Hunker down and Ride It OUT!!!

 It has been completely crazy here in the Big Lake Burg and surrounding areas!  In the whole State it seems!  We had a 6.0 earthquake on Thanksgiving Day, then we had rain and snow mixed, and now we have had Hurricane Force Winds!  Gusts up to 100 MPH have been recorded!

This is the notification of the earthquake - its a phone app- Alaska has been getting hammered lately!

In Alaska, we don't name our storms - its just weather - I think I went over this before but it bears reminding!  Blizzard is Blizzard, Rain is Rain, and Wind is just that - Wind!  I have heard a couple of people say "This shall be called the 6-7 Storm"  Since it encompassed the 6th and 7th to start with, but now we will have to call it the "6-7, 8-9 Storm" as they have extended it through the 9th now!

These are the alerts we get and the facebook post is from our local utility for electric that has been working around the clock to get power back on for everyone!  If you arent able to read it, that says they still have 21K+ people without electricity!  Thats a big chunk of our population!

Here is my Bar B Que Grill and all of its guts along with a birdfeeder that I thought I had tucked away where it couldnt get wind blown, and an assortment of brick pavers that were on the grill and obviously didn't hold it down!  This particular grill is once again upright but its so destroyed that it will just go in the dumpster!  All the bars and lines are broken!  Luckily this is not our regular use one and we have another one that we use most of the time. This IS the one that works without electricity!  Of course!  We have been lucky and only had power out for about 8 hours, but now there is this.....

More wind to come at the end of this week - like Thursday and Friday!  Ugh!

Part of my family are ready to move to Hawaii, or to a land far, far away!  Hubby asked yesterday why we live in this "God Forsaken Place?" 

My only answer is this....

These are Cedar Waxwings feasting on the berries of the Rowan (Mountain Ash) Trees that are scattered throughout our yard.  We have at least 100 of the birds and they come in between wind events to feast and then go hunker down in the big Blue Spruce (also in the yard), to ride it out with the chickadees!

Here are some of the berries on the ground - they will scoop those up as soon as the tree berries run out!

Here you can see the berries on the trees - they are beautiful and sometimes even the Moose and the Squirrels will feast on the berries.

And then there is this reason to live here.....

This is almost an every day sight here when it is cold in the winter, but we also sometimes see them even in the summer!  In person, it is breathtaking!

I know that sometimes they can be seen at other places around the world, but here, where the air is clear, when the wind is not blowing, you can hear them flowing and firing across the sky, and it is magical.

So we will hunker down and ride it out, and wait until Mother Nature has reached a calmer season.

Until then, May the Wind be always at your back (or not blowing at all), and may you recognize the beauty that is all around you (even if there is blowing debris), and may you be safe and warm and blessed in all things!