First Snow

I think October 16 is early for snow even for Homer, Alaska. Thankfully we got a few inches, so the kids could play in it (and eat it) before heading off to school. Not sure why kids love to eat snow so much, but I've pretty much given up trying to stop them. Before admitting defeat, I showed them where the neighbor's dog pooped in our yard thinking that would surely deter them. They both agreed not to eat that snow, but the rest was fair game as far as they were concerned. We still had a few lingering raspberries on the the vine, so they picked the raspberries, mashed them into a bowl with some snow and proceeded to eat it with spoons.

The sky was so overcast that that we couldn't see the mountains or water, so I took a picture looking North. It was spectacular and a good reminder that there is more to look at than just the mountains.

Snow = sledding, so obviously we gave that a go. It was very muddy since the ground is not completely frozen yet, but an insanely fun time nonetheless. As the temperatures droppped and things started to freeze, Kate could not wait to get on her ice skates. We bought her the skates in May when we told her we were moving to Alaska (that seems like a year ago now), and she has been waiting to test them out ever since.

This is frozen mud in the cul-de-sac in front of our house, but she really couldn't wait. The next day we headed to the ice rink for a quick lesson.

Birdman said he had fun too, so we hope to try it again next weekend. I actually had a preview of the ice arena Friday night when I joined the Homer Broomball League. It was the first time I've had a sitter and been out after dark in months. It felt great to chug a beer and hang out with adults not to mention try a new sport and get some exercise. Broomball is a bit like hockey, but you wear shoes and run on the ice. The ball is a little softer and larger than a softball, and you're allowed to kick it (good for me and my soccer mentality). You are also allowed to bat it down with your hands (who knew). Ultimately though everyone uses their broom (stick with rubber wedge on it) the majority of the time.

Since I was hoping to meet friends and hang out, I left the camera at home, but took a quick photo before leaving the house.

Our new love of ice sports continued today when the kids made up their own hockey game on our frozen mud pond using sticks and a smashed tin can.

 

Our fall has been busy exploring even before the snow started to fall. We've spent quite a bit of time at the city's new park. The Homer community came together and built the park in 7 days last spring.

Of course the park comes complete with Marimbas (above) and a million dollar view (below).

We were unable to find a play structure for our yard before the cold weather set in, but Kate doesn't seem to mind. You can find her on our little swing any time of day and in any weather.

Kate has joined Girl Scouts and I would imagine the Alaska Girl Scouts to be crazy tough and cool. She earned her first badge doing beach clean up. Her stretch of Bishop's Beach was quite beautiful.

It took a good 15 minutes to even find a piece of trash. The 50 foot tidal range makes for wonderfully wide beaches at low tide. After hunting around the sticks and kelp at the high tide mark, the girls were able to find some styrofoam, bottles caps, plastic wrappers etc, but it was still a pretty small haul.

James and I have spent a few mornings on the same beach enjoying coffee and the view.

We even manage to get in a few planks here and there to keep us fit. Well, James does anyway.

This fall, I was lucky enough to accompany Kate's class on a field trip to Beluga Lake in town. The lake is used for float planes in the summer and fall and I hear there will ice skating and car racing (?) in the winter. The class tried a little pond dipping and we walked through the slough, a tidal, muddy marsh connecting the lake to Kachemak Bay.

We've also spent time at the local Pratt Museum learning about homesteading, walking their trails,

and feeding the fish.

Hickory is on it's way home, so undoubtedly my next post will include activities with Brian. I think if he wrote a blog it would be mad interesting. Their most recent trip was to remove, replace, and maintain buoys, but also included watching the crab boats leave Dutch Harbor for the start of crabbing season on Oct 15, searching for a fisherman that went overboard setting a cod pot, and rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter from a beach with grizzly bear in site. And that's just what I've heard about through our brief email connection. James loves to hear stories about Brian and Hickory boat. He was running man zebra overboard drills the other day during his "rest" time.

The kids are beyond ready to see Brian and could use some real rough-housing. Today we went on a nature walk with some friends in the morning and the kids could not stop with the pig pile.

 

 

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