unusual precipitation... AGH!

Record breaking snowfall for the month of November, starting Nov. 12 and turning to rain on the 28th. Sure, I live in Alaska and expect snow but it's been 16 days, barely over 2 weeks and we have had over 9 feet of snow. Seriously.
This is when I could actually see that street light and that house from my door. About a week ago. This is today at about 8 a.m. when another 18 inches had fallen over night
Both vehicles were cleared of snow when we went to bed. Behind the truck (blob on the right) is the snowbank that blocks the view in the first picture... it's been built by a back hoe so it's rock solid mountaineering type snow now.

This roof top snow removal has happened 3 times on the flat part of the roof. It's crazy and exciting all at once, we have doubled or tripled the usual November snowfall in 16 days! But I'm a little tired of digging.

A couple of things...

I'm going to go backward a little because the big news is the weather. Huh. Must be November in Alaska! This isn't "that" storm, the one that whipped the west coast of the state.
That storm was essentially in the Dakotas and I live in Tennessee. This storm is sort of the little brother of that storm, all showing off and fluffy but not as dangerous as the one they suffered. We are getting loads of snow, but we don't have the Bering sea trying to eat our houses.

Any way for the first time since I've been in Haines, the state has deemed the highway between here and the rest of the world "undriveable" I've heard them call it difficult, I've heard them say "fair" driving conditions include ice, snow, freezing rain, black ice and drifting snow... but it's a drive fail today.
This is the usual view out my window... I can't take that picture this morning because the snow on the car is blocking the way!
So this is at an angle to that view, car on the left woodshed on the right... It is beautiful out there but I am glad I'm not trapped out the road today! In the summer I want to live at 26 mile, today I'm happy to live at 1 mile.

Going back in time:
Bull kelp collected by Capt. Norman Hughes of the fishing vessel Chilkat. Turned into:
Pickles! Dill and bread and butter. I never knew sweet pickle coloring comes from Turmeric. It was fun, but my pot isn't tall enough to boil the big jars so they're raw and crunchy... the little jars are perfect, I have a new canning obsession.

When you don't post very often...

You end up with a mash-up of ideas in one post...

Today: a roller coaster day. Snow! but no dog to romp in it...ok, I'll walk to town just for fun. WHAM! don't need to fall again this year, I do a serious crash once a year. Jeezus, I think I was airborne 3 feet of the ground the second time I slipped!

Got most of the way to town and the guy drove past...then turned around to pick me up. We rode over to get coffee and chat with Sarah J. (If you're from here and reading this, please support her, it's the only way we'll keep her little coffee place open). Then we went to a friend's apartment to... change a light bulb??? Does anyone else here get really annoyed when female friends play damsel in distress a little too often? She didn't even know where the switch was for the light, so we didn't know if it was the bulb or... Swallowing a big batch of feminism here.

Stopped on the way home at Olerud's meat and grocery store (again if you live here, they are getting some fine produce there, support!) where I got to gab with a friend (who grumbled about the damsel thing too) and I realized that Faith T. is working there. When I first met Faith, she had a chemo port in her chest and no hair... now she's got a job and a lot of lovely curly hair!!

Painting wee pictures wasn't working, beading little trees is fine and dandy. A roller coaster day.