FYI: dogs and BBQ's don't mix

Ripper is sporting the newest in collar in fashion. Bright pink for my big tough guy. He's secure enough in his doggie masculinity to pull it off:

I think it looks smashing! He's thinking "mmm... this collar looks good enough to eat!! I bet pink tastes better than all the other collars I've eaten!"


Crew after a quick run. Loki, Ivy and Rupert are in behind Ripper. They were great, until I started chopping fish in behind the cabin and they somehow managed to wrap themselves around my BBQ in an effort to get closer to me and the fish. Let me tell you, dogs and lines and harnesses and skittish dogs wrapped around a fallen BBQ that starts dragging on the ground DO NOT mix well together! That's when mass hysteria starts to set in.

Everyone came out unscathed though. I had to come to the very QUICK rescue of dogs & BBQ.


This guy probably didn't even notice the BBQ fiasco! There is not a happier, more oblivious dog than the Ripster. Other than Pooh Bear!


Mmmmm.... dirty river water... yum!


Pooh Bear! is still figuring out that whole "how-to-pull" thing.


Esther, in behind, is awesome.


PB and the ghost of PB running with her. The ghost actually pulls better!

Here is Pooh Bear the twit before we head out for a run. She's going for the World Record in circle spinning. If it existed.


Alright, I just about got turfed off head-first off the 4-wheeler last night because of all the freakin' anthills around here. And for posterity, I caught it on video!! I'd just like to warn my parents to keep the volume OFF since I believe there just may be a curse word involved in the end of this video. I'm not sure, I'm just saying that when you see your life pass before your eyes, things come out that you can't control...

You can see the trouble-making anthill just before I almost bite it. I really need a helmet-cam!

Sometimes, it really sucks not to have a shower...

6And these are those times - when I'm hauling and cooking dead fish and moose scraps and getting fish and moose juice all over me. That fish stench REALLY sticks with you and everything you touch with fishy fingers, I'll tell you that much.

But what really sucks is having to haul all of this in my closed-in truck! Imagine the 45-minute drive home with the windows down. And that just seemed to circulate that smell even more INSIDE the truck. I curse the #*$% who broke my old truck!!!!

The gang scrounged for fish and moose scraps, 'cause y'know... they NEVER get fed!!!!

Wow, that was quite the angular shot.

Anyways... if you tilt your head slightly (wayyyy too lazy to adjust that photo) you will see a pot full of yummy moose scraps....mmmm... that's good eating the dogs say. Thanks Tamara and her hunting buddies!!


The drive into work was quite funky and even kinda creepy one morning.

Eh, who needs to see to drive? Just avoid the zombies lurking off in the woods and you'll be just fine....

Speaking of obstacles on the road:

The elk wait... they just love to hang out on the ditch. But love hanging out THISCLOSE to the vehicles zooming by. Hoo boy, can't wait till it's dark 24 hrs a day. (ok, it's never dark 24 hrs a day here, I just love perpetuating that myth)


They're quite frisky and bouncy in the cool mornings. It's funny to watch them frolic and chase each other. Ok, it's probably just all revolving around that whole mating thing - one big bull had all these lovely ladies to himself. His harem spooked a bit and ran into the bushes while he stood up all big n' tough-like. Lucky fella!

Wow, that blew up real good!!!

Ok, so nothing blew up real good in the wiring course. In fact, nothing blew up at all. And only ONCE in the first 12 hours of wiring did I attempt to take my plugs, er... RECEPTACLES apart while they were still plugged in. All those damned wires get confusing after a while. Ooh my spinning head...


God, looking back at this now, after the course is over - that part was SO easy!!! Ah, good ol' Assignment #7, we have good memories that I'll cherish forever.


A morette, a pigtail action, some grounding, all is good in the world of wiring...


My "workshop" there on the right. Kind of reminded me of that show - Canada's Worst Handyman, but with an electrical twist. We bumbled a lot less than the people on that show!


A receptacle, otherwise known as a plug-in-thingy. Wires, wires and more wires. My wire stripping skills sure got some practice during this course. And I only shot off the ends of the wires into my partners back a few times...


This is the 4-way switch!!! I'll have no need for one, but I know how to do it!!!!


LIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!! Yeehaw! Wowwww....


Ooh! The exciting part - the service entrance!! Yippee! (are y'all bored yet?!? Too bad!)

