The boys and I went berry picking last week.   The salmon berries and blueberries are ripe and yummy.   We picked about 2 pints, then made some jam with it.

Here a few pictures:

Last week was really nice weather.   Nathan went fishing for kings Sunday evening.  

Morgan wading in the water:

Later in the week we had a homeschool picnic at Sandy Beach.   The boys playing on the slide (in the way boys do...):

We roasted marshmellows later.  

 Tristan perfected the multi-marshmellow toast, sticky mouth and fingers:

They had collected about a pint of sand each by the time they were through, in boots, hair, clothes; and with marshmellow stickiness on top of it... they hit the bathtub as soon as we got home.

Last Friday we had one of the lowest tides of the year (-4.3ft), so the boys and I went out to the Shrine of St. Therese to explore the tide pools there.

We saw a heron, ducks, eagles, and lots of little tide pool critters, such as this anemone:

A starfish:

Morgan doing his favorite activity - climbing:

Tristan, always the scientist:

All three boys after a couple hours of fun:

We went on a little walk last week on the Brotherhood Bridge trail.   The boys had to get their tree climbing fix in.    Nathan said it was an Alaska fruit tree (with 3 ripe fruits in it):

Collecting sticks is hard work - taking a break:

If you look closely, you can see a little GREEN coming out in the grass.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JUNEAU HAS ISSUED A HEAVY SNOW WARNING... WHICH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM ADT SATURDAY.

SNOW IS EXPECTED INCREASE THROUGH THE MORNING AND BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A TOTAL OF 8 TO 12 INCHES OF NEW SNOW IS EXPECTED FROM THIS STORM.

A WARNING MEANS THAT HEAVY SNOW IS ALREADY OCCURRING OR IMMINENT. HEAVY SNOW COULD POSE A THREAT TO LIFE AND PROPERTY.

ALL TRAVEL SHOULD BE DONE WITH EXTREME CAUTION.

As if we didn't have enough snow already?   This is one from last week (although Tristan is probably a foot off the actual ground since the snow is packed down):

Scampy in snow:

And one I took a few minutes ago:

The railing there is about 4 feet off the ground.   We've got a good 3 feet of snow on the ground already.   Maybe we will see our yard by May?  :)

We walked out on the frozen lake this past weekend right up to the glacier (well, pretty close).  For safety reasons you really shouldn't get real close because a glacier can calve at any time and it would break the ice, etc. etc.   It was a very nice day.   The boys and I had done this last winter, but this was the first time Nathan had walked up by it.  Very unique experience.   Here's a few pics:

Walking out to the glacier:

Nathan and boys by the glacier:

And the walk back (I don't know for sure but it's probably a good mile each way across the lake):

This last pic gives the best perspective, because you can see how small the people are by the glacier.  The 2nd photo is deceiving, because you only see the part jutting out, and can't see the mountain of glacier up and behind.

Juneau has it's own black wolf that lives around the glacier and is quite a celebrity here.   I've never seen him, but know several people who have.  Apparently it is not uncommon to see him hanging out at Mendenhall Lake, and even trying to play with the local dogs.   He doesn't belong to a pack, but remains in the area, I think, because his mate was killed there by a vehicle (and is stuffed and on display at the visitor's center).   I'm not sure if he got his name, Romeo, for the pining of his long lost mate, or because he likes to flirt with the local dogs.

On Feb 8 The Juneau Empire ran an article on how the rangers and Alaska's Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement are concerned for Romeo and people, since he is not afraid of humans.  In this photo it appears he was doing more than flirting, maybe preparing for dinner?

An excerpt from the article:

Recent pictures circulating locally by e-mail show Romeo getting acquainted with a few local dogs, including a small light-colored pug.

In one shot, he's making off with the pug as if it were a rabbit. Subsequent photos show the pug squirming on the ice after he's been released. The little dog suffered no apparent harm.

Here's the article on Alaska.com   Juneau Predator Catches and Releases Pet Pug  and an entry on a blog with even more pictures of the episode.

We've had over 30 inches of snow in the last few days, and it keeps snowing and snowing and snowing.   I do like the snow, but my neighbor does have a point when she says, "you don't have to shovel rain."

Nathan worked from home on Wednesday because he couldn't get out of the neighborhood, the streets were so high with snow and the snow plows couldn't keep up.  The public schools canceled school on Tuesday and Wednesday (I didn't know they ever canceled school for snow in Alaska, but apparently they do.)

Here's Lukey in waist-high snow:

And our new hero, the snow plow/grater:

Praise the Lord, I saw the (Northern) Lights. 

I finally saw the northern lights, and took a few photos too.  I frozes my toeses, but it was worth it.   Not as spectacular or fast-moving as I expected, but a truly amazing part of God's creation.   Once I got back to the house, Tristan and Nathan were still awake, and were able to just look out the kitchen window and see them. (hmmm... makes me wonder if the frozen toes were worth it... yes - it was).

I posted two photos on my juneau photo blog.  But here's my favorite with the big dipper in it:

We are surrounded by a winter wonderland here.  I love the snow, and will take it any day over rain.   Today it continues to snow, and is forecasted for the rest of the week.  Hopefully it will stay below freezing and not get too warm and then rain away.  Heres a photo I took yesterday while we were out and about:

With all this snow, its beginning to feel a lot like... Christmas.   I know... I know... jumping a holiday there.  Actually, Thanksgiving is truly my favorite holiday.  We have such great family traditions and memories with Thanksgiving.  And Thanksgiving in Texas is always so nice, with the cool dry autumn weather.   I don't even know what we will be doing for the holidays this year.  Staying here.. . eating turkey?

