Big News!

Well, I guess everybody has to be an adult sometime, so after being a cabin dweller for 17 years, having graduated for 13, married for 10, and tenured for 4, I now have indoor plumbing. Yup, our 3-year search for a conventional home with running water has come to an end. Also, after much anxiety (on my part, not on the part of the Eminently Sensible DL), said new home is only about 900 feet from the cabin as the raven flies. It's also bright and cheerful.

Part of the reason that the search was so long is that the housing stock in Fairbanks is very... interesting. Because of the harsh weather, houses age faster; and because of the labor shortage, having old house problems fixed promptly is a real challenge. We've also noticed that the stock of houses that appear on the market skews large, like 3000-5000 square feet or more. For two people in a high heat load location, this is ridiculous. We do know a lot of people who live in normal mid-sized houses, but I guess they don't move on. At 1000 square feet, this place is slightly smaller than we wanted, but we jumped on it because small, tight, efficient, and low-maintenance was our goal and this was close enough. However, having more than one room is new! Like this is my experience using the bathroom:

And being in the kitchen:

And being in the bedroom:

And being in the other bedroom:

My sous-chefs still stay on duty, quality checking my KALE:

MMMM KALE!!!:

We did have to make a few small alterations. One is that Cricketerz is not used to stairs. The cabin had two steps that she took in one leap, but she wasn't into using individual stairs, so DL built her a ramp. She was reluctant to use it at first but Raven and I are pros at ramp training, and soon we got her so good she runs up that ramp so fast I can't even get a picture!

DL also had to reinforce the wood shed, which was creaking and on the verge of falling down:

In addition, we have conventional frame construction, with studs and drywall, so we can't just hang things all over the walls the way we did when our walls were logs. Here are some things we bought to give up more storage space for things I used to hang. One is this this really nice cast iron storage rack:

And I found this awesome rotary knife block! The sides are magnetic and there are slots on top as well. It turns out this "company" is a couple in Washington who emailed me personally after receiving my order and continued to communicate with me as we dithered whether to ship via USPS or UPS, to the house or to my PO box, etc. They were super awesome and after I received the knife block I emailed them a photo of it on my counter and they replied instantly that I had made their evening. :) I also bought these little rack thingies that Freddies uses to display plates, and I use it for cutting boards.

However, we still didn't have enough space to put all of our pots and pans. I could not fathom why, at 50% bigger, the new house had *less* space. But then I got to thinking. Almost all of my friends have some kind of kitchen hutch or something they put additional things in (either pots and pans, plates, cups, wine glasses, pantry stuff, etc). Maybe kitchens "as built" in their homes are just not meant to hold everything. Anyway DL came up with the concept and I did a quick search on the internet and it appears that butcher-block stand-alone storage is a very common thing! So I figured it would be easy to find in town. But none of the furniture stores had it. Then DL pointed out that perhaps this was not considered "furniture" and we should look at a kitchen supply store. So we went to the kitchen porn store. Wowee! Look at this place! There is some AK-specific stuff, too--aprons and oven mitts with Tlingit prints and Homer sea salt and kelp products.

And yes! Look what we found! Now the dogs have their stuff all in one place, and the rest of the kitchenware has a home!

Farewell, lovely cabin! I appreciate the wonderful years, and will never forget you! I feel like I had a fourth "growing up" in this place. There is (1) childhood, (2) adolescence, (3) that early 20s struggle to become functional, and then (4) that approaching-middle-age, becoming yourself and growing in confidence phase. I had that in this cabin, and I will be grateful forever.

Summer wheeling along...

Koda the malamute is back at Sirius for a visit while his parents are on a fishing trip, so I went to go squeeze him. Please enjoy my selfies.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZ

It has been a poor fireweed season. We see them, but not in the big pink fields we normally do. Well, it has been a weird year.

But mild enough to take walkies with friends, including Seester Bedbug!

Pretty afternoon.

So attentive for treats! Young dogs sit for treats, old dogs can do whatever they want!

