The Last Ride of the Year

We've been enjoying a gorgeous, albeit it cool, fall.  We have had plenty of sunshine, and the temps are cool, but enjoyable yet.  After our 6 inches of snow in late September we've been virtually snow free, though I think our luck may be running out in that department. 

Two weekends ago Brent and I decided to make the most of the warmer temps and head out for one last ride on Meadows Road.  It was a fairly warm day, when propertly dressed, of course.  The problem was the WIND.  It was terribly windy.  I finally had to wrap my scarf around my hat to keep it from blowing off in the gusts and gales.  Unfortunately, it was so bad that we didn't stay out as long as we would have liked to, but we took advantage of the day and snapped some pretty pictures.

Donnelly with it's dusting of snow.  It actually had a pretty nice cap about a week or so before this photo was taken, and I'm happy to see that we've lost some of it.  I'm sure it will be frosted soon.

Now that Brent is working less overtime he's had a little more time to get out and do some salmon fishing.  These are the silvers, at the end of the run, the end of the spawn, and they're coming North to die.  By the time the reach us, they're tired and well spent, and although we don't eat them, Brent finds them a lot of fun to catch. 

In addition to salmon fishing in the river, he's been doing a little grouse hunting.  And just generally relaxing, which is a huge change for him, and something he finds very difficult to accomplish.

We've had some exciting, and nerve wrecking, encounters with wildlife.  I was headed to work one day last week to find a cow moose standing guard of my car.  Needless to say I shut the door and grabbed for the camera.  By the time I got the card put back in she had sauntered to the opposite side of the house and I managed to catch this (not-so-great) photo of her.  When my heart rate finally calmed down, I headed out to work.

Brent was out playing with Ches in the yard, walking the driveway in search of birds for the freezer, when something caught his eye.  That something turned out to be a black bear, at the end of the driveway, in nearly the same spot I saw him/her.  He reared up on his hind legs to sniff the air and booked it out across the hay field to the West of us, where Ches was hunting for voles. 

Fortunately they didn't notice eachother and Brent got himself, and Ches, back to the house without incident.  I don't think Brent will admit it, but he was a tad shaken.  All he was carrying with him was a .22.  Not exactly bear protection.

Last week was a whirlwind and was busy.  I was offered another job, so I'll be starting that in the near future.  My friends at Durham have been gracious enough to allow me to adjust my schedule around this temporary job on base, and I'm hoping that the situation will work out well for all of us.  At the end of the week Brent started his new shift, which is still an adjustment.  But I think he'll really like it when everything settles and he gets used to it all.

Saturday I spent the day in Fairbanks.  I was fortunate to finally meet up with Susan, a fellow blogger, in the North Pole/Fairbanks area.  We met up for a late lunch, and it was truly delightful.  I love to hear of others' stories of travel to and from Alaska.  Susan is a brilliant photographer, and if you can check her out here, I promise you'll be impressed.  We chatted and learned more about eachother, though I admit, we knew quite a bit through the blogs and facebook.  My only regret?  That I didn't have more time to stay and play and chat and catch up.  I'm looking so forward to doing it again, soon!

I had two goals for the day.  And I got neither accomplished.  After a hellish wait on an oil change at Walmart, I didn't manage to get in that day, despite a 2.5 hour wait.  I rushed, grabbed my things for Tanya's shindig and rushed to North Pole to cross item #2 off the list. 

Hmph.  No luck.  AT&T store.  Closed.  BUMMER.  I was so looking forward to finally having reliable cell phone service.  Everytime I make a call, get a call, attempt a call, I get dropped.  Grrr.  It's time to switch.  Maybe soon.

Saturday night I arranged for a babysitter and took Tanya out on the town to celebrate her 30th birthday!  I had messaged a few of her friends, with Tony's help of course, to meet us at Pike's Lodge for dinner.  We arrived, fashionably late, to a table full of smiling faces, all there to support Tanya.  We enjoyed great conversation, mouthwatering food, the carrot cake of my dreams, and gifts galore for the birthday girl!  It was a great, and memorable, night for us all!

