I cancelled my ferry trip

Since I have this week off and Tim had to work I thought about getting on the ferry for a day trip. I looked at the schedule and found that I could go to Hoonah for the day and have about 3 hours in town before the ferry headed back to Juneau. I thought it would be easy to spend a few hours walking around town taking a look around. And I love being on the water even if there isn't that much day light. Plus the hours on the ferry could be spend reading and knitting - two of my favorite things. At the last minute I decided not to go. This is the main reason:


A winter storm came up and the winds have been very strong. I'm glad I didn't have to spend the day on a boat rocking and rolling in the waves! I walked down the road to the post office and saw this boat heading down the channel - looks fun doesn't it!

Winter Scenes

We got a dump of snow in the last 3 or 4 days plus the temperatures have been in the 20s so these conditions resulted in us getting out our snowshoes for trail walking. As we walked on the streets making our way to the trailhead, we passed this house. Boy, they must have had a lot of beer to do this!


And what winter walk would be complete without a snow angel! or half of a snow angel – its hard to make a snow angel skirt with snowshoes on your feet.











Happy Holidays Everyone!

Christmas Happenings

Our Stockings were hung by the microwave with care…


The camera tripod-tree was trimmed and topped with our "saba-star" angel…


We had our after-brunch walk with friends at the beach…


and our delicious prime rib dinner was complete with the Christmas poppers!


who could ask for anything more!

Some Christmas Gifts

I found a pattern to make felted soap - you know - you put wool roving around a bar of soap and then you dunk it in hot water and rub it a lot and you get a soap in a sweater that has shrunk!

These are the wool roving pieces



This is the soap with the wool wrapped around it. The directions say to wrap it one way and then then other way. I added the additional smaller pieces for stripes.



and here is the finished soap it its own little wool condom

Here's the pattern I used: http://www.mielkesfarm.com/felt_soap.htm

This was fun! and cool to watch change its shape right before your eyes! I found this hint somewhere on the internet - sorry I don't remember where - after you have the roving on the soap put it carefully in toe of an ol' pantyhose to help keep the wool in place. I tried it on the first one and it seemed to work well.

I don't have a washboard so I used a cheese grater but only went with the grater holes. I'm not exactly sure what this did. I guess it helps to mat the wool together.

I found that in the final stages if you roll it around in your hands in a figure-8 motion this worked well to take the shape of the soap. Don't worry about being too gentle with this process - go ahead and put some grit into it!

These are some pre-felted slippers for Lois:



And a felted bag for Brittany:

Pre-felted pattern:

I was going for the width of this priority mail box as a finished target size:


and I suceeded. I wrapped a towel around the box and dried the bag around the box. It was the perfect width.

And finished product:


I was surprised that the bag came out feeling really soft. The mosaic patterns are all varied and I think the simpler patterns at the bottom look better then the more complicated ones nearer the top.

And in honor of my favorite beloved King Charles Spaniel, Marty: a pair of slippers for his mother, Rachelle.

Christmas Popper Emergency!

I can't find any poppers in town for Christmas dinner!

I've checked all the stores that could possiby have them - even Western Auto and Marine plus Radio Shack - its my favorite store because they have everything you can think of. Except for poppers...but its still my favorite. I almost called Jeanne in Aspen to see if she could find some and sent them north, because it wouldn't be Christmas with a popper, right!

This happened a couple of years ago in Fairbanks and we had to quickly get creative and make our own. We had newspaper hats and small stuff we found around the house. Someone might even have gotten a thumb tack or a nail, I can't remember.

What we did have though, was well-thought out "Christmas Carols" based on the names of those who were attending Christmas dinner. For example:

"Marc, the Herald Angels Sing"
"Lori, lori halleluya"
"Jeann-ingle Bells, Jeanne-ingle Bells"
"Al Be Home for Christmas" and others

This time I had time to make proper tissue paper crowns, buy some candy and nuts, a dreidal so we can all play the draydal game, a balloon (opps - its says, "Happy Birthday!") and a christmas riddle.

Yes, children, there is a Santa Claus!

Holiday Cookies and stuff

I've already blogged about some of the yummy goodies that we've made for the holidays. Most of them were new recipes that were quite successful. Here's some of the recipes that we've made for the holidays that you haven't heard about yet:

Hamburger Cookies You've heard of the contests where people try to eat the 25lb hamburger? Well these lil' minis are what the contestants trained with until they made the big league.

