Snow in Port Angeles

It has snowed a 2-4 inches three times in the last week here in Port Angeles. It isn't common here, so I actually didn't have work on Thursday and Friday. Here are some pictures:

our house

Kody gets crazy in the snow, its the Alaskan in him.
Guarding all that is his.

A tanker heading towards Seattle on the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Looking down on houses to the East.

View from the recliner.

Visit to Roloff Farms Pumpkin Patch

We love the show "Little People, Big World." I think within 10 minutes of learning we were moving out here, Ryan realized we could go see their farm sometime. So, we drove down to pick our pumpkins for Halloween.Zack Roloff. His brother, Jeremy, drove our hayride.

Molly in the "Old Western Town".Jacob at the house.Zack running down the road, persued by a camera man.

The line was long, GO EARLY if you go. We waited maybe 40 minutes to park, but when we left he line had over tripled! We got to talk to Matt Roloff breifly, they are all as kind as they seem on the show.

October update

In the last month we moved from the cabin to a house. The cabin proved to be too rustic, the heating and water quality helped us make the decision to move on. The new house is the best place ever, I cannot believe our view. We are 50 feet from the edge of a bluff, we had to sign a waiver that we wouldn't sue the owners if we fell off. We look over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the land on the far side is Canada. We can see Victoria on a clear day and the lights at night.

Here is the view from the new house's living room (literally from the couch):

These are pheasant that roam the yard in the evening. Kody has a fit!

Below are photos from Ryan. His boat often escorts Navy ships and submarines through the strait. I saw the aircraft carrier go by from my couch and knew he was on one of the little white boats escorting it. I have pictures to add later, but these are from his point of view. The coast guard boat you will see is exactly like Ryan's (the Adelie). The CG uses two or more boats to escort them to sea.

There are seals resting on this buoy.

A rainbow from the water.Canadian Coast Guard ship.Seattle from the water.

Settled in Port Angeles

We are happily settled in Port Angeles, Washington now. We do not have internet at home, so I am going to stop blogging for the most part. I use the internet at the library, so I will be posting pictures on my flickr site:

www.flickr.com/mishak13

Here is a picture of our cabin. We live up in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, but only minutes from town.

More Kody and Barometer Mountain

I know I post lots of pictures of Kody and Barometer mountain, but they are the very photogenic things that I see every day!

Kody is very interested!
Clouds hiding Barometer.
Sunset behind Barometer.
Rocky beach near home
This is the beach nearby. Without snow on the trail, it is a 15 minute walk. With Kody, deep snow and ice melting, it took longer. The tide is out, we walked way down there. Kody gets pretty frisky when he is walking on sand.

The family

These photos show how big Kody is. And the picture of Lincoln is in our bedroom window, you can see the mountain behind her.

Dead Animals

I am adding some pictures from a while ago. Ryan really enjoys hunting. I am practically a vegetarian! I decided I feel fine about eating things that Ryan has hunted. He processed the deer himself, and we use ground venison now instead of ground beef. I can't tell the difference! I didn't eat any rabbit, it looked too much like Lincoln to me. Here are some pictures of his "kill".

Below is the SPAR after the guys had a stop to hunt. I don't remember how many deer they got in total, but here are the deer getting hoisted off of the boat, using a crane!

What kind of dog are you?

First of all, crap! I want this cute little cartoon of a lab to be up there. I don't get how to do it...ANYWAYS: I know, this is cheesy, but I loved it! I thought it was pretty accurate for the most part. Take the dog quiz, it is fun. Here is my description, I am just kidding on the intellegence part. And before you ask, yes I have too much time on my hands these days.

Labrador Retriever
The Caretaker
Your family is what makes you tick, and you never "flea" from an opportunity to hang out with the whole gang. A family picnic complete with hot dogs, deviled eggs and a refreshing swim in the lake is hard for you to stray from. Your sparky temperament and dogged intelligence mean you are not only a blast to hang out with, but great to work with as well. Your close pals appreciate your patience and forgiveness, knowing you'd rather let sleeping dogs lie than dwell on the mishaps of the past. Your dashing good looks may one day lead to a modelling career, if only you can tame the unfortunate clumsiness that sometimes causes you to go flailing from the catwalk.

