Sunday, May 22, 2011

Out of the freezer...

... and into the smoker.

Summer has arrived, and with it came some excitement this weekend. We could see the smoke from the drive home, and knew it was close. But how close?

I took these shots just down the road from our cabin.




Some nice pyro-cumulus on the top there (white).



And an "anvil" where the cloud formed by the fire can't go up anymore, so it goes side-ways.
















The fire crews were incredible. We lost count of how many times these planes made runs to the airport over our heads. They laid a nice fire-line down to the south (in the direction of our and many other cabins) and the fire went north with the wind. I heard the cause was a power line.

The fire was out by the next morning!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Nenana Ice Classic

Every year there is a lottery where participants guess when the ice on the nearby Tanana River will break up. This year I missed the winning guess by 7 minutes!

My guess was May 4, at 4:17p. It broke at 4:24p. This year's winning share was $15,366!

Check it out at http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/