Midtown Ranch

Oh those tricksy ninja moose.

Coming into our neighborhood with the dogs in the back of the car, I noticed how the tree branches were bowing from the weight of fresh snow. I noticed that the circle was filled with snow from the recent plowing. I noticed that the snow berm along our fence line had crept further into the street.  I noticed our evergreen at the corner of our drive way needed to have the snow knocked off to keep the branches from being damaged. I noticed a lot of little details.

Bing and Kate were in the back of the car, they were noticing stuff too.

None of us noticed ninja moose.

As I put Bing down from carrying him into the yard I finally saw ninja moose.

The moose was focused on eating. His hackles didn’t go up, his ears remained relaxed, and other than glancing at us once or twice, we were ignored. I put Bing inside with some kibble scattered to keep him occupied, grabbed the camera, and snapped some photos.

Air is moist and cool. Trees are limned in frost.  Branches thick and crackly looking. Even the chain link looks ethereal.

Got the tree up tonight. It’s short, under 4′, and the trunk diameter was too thin for our existing tree stand. Started jury rigging and decided it really wasn’t worth that much effort. Picked up a smaller stand – much easier.

Kate and Bing watched with great interest as we pulled the ornaments out and decorated the tree. Hung the chicken/egg lights around the base of the tree table (bookcase sans shelves flipped over a couple of totes. High tech). I use eggs from the coop to reinforce the dogs for spectacular recalls. I expect at least one of the ‘eggs’ will be stolen before the tree comes down.

Picked up new lights for outside. Probably do the chain link and coop tomorrow. I think the girls like having the extra light with our shorter days. I know they need 12-14 hours of light to produce eggs…

On another note. Bing worked nicely through transitions under the distraction of Joanne.  Rolled through sits, downs, stands, and backup with Joanne just a few feet away and intermittent reinforcement. Good boy.

David Jensen of Alaska Pet-ography took photos at Alyeska Canine Trainers annual holiday party this past weekend. We had fun and are delighted with the pictures.

He’s wonderful because he is so patient with the animals, knows precisely how to get their attention, and works quickly so the animals (and humans) don’t stress. His wife Carol, and their assistant Kelsie, did a great job of wrangling everyone and ensuring helping us filter through the shots to select our packages.

David and Carol are very supportive of the local animal community. We are fortunate to have such caring people in Anchorage.

happy. full. digesting.

When I was growing up the neighbors a few doors down had a cow. We would let the fresh milk sit overnight so the cream could rise. Then we would make fresh butter and mom would bake bread.

Oh it was so good!

So.

Made butter last night from some of our Matanuska Creamery (all alaska milk, thank you) heavy cream (30-40% butterfat). I haven’t tried but I have no reason to believe store bought cream wouldn’t work…

Fill a quart jar 1/3 full with cream
Bring to room temperature
Shake the bejeezus out of it
After about 10 minutes of enthusiastic agitation you’ll have a lump of butter and buttermilk
Drain off the buttermilk
Squish the butter around to get the rest of the buttermilk out
Bake some fresh bread and enjoy

We have a fridge full of awesome local food. Scott ran around the Valley today picking up:

• Turkey
• Cream
• Ice Cream
• Eggs (yeah, I know, we have laying hens. They are on strike)
• Cranberries
• Cheese
• Moose (Moose!!!)

Wednesday I’ll pick up our next CSA box for more veggies.  Haven’t decided what to do with the blueberries yet, and I need to bake the sugar pumpkins and puree them to prep for pie making.

Next couple of days are going to be very busy prepping for Thanksgiving.

Moose are big. Really big.

And they have ninja-like abilities.

After the corgis ate their breakfast I let them out. I opened the front door. I surveyed the yard and neighborhood to confirm there were no moose. It was still dark out however the ambient light from the porch and street light seemed ok. Corgis streamed past my legs, causing the moose I WAS STARING STRAIGHT AT to lift and bob its head (‘oh yeah, gonna stomp me some doggies’).

The cow was about 30′ away, just on the other side of our 4′ chain link fence. Bing having more sense kept his mouth shut and stopped about halfway out. Kate charged the moose (all 28 lbs of her) barking her head off.  Shouting and hollering ensued. Bing came inside right away while Kate lingered to exchange insults with the moose.

Scott rattled the cookie jar and order was restored. Cow walked over to the neighbors house to hassle their dogs.

Ninja moose.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving with great anticipation this year. We decided to host an (almost) all local foods feast. Jo and Jo ordered a turkey from Triple D Hatchery last spring (Anthony of Triple D raised the bird, not us). Walter will bring fresh venison from his recent hunting trip (with John and Sarah) on Kodiak. We’ll also serve one of our home grown chickens, and probably some alaska pork that was our new year’s adventure this year (with Walter again). Oh – and Ptarmigan from this fall’s Denali Highway hunting trip. We’ll be thinking of Maclaren River lodge, Alan, and Susie as we enjoy the Ptarmigan.

Heavy on the proteins, but not to fear. We used Craigslist to obtain alaskan lowbush cranberries. We picked blueberries when we were on Denali Highway this year, so some of those too.

Yukon Gold potatoes from the valley. Milk, ice cream, cheese, and heavy cream to turn into butter, all from Matanuska Creamery.

We’ve been getting gorgeous vegetables through the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Glacier Valley Farm CSA, we should have some nice carrots, onions, celery root, and a few other goodies to share.

Last fall we picked up and dried an assortment of herbs. Plus some local sugar pumpkins for pie.

Hmm. Reviewing this prior to posting, the other thing I’m personally enjoying about this Thanksgiving is the memories of the different adventures that went along with each food acquisition, and how often our family was part of that adventure. How exceedingly cool.

Not quite sure how the menu will pull together precisely. We are having a lot of fun figuring it all out.

Our friend Karen lost her Shetland Sheepdog, Willie, from her backyard on Friday 10/30/2009.
A good samaritan rescued him yesterday, and today he is home safe and sound.

Details soon at www.findwillie.com

streets slick with first snow
brake gently cars stopped ahead
crunch – bumpers look fine

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First night of Attention class for Bing. Lots of click/treat for hand touches, chin rests, eye contact, down/stand/sit/etc. Kept the boy busy, two points where I lost him briefly but kept him under threshold. He worked very hard for me. I think we’ll enjoy class.

Scott took us to class tonight – his subaru handles really well in these snowy icy conditions.  He hung out during class, waited through returning calls (my night for phones at ACT), dropped me at Kinko’s to prepare for tomorrow’s class, and then tried out ‘La Petite Creperie’ with me.

La Petite Creperie opened recently, right next to Kinko’s on Northern Lights.  Katie, the owner, served us a delicious Thai chicken stuffed crepe, and a banana-chocolate dessert crepe. Oh my.  The chicken was tender and delicately spiced with just a hint of heat. There was fresh crisp basil, sweet red pepper, a very light white cheese, and some other good things too. The crepe was a very nice foil for the spices.  I didn’t know what to expect – I’m ignorant when it comes to savory crepes.  We liked it very much. Flavorful, really good food. We look forward to introducing more friends to this tasty little restaurant.

La Petite Creperie
2210 E Northern Lights Bl