01Jan2004 On New Year's Day, we took Tutka on his first walk away from the house. We went down to Bishop's Beach to watch the sunset on the first day of 2004. Bishop's Beach is the dog-walking place in Homer. Tutka got exercised and socialized as well as wet and cold. We got to enjoy a fantastic, though chilly sunset. Tutka is probably big enough that it should not be a problem, but I worry about the Bald Eagles that line the shore. It is not unknown for small dogs to be scooped up. Tutka is about 10 weeks old and 25lbs.
01Jan2004 All right, so this picture is 10 days old. We have been very busy and haven't gotten any recent interesting pictures. We also have not had any days as nice as this one either. Lots of snow though.
First Sunset of 2004 on Bishop's Beach
11 January 2004
17Jan2004 On Saturday, Allison, Tutka and I drove up to Kenai and Soldotna which are about 70 miles North up the Kenai Peninsula. This picture was shot from near Clam Gulch. ILIAMNA is about 80 miles away across Cook Inlet. Iliamna is 10,016 feet high. The purpose of our trip was to get out of the house and to go shopping. At home the temperatures were running around 0F, but in the river valleys and in Soldotna the temperatures were running at about -30F. Tutka spent the whole day in the truck. Despite fears of him eating the truck, he slept and waited patiently for us while we did our shopping and dining.
Iliamna Volcano at Sunrise (9:45am)
18 January 2004
25 January 2004
Berggie Bits, Dogs and Coal
24Jan2004 Yes, there are lots of Bishop's Beach pictures. It is one of the more accessible walking places in winter, it is beautiful and there are lots of other dogs there. (The beach was a 2 or 3 inch thick ice sheet for a few weeks due to the extreme cold and not good walking, but it has warmed up again.) I think most of the ice came from Beluga Slough, the tidal area over the berm to the left. The slough outlet is just this side of the trees in the background. Bishops Beach is also a local coal gathering place. We have started picking up chunks on the way back to the car. I hope to soon have our redwood hot tub with snorkel stove operating. Thus the coal collection. Allison (in white) and Tutka are socializing with other walkers. The day before I was there with Tutka and, alas, no camera. We had Bald Eagles sitting, swooping and dueling 25 feet from us. They were fighting over some unidentifiable nasty lump that had washed up onshore. Very impressive, especially when they tried to swoop by and grab the mass without landing.
