If you fill it, they will come!

For two and a half weeks, since this photo was taken, Squirt Boy has searched for birds at our feeders hanging outside the windows. We weren't sure we would ever have birds.

This morning, a flutter of wings brought Papa and Squirt Boy to the window. A black capped chickadee, along with several of his friends, were flapping around and munching at our feeders.

We're looking forward to seeing who else visits this winter.

'Bye, Cranes!

Winter comes early in the great white north. The autumnal equinox marks the END of fall, really. Frost and temps in the 20s greeted us this morning. Our golden leaves carpet the ground and swirl in the wind. Snow frosts Donnelly Dome, a prominant point a few miles out of town.


A huge harbinger of winter is the mass exodus of sandhill cranes. We live along their major flyway, rejoicing at their spring arrival, and sorrowing at their departure. This afternoon, we watched hundreds of cranes wing their way south, over our house. Squirt Boy waved, and said, "Bye, cranes!" We look forward to seeing you in the spring!



Temps stay chilly during the day, as well. Here are the boys ready for a walk this evening.


By the way, Peanut is FIVE months old today.

Just for Granny...

Every time Granny comes to visit, she wants to see a moose in our yard, or the Northern Lights. Despite her many visits, neither has come to pass.




This morning, the dogs (Fuzzy Butt and her friend Champ) alerted us to this yearling cow calf browsing in the yard. After charging the dogs, she munched for a while on the island of trees encircled by our driveway.

Sorry you missed it, Granny.

Note: The calf stayed in our yard for two days, much to Squirt Boy's chagrin and the dogs' fascination. She pruned my lilac bushes, mowed down my raspberries, sampled our grass and gnawed on the rhurbarb. She's quite the gardener, this little moose!

The Fair City

We have been in Fairbanks the past few days, staying downtown at the Springhill Suites. Squirt Boy and I have run a few errands and laid low during the day; we all have colds, and are trying to get better.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the Museum of the North as a field trip for Papa's training. We went to the bowels of the museum for a personal tour of the archaeology lab and walked through the amazing vault of artifacts. Squirt Boy enjoyed himself, but really wanted to grab the rocks, bones and sticks we passed by.

We took a dip in the hotel pool last night. We walked into the pool room, basking in the warmth, and were all a bit shocked at the chilly water. Squirt Boy fairly walked up my chest to get away from the water!

Squirt Boy has loved having all sorts of furniture to cruise around with in our hotel room. I keep trying to capture his 2-3 second standing episodes on video; no such luck. He will stand and balance and "talk" to us, then WHOMP! down on his behind.

This afternoon, we are heading to the big box construction stores to purchase accoutrements for our bathroom: a tub, counter, sink, tub surround, toilet, flooring, light fixtures, medicine cabinet, some drywall, some mud and texture and maybe even paint. Wahoo! In between errands, I've been tootling around Lowes and Home Depot, deciding which things I like best. With so many choices, it's not very easy.

This week, the Kodiak Island Drummers are also in town. Squirt Boy and I may try to catch their two o'clock performance today. I went to Kodiak two years ago for work, and one of the chaperones is a teacher with whom I worked while there. Despite being the biggest state in the Union, Alaska is really small, when you start talking about the people. I think there are only maybe three degrees of separation here.

Among mosquitoes in Alaska, I think everyone knows everyone else. A funny (but true) saying we heard: "When you kill one, a thousand more come for the funeral." The video below Papa took while he was waiting for help when the trailer broke a couple of weeks ago.

Papa Builds the Kazbah

Around our house, we occasionally say, "You rock the kazbah!" when we are particularly thankful for something done for us. Well, Papa changed it a bit to say, "Papa BUILDS the kazbah. Mama rocks the kazbah." I don't know about my side of things, but Papa definitely rocks.

Here is our delightful deck and the framing for the covered front porch, which will also have blue roofing, eventually. You get to see a different view of the house this time, mostly because the mud pit has solidified enough to keep my shoes from getting slurped off to take a photo.

Papa and I waltzed on the deck yesterday afternoon. It's a good thing I trust him. You can't see it here, but up next to the door is a good eighteen inch gap where he ran out of boards.

I keep trying to help with the house, much to my chagrin and Papa's amusement. A simple task: screw down the deck boards, using a drill. Sadly, I keep stripping screws beyond the point of no return. Notice the heads sticking up below. I hope Papa can fix them...

The carnage:

I've been able to beautify the house a bit, however. For Mother's Day, I picked out a variety of plants. Two kinds of basil, a tomato plant, and some beautiful flowers. I arbitrarily wanted to do orange and purple; African daisies are orange with purple centers! These, grouped with purple pansies and another pretty purple flower, will eventually hang from the deck.

On our way back this morning from my pathetic carpentry, we saw this just down the road.

Yes, I did what I hate for tourists to do. I stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture, all the while glancing in my rear view mirror, hoping nobody saw me.

I had the perfect shot of the moose in the pond, but couldn't find the camera. Squirt Boy snoozed away. (I dug frantically for the camera.) Fuzzy barked and jumped around the car. (More frantic digging.) The moose nonchalantly ambled out of the pond. (Sigh.)

In the midst of all our building chaos, Squirt Boy babbles, laughs and cruises on. He's getting faster all the time...