Sunday morning I rushed around trying to complete the tasks from the previous day.  I never did get the phone, but only because I need to drag Brent back to North Pole to make use of his hefty discount.  I did, however, manage to get an oil change.  Two days wait, 5 hours total, after buying my own oil filter from another store...it's done.  I can safely say, I will be trying out someone else next time.  And for the record, there were several other people in the same situation. 

When I got home I was wiped out. I took a nap, and woke to dinner lovingly prepared by my awesome hubby.  I lounged, nursed a headache (no hangover, I was sober cab), and laid low.  Much to my dismay, and thanks to the weather, I've been having headache issues again. Hopefully the barometric pressure changes again soon...I could use a reprieve.

Have a happy day!

Try and Try Again

I had a wonderful birthday. Thank you again everyone for your thoughtfulness. It was so nice to reach the mailbox each and every day, to find another letter, card or package. You made my day extra special.

11 p.m. Sky on May 15, 2009

This package arrived from my younger brother Kyle, and his girlfriend Jana. It's a great Independence Day wall hanging and tea towel. I look forward to using it soon! And the other item is a cute keychain from Hess. THANK YOU!

Friday evening Brent took me out for pizza. There's a great place in town that opened up just a few weeks ago, I believe. Since the dining establishments are, uh, limited in Delta, we hit up Birch Brothers pizza. It was very good. We ate our pizza while Ches waited in the car. Then we loaded up and headed over to a friends to chat and get me out of the house for a while. It was great. Relaxing, filling and perfect.

Unfortunately, Saturday did not fair as well for us.

We had reserved a cabin on Lisa Lake for the weekend. I wish I had a picture, it is breathtaking. We trudged, tromped and plodded through tundra, moss, swamp, mud, water, you name it, to get there. On foot. Carrying everything two people and a dog would need for a weekend in the woods. Much to our dismay, when we neared the end of the trail it was impossible to reach the cabin. I could have cried. And nearly did. We back tracked, forged ahead, repeating this process numerous times over the period of about one and half hours. All in the middle of nowhere. Ultimately, as I stood contemplating what items could easily be replaced and left in the woods, we decided to head for home.

We were both so disappointed. So. Disappointed. We were so close. How close? We could see everything, except that darn cabin. The boat, the water, the mountains. Us and nature. How divine does that sound?

Being hardheaded and determined not to let this minor (MAJOR) set back ruin our weekend, we headed home to regroup and find an alternate plan. Since it was so gorgeous we piled into the car and headed towards Donnelly campground south of Delta Jct. As our luck would have it, the cabin was taken. Since we don't have a tent, we officially scrapped the camping idea and decided to head home, once again, to try to find a plan. And we managed to find a nap in the process. LOL. It was a very trying morning. Very.

After a few moments rest, and a little stomping about we decided to pack up the grill, some fixings and head out to enjoy the mountains views and just hike, grill and relax before heading home for slumber.

We hiked and explored until we came to this resting spot. Here we sat, and listened as the wind rushed through the valleys and over the peaks. We listened to swans calling, ducks taking flight, and nature surrounded us.

Sunny snow-tipped Alaska Mountains

We just sat, and took in all the beauty and glory around us. We watched a bald eagle sit atop of the trees, swaying in the breeze. Here, if you look closely, you will see two caribou bucks grazing along the creek. They were happy to entertain us for the duration of our stay. We kept hoping for a moose, or perhaps a bear, but none were to be seen this day.

The view of the valley

After resting and relaxing in our own bed on Saturday evening, we headed out to this same spot on Sunday a.m. We did a short little hike, then plopped down in our new favorite spot to enjoy the view. This morning we saw a lone caribou make his way across the entire valley. He kept a wary eye on us.

When our souls were full we headed into town for brunch with Sid & MaryLou. They wanted to treat us, partly for my birthday, and partly for our care and help while Sid was on Shemya Island. We had great food and great company. After brunch we headed to their home, as MaryLou had a gift for me. She bought me a jade plant. I don't have much of a green thumb, so I'm a little worried about that. But a jade plant I have. It's said to bring luck to the household it graces. Bring on the luck!