Here is the link so you can take the quiz. I think I just found the best website ever, I am too into dogs!
http://www.dogster.com/quizzes/what_dog_breed_are_you/quiztaker/3077

Find Your Spot

Seward, Alaska

A friend sent me a link to a pretty interesting website,  Findyourspot.com

I took a survey that asked a lot of questions about living preferences, what you would like to live near, what climate you like, what fa

cilities you need near by, what kind of person you are in general.  Then, the website lists the top 24 places you should live.  This list was right on for us!  I was impressed that the survey learned enough about us to do such a good job.  21 out of 24 were in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.  Port Angeles isn't on there but a number of similar and/or near by cities are.  Hopefully we will continue to be lucky and live in this area.  Here is the list:

1. Seward, AK - Ryan is in dry-dock there right now!

2. Ketchikan, AK

3. Levenworth, WA

4. Astoria, OR - we visited in 2006 and again in 2007, we love it there! (Home of Goonies)

5. Joseph, OR

6. Metaline Falls, WA 

7. Palmer, AK

8. Homer-Kenai Peninsula, AK

9. Medina, WA

10. Mount Vernon, WA

11. Lincoln City, OR

12.  Newport, OR

13. St. Helens, WA

14. Bremerton, WA - close to Port Angeles

15. Wentachee, WA

16. Ashland, OR

17. Lewiston, ME

18. Montpelier, VT

19. Hood River, OR

20. Whidbey Island/Oak Harbor, WA

21. Anacortes, WA

22. Milwauke, OR

23. Johnson, VT

24. Shelburne Falls, MA

Canon Beach, near Astoria, Oregon

Surprise!

Well, we have some big news. We are moving this summer! Our blog title will not be descriptive of us anymore, as we will be living in Washington. We are 99% sure we will live in Port Angeles or the nearby area. We are very excited. We really do love Alaska and hope to transfer back here someday. Ryan is in the Coast Guard for the long run (retirement), so we will be stationed in at least three more locations after this move. We are up for some adventure!

So, Port Angeles...where is that? It is on the Olympic peninsula in Washington. Port Angeles (PA), is the town at the entrance of Olympic National Park. Lots of green, mountains, ocean, snow and all of that stuff we love. From what I have read there will be opportunities for skiing, bikeriding, hiking, kayaking, fishing and other activities that we have enjoyed here. PA is is approximately 2 1/2 hours drive from Seattle. There is also a short ferry ride over to Victoria, Canada. Pretty rural, which we like. I can't wait to go!

I am not sure what I will do career-wise. Teaching is not my passion by any means. I enjoy most of the children and love science, but I may take this opportunity to explore some career options I have long dreamed of. More on that later :)

The two pictures are from Olympic National Park.

OBAMA 08

Tonight I attended the democratic caucus in Kodiak. It was a very interesting experience. There were many familiar faces: from my Natives of Alaska class, yoga, public school teachers I subbed with, parents from St. Mary's, Coast Guard people, and other faces I see around town. I had a quick conversation with our mayor who I recognized from the picture on the Kodiak city website. It was much more crowded than I (and the organizers) expected. We actually had to go OUT of the building and come in two separate doors to be counted. The only two candidates were Clinton and Obama. Obama had 71% of the votes. Then they discussed electing 5 delegates for Obama and 2 for Clinton to go to the Alaska Democratic Convention in May in Palmer. I thought, what the heck, I will be off of work by then, when will I get this chance again?! Lucky for me, I was one of the five chosen! So, I will be a delegate representing Kodiakians in support of Obama at the convention!!! This is very exciting as I have been interested in politics for years, and have not even voted in a US presidential election in the United States! I was in Bulgaria for the 2000 election and Mongolia for the 2004 election. I am excited for an opportunity to stand up for the change I hope to see with the election of a new president. I will take pictures and let you know how the process goes. It is especially fun for me to be taking this civic role on right now because my 8th graders are studying the US Constitution. We love to discuss the elections.

Troublemaker!

Let me introduce you to our little neighbor outside. This little fox has caused quite a rukus around our house these days. Kody, our Great Pyrenees, was bred to guard sheep and goats from such animals (ok, probably guarding against wolves, but this fox seems to dredge up Kody's instincts regardless). The fox here are not afraid of people, cars, or huge white dogs. In this picture he is sitting on a snow berm and I pulled our suburban right up to him and took his picture. I am afraid that people feed them so they have lost their fear of people.

Every time I take Kody out back I almost lose him because he pulls so hard and I am lucky to not get my hand ripped off. This little fox sleeps under our porch often, plays with Kody's dog toys, and generally finds joy in making Kody go hysterical. He will sit out of reach and just watch Kody freak out. These foxes are pretty smart!

