Chicken snow

Posted on 02/04/2012 by Jenny

That’s a Wyandotte/Chantecler hen coming down the ladder. Good layer but flighty.
Look how deep the snow is on their ‘sun roof’.
Whuf!

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Cookbook bookcase

Posted on 02/04/2012 by Jenny

It’s a beautiful warm Saturday morning in Anchorage.
Despite the glorious day we are not sheep herding. A big storm blew another hearty helping of the cold white stuff to Southcentral.

Enough that driving conditions are hazardous and we’d have to shovel the herding arena before we’d be able to herd. Wasilla got more snow than Anchorage did, and Anchorage got enough that it took me 20 minutes to clear my car last night.

So. Everyone stayed home. The sheep and dogs slept in.

Later today Scott and I will clear the greenhouse – the weight of the snow has it partially collapsed (not as dramatic as it sounds, it’s designed to collapse). And the sunroof for the chickens is bowing from the snow weight. We should have done that a couple weeks ago – the corrugated roofing material just isn’t strong enough for these depths. That would be kind of bad if it collapsed. Would make the chickens sad for they’d lose most of their snow free outside space, and us sad because we’d have to shovel the chicken run on a regular basis until spring, then repair it. Yeah, we are definately clearing that sucker. Today.

Scott’s off to his fun job, and I worked on the Cookbook bookcase this morning. I promised Scott I wouldn’t dump any of the cookbooks. There was a lot of non-cookbook stuff on the shelf that I was able to home elsewhere. I put the Cooks Illustrated magazine in order, lying flat with newest on top. There’s enough room left on their shelf that we can probably fit another 2, maybe even three years of issues before we have space problems. Now the cookbook bookcase contains cookbooks, Cooks Illustrated magazines, the waffle iron, Juice-o-Mat (just like Grandmas, love ebay) and a couple of electric knife sharpeners (that put our knife loving friends into conniptions at Christmas hee hee hee).

Before EKA reaches mobile stage we’ll have to find a different location for the waffle iron, juice-o-mat, and knife sharpeners. They’re at the perfect height for curious toddler fingers, and heavy enough to cause damage. Fine where they are for now.

While I was going through the bookcase I found the bin of wedding memorabilia from ten years ago. 11 years ago in June. Wow. I smiled when I found Gordon’s best man speech. Thought I’d share it…

Gordon’s words:

Thank you all for celebrating with me this joyous occasion – the marriage of Scott and Jenny. For those of us who’ve had a chance to see them together much, there is an element of fait-accomplis about this, mind you there was a time when I didn’t think Scott would ever marry.

Since I’m your basic type A personality, Scott and more recently Jenny have taught me a lot. Here’s a sample I’d like to share with you:

  1. Life is not rocket science.
  2. Most things aren’t worth stressing over.
  3. If you aren’t having any fun, it’s up to you to change that.
  4. If it didn’t belong on the floor of your car, it wouldn’t have ended up there.
  5. (and perhaps most importantly) When you find something that makes you truly happy, hang on to it, and share it.

Scott, Jenny, may you share many happy years together. I love you both.

Cheers

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Frontyard Moose

Posted on 02/01/2012 by Jenny

He ate Nasturtium. Screen door slammed in the wind and he came to the front door. Ate some of the second lilac.

Walked past the dining room window. Ate a few more things.

His hind hooves are excessively long, like Dutch shoes. My horse background makes me ache seeing those hooves. Poor bugger. I hadn’t thought about how that aspect of winter must affect them. Hooves continuously grow, winter there must not be enough abrasive material to keep their hooves at a healthy length. One toe was very long and twisting. (02/04/2012 Hoof update – its a nutrition issue according to ADF&G – Click for a 2010 article from the Peninsula Clarion)

He nibbled the May tree the stepped over the 4′ chain fence and wandered off.

(I took all of today’s pics from INSIDE the house.)

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Backyard Moose 2

Posted on 02/01/2012 by Jenny

Moose bedded down for about an hour and quarter. Then he rose, walked past the bathroom window, and went to my least favorite weed tree to snack.

Eat as much of that tree as you can, Mr. Moose.

After a few minutes of snacking he walked along the side of the house and started in on the lilac. Oh no you don’t. Bing and Kate barked furiously from the safety of the window and the moose moved to the front yard.

He’s pruning the birch trees.

Later he cleaned up the Nasturtiums at the front fence.

What a cool afternoon.

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Backyard moose

Posted on 02/01/2012 by Jenny

I am home sick with a cold today.

I entered the marmalade room and saw nothing but brown through the window.

A bull moose is hanging out in our backyard right now.

He’s beautiful and really cool. At the moment he’s curled up chewing his cud. It’s snowing and he’s getting a fine scattering of snow across his withers and back. His ears are flipping back and forth between erect and draped back. He pinned them when the neighbors Lab the next yard over came out. The Lab wisely chose not to bark and slinked off to the far side of his yard. The snow is deep this year. It looks like the moose followed Scott’s trail out to the greenhouse, bedded down for a bit, then rose, moved closer to the house, and bedded down again.

I think this is the third different moose we’ve seen in the neighborhood this week.

Bing and Kate are inside with me. They barked for a bit but settled when I asked.

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Yet more purging…

Posted on 01/30/2012 by Jenny

More organizing and purging over the weekend and tonight.

Scott and a friend installed a new light fixture in the hallway last might, looks much better. The previous fixture was original and missing it’s shade.

