Willow and Family

Kay Lee, A photo from this weekend, in the burned area along Fall Creek. Couldn't get Willow to stay in the teepee while I tried to dash in. It was a little crowded in there.

Life is Good: Chinooks, Snow and Sunshine

Life was good today:

Cedar with nookies for McKenzie; Koyuk with mother Cedar;girls lazing in the sun; best friends, sunshine. coffee and newspaper enjoyed outdoors; potting soil found from under snow; Koyuk helping plant seeds.

Chinooks, Sunshine and Snow

Willow's family came for a visit.
Willy, McKenzie, Cedar, Willow and Koyuk

Oscar, Jeremy and Willow ready for a sled run on the side of the pond.

Success with help from Willow and Cedar lot of work chasing Oscar up and down the side of the pondyes, that is a creek Oscar is trying to jump with the sled oops - not this runKoyuk "getting" a snowball. Her sister, Willow actually followed one into the pond.
Cora helping pose the dogs
nice job

Enough Conjuring

Enough Conjuring for Snow. Next year if we start in July, maybe we’ll get snow during the right season.
The final fix on the heat system was completed at 1636 Monday. While the guys were working, I wrote out my Wednesday to do list: put away snow shovel and cement float used to clean snow off kennel roof; put away ladder supporting horizontal branch on oak tree; plant vegetable seeds; take down curtain from stairway; clean out the wood stove; drain emergency water supply in bathtub; power wash insulation bits off patio; vacuum insulation and tracked in mud; finish cleaning branches off road; start cleaning up branches in yard.
Wednesday - Alas, we did not even make it 11 hours with heat. By 0700 we had 9” of heavy wet snow and no power. It was still snowing hard.Before breakfast it was start fire, take picture of snow depth and find buried shovel, ladder and float then, clear snow off kennel roof.While eating breakfast, I called the power company. Twenty-four to seventy-two hours of outage could be expected. The crank-up emergency weather radio predicted 10” to 20” more snow by tomorrow. I shoveled a path to the woodpile and restocked the indoor supply. By the time I tackled the flat roof, the snow changed to freezing rain. I became covered in a layer of ice. The roof became a skating rink. I shoveled to the constant crack and crash of limbs and trees in the yard and woods. This is the same view of the measuring stick after the freezing started.The dog rig.Willy making the most of the situation.After re-shoveling the path to the woodpile reburied by the snow from the roof, I was cold and soaked to the skin. The dogs were more than willing to cuddle up on the bed while I rested and got warm.By the afternoon it was pouring rain. The snow was way too heavy to run the dog sled so I walked out the road to see if there were any obstacles. Fortunately Uncle Joe was home to help me chainsaw and move the trees. I did get another candlelight dinner out of the day.Thursday - Awoke this morning to another four inches of snow. The measuring stick only shows one inch gain but the areas I shoveled to the ground have 4” new. Electricity, heat and the Internet were on by 0900 – yeah. Now where is the potting soil that I put on the path to the greenhouse?

Party Pooch Koyuk

The dogs have been really ill for several days - I won't go into details. Koyuk was fasting and not her perky self on her second birthday. This morning they got their first, non-bland. food and were up to running around in the new snow. Time to celebrate even thought the party budget went to vet bills.

Koyuk one day oldKoyuk 8 weeks oldKoyuk 2 years and 4 days old

She was soooo excited about seeing her owl again.Owl got a vigorous romp around in the snow before I could coax Koyuk into posing. Pssst

Happy Birthday Iditarod Litter

The BrownStone Iditarod Litter was born March 14, 2010. Here are some of my favorite family photos.

Cedar gets to rest after whelping her new brood. First dog sled adventureSpring is a wonderful time to have puppiesCedar is literally cornered. At two weeks, these guys really have sharp teeth and claws.A tender moment with TakotnaIt takes an entire BrownStone pack to raise a pup.

Happy Birthday Kendra

My beautiful niece Kendra has a birthday today.Hugs from Aunt Kay Lee

Celebration? & More Snow

When my sister and I were young, we used to beg for candlelight dinners to celebrate personal events like good report cards or error free recitals. (Food of choice: waffles.) Dad hated to eat by candlelight but always played along. Last night I wanted to celebrate finally getting heat in the house. I planned a wonderful dinner. Just as Dave got home from work, the power went out. The heat had only been on for a couple of hours so the house was again immediately cold. But the steaks were ready for the BBQ. Dave too hates candles and never agrees to eat by candlelight. He wanted to use our backpacking headlamps. In a back door way, I got to have a wonderful celebration dinner (steak, no way to cook waffles) by candlelight sitting at the table next to the wood stove.

Red sky in morning - sailor take warning. Sunrise with an alpen glow on the new snow.A very excited Koyuk.beautiful Cedar a winter wonderland as seen from a warm houseWilly can't get enough snow.Koyuk in the morning light