We had to do a mock-up of the whole wiring system, from the service entrance to the breaker panel to the wiring inside. We wired in smoke detectors, car plugs, switches, oven ranges, and outdoor lights. We were supposed to do a doorbell, but my partner and I figured neither of us have doorbells, and who needs a doorbell anyways??!

The indoor panel, obviously. Surprisingly, these things really look a lot more complicated than they are!


Our instructors fancy panel. Nice wiring job eh?

And that was it! Now all I have to do is study the 100+ page code book and write a written exam, bribe the electrical inspector, and voila! Instant power. Kind of. Hopefully these power poles that have been down my driveway since JANUARY will get put to good use!

Crap, I'm getting a bit of flack

For not posting, hm, who thought anyone was reading this blather!?!? Y'know, you people REALLY need to get out more! (ok, it's all my mom and the people she pays to read this)

I need to feel somewhat inspired (read: not lazy) to post, plus it's been crazy-busy here. With the slow slide into winter, everyone is panicking about getting ready for the long, dark season that is just around the corner. Whupps! I guess I need some wood! Oops! Need to clean up the yard so everything isn't buried all winter. Uh oh! Guess I need to get a WINDOW in that hole in the wall. Hmm, maybe that last one is just me...

Here's Gracie, helping with... well, keeping the couch warm.

She's very tolerant when I want to dress her up.

In other news, I'm becoming a pretend electrician this weekend. With approximately 25 hours of schooling, I too, can wire my own home! It's just that easy. I forsee myself ripping my hair out after the first 20 minutes going "what the HELL is he talking about?!?! Voltage? Amps? What? I need a calculator for this freakin' class? No one told me math was involved!!!" Aghhh... once again, my brilliant plan of attempting to save some money might backfire, but we'll see.

Hey, I can't do worse than the time I wired a heat lamp into my dog condo. Yes, I really did that. Now THAT was a bad idea. Straw + dog fur + heat = no more dog condo & singed dogs. I guess I could learn a few things about wiring.

In related news - my wood pile from the clearing of the driveway. Most of it's pretty dry. Some not-so-much.

That'll last two days (ok, maybe 2.5...) at -40, but maybe we won't have any of that this year!! (she says optimistically)


Esther, her wiggly bum and black eyes run amock in the semi-dark. I had no balls to throw as they ate them all, so we pretended. Ok, I pretended. They caught on fast when I was throwing grass. You can't throw grass very far.


One of the times Esther bought into my mind games! Haha!


Ok, so Pooh Bear! NEVER caught onto my fake game, she's oblivious to the world around her. In case you're wondering, that's her on the left narrowly missing the now resident "Old-Crotchety-Guy" Rupert. But she doesn't even really play fetch. Her game of fetch is to make AS MUCH noise as possible (SCREEEEECH) and run with the rest of the group, and SCREEEECH and BARK as they all close in on the ball. She doesn't even slow down and just keeps running in circles back to me. So much energy. So little brain.


Here's a rabid & possessed looking Ripper. He didn't buy the game and was not happy the balls were destroyed. I explained to him that it was pretty much all HIS fault that we were ball-less. He claimed not to know anything about that. All we had was a rope toy (which they didn't seem to like) and he had to resort to trying to destroy that. Desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose. He had to try and destroy something! But ha! It's still intact!

The chinking!

So the not-so-wee puppy brats are gone and off to their rightful owner. It was a relief to ship them back, but at the same time, kind of sad since they were so lively and hilarious!!! But that's ok, my pack was quite excited the newcomers were gone. Just when they were thinking "oh, no! Not more of those things!"

Anyways, this has become the job-that-will-never-end!



Sealing up all the cracks in the logs with good ol' "Log Jam" - the chink trusted by all. Or something like that. I don't know what I'm talking about.

It's been going pretty well actually. What I DO know, is that I'm kind of addicted to chinking!! Who knew?!? It's very relaxing and kind of artsy trying to get it to not look like CRAP!

More chinking. Glad I started on the other side of the cabin where it now looks like a blind donkey did the chinking during a hurricane. DISASTROUS!!! I'll have to re-do some of it.

I got poured on while doing this side last weekend, but had to finish what I had already put on the wall.

My Facebook friends have already seen these, but here they are again for the non-Facebookers.

