Our Moose Friends

I accompanied Adam this morning to the property on which the cabin will go. He has been using a chain saw to clear many trees for a road and cabin placement. To our surprise as we arrived on the property and looked to our left after passing by some thick trees was a moose about 10 yards away from us! We thought for sure that when Adam began to use the chainsaw, the moose would be frightened and run away. Not at all, the moose could have cared less for the loud noise and trees falling. After about 5 minutes of chain sawing, the moose made its way into the trees about 10 yards from where it had been standing to lay down and take a nap. As we continued sawing, we noticed another moose lying about 20 feet from the first moose. And as you will see in the video there is a third moose that had also been taking a nap not to far from where we were. The moose continued to hang out on the property the entire day and evening. Adam said he threw a few sticks at one moose to try and get it to move because it was in the way of where he needed to saw.

This first picture is the first moose we encountered .

We discovered this moose about an hour after we arrived.

They are soooo tall! They are at least 6' at the withers, probably more like 6'6"!

Keeping a close eye on us!

They were enjoying eating the buds off the freshly fallen trees.

Adam working hard.

Enjoy the video, I hope it works.

Homer Anniversary

Our 3rd anniversary was Wednesday March 17th. We decided it would be fun to take an overnight trip to Homer AK since we had both heard it was so beautiful. Homer is located about 1.5 hours South of Kenai on the peninsula. Since we both worked during the week we rented a car and left Saturday late morning and returned Sunday afternoon. I was able to get a employee discount at the Land's End Resort which is located at the end of the Homer Spit, in the Kachemak Bay. I know what you are thinking, what is a spit? It is a landform that is connected to land at one end and the far end exists in open water. The Homer spit is very narrow, just wide enough for a road and some small beaches, the far end is wider and contains the resort, some condos, shops and boat launches. The town contains many art galleries and a few small boutiques and home shops. The view is absolutely unbeatable, the pictures I have taken don't do it justice, the only way to experience these majestic mountain views is to come to visit us here! Hint-hint! Homer was a great way to celebrate our anniversary, we had a wonderful time! Enjoy the pictures :)

This is a lighthouse I caught a picture of on the drive to Homer.

This is our drive into Homer, if you look close enough you can see the Homer Spit extending into the water. At the very end of the spit is where the resort is located. The resort has a panoramic view of the entire mountain range you see here. It is a little cloudy in this picture, just imagine what it would look like on a perfectly clear day!

Here we are on the spit, there are many charters and different shops that open up during the summertime.

Sorry for the vulgarity of this picture, but we couldn't resist! This particular gift shop had many funny moose poop gifts. The little character on the end of the bill is an actual lacquered moose terd! They also had moose poop shish-cabobs, moose poops in a jar, moose poop jewelry etc.

Adam has been here too long, he is starting to turn into a moose.

The visitors center in Homer was like a museum, it had many interactive displays to learn from. A lot like Omsi on a much smaller scale, and all about Alaska.

Here we are on the Homer spit beach on our way to the resort.

We had dinner Saturday night in the Chart Room, the resort's restaurant. A little expensive but we had a beautiful view of the water and mountain range in the background.

The next morning (Sunday) on the resort's deck as the sun was coming up. Beautiful!

The sky started to clear up Sunday morning giving us a better view of the mountains.

As we were loading up our car to head home Sunday morning, Adam pointed out all of the bald eagles. They were everywhere, kind of like seagulls at the beach, or pigeons in New York! Everywhere you looked you would see one, here is one in the parking lot.

One on top of a light pole.

On the rooftops.

We stopped at the Homer spit beach on our way out of town to snap a few more pictures of the majestic mountains.

Mountains everywhere.

At the beach, Adam caught glimpse of two eagles roosting on a driftwood log. He got some really amazing pictures, and was able to get really close, about 15 feet away. Here are just a few of them.

Don't these look like postcard pictures?

I love this one!

Such beautiful birds!

Adam was making friends with the local fishermen!

I love my Eskimo Kiss salt and pepper shakers that I bought at the gift shop, they have magnets at there foreheads. Aren't they cute!?

Since I wrote a blog about rocks, I figured I would include the rocks we picked up in Homer. Notice the cool shell, it is broken on one end, but has a cool plant growing on it!

Cabin and Snow-machining

Adam and Scott spent the majority of the day Saturday working on the cabin, Frances was a huge help. She enjoys spending time outside, especially if daddy is out. We were originally going to make a trip into Anchorage to watch the start of the Iditarod, but we decided it would not be a great idea because of a winter storm that had made it's way onto the peninsula. The drive would have been horendous, winds of up to 90 miles an hour in parts of the drive and a greater chance of an avalanche through the mountain passes when there is such a large accumulation of snow.
Adam working hard!

The second floor loft where the bedroom will be.

Starting to look more like a cabin!

Icicles on the house. I guess last winter some icicles on the house almost reached the ground!

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday that Adam and decided it would be nice to go for a walk on the property. We're not used to being able to take a walk in the woods just outside the back door! We have been getting so much snow lately it was nice to go out on a clear day and enjoy the winter scenery.

This pic is one of my favorites!

When I first got here, this log that is now almost all the way covered in snow was about 4 feet above/across a stream that was iced over. Just showing how much it has snowed since I got here!

Very pretty!

Beautiful!

Walk in the woods.

As we were walking back Scott's dad, Lynn, asked us if we would like to take the snow-machine out for a ride. We could not resist. It was a lot of fun! We finally saw a white bunny on our journey too, we were beginning to think they were ghost bunnies since they leave tracks EVERYWHERE, but are hard to see. Me on the machine, it was scary riding it over this marshy area of the lake. People ride them over the lake all the time, but it just makes me too uneasy! Movies paint a bad picture in my mind, anytime someone in a movie goes out on a frozen lake they fall through the ice!

Adam on the snow-machine.

The house from the marsh during our snow-machine ride.

A comparison to give you an idea of the size of the cabin. At least Adam and Scott don't have to travel to far to work on the cabin!

Estelle and I took a second trip to the beach the next day to try and get some better pictures of the mountains since there were not as many clouds. I wanted everyone to know how strange it is to wear winter boots in the sand!! So wrong!

Pretty mountains across the inlet.

Another sunset picture.

Close-up of the mountains, pictures of course don't do it justice.