Wolverine....sorry no photo's...

 laziness won out and i ended up walking local.  not that this is a bad thing.  plenty of local walks that are great.  as usual, the dogs do not care, they just want to walk.  so my friend LS joined me up at Arctic Valley.  that road is terrible, though it may be improving as we saw a grader doing road work on the way back....which i applauded.  on my way up i was excited to see an actual elusive wolverine lope across the road ahead of me.  no camera of course as i was dealing with the rough road. 

 that is my first in the wild wolverine sighting.  pretty cool. 

 this morning i discovered some fool had ripped one of the walrus off the little free library.  so annoying.  they are super glued on so they had to take some effort and some of the little roof with it.  when i as driving up i spotted the poor walrus down the road tossed by the curb.  i re-glued him...so we shall see.  i did see a kid by the box this morning and then later as i was loading dogs the same kid had stopped by again...when he saw me he booked. hmm...

 there was a lot of moose poop on powerline pass yesterday.  just had to use it to write a few words out there. above is one of a few shots i took at Service High...so many dandelions, i just had to stop and snap a few shots.

 before powerline i had the tree crew come over.  when it was done the guys said it was a pretty tricky job due to cramped quarters back there, tree's, fences, shed...

 the guy on the shed roof made me nervous too. always fun to watch folks do these things.  learn a lot.  fascinating. that guy seemed very comfy climbing around the trees, lopping off limbs with a smaller chainsaw i guess then lower the tree bits/branches with ropes.

 would love to see another wolverine one day, one i can take a few photos of out there.  someone was on a trail and had a wolverine come down the trail carrying the head of a goat.  it stopped for a second, looked at them and then took off with the head.  these are not animals folks see very often.  many up here have never seen one in the wild.  there was a car right ahead of me, but they were tourists, pretty anxious about the terrible road, i suspect they never even saw the wolverine. there was, maybe still is, a section of road with loads of largish rocks...should cause anyone to pause before heading up the road. I've decided that is one of the worst roads in AK...and I've done Kennicott, the Haul road and Denali hwy.

 dramatic scenes from Powerline Pass. no animals sighted there, aside from the usual birds.

 below is the before shot of the back yard with all the trees.

 this is after...so much more light coming in. they took out 4 trees total. perhaps i will have an easier time getting grass to grow in the back section

 also some nice rainbow action last night.  i guess they had flooding and hail out in the Valley.  yikes.

 dogs have gotten snow and water time the past week so they are tired and happy.

 amazing how many dandelions grow....crazy. they are the first food for bees and the moose and bears and other animals also eat them...so as much as i can detest them in my own garden, i am trying to have a new respect for them.  they are survivors. 

 still quite a few trees back there behind my house

 i think that is still 7 trees. 

 a patch of snow to play in....they had many more patches of snow to play in today up Arctic Valley. silly me wore my sandals/keens.  post holing in snow in sandals, very chilly on the toes.

 proof of tired dogs.  of course, yesterday after this long walk and the excitement of the tree guys being here i decided i would sit on the chair on the deck and read.  hahahahaha.  that was not very easy with Ivy climbing on me, pawing at me, moving the tennis ball around on me for fear that i hadn't yet noticed it.

 another after yard shot

 supposed to be thunderstorms again in the valley this afternoon, i could see a dark cloud system up that way from here.  we left the mountain as the clouds were coming in.  aside from the wolverine and lots of ground squirrels, which we heard but never saw...that was it for wildlife today.

 no lupine up there today or out on powerline.  these are from the airport area.  there are some flowers starting to pop up in the higher elevations though.  love all the summer flowers, so beautiful

 sleeping lady at sunset

 lake hood at sunset

 flowers on the beach. 

 still great low tides for any who want to hit the beach, it's a great week for it in Anchorage.

 as you can see on Sunday i was not alone out there.

 it is a popular place, more and more i think.  i wore the dogs out a bit on this sand hill.  they were edgy after having been on leashes the whole way down.

 watched a few new episodes of "call the midwife" that i hadn't see yet.  always a great show.

 read a bit more of the Mueller Report.  still on the obstruction section. it's pretty obvious he has obstructed any and all investigations.  there have been a lot but he is one hell of a dodgy character.  i hope that in the end becoming POTUS turns into his worse nightmare and encourages others with grand larceny of the tax payers dollars to think twice about it...more likely he'll get a pass. 

 Manafort may be headed for Rikers...wouldn't that be fun.  his tax fraud and all have paid for a large chunk of the costs of the Mueller probe really.  can't say that for all the Clinton investigations. 

 the spin is that Manafort will be total isolation, when in fact he would just have his own cell for safety concerns.  oh the spin.  the iitoo is trying to spin all the protests he was met with in England as really no protests at all but instead as cheers of greeting.  his folks will buy it.  they buy everything.  it's pretty nuts.  who knew folks could be so gullible. 

 look at these sweet faces. 

 i think i have the cat run thing fixed again so i can open the door for the cat again tomorrow.  i also got the yakima back up on the car, freeing up space in the garage. 

 a few of the beach from the Canon.  so far behind on photos...that is how it is.  maybe I'll catch up one day.  hopefully not really. I'd rather be out adventuring and if i have time to catch up I'm probably either sick or injured, right? who needs that

 did make it to costco. they had a deal on bear spray and mine is pretty old.  good to have a fresh can.  one of those things i always hope I'll never need. 

 lots of mud...dried mud in the element now

 thankfully, they just love the hose so they can be easy to clean once we get home

 more halo's around the sun...

 enjoying this lovely weather while i lasts. i have some fresh grass growing and tossed down more seed yesterday.  always hoping to get a good healthy lawn that survives the dogs running around on it.

 this is how i feel of late.  at least get the ball rolling.  the GOP have impeached for far less...so they really have no place whining.  this guy lies constantly, has for sure obstructed any and all investigations and continues to.  he does all he can to prevent transparency and if this was a Dem potus they would have had them impeached ages ago..or at least started the process.  if you haven't read the report, you owe it to this nation and the constitution to read.  this potus and his administration are a mess, and they do not give one bit about the constitution.  they haven't read that either. it's clear the iitoo hasn't.

 dogs think so too. 

 the rest are from Powerline. 

 not too many shots today.  trying to stay upright in the mud and slushy snow.  haha.

 often run into folks you know.  ahead was an ER co-worker and her folks who are in town visiting. 

 no lost tennis balls this week...usually it's Tusker who gets distracted and drops it.  well...really always it is Tusker.  we adore him though.  they have their little personalities.  it's fun.

 we went to the bridge at Powerline...that is about 2 miles in, maybe a smidge more.  so it makes a great little 4-5 mile hike.

 some of the flowers popping out at Powerline yesterday

 soon the place will be crazy with flowers...then we can go on up to hidden lakes.  always a favorite extended hike

 bells about to pop out.

 well, it's dusk and almost midnight.  another day and then Thursday i return to work.  hopefully, a less dramatic week...but you never know.  we have a difficult job and the days off help. 

thankful for: A.  walks and friends who join me  B.  dogs who are great at motivating me to walk.  C.  down time, rest time, recovery time.