snow and ice

It snowed again yesterday - about 6 inches - and the temperature last night was hovering right around 30 so it was a weird mix of melting snow from the roof due to the heat from the RV then freezing into icicles off of pretty much everything on the RV.  The unfortunate result this morning was that the front step was built up with enough ice this morning that we couldn't get the front/main door (actually the side door) of the RV open this morning!  In a very frustrated moment I looked at Steve and said "This situation is just unacceptable to me!".  Not that he could do anything about it.  :)  We peeled back the vapor barrier to the front of the RV (the driver's cab) and climbed out the driver's side door, then pounded at the ice (think Deadliest Catch, when they're using sledgehammers to get ice off the boat, just on a smaller scale).  After a few minutes, we could go in and out of the door again.  Steve's going to try to build an awning for the front step this weekend that will hopefully stop this from happening again. 

On the other hand, it's beautiful with all the fresh snow.  After I dropped Steve off at work I risked stopping in an unplowed overlook to take an early morning picture of the glacier (top picture; same vantage point that I've posted before, just with fresh snow now).  Then I got to the harbor early (I carpool with another student who lives on a boat and it was my turn to drive) and took a few more pictures.  Happy Friday everyone!

It doesn't look sunny...

The weather forecast for today is saying 'mostly sunny' with a 10% chance of precipitation.  So far, we've gotten 7-8 inches of snow and it's still coming down strong.  Oh, and no sun in sight.  Man, I have really missed winter!  Bring on the snow!

Seca is LOVING the snow.  She and the neighbor's dog were frolicking in the snow in our 'yard' and she got a long walk this morning.  She likes to walk with her head down, plowing the snow with her face as she goes.

working for the weekend

                                          The view this morning...

Sadly, I'm at the lab today, working on a homework assignment that is due on Tuesday.  I'm about to head home for the day, however, and we have plans with friends for dinner and cards tonight.  Since it's a weekend and I'm the only person in the building, I set up in the 3rd floor conference room so I'd get to look outside instead of working in my cave cubicle.  It's really windy again today and I can hear the it roaring outside.  The water is a cool blue-green color, which unfortunately isn't very apparent in the photographs.  It was cloudy when I got in this morning, but now it's partly sunny!  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
                                        
                                          The view now....

Auke Bay and fog in the valley

We've had mostly sunny and cold weather this past week - and stong winds (70 mph gusts) downtown on Thanksgiving.  We took Seca for her usual walk down to the marina and took a couple of pictures.  Look at the top picture and you can see the fog over the Mendenhall Valley - the glacier often creates it's own weather.

Here we're looking across Auke Bay towards what I think is the mountains on the north end of Admiralty Island (however, I could be wrong and it could be the mountains on Douglas Island - I'll have to investigate and get it straight!). 

Douglas Island is where the local ski hill is located.  Steve and I just bought new ski boots and I got a helmet.  We're excited for the season to open - word on the street it that it should be open around December 1st!

Seafood

We've been very fortunate in that many friends and neighbors have given us wild caught seafood.  Our neighbor Darren works as a commercial fisherman and has been incredibly generous - whole salmon fillets, huge chunks of halibut, smoked sablefish...amazing.  We'd also gotten smoked salmon and more smoked sablefish from other close friends, many of whom catch and smoke it themselves.  It's very expensive for an out of state fishing permit up here - $145 for an annual permit (per person) compared to $24 for an annual permit once you become a resident.  Here's the kicker though - you need to live in AK for 12 consecutive months to be classified as a resident.  Because of this, we don't qualify as residents and don't yet have fishing licenses.  So it's great that others have been willing to share with us!

This was what I made for dinner the other night - wasabi salmon, salmon compliments of our neighbor Darren.

