She just keeps going, and going, and going...

Kinda like the Energizer Bunny, Mt. Redoubt doesn't wanna quit. So far flights into and out of Anchorage have been mostly cancelled. FedEx hasn't been coming in, as well as a lot of flights coming down from the slope. Our friends, Jim and Melissa, are suffering from that. Jim was supposed to fly back yesterday, but that flight, as well as today's, was cancelled. He's scheduled another flight for tomorrow, and Tim is scheduled to fly out to Montana on Sunday morning, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the mountain settles down a bit. We haven't really seen any ash up here, though the Anchorage area is supposed to be seeing a bit. It did snow most of the morning and early afternoon, and ash could have been mixed with it, but it's hard to tell if it's ash or just the muck from Spring break-up. If she goes again, I'm going to try my hand at a little ashfall collection with some help from the AVO guys. Here's a few neat photos that were taken yesterday. I'm sure we'll see some more from this mornings blast, too.

Thar she blows...

At about 10:30 pm last night, Mt Redoubt began to erupt. So far there have only been about 6 minor eruptions spewing mainly ash. With the winds they way they are, we haven't seen any ash up here and the skies have been mostly clear and sunny. Further south, however, is where the ash has been heading. As of 4:35 Alaska DST the Alaska Volcano Observatory has stated that "The eruption of Redoubt volcano continues and the color code and volcano alert level remains at RED/WARNING. Seismic activity remains elevated, but has declined slightly over the past several hours. The activity consists mostly of volcanic tremor with some discrete events.

AVO has received no new reports of ash emission since early this morning. The ashfall advisory has expired. "

These are some photos taken by the webcams in the area.


And here's a link to the Alaska Volcano Observatory's website. Check it out...

It's all in a name...

At 11:38 am this morning, Lance Mackey won his THIRD CONSECUTIVE Iditarod race! It's amazing! At the time of this posting, the next place finisher left Safety, 22 miles from the finish line in Nome, at 4 pm. Not only did he finish almost 6 hours in front of the next place finisher, but he did it with 15 of his 16 dogs. He also happened to make a wrong turn on Day 7 and lost 2 hours back-tracking and getting back on course. It was thought that two other racers had a chance back on Day 6, but here in Alaska, we know, "it ain't over 'til it's over!" Congratulations, Lance Mackey, what an inspirational and amazing team and athlete! Hey, isn't there another amazing athlete named Lance?


Just a side note, our "home town girl" is currently in 44th place, leaving Unalkleet at 1:13 pm today. Right there with her is this years probable Rookie of the Year winner, Karin Hendrickson. We're still rooting them both on!! Also, at this time, 10 mushers have scratched, including another Seeley Lake resident running his first race. Rob Loveman is probably the only nuclear physicist. Check out all the action on the ADN website.

2009 Iditarod Restart

This year we decided to join some of my friends from work for the re-start. The best part was that it wasn't with all the crowds down in Willow, it was just a bit further up the trail off one of the many lakes up there. (It's off the Deshka Landing road) Though there were quite a few more people up there this year as compared to last year (according to my friends) we had a nice open spot right on the trail. The dogs and sleds were literally right in front of us and we could have touched them if we wanted to. This year's race ended up with 67 teams, though the bibs read team 2 - 68 because the number 1 bib is symbolic of the "ghost racer," the original Iditarod Trail runner. The first racer starts coming out of the restart in Willow at about 2 pm and each team goes after in 2 minute increments. By the time they got to us, probably under 5 miles away, some of the teams were right together. The most teams we saw bunched up were three, but I'm sure that will change further on down the trail. If you're looking for more information on this amazing event, you can check it out on the Official Iditarod Homepage and keep up with the racers here I took over 200 photos of them, and a few videos that I plan to post on the Anchorage Daily News site for photos and video, where you can see the posts that lots of other people have posted, as well. Right now we're rooting for Lance Mackey to win his third consecutive Iditarod. And of course, we're rooting for our "home town" girl, Cindy Gallea, to make a good showing in this year's race. Mostly we're hoping everyone comes through the race without any major injuries to racers or the dogs. It really is one of the most grueling sporting events there is. They don't call it the Last Great Race for nothing!!

Home Town Girl...

Every year we've been up here and watched the Iditarod, we've always supported our "home town" girl, Cindy Gallea from Seeley Lake, MT. It's neat to have a personal connection with one of the racers, especially for the kids. Cindy's just one of the racers we're rooting for, but we wanted to share her with everyone, so here's a video of her passing us on the trail. Go Cindy!!

Last But Not Least...

For a final look at the 2009 Iditarod Restart, I thought I'd give you a "dogs eye view" of the last team to head out. Listen to those harnesses jingle and the runners slide on the snow...

Elementary music programs are beautiful...

The week before last the girls both had music programs. Alex had hers first on Thursday night. The theme was "Weather the Weather" and she did a great job with all the songs. Her classes song was "Let the Storm Begin" and here's her performance.



Sara's was the next day at school and the theme was Animal Songs. They also did a Heel & Toe Polka that was sooo cute. But here's her class singing "Pop, Goes the Weasel".