We are grateful to our CSA from Calypso Farm for our diarrhea-free lettuce!

LETTUSSSSS!

These teeny tiny things bloom in our front yard every year!

The raspberries were late to ripen, but they did ripen at last.

Amazing they just grow wild.

We find raspberry patches among the blueberry patches, too. They typically spread via rhizomes, so these isolated bushes must come from bird poop? That is my guess.

The fragrance of labrador tea is a sure sign you are berry picking!

The blues are not as dense this year, but they are still there.

There are still nice dense clusters here and there.

I wore my lucky blueberry bucket earrings!

It's alright, to be little bitty!

Some lovely things

I'm sure the time has long passed that any of my 14 faithful readers expect Alaskan Adventure or Excitement out of me, but I do have queiter pleasures to share. Here are some photos from my Lazy Person's Garden™. For the first time I decided to put in a few annuals, which I got from a local greenhouse:

This little verbena is particularly striking!

I also have three colors of columbine and these orange lilies, all perennials, as well as wild delpinium:

Oh, and of course rhubarb!

Now I have a nearly full color palette!

Mother Nature is doing her part, too. The dwarf fireweed have bloomed, and the tall ones will bloom next.

Yesterday I met SM and Cricket's sister, Bedbug, for a walk at Creamer's Field.

A very pretty afternoon!

SM and Bedbug. She looks just like her seester Cricket, except that her ears stand up.

I looked this up. It's called water smartweed. Very pretty!.

Fields of canola. This was not planned, but I guess it's not considered an invasve either.

A truly lovely day!

My lovely friends!

Dogs and humans!

The juvenile male cranes do not continue to their breeding grounds and hang around Creamers Field all summer. Here are two of them:

Wishing you all a lovely rest of July!

Ravey Gravy in Agility

Please enjoy these videos of weavy-wavy-Ravey-Gravy:

I only started agility on a lark, because Raven was my first young dog, and I found that as that winter was turning to spring was turning to summer, I was not up to her exercise requirements. I was told that mental exercise is as good for tiring out dogs as physical exercise, so we signed up and she's doing awesome!

Pawsitive has been really great, and making it fun. They aren't as Serious as some other training centers, which I super appreciate. Our friend KO has been going to the agility trials to observe, and she said that the other training centers have almost nothing but border collies, while we have huskies and labs and pomeranians and doodles. That made me so proud. Pawsitive was also super patient when I took some rescues there to be socialized, like April.

By the way, April is doing great! Her family adores her, and she even has a little friend! I didn't even know she likes kids, but how cute is this? Kiddo is grinning ear to ear, but I am protecting his privacy since he's a minor.

I hope your summers are proceeding nicely! Here are some photos of the girls eating KALESTEMZZZ

MMMMM KALESTEMZZZZZ!!

Summer is summering!

Lookie this Teeny Tiny Orb Weaver! I posted it to a Facebook group called "Spiders of Alaska" thinking it was a baby, but nope. Apparently it's a fully grown adult male.

These wild Arctic roses are the earlier blooming flowers each year. They smell sweet and faint, like you had put on a dab of rose perfume earle in the day and now it's evening.

And bluebells are the other early bloomer that shows up en masse.

Last Saturday we hiked to the top of Wickersham Dome. It was also the first truly warm day of the season and we were all quite hot! We finished all of our water, which is generally a bad sign (I think one should always carry excess water). But I think we were not in real danger because we were with a group and on a well-known trail. I photographed some pretty mountain flowers, like this anemone:

And these Dame's Rockets:

And one of my favorites, these teeny-tiny mountain azaleas:

And another of my favorites, woolly lousewort:

Phew! They were pooped afterwards! They even let me take a break from Second Walk!

We are also switching back to warm-weather foods, like sticky noodles:

And fully loaded huevos rancheros, with beans for extra fiber and protein:

And omelettes:

A champagne problem for DL: Every meal is a battle to free him from Cricket snuggles.

Two-paw days are harder than one-paw days:

Wishing all 17 of my readers a Happy Summer!