Irv oven

 

I'm getting better and better at using the small oven in Irv.  Its tricky for several reasons...1) it's smaller in every dimension compared to a 'normal' oven, so standard cookie sheets won't fit, and you're always cooking closer to the flame than in other ovens. 2) The burner is pretty much in the middle of the oven, making the oven even smaller.  It's propane so the flames fire up underneath a metal tray (fixed in place), above that is one adjustable shelf.  To bake, you put food above the flame on the adjustable shelf.  To broil, you set your item on the floor of the oven, with the open flame above.  3) I think cooking closer to the flame has resulted in darker bottoms on my pizza, which is generally good, but the top isn't done yet when the crust is perfectly done.  I've fixed this by first baking a pizza in the top half of the oven until the bottom of the crust is done, then moving it to the broiler!  It works pretty well but it's a bit more hands on than I'm used to since it has to be watched pretty closely.  In addition there's no light in the oven, so we keep a flashlight handy to check food.

The biggest challenge is the size of the oven, and the small amount of space above the flame.  Our big stock pot barely fits inside, but only without the lid, so I can't braise anything (and I have lots of recipes that call for a stint in the oven).  I worry that trying to bake bread will be hard because it may burn on the bottom before it's baked all the way through.  In addition because it's so small, there's not a lot of room for bread or cakes to rise, especially if you want to bake it on a higher shelf to avoid burning the bottom.  Maybe I'll have to stick to smaller, flatter breads and cupcakes/muffins.  I'm hoping to make some this weekend...

I made what I called "stinky pizza" for dinner last night - a sort of thin-crusted mash-up of miscellaneous ingredients that I wanted to get out of the fridge.  It had a raw garlic,crushed red pepper and olive oil 'sauce' for the crust, wilted fresh spinach, green olives, (very pungent) yellow onions, blue cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  It was really good.

The lake is frozen

First, I added a picture of Irv without the couch to the previous post, go check it out!  Look at all that space!  (And I'm not even being sarcastic)

We had our first dinner party this weekend - two friends came over for homemade Thai food (potstickers and curry) and then we played cards (Euchre!).  It was really, really fun and four people DO fit at the table, pretty comfortably.

Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Glacier - we'd heard the lake had frozen over and wanted to check it out.    We played around on the ice, and on the icebergs trapped in the ice. 

 We didn't get too close to where the glacier meets the ice but want to go back and check it out another time.

As we walked across the ice Steve and I had a conversation that went like this:
Me: Wow, there's a lot of rocks suspended in the ice.  How did they get there?
Steve (as he proceeds to run across the ice, using the suspended rocks for leverage): Seriously? (gives me his "your asking a dumb question look").
Me: Yeah, how did they get there?  They're not from the lake bed.
Steve: Duh...People throw them onto the ice.  Mostly boys..it makes a cool sound.  
We proceeded to pick up lots of rocks and throw them onto the ice to make cool sounds.  :)

 It's so humid here that when the temperatures fall we get freezing fog.  Pretty!

Go Vote.

Everyone please take time to vote today.  Left, Right, or somewhere in between, this is your chance to give your input. Once you're done, go do something nice for someone else.  Be the change you want to see in the world.

Irv and the weekend plans

When we're getting rain the mountains are usually getting snow!  The Mendenhall Glacier, in the distance.

It was rainy on and off all weekend and we spent most of it running errands and getting things done around the Irv.  Last weekend after I got back from Kodiak we took the couch out of the RV and put it into storage.  We decided we needed the open space more than the extra seating/sleeping space.  It's a vast improvement - Seca can turn around now, we have a place for the dehumidifier and heater, and Seca's food dishes now sit on top of a bin to collect the recycling. 

We'd been having moisture issues in the bedroom - the cold air from under the RV and our heat from sleeping on the mattress was condensing under the mattress, which would lead to nasty mold if we didn't do something.  So, this weekend we bought some lumber and Steve build an elevated frame to allow for airflow around the mattress, similar to what a box spring and frame does for a normal bed.  It only raises the bed about 3 inches total, so it's still at an ok height.  It think it's going to work very well.

In other exciting news - Steve got a job!  He starts tomorrow at Napa Auto Parts.  Now that he has a job we're hoping to join a gym again (an expense we couldn't afford without him working), and there's only two in town.  Both are close to his work, so we'll have to visit them and pick one.  It'll be nice to get back into a gym!