each day an adventure in alaska: September 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

first monday walk of the season!!

great weather, great group. always a bit nervous anytime i get people together. you just want to make sure everyone has fun and that everyone feels welcome and included. i think those things happened. i hope so anyway...it seemed like it was.

we had many of our regulars and a few that are new to the walk. speedy above with sydney. she actually walked quite a bit of the 4 mile loop. she started out walking, but all the dogs are pretty hyped up in the begining and so she got knocked over a few times. once the dogs settled in she got back down and put in some miles.

we had a few puppies. this cute alaskan malemute is just 4 months. eska, i believe that is her name. one of the peds docs brought her.

amy trialed out her new pack with lucy, which appears to have worked great!! i know she is looking forward to logging in more miles now that lucy is a wee bit bigger! karen and speedy give her some help getting lucy settled in. i think we had 7 dogs and 10 humans?? hmm...my brain is a bit fuzzy right now.

soon after i got home from walk/kaladi's and target my brain started to feel foggy. worked ER the other night. peds and ER tend to make me feel like i'm getting sick some days. mostly it's this random, sick feeling that goes away as fast as it comes. you just get exposed to loads of bugs in a short time. i think my body just has to mobilize and kick it. i seem to get healthier the older i get, despite the added aches. my body just can toss aside bugs much better than it used to.

no bears or moose sightings today....with so many of us it's a pretty low chance.

blossom showed all the dogs her favorite mud spots. can't wait for the ground to freeze up. haha. she loves her mud. i did note that some parts of the trail were getting frozen already. won't be long.

rio and i were in the back of the pack for the most part so not too many photo's.

we all stopped at the creek though so i put it on black and white and figured i'd see what i could capture.

baked some goodies for the post walk. katie joined us..she is officially retired and we are all quite jealous!!

flo and her pup boo boo made her maiden voyage of the monday walk..i think she enjoyed herself!! fun having her out. so many great people out there and i'm lucky to know all the best of them!!

leo above at almost 7 months. he's the wild lab type. boo boo is a sled dog so these two seemed to join up and hopefully they both ran each other out a bit.

speedy and karen

everyone congregates at the creek.

lucy awake and looking adorable!

gail, tanya, speedy, karen and libby.

rio managed to survive all the roots. she can't wait for it to be packed with snow and easier to walk i'm sure. she's wearing her scaredy cat fall coat. i've made so many coats for that dog. she's so sweet though...

the other creek crossing.

thought i'd toss in some new ones and then do some older september ones as well. more fun to talk about the same stuff that i have pictures of.

stopped by target to get halloween stuff. so much fun. a few of us talked at kaladi's and so another gathering is in order..."pumpkin massacre". a pumpkin carving event. gotta get guts so i can make pumpkin bread and speedy says she'll teach me how to do the seeds right. i seem to always mess mine up. sometimes that which looks super easy is not so easy.

i tend to put up halloween lights and then just leave those up all winter. too lazy to dig under the snow to change them over to christmas. the strings usually die out before the darkness totally does but it's nice to have that bit of light. got a few strings of cheap lights. mummies and pumpkins.

the rest are from hanging valley again. too pretty not to share.

really should get up in the morning and schedule the usual things...tire changeover and furnace checks.

so a great day...i'm ready for a nap already. woke too early today.

did make some homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner...always such a treat. so homey...the house smells good..it's just like mama used to make.

the tundra

always so amazing. don't think i could move away from alaska at this point. just way too amazing. nothing could ever hold a candle to it.

bob and boddhi out berry picking!!

best blueberries ever!!

tanya loads up as well.

love the dogs in the fall colours...they just look so beautiful....well indy looks handsome and blossom looks beautiful. tanya left her boys home today so she could just relax.

can't beat the scenery up there!

may have to pop in a movie tonight. crash early. hopefully sleep will help me kick whatever my body is fighting.

enjoyed my day...hope you enjoyed yours!!

wanting autumn to last forever...

these are back to hanging valley trek with the o'conners. it was just such a beautiful trek. the fall colours have come to anchorage as well.

tanya and i mug for the camera.

i think i should be baking for tomorrow's monday walk. i think i'm hitting my max awake hours though.

the o'conners.

i worked ER last night. was pretty dang busy. they had some trauma's but i was in the back end. they had me closing it down. not sure what all that entails, but the float nurse was super nice and it all got done. sad, crazy stuff...the ER is never dull. add to it the regulars and it's just another night in the emergency room.

today i didn't get out for my walk until after 3pm. slept great though . rio opted out again so it was just blossom and i. we headed to powerline pass.

great day out there. quickly ran into a couple i'd never met and we all started chatting and ended up just walking together out to the bridge and back. funny how you meet some people and click, like you've known each other a long time. anyway, enjoyed the chatter and company.

only had a few minutes at home to feed dogs and settle them back in before i headed to movies. haven't been to movies in a long time. i do actually enjoy seeing movies from time to time in the big theater. the smell of popcorn was intoxicating as i headed in from the parking lot.

went to see "jon don" or is it "don jon". can't remember...that is how sleepy i'm getting. i think it's the latter. oh well, it matters not really. it was somewhat quirky, but i can't say i didn't enjoy it overall, wouldn't buy it or even have a need to watch it again. if you are one that is easily offended by tits and ass or the overuse of the word, fuck, well it's probably not for you.

the main actor also wrote and directed it. i think it was his fist attempt at a project of this size. crops for that. strange subject matter, porn, but in truth it is much more prevalent than we all care to admit. women are competing with these unrealistic expectations of female bodies and manners.

at the same time a lot of women do seem to try to make their men what they have in their head their man should be rather than just accept them for who they are. acceptance out of the sack will for sure bring more fun into the sack.

electronics have invaded all parts of life it seems. sex has also invaded all parts of life.

anyway...did seem odd watching moose go through the mating rituals. is it wrong to observe them during rut...? they get no peace. we were all pretty far away today. as the evening approached we could see way more moose coming out of the brush.

guess there was a nice make a bit further up the trail, but we were all ready to turn back

from the distance we all safely observed without being a bother to the moose. not that when i've been closer i've felt i was a bother to them. they do what they do really and as long as you give them space and respect they could care less about you it seems.

we saw several females and one main male who was following a female. she was pretending to ignore him it seems though in the pictures i can see her neck hairs were standing up and he was leaning in for some good sniffs. eventually, he headed off to scare off the other younger male.

break time on the way up to hanging valley. we were teaching maddie to "take pictures" when she needed a break. it's how we stop and rest without admitting we need to rest...we just take pictures. haha.

happy to get to where it was more flat heading back down this upper valley

blossom got some good tennis ball time in today. lots of puddles to "cool" off in...not that she needed cooling. it wasn't cold but it is cooler and so our bodies are adapting to the changing weather and scenery. my hands were a bit chilled at times. i'd brought a hat but i sacrificed it as a poop bag holder on the way back.