Napping is our favorite weekend past time, as you may discover in this post alone. So Sunday was no different, we snuck some zzz's and then Brent and Sid headed out to hit the fishing holes. Success was had! Our freezer now holds rainbow trout and grayling. Ha! So we'll be grilling up some fish shortly.

Monday we made a very quick trip to Fairbanks. We had to go because I desperately needed a blow dryer, mine exploded on Friday. And Brent needed some items that we just couldn't find in town. So we made record time to and fro, and then dropped off the groceries and headed for the mountains. It was a glorious, albeit windy, day. We wandered the roads behind Donnelly Dome, and it is filled with dozens and dozens of lakes. We saw bison (with babies), moose, caribou, snow shoe hares galore, eagles, hawks and it was awesome! Why no pics? Hmph. I'm just learning to use my new camera, and operator error has caused me to lose some pics, or make them unuseable anyway. I'll see if I can rescue them in the coming days. If so, I'll post them.

And that brings us to today. I worked on unpacking and cleaning, since we did nothing the entire weekend that was household related. I cleaned windows and floors, and I'm STILL waiting for the phone to ring.

On another note, please think of my brother, Brent, who is recovering from his tangle with a chain saw over the weekend. I know it involves his foot, 4 hours in the E.R. and some stitches, hoping you heal soon! And to my sister-in-law Sara, who lost her beloved aunt to cancer yesterday afternoon.

Hoping you are enjoying spring as much as we are!! Happy day!

Fun-filled Weekend

Saturday morning started out not-so-great. Nothing major, my patience with the pups was just wearing thin. And, I was tired of being stuck in the house. When Brent got home we decided to flee this popsicle stand and get out of town to do a little hiking/exploring. Since Willie is not-so-keen on traveling via vehicle quite yet, Ches got to sit in the passenger seat, and she thought she was super special. Which she is.

This is Donnelly Dome. Brent plans to reach the top of this mountain some time this summer. It's larger than it looks, I promise. Much larger. Since there is still snow, we decided to just visit some of the foot paths at the bottom of the Dome.

We decided to check out Donnelly Creek Recreation area to see how much snow had melted, and how deep the creek was. It was nice walking but there wasn't a lot of challenge, or much to see. We did see this cute little cabin. It is just big enough for a stove and a full-size bed. I think we might put one out back for a guest house. Wanna come visit? :)

This is part of Donnelly Creek. It still has some ice, but the water was flowing pretty good in the area closest to the road. Ooh, not long now...

This is the area where we were actually walking. It was pretty easy going, except for the snow. It's patchy, but the areas that have snow are still deep in some spots. It was a nice hike, we saw a hare, lots of moose nuggets on which Willie made himself a snack, and at the end as we were leaving we spotted a very fresh dropping of bear scat. Good thing we were heading out. It was a beautiful day, the temp hovered around 46 degrees and as you can see the sun was magnificent. Ooh, spring in Alaska is nice...so far.

As we were heading back to Delta we came upon this herd of caribou. They have the goofiest run, you really have to see it to appreciate it, but it's hilarious. There were about a dozen, but these are the only animals that stuck out in the open, the rest headed for the trees. So I snapped a few pics of them. They are very pretty animals.

As you can see here Willie was beat! That was a lot of hiking for that little guy. He crashed on the floor behind the drivers seat and slept the whole way home. A very peaceful ride home.

Sunday morning we woke to another nice day. The temps were slightly lower in the low 40's. We had planned to drive to a lake outside of Delta towards Tok but since Willie kept us up most of the night, and isn't the world's best traveler we decided to head out to the same area we were on Saturday and check out a couple other paths.

We hit our first path which led to a lake that Brent was determined to see. We came upon a couple of drop offs early on and I was ready to throw in the towel, but Brent was not. So we stumbled around until we found a walkable path downward.

