Monday, June 27, 2011

A Visit from a Cousin

My cousin, Emily,  is visiting and will be here for two weeks. She's from San Anselmo, California (Marin County). We have been showing her all the things to see here. So far we have gone kayaking, gone to see some bears, hiked up a mountain, and more.
Some friends of ours live across a long bay. This bay is so long and shallow that the tide controls when you can cross it. Of course, you can always hike up to the top of the bay to cross, but its a fairly long hike, so usually you try to cross at a low tide. We hiked across and visited our friends. They live off of just solar and wind power, and are about 1.5 miles from the nearest road, so it was a new experience for my cousin.
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Next we drove out to a popular bear viewing spot. Chilkoot Lake is at the head of Lutak Inlet, separated from the inlet by a terminal moraine. A river flows out of the lake into the inlet, and is full of salmon. Most of the time bears are also in attendance. Last year, bears were walking across the road, just feet from our car, but this time there were none to be seen.
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Next we kayaked to Battery Point. Actually, Emily and my parents kayaked, while I walked with my sister and a friend of hers.While we were there, we cooked food over a fire. Later, a whale circled around just offshore. We got to see it breach a few times and dive down and show its tail. The wildflowers were out and blooming, and I got some nice pictures.
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The meadow above is one of my favorite spots. It is a curious formation, about a fifty foot drop off on one edge, a 100-foot drop off on the other side, and a very flat meadow on top.
We also hiked a little ways of Mt. Ripinsky, which is right above town. We hiked up to where we could see Haines. We also looked down on some steep cliffs that people go rock climbing off of.
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Some friends of ours, who own a farm, have goats that recently had babies. We drove up and visited them. The babies were very friendly and acted almost like cats. On the way back we stopped at a stream by the road, It ha a lot of magnetite sand, and my sister and Emily played in that while I experimented taking pictures of the stream.
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This weekend was the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Race. I am helping at the finish line, raising money for the Venture Scouts. In about a week we are going on a whitewater raft trip, and this will pay for that. My job was to hold out a sign, telling racers to slow down as they approached the finish line. Near the end I got to help rip the tag off of the bikers in the order that they came in. It started raining after a while, so I got a bit wet, but I still had fun. I worked from about 1:30 o 7:00, so I probably earned enough money for the raft trip.
The next morning was a pancake feed, for all of the bike racers. My Cousin and I helped my mom make Rhubarb Sauce, made from locally grown Rhubarb, by cutting up all of the Rhubarb. The breakfast is a fundraiser for Haines People of Peace. They use the money to sponsor a competition in fall, where kids make projects (essays, songs, posters) about various peace related topics.
Emily has also gotten to do a bit of construction work around the house. She built a planter box to go next to our greenhouse, and then a support for a covering to put on it. She also got to varnish a cabinet with vibrant colors.
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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Rain

A little under two weeks ago, on a rainy Saturday, I made this short video about Rain. I filmed and edited the whole thing in about four hours.

The music, "Gentle Arc of Peace" by Esther Golton, is really what makes the video work. Thank you to Esther for allowing me to use her song.




This week we are building a greenhouse and I have been recording a timelapse of the construction. I have also started to work on my New Zealand footage, so I may post that in a week or two.