Jack down by the river


The Mendenhall. It's fall!!! Love this time of year.


Jack came flying around this corner and came THISCLOSE to running me over. Good thing he has control of those gangly legs!


Kuna loves the fall free running.


The gang frolics.

The Brats

Here's my weekend update:

These pups are pretty sweet, this little female kills me. She squeaks A LOT. And at everything. Half the time I think I'm stepping on her, but she just likes to squeak apparently.

I love the look on her face here... so content with a belly rub.


Sadie (of Dave & Heather-land) look-alike. This one is a bit of a tyrant. And a maniac. She's trying to fool you all here though, but don't buy it!!!


Mom & pup, all canines have an inner couch dog I'm finding. I bet I could pull a coyote in and have it lazing on my couch in a few days.


Gah! This is why I have as many dogs as I do!!! That face!


Who, us?!?! We didn't rip up that sock or eat the butter on the table!!

A brief moment of calm... enjoy it, it doesn't last long. Ha, look at the tail wagging on the one dog, too funny!! God I need to get out more. I'm finding dogs way more entertaining and fun to be around than people these days.

The fun continues:

*POUNCE*



Back to our regularly scheduled programming!


First run of the season. Pooh Bear doesn't look excited (or insane) at all eh? Nooo....


Cowdogs catch their breath after the run.


Running in the semi-dark is always good fun!! Those friggin' anthills come out of nowhere and try to throw you (me) off the 4-wheeler! This weekend, I'm scouting out more areas for bush trails, since the river was so overflowy last year, I need more trails on land.

Next week I hope to have photos of the FINISHED chinking job on my cabin. I'm finding it so much fun, and I am seriously not even kidding at all. I don't want the chinking to end. Oh well, I've always got the inside to look forward to if I need my chinking fix. :)

Another non-posted post

Ok, so my laptop has been in for repairs for a week now, so I'm unable to post and download all my wonderful pictures recently. What excitement has been going on in Stacie's world you ask?!?! Well, got the dogs out for the first run this season. Amazingly, they all remembered what to do. I actually don't know HOW they found the trail as we've never run in grass that was over their heads before... ah, but it's all about experience! Ripper and Loki were super in lead, well, except for the part when Loki doubled back around me and wrapped his tuglines around my legs. Nothing like being pinned by one freaky dog and two cowdogs hyper to get going!

I'm also proud to announce, that the other day, I started off Yukon "No Injury" Day, Tuesday Sept. 2 with a BANG by dropping a gigantic metal fence post on my hand at 6:30 am. So much for no injuries! Boy I sure don't waste time with some things... I even have the bruise and puffy hand to prove it.

Oh yeah, so here's a post from a ways back. I'm pretty sure I didn't post it or anything similar, but if I did, would anyone really notice? Or care?? God, my floor was clean then, hahahahahaha. Ahem. Ok, it looks nothing like that now.

Prepared to be dazzled people. I painted my floor last weekend. I know, I know, contain your excitement though, the pictures are here.

Yep, same colour as before. Ooh! And I got that new under-the-stove-board-thingy. Much better than the old tin with the sticky-uppy pieces that I always forgot about and stepped on anyways.

Um, mom - avert your eyes... NOW!

Ok, so here is what it's like to paint half of the cabin. Sucks to paint when you're living in it.

I painted this then attempted to go for a bike ride and realized I forgot my helmet inside on the couch. In that rubbermaid container on the couch, isn't that where all cyclists keep their helmets? So I had to step VERY lightly on the freshly painted floor. And then retouch that part. Then, I realized I had no iPod. Back over the freshly painted floor to the kitchen table (NEW kitchen table btw!). One more retouch. Okayyyy, I'm ready to go... no, crap! Where's my water bottle... argh! Back over the retouched paint, more retouching... all in all, the floor is dirty again as the dogs and I track dust all over it, so really, why did I paint at all?

Speaking of the dirtiest dog in the world - Lucy could have easily been born a pig!

She's clean on HER NEWWWW DOG BED though. They are a hit amongst the local canine population (although they much rather prefer sleeping upstairs with me)



More floor that was once clean.


Harris kinda needs a bigger bed, but he's not one to complain much. Oh that dog kills me. He's the sweetest thing ever. He only kind of growls at the puppies, but only so I can barely hear it. He's quite tolerant for the most part yet still has his squirrel hunting obsession.