Hat etc.

Here is a hat I made. And another -40 sunrise a few days ago. Last photo is Jock, grade 5, with a bridge he made of about 20 lbs. of clay. He made some cars too. Then he bombed and smashed the whole works......must have been a frustrating day at school! He had a big smile on his face after he cleaned up the whole thing and put the clay back in the bucket. Good stuff that clay!!

End of January in Sight!!

My least favorite month of the year is almost over. Only that one bit of really cold weather....and we survived it!! The past week has been warm (0 C for the high and maybe -3 C at night). Now it is cooling off, but nothing too bad.
Had lots of people out for afterschool pottery. The youngest was 10 months. He spent most of his time in his Nannie's backpack. There are two 'littles', one 17 mo. and one 18 mo. They both are making things. It is amazing how quickly they start to learn to manipulate clay.
It is lots of fun to come out and socialize while you make things. There is a really nice atmosphere to our clay space. We have people just dropping in to talk and see what everyone is making.
Although seeing a deer is not thought of as exotic in most places, it is here. they have just recently colonized our area. 10,000 years ago there was a mile of ice and now trees, people, deer etc. Actually there were 4 deer in the heard crossing the road. My camera batteries failed from the cold after the first photo!

Keeping Warm at -40 and Below......

We are just coming off one of those dreaded cold spells. We only got to -42, but had neighbors down to -47. In Fahrenheit degrees that is somewhere in the -60 range. We are on a 5% south slope about 80 feet above the lake so the cold air rolls past down into the hole. Also we are getting some sun in the afternoon and it is shining right into the house!!!! Everyday is getting longer, yippee!
As you can see, we have a nice wood pile. My favorite Pacific energy stove cranks out the heat. We have to hang around close to the stove adding more wood every couple of hours. Luckily for us the cold weather only lasted a few days. It is only -29 now....heat wave!!

Afterschool January 6, 2011

Today it is snowing again. Can't see the mountains. Good day to be inside making things. Looks to be getting cold again too. What can I say??? It is January. Some photos from yesterday afternoon. We had a good time and stayed until 5 pm.

First Sunrise of 2011

These photos were taken around 9;30 am on January 1, 2011. Yes, the days are starting to get a bit longer. 97 seconds today! We have had a Chinook, so good bye to the -35 etc. At least for a little while. I am sure we will see their return sometime this month. Meanwhile we are enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.
Happy New Year and all the best to my customers, faithful readers and friends.

Freezeup/Breakup

Took these photos around 3 pm. After the -35 C it looked like we had freezeup coming along nicely. Then one of those huge storms from the Gulf of Alaska moved our way. The temperature went up to 0 C and the winds howled. Some of the ice held, but there is going to be quite a mess at the edge. The sound is amazing, all that bashing and crashing of the ice chunks.
Cooler weather is on the way....won't take long to refreeze and hopefully stay that way.

Guess It Is Winter

We had to go to Whitehorse on Wednesday to deliver the first part of the hat order. We saw these three caribou on the road on the way in. I have been seeing them closer to home. At night of course! Luckily they have a nice big white patch that reflects light. I donèt care how many people complain about my slow driving, you sure don't want to hit one of these guys. Woodland Caribou are BIG. And really stupid too. If they are in the ditch they like to jump up on the road right in front of you. And if they are in the road they like to run down it instead of getting off.
It was getting colder when we got home and bottomed out at -35 C on Thursday morning.