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.

We've had some foggy mornings and evenings which tells us that the warm air is meeting the colder water. It seems like we often have fog in the fall and the spring when we have the most obvious weather changes.

One thing about living on the Gastineau Channel during this foggy time is that you get to hear the ship's fog horns. This clip looks really dark - its not that dark out yet. The Amsterdam just left the Juneau Harbor and is heading down the channel towards Marmian Island...



Did you hear how long the echo of the horn lasted? The Gastineau channel is about 5 miles long and the ships are traveling very slow. If you sound your fog horn every two minutes how many blasts do you hear... in the morning starting around 5 am? and then multiple this by 3-5 ships all coming into town and docking by 7 am. In the evening they are usually gone by 11 pm.

oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it was raining.

Full Circle Grocery List for this week

So I got the grocery list for this week from Full Circle Farms - see what the list looks like and if I made any substitutions by clicking here to see a short desktop video I made using JING.

Weekend at the Beach

I should have cleaned the lens before taking this short movie - I forgot that I fell through the snow on our walk in to the beach area and got the lens wet. I was taking a picture of some snow on a tree when one foot broke through the snow crust and half of my body, including the right hand I had the camera in, fell through about 3 feet of snow. Luckily my boot didn't come off when I pulled my foot out of the hole.

I remember one spring break-up (about third grade) when Katherine and I were walking home from school (yes, we walked both ways!). There was a huge mountain of snow piled up by the bowling alley and we were walking on the topmost part. I punched through the snow and when I pulled my foot out my break-up boot didn't come with it. We couldn't pull it out and we had to hop home on one foot (ok - I probably walked in stocking foot) and get one of the neighbor boys to help get it out. I probably didn't thank him then, Thanks Randy.

More Juneau Water

Just out from town a very short walk is Gold Creek (click here for approximate map location - look for Gold Creek-Flume Marker) which is another water resource that provides water to the community. Its such a pretty place and they have done a great job of making it accessible to foot traffic. You can walk through the forest on a covered flume or walk on the gravel road that travels along the creek. The road also branches out to the Perserverance Trail which climbs up the backside of Mount Roberts – one of the mountains that our house faces. Here's one of the dams at the flume trailhead.


With all the snowfall there was a lot of water this spring.

And its really loud too! I took this little video with my little pocket camera – it might take a minute or two to load up depending on how fast your internet connection is. Click here to see Video.