Ginger Lace Cookies (GF) I actually thought that my cookies looked better then the ones one the blog. I didn't over cook them.

Scotch Shortbread so the recipe in my book says 1/4 c sugar and this online recipe says 1/2 c sugar. I was thinking that my version wasn't very sweet. I also added a little vanilla and a bit more butter then called for.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies Tim's mom like the candy so I thought I'd try this recipe out to see if its a good subsititude - and I think they are! My bath only made 30 cookies, not 48. I added about 3 t of the cherry juice to the cookie dough because it was really dry. My cherries must have been a lot smaller then the ones used. If I make these again I will use a whole cherry instead of only 1/2. I also suggest using the full 1 t of chocolate frosting.

Carnival Squash con ajo basically took the Yuca con ajo recipe from Three Guys from Miami cookbook and substitute this yellow sqash cut into cubes. I simmered the squash in some water with cumin seed until tender but crisp. Then sauted the squash with the con ajo mixture. Delicious! I think I liked this better with the squash than with the yuca.

10-days of straight sun!

I know, you are probably getting tired of seeing blue sky and snow but I'm not! And since there is only about seven ± hours of daylight, its nice that its so bright out.

Since we're on Douglas Island, the sun comes up down the channel and then moves around behind us. When the sun is this low we don't get a lot of direct light - but you can sure see it on the mountains across the channel. We live in a very convenient spot but its also nice to have more direct sunlight too - we're still looking for the place that has both!



And this is from Sunday - what to do when its 15 and the wind has come through and blown off the snow on the lakes - go skating!



Twin Lakes between the Egan Highway and Glacier Highway.

Quick way to Skin a Kiwi

I saw this process on a news clip awhile back and just now had some kiwi to try it out. It works pretty slick and you don't end up with a lot of wasted fruit on the skin. Plus you get a perfect sphere to slice up.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake over the weekend with fresh pumpkin that I had roasted. (I apologize in advance for taking you to a website that has obnoxious music playing). It was very, very yummy! A little on the rich side…just my kind of thang. I followed the recipe exactly as written except I had to cook it longer then it said, maybe 15 minutes. I don't have a spring form pan here so that might have made the difference.

I had to look up the water bath method because I wasn't quite sure what that meant. It is exactly like it sounds - I boiled some water, put the cheesecake pan on a cookie sheet with high sides, put the pan in the preheated oven and then poured the water into the outter pan. I used maybe 5 or 6 cups of water. After about an hour I checked in and there was plenty of water and I didn't have to add any additional. My plan is to freeze the cheesecake into smaller bites after we've gorged ourselves!

Freeze at Mendenhall Glacier

We enjoyed another brilliant, but cool day here in Juneau so we thought we'd go out towards the Mendenhall Glacier and see what things looked like out here when its all frosty out. There's not much snow but we've had a week of 20 and lower temperatures so it appears that all of the lakes are frozen - enough for skating, at least.

We probably saw 50 people skating or playing hockey. We also saw a few skiers and a lot of walkers.

Nugget Fall was pretty cool with some thawed water coming down the frozen water slide. Too bad we don't do ice climbing- this would have been a challenge!




We saw some goats way up above the waterfall - hard to pick out in the snow.



The glacier looked really blue - probably the most blue I've seen since being down here.



Those little black dots are people. They must be pretty close to the face of the glacier. (Better click on this picture to get bigger view.)

Alaskan Amber Balls

Here's another recipe I tried using Alaska Brewing Company Beer. This recipe came from their collection of online recipes. They look like hamburger don't they! But they aren't! These were made with The Baltic Porter Ale - but would be good with the amber too. Any easy recipe that doesn't take very long to make - all the more pleasant to spend time with your family and friends eating them!

Beery good Peanut Brittle

Here's an interesting twist on peanut brittle that I tried out using Alaska Brew Company's Seasonal Baltic Porter Ale. Its got a very good taste and I like the spice of the cayenne mixed with the sweet of the sugar.

