Redoubt Still Rumbling

This picture of Redoubt is from the web cam this morning. Someone's a little grumpy! (I'm just saying.) I don't know when she is going to get tired of her little games and go back to sleep. She has been disturbing the airlines, which in turn disturbs our mail delivery, which in turn disturbs me. Notice how it all comes back to me? :0) Anyway....not a lot else to report. She is being monitored continuously and has had several more earthquakes. She keeps letting off steam, but then who doesn't every so often? I am off to decorate bulletin boards at the school. I know what you are thinking...all this excitement in one day? It's almost too much to handle! Yes, it is a wild and crazy life I lead. Happy Spring. Plant a daisy for me. We're still enjoying snow fall up here in the frozen north.

The Day After Redoubt...

I tell you, it's a good thing that you weren't around here last night. Talk about chaos and panic. I'm pretty sure I heard Tink yelling "IT'S EVERY CAT FOR HERSELF!" at one point. Once we got her calmed down and convinced that the world wasn't ending (she watches too much TV), things went a lot smoother.
I went out this morning and took a few pics of the ash fall. It's a really fine grain, sort of between sand and baby powder. Does a lot more damage, though. The airport has been closed all night due to ash fall. I'm not sure when it's going to reopen. When you consider that everything in Alaska comes in by boat or plane, it kind of puts a damper on things. For instance, no mail until this clears up.

Everything looks just a little bit dingy this morning. You can see the thin layer of ash on the snow. We are expecting more snow today, so this will be covered up soon.

In the interest of science, I got a sample of the ash and put it in a little bottle. I'll make a cute little label for it later. Some day, when I'm old and gray (oh, wait, that's now!)...Some day, when I'm older and grayer, I will look back at this little bottle and tell my grand kids how I survived the volcanic eruption of 2009. Of course, the story will be a LOT more exciting at that point. I'll throw in a couple of fire engines and sirens to spice things up. No sense in boring the younguns!

Hiding Out In The Basement

Our family is huddled in the basement, clinging together for comfort and shaking in fear. Ash is everywhere. We can not leave the house. We are prepared to eat the cats, if necessary. It's everywhere. It's everywhere! Aughhhhhhh! It's not really very dramatic here, so I thought I'd spice it up a little bit. Redoubt Volcano continues to erupt. We had a big eruption around 3:30 this afternoon, and the ash hit Elmendorf AFB and Anchorage around 5 pm. We hadn't been monitoring the news very closely, so we didn't get much warning. Besides, we have had a LOT of false alarms. Needless to say, we were surprised when the ash actually started to fall. We didn't get the truck covered, so we will have to go wash it off tomorrow when this dies down. We had another eruption a little after 7 tonight, so we expect more ash before morning. The winds still seem to be blowing it in this direction. We are hanging out and watching TV. The excitement of our natural disaster lasted about 10 minutes, then the kids were bored and on to other things. I guess after hurricanes, our little volcanic eruption was a bit of a let down.

Redoubt Volcano...Again!

She's been holding it in for so long that now she just can't seem to stop letting it all out. Poor Redoubt. She erupted a couple of times last night, and again around 9:30 this morning. The latest ash plume went around 50,000 feet above sea level. Winds have shifted, and it's heading our direction. Luckily for Anchorage residents, they are calling for "trace amounts of ash fall in the area". Not really sure how much trace amounts are. I looked at my measuring utensils in the kitchen and couldn't find "trace" on any of them. Must be somewhere in the category of "smidgen" or "tad". Snow has been falling all morning, so it would be mixed in with that and not very noticeable. We are under an advisory until 3 pm.

(Picture Date: March 26, 2009 21:41:00 UTC Image Creator: Dehn, Jonathan)

(Homer Lodge, Picture Date: March 26, 2009, Image Creator: Isaak, James)

The weather has been a little wacky lately, not even counting the volcanic activity. It's in the low 30's right now, and will stay in that area for most of the week. Big flakes of snow are falling, and sticking for the most part. Ice is melting off of the roofs and dripping down onto the snowbanks below. Essentially, Anchorage in a big slushy cup at the moment. Spring Breakup is not the most attractive season for Alaska. Kind of like seeing your favorite movie star without her makeup on. You know she is beautiful, but you aren't seeing much of that right now.

