Let's put the moose to work!

Spring sure seems to have sprung lately! Yesterday it got up to 37 degrees here at camp (and even higher in the valley) and today is shaping up to be another brilliant, beautiful warm sunny day! It is just amazing! I think this is my favorite time of year so far! These temperatures are heavenly, the days are getting quite a bit longer now (light from about 8 am to 6 pm) and the sunshine on the snow just gives everything such a brilliant sparkle! Oksana is thrilled to be able to walk home in the daylight. She'll feel a LOT better about the walk to school when she can see better in the morning! She noticed this morning already that it is significantly lighter out when they have to leave. Then again, now they need to watch out more carefully for the moose and water over the ice! It has been so warm that the springs are starting to really run on top of the ice. The moose are getting hungry from lack of food to eat so they are getting a big crabby. This is probably one of the most dangerous times of year for run-ins with moose.

We watched the Super Bowl with Dan and Sandy Lee and Lee and Susie Althens (who built the house we live in). Susie had quite the moose story about the crabby moose that chased her into the greenhouse one day so now Oksana doesn't like me going out to the greenhouse unless she watches. I'm not sure what she intends to do, but I suspect that she feels like she can protect me by watching? I keep the compost in the greenhouse so Eider won't get into it so I need to go out there every so often. Then all of a sudden yesterday we saw this:


It doesn't show up in that picture, but the path behind the baby is the path to the greenhouse! Since he was so curious, Rodney put baby to work stacking wood:


They were just passing by:


I also got a picture of the gully not far from our house that is quite spectacular. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but I'll show you anyway:


I'm pretty sure this is the one they call Hick's Creek. I get so turned around it isn't funny. I need to sit down with a layout map at some point and figure out the "lay of the land" and where different trails and parts of camp are situated.

This week I had a bit of spring fever so I asked one of the ladies at camp to go shopping with me (mostly just window shopping, nothing serious). She wasn't able to go this week so I was sort of at a loss as to what to do so (heaven help me!) I did some cleaning and organizing! I even filed that 2' stack of paper that has been building up since we moved here!!! Ack! AND I got my craft spot organized and usable! All because Nicole wouldn't come with me to town! Haha! So now I'm ready to sit down and do my taxes (ick) AND catch up on some of those cards and letters that I've been putting off! It's all Nicole's fault! Here's the mostly-organized craft area. I still haven't finished the window quilts for these windows yet but I need to get to those too. It gets downright HOT up there with the sun being so bright and shining so much lately! We've even been leaving the one window cracked open all the time now otherwise it is too hot to sleep too. I'm definitely going to want those quilts up before long to keep the sun out! I know a lot of people can't fathom it being too hot in Alaska, but it happens! Honest! It can get up to 80 up there VERY quickly! That's about 10 degrees too hot!


Earl and Elaine Anders got back from "outside" last night. We are so excited to have them back! Rodney will breathe easier knowing that he can rely on Earl to help with some of the fickle furnaces not to mention that he's more than a bit handicapped with his broken fingers! The bottom line though is that they're just really fun people to work with and we've missed them! On a more somber note, we'd really appreciate prayers for Rod right now. Dianne ended up taking him to the hospital earlier this week because he had chest pains. He thought he was just having trouble breathing due to a virus, but there's also fluid around his heart and they have no idea why. This virus is really hitting him hard! We're praying that they can figure out what is going on and that the virus doesn't cause any permanent damage. So far all the tests look good, but there are still some alarming problems going on. Similarly, we're still waiting for word on my uncle and the tests he had on Monday. Waiting, waiting, waiting. We do so much of it and still don't get any better at it!