Scott completed the second bookcase. Yeah! We got hits on two of the books within minutes of posting them. Take a look at the book lists (see earlier Paperback Swap post).

Consolidated all of the dog training gear. Pulled aside the usable but not for me, redundant, ‘what was I thinking’ training gear. Cleaned and put away the tracking gear, no pull harnesses, spare clickers, thunder shirt, calming caps, hands free leashes and all the other stuff I might need at some point. Also went through the dog toys. Kongs, stuffed toys, tugs, etc went into the washing machine, hard toys went into the top rack of the dishwasher. Set out all the bones, let the dogs pick which 6 to keep, chucked the rest (to looks of disbelief on dogs faces). After the toys were clean Scott and I went through them, put aside the ones we or the dogs didn’t favor, and got the remaining toys down to one large milk crate.  We’ll pass on the ‘discards’. A friend may have a litter hitting the ground in a couple months, and another friend may be able to use some in her Puppy classes. (02/07/2012 Update: All of the ‘purged’ dog stuff left the house tonight! Progress, albeit slow)

Rearranged things on the purged shelves. I’ve got all my music books unpacked for the first time in quite a few years – that’s a really good feeling. I was able to make room on the ‘dog’ bookcase for my class materials from the two Harvard Extension dog cognition and development courses I took a few years ago. It was fun to scan the scientific journal excerpts.

A busy, productive evening.

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Goodbye toes

Posted on 01/30/2012 by Jenny

Elizabeth Katherine is growing. She doesn’t fit in my pelvic girdle anymore. My belly looks pregnant instead of chubby.

I noticed this weekend I can no longer see my toes.

Goodbye toes, I’ll see you in the spring.

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Cold cold cold

Posted on 01/27/2012 by Jenny

It has been a chilly week. Most mornings have still been down around -10 F. No more problems with the baseboard heat for which we are grateful.

We have been trying to sheep herd on Saturdays but the weather in Wasilla has been worse than Anchorage. Tomorrow may be as cold as -20 F at the sheep facility. Herding stops at -10 F. Not safe for the lungs of the sheep or dogs to exert themselves in those temps. Bing questions my judgement around -6 F, Kate quits at 0. Last winter I would herd at -10 F, this winter I get wussy at 0 and have a tough time getting motivated to work.

Anyway, tomorrow's forecast is -20 F. I think we'll stay in town, break our fast at Whitespot, hit the gym, and perhaps buy me a longer Skhoop. A Skhoop is an insulated skirt, like a coat for your lower half. I am at about 5 months now, and skirts seem to be the only comfy clothing I can find right now. But it's frikkin' frigid out there. My existing Skhoops aren't long enough to keep me comfy.

We may also do some more book weeding so check our books available list in a couple days and shout if you want something.

Chickens were bitching until they got their corn tonight. The second heat lamp is doing its job holding the cold at bay. Need to scrape some snow off their 'sun roof' as the weight is causing bowing between joists. Also need to replace their backup heated water bowl. After 6 winters it's failed. Hens are still laying despite the cold. How amazing - the Chantecler is truly an impressive chicken!

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PaperBackSwap

Posted on 01/23/2012 by Jenny

Scott and I have been thinning out our books. Not an easy task. We’ve gone through 7 shelves so far, and have pulled about 100 for discard. We’re not getting rid of anything we really love. Much of what is going is duplicates, readily available through the library, obsolete to our current interests, or just not that interesting.

Why thin books you ask? Our shelves are double stacked and double deep. We can’t remember what we do and don’t have, and can’t remember where we put the books that we are interested in reading at any particular moment. Kinda dumb. Plus we’ve got an unknown number of bankers boxes loaded with books on shelves in the house and in the garage. It’s not that we have too many books, but we don’t have enough shelf space for what we have and thats just not going to change.

So.

We’ve passed some on to friends. We’ve posted the remainder to our PaperBackSwap.com accounts. Quite a few books have gone away that way. Not familiar with PBS? Oh my. Basically you post books you are relinquishing, someone else says ‘Hey – I want that’. You get a credit for sending the book, and can then use that credit to request a book that you want from anyone on PBS. Keen, huh?

After a couple weeks we’ll take our remaining discards down to Title Wave, and get book credit there.

In the meantime – if you are family/friends take a look at our PBS lists. Email us if you want a book we have listed, we’ll give it to you.
Jenny’s: http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/members_books.php?m=ckZNM05peXhibm89

Scott’s: http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/members_books.php?m=aGVDVG4xTGQ4Kzg9

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Dog Brag Wall

Posted on 01/22/2012 by Jenny

We’ve been working on rearranging the house for Elizabeth Katherine’s arrival. Part of that includes finding permanent locations for stuff that’s been living in boxes or scattered around.

This week I gathered all of Kate and Bings ribbons (Rally and Herding for both, plus Conformation for Kate).

It was really fun putting the ribbons in order and remembering the individual shows and the friends we saw at each.

Scott installed a spare curtain rod across the top of the wall. I strung Kates simple conformation ribbons onto a bit of string to hang vertically. Then we strung the rosettes across the rod, with the simple conformation ribbons hanging vertically by Kates brag photos. The vertical ribbons stretch another foot or two beyond what you can see in the photo. Bing’s ribbons are right of center, Kates left of center. Two of her three Best of Breeds are smack in the middle.

It was a fun project that inched us closer to being ready for EKA.

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