Coast Guard Survival School

On January 7, Ryan went to the survival school here in Kodiak that every CG person must attend if they live in Alaska. He spent three days and two nights outside surviving with as much supplies as would fit in a quart sized ziplock bag and no food. It was the coldest week this winter so far! The high one of the days was 15 degrees, and it got down to 5 degrees at night. He ate some strange food as not too much is out there this time of year. Among other things he ate the otter's favorite snack, sea urchin. His group of 6 guys had an exciting last night when the shelter they built caught on fire. There were two guys awake on fire watch. Ryan said he heard the word "Fire" and was on his feet out of the shelter before his eyes opened. They had to jump back in there for somebody's shoes and other supplies. The fire reached the height of a two story house, and they were afraid that they would set the forest on fire. They bravely took the shelter apart and smothered the fire to avoid an even bigger disaster. When the fire was out sometime after midnight, they built another shelter and tried to get a little sleep. He had a great time and has added to his wealth of outdoorsman knowledge. I will post some pictures shortly. He looks very tired, in the red fleece.

19 Bald Eagles died

Last Friday, one of the local canneries left a truck of fish guts outside and not closed up properly.   Many, many bald eagles swarmed in and gorged themselves on the fish guts.  Many of them got so covered in the oily slime that they could not fly out and got crushed in the guts. Some of the eagles froze because they couldn't get out and warm up. Once people realized what happened, they dumped the contents of the truck on the floor and gathered the flightless bald eagles.  The National Parks and Wildlife took them to a warehouse where they cleaned them and warmed them up.  Now some are being transported to Anchorage to get further care.  As of this morning, the number of eagles that ha died had reached 19.  Parks and Wildlife are investigating how this could happen.

MORE sad stories

I am sorry that I keep posting sad news from Kodiak.  Two things have happened over the last two weeks that are bad news.  There is a lot of good news too, so I will be sure and add some good news too!

On January 5 there was a horrible airplane accident and it was just about 2 miles from where we live.  There was a Piper PA-31 that took off from the Kodiak airport and quickly realized there was a problem.  The plane turned around to land but crashed less than 100m from the runway in the water.  It is amazing that 4 out of the 10 people on the plane survived.  A nearby pilot was able to pick up the four survivors on his float plane.  The victims were from outside of Homer and were heading home for Orthodox Christmas.  All of the passengers were fishermen based out of Kodiak.  The pilot was a former Army and Coast Guard pilot.  They think the luggage door opened and flew in to the propeller.  

Ryan and I heard the sirens, but had no idea what had happened.  This kind of thing hits the small community of Kodiak hard.  The pilot was a friend of my principal's.  His memorial packed the high school auditorium.  The owner of the airline is one of our student's father.  Just sad news for everybody.

Here is the full story:

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=5662

Sad Story - Bears

Ryan took a couple of his friends driving around Kodiak Island a couple of weeks ago so that they could see more of Kodiak than just the base and town. When they passed the American River, Ryan saw 4 bears cross the road! They stopped and snapped some photos of a sow and her three cubs. It was awesome. Ryan and I hadn't seen a bear yet except for one running from the dumpster in our neighborhood.

Yesterday when I read the Kodiak Daily Mirror, my jaw dropped. I saw the headline "Four bears euthanized after second charging incident." I read on to find out it happened at the American River. Two hunters had encountered what seemed to be one of the cubs charging them. He shot the bear (it seems unclear, the story said the cub charged, that the mom was sleeping, but it also says the mom was shot). Anyways, he was within his rights, feeling threatened. The mom had to be killed because of her injury, and the cubs because they couldn't live without their mom. How sad. This year was a bad year for berries, so the bears were out later trying to fatten up before going into hibernation. Usually they are already in dens by now. The report said that the mother was very thin for this time of year. It is hard to believe that the sweet bears in the photo are gone now.

Here is the link for the article:

www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=5638

These pictures of the bears were taken 12/21/07

Happy 2008

Hi! I hope you had a wonderful New Years. We had a very relaxing and quiet Christmas break. Both of us had a lot of time off. We had a lot of snow on Christmas Eve and throughout the break. This was the most snow that Ryan and I have experienced yet. We loved it! Here are some pictures that I took over the break.


This is a view from our back porch. The mountain in the background is Barometer Mountain. It was before sunrise, probably about 9:45am. I took the picture from inside our living room. Kody usually won't look at me when I have the camera up to my face, I tricked him!

Here is Barometer on Christmas day.

Ryan shoveled a lot of snow on Christmas Eve and over the following days. I didn't help very much but had fun walking Kody in the slippery snow. He likes going for walks more than anything!