nopin

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Starbuck, the trailer dog

Both my older girls are at the vet today having benign tumors removed, so Starbuck is here with me in the office. The only time I ever left a dog alone in the house was when Linden got spayed. I left Autumn home alone, and she tore the venetian blinds off the windows, among other havoc-wreaking. I was amazed as I had never seen either dog destroy anything except for their own rawhides. Now we have a strict no-dogs-home-alone policy.


Starbuck sez, "Where are my sisters? Why am I all alone? Roooooooo!!!"

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Another side of the White Mountains

Last weekend, we five beasts decided to give a different trail head a look. This one is apparently very musher-friendly:






Nice views appeared as we gained elevation:




But when we got to a muddy patch, we saw this:

And decided to go no farther!

What do y'all think made this?

Wolf? Malamute?

Our three mini-wolves enjoyed a lunch break:




Autumn smiling in her nap:




Remnant of a can of "Black Hawk Luncheon Meat". Google reveals that this dates from the 40s to the 60s.








Do you think the transition to retirement has been stressful on Starbuck?

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Anchorage Report

Last week, DL and I attended the Utility Variable Integration Group's annual meeting. It was in Anchorage this year, making travel easy for us.

It was smokey in Los Anchorage. Both we and our tramontane friends to the South have had an early, dry, and windy spring, which makes things bad for fire! Today, the smoke has blown North, clouding our Fairbanks skies. Anyway, here are Anchorage photos.

Porcupine:

He was very much king of his surroundings. He sauntered around like he owned the street.

The busy port of Anchorage:


Substation:


Train:


A muskrat. He was sitting on his haunches eating his supper when we spied him. He saw us and grabbed his last blade of grass to go:


The mudflats. There is no sandy beach strolling in Anchorage, just intertidal mudflats that can trap and kill people.


One evening, DL and I took a walk down a pedestrian/bike path that goes along the shoreline. Walking in Anchorage is very different from in Fairbanks! The path was paved and heavily trafficked with walkers, bikers, and delinquent-looking youths. We only saw two dogs, and both were purebred fancy-pants dogs. We stopped at a trail map and picked a pond as a turnaround point. I imagined the pond to be dank, swampy, buzzing with mosquitoes, and surrounded by scraggly trees. Instead, it looked like this:

Everything is different in Los Anchorage!



Sunset over the mudflats, timestamp, 9:23 p.m.:

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

A muddy jaunt to the top of Wickersham Dome

The three ladies walking proudly:


Linden is a goober:




A marmot shrieked at us:


Autumn is a pretty girl:


Moseying around on the top of the dome:




DL finds the survey marker:








SCHNOZZES!!!


WHO WANTS YUMMY CHUMMIES???






Autumn sez, "I have cute fuzzy paws."




Monday, May 19, 2014

Early wildflowers















Oh, and my rhubarb poked out on Saturday: