I Got Mail!

I Got Mail! It’s amazing how much something so small, can mean so much. The end of last week was pretty dull around here. On Thursday I begrudgingly trudged to the mailbox and when I got there, I had the most wonderful surprise. Mail! From both of my grandmas. I could hardly waddle through the mud puddles fast enough to get back and read them. It was a score to get one letter, but two was a boon!! Thank you Grandma Adeline & Grandma Blanche!

Friday evening we had dinner with Brad & Rose. They are friends of Brent’s from work, and the owners of our little Willie. They had us over to thank us for taking care of their little bundle of fur while they were on Safari. They made us the most wonderful dinner of steak from Delta Meat & Sausage, King crab legs, baked pototo, fresh homemade bread, veggies, and for dessert the most delicious blueberry pie made with berries that they picked themselves last summer. Heavenly. We ate like kings. Literally.

Saturday we made a quickish trip to Fairbanks. At dinner on Friday Rose told me about this great little store, If Only, that we checked out. I will definitely be revisiting that little slice of heaven, it was a so much fun to browse through all of their wares. I highly recommend you check it out.

This first photo is nothing exciting. Well, the most exciting thing about it is that it was taken on Saturday evening on our regular drive down Tanana Loop at 10:15 p.m. Yes. P.M. people. Isn’t it delightful? I think so.

So, Sunday a.m. we packed a picnic lunch, some ammunition, a couple of firearms, the dog, and away we went. We headed to Delta, and stopped off to shoot off a couple of rounds. Brent decided that I should know how to shoot his .40 cal pistol, and the new gun that he bought for animal protection, so away we went. I was hesitant at first, I have watched way too many You Tube videos about silly girls that knock themselves out, literally, shooting assorted guns. So, you can imagine my hesitance.

After Brent got that out of his system we headed East towards Canada to see what we could find to explore. We stumbled upon many trails, but most of them were still a little too covered in snow quite yet, so we stopped off to check out the Tanana River East of Delta.

On our way, by foot, down the hill we stumbled upon some moose prints. As you can tell, this was a pretty large guy, the one print is his, the others is Brent’s. My friends, that’s one big moose, and I was happy to not have stumbled upon him on our exploration.

As you can see, the river at this point is still frozen (we’re standing on it) and has a little bit of snow. LOL. In this photo Ches was showing Brent how to climb the big drift and get to the fun part of the river. And below you can see that she also managed to bribe me into getting up on top of the world too!

Next we headed back towards town to get a better view of the Granite Mountains. We stopped at the Gerstle River to explore, and explore we did. We wandered the river bed for a couple of hours, collecting rocks, getting some exercise and letting Ches just run around like Dora the Explorer.

It’s hard to explain just how cold the water is. It’s like I’m standing next to the glacier letting the water drip, drip, drip into my palm Cold. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. During our meandering we picked up rocks, which is something that we’ve done since our days in Colorado. I cannot even begin to tell you how many rocks are sitting in storage in Minnesota. Anyway, we collected as many unusual usual Alaska rocks as our pockets could carry, and then wandered some more. Did you know on the Gerstle River that the sand actually shimmers? It’s beautiful. The sand under the water actually has a pearlescent quality to it. You should check it sometime.

I’m off to ice my sore shoulder. Have a happy day!

Little Willie Went Home

Little Willie went home, and this is what I'm left with. Well, this and the strip of paint missing from my bedroom wall. Silly boy. I have to admit, I was relieved when he vacated the premises, but I miss the little booger.

Ches has been relishing all of her toys and attention. She even took advantage of the peace today and snuck in a nap on the bed. I can tell she's slightly misses him, but I'm thinking she's more relieved than anyone that Wee Willie is gone.

In his absence I had a laundry list of items planned to accomplish today. And then I woke with a migraine. Instead of trying to fight it I just flopped on the couch, and eventually stumbled back to bed to fight the good fight. Once the nausea left, and the stabbing pain dulled ever-so-slightly I got my behind out of bed and did minimal work.

I started by soaking beans for homemade ham and bean soup. I have to say it turned out to be pretty tasty. Then I hacked up the rest of the ham and froze it, and that soup bone for another batch of something. Then I went outside and got rid of the rest of Willie's remnants. Picked up some litter from the driveway left by the previous tenant.

Tomorrow we are forecasted temperatures in the 50's and I'm planning to make the best of it. I think we'll celebrate the spring weather with a nice walk, and perhaps some fetch in the yard. Right now we have about 18 hours of sunlight. It's getting light about 5 a.m. and staying light until about 11 p.m.

Last week I ordered some lined drapes for the rest of the house. The sheers just weren't helping with the sleep factor. So they have arrived, and I plan to get the rest of them up tomorrow as well. Sounds like I'll have a very busy day! Have a happy day!