on top of the snow now and it's like a giant football field - they were running all over the place. Good stuff. I shoveled off a bunch of the deck and they got out the trikes and then Liam decided to extricate the deck chairs, too. Pretty funny. It's supposed to return to 30s by the end of the week, but we are so enjoying it while it lasts. I've got to tie a bell around Thea, though. She moves pretty fast these days. She was playing with a soccer ball and it rolled down to the edge of the clearing and the first I knew of it was when I heard her hollering because she had post-holed into a spot by a tree way across the property. Sheesh. But at least they have room to play and enjoy the outdoors. I could barely lure them inside with the promise of food - a nice reprieve from the typical 1/2 hour wail-fest prior to dinner.