Ah, Fall in Kodiak!

So, someone tell me, if it's fall, how come the stuff falling from the sky is NOT red and yellow and brown leaves, but WHITE snow!?!??! Either someone is playing a cruel joke on us, or winter really does come a little earlier than I'm used to around here! ACK!

Just to prove my point, here are a couple of pictures:

So this first one is the view from inside the fairgrounds, where I went last Saturday with our friends Beth and Zach and their new baby girl, Donavyn. We were there to get pumpkins - you know, a fall thing - but, instead we looked at snow on the mountains and got a little sad about the fact that all the pumpkins were already gone! Apparently the 4H brought in roughly 10,000 lbs of pumpkins, but they were ALL gone within the first hour, with the big ones disappearing in the first 20 minutes. So, no pumpkins for us.... just snow.

This second picture is also from the fairgrounds, but it shows the amount of snow a little better. Sadly, this looks like a small amount of snow compared to what's on the mountains now. Pretty much everything is covered, down to about, I don't know, a few hundred feet or so. We got "snain" (snow/rain mix) most of the day yesterday, and a good part of the day today, too. But, at the higher elevations, it's clearly all snow. I tossed the camera in the car today to try to snap a few pictures, but it was dark on my way into work, and then snaining on my way home, so I didn't stop. Hopefully, tomorrow it'll clear up a bit and I'll get some good shots of a LOT of coverage on the local mountains. I have to say, everyone told us this was normal, but I was NOT ready to see snow this early. I'm hoping that we'll at least get a couple more weeks before anything sticks at the lower elevations... but I'm not holding my breath on that! UGH.

Anyway, we did have a gorgeous day on Sunday, so we got out for a walk at Fort Abercrombie, one of our favorite short hikes. I think we're at the point in the year when we're going to have to take full advantage of any nice days that come along. The walk TODAY at Abercrombie, in the cold rain, proved that point. I think having a dog in Kodiak is punishment for bad deeds in a former life - that's the only explanation for the walk I had to go on today. It's a dilemma - the dog has to get a walk, and he's miserable and crazy without it, but I'm miserable walking in the rain. Fred better appreciate it!!!

Here we are on the good day (Sunday), enjoying the view from the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean at Abercrombie.

Cold, snow and snain aside, I have to say that I'm very settled here in Kodiak. Even on a windy, stormy day, the views are breathtaking (though I like the sunny days better!), our house is WONDERFUL, my social life is busy, my job is great, and I just feel content here. I can't wait til everyone can start coming to visit us - we expect a revolving door of guests next summer, and we'll welcome you all! I just want to share this home with everyone - it sounds so cheesy, but it's just so neat to be living here and I want everyone to get to experience it!!

I think that's it for now. Jason's out in the garage brewing up his first batch of Kodiak beer, so I need to get the place cleaned up and ready for bed. I've turned into Mom and it drives me crazy to leave a mess to wake up to in the morning. I guess it was just a matter of time. Sigh.

Miss and love you all!!
Becca