Life in the Sticks: The Owl

We started our building project in the fall of 2007, shortly after David began working out here he spotted "the biggest owl" he'd ever seen. Over the years he has spotted the owl several times, flying around the house, perched high in the trees, once it even sat on the bushes watching him while he worked outside. I, on the other hand, had never spotted the owl, not once. I was beginning to think it was a figment of his imagination, surely I would have seen it after 3 years of living out here! Well, this morning I did finally see it and it.was.awesome! The boys and I watched it fly back and forth in the back yard, I assume looking for little rodents to make its breakfast. Three times it stopped and just perched on a bush (or a snow pile) looking around, turning its head this way and that in the crazy cool way owls move. We were fascinated but it and it total awe of how HUGE it was!! Seeing it I was even comforted slightly because, despite it's large size, I do not think it is quite big enough to carry off my oversized mini- dachshund, especially with his added "holiday weight" lol. It was SO neat to practially jump up and down in my giddy excitement see the excitement on my kid's faces while watching the owl, and to hear my their shrieks of joy when it looked our way. I love living out here in the "sticks", I know it's not for everyone but I LOVE encountering nature on a near daily basis...except for that stinking muskrat...that blog will be coming soon. I actually want to start a "series" of 'Life in the Sticks' blogs about the random things that happen on 30 acres of "wild land" 20 mins from town,  an idea I got after my run in with a muskrat, so I guess this is the first. I kept forgetting to post the muskrat story, so that one will be from the "archives" of my mind but it's a good one, and a good laugh...now...

In the meantime, try not to hold your breath for in anticipation & enjoy the few pictures I snapped of our elusive owl friend this morning. 

"What are you looking at?!?"

This was crazy cool to watch but hard to photograph with a point & shoot

I wish you could see this better, you can sort of see how long his wing is in relation to his body. It was SUPER impressive!

An Ak snow day in pictures...

Ok, so not totally wordless. Let's face it, I'm not real big on silence anyway lol....

SO, yesterday was the first time I had been sledding in a long time. Sad, I know, but it had been nearly two years to the day. The last time I sped down a hill on a piece of plastic I was an expecting mother of one, man how the time flies! At any rate the weather finally warmed up and gave us enough snow to use our sledding hill. This day was a wonderfully warm 25 degrees (yes, that's warm for us, especially after a week of sub-zero weather) so we left the confinement of our home and played in the snow. Here are a few snapshot highlights of the day...

Ready to roll, rocking the old borrowed snow gear. Seriously, it was all borrowed but my boots, the snowsuit was my mom's when I was a kid lol

My father in law John played photographer

Oh what fun it is to ride... even my wiener dog Dobbie got in on the fun

Josh got a lot of snow in his face...

So he played in the snow instead...& ate a bit too

I hadn't ridden a snow machine (yes we call them snow machines up here, we call those things that make snow snow makers) in a long time & I had a BLAST!

Loving on my main man, 11.5 years together now :)

I was SO proud of Isaiah, he went down the hill all by himself over & over. He even hauled his own sled back up a few times...

And sometimes he let Uncle JJ haul him up...

My mother in law Becky going down the hill, I am not sure if she was sledding or plowing the way for the rest of us. She didn't want to go too fast so she kept the brakes out :)

Isaiah was in heaven

First the fun...

Now the hard work...

David used the snow machine to haul the kids up many times, I tried to hoof it

My family, furry kids included

Climbing the hill is hard work

A whole heap of Petty's tired out after a FUN afternoon

It was a wonderful day, one we hoped to repeat today but alas the weather warmed up too much and we had rain (yup rain, in December, in Alaska). No one had more fun than Isaiah, I think it gave him a boost of confidence to do so much on his own. At one point he announced to us all that "he was really good at sledding!". Later he pointed out that everyone else kept crashing because they weren't very good at steering but he was really really good at it lol. I look forward to another snow day, maybe even a sledding party!!

Life in the Sticks: Moose Tongues

My husband & I were very blessed to find a beautiful 30 acre piece of land just 10 mins outside the town we live in- 30 acres! In urban areas our little piece of land would be home to at least 120 families! That blows my mind! Living here has its downsides; the road can be a bit sketchy sometimes getting back here, a "quick trip" to town requires a minimum of an hour & people sometimes have a hard time finding us (just ask the pizza delivery gal who took 45 mins to go 2 miles). The upsides though, oh man, they are worth all the negative; room for my kids to explore, silence that is almost deafening at times, only one neighbor within site of our house (barely) & so much beauty!

One of my favorite parts about living here is the wildlife, particularly moose. I love moose, they are my favorite Alaskan animal, hands down. If you have never seen one in real life you are missing out, sure they are a little awkward looking but they move so gracefully & just have soft eyes. Ok, I may sound a little crazy but it's true. The moose we have around our property are not so shy, they don't seem to mind that we have invaded "their" turf & go about their business as if we aren't here. Our moose have taken a real liking to our vehicles, or "licking" to if I want to throw in a bad pun lol. What do I mean, you ask. Well for many months now my husband & my trucks have been covered in tongue prints, yes I said tongue prints. You see, moose (like all herbivores) need salt & apparently the grime on our vehicles is an excellent source of it. I have been hoping to catch them in the act all winter & last night we finally got lucky.

As we were putting our kiddos to bed my husband happened to look out the window & see one of our visitors wandering past my truck, just feet from our front door. We watched for a minute &, sure enough, the yearling ventured over to my husband's truck & began licking. Boy was I excited! I immediately found my camera & went outside. Now, let me warn you, moose may look goofy but they can be deadly, especially in cases of calves & their mommies. Cow moose are VERY protective of their young & you never wander out attempting to get close to a calf or it's mommy. I stayed a safe distance, sheltered by my truck, from this yearling. I could hear it's mom munching on some brush about 100 feet away & at all times during my picture snapping was aware of both animals. Still, I got some decent pics & am excited to share. Keep in mind it was very dark so they are grainy but you can see our little friend pretty clearly going to town on the truck. I did some noise making & even managed to get him/her, couldn't tell which, to look at me.

BUSTED! Below is the evidence they were working on my own truck after we went to sleep. My truck is seriously 10 feet from our front door, they have no fear!

Pretty great, right? Just one thing I love about Alaska & living in "the sticks". Stay tuned, summer's coming & the eagles will be out again!