Wildlife

Nic here...............so far we have seen a moose every week since moving to Anchorage. Hope and I even saw "Buzzwinkle" downtown. This is the moose made famous by first getting his antlers caught up in a kid's swing set bad enough that the Alaska Fish and Game had to dart him, untangle him, tag and release him. In November the same moose was tangled up in Christmas lights downtown and stumbling drunk on fermented crab apples, in front of a local tavern no less. He is still downtown, sober, but with a mark on his hind quarter indicating a collision with a vehicle. Tonight we saw two moose running through the backyard. Here is one we saw between our house and the local elementry school. Bald eagles are plentiful too. It will be exciting when summer comes to see more wildlife. We went for a drive and short hike at sunset (3:30) a few weeks ago and watched the ravens migrate back to the mountains to roost after a day of scrounging the fast food dumpsters downtown. From here we could see all of Anchorage bowl. Here are a couple of pictures, one with the sky line and one with the setting sun over the frozen ocean with a volcano in the background.

Our first February in Anchorage, Alaska

Family and Friends: It seems a fitting day to update our blog since this is the FIRST day we've seen moose meandering (or thundering more like it) through our backyard. Last week I followed a snowshoe hare hopping up the driveway.

We have finally moved into our house and are enjoying it - we love the views of ocean, mountains, trees and few neighbors (ok, and today a couple of moose). We moved in a little over two weeks ago and just only got telephone service a few days ago. We have a choice of two companies - one is terrible and the other one doesn't ever answer their phone. We chose the terrible company.

Check out views from our guest room (come stay in it!!).

We are enjoying our time here, although we get homesick at times. Hope is adjusting the best of all of us. She is making some friends. We went skiing Saturday and as we're getting out of the car, she starts talking to the kid getting out the car next to us. Turns out they go to the same preschool.


We have been trying to clean out our garage (the previous owner left us lots of "useful" things). One of which is a pile of carpet remnants. So, tonight we try to rid ourselves of the remnants so we don't have to pay to bring it to the dump. We posted the carpet for free on Craigslist and within 30 minutes of posting, we got 3 phone calls and 2 emails. Maybe the previous owner was on to something...hmmm...what else can we get rid of on Craigslist????

Some more photos of our activities in Alaska:

This is our playset in our backyard.

Nic and Hope are in the street in front of our house. We walked up the hill and they sled to our house down the street. Hope is in front of the playhouse built for her (and for holding tires - studded ones in summer and regular ones in winter). It was kinda chilly this day - I don't recall it getting any higher than negative 10 degrees.

Some of you will recognize our furniture in this foregin living room - that's how it still feels for now...

Skating at Goose Lake at the Ice Skating Festival! Hope is riding on a bucket and I am pushing. She found this a better way to get around the ice. Notice the "new" ice skates. They are much more comfortable than what I reported on the last blog.

Hope is enjoying helping shovel snow. She has also taken a liking to Windex and paper towels while we're not looking. She cleans EVERYTHING!

See some of you next month when we get around to Colorado and New Orleans...

With love, from all of us!