Snowy Goats

This winter has been one of the snowiest in recent years. It's certainly been the snowiest winter Jim or I have ever been through! I don't know how much snow we've gotten here at The Green Half Acre, but I do know that Anchorage is close to setting a record, with almost 10 feet of snow so far.

Having this much snow during our first winter with the goats has been sort of a trial-by-fire for keeping livestock during Alaska's cold season.

Earlier this week, we woke up to the results of an overnight heavy snowfall. Looking out over our balcony rail, this is how the "farm" looked.

We keep paths dug out around the property, from the house to the chicken coop and the goat barn via the lakefront in a big circle; from the front porch to our neighbor's house; and from the coop/barn to the driveway. The paths were flanked by snow banks varying between two and a half feet tall and about four feet tall. They were almost half gone that morning and we had to dig our way out to the animals.

Molly's dogloo is starting to look like a real igloo! Poor princess.
Herd queen Zipper is NOT pleased with a new 8 inches of snow overnight.
Molly trudged through the snow to her gate and waited to be let out.
Pretty little snowy face!
Jim has been digging diligently and has freed the goat yard gate so that we can open it.
He's got a flake of hay to give the girls. Fresh snow is falling fast.

Inside the barn, it's relatively warm and cozy. The girls have their breakfast of hay and are happily munching. Molly prefers to eat from inside the manger, where she is less jostled by the big girls.

Our neighbor Brad brought his snow blower over to help us clear out the paths to the animals. We sure are glad for his help! Zipper and Chloe are nervous about the noise the blower makes and wait in the corner until the blower is further away again before going back to their food.

Molly, however, is not concerned by it.

While the girls have been eating, Jim's been shoveling out the paddock so that the girls have less snow to wade through. Molly is much happier now. No more chest-deep snow!

Zipper discovered a week or so ago that the livestock feed is stored in the chicken coop, and she bolts out the gate whenever she can, and tries to get to the goodies.

We're trying to break her of that habit, especially since she taught Chloe to do it, too.

One advantage of Zipper's escapades during the winter is that we can let her and Chloe out for a walk around the yard a bit. After all, where is she going to go? The banks of snow make pretty effective pens, and the allure of animal crackers will always get her to come back to her pen.

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The following morning, another foot of snow had fallen, and we had to do all that shoveling all over again. Later in the day, the snow from the barn and the coop roofs slid off and nearly filled the space between the buildings all the way to the top of the fence.

The chicken coop door had to be dug out before we could open it and get to the feed. There are three steps up to get into the coop, and you can tell by the previous photos how much snow had filled in the paths. The chickens themselves, bless their little hearts, have largely spent the winter underneath the coop, where it's warmer than you'd expect, and they have the most non-snowy room to walk around. The underneath space is open on all sides during the summer, but this year, it's more like a walk-out basement.

Knee-deep goats. Again. Not to worry, though, shoveling is a way of life for us by now and pretty soon the girls had free space to play.

The snow bank out our back door is now close to six feet deep. The banks flanking the front steps are five feet deep.
We know the snow isn't finished for this winter yet, but we would like for it to let up sooner rather than later. We're running out of places to put the stuff!

2012 Tustumena 200

Winter can be long and boring in Alaska, if you let it. Fortunately, Alaskans know this, and once the excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's are behind them, the real entertainment can begin... Starting in January, with the Tustumena 200 sled dog race.

Jim and I go to the start of the T200 every year. Nothing gives us quite the same appreciation for Moya's quiet times as watching hundreds of other sprint dogs leaping in their harnesses, ready to run.

The T200 is a 200-mile race from Kasilof to Homer and back again. Mushers interested in running the Iditarod can use these 200 miles as part of their qualifying miles, so there are often big-name mushers competing. This year, we saw Iditarod favorites Jeff King:

And DeeDee Jonrowe. Here, DeeDee is booty-ing her dogs before putting them in harness.

DeeDee walks her own dogs to the starting line. Many volunteers help the mushers with the dogs, but the mushers are all very hands-on and care for their dogs themselves as much as they can.

These handlers are helping DeeDee hold her sled back so that there won't be a false start. Other handlers hold the dogs.

And away DeeDee goes! Unfortunately, this year one of DeeDee's dogs got loose and ran several miles alone, back toward the starting line, before being caught and returned to DeeDee, who scratched out of the race at that point.

We didn't catch the names of all the mushers. It was very, very cold that morning, and it was hard to hear the emcees through all our bundling, even though we were only feet away from the speakers.

Here are some of the mushers, on their sleds, headed to Homer:

Handlers hold the sled back while the guy on the right counts down until release of the dogs:

It's fun to people-watch the other die-hard fans who came out in the cold to watch the races. This woman's fur sunburst ruff is incredible!

Many volunteers who'd been at the trailhead all morning were covered in frost by start time. This guy's hat, beard and mustache are all frosty.

So are his:

And, to a lesser extent, so are we. Jim's got frost buildup on his facial hair, and I had it in my bangs and my coat collar.

In spite of the cold, we stayed to watch all sixteen mushers leave the starting line. We don't go back to see the finish, though, because it will take hours for all the teams to return the next day.

Congratulations to Cym Smith, who finished the race in 22 hours 26 minutes to take the purse, Jeff King in second place, and Dan Kaduce in third place. (Photo of Cym from the T200 Facebook album.)

Can't wait to see the race again next year!

Holiday Portrait Outtakes

It had been a couple of years since we took a photo of all three of us at Christmastime, and we decided to do that on Christmas Eve, when we would be taking photos of me with my Christmas goat anyway. It was a fairly nice day that warmed up to -2 degrees by the time we trooped out to the front yard, sans coats and hats, for our photo.

D'aaaaaawwww. How cute are we?!?!

But then... I got this great and dastardly idea. When the blinky light on the camera stops blinking, that means the photo is about to be taken. So I waited until the light stopped blinking and pushed my unsuspecting husband into the snowbank. I almost made it back into "innocent" position before the shutter released.

Then JAMES got a dastardly idea of his own. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You pushed my father. Prepare to freeze." Okay, that's probably not how it worked out in his mind, but I got a snowball to the back of my neck.

This is something that cannot go unpunished, so I tried to push James into the snowbank, too, but alas, he was prepared for it.

Best. Holiday. Portrait. Session. EVER.

Happy Termination Dust Day!

I know what you're thinking - "termination dust" sounds like something that gives you a horrible disease, but it's not. Termination dust is the first light dusting of snow that tells us summer is really, truly over. Personally, I thought summer was over several weeks ago, but as of today, it's official.

The snow has already begun to melt, but here's what's left, as seen from the upstairs bathroom window:

This snow will be gone by the end of the day, but now we can expect more snow to come soon and actually stick round next time. I sure hope Santa brings me a kicksled for Christmas...