• 1 C toasted peanuts
• ½ tsp flaked sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 T cold butter, diced
• 1 C sugar
• ¼ C light corn syrup
• 1 C dark beer
• 1/8 tsp chipotle powder

Butter baking pan or line with silpat, set aside. Mix first 4 ingredients, set aside. In a large saucepan, mix beer, sugar, corn syrup, and chipotle powder. Boil over moderate heat for 12 min until golden in color. Stir in peanut mixture and quickly spread on prepared pan. Let cool and break into small pieces. Store in an airtight jar.

I've made it twice. The first it wouldn't harden up so I had to pop it in the oven to reheat it and poured in on a foil-wrapped pan. The second time I got out the old cookbook and followed the directions with the candy thermometer, heated it to 300 and got a big mountain of candy-hunk. I popped that in the oven to heat up and again, poured it in a pan and when it cooled it was the right thickness and tasted good but it wasn't clear like it should have been. Plus I didn't realize that my plastic stirring spoon at melted when it got so hot until the candy cooled and there were plastic strands mixed in with the peanuts when the brittle cooled. Enough to take out a tooth!

So I suggest that if you have a recipe you like you should use it and just substitute the beer for water or at least follow you directions. I'm not going to try again, although I did enjoy drinking the left-over beer that didn't go into the brittle.

No more cold hands

I've found a very useful USB tool that I would have loved to have had when working in Fairbanks - a pair of these would have been in high demand, especially in the old Denali Building!


That's right - they are USB fingerless gloves with temperature controls!

Northern Lights from Space

from iconolith:



I've been told that you can see the northern lights here in Juneau, but the conditions have to be just right (like to clouds!) There are places very close to town that would be dark enough without the lights of human activity. Its been very clear since last Thursday but I haven't been looking for the lights - I might have been missing something. Maybe they will be out tonight.

Winter Scenes from Auke Rec Area

There are several places we go when the sun is out to take full advantage of the clear skies and radiant heat from the sun. One of those places is Auke Rec Area. Its a lovely rocky/sandy beach which faces mostly south. If the wind gets really wicked, there's a pathway through the trees you can take. Mostly we walk on the beach, looking for interesting shells, pieces of sea glass, starfish and other marine life.

Here a small stream flows towards the waters edge, ice sickles forming on the leaves of a long ago expired plant.

Icy fingers reaching for the warmth of the cool unfrozen water.

Thanks again, North Wind

We been having strong north winds for the last 4 days which always brings blue skies to Juneau.

Raven's playing in the wind - they were like 2-year olds - they wouldn't stay still!



You know its sunny when you can capture a shadow of wildflowers!



I just had to stop at the spot on Douglas where they take the cruise ship passengers to take pictures of their ships with Juneau in the background. Usually the ships cover up the city because they are so big!

Restaurant Review #15

Last week Tim and I walked over to Olivia's De Mexico Authentic Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We both ordered the lunch special, cheese enchilada and beef taco with rice and I had tortilla soup and Tim had a garden salad. YUM - why haven't we been eating here more often! Both of us have been here on previous trips and have enjoyed it but since we've moved here we just haven't ventured out. I guess we just forgot about it being hidden away in the basement. Since its close to the capitol I'm sure it gets really busy during the session.

We started out with some chips and salsa - the salsa had a really fresh taste. It wasn't spice, not even a spec of hotness but it was delicious. My soup was also very tasty. It was tomato based at had a lot of crisp tortillas strips in it. I really enjoyed the streamed corn tortilas for the beef taco. It was so fresh tasting; not greasy from being fried or tough from being microwaved or placed in the oven. It was delicious! So delicious that we had a revelation on making tortillas at home. We recently got a new rice steamer (thanks Zac and Rachelle for showing off yours!) which came with a steamer rack. We wrapped some corn tortillas in a terry cloth dish towel, heated the steamer up to boiling, added the tortillas to the steamer rack and let it sit for a couple minutes, then turned the steamer off. After they sat for a little while (maybe 10-15 minutes) we too sat down to eat. The tortillas were hot, hot, HOT! and so tender that they ripped quite easily. We normally dry gilled corn tortillas in a cast iron skillet but I think we'll be switching to this method from now on. So easy!

