Raven meal

During the last super cold snap (-30s), I snapped these photos while walking laps in the parking lot at UAF while waiting for my car to warm up. It looks like a raven snapped up his or her meal here!


See? Little scurrying tracks, and then wingprints and the track ends!


Here is a photo of Cricket's paws:


And of Roo's paws:


Them paws! They are sooooo sofffft!

Happy Birthday, Starbuck-A-Roo!

Yesterday, Starbuck turned 12! And there were 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground, so yaaaaaay!

(Neither she nor Cricket uses this house, but they faithfully maintain it.)

Yyyyyaaaayy!!


Wwweeeeee!!!


Roo in the sunshine:


Cricket taking off!


A pause for reflection:


And then they are off again!


Roo waits for me.


Oh this photo will make me cry when Roo is gone. :( Luckily, that won't happen for a long while yet!


"My vet says I look about 7 or 8!"


And today we went to visit her Friends at the Denali Center!

Selfies!

Cricket, a-snugglin':


Starbuck-a-Roo, being ssssooooo sssooooffft:


Starbuck-a-Roo after having visited her Friends at the Denali Center:


Denali Center selfie!

She was panting! It's very warm in there for her! But she Loves to see her Friends!

Yay!

A few weeks ago, I was walking across campus on a -40 degree day and came upon this awesome ice bear, and attempted a selfie with him:


But he was too big to capture (or my arms are too short!).

Yesterday, I was walking by again, and the official campus photographer had set up a tripod and was photographing passers-by with the bear! So I finally got my photo with him!

credit: JR Ancheta

Yay!

Miscellaneous photos

Yesterday evening, I got a photo of Cricket in a classic Starbuckeroo pose:


Like this! It's like they have melded minds, like borg!


And here is a photo from a lovely morning at the National Wind Technology Center in Boulder, Colorado:


And again, at dusk:


It's some beautiful country, isn't it?

I heard a funny and mildly disturbing anecdote the other day. A guy who works at the wind test site was told by this fellow that he didn't think wind energy worked, because the "wind farm" (test site) was so strangely designed, with so many types of turbines, facing different directions, and only a few of them are spinning at any given time!

sigh

It made me laugh though. It *does* look like a wind farm designed by a 5-year-old, doesn't it?

New Year Tamales!

Here is my New Year Tamal report.

I used bacon fat in the masa, and roasted a pork loin in foil with salt, pepper, garlic, and onions:


When I chopped up the pork, I let the onions and garlic fall wherever they happened to fall. Some of the tamales ended up with chunks of roasted aromatic goodness:


It goes pretty quickly once you get into a rhythm:


Steamed for two hours:


I made guacamole to have with them the first night, but used salsa from the refrigerated section of the store:


Mmmm!


So pretty, with the colors of the Mexican flag!

Miscellaneous photos

1 p.m. on the ridgeline:


The Beaver Pond:


I call this pose, "Indecision":


"Should I get up, or should I sit here?"


Light in the woods behind our home:


Cricket ponderz:


Roooo is roo-minating:


Roo snuggles with her daddy!


They snuggle together!


Awwww!


On the trail:


Blue light: