OK OK, I know, I have not posted lately. Sorry about that! The summer has been going great. Lots of sunny days and little rain. We just had a spell of cool overcast rainy weather and I thought it was never going to end. But, after the locals tell me that it rained every day last summer, I don't feel so bad. I think yesterday it may have hit 70 (feels more like 90) as it was HOT. I can't explain the weather here. When I explain that it rarely gets into the 70's here, most folks back home say, "boy that sounds cold!" but when you are actually experiencing the weather, it feels hotter. Perhaps it is because it is the area on the globe that positions us closer to the sun in the summer? Who knows, but I do know, that even though it says 70 on the thermometer outside, if you go outside and soak in the sun, you would swear it was at least 10-15 degrees hotter. The weather also seems dry to me. Now I know you are thinking "dry.... how can it be dry if you are surrounded by the ocean?" but believe me, we have very little humidity here. Not that I am complaining mind you, I would much rather have the weather here, than the weather you folks in the Northeast have been getting, yikes.
So we bought tickets to see "Hot Tuna". Ray can tell you who all is in the band, I was just excited that we had a date to see some live music and get outside. Well, this is Alaska, and can you believe, the DAY the concert was to perform, they moved the venue? No posters, no announcement, just a small sign on the fairgrounds entrance saying "The venue has changed to Alice's in Homer". They were supposed to play in Ninilchik which is 40 miles north of Homer at the fairgrounds, but because they thought it might be a better venue, they moved them to a bar in Homer. Now mind you, we, fortunately enough, found out ahead of time. But most folks actually drove to the fairgrounds and back. I was sort of angry about this, but as it turned out no one seemed miffed, and everyone who had tickets made it to the bar. The band actually waited to play until all of the ticket holders could make the drive.... I just kept thinking to myself, this would NEVER have happened back east, and to see that everyone made it to the bar on time, and the band played, and no one was miffed...was...well....strange....but after I got over myself, I had a great time and they were really neat to see in concert.
OK so the Greepeace Boat was in port the other day and they made an announcement on the radio that we could tour it. Unfortunately I only had 45 minutes before work to quickly go on a tour and take a few pics. I think Greenpeace is an amazing organization and it was neat to see what they are doing and what they are trying to protect. They are also about education, and their mission in Alaska was to travel to native villages and educate them about fishing and subsistence living, and keeping the environment healthy. Unfortunately, most of these remote villages have little education, and over the past few years, big corporations have come in and thrown money around to them to "mine" their lands, and what they leave them with is waste and a destroyed environment. The money looks good to them, so they take it, and years later they are suffering to make ends meet. Sad story, but one that happens more and more here. If you want to read more about a projects like these, google "pebble mine" and there is case and point for you.
We still can't get over the view, and Ray the other day, on his walk had to take this picture for you all to see.
Can you believe that this is our view?Still amazes me every time I look out the window.
I am homesick for fresh produce, corn, tomatoes, and all things summer. I guess our trade off is fresh fish here, and I like that, but boy what I would do for a fresh tomato sandwich with a ear of corn. I am also homesick due to the lack of choices here. The one grocery store in town has been out of chicken for over a week. They keep saying "tomorrow" but every day returns an empty cooler. A bit frustrating and at the same time sobering to know just where we live and how remote we actually are.
The fire I was talking about is pretty much out. They let nature take its course as it was headed where no one lived in a remote forest owned by the state, and they wanted it to burn itself out. Our forests here are LOADED with dead Spruce trees due to a bark beetle that came in a few years back and destroyed thousands and thousands of trees. So they figured that it would burn the dead stuff and it would help the forest regrow and regenerate in the future. Sounded silly at first to me, but as soon as Ray explained how forests regenerate, it makes total sense. Here is a picture from about a month ago from the fishing hole. It shows the smoke headed towards Homer. Pretty eerie....
There is another web cam if you are so inclined. It is www.justalaska.net they for some reason have been down a lot, so I never put their website up, but over the past few days, it looks OK again. So if you would like to see what is happening weather wise, and view wise here in Homer, check out their webcams. They have several.
Hoping you are all well, until next time!
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