Just as we hit a field near the lake Brent stopped short and told me to back up slowly. I followed his orders which staring straight into the face of a big ole moose watching from a stand of trees about 65 yards from us. I backed up slowly, as Brent tried to reign in the pooches as we continued to back up the path. Finally the moose retreated and continued to watch us from a safe distance until we looked up and he was gone. Thank goodness.

With that over we decided to forego our trip to the lake, as that was the direction that Mr. Moose had headed off in. So we decided to wander around the field. As we were crossing a large patch of snow we noticed some very large, very fresh bear prints. And we high tailed it back to the car.

On our new way up the hill we let the kids root around in a couple of caribou carcasses, which Willie thought was the best thing ever. Ches was rather uninterested, and just continued to sniff the ground in hopes of a hare to chase.

After we left the first path we headed up to a nice, leisurely trail which had a lot of snow. We walked up and down the rolling hills, and the pups loved it. LOVED it. All in all a nice day. On our way home we stopped to fill on gas and pick up fixings for dinner at the IGA.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on ESPN, reading The Shell Seekers, and periodically napping. A very good day indeed.

Have a happy day!

Longer Days

Well, as you can see my little Buddie was back last week. She was having a hay day stocking up on yummy seeds that BRENT sprinkled in the backyard for the grouse. Since he attracted her I told him he couldn't shoot her. And he happily obliged. Yes, she is sitting on the logs of the house, but she retreats to her trees, so for now she's safe. And full. Ha!

Brent, Ches and I walked out by the pasture on Friday evening. It was beautiful so we took a nice walk around the farm, just enjoying the longer days. This is the sunset, it was just too beautiful to pass up. We also noticed coyote and moose tracks, so I have been on the lookout. But have yet to see either one. It's just through the woods, and without the underbrush we can see straight through the trees to where the moose has been hanging out. The coyote I don't suppose we'll see. I think he's hunting rabbits under the logs out back. I suggest he stay away from the chicken coop or he could be in big trouble.

Friday afternoon Brent spoiled himself and bought a new gun. It's a Mossberg Maverick 88 and it's solely for protection. This is his reaction after shooting it for the first time and learning that it had a little more kick than he thought it might. Too funny. His shoulder was still smarting today, which I think is really quite funny. Directly after this photo was taken (on Sunday a.m.) he tried to get me to shoot it. Um, no. Do I have stupid written across my forehead? Silly boy. But it was fun to watch him try to sneak a little rub in, like I wasn't going to catch him! Really.

Sunday we decided to get out and go for a little drive despite the 180 mph winds. Okay, so that may be an exaggeration, but seriously, it was ridiculously windy. And then, like idiots we drove SOUTH of Delta, which is notorious for being windier than where we live. We drove slow to capture the Alaska Range (above) and Donnelly Dome (below). But sometimes it was really difficult to even stay on the road.

We stopped at Donnelly Creek Recreation area. The creek was open so we stopped to see what we could see. It was really shallow, so there was nothing in the way of fish. But we did come upon some buffalo droppings. I think we might think about camping there sometime this summer. Depending on what we find in other areas.

I am guessing that spring is on it's way here. We have a huge increase in little birds around. I have yet to get close enough to get a picture so that I can look them up. But they are here. In droves. We have heard that the bear are indeed starting to come out of hibernation but we have yet to see sign. The days are getting long. With the sky beginning to lighten around 6 a.m. and dusk lasting until 9 p.m. or later.

I will be busy this week. I have agreed to puppysit a 9 week old black lab pup named Willy while his parents go to Africa. He is rambunctious and I'm not quite sure how Ches will like having him here. He's temporary and I'm sure she'll adjust in time.

I have yet to hear on the job that I applied for, but there is another opening that I will be applying for. I have no idea what my chances are, but hopefully in time I'll find something. I was convinced that I would work from home, and I may still, but I am craving interaction with other humans, so for now I'm just keeping my eyes open.

Hoping you are warm, safe and dry! Have a happy day!

