Thar she blows!!!

Well, the mountain blew again this morning. 8:34am, and again at 9:24am, the mountain belched ash into the skies, almost 70,000 ft above sea level according to pilots flying near. All air traffic has screeched to a halt, and people were madly scrambling to get everything under cover before the ash started to fall. This time the winds weren't on our side, and this evening we have a light dusting of ash on everything outside. The animals are fine... it's late enough that the birds have gone in, and it's so warm that the ash will get stuck in the water all over the yard.
Eruption images

Satellite photo...



This is what it looked like this morning...


At 5pm this evening...


Pretty spectacular... but the ash will be a nuisance. There's a slight odor on the breeze, but otherwise all looks normal. We'll see what it looks like in the morning.

A bright spot for the day...

My first duckling hatch... :)

A little behind...

Wow... it's been 4 months since I last blogged. It's been a busy winter, filled with lots of babies, lots of snow, lots of work. Nothing truly noteworthy, just life in general. Oh, unless you want to count our collective breath-holding while Mt. Redoubt tried to make up her mind as to whether or not she wanted to blow. 3 months of waiting for something to happen, then yesterday they downgraded her status to yellow. Whew! We were not looking forward to the possibility of being covered in gritty dangerous ash. Not with all the animals, anyway. We were prepared... generator on hand, lots of water stashed away, runs covered... but you just can't keep over 300 birds out of the ash no matter how hard you try. And relocating them was not an option. So we waited, and watched.

AVO Mt Redoubt website
Of course, there are two more volcanoes further down the Aleutian chain that are at yellow, too... Okmok was just upgraded to yellow a few days ago.

We're getting our first hint of Spring right now. 38°F yesterday, and getting warmer it seems. The Daylight Savings time switch screwed up our early morning light, but the days are getting longer... about 1/2 hour every week. The chickens are starting to lay more, and there are lots of babies in the brooders in the garage (and living room, and hottub room...hee hee!) I'm still working at trying to find the balance... keeping just enough chicks on hand for "walk-in" orders, and still managing to keep a few for myself and filling egg/chick orders. Every time I think I have too many birds and I should stop setting eggs, someone comes along and wipes me out completely. Not a bad thing, by any means! But I have a schedule... I set quail eggs on Wednesdays, and they hatch on Fridays. I set chicken eggs on Fridays, and they hatch on Fridays. So Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays are my busy days, keeping an eye on the new babies.

Here's a couple of the babies I hatched out last weekend... they're already gone. :(

Travels and tribulations

Woke up to -8°F this morning. We had the third coldest summer since they started recording in the early 1900s. Global warming??? Yeah, right! LOL!
But we're doing ok so far. We are better prepared for it this year, with the insulation we did when we replaced the septic tank this summer. Even the birds are doing fine in the cold, which is good because I will be sleeping in the coop with the birds if we see another $400 electric bill. It's been hard keeping up with the frozen water, but worth not having the heating bill. Now if I can just keep my fingers from getting frostbite while banging out ice!!!

October 30-November 8th I traveled back to San Diego to see family, and especially my sister who flew in from New Zealand. Talk about a long flight! It was so good to see her, and enjoy a little R&R in the sun. Never did get that walk on the beach... she owes me that next time we're down. ;)

Here are some photos from the trip. Enjoy!
(click on them for larger photos)

Pargo, Min-Pin/Chihuahua mix belonging to a friend... what a cutie!


Helping Dad replace a cover on the engine at the La Mesa Depot:


Checking mail:


Cleo, in her usual position... the lap of luxury:


A day in Mesa Grande:






Mom and Kat, scoping out "the spot" where we scattered Grandma's ashes. I don't have photos of the actual scattering, which involved tears and wildflower seeds, but hopefully I can get those from Dad.


Kat reclining in the shade of the old oak tree:


I had forgotten how majestic these trees are, and how good they smell on a warm fall day. :)


Enjoying the sun and sisterhood:


A quick stop at the old Mission to poke around:






Adobe bricks and plaster...




Julian:














The view from Mt. Helix - what a gorgeous day!




Another tree I miss... the eucalyptus:










It was a lovely trip, and I'm so glad I got to see Kat!! :) Love ya, Sis!

Winter has descended

... in fine white fashion. No preamble, no warning, not even the smidgeon of teasing this year. One day it's raining, the next WHOMP! There ya go. SNOW!!!

