This Week It's "Monday Moose Day", I Guess

 Oops, he hit a deep spot of snow in the yard.

 This time it was his rear end that went down in the snow.

 Check out how high he's having to step to walk, even in my yard.

A quick, cold Sunday jaunt

 Actually, all things considered, like how cold it's been recently, it wasn't that cold. Maybe zero. Who'd have ever thought the day would come when I'd be considering zero "not that cold"? In any case, the view out the garage window as I was getting in the car. That crack in the window has been there since I bought the place but there is insulating plastic over the window itself.

 Hello, Pioneer Peak.

 From Idita-Park

 After a quick stop for the above photos, headed toward the bank. Honest, it's there somewhere behind this massive snow pile. There are normally parking spaces here but they've long since been covered by the white stuff.

  Couldn't resist one more stop at Idita-park and the raven rewarded me by flying by just as I was composing this shot.

 Next stop, dropping off some books due soon at the library. Across the parking lot, this is the scene on the side of the Page Museum.

 Old Wasilla Townsite

 Snow seems to be accumulating on the steps of the Old Post Office. Bet you can guess that they're not open to visitors during the winter, huh, tho' looks like the ramp to the right of the building may be the main entrance.

 Wasilla Lake

 Oh, goodie, more monster snow piles. This one is the the right as you enter the drive-thru for McDonalds. With me in the car and it backed by the Talkeetnas, almost looks like a mountain itself, huh?

Wow, a two-tailed raven?  Nah, just two of 'em, tho' didn't have the zoom lens when I needed it, so never got a good shot of them.

And the wind returns and blows all that snow around

 The good news was that I chopped, er, shoveled through the snow mountain and found the steps to the deck again. The bad news is that the wind carried snow has long since pretty much covered them right up again. 

 Also had another moose visitor, tho' I'm thinking it's the same one from last time. Very nervous and spooked like crazy when I opened the garage door to try for a better photo. It was on the other side of the fence in the lot next door, so felt fairly safe opening the garage door.

 Click on this one to enlarge and you'll see some interesting patterns left by the winds in the snow out from. The dark spots are the shadows created by the narrow ridge of snow sorta bottom center. Not sure, but am thinking the sorta concentric circle shapes behind it and somewhat covered by the shadows may have been from the snow being blown but from slightly different directions and at slightly different intensities. Or, maybe I had a snow angel visit, who knows?



   Contrasted this one up a bit to show the same features talked about above. My snow angel does good work.

 This one, tho', I think, may have been left by the local snow aliens.  Just weird. Obviously had to be a clump of snow involved somewhere along the line but it's gone.  Tis a mystery to me but an interesting look.

 From the driveway, looking south. The bottom edge of the picture, where it seems to sorta shine, is doing exactly that.  Solid ice, with the sunlight reflecting off it.

 Inside, Zach is on Moose Watch.

 Or, maybe not. Maybe a nap sounds better than watching for nervous moose.

 More funky snow sculptures. This one was at least started by me, tho'. The clump of snow you see was shoved there by the snow blower, which was a bit overwhelmed, and is still there, creating interesting shadows and patterns on the snow around it.

 Surf's up!  Well, sorta looks like it. The perpetual, seemingly neverending winds have created a wave look in the yard.

 For those on Facebook wondering why I'm obsessing about moving snow that drifts up in front of the garage door, this is why. This is just to the south of the garage and shows what uncleared snow looks like when allowed to pile up. Hard to tell from the pix but it's deeper than knee high.  How do I know?  Cos I went through the crust the other day and found out.  Sadly, my boots were only mid-calf high.  Ha

 And speaking of drifts....my driveway. Click on the pix. Normally the right edge of the driveway would be coming back in a relatively straight line from where you see the right side of the gate. Right now, tho', it's a hillside of snow that the wind has dropped there in a drift that came darn close to making the driveway impassable without some intervention. As it turned out, I was able to drive through it but much more wind or snow and I'm snowed in, literally, until I call my friendly neighborhood plow guy to move it. The problem with drifting snow is that it tends to "set," turning what might appear a pretty, soft, fluffy pile of snow into a mound of concrete, so to speak. Very hard to move with just the snow blower and I've already discovered that I'm pretty worthless with a shovel, not that a shovel would make a dent in this, either. My sympathy to those in places like Cordova and Valdez dealing with mountains of this kinda stuff.

 Looking out toward the same general area, tho' more at the top side of the driveway. All that snow sorta center is where driveway should be. I've moved it several times, more than I care to remember, but it keeps coming back.  Sigh.

A wider view of the wave look in the yard.