The run-off hasn't been too bad this year. The snow has been able to melt between snow showers this month. I can finally see leaf buds on the trees. Spring is coming to Alaska!
Our kitchen window looks out on our back yard, which isn't fenced so you can see a grove of trees behind our house. I've always wanted to look up from washing the dishes to see a moose. Well, I got my wish! A big old cow was out grazing on the trees. I love to see the moose! Another time we watched a moose in our back go through a neighbors fence gate to wander in their yard then turn around and go out. I would have thought that gates were new to them but no...you go in and go out through them. Fortunately the gate was open...
Work is going. It is busy. I have over 90 people that I watch over. Lots of visits, lots and lots of paperwork! Next week I get to go to Missoula to do some cross-training...be a liason between MT and AK. Kent gets the car for the week and gets to teach Sunday School all by himself! Isn't he blessed? He is a good teacher. And I. I get to sleep at a hotel with a TV by my bed (so I can go to sleep with the TV on...), eat out at restaurants, see another part of the world and maybe get a manicure and visit a fly fishing shop...
Kent and I went to the Great Outdoors Sportsman show. I was coughing away and Kent was getting over pneumonia. It was a nice time. We got a 8 wt fishing rod and reel which will go well with Kent's 5 wt rod and reel. We enjoyed seeing all that AK has to offer and put in our names in all the drawings for free stuff. Obviously we didn't win anything because no one has called...
Then the next Friday was the Fly Fishers Club auction. We found some nice flies to buy and "won" at some things with a silent auction. BUT the regular auction was something to behold. Now I know prices are higher here in Alaska but...the opening bids were out of our price range! How do people do it?
Then the past two Monday evenings we've been learning more about fly fishing. The Fly Fishers Club holds a seminar each spring. The first Monday was an introduction about the basic gear for fly fishing and learning some of the knots. Last Monday we watched people tie flies. I was glad Kent and I had attended a fly tying class last February because I understood the hows and whys things were done. Next Monday is the monthly meeting so the next seminar will be the 10th of May where we will learn where to fish with a casting clinic on 17 May. Good way to spend FHE, eh?
The sun is rising earlier each morning and setting later and later. Abby would love it here. The sun is up almost all the time now... The weather is warming. It's in the 40's and maybe today will even be in the 50's with the nighttime temperature above freezing! My tomato and green pepper seedlings are up and growing. I've got to get the other seeds planted before too long as we have a short growing season here. I'm wearing my sandals once again. Sometimes I've gotten snowed on too...but spring is here!
So I'm off to wander for a bit before returning to this land of the last frontier.