This was yesterday morning. This morning I woke up to 2" of the stuff. And boy, is it ever HEAVY. I nearly lost the cover on one of the pens, because we had put a tarp over the wire to keep the rain out. I had no idea that 300 pounds of wet snow was going to fall overnight. If the gate hadn't been open to support it, we would have lost the cover completely. As it is, I had a doozy of a time getting the tarp off of said 8' tall pen, because, well, because there was 300 pounds of snow on it! But I did it. With only a few pounds of snow winding up down my sleeves, in my hair, down my back. No problem! (just glad no one was there to watch. I'm sure someone would have learned some new words.)

A couple of weekends ago, while FALL was still here, Jeremy and the boys went to Prince William Sound, out of Whittier, for their (now) annual black bear hunt.
Sorry, it's a little graphic, but the boys were proud.

Ok, for the more squeamish...


And to remove that vision from your brain, here is some cuteness that has graced our lives...

Been too long...

Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since I updated here. :) It has been a busy summer to say the least. Very wet, very cool... third coolest summer on record since 1917. And if the thickness of the fat layer and fur of the bear Jeremy bagged last weekend is any indicator, we are in for a LONG HARD winter.

We did get the septic in - the yard is now a mess, and will be until next Spring. A big thank you to Em for helping us with that... we couldn't have done it without him!

The new breeders coop is nearing completion... it is complete enough that it houses birds, but the runs are not done, and there is a little bit of trim work left to do inside. Otherwise, it is holding the temps quite nicely, even though we're dipping into the mid-20s. We have had 3 clear days in a row, finally, but that has led to chilly days and even chillier nights. Check out the blog on our website... http://www.freewebs.com/sterlingmeadowshatcheryalaska/ for more photos and such.

The boys are back in school, with Cody in the 4th grade, Coltin in the 6th. They're tall, and they keep stealing my shoes. grrrrrr. :) We're all doing well, keeping busy, and battening down for the winter. We now have rabbits added to the menagerie... quail, chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits and chukar partridges... plus the dogs and boys. That's enough. :)

I will try to post some pictures from this summer here in the next couple of days.

Spring fever

My goodness, this is turning into a beautiful Spring. The dandelions and lupine are blooming, the trees are baby green, and the birds are singing! We're starting to hit into the upper 60s, and today we're forecasted to hit 70! Woot!

Everything is falling into place for our septic system replacement this weekend. Jeremy's been lining up all the equipment and materials, and yesterday we picked up Em (Jeremy's dad) at the Kenai airport... he's here for 4 weeks!!! Woo hoo! It's so nice to have him visiting, not to mention the extra helping hand with some of the bigger projects around the house. :) Nothing like a working vacation, hehehehe!


We're finally making progress in the chick-department... meet Kate, our first Silver Grey Dorking. We should be having some roosters showing up sometime the end of June, so hopefully I can start my flock with these. Still trying to get other birds, but it's not looking good for this season. A major miracle would be required.

This is Ginger, our first Red Dorking:


We hatched 35 Pharoah (Coturnix) quail a couple of weekends ago, and have 125 eggs coming this weekend. A bobwhite quail hatched yesterday, with a couple more in the hatcher now. More chicken eggs under a Silkie, and in the incubator.

Work on the coop continues... the outside is done except for the runs, and the inside is about half-way done.











Silkies in their new pen:


"Elvis" on her 3 eggs...

She's sitting on two silver grey dorking eggs... keep your fingers crossed!

The boys are heading out for a bear hunt next week... Colt and Cody are out of school now, and we have them for 2 weeks straight, so they're taking advantage of it all. Perhaps 4 days out of Whittier. :) I will be here with the birds, but next fishing trip is mine!!! LOL!

Hope everyone is having a great spring so far!

Spring must be here!

It's 43°F, gloriously sunny, ice melting everywhere, and sloppy mud where the snow used to be. Yeppers... it's BREAKUP!!!

We got started on the coop this past weekend - got the floor done, and I put down vinyl yesterday. Good thing, too, because it tried to rain last night.





It just needs to be leveled up a little bit before we can begin framing.

The babies are getting cuter, and more numerous, every day. I was hoping to have some quail eggs arrive today - most likely tomorrow - and they'll be going into the incubator on Friday. The babies we do have are growing like weeds... more photos HERE.
This one is my favorite...

The Duck-Squirt Gang
We picked these little guys up last Friday. We have 3 Khaki Campbells, 2 Rouens, and 1 Blue Swedish (Swede). Cody doesn't know it yet, but The Blue Swede is MINE. LOL!