In case you were following out sad cat saga, there is much celebration in our household now. Grandma and Grandpa have saved the kitties. They have volunteered to babysit our babies for the 3 years that we are in Europe. Whoopeee! The kids have stopped moping around the house. Jess has stopped accusing us of "putting a price tag on family". Now we can relax in the knowledge that our cats will be well taken care of. I won't even complain when they weight about 30 pounds each when we return to the states (because Grandma loves to give the kitties treats). I will just remind her that Tink loves to sleep on your head, and that could be very dangerous for everyone involved if she were the size of a bean bag chair. Ashley will have a reading buddy to lounge with, and Tink will have a glass door with a whole new crop of squirrels to check out. Her heart will be broken many times, I'm sure, but she is tough and can handle it. We have given up on the cats Dutch lessons, and are now working on teaching them to speak southern. Meeeeeooooow, ya'll. Grandparents rock!

Redoubt Once Again!

Once again, Redoubt is doing her thing. She erupted this morning around 9:30. Twice. She sent a huge plume of ash and gas around 65,000 feet into the air. What will happen next is any one's guess. They are "officially" predicting that the ash will go south of us, with southeast winds carrying it into the Kenai. The local weather channel says that winds are traveling northeast at this time, and that would bring the ash directly to us. Ash could hit Anchorage within the hour or two. The schools are carrying on as normal. Planes are evacuating. Flights are cancelling. The cats and I have the weather channel on, are searching the Internet for news updates, and have a nice cozy spot arranged under the bed if things get worse. This is what the paper is reporting at this time.

"The wind is taking the plume in different directions at different elevations, with winds between about 40,000 and 50,000 feet moving the plume toward Anchorage.
"It's possible that we could get some trace amounts (of ash in Anchorage), but it may not be anything noticeable right off the bat. People might notice a film on their windshields," Waythomas said."

Everyone loves an optimist.

Free To Good Home

It's not looking too good for the babies. While trying to book our overseas tickets, we have found that getting two cats to our new home is not as simple as we first thought. Or as cheap. Seems they don't really want any more cats over there. And they want to make it as difficult as possible to take any. Tons of forms and regulations, as well as approval from a foreign consulate. For cats? Did they commit some crimes that I'm not aware of? Are they on some "list" that I don't know about? (Did Ashley order too much off of the Home Shopping Channel and have Tink write a couple of hot checks to pay for it?) Not to mention that with all of their fees and tickets, it is adding up to about $1,500 to get them over there. Not to mention, we would have to go through all the paperwork and another $1,500 to get them back to the states in three years. If something is not 100% correct in their paperwork once we got there, they automatically put them back on a plane to their city of origin. That would mean the cats would be sitting in the Anchorage airport for the next 3 years while we were overseas. I've informed them that they need to be practicing their "cute" looks. It looks like they will have to shop around for a new home.

Redoubt and Black Bear

The excitement with the volcano continues, but for Anchorage, the worst seems to have passed us by. Luckily for us, the winds have been traveling north, so we haven't had any ash in the area. Flights heading north have been cancelled, but traffic to the south seems to be running smoothly today. It has given us plenty to talk about, though. I heard that we had 5 major eruptions at last count (could have been more or less, so don't quote me on that!), and the largest ash cloud shot about 60,000 feet in the sky. That impressive, by anyone's standards! Not much to see on the Redoubt web cams, though.

Apparently I was not the only one around here with visions of Spring dancing through my head this past week. A large black bear woke from his winter slumber last weekend, and decided to head out and pick up a little snack. Unfortunately, most snack foods for bear are still covered by several feet of snow. Mr. Bear was cruising around the park near the Campbell Airstrip. Enter a gentleman out for an afternoon of fresh air and exercise. (Once again, reinforcing my theory that exercise is not always good for you.) Mr. Bear said "Why lookie here! Fast food!" The gentleman took offense to this idea and proceeded to climb a tree. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't black bear climb trees? Aren't they EXCELLENT tree climbers? Why yes they are, but if you are in the woods with a hungry bear, no other humans around, and no way to escape said bear, you at least want to make him work a little bit for his meal. Now we have a man in a tree with Mr. Bear hanging out down below, tying to decide whether he should shake it a little and see if the meal will fall down or just head up and fetch it. Luckily for the man, another group of hikers came upon the scene, and they happened to have some dogs with them. The dogs chase the bear off and the man climbs down to safety. They all head back to the trial head, with Mr. Bear following at a not so discreet distance. The next time this gentleman considers a brick walk through snow during Spring Breakup, he might think again. Hmmmmm. That second cup of coffee is sounding pretty good, and maybe I'll just walk around the mall a bit after breakfast. Who needs all that pesky fresh air anyway?