Check out this link: http://www.fronterakitchens.com/cooking/techniques/reheat_tortilla.html

Boy Scout Beach and COASST survey

We had a rainy, warm weekend but hit the beach on Saturday to do our COASST survey. We signed up in the fall as observers for the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team out of UDub. We are obligated to do a specific beach walk once a month looking for bird carcuses and body parts. We share the beach with another guy who walks it 2-weeks after us. We went through a one-day training and have all kinds of supplies and guide books to help identify bird parts. The training was actually really fun and I think it will help with our general identification of birds.

We were told that most of the time the body part that you will find are the feet - the least fleshy and delicable bird part (guess the COASST people don't do dim sum). The guidebook they gave us breaks idenfication down into several questions based on the look for the feet:

1. Are the front toes free, lobed or webbed
2. if free, does the foot have 3 or 4 toes
3. If 4 toes is the 4th nail strongly arched
4. Are toes fleshy or not
5. if lobed are the lobes single or multiple
6. if webbed is the webbing complete or marginal
7. if completed webbed does the foot have 3 or 4 toes
8. if 3 webbed toes, is the foot huge
9. Doe the 4th toe have a fleshy flap
10. Does the 4th flap extend nearly to tip of toenail
11. If the tarsus extremely thin, flat and wide
12. Is the heel swollen or flat
13. if feel flat is the foot huge

From answering these 13 questions you can narrow down the species. After you narrow it down there are other specific questions that you use to verify your find. We got to practice in the classroom with various feet and wings. Some of them were harder than others.

So when we see live birds we just have to get them to show us their feet!

We have rules, clippers, fixed point dividers, gloves, chalk and blackboard, measuring tape, and rain-proof forms that we take with us. We have specifc color-coded plastic ties and specific numbering system we use to mark the birds we find.

When we are at Boy Scout Beach we always see multiple eagles, a few ravens, lots of gulls. This last time we saw some bear prints in the sand. I think our chances of finding any bird parts that aren't scavanged pretty slim - but we enjoy the walk and its all in the name of science!

Fish Creek Trail and Tree Huggers

Have you hugged a tree today? There are some really big trees on Douglas Island.

Another trail that we've wanted to take is the Fish Creek Trail from the Douglas Highway up towards Fish Creek Road heading towards Eagle Crest. We walked a few 100 yards before scouting for fishing spots and didn't realize that there was a longer trail you could take.

I'm not sure that we'd every take this trail again unless our main objective was to go fishing. It was pretty muddy and there were lots of roots and stumps to climb over. But the trail wasn't icy and with the devil's club being leafless you could really see a long ways through the forest and towards the creek.


I'm always amazed when I get out on trails like this how many huge trees are down and rotting away. I know that they make for rich soil and provide important nutrients for other plants but it seems like a waste to me. Then again, without a 4-wheeler or other type of rig I can't image how you would get them to the road!

We got a late start and the daylight quickly left us.


We found several nice spots that might be good fishing in the spring so we'll have to keep that in mind and let you know how it is. If I were a bear, this trail area would be one of my favorite places to hang out - good fishing potential, lots of blueberry bushes and solitude. We'll also have to keep that in mind when we come back!

Ultimate Biker Chik

I've been following Jill Homer's blog since sometime last winter. I can't remember what I "Googled," I think I was looking for a picture I could use on my blog when I came across her blog and an entry about her taking off on her bike across the Gasteau Channel at low tide from North Douglas to a spot over by the airport in the middle of winter. I was fascinated that she would even attempt a trek across the mud flats, let alone planning it for between the tides! I don’t think she planned to go all the way but at some point she found herself committed by default – she couldn’t turn around so she forged ahead. I started reading other posts and realized that she was adventurous and very brave to attempt riding her bike (or trekking) by herself for long periods of time under "not-so-nice" conditions.

For some reason I found a connection with the words she chose to use in her descriptions. Maybe its because I’ve hiked in a lot of the same places (near the same time) and I found her viewpoint aligned with mine or sometimes complementing my thoughts the difference being based on modes of travel. I guess I also feel a kinship with her on a professional level since she has a background in layout and design. Plus she takes great photos!

I found out later that she had participated in the Iditarod Trail Adventure (Iditabike) race the previous winter and then I realized that her adventures were helping her train for this crazy-wild race. She recently talked about doing the race for a second time and produced a book through Lulu (self-published) to help raise some money for her endeavor.