After lunch the boys and I will probably go out and play in the snow for awhile.   What I should be doing is tackling the winter wonderland in my freezer:

Its taken on a life of its own, and I need to defrost very soon.... how embarrassing right? (not to mention that Marie Callender's pie staring at me?) hmm... maybe I'll take care of that unsightly thing with lunch.  My other freezer is in need of a defrosting too... well, I don't have to worry about what to do with them while defrosting.  With the bears in hibernation (ok - deep sleep), I think they'll be safe and plenty cold on the front porch.

We had a chance to go on the Gastineau Gold Mine tour last week with some other homeschoolers.   I learned all sorts of things about mining.   There are different types of mining: sluicing, hydraulic, dredging, open pit, and hard rock mining.   The mine we toured was a hard rock mine:

Hard rock mining used power tools (we got a very loud demonstration) to take out the gold embedded in tons of ore.  It would then go to be crushed, and then "sifted" out so to speak (like panning for gold on a huge level) to collect the gold.   The mine we went to was once the largest gold mine in the world, going through 12 million tons of gold-bearing ore in its lifetime (avg 10,000 tons a day).  The mine operated from 1915 to 1921.   They also produced electricity and gave it away free to the city of Juneau.  Of course, the mine also owned and operated an electric appliance store.  Because of the free electricity, Juneau was one of the most progressive cities in the early 1900's in regards to electricity use in the home.

Here's everyone getting their hard hats to go inside the shaft:

The boys are ready to go in:

Inside, miner Dave shows us the equipment and explains the process.   In the winter he prepares UAS students who are interested in working at local mines in this area, teaching them how to use the equipment and set off dynamite (we didn't get to see that):

It was a great boys field trip with lots of hands on:

At the end of the tour we even got to pan for gold.  Being the expert panners we are now, we recovered about 30 gold flakes.  If ever in Juneau, one more thing to do...

This past weekend I was brushing my teeth, when I was startled by a bird in our bathroom.  I think the cat caught it, took it in the house, and then the little warbler flew in the bathroom.  It couldn't fly very well at first, but after holding it for about 30 minutes, it was ready to fly away.  I think it was a female Wilson's warber.  Of course the boys wanted to put it in a cage, but since it eats insects only, I didn't think that would be very wise, and wild birds should be able to fly free.

Then Tristan found a little dragon fly that was happy to sit on his hand for a while:

We also have a new creature in the boy's room.  Tristan wanted a guinea pig, so we gave him Maple for his 9th birthday present. I'll photograph little Maple later.

My parents and brother(K) and sister-in-law (R)  have been visiting from Texas since last Friday.  We've been having lots of fun and staying very busy.   On the weekend Nathan and I, my dad, and K & R went to Admiralty Island to a remote cabin.   I have more photos of our trip on my other photo blog.  Here's a few others:

We flew over in a float plane.  It was really fun, and a tight fit.   We stayed only one night and used the rowboat on South Young lake:

We hiked over to the other cabin the next morning:

We did see a brown bear on the other side of the lake, but the photo is pretty fuzzy, and not worth showing.  We flew back Sunday afternoon, right before it became too cloudy for the pilot to get in.  He had to circle around for awhile before he could land on the lake, but was able to get in and get us out.  We were very thankful, we were getting a little tired of dehydrated camping food, and enjoyed our rib-eyes on Sunday night back at home.

On Monday we saw two black bears on the Mt. Roberts trail.   They were far away, but I think you can see this one is a bear:

Here's the whole fam, minus Nathan - who is working away while we are playing:

Then on Tuesday we went panning for gold.  We found several flakes.  A friend from church showed us how to do it.  All-in-all we could probably cash in our gold flakes for enough money for a happy meal.   (When Bob mentioned the happy meal, Tristan was ready to cash it in!)   Here's my dad trying his luck:

This morning we went over to the glacier, and hope to go fishing this afternoon.   We're still hoping to see the sun sometime this week :)   Since Saturday, I have seen 5 bears (1 brown, 4 black), but have yet to get a decent picture.   I think August is the month to really see a lot of bears here.

We were driving over by Auke Lake yesterday, and a big black bear ran across the road.  I yelled, "Nathan, you get to see your first bear!"  The bear scooted across the road into the bushes, so there was no photo opportunity, but it was rather exciting.  It was my second black bear to see.  I haven't seen a brown bear yet.

Of course, the bear was probably nosing around in someone's garbage, a big problem here.   In the Juneau empire, our local paper, there is a police and fire report, where they also list calls related to bears.   For the last week or so there have been several bear calls (well, the bears don't make the calls, I think you know what I mean).

A friend from work was telling me she had a bear come into her yard about a week ago.  He had visited before (as evidenced by a distinct "gift" he left on her deck).   This time he went over to the chest freezer, tied down by a large strap, and bent back the top corner like it was cardboard, and proceeded to go through the grocery items.  He tossed the new york steaks and corned beef, and instead dined on bagel bites.   The next day he came back for the tiramasu in the outside fridge.  Junk food bear...

My mother in law left early this morning back to Texas.   On Saturday afternoon we went up on the tram to Mt. Roberts, and did a little half mile hike above the timberline.   Here's from up on top of the mountain looking down on Juneau:

Thought this sign was cute:

There was another sign that said, "Do not feed the squirrels", but it is very apparent that the rule hasn't always been followed: