Moose Licks

As any good Alaskan knows, moose like to lick the salt off of cars. Last week we had these two twin moose in our yard all day. The mama moose was across the street,browsing and napping. These guys are yearlings and will be ditched by mom this spring/summer. One of them needed a salt fix and hung out licking our cars for quite some time. We kind of had to scare him off with the dog because Jaxon was being dropped off from ski club by a friend any minute.

Jax Art

Here is his drawing, that's the neighbors house behind the moose with leaning trees between our houses in view.

Jaxon's Moose Study

When he got home from school the moose was still there so he got the binoculars (which he only needed to see detail he informed us) out and a pencil with paper to draw the moose. Jaxon is quite the artist. It was cute, he got very into it.

the moose nap

That moose hung out next to our house all day! He layed down for a nap and just stayed for hours right outside the window. Around dinner time he walked off past the house next door and was gone, we will see him around later...

just a corner in our house

The batik to the left is one of mine from last year "Raven Valley". The photo holders I made with a glue gun, stick, 2 clothes pin clips, some small river rocks and a couple small containers I had around the house. The pictures were black and white versions from our photo shoot with Michelle, "Crows View Photography"(see previous posts). The lovely little carving of a mom with her two little boys was a b-day gift from my mom a couple years ago and I love it (thanx mom:0) The other earthy things to the right are a couple things I also put together, glass moss globe and birch covered vase with sticks. The little corner shelf was made by Andy with a burl and some scrap wood a few years back, just because.

crafts with kids

I've had this 3D handprint kit around for quite some time and finally used it! (Use it or Loose it is my new motto for the year, more on that later it's a blog in itself).  Love the boys hands together like this. We will look back at it when they are grown men and try to remember when their hands were this small. I only painted the edge so I couldn't mess up the prints or cover a single line in their cute little hands. The kit was just a powder gel mix that looked alot like what our preschool teacher calls "gak" when mixed with water, then a plaster powder that mixed with water as well and when you poured it over the "gak" after imprinting their hands into it, the plaster dried, the gel peeled out and walla, 3D Handprints.

Moose & Northern Lights

Every now and then I'm reminded of why we live here in Alaska. Like this morning when I woke up at 4 am to use the potty, looked out the bathroom window and went, WOW. The northern Lights were out in full force. A sky full of waving green ribbons, disappearing and reappearing every few seconds. If you have never seen them it's hard to imagine and if you have it's hard to describe. They have been far and few between for quite a few years now but I've heard they run on an 11 year cycle. Which makes sense to me because 12 years ago when I spent my 1st summer up here (1999) working at Denali I was lucky enough to end up with the really early breakfast shift the last month I was there. Normally I wouldn't feel luck to have to be at work at 4:45 AM but that year in Aug. & Sept. the Lights were out just about every morning and the walk up the hill from my employee housing to the restaurant was magical. This awesome green curtain, it's called a curtain because it fills the sky with wavy lines  hanging and rippling like the curtain of an open window with the wind flapping it around. I woke Andy up, he had to see it. I mostly enjoyed them through the window since it was like -28 degrees below zero out but had to go outside and see the whole sky for a couple minutes. Wow but Brrr... Then this morning we had a moose in our side yard, actually not had, he's still out there. After an hour or so of browsing (that's what they call it when they eat) trees in our yard, he just layed down for a nap and is still there soaking in the sun, now that it's out. There have been alot of moose around lately because of all the deep snow. They come down from the high country to get out of it. Wish I had some aurora photos but I don't, here's the moose though.