I recently finished Ghost Trails: Journeys through a Lifetime and thoroughly enjoyed the adventures that the author took me through. She separates her chapters about the Iditabike race with stories from other adventures giving the reader a narrative explanation of how she got to the point in her life where she considered doing the race.

I think what I like best about her book and her blog entries is that she tells you when she messes up and when she scares herself and how she gets out of it. Its very honest. I really liked comments made by this reviewer on his blog, especially this point:

“The tradition in male adventure literature (which is still a redundant term) is to gloss over the mishap and moments of panic, briefly describe the solution, and move on to other things, thus endorsing the stiff-upper-lip and tacitly reinforcing one's own mental toughness. Jill seems to do the opposite, the terror of the Kuskokwim River waterfall and the Farewell Burn singe a reader's memory.”

I found a few typos in the book and I felt compelled to send her a note so that if she hadn’t found them already and she had the opportunity, she could update her original for future printings. I told her:

"I've really enjoyed reading your book - your descriptions of each day on the trail made me feel like I was right there. I had to grab for a warm blanket several times and I'm sure that I consumed more peanut butter cups then you did through the entire book."

I’m positive that as a young women she isn’t done yet with her journeys through a lifetime–I’m sure she’ll have more to say and experience and just as many readers waiting to share along with her in the comfort of their recliners!

Lights at UAS Campus

Sometime in late Fall I started to see more and more light displays on the UAS campus. At the three major entrances there are lighted trees that highlight the route in and out. All colors are used - blue, white, red, yellow. On the side of some of the main buildings are lighted murals, mostly with an ocean-life theme. I didn't have a tripod with me so some of these are a little blurry - but I think you get the idea!

This is hanging above the outdoor stage:

Nice weekend in Sitka

We had a nice long weekend in Sitka. I love taking the ferry! The ride is about 4 1/2 hours - perfect for snacking, reading, and knitting; it isn't so long that you get really bored and its long enough so you can relax. We have our favorite seats that give us a view out the front and one side and we don't have anyone in front of us. Apparently some of the other folks traveling down with us like their seats because a lot of us found ourselves in the same spots on the return trip! Yes, we humans can be trained!

We had daylight most of the way over - the sun was just peaking through when the lines where dropped. On the way back it got dark about 4pm or so. They turn the lights off in the front cabin to make navigating easier so the last hour we sat quietly watching the GPS position on the map.

The weather was typical - some sun, some rain, a little wind, high 30s and night and mid-40s during the day. Fairly tropical!

On Saturday we attended and Arts and Crafts show at Centenial Hall. I forgot to take any pictures inside of the actual craft tables but did get this snapshot of Tim's folks puchasing a Christmas wreath for their front door. I thought there were more tables then in past years. A lot of photographs, greeting cards, beaded necklaces and earrings, a few preserves and food items, knitted and crocheted items.


One interesting idea that was pretty cool was lighted glass blocks wrapped with a bow to look like a present that you could set under your Christmas tree or place on your mantle. Beware! Some drilling may be required!

We took a smoked turkey from Jerry's Meats over on the ferry with us. We sure enjoyed it and we didn't have all the mess of cooking it! Its always nice to get out for a walk to work off some of the calories from eating all the time. Saw this cute little stump in one of the neighborhoods close by.

Cold Night = Beautiful Sunrise!

Tiger Tape

I've recently been introduced to Tiger Tape: a reusable measuring tape you can apply to fabric. I purchased the 1/4" wide tape and have been using it to provide me with a straight line so that I can hand sew some seams for a project I'm working on. Before I got the tape, I marked the fabric with a fabric pencil which didn't work very well and then resorted to using an ink pen. This worked fine but I always worried about the markings showing up on the front side. And it look time to measure from the edge to make a score and then draw the seam line.

If only I had this when I was putting together 6 foot pieces of fabric for the quilt - marking the seams would have been a snap!


Other uses I could see for this time would be for embroidery projects where you wanted to mark some lines at a specific distance apart.

Or how about for doing a blanket stitch or for hand quilting and much more!

Since you can reuse the tape you can cut specific distances that work for you. I was able to use 1 piece of tape about 8 times before the stray threads adhered to the tape and the stuckum was gone.