Frostbite to Flooding in Less Than a Week

Our climate control is a little out of whack! We went from -35 degrees to 45 degrees above zero in less than a week. The snowy, frosty, frozen earth of a week ago is now a layer of very slippery ice (is there any other kind) covered with puddles of the falling rain we have been receiving the past 3 days. That's right....RAIN! We have had a temperature increase of over 70 degrees! So now when we run out the door we grab the rain coat and Yak Tracks. Who needs parkas, snow boots and mittens. All you need to wear is something to stay dry and keep from falling on your butt on the ice. But no worries, I'm sure the cold weather will make a noticeable return before we know it. The parkas , boots and mittens are standing by.
The pictures are of the sidewalk coming up to the front porch. Proof positive of the ice, rain and puddles.

Heat Wave.........Well Almost

Well we are working on our Alaska cold weather endurance. We were all getting tired of the cold, but it is finally warming up. Hitting zero was exciting and today the last I checked it was 17 above and snowing a little. The picture of the sign was taken in December, right after Christmas, the day I was out with my new lens taking pictures of the Bald Eagles, sure didn't think then it was going to continue to get colder. The other picture of the temperature at -21 was just before New Year's....still getting colder!! I did find a couple of things to be positive about during the cold snap; we had no wind and didn't have to worry about wind chill in addition to the cold temperatures and we had tons of sunshine. The sun didn't do much to create warmth but it does a lot when you are tired of winter and have the blues. We also still have the Christmas snow packed heavy on the boughs of the pines. The past two weeks were bitterly cold but the winter landscape was beautiful.

We Be Chillin....We Be Freezin..... We Be Frozen!!!

It is amazing to think it is 2009!! We are off to a very cold start to the new year!! So how cold is it would be the question? Way below zero would be the answer. I love photography and I got the most awesome lens for Christmas, so after Christmas Daniel went with me to take pictures of the Bald Eagles. It was -17 the day we were out and about. It continued to get colder in the days that followed, this last week we had at least 4 mornings in a row that the temp said -30. During the day we would gain a few degrees and end up in the -25 degree range for our daytime high temperature. Two weeks into this cold snap we finally hit zero!! Hooray for zero and it is funny to say , it felt warmer today.
It is amazing to see the eagles when it is so cold. They have a way of fluffing their feathers for warmth and it really makes them look "ruffled". The darker colored Eagles are Juvenile Bald Eagles. They will take on the more traditional look with white heads and dark body feathers at around 4-5 years of age.