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Here's a list of the damage in the Gatlinburg area so far. wbir.com/news/local/gatlinburg…oyed-and-intact/357891924

Has she ever been camping before at all? One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was camp in the backyard. I didn't have to go far and if for some reason I was over the "trip" by the end of the night, well, my bed was just inside the house. It was even better if I had friends over and my parents supervised a "camp" fire. Hiking, I don't really remember a time I wasn't in the woods but I do know that my parents took my sister and I on lots of day trips. Just long enough to spend a few ho…

It is currently 9 degrees F and feels like -4 at 10:04PM local time. We have almost no snow on the ground and even with the dismal snow amounts last year, we are about 20 inches shy of where we were then. The last three times snow was in the forecast it didn't pan out. If this winter is a dud like the last two, I fear the fire season up here will be really bad and long again. Fingers crossed that the Southeast USA gets some much needed rain. My heart hurts a little seeing the pictures of Gatlinb…

Quote from Dan76: “grizly.com/science/alaskan-bla…-+wl+-+b&utm_tracking=341 Link sent to me by someone who was there. ” I've heard the story about Romeo several times since I've been up here from lots of people who met him.

Quote from odd man out: “OK, not technically wildlife, and I only "sighted" them on-line, but did you see the pictures of the poor family of cows whose pasture collapsed from underneath them in last week's earthquake in New Zealand? Miraculously, they were safe, but stranded. I heard that they had been rescued, although I'm not sure how. appalachiantrailcafe.net/index…34872e726390878655ca36e0f ” I got ridiculously invested in the outcome of these cows after I saw the video of them. I trolled the…

This is the best one I can find of Bruce at the moment. This was back in August before he lost his velvet. One of my neighbors is a photographer and she got this picture of him. It makes him look cute and sweet. He's not. Mainly he's just aloof. appalachiantrailcafe.net/index…34872e726390878655ca36e0f

He's young. If I had to guess I would say he's one of the cute little babies from last year or the year before. He and another guy who is likely his brother were pretending to be big enough to actually spar for a few minutes a couple of days ago. I haven't had any problems with any of them YET but I do make sure to keep my eyes open when walking through the tree line and make noise to let them know I'm passing through. There's a big guy who makes the rounds through my hood (his name is Bruce the…

I'm popping in long enough to say "Hi"! I'm hoping life slows down after the holidays are over and I can take a much needed breath and decompress. My boss is on long term medical leave, so my paycheck went up but unfortunately so did my work hours. Now that I'm trying to be three people instead of just one or even two, I've gotten sucked in to a black hole of work and probably spend more time there than I do at home. I haven't had much time to do anything outside, other than my daily seven minut…

Quote from WanderingStovie: “Quote from mental note: “Quote from JimBlue: “Yup, the tropics sunset and sunrise happen much faster due to that. ” I'm still tryin to get my head around that one. Sun down is sun down and is relative. ” Near the poles, sunset or sunrise can be so slow it never happens around midsummer or midwinter. ” The sun is setting up here just above the 61st parallel north by about 4:30PM. It doesn't make it up over the mountains until about 10:00AM. With little to no snow pack…

One of my many neighbors. appalachiantrailcafe.net/index…34872e726390878655ca36e0f

The weather here in the Anchorage bowl has been rain, rain and more rain for the last couple of months. So, when it cleared up just in time for the weekend, my husband and I decided we just could not sit in the house. Saturday, we took a short impromptu hike on part of the Turnagain Arm Trail. The full trail is 9.6 miles one way. It can be done as a point to point hike as there are several, more frequently hiked trails that intersect with it. We did a short section and both ways it probably tota…

I don't have any pictures to share of them because I am not suicidal enough to park on the side of the Seward Hwy but the last couple of weeks the belugas have been out in force. In the span of about 10 minutes a few days ago, we saw SEVERAL belugas, a moose, a bald eagle, a swarm of bees, a very large, blue, bird that I could not identify and then a dead rabbit (right after we turned around on our short, impromptu hike and it wasn't there when we went by the first time.)

This is completely not hiking or otherwise outdoors related other than the fact that it took place outside. I always share my pics though, so I felt compelled to share these too. I had previously seen the Air Force Thunderbirds in action but had never been to a Navy Blue Angels show before yesterday. It was really fun and a big thank you to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson for hosting the free event. Traffic was a nightmare but I would gladly sit through it again just to see the show. appalachian…

We got a few light showers today but all total it probably only rained for an hour. The wind shifted from NNW to SSE, so now all the smoke is blowing in to Anchorage. It was a fun day keeping all the windows closed and trying to explain to my dog why he needed to do his business as quickly as possible and not linger in the yard. No A/C up here in the Last Frontier, so with the windows closed, it gets a bit stuffy. It's still better than opening them up and feeling like you just took a big inhale…

Too hot and too dry for this little corner of the world. The heat isn't that bad, relatively speaking when compared to some of the rest of the numbers posted here but several days of high 70's and low 80's with nary a cloud in sight is hot and horrible for Alaska. We now have a 500 acre wild fire right outside of Anchorage churning through a bunch of dead, beetle ravaged spruce. Not to mention the many other HUGE as in over 10,000 acre fires burning in less populace places around the state. The …

Yes! My 13 year old, grumpy, jack russell likes crunchy vegetables. He always has. I think it's the texture more than the flavor. He likes bananas too. He's mostly a jerk but he's kind of cute, so I keep him around. The same can be said for my husband. His usual favorite pastime now that he's older. He's a little slower and mainly just sleeps and grumbles but never doubt he is very much still a jack russell. When his terror, I mean terrier tendencies rise to the surface he can still be quite a b…

Quote from LIhikers: “When my wife and I went to Alaska for vacation in 2006 we rode the Tony Knowles (spelling?) bicycle path. We saw a couple of moose in a wooded area. But what surprised me was how many we saw in a residential area where the trail ended. They were grazing on peoples trees, shrubs and other plantings. ” My husband and I frequently joke that we can drive all over the undeveloped areas and see nothing but walk out the front door and see a moose happily munching away. Porcupines …

Quote from jimmyjam: “I saw where a guy was attacked by a bobcat on the AT near Humpback Mountain (that's about 10 mikes south of Waynesboro). Kinda strange as bobcats are very shy. As much time as I've spent in the woods I've heard them cry at night but never seen one, never had one closer than a couple hundred feet probably. ” Several years ago, I had one that frequented my front yard. There was a wooded area across the street from my house and my back yard backed up to a refuge of sorts. I ne…

I don't have much of a choice in where Uncle Sam decides to send my husband, so I try to make it as much of an adventure as I can and soak it all in while we're here, wherever here happens to be. I consider myself fortunate to live a life that allows for travel on a semi-regular basis. In the past decade, I've gotten to see most of the US and a chunk of Canada. I really wish the pictures could do justice to what the scenery up here really looks like. I live in a post card. I will miss the views …

These aren't the best pictures by far since I seem to never have my actual camera with me when I see animals but here are some of my neighbors (moose) and critters I've seen out and about in the past week. There have been countless moose (I think I've seen 15 in just the last week), several bald eagles, various small birds, two rabbits, five porcupines, one coyote, dozens of arctic ground squirrels, salmon, some rainbow trout that are still just a bit too small to keep and eat and 1,000,000,000,…