talamh reoite agus sneachta

Been back for a couple of days now from a weekend of surveying in St Michael. It was good to be back out there, especially in decent, bug free weather. The ground was frozen, and occasionally covered with snow. So far, I'm going to have to say that I vastly prefer surveying in the winter to the summer. I'll take having to dig through ice to access mons to getting eaten alive by bugs while trudging through bogs. Both are better than any previous real job I've had though.

Milseain Muic

During last winters ITI, and several winter rides, I had a secret weapon with me. I'm firmly convinced that it was this one thing alone that got me to McGrath(3rd from last), despite really having not ridden my bike more than 5 or 6 times in the 4 months before the race. I slipped today and fessed up the recipe on mtbr, so figured I might as well make it entirely official and introduce the entire world(who all read my blog) to the wonders of...

Bacon Candy:

Ingredients:

-2lbs 'ends and pieces' bacon, the fattier the better.
-@1 cup whole wheat flour
-@3/4 cup dark brown sugar
-some sea salt
-some honey
-whatever else you want to throw in there.
-6 pack of beer

Tools:

-Frying pan
-Large mixing bowl
-Cutting board
-Mini muffin pan
-Knife
-Aluminum foil
-A really big hammer

Directions:

Step 1: Fry the bacon.
Step 1.5: while the bacon is frying, mix all the other ingredients in the large bowl.
Step 1.52: You should be pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees farenheit while doing this.

Step 2: When the bacon is cooked to 'chewy', take it out and cut it up into tiny pieces. Mix this into the large bowl with the other ingredients.

Step 3: Pour all of the bacon fat out of the pan and into the bowl with the other ingredients.

Step 4: Mix it all together really well. If it's too thick, pour a little bit of the beer you should be drinking in there.

Step 5: put it into the mini muffin pan. do not overfill the thing, you'll regret it.

Step 6: place a layer of aluminum foil bigger than the mini muffin pan on the middle rack of the oven

Step 7: put the mini muffin tin on top of the aluminum foil, in the oven, and leave it there for 45 minutes to an hour.

Step 8: When it's done, take it out, let it cool. once cool enough not to melt anything, put it in the fridge for a while. this'll make it easier to get the candy out.

Step 9: Try not to eat all of it right away...

Step 10: You haven't finished the 6 pack?!? WTF is wrong with you?

These'll keep for several months if refrigerated. They are incredibly delicious, soft at -30, and guaranteed to increase your chances of experiencing cardiac arrest.

I've been banned from making them in my landlords oven(see note about overfilling the muffin tray above), but I'll try to sneak a batch in when I get back from Norton Sound, where I'll be heading for a few days of work tomorrow.

ag gabhail adhamed

Went for a couple of hours of 'hiking' along the Matanuska river today, collecting driftwood, looking for burls. TON of trees on the gravel bars, most, unfortunately, pretty rotted out.

Ag leim don deireadh.

Finally got my lazy ass out the door, on my bike and over to Crevasse Moraine for a bit of fun. It's been way too long, and I really have no excuse. The leaves have nearly all given up the fight and fallen helplessly to the ground, where I crush them with my wheels of fury.... or something like that. I was surprisingly not feeling like Jabba the Hut, and had little problem getting up the steeper hills. Took my usual route, west side parking lot at Loma Prieta, up the gradual ski trail climb, into the University singletrack. The trails were frozen and fast, with a little bit of tack where the sun had managed to beat down.




Hard left onto the powerlines. Noone else seems to go this way and that's fine by me. Right turn, over the log pile get's me through Mooseberry Mesa's backdoor, which frankly, is way more fun than the front. Hit the switchback head on and go right. Fly down hill, catching little air off the humps. Stop to take some photos of the mini-meadow before heading back up again. Left at the 4-way, right onto Moose Poop Loop. Much more fun in this direction. Nice work repairing the bermed turn where the tree was uprooted by VMBaH. Out to the ski trails again and go right.












Right at the picnic table, left at the Y. This lolli-pop loop is much more fun for me in this direction. A little disappointed at the log crossing being gone, but understandable on that trail. Back up to the picnic table, pushing the lungs a little, feels good.



No stopping for photos for the rest of the ride. Right turn on Long Lake, and left into Crev-Mo's finest. Rooty didn't get the leaf-blower treatment Moose Berry Mesa got, and I like it that way. It's a more primitive trail, and the leaves don't detract from it's goodness. Legs are starting to burn on the short climbs, getting winded at the tops of them. Right onto Tighty-Whitey. No stopping, cleaned all the trees. Those short steeps near the end always hurt. Are they really as steep as they seem?? Left onto the old trail/alternate exit. Log hopping goodness. Keeps me happy. Cruise home.

The end.

Deireadh Or....

An Alaskan rosehip homage to the end of Autumn.















....and last but not least, a photo of the recently discovered Alaskan Bog Wolf. Upon discovery, it was promptly shot, butchered, and mounted to a tree in the Valley.

ta an annail ann...

Still here, still breathing. after a week of carving and sweating over my new etsy shop, i finally got out on my bike again. it want's anything impressive or noteworthy, just tracing down a runaway samoid named gracie. i walked out onto the deck for five minutes to photograph some carvings, she followed me out, when i turned around to go back in, she was gone like the wind. ran around the yard for a while calling her, which usually works. it didn't kim showed up and took over the search. he took off the scour the streets on bike, and i got a call at the house from someone who spotted her out by the 'highway'( a busy two lane road). so i headed out that way on my bike, only to find kim coming back from where they had spotted her, but of course he hadn't.

so we rode around for the better part of half an hour looking for her. finally i headed home in case someone else called her location in. about fifteen minutes later, in a rather anticlimactic ending, kim rolled home with gracie in tow. she was on the road, walking along on her way back home. the old bat can't remember what she did five minutes ago, but she always manages to know the way home....

didn't get any photos while i was out, so here's a photo of a miniature shriner skull carving.