Faith is like a bluebird you see from afar...

Had a visitor the other night in the backyard. A Juvenile Steller's Jay spent time in our trees during a very windy part of the day. Steller's Jays are my favorite type of bird that we have. Yes, they beat out even the incredible Bald Eagle. (One of the Steller's in our yard can make the same sound an Eagle makes, it's hilarious!) With the bird just sitting there it gave me enough time to run into the house and grab my camera and big lens. I kept creeping closer to him to get different angles and what not. It was super windy so a lot of them ended up with too much motion blur, but I got a few decent ones. Check them out (and don't forget to click the "read more" to see all of them!)

What a T200 Checkpoint looks like

Okay, I might as well just post the rest of the photos while I'm on my blog, right? These are just highlights. I took far more photos than I want to post here (because I just don't want to bog down the bandwidth). You can view all of them (and then some) on my galleries page ( click here ).

Freddie's Roadhouse is located in the heart of the Caribou Hills (outside of Ninilchik, Alaska). The hills are where the snowmachine (snowmobile for you outsiders) enthusiasts congregate all winter long. The Roadhouse feeds and houses many of these folks. It's central in the trail systems. This includes the mushing trails, and so it's the first and last checkpoint during the race. Good food, warm hospitality, just a great place to meet up and watch the dogs come in.

Mt Redoubt was huge and very visible from Freddies.

Iliamna was also very visible.

More under the cut!

More T200 photos

I apologize to the few readers of this blog who thought I'd have more content by this point in the year. I thought I would, too. I just can't seem to have enough brain power left after an 8 hour work day to sit down and focus on writing blog posts. SO much has happened in different races across the state, and I had all of these plans to at least comment with my own view of happenings. It just hasn't materialized. I was excited about the Quest and then I ended up sick, so I didn't blog (or do anything) last week.

To make up for it, I'm going to share a few more of my photos from the Tustumena 200 run back in January. I shared photos of the Vet Check last time, so this time let's go with the start of the race, shall we? I spent a lot of time photographing the dogs this time around. And, yes, there's once again a LOT of Seavey photos. I can't help myself.

More under the cut!

Tustumena 200 photos

There are so many hours in a day, so the editing has been slow going, but here are a few from the Vet Check for the Tustumena 200 on Friday, January 27, 2017. More are coming... hopefully before Iditarod!

Some of Mitch Seavey's dogs waiting to be looked over by the veterinarians. 

More of Mitch Seavey's dogs.

Someone wasn't too keen on a cold stethoscope.

Cim Smyth's team.

Dave Turner's team.

Another dog from Mitch Seavey's team.

Cim Smyth's dog named Spruce.

2016: A Year In Pictures

2016 has been a rough year on all of us. I am not one of those millenials frozen with fear and sadness over the election (not happy about it, I didn't want either option, but I'm not losing my mind over it). I had a rough personal life this year, Gpa moving in with us and dealing with dementia, the loss of dear friend last January... and oy. Yeah. 2016 wasn't fun.

So I'm looking back at some of the photographic proof that it wasn't "all bad".

Summer days driftin' away...

Summer is winding down here on the Kenai Peninsula... and, once again, I did a poor job of documenting this time of year. I wish I had a better excuse, but the truth is I'm lazy... and broke... and my car is not reliable... so I didn't get out much.

But, the other day I did go out and take some pictures... just as the fog decided to roll in. So the photoshoot was short lived. I was shooting some stuff for our church's website (which I am webmaster of) so they were shot on the church grounds... but I actually got a little creative in a few...

Can't believe fall is pretty much upon us already! Only 19 days till Disneyland!

Cats of the Kenai Animal Shelter

Like the dogs, I have enjoyed getting to know some of the kitties that have come through the Kenai Animal Shelter. They are incredibly cute - and I'm not normally a cat person, but I have a few that if I were I'd totally snatch them up.

So, enjoy these cute bundles of fluff.