Well, I guess that's a wrap on fire season!

Okay I have unpacked my evacuation bag, and my home is restored to normal.

Thank you to The Bureau of Land Management, The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, and all of the various orgs that converged here to keep us safe. They were really excellent with communications, too! Their Public Information Officer is outstanding! And thank you especially to the firefighters themselves, who came from all over the country with their expertise and amazing toughness, beating back the fires, cutting firebreaks, laying hose lines, etc. We are grateful. ❤

We have also been helped by near daily rains for several weeks no. It is said that it always rains for the Fair, so they moved the fair to start early this year to help, haha. I don't mind wet dogs in exchange for physical safety and clean air!

It's also berry season! These aqpiks are ripe.

These blueberries were not quite, but maybe they are now.

And we have plenty of raspberries right in our yard!

A quart in ten minutes, easy!

Raven usually picks them with me, and eats them right off the canes! But right now she can't hang out in the yard as she is being driven nuts by this guy.

I scratched my head over him for a few minutes, thinking marmots only live high in the hills above treeline, but that was a hoary marmot, Marmota caligata I was thinking of. This fella is a Groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, a Marmota monax. How much wood do you suppose he would chuck if he could chuck wood?

Raven stares at him from this window.

Rain is great for cabbages! Makes them grow big, but without bolting! Check out this napa from our CSA!

We also got this giant lettuce. The girls love lettusssss!!

Although brocky stems are still the favorite.

Mmmm yesh! Brocky stems!

And we are still enjoying lovely walks between rainstorms.

Now they clean their fangs side by side. :)

Although the heat has lessened, it's still a bit warm for huskies, and Raven limits ball time by telling me it's time to take a break, and please do not throw her ball again quite yet!

Look at Cricket's schnozz!

Only she can sleep like this!

Pretty morning on Murphy Dome

The weather has been so nice the last week or so. The rain has helped the firefighters, who have been working so hard to cut breaks and protect structures. The air has cleared, evacuation zones have been scaled back. And the temperatures have cooled to be... still a bit warm for my preference, but okay! Today we got up early and walked around the top of Murphy Dome. Oh wait, before I show off my photos, here are some cute shots of the girls.

Princess Cricket:

And Ravey Gravy:

Okay now, here is the beginning of the trail. This trail eventually ends up at the Chatanika River, but we didn't walk the whole way since it's a steep drop down and then a steep climb back up.

Very pretty panoramic views!

Here is an alpine bistort:

And some wild arnica.

I unhooked Raven for part of this hike for more recall training. She's doing great with recall, but I do not love her comfort level with running far from me. I'm trying to teach her a Maximum Acceptable Radius. Cricket's is very small, so despite having poor-ish recall, she can be off-leash as long as we aren't on or near roads. She sticks to me like glue.

Here it is evident how aggressive erosion can be on these delicate trails. All it takes is one ATV driving it on a muddy day, and water streams into the tracks repeatedly and makes things like this:

Jacob's Ladder. These grow in our 'hood too.

The fireweed seems prettier up here!

The contrast against this purple monskhood is lovely.

Another panorama.

This trail originated as a fire break. The fire approached from the left of the frame, and the fire break did its job well! Look at how the fireweed is the first to colonize the disturbed ground. That's how it got its name.

My pretty Raven Girl:

And my adorable Princess Cricket:

Bellflower, so delicate-looking, but always growing on hard, dry ground, high in the hills, and blowing in the wind:

Oooh! Nice water find! I do not love letting my girls into local ponds and lakes as we get Swimmer's itch in those. But a small rainwater-created water hole is perfect, and no ducks, so no swimmer's itch!

Raven in the fireweed!

Marsh fleabane, far from a marsh:

These wildflowes have such subtle beauty, but I love the contrast of the pink, yellow, and purple:

Climbing back! Murphy Dome has this communications stuff on top, so it's easy to find your way back!

The power is supplemented by a wind turbine and some solar panels:

This big ball is visible from a looooot of locations in and near Fairbanks. It houses military RADAR stuff, as part of the North Warning System

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My own tricolor flowers, which I planted only some of: Lilies and fireweed and delphiniums:

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A Plant Life Tour, mid-Summer version

The weather has been still just a touch warm for my taste, but with clear sun interspersed with rain knocking down the fires, I can't complain. Also, there are at least ten wildland fire crews that have arrived from all over the Lower 48, actively battling our fires and cutting fire breaks. Look at this photo from fighting fires North of town:

Photo credit: D. Maneely/Southwest Complex Incident Management Team 3

Here is one from the efforts near us. The caption read "Nodwell tracked engine patrol's the Bonanza Creek Fire looking for hot spots." (Photo courtesy of Sam Collison) That lab looks like a good Friend to have around. Hope he stays safe!

We have been walking the neighborhood trails, and Raven has been doing great at recall training!

"Raven, come!"

She'll be a great off-leash dog one day, but we aren't quite there yet. She still can't resist squirrels, which is a problem until she matures up.

Here are my girls with their friend Trout! Trout has perfect recall! But not only is she a malinois, but her mom is an actual expert dog trainer, so!

Our woods look very Mysterious! Over the past week or so, I decided I'd document some wildflowers.

First up are these wild irises. I think they are so pretty!

Closeup!

Wild clover!

The fireweed is only just starting to appear.

They bloom from bottom to top. It is said that when the top blossoms open, we are four weeks from the first frost of next winter.

Sweet-smelling yarrow:

Yarrow closeup:

Compare against the unrelated bedstraw, which is considered invasive in some areas, although Fairbanks folks focus our rage on the vetch.

Cottongrass:

Cottongrass closeup!

This is called a hawskbeard. Like a dandelion, it makes fluffy seed heads, but they don't detatch as easily from the plant.

Compare against an actual dandelion. (Raven contributes her pointy-eared shadow to a lot of my photos, haha.)

Such pretty little flowers!

The bright white ones are dwarf dogwood. They will turn into bunchberries.

The pink ones are nagoons. They will turn into the tastiest berries on earth.

This is a local variation on knotweed. It has important medicinal properties.

Here is a younger version of the same plant.

This is meadowsweet, also an important medicinal herb. It's amazing to me that plants that I think of as perennial bushes still make flowers.

Even the hardy perennial Labrador Tea makes flowers! This plant is drunk as a tea. It's resin-y like pine or spruce and good for clearing a stuffy nose.

This is Agoseris, yet another yellow dandelion lookalike:

This is marsh fleabane:

Compare against Daisy fleabane:

This is called a twinflower, because the flowers form pairs at the tops of the slender stalks. They look small and delicate, but they are also wild and come back by themselves every year:

This humble beauty is the Arctic wild potato, called Troth in Athabascan (latin name Hedysarum alpinum). This is the Troth for which UAF's Troth Yeddha' campus is named. The ridge on which UAF campus was built used to be a gathering place for local people to harvest these wild tubers. Do not confuse this plant with either vetch (which is invasive) or wild sweet pea (latin name Hedysarum mackenzii which is endemic, but toxic to eat).

Cinquefoil:

Wild rhubarb. As if we don't have enough rhubarb!

Valerian:

Starwort:

Pretty Jacob's Ladder:

Closeup of Jacob's Ladder:

Some wild roses are still lingering:

And so are some bluebells:

At this time of year, cottonwood seeds are blowing everywhere. Indigenous people say it's time for salmon, but the salmon stocks have been so severely depleted that harvests are limited. King harvests are now banned. :(

This pretty thing is a pink wintergreen.

Closeup for you: