Out and About

I feel like we spent a lot of last summer confined to short walks and the indoors since it was so hot and smoky. This year, we are sharing more of our beloved local spots with Miss Raven for the first time. Despite the rain! Here is our neighborhood trail. I can leave my desk, be home, change my clothes, and be on the trail with my girls in 45 minutes. Life is good!

About a month ago, we went to Chena Lakes, which is a lovely park system based around a largish artificial lake. It was all built in response to a terrible flood that covered Fairbanks in 1967. The people of Fairbanks saw the Chena River overflow its banks, and said, "Dam it!" (sorry!). Anyway, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a 7.1-mile long earthen dam that controls nearly 1,500 miles of watershed that would otherwise freely flow into Fairbanks. At the time that they constructed the dam, they also created a manmade lake, and a very lovely park. You can go to the "Lake Park", where you can rent canoes and paddleboats, and they stock the lake witih fish. Or you can go to the "River Park" where you can walk along the Chena and enjoy lovely views and a gentle walk through the woods with no climbing.

Aaaaaaanyway, we had to abort that walk about a month ago since Raven had the porcupine encounter. We finally succeeded yesterday, although we happened to bump into a high school cross-country race. What a surprise to find that quiet place overflowing with cars and people! But I figured it was still Interior Alaska and we could probably find a way to take our walk without disrupting the race. Sure enough, I asked one of the folks directing traffic and he said that it was perfectly fine, and in fact the race was about to end in about 15 minutes. So I parked on the side of the road, and we stood at the finish line and cheered in the last racers. They seemed like a nice bunch, and when the race was over, the girls and I took our walk. We got back an hour later, and the place was immaculate--all of the flagging that they had put on the course was gone, there was not a single scrap of litter, and all of the cars that had overflowed the small lots and lined the roads were gone. My little Subaru was weirdly parked all alone on the side of the road outside of the empty parking lots.

The water was high!

Raven ponders the high water.

Cricket ponders the high water.

After our walk along the River Park, we had some more time to kill before our next commitment, so we took about 20 minutes to walk along the top of the dam. It was dam pretty up there!

Wow, look at the floodplain!

There we were just a-walkin' down the dam, singin' doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo.

This small storm cloud kept moving around. We only just got sprinkled.

Another view of the floodplain.

Mmmmmm cucumbrrrrrz!!

We love cucumbrrrrrrrzzz!!

The cusp between summer and fall

Late summer is my favorite part of summer. The dragonflies have come out, the mosquitoes have thinned down, the mud has dried up. Time for berry picking! Blueberries first. My friend SM has adopted Cricket's sister, Bedbug (they were an entire litter named after bugs). Bedbug, like Thistle, was a star leader, and she has embraced retirement with gusto. She sleeps in and takes gentle walks. She looks a lot like Cricket, only with pointy ears instead of flippy-flappy ears. She's also a good berry picking companion:

Also, like Cricket, she is a qualified and very loving therapy dog. We met at the Denali Center a couple of times. Aren't they cute?

At one point I took a break to have a PBJ, and dropped it. Well, I'm not a picky eater nor germaphobe, but this time I picked it up and found it had landed perfectly onto a moose turd! So I had to tear off that part.

A good berry year! We are grateful.

I also took Raven on my favorite hike for the first time. We missed out on a lot last year because it was so hot and so smokey. But this was my first hike ever in Alaska!

Pretty and tough bluebells, growing in the mountains:

Even Cricket needs some shade on a hot day:

Look at this view though!

This is Wickershame Dome, a hike for another day. That trails has low, muddy spots. I think we will wait until fall after several hard frosts, and it will be frozen.

The trail continues onward, but it was our turnaround time.

A trip up the Elliott Highway always means pie! But I'm still being covid-careful, so I'm not lingering in truck stops. Pie to go!

Do you think Cricket enjoys her life with us? I sure hope she enjoys her life with us.

What about Raven? Do you think she is comfy? I sure hope she is comfy.

Look, the hillside on campus where I park has in just a few weeks gone from pink fireweed to fireweed fluff:

Fall is already becoming apparent in other ways:

This is a favorite trail of ours. Part of the Equinox Marathon route.

A pause where you'd pause on the marathon. Right after this steep drop. There is an aid station right here. And you'd pause and say, "Phew! The worst part is over!"

Such a pretty trail!

Look! Cranberries are almost ready! But they don't get truly sweet until after the first frost, so we wait until those hushed first days of Fall come.

I got a plant ID app, and it says this is called "marsh felwort":

And while the blueberries are ripe, so are the raspberries. These are right in our yard, and I have to beat Raven to them!

Notes from Here and There

Happy summer! We are in peak fireweed now!

Wowee!

And the bees are out and about. We have extremely fuzzy native bumblebees, but also honeybees from neighbors who keep them.

And our CSA is cranking out giant veggies. The girls lovelovelove KALESTEMZZZ!!!

MMMMMmm KALESTEMZZZZ!!!

