Rude Awakening!

Yes - at approx. 5:45 am, the door to the bedroom started rattling and the bed was shaking. Of course by the time I was really awake and coherent (OK - awake - coherent happened about an hour later after coffee), I realized we were having an earthquake. (Either that or the house was seriously haunted all of a sudden.) I immediately checked on Squirt. He was asleep. And then it was over.

What a good guard dog! He knows the difference between the door rattling from an earthquake vs the wind blowing. Wind blowing door rattling generally causes guard duty barks. (I guess he isn't one of those animals that warns of potential natural disasters.)

Anyway, I had all the chores done, grocery shopping and breakfast over by about 8:30 this morning. BTW the quake was centered 19 miles ESE of Anchorage and was a 4.0.

Luckily it wasn't the volcano as ash would come our way today. Here are a couple of pictures of it from my office last week. Too bad it is so far away for the camera. The view was pretty impressive. There is a steam / ash cloud coming out of it in these.

Squirt does cartwheels!

Yes - little circus performer that he is...

We went for a walk last night and upon reaching our driveway I took him off leash to run from the sidewalk to the door. Well he missed the door and zoomed straight up the cement stairs into the raspberry patch. He was looking for Buck, Owen and Ford, his under the fence, nose to nose buddies.

I told him to come back down to the door...twice...and the second time, he realized I was serious and came running back toward me full bore - forgetting about the steps.

I am not exactly sure what happened...did he slip...get a paw caught...is just a natural acrobat, but he actually did a fully extended, back legs over his head flip over 4-5 stairs and landed in the driveway.

I started toward him, calling his name and he kind of looked up...looked around...almost like he wondered if anyone saw him, jumped up and ran straight toward me.

I told him he was too old (12 years) to be doing those things and he was lucky he didn't break his neck! Thank goodness.

Tonight up on returning to the driveway, he went directly to the door - no raspberry patch shenanigans!

A new challenge...

Go ahead...try doing sit ups holding a 20 lb weight and finding out after it's too late the dog is standing on your hair.

Ow.

And by the way...

We have fresh moose prints in the yard and fresh tree limbs down...wonder how we missed her...

As promised...the tale of the snow thrower...

Entering into this break-up season marks our third full winter in Alaska and so far, I had no reason to be responsible for clearing the drive or sidewalks with the snow thrower. Luckily, Robert was here each time it needed to be used.

That was, until a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, as soon as he got on the plane, it started to snow and didn't stop until about 4-6 inches later. Of course, I didn't know this until the next morning which happened to be a Monday. GREAT - I will have to come home from work shovel the deck, clear a path in the year and figure out the snow thrower. Good thing I am always up for a challenge.

I believe our first winter here, I had approximately 20 minutes of instructions on how to run the thrower. Ever the Grasshopper, I had my scrap of paper and wrote down the 8 important steps I would need to know (neglecting to mark where the steps went from "how to start" to "how to stop"). Then I went back inside, filed my piece of paper for emergencies and promptly sat down in front of the fire.

Now it was time to pull out my scrap of paper and put it to good use.

1. Fill with gas - I opened the tank and it looked like there was gas. No need to do that.

2. Wheel to outside - completed

3. Plug in - Now where do we store the electric cord. If I was a cord I would be right around here. Hum...OK - I'll just use an extension cord.

I get the nearest 60 foot, heavy duty, heavier than the dog, extension cord and plug it in.

4. Choke to the right - wonder which button is the choke? Well, there is only one button that has a left/right - I'll guess that one.

5. Idle bar up - Good thing the choke wasn't up/down.

6. Prime 2 times - got it.

7. Push start button - why isn't it starting? Stupid machine. Simple instructions, where did I go wrong? Double check steps 4 - 7. Are the other neighbors shoveling? Wait - what if I push the choke the other way...Oh good - it started.

8. Choke down low...good grief - this thing isn't running well. Oh- that must be how to turn it off!

We're running now! Too bad the snow is so wet that it just clumps up in the chute.

Are the other neighbors shoveling? Looks like about 20% of them are. Guess I won't - it will melt in a few days.


Happy Easter Everyone!

This morning's Redoubt Eruption

Yes - Robert got home with 6 hours to spare from his business trip before it blew again...

The Alaska Volcano Observatory has some cool pictures on it this morning. (I may not feel this way if the ash was coming to Anchorage.)




Speaking of him travelling, I have a snow thrower story for you all...but the Sportman's show comes first!