A Busy Week

Squirt Boy and I returned Monday night from a week in Anchorage at Granny and Grandaddy's house. He had a wonderful time playing with his grandparents.

Playing bubbles with Granny.

A definite highlight of the week was getting to spend several mornings and an evening with my friend, Holly Jo. Squirt Boy had his first sand box experience with Bubba and Muskrat. He didn't even eat very much of it.

Muskrat: "This is how you shovel sand."

Squirt Boy: "Can I chew on that shovel?"

It was a fun, but tiring, week for us.

Squirt Boy also cheered for his first triathlon. Our friends Kathi, Cindy and Diane raced in the Gold Nugget Triathlon, and had a great time. Way to go, ladies!

Squirt Boy and I then flew from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Monday afternoon, and this handsome man was there to pick us up.

I was a bit surprised at his new "do". I really like it now.

It must be the year of the porcupine. We saw ANOTHER porcupine on the way home from Fairbanks, and a couple of moose, as well.

As we neared Delta Junction, our trailer, heavy-laden with Trex decking, collapsed. My friend Diane (the triathlete above) happened by, and took Squirt Boy and me home. While Papa was waiting for our friend Josh to help, he thought he'd hang out with more of the local wildlife. (Look closely. Those aren't dirt flecks on his head.)

In other exciting news, Papa framed a good portion of our deck and finished the interior drain plumbing last week. The posts sticking up from the deck will support more metal roofing, so snow doesn't slide onto our heads at inopportune times this winter. I think the deck makes the house look much less rocket-like.

If you look at the trees in the background, you will notice that we finally have LEAVES! Wahoo! We had just buds when we went to Anchorage two weeks ago. Summer's coming.

Another sign of summer is the opening of the Buffalo Center Drive In restaurant here in town. They are SO yummy! They use ice cream and milk from the local dairy, and local beef and bison from farmers in town. Squirt Boy had his first taste of ice cream from Mama's hot fudge/peanut butter shake, and his first taste of bison from Papa's BBQ sandwich. If you come visit before Labor Day, we'll make sure the Drive In is on the agenda.

It's good to be home!

Wild Ride

Why did the porcupine cross the road?

To get to the other side, of course!

Last Thursday evening, we drove the 330 miles from Delta Junction to Anchorage. It was light the entire time, and we saw a BUNCH of animals along the way.

-A moose

-A bald eagle

-Several ravens

-Two porcupines (at different places)

-Three trumpeter swans

-A bunch of ducks

(We could sing along, a la "The Twelve Days of Christmas")

On his way home Sunday evening, Papa saw six porcupines, a black bear, and several caribou, in addition to the more "normal" critters.

Squirt Boy, now facing forward in his car seat, had a hard time on the 7+ hour trip this time. Maybe because he could see us? Maybe because he couldn't see the animals?

Let's just say I'm glad we're flying to Fairbanks on the way home, thanks to Alaska Airlines' sweet in-state mileage deal. Wahoo!

Wild Kingdom

After being in Alaska for eight years, I sometimes forget that we still live in a wild place, complete with wild animals.

Papa saw two porcupines while driving around last week. Fortunately, neither was flat in the road. On the same drive, he saw four different herds of caribou.

A snowshoe hare flashed through the undergrowth as I walked by a few days ago.

A red fox darted across a neighborhood street the other day while we were driving home.

A large, gangly, slightly agitated moose met us in the driveway this afternoon on our way back from lunch. Fortunately, it didn't like the looks of our vehicle, and trotted off into a field.

Yes, we are cautious with the larger critters. I rarely walk a road or trail without singing, making silly sounds, or talking to Squirt Boy or Fuzzy. After all, it's rather impolite to surprise a resting moose or bear, and potentially dangerous, to boot.

Despite the hazards, I'll take a moose or a bear any day over disease-carrying mosquitoes and ticks, or poisonous snakes, or deadly spiders, or heavily armored alligators. At least they're warm-blooded.

Spring on the Wing

We live on a superhighway, and the Alaska Highway doesn't count. We are smack dab in the middle of a migratory flyway for a number of birds, most notably the Canada goose, the trumpeter swan, and the sand hill crane.

Last evening, Squirt Boy, Fuzzy and I were enjoying the lovely weather and could hear cranes noisily calling to one another. The like to fly VERY high in the sky. We looked up, up and up and FINALLY spotted a group of 50 or so birds floating lazily in the thermals. For birds that travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles, I had to wonder how they ever get anywhere. Late last night, I heard more of them, as they headed north to the barley fields around Fairbanks and beyond.

Another harbinger of summer is our Alaskan state "bird", the mosquito. We grow them big and bad up here. When you come visit, bring your bug dope.

Froggy Went a Hoppin'

...right across the road today. Squirt Boy and I helped him reach the cool, muddy swamp on the other side. Otherwise, he might have been squished by a vehicle barreling down our VERY dusty road. Sadly, in my amphibious excitement, I forgot I had my camera and I don't have a picture for you.

Yes, we have frogs in the great white North. They are wood frogs, and the coolest thing about them is that they freeze SOLID (yes, ice cube solid) in the winter. They have something akin to antifreeze in their cells, and when the weather warms up, they thaw out, and most of them start hopping again. Pretty neat, eh?