The best of what's around

Hey everybody,

So dealing with the hassle of all those photo's in that big posting we just did (all of which didn't even show up right on the blog) has prompted me to restart the website that we had in hawaii... You will still be able to access all the photos that are on here, but as for new posts you should visit http://kreet.no-ip.info... if you forget it just come back here and there is a link to it on the sidebar to the right of this post....Happy viewing everyone, see you at the new site "The Best of What's Around"

Peace out,

Ben

Boom!

I found some cool pictures of the Volcano that was erupting in the ocean right near us. I thought I would share... the name of it is augustine, and I bet you heard about it. It has quieted down now, but for a while there it threatened Anchorage with ash plumes.....

We are working on a monster post of home improvement and an even bigger one of the trip to Denali that Lisa and I took for Valentines... I should have some time later today to finish them up...

Enjoy!

Draft

Lisa and I finally had a couple of days off from work that matched up so we took advantage of it and went up to Denali for some snowshoeing and skiing and exploring. The park is about 227 miles from our house, so it was quite a drive considering we are used to driving around an island that was about 50 miles long. The sights were beautiful and we took a ton of pictures...

sun on the peaks


wetlands


igloo gas station in the middle of nowhere for 3 bucks a gallon!


road conditions


snowy view


colorado


looking for denali


pretty view


We made it! park entrance...


basecamp


dehydrated lasagna is Lisa's favorite food!


snowshoeing on a frozen river


group photo

Skiing was a blast

My favorite sled dog, his name was beluga!




Tor was fun too, each dog had their own log cabin!






We met some dogs mushers on the trail that were out breaking new trail for the park. The team of dogs lives there at the ranger station...


the valley


cloudshow2

projects, projects and more projects!

So here are some shots of all the work we've been doing this weekend...does it ever stop?!?!?! Still havin fun though, can't wait for the finish. We've replaced our entrance light (which included Vanessa displaying her tight rope abilities), replaced the lighting in the kitchen, knocked out the kitchen cabinets above the sink, and knocked out most of the wall next to the sink. Take a look!
the old dungeony '70s light

acrobatic installation

The finished mountain lodgy lighting.

The kitchen with the cabinets taken off, but the horrible coffin looking, pee yellow tinted, about to fall on your head (why Vanessa won't stand under it), flourescent light.

new recessed lighting for the kitchen

I'm gonna have so much fun!!!!!

hmmmm...whats behind there?

almost down!

We found there was a bit more in the wall than we thought...plan B.

Is this a door, I don't understand, where does it go? :)

current as of today, wanted to make it all a half wall, but have some electrical and plumbing issues!

Thought we'd share some of the projects we've finished around the house with you all. We have the office pretty much done, just a few pictures/maps to be put on the wall and perhaps some window treatments. We've had some help from mother nature in our bookcase and the file cabinet with some beautiful birch (except the puppies just see it as a chew toy!).
office done


We've now begun on the kitchen. It feels very small so we are going to tear out the cabinets above the sink (actually did that Monday night!) and take out the wall that separates it from the living room. So here's the before shot, and look for the later shots coming soon!

So this is a shot to show the route that I take to work... I took my GPS along the other day and the red line is the path that I took. The PROV wayopint is my work and where the red lines start is our house... enjoy the pics!

So these are the long anticipated skiing to work shots! This is part of the trail I take to work everyday... all told it's about one and a half miles each way... I will post a GPS route of it soon. The tracks on the left are mine.

I am putting this shot in here to show you guys the new beard I am working on.... man I sure am looking alaskan eh?

Finally made it home, this is me skiing into our front yard, it was pretty cold out there that night but I was totally prepared and didn't get cold at all, I had so much fun skiing home by the light of the moon and the headlamp, it's so peaceful and different from the day time. I ended up seeing fresh moose tracks right where I was skiing but have yet to encounter any wildlife on the trail. Oh , and when I got home and looked at the theermometer it read -2 farenheit.

I fall alot on the way to work, I amalways trying new stuff and steeper hills and things to shorten my commute time. So I took this shot to reenact a fall... couldn't get an actual action shot without somebody else there to take it!

The before shot on the closet project... 1 pole, boring and not very space concious... This one took a while, we got interrupted by the office which is almost done by the way!

the after shot.... now we have 3 shelves and 3 drawers as you can see, to go with the 2 clothes hanger poles... much better that before when we only had one line of clothes and a dead space in the corner, dont you think?

I took the camera with me to work yesterday so everybody could see the view. I have the day off today and I am working on some pics for this thing...

The view from the hospital I work at.

Australian Aborigines

Has anyone ever thought about these people? I have been "reading" a book that talks about them... what an amazing people. Why aren't they more well known and studied...

So it has been speculated that the native people of this continent arrived there some 60000 years ago, yes that's right sixty thousand years ago. The amazing part about that, as if that is astounding enough, is that they didn't walk there as the land was never attached to anything during human times, and they didn't evolve there as there were no primates there to evolve from... this leaves arrival by sea as the only option. Which means that they navigated the ocean most likely from the southern asain islands...about 60 or so miles away to a place that they could not see nor know was there. Ok, lets assume it was an accident and that they were fishing and got swept out to see and washed up there. Well that means that a whole group of people, large enough to colonize a continent, accidently arrived there. So this sea crossing whether accident or on purpose, noone can really say, is pretty amazing because it happened tens of thousands of years before any other human population had even thought of doing it. Have you ever even heard of this migration really? I wonder why not? So not only was their arrival amazing, but that means that they occupied australia alone for about 99 percent of it's inhabited lifetime. WOW. Not only did they inhabit it, but they mastered the continent, spreading all over it and adapting to every climate there was...to maintain the oldest culture and language known to man... They also seem to have seen the world by a wholy different set of rules. The first explorers documented that they barely paid notice to the arrival of the huge ships that sailed into botany bay, only looked up and then returned to their tasks. The people had no word for yestereday or tomorrow, they had no chiefs or governing councils, they herded no animals, sewed no crops or made any pottery, no sense of property, but they devoted large amounts of efforts to move shells to huge mounds, some very large and old (800 years and half an acre). No one knows why? They were happy none the less. What a different and amazing people. Wish that I knew more. I will post here if I find out anyhting else.... Peak your interest?

Just a quick thought I wanted to share...

Taking pictures of skiing soon I promise, we found the camera charger!

Ben