Hiking St. Elias

This was our hike a couple weeks ago out in Haines Junction. Heather, Sean, Sarah and Adelaide led the way as the locals with the knowledge. Knowledge of WHAT, we're not sure...
Starting out. Sean, Heather and ah crap, whats-her-name.... ??


Warning: beware of big fuzzy things. Esp. since someone in HJ got chased up a tree by a big ANGRY fuzzy thing a few weeks before this.

Let the hiking begin! It was an easy trail as you can see, although Sean found pushing the girls (the babies that is) up some of the fairly steep hills in the Chariot a wee bit challenging! It didn't help that Heather was trying to hitch a ride on the Chariot.


You gotta love people who are prepared - Dale whips a tape measure out of his pants to measure a tree. Us northerners get REAL excited about big trees. And yes, that was considered big!!! You shoulda seen the stump eh?!!


Heather gives us crap for lagging behind and missing her awe-inspiring interpretive talk. Oh whupps, Were you talking to me?!?! (Interpretive Guides can get REAL annoying when you don't listen, haha)


Poppa Sean and Adelaide


The girls seemed to enjoy the hike, strapped into their jail... er, chariot!


The hiking gang. Note Heather's sexy pose. I swear I don't really know these people...


Eagle-Eye Interpretive Guide Heather even notices semi-private moth sex in the forest! She's just that good people. (can't wait till someone Googles "moth sex"!!)


Dale and Sean wander up ahead. Or try to escape the women-folk blathering behind them.


I had a burning desire to run up/hike up that hill!!! I don't know why. Maybe next time. We were on a mission this day.

So pretty! What a fun day hike that was. And the fact that we didn't see any big fuzzy things, even better!

Where the H*LL is time going!?!?

Lookit that. I censored my blog for my mom. She gets mad when I swear. And no one wants an angry mom. An angry mom with freakishly strong hands at that!!

Anyways, seriously! Where is time going?! So, it's pretty much almost winter. Or feels that way anyways. It's insane. Snow down low, cold rainy temps, leaves ON THE GROUND, etc. Oh well, at least it feels like dog training time!! I'd rather have snow and cold than this crap rain, I'll tell you that much. Besides, I didn't have enough to do with my freakishly vanishing time before.

Oh, speaking of how much more crap I can put on my plate, look what I dragged home last week:

I swear, I have NO idea where they came from... they just fell into my yard, or rather, into my truck one day. They're only mine to keep for a month, as I'm just watching them for a friend. I should have REALLY thought this over though, but he dropped them off with virtually no warning and was kind of stuck. I had nowhere to keep puppies(oh, and their mom), no extra pen, nothing. In fact, they stayed in my truck for 2 days. And actually quite liked it! But it gave me incentive to get a new pen up I guess.

Man, now my truck needs a good cleaning. But now they are in their pallet pen. It was the only thing that would contain the little escaping buggers.



I found a Meerkat!


We tried the "pups in cabin" game. Ah, not such a brilliant idea. But did it stop me from doing it like, 5x already?? Nooooo... I knew things were going wrong when they tore through the cabin at mock five and left a path of destruction in their wake, including my ripped-out-of-the-wall-phone-cord. Kind of like Ripper! Agh! Good god I can't imagine more than one Ripper. On the bright side, pups bounce off of EVERYTHING.


Puppy love, when they're not attacking each other, they're lovin' each other. Love is fickle.

So, I have a new pen and fencing up now though. Talk about excitement in the yard...

It helps having a friend who has access to cheap fencing and ideas on actually HOW to successfully put up a skookum fence/enclosure! Sweeeeet.... it'll be like Alcatraz.


It's about 100sq feet, not a huge pen, but good to have an extra pen regardless. Note the metal poles!! Oooohhhh, ahhhhh... no wobbly tree posts. What a concept. The pallet pen stayed in there as I quite like it. It's a fun puppy jail within the pen.

Right now I'm laptop-less so I'm actually getting lots done at home. I should have it back this weekend, so I'll update on our hike out in Kluane with Sean/Heather/babies last week! Those babies are good hikers. They especially loved it when we rolled them down the hills. Too bad Sean forgot the baby stroller, but they're hardy Yukon kids!

What's in the bucket?!?!

Ok, so my mom is sick of seeing her picture on here. There you go mom, new post!

I'd apologize for my lack of posting, but I'm not sure anyone (other than my mom) really cares that I haven't posted for a couple weeks. Well, maybe some of you are missing my dog conversations but don't worry, they'll update you on their ever-exciting lives soon enough.

Life has been CRAZY for the last few weeks I tell ya. I've been on "vacation" for the last week. I use quotes because I'm not sure doing the same thing at home that I do every day I'm off can be considered a vacation, but whatever. I didn't have to go to work and that's all that matters. There's been total CRAP that has happened, there's been total JOY, it's been kind of a whirlwind all around. Oh that and yet another birthday has made things interesting.

I have lots of photos to share, but right now I'm trying to figure out who might have eaten my camera cord. Ripper has not been inside since he barfed up yet another wool sock last week. And I'm not even wearing them right now! I swear, he has a secret stash somewhere...

In the meantime, let's play "What the heck is in that bucket?"

Rewind: parental unit visit

Geez, I thought I had posted these awhile ago, but apparently not since they were still in the "draft" form. All evidence points to the fact that I'm easily distracted at times.

Haaaa, as I was typing that sentence, I realized in a bit of a panic that I had forgotten about a grilled cheese sandwich which was now smokily burning in the frying pan. The distractions never end! I'm amazed I make it through the day sometimes.

This is back when the parental units were visiting.

So mom was a *little* out of practice with her baby feeding skills. Seems the only place Sarah didn't get food was in her eyes. However, you can imagine that those french manicured nails might make baby feeding a tad bit difficult. That's why I was out of the baby feeding loop. My nails are just too damned important.

Geez, now that I look at this, having dog-height tables of any kind are really quite useless eh? This is Harris trying to butter up my mom into giving him some food. Or some pets. Or hoping she'll let him lick her non-stop (she didn't).

Erm... are you going to share those snacks or did you just drive 26 hours to tease me? (man my dogs can be snots sometimes)


I love Adelaide's expression here - kinda stunned! Maybe it's all that pink on her head! She actually looks like she's saying "Please!! Help me Stacie - you hate pink, get this off me!!" (just kidding mom, they were lovely gifts).


Mummy Heather flashes a baby butt. These kids are so lucky to have their parents. They are learning some very important life skills that will carry them through... well, elementary school. When the fart jokes and butt humour are MOST appreciated.


Mom and Sean tending to the wee ones. Heather and my dad are doing what they do best... talking. :)


See, sometimes I let mom have a break from all the wood chopping. She did try and get away here, and ran halfway down the driveway but I was easily able to apprehend her on the 4-wheeler. I didn't want to break a sweat. Then I had no choice but to bring the chain out again. Hey, I warned her! She's a wily one.


The parental abode. I like when guests bring their own homes. And bathrooms. And durable outdoor carpets.


My dad and his fixation with burning. EVERYTHING. Heck, I'm still looking for things that have gone missing since he's left. Where are the dog food bags? Burned. My cardboard recycling? Burned. The PLASTIC from my mattress? Burned. In fact, come to think of it, I only count 13 dogs out there...


Get to work you guys!!! Whattaya think, this is a vacation or something???!!!


Dad tries to hug the gangliest dog in the neighbourhood. Harris knows grandma over there is a pushover and might pass on some edible goodness. Or he just can't control his gangly awkward legs.