I can relate

More Deep Creek photos

I'm not surprised Drift is looking into the camera -- he's definitely a photogenic dog.

Volcanic ash from Redoubt's last eruption in April continues to stick around. It's been about a month now and the AVO predicts the volcano will blow again soon.

Speak of the devil -- here is Redoubt in the background. D noticed that it has much less snow than the other dormant volcanos, due to ever-present steam.

Neat stuff found while beachcombing.

Cinderella's coach

My sister works as a nanny to two little girls in California, and made quite the impressive gift for the oldest's birthday:




Damn, she is a sweet nanny -- I hope that family knows how lucky they are, though I am 99% sure they do not.

Risha's boyfriend carried out most of the manual labor -- consisting mainly of pumpkin-innard scooping with a spoon through a ridiculously small hole. How's that for being a helpful boyfriend! Here's Risha's description of the rest: "The pumpkin sits on an axel made of metal line and the top part is from a crown royal bottle we got at a bar."

I'm asking for a full-size version for my birthday...

Dirt Day

For some reason, I'm having a difficult time following through with composting. I'm all about the recycling and reducing and that jazz. But on three separate occasions I have gathered all the necessary tubs, containers and dirt, only to taper off my efforts. And then the compostable materials go rotten (not good and honestly, really gross).

Next weekend on the 16th, the AK Soil & Conservation District is hosting a "Dirt Day" and will be offering some swanky compost bins for sale at a very reduced price. I'm super excited about this particular type of composter. The materials go in at the top and the good stuff comes out at the bottom -- something my other homemade Rubbermaid tubs can't do.

In the future we may even pick up some worms to help along the compost. I'm not sure they can handle the crazy stuff we're supposed to chuck in the bin, like newspaper, dryer lint, pet hair, and jello -- so for now I'll start with the basics and then introduce the little wigglies into the process!

Tractors and trucks and boats

Deep Creek has a small boat launch -- which we discovered to be still covered in snow -- so the tractor launch was our default choice for Saturday. $55 dollars later, we were perched in the boat (see Drift patiently waiting?) and ready for our hookup.


Big boats, small boats --doesn't matter, the tractors will get you in the water. While we waited, the guys went back in to retrieve a boat that couldn't get its motor started. This big charter boat was on the way into the water.

We're hooked up...

And in the water...


Wheeee!

Friday night lights

As odd as it is to have 60 degree weather in MAY, I'll take it...no complaints here. We had clear skies for our trip (plans changed and we went fishing out of Deep Creek). Our campsite was across Cook Inlet from Mt. Redoubt, so I was able to snap a few photos of the steam rising from the volcano. It was quite a sight.

Here are some images from our drive down on Friday and the first night at camp: