A Fallish Feeling

My favorite time of year is fall. So I have to say that I'm loving the temps the past few weeks here in Delta. A little more sun would be nice, but beggars can't be choosers, and well, sometimes you just have to find the silver lining. The days have been in the 60's, for the most part, and it makes for very nice working weather.

We've moved. We are settling in to our little log house in the woods, and we ALL love it. The biggest adjustment is that we are alone. All alone. And since it's a different house, the things that go bump in the night are different too. When we stand outside we can hear neighbors, running their chain saws, or driving nails to get the walls up before the four letter word beginning with "s" and ending with "now" comes. But the best part? We cannot see a soul. We are all alone. Except for the animals.

Brent has been busy cutting wood and cleaning up the yard. I estimate that he has cut about 6 cords of wood in the past two weeks. The yard clean up is moving along, but was slow at first because of the dry weather here in Delta. The weekend we moved was horribly dusty, and with the burn ban we had to settle for making mountains of dead limbs to burn when we finally received some moisture.

I'm happy to report that we have finally been blessed with some rain, and while I won't be needing Brent to construct me an ark anytime soon it has helped settle the dust. In addition to his Paul Bunyan duties Brent has been busy defending our home from visitors of the 4 legged variety. We have plenty of moose sign, but I have yet to see one in our yard, I'm thinking that will come later this winter. We have heard cows mooing, though that I don't suppose is so special, and we've heard the scream of a lynx, which is chilling but magnificent. I just hope they keep their distance. Unfortunately Chessa met up with a new "friend" and Brent had to shoot and kill a porcupine in our yard. It was a bummer, but since Mr. Porcupine was primed to fill our Chessa girl full of pointy quills he was left with little choice.

I have been busy readying the indoor space. We found a screaming deal, by my account anyway, on some gently-used furniture. Brent would have loved to have used milk crates, but since I'm not as inclined to having permanent diamond shapes impressed on my backside, I went against his wishes and bought some furniture. In addition I recently made an unlikely purchase. Unlikely because I have a serious lack of patience, but I did it, I bit the bullet, and I bought myself a sewing machine! Woohoo. I have yet to use it, because in my anticipation and excitement I didn't think about the lack of surface area to use it, but I will be heading back to Fairbanks soon to buy a table. I cannot wait to become the domestic goddess that lies within... watch out Martha Stewart...there's someone new in town!

So, after hauling wood, stacking wood, covering wood, and getting the fireplace ready to burn, we should be ready for winter. I just hope it doesn't find us too soon!

Have a happy day!

Where is Summer?

All winter long we've been hearing tales of how horrible last summer was. It rained all summer long, so the tale goes, and there was no sun to be seen. Hmmm. Sounds familiar. The past couple weeks have been less than summery, and I'm really hoping we start seeing some higher temps and more of that midnight sun. For now, I'm just happy that today we have seen less rain than days past, and we actually had some sun this afternoon. Much to my despair, there wasn't enough of that warm, yellow sun to ease the paste from my skin. Darn it.

Friday night I was back to my old rhythms. Staying up until the wee hours. I stepped outside to check the rain situation and I was greeted with this gorgeous sunset. I had to capture it, and I'm thinking this one is worthy of a frame on my wall. Beautiful. And pretty close to what it actually looked like. Only on a much grander scale, of course.

Brent has been working a lot lately, and worked Saturday as well. Sunday we were ITCHING to get out of Dodge, and decided to hit the road despite the rain. I like to think I'm made of sugar, and that I'll melt if I get wet, but even I was throwing caution the wind and the thought of a soaking rain was semi-appealing. Anything to get out of those four walls. Seriously.

As we were driving East towards the Gerstle River we experienced a downpour. Things were not looking good. I started to get a little nervous, but was confident that the break in the clouds ahead was real, and a good sign. Much to my sweet relief, the rain stopped and we trudged up and down the river bank.

Marching North down the river bed we stumbled on the carcass of a wolf. It was barely recognizeable, though the paws and head were intact. The wolf body was trapped under a tree, and we were left to speculate what might have happened to land him there. Brent suspects he may have fallen in to the icy water, only to be trapped beneath the heavy limb....I guess we'll never truly know. In total that makes two dead wolves we've stumbled upon, we have yet to see a live one.

One good thing about the rain is that it keeps the wildflowers in constant bloom. There are so many varieties, that the ditches, river banks, forest edges are a riot of blooms. Pinks, purples, blues and yellows are the primary colors, and there always seems to be something new to see.

The mountains are visibly growing darker as the snow melts and floods the rivers and streams. I was a little concerned that we wouldn't be able to walk far on the Gerstle, but I guess the rainfall and snow melt hadn't reached it yet. The banks were fairly dry, and we had to wander quite a ways in to find the murky, rushing water. It certainly isn't a river that I'd want to swim in!

In addition to wandering we were caring for the neighbors animals. Pigs, horses, cows, ducks, and chickens galore. Much to our dismay, the ravens swooped in and carried off about 80 little rock hens. But much to my relief, it wasn't my fault. The owners left them in an uncovered enclosure. Poor little chickens didn't stand a chance! We did enjoy playing with the little pigs, ranging from about 30-50 pounds. Cute little boogers. They LOVED Ches!

Ches was so curious and wanted to come in with us, so we opened the gate to see what she would do. She thoroughly enjoyed herself until the little ones discovered her. They followed her around like a bunch of little ducklings and Brent and I about laughed ourselves silly. She wasn't quite as fond of them as they were of her. When she would stop they would root at her, nibble at her, and she wasn't NOT happy with that behavior. So we'd let her out for a little break.

I think the best part of the deal was that we got to keep all the eggs we collected. I think we collected about 3 dozen eggs, so we have lots of fresh farm eggs. Yum! Our duties are over now, and I'm just okay with that.

Hoping you are warm and dry in your neck of the woods! Have a happy day!