And that, my friends, is how I liberate DL when our meals are ready for consumption. I reserve a nice veggie-buhl and Cricket jumps off him. Then he can get up and eat!

We went to visit Trout and her mama to make sure she and Raven would be friends. Trout's mama used to be the dog handler at Dew Claw, so Trout knew Cricket and Thistle already. Seems they get along just fine, and they GUD SITS!!

Unfortunately, later that day Raven had an encounter with a porcupine. My first dog-porcupine incident! All these years I've carried around pliers in my pack, so I was prepared, or so I thought. When the time came, I could not grab them though! Raven didn't seem to be in pain, but she was just like, "YAAAAAAY!!! I'M OUT HAVING FUN WHY YOU HOLDING ME?!? YAAAAAY LOOK HOW HIGH I CAN JUMP!" And I could not even get the pliers around one quill! Anyway, fortunately my vet is open 7 days a week, so we just headed back to the car and I called them and told them we were on our way. They sedated her to remove the quills, and apparently that is a good idea anyway. Apparently dogs can get them inside their mouths!! Yikes!! And also any quills you miss can migrate inside and do more damage, so they really should be sedated for a full exam. Raven only got those few you can see in the photo, and they were really shallow.

Having a young dog means fewer life-threatening vet emergencies that frighten me and/or make me worried and/or sad, but young dogs have their own veterinary needs that older dogs do not have. Upon reflection, humans are like that, too. Young kids in general don't have tumors or cancer scares, and they certainly don't have arthritis. But they have young-people things like allergies, asthma, and mechanical injuries that come from lack of wisdom. When I was younger, I had far worse hay fever, as well as athlete's foot, occasional warts, eczema, and yeast infections. I don't have any of those now! So, too, did Raven get itchies, a fungal growth on her ears, and now this porcupine incident. But... these are all easily remedied, and do not add to my anxieties. :)

Cricket, on the other hand, is like Autumn and Linden and causes me no anxieties at all. She will be 13 next month, and she's only ever been to the vet for vaccinations! And she's still crazy strong and active as a puppy. I hope that like Autumn and Linden, she also has a long, happy life.

Look! Both at their places: Cricket snuggling and Raven doing her Watchdog thing. Those Shepherd genes really show, but Shepherds can also be reactive and territorial and downright vicious, and I'm sure greatful she did not get those genes. Or maybe they were diluted since she's only 40% sheppy. She really is a great mix!

Walking on Murphy Dome!

Denali was visible yesterday.

Raven's first time here!

Cricket knows the way.

Girl selfie!

The blueberries were blue, but still sour. But we have raspberries in our own yard that are sweet and ripe!

I wish my 14 loyal readers a peaceful summer!

Summer summers

Sorry for the long delay in posting. After an extended, gorgeous, cool spring, summer came in hot--literally--and I've spent the last few weeks wilting on the floor like a dramatic Victorian heroine. While I still achingly miss my Thistle girl, I don't think she is missing this! Now the rains have come, cooling us down, and I feel like a functioning human again!

We've been doing a lot of nice dayhikes.

And my perennial garden is as lovely as ever. Look at all of my colors of columbine! With the exception of the purple and white ones, which were a split from a friend, I started these all from seeds I gathered myself, and now they are self-maintaining, hardy perennials. I don't even water them!

These gorgeous and hardy lilies are also perennials, and started from bulbs from a different friend.

And of course the eternal rhubarb. It's HUGE!!

Feed me, Seymour!

I did not have the courage to start harvesting until a friend agreed to take half. With the other half, I put half of THAT into the freezer, and with the remaining quarter, I made a pie.

The sound of slicing things on a cutting board always draws an audience in my house!

Nice pie, if I do say so myself!

Pie out, pizza in. I'm so happy it's cooler and rainy and I can turn on my oven!

I made this one with smoked mozzarella!

At the end of a storm, is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark!

Look at this pretty fireweed at the edge of my parking lot on campus!

Raven has graduated Basic Obedience, Beginner Scentwork, and Intermediate Obedience. She also picked up two Official Obedience Titles as well as her Canine Good Citizen certificate along the way! She's a very smart girl! Obedience titles are earned by doing 10 tricks from a long list that are at the appropriate level. The lists did not include any of the things she had already mastered that have made her such a great dog for us: "Gee", "Haw", "Come Gee", "Come Haw", "Over Gee", "Over Haw", "Whoa", "Stay", "On By", Walking By Moosey Without Going Apeshit, Lifting Paws In Correct Order to Put On or Remove Harness, Ignoring Other Dogs Who Appear to be Jerks... hey that is over ten things right there! But no, those did not qualify her to be a Trick Dog. Her Tricks are not half so pragmatic, they are things like Balance On a Strange Thing and Spin in a Circle. But these sorts of nonsense are good for brain development and dog-human bonding, so we had fun.

I have the Goodest Good Dogs. How do I keep getting so lucky??