Happy Spring Partie Troix

This is the part of summer I like the least: Heat arrives, mosquitoes come out in force, the dogs have not yet shed their coats, I myself have not acclimated to the heat. In another week or so, the dragonflies (whom I think of as the Air Force), will arrive and start eating mosquitoes. And the girls will dump their coats. I, too, will acclimate. And we'll be doing some fun hiking.

In the meantime, this time of year is certainly visually beautiful. Look at these fairy slippers!

Trout still joins us for (short) walks. Her mom has three more weeks until she is allowed to try walking! Watching her heal up from her broken ankle reminds me of when I broke mine. It is definitely frustrating, and time passes slowly, but it does pass!

"On the road again, we just can't wait to get on the road again, the life I love is taking walkies with my friends..."

MMMMM COLLARDSTEMZZZ!

YESH! COLLARDSTEMZZZZZ!

There are some areas where we can find shade on these blistering hot days.

I almost wussed out of attending the "No Kings" rally on Saturday, but since it was at 10 a.m. in the morning I figured the heat would be bearable. I got up at 6 to walk the girls first, which was another plus for avoiding heat! I have been carrying this sign at every protest. I cannot decide which of the policies of this administration is upsetting me the most, but this about covers it, right? (And WRT the heat, I realized that folks were demonstrating in places like Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, etc, so surely I could handle Fairbanks!)

Look at this pretty sheppy! I would not bring my girls to sit around at an event like this; they are active girls and if they are just gonna sit around, I think they are better off doing that in the comfort of their own home!

The crowd estimate for Fairbanks was 3000! Contributing to the nationwide total of 13.14 million! But what I found more heartwarming than the massed crowds in big cities is all of the gatherings in small towns and villages across Alaska. 20 people in a village of 30. 10 people in a community of 12. Several hundred in the hub communities of several thousand.

One of my tricks for hot-weather cooking. Stir-fry. Everything cooks in 10 mins! This style wok was actually developed in a region of China that was poor in fuel. It's thin and heats up quickly. The entire premise of stir-frying is that you cut up everything small and cook it quickly over a hot fire. Contrast against my ancestral home in the North, which has plenty of woods and makes more soups and stews in heavy iron woks! (No, I didn't learn this from my grandparents. We are a disrupted family, so I learned about this in books.)

Happy Spring Partie Deux

Spring in Fairbanks is actually two phases: "Breakup", which is when the river breaks up, and "Greenup", which is when the trees bud. The first buds started to burst on May 4th this year:

And the rhubarbs also appeared.

And we saw the first mosquitoes, siiiiigh. So time to bust out the bug jacket.

However, Raven the Sheppy is suuuuuuper happy about Screen Door Season. Sitting in front of the screen door is an Important Sheppy Duty!

The forest paths have dried up enough that we can take walks again without squelching through mud.

Look at that pretty light!

Sometimes we pick up Trout and take her for walks, too. Trout's mom is probably another month or so in a cast, so Trout gets to take walks with friends instead.

Trout has excellent recall so is allowed off-leash.

In other news, our friend MK is fostering a litter of puppies. Their mama is from a village that has no vet, so she was shipped into Fairbanks to raise her puppies, then she will be spayed and returned to her family. The puppies will all be adopted out. Look how cute they are!!

Teeny nosies and teeny toesies!

Awwwwww!

They are juuuuust starting to get silly and playful.

But do not quite have jaw strength for those teefies to be awful. Yet! However, mama's nipples are a bit raw, so weaning will begin soon!

She looks to be a sheppy husky mix like Raven. She's beautiful!

And verrrrry sweeeet.

Some of the babies show the sheppy, too.

Lookie these beans! They come in both licorice

And strawberry.

They have already begun the untying-shoelaces phase of puppyhood.

"Grrrrr! I shall untie your shoesies!"

This one looked like a black bear cub when he fell asleep in my lap.

Lookie dis paw!

Sheppy puppies!

Micromanagers

Trout the malinois is hanging out with us this week while her mama recovers from ankle surgery. Her mama was the dog handler at Cricket's kennel of origin. Cricket and Trout have been friends for eight years now! However, Trout and Raven only met for the first time last summer.

I am astounded at the similarities between the two of them!

They both follow me everywhere and stare at me like micromanagers.

They both sleep like roaches.

They both like to stare out the windows.

They also both have giant pointy ears.

And they are are good protection dogs. On our walks, Raven and Trout don't let strange dogs get near me!

Guard Trout!

I briefly went down a (rather pleasant!) google hole and learned that while they are not directly related (Malinois are from Belgium and Sheppies are from Germany), they both descend from a common ancestor, some ur-shepherd whose descendants range throughout western Europe. They have the protection skills of the giant livestock guardians, as well as the herding skills of dogs like border collies. They are very smart and very devoted to their jobs! And when they are not herding livestock, they like to herd us! Which explains why Trout and Raven are so extremely committed to micromanaging.

It's actually kind of insane, and I'm not sure if I'd want more than one of these dogs long-term. They are kind of all up in my face all day, and while it's cute and endearing short-term, it could get tiresome for years and years. Still, their commitment to micromanaging is amazing. They are dead asleep on the couch and I go upstairs to just, like, change a shirt or something, and they are up like jack-in-the-boxes, chasing me up the stairs, jostling for position, just to watch me change a shirt! Then they squeeze in next to me to escort me back downstairs. They even have to be on the same side of the tiny cabin as I am.

Although they will both seek affection from daddy/uncle.

Our last time on this trail for the season.

Look at the water!

It's in actual streams now.

Handsome DL always following up the rear!

Then we get home and snooooooze. However, do not be deceived! Those ears are always listening!

The micromanagers take turns flopping!

Happy spring, I guess

Weeeelll, sad to say, spring is officially here. The trails are thawing out, and look what we had to do on our evening walk today, walk in mud:

We were already done skiing last weekend; the trails were too icy and hard. But we could walk on them.

Then it stormed for a few days. Sideways snow and slush! Then the sun came out very abruptly and made for a beautiful morning!

Mmmmm kalespinez!!!

We love kalespinez!!!

I taught the dogs that they get a cookie for coming back promptly after they pee. Cricket has turned into a monster.