Long Weekend

Hello, Hello! The photo above is a photo of the Alaska Range. We took a drive on Friday afternoon as Brent is off early on Fridays. Since it had been a fairly long week for both of us we took a little drive to just get me out of the house. Phew. The Alaska Range was beautiful both Friday and Saturday due to clear skies.

Since I was driving on Friday Brent was in charge of the camera. We "caught" this large moose on film, but as you can see the image is a little blurry. I guess the moose was a little too quick for us!

This, my friends, is Donnelly Dome. It lies about 23 miles from Delta Junction, and Brent was telling me how pretty it was so we had to drive out past Ft. Greely to see it. He was right. It's pretty majestic, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the summer. As you can tell we had a nice time taking in the scenery.

Saturday a.m. we had planned a huge trip to Fairbanks. I was super excited to FINALLY get out of this house for more than an hour or two. Brent was also planning to take me out to a nice seafood dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. Yeah, that didn't happen.

We got up uber early. 5:15 a.m. to get on the road and get our shop on. Brent went out to start the vehicle and look everything over only to find that our tensioner bearing was out. Needless to say, no going anywhere. Our serpentine belt was smoking. That is not a good thing.

I dare say that this was the first time I had my "we'll never live rural again" pity party. It was challenging. We called two auto parts stores here in town. Neither had the part in stock. Of course. Then we called an auto rental place in town to rent a vehicle to drive to Fairbanks to pick up the part, and of course, nothing was available. So, here we sat. For the foreseeable future.

Brent called Napa back to order the part as they could have it here sooner. This time he spoke with the owner/manager who was a super nice guy that told him he would look for a bearing for him if he couldn't find the part in stock. We were told to call back later. Brent came in to look up exactly how to fix the issue. He downloaded a video and immediately crashed our computer. Grrr. It was not looking up to be a good day.

It turned out the My Hero down at Napa was able to get the part in on the truck that day, and despite the fact that the store closes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, he stuck around until after 4 p.m. so that we could get the part. So, we begged a ride off the neighbors next door, and got the part. Brent fixed the car in about 10 minutes and saved the day!!! Yay!

Valentine's Day was salvaged. Phew! We drove into town to the IGA picked up some salmon, steak and fixings and I came home and fixed us a dinner to not be forgotten. We added in some scallops and brownies, a little wine, and the day turned out pretty well, considering what it could have been.

Sunday a.m. went got up a bit later as I didn't sleep much. 3 hours total. We headed for Fairbanks, and straight to Lowe's. We hit up Walmart, Fred Meyer, Mattress Ranch, and Safeway as well. It was a very, very expensive weekend, but well worth the trip.

You would have loved the salesman at the Mattress Ranch. Uff da. You drive up to a warehouse painted to resemble a barn with animals painted all over it. It's really quite difficult to miss. As I walk in Tony Little's offspring is ready and waiting to push anything and everything down my throat. While I would have loved the $2500 bed he was trying really hard to sell me, I settled for the cheaper version closer to the front of the store. The sale didn't stop even as he was ringing me up, mattress pads, pillows, this and that. No thanks. NO THANKS.

We rushed home and the first thing I did was vacuum. Vacuum, and vacuum and vacuum some more. Awwww. You take so many little things for granted when you start over at zero. So Sunday and Monday we just worked around the house, Brent had Monday off for President's Day, and plugged away.

Today (Tuesday) I worked for hours with Dell trying to get this computer fixed. I seriously was contemplating just buying a new one, but we did get it fixed and it's working yet again. Thank goodness. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play, update the blog, as I have been busy putting away all my stuff.

Ches and I had a little visitor today. We didn't have any big visitors like my friend over at Moose Nugget. But we had a little squirrel, a rather percocious fellow, who was causing quite a ruckus running up and down the porch, the supports, and I suspect he was trying to gnaw through the mesh and access my eaves. I did get a couple of pictures of him and our trip on Sunday but I can't find my USB cable for that camera, so that's my goal for tomorrow.

Have a happy day!