Where is Ted Nugent When We Need Him?

If you've read any post before this one, you know I love the Kenai. So, of course, last weekend when my boss asked if I'd like to go down there and check out his family cabin, I was in! The weather was actually awesome, although in all these pics it looks a bit foreboding - mostly overcast, some stints of sun, but downright pleasant temps save for some strong winds at night.

Kenai Lake is a big, beautiful lake - over 20 miles long, and in the sun it shines of emerald. Many rivers feed into it, meaning of course it's at the center of a fisherman's paradise (the two dots way down the beach are fisherman, taking advantage of the sliver of thawed lake at the mouth of the creek).

So what are two uptight big-city lawyers to do in such a place? Hahahahaha - it's Alaska baby!

Step one: Chainsaw.

Ohhhhhh yeah! Here's my boss tearing it up - I of course took my turn as well. We made use of several downed trees, then downed one ourselves.

Step 2: Booze.

Nothing like a cold one after a hard day's work. Looks a little windy, huh? Check out the dog's ears!

Ohhhhhh, how I LOVE manual labor!

Speaking of manual labor, one can't go around having boulders on the approach when one has the floats on the plane. My boss is a pilot - actually, all three lawyers I work for are - it's not a bad thing to be up here with our scant roads (to avoid confusion - this trip was a road trip, although you could of course fly if so inclined.) Soooooo.........

Step 3: "The Drag"

Basically you drag this big iron shovel ("drag") behind a boulder, chain it up to the truck hitch, drag it away, then pull the iron shovel back and do it again. I had the option of running the truck or the drag, but the drag was just too much to pass up.

Step 4: Meat.

Start fire, drop grate on fire, place beans in fire, drop meat on grate. Now THAT'S good eatin'.

And, of course, wash down with beer after rebuilding a proper fire.

What else could you possibly want on a Kenai weekend? Oh.

Step 5: Guns.

You've had chainsaw action, "drag" action, booze action...time for some "bolt action."

And yes, that's a scope on one of the rifles. I've always wanted to fire a scoped rifle, outside of a WWII video game. It's much better in real life, and these babies pack a punch.

We also fired the shotgun a few times (which I had never done before) and planned on shooting some skeet, but there were several people who came out right about then to do the same and we decided to hold off until another time. Kind of a cool picture of one of them, though - you can see the clay pigeon shattering and the shell being ejected from the shotgun:

Step 6: Fire.

I know, we already had fire. But sometimes fire is for fun, sometime for utility, and we dispensed with some serious downed trees and branches that night.

Step 7: Haul.

Load trailer, hit "solid waste disposal" area, dump, hitch new trailer, reload trailer, hit the road. That's a good haul.

And that's a good weekend.

Harbingers

Out of the blue, for the first time this year, I heard a nearly forgotten song.

Apartment parking lot, April 7, just after 7:00 pm.

Rejoice.

A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

Finally, the "threat level" from Redoubt Volcano has been lowered - then again, last time it was lowered, was the FIRST time it erupted this episode!

Not to be outdone, the earthquake gods got into the mix today a little after noon. No biggie, no damage. It was only a 4.7 magnitude quake, but I'd like to go on record that there is a HUGE difference, magnitude notwithstanding, in brief earthquakes that are nearby and larger magnitude earthquakes that are far off. I've felt earthquakes in Missouri & California, and this was my third here. But this one was centered less than 20 miles away, and I've NEVER felt the earth move so briefly, yet so violently! My office shook, if only for an instant, as if the building had been hit by a runaway semi! Very intense. As you of course know, there was sort of a big earthquake here in 1964. I could do without a repeat.

Planes, Frames & Legal Appeals

I guess it's not quite time to rename our airport quite yet....


"In 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case."

--U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, dismissing the indictment and conviction of United States Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Where is Tommy Lee Jones When We Need Him?

I'm sure you remember the kinder, gentler days of Redoubt Volcano from an earlier blog post?

Sun, fun, surf.

Ah yes, beautiful, serene Redoubt, silhouetted along with your humble host against calm Alaskan skies:

Or, raining hellfire down upon us all!!!

As I'm sure you've heard, after threatening to blow up since January, Redoubt has erupted double-digit times in the past couple weeks. Credit for the above and below pictures goes to the people at groundtruthtrekking.org, who apparently have been able to get some pics and footage that have eluded the major media outlets.

Did you know volcanic eruptions can spawn lightning? I didn't until I saw these. If you visit their site, they also have a couple of cool time-lapse videos, including one of an eruption - I highly recommend it. Also , if you google "volcano lightning" you will see some amazing images from other volcanos, especially in Chile.

The first several eruptions sent ash north, sparing Anchorage. And these eruptions spew ash into the atmosphere up to 50,000+ feet. This satellite image from Asia shows Redoubt asserting its place in the universe.

And speaking of "Ash Expected Over Anchorage," we are no longer expecting. It happened. I went out to dinner on Saturday and thought "Wow, it looks really dark south of town - it must be snowing down there." When I got to the restaurant I learned Redoubt had erupted again that afternoon and what I was seeing was the approaching ash cloud. I think I was in the restaurant the whole time it went through, and never actually saw anything in the air, but when I got home the snow had CLEARLY changed color.

Now I can officially say we got hit by the volcano, and I think we'd all be happy not to have it happen again. It was about as mild as it gets, outside of closing down the airport for a day along with some other businesses. It had actually just snowed the day before so we had a nice, fresh coat of snow on top of the blanket of snow we've had since October. Check out the difference after the volcanic ash cloud:

Yeah, everything looked really dirty around here for a day, but then it snow again so it's all white again! I wish I could have gotten a more dramatic picture of the difference in the snow, but it was really cloudy that day. Or was it?