Watching Wash. Our old washing machine finally burped out its last load of laundry. It was shoved aside for the new, improved, quiet, front-loading machine. Forget watching TV....we have a new washing machine.

Not the Eensy Weensy Spider. The spider is always there. It isn't an October picture. I've always wanted to knock on the door to this house and ask, "Why?"

Snow Again. It snowed again today. This pictures sums up how we all felt about it.

Cleats. In case you didn't know, it is considered rude to wear your ice cleats indoors. This hospital has a reminder for those who would forget. Along those same lines, we only have four more days left to get our studded tires removed from our car.

Sashmura. During the wedding ceremony, the bride's hair is braided and she puts on a sashmura, or hair covering (H), which is worn from that day forward. The kasinka (scarf) is worn over the sashmura.

Paisok. This Paisok (belt), given to each child at birth in the Russian Orthodox religion, symbolizes the ties with the Church. The belts are braided or woven and fringed or tassled at the ends. Every male wears one of these around his waist.

Made to Order. One custom-built, hand-crafted log home. Check. The log work is done. Good job, Logbuilder John.

Polar Bear Chill. While most of us are glad to see the end of winter, some can't get enough of it, like the skiers. This morning I opened my freezer to find a toy polar bear hanging out with the frozen vegetables. Our son likes to snuggle his bear when it is really cold.

My daughter just showed me this picture, taken at her track meet yesterday. The field events had to be cancelled because of mud and snow. Notice the large puddle on the track. I read that at a track meet in Homer, the coach had to run out on the track between events and sweep the puddles off. It was a cold, wet day at the track for her, but she had a good time.

Ben pointed out this web site that is full of skiing enthusiasts who are so sad to lose their snow, they write poems about it - http://www.crosscountryalaska.org/trails/ Pretty funny stuff.

Wedding Cap. I've been spending a lot of time in the Russian Orthodox village lately. This Sunday they celebrate their Easter. In honor of that, I took pictures of some of their traditional clothing to learn more. Their handiwork is spectacular.

The Spit. The little piece of land that sticks out into the Bay is called the Homer Spit: the second largest spit in the world (I think. I'm too tired to check. Ben?). It was in an especially pretty setting this night.

Drawing Crowds. This sign appears each spring and cracks me up every time. It is a basic need here each spring.
Chick house. Every year we buy chicks so that after they are grown we can help feed the local dogs. It never fails that some big dog gets into our chickens, killing half while scattering the rest with their few remaining feathers tucked between their scrawny legs. We have a wicked banty rooster out there this year that we hope will act as sherif.

Fore! This golf hole is in the middle of an old gravel pit that filled in with water, froze, and became covered in snow. It belongs to a man who built his house on the edge of the gravel pit. We don't have much golfing around here, making the house/gravel pit/lake/golf hole-in-the-middle a genuine novelty. I'll take a picture of it after everything melts. That is called a teaser. There is also another brand new, fabulous golf course going in a few miles from us. I noticed that the greens are melted on that as well. I'll take a picture later this week. That's another teaser. I need to find my left-handed clubs...

Babied Tomatoes. I know of some who live in the lower 48 who carelessly toss their tomato plants ouside and let them fend for themselves. Somehow the tomatoes thrive and provide enough fruit to can salsa and and still have left overs for tomato fights. Here, we baby our tomato plants by raising them from infants in our very homes. Then we plant them in buckets and tenderly place them in our greenhouses where they whine and withhold fruit if we look at them wrong. Here's some of our new babies raised from seed. So much effort!

Easter Eggs. Easter in Alaska doesn't look like kids racing around a grassy hill searching for eggs. Here the kids crunch around the snow in their Easter shoes. One year, when our oldest daughter was young, she was the least aggressive of the egg hunters. She sadly told us that she had found only one egg. Then she showed us her basket, which contained an old, red dog ball that must have recently been revealed by the retreating snow. She had mistaken it for an egg.

The King's Truss. John finished the king truss today. This is his first one. All the others were gable ends. He's a fast learner. Someone asked about the shape of the windows and door. The header log on each shows their actual width. He will cut them square later.

Runaway. Our daughter ran away this afternoon by climbing 40 feet up a spruce tree and hanging out for the afternoon. She took blankets, pillow, a book, and other goodies to make life comfortable, but eventually decided to rejoin our family. Our trees have so many branches that if she fell she wouldn't go far. Lots of sap, though, from the beetle infestation. The trees kick out extra sap to rid themselves of the beetle larvae.

Tree, Upside Down. These two eagles are sitting on top of one of several logs that has been punched into the sand root side up. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind putting the logs this way except that it looks cool.

Two Moose. I took this photo last night on our way back from Anchorage. There are three things I would like to point out about this picture. One is that I took it at 9:40. It was still dusky out even though the sun had set a while ago. We just returned from Arizona where we were surprised at the speed at which the sun sets. It plops down below the horizon so fast you could almost hear a cartoon "boing" sound accompanying it. Secondly, on our drive back from Anchorage we were amazed at how much the snow had melted while we were gone. Then it started to snow heavily. By morning we had 5 new inches of snow. Waaa. You can see the snow that landed on my lens while I took the picture. This was the start of the snowfall. Thirdly, we saw at least 20 moose along the highway in the last 1/2 hour of the 4-hour drive. They all looked eager to jump onto the highway with their ears twitching and their eyes rolling around to stare at us. After passing so many moose I decided to stop on the highway and stick my camera out the window to take a picture for the blog. This caused John-The-Log-Builder to shout wildly about the cars coming up behind us. So I didn't have time to zoom in on the moose as I had to quickly click the picture, throw the car in gear and take off. The snow on the lens is glowing from the car that was fast approaching. Can you find the moose? There are two of them just to the left of center. If you click on the picture I believe it will enlarge for you to search. I won't be submitting this picture to National Geographic.

Bye Bye Skiing. Our snow is quickly deteriorating and we put our skis up for the season. How sad. Sniff. We may try one more ski before we call it quits completely. This is a picture of a thank you made for the volunteer groomers who make our trails so nice. Thanks groomers. Next post: April 12.

The House That Mary Jane Built. This is part of a dismantled castle that used to be on East End Road and now sits on the Spit. Until recently a long rope of blond hair hung out of the window. I guess someone finally climbed up it. I heard that this castle, when it was all in one piece, used to house a marijuana operation. I don't know if it is true or not, but it wouldn't have been a very subtle place to do that. It would explain the presence of the long hair though.

Heater Hog. Our Toyo Stove is where all the kids gather in the mornings. Many arguments erupt at the heater over who is hogging it. We even have to fight with the dogs for heater realty. Lola takes advantage of our absence during an enthralling episode of Survivor to have the heater all to herself.

Live Aboard. This houseboat only floats on extremely high tides. I've always wanted to see what's inside. Notice the satellite dish. I picture a character from the book A Series of Unfortunate Events living in it.