See ya 2008, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

Here's my brief review of 2008: Crap, crap and more crap, lots of lows with a few great highs.
Here's my expectations for 2009: Can't get much worse so bring it on!

Moving on... it's a COOL -38C here tonight. Brrrr. I found the weather forecast pretty entertaining from the other day:

It's the land of extremes, I love how the line shoots off both ends of the graph. And I'll believe the almost zero degree temps when I see them. But if it gets warm enough to melt snow, I'm moving to Old Crow.


Today, a friend and I went out for a drive up the radio tower road out by the Kusawa road, man what a view!!!

Then we came across these cool tracks that looked to be from a wolf. They went all the way up the road (a couple miles) to the tower.

They were also taking advantage of the nicely plowed road.


Close up view


Two sets of tracks side-by-side, although the ones on the left looked to be a bit older.

If you were a wolf, walking backwards - this is what you might see:

How many shots of tracks can I take you ask??!! PLENTY I say, especially with my new camera. Thanks mom n' dad! I really like it. And it held up just fine today when I dropped it on the floor for the first time. Gee, that took what? FOUR days?!?! Thank goodness mom was thinking and got me a camera that holds up to plenty of abuse. It's small enough to completely fit in a pocket that I can ZIP up. Brilliant.

One more piece of excitement: the new ceiling fan, woohoo! Thanks handyman Dale!

Hopefully this will help get the warm air moving downstairs when it's this freakin' cold!!

Happy New Year everyone! :)

They're infiltrating!!!

Agh! They've figured out the bed!!


Geez... I go downstairs to get a coffee, come back to bed and this is what I see:

After months of not going on the bed - heck they only just started coming upstairs a little while ago - they all of a sudden got the urge to pounce on the bed. Maybe it was the sub -30 weather that gave them incentive?


Zzzzzzzzz.....


Eh, what the crap?? I'm trying to sleep here!

Meet the honorary cowdog, Jip!

Isn't he freakin' cute!?!? He's the neighbour's dog who was on the bad end of a dog fight, he's got a small flesh wound, but had become instant-cabin dog while recuperating. The resident cowdogs took an instant liking to him.

Lots of snow and lemming-like people and clean-smelling cowdogs and bad thrillers

Don't worry, that title will alllllll makes sense at the end of this. Trust me.

SO, yay! It's about freakin' time - more snow! Only a few inches, but I'll take it.


But before the snow, I took some of the crew out for a run.

Rupert is still going strong but at 12yrs (almost 13!) requires some extra massaging inside after runs. He's not complaining. He still wants to go and gets pissy if he doesn't.


Mr. I'll-eat-anything-even-though-I'm-10-years-old-and-old-enough-to-know-better (Ripper) and Mr. I'm-a-freaky-shy-dog-when-not-in-harness-but-a-totally-different-dog-while-IN-harness (Loki)

Lookit Loki jumping up to go! He's an awesome leader, once we get going. At hookup he has been a bit freaky lately, but that's probably because of Mr. Barky-while-hooking-up beside him.


Post-run Loki, love the contented look, closed eyes, he's happy, yep.

Esther, always serious and Pooh Bear! Never serious. Life is one big party in PB's world!

Look at the different expressions on their faces, no doubting who is who there! But they both ran really well! Pooh Bear! was even bouncing and screeching after the run, the second we stopped. Indicating, she's not going far enough! It went well though, except for the time when Esther chewed TWO tuglines in front of her. They were Rupert's, as he was alone and had both attached to him, but what a little brat. She was excited though, so what are you gonna do. :)

Oh yeah, make more tuglines! (I think Tamara might be onto something with those cable-everything-lines she has!)


Cowdogs, Sage and Ivy. I've discovered that Ivy prefers to be closer to the front of the line. Closer to the back kind of freaks her out. I could ask Sage to run backwards and he'd give it a try. He's such a sweetheart, eager-to-please kind of dog. Have I ever mentioned how wonderful the cowdogs smell ALL the time?? They are always clean too, it's really weird. They have lovely coats.


The lovable twins, Jack and Harris were steady in wheel position. I get nervous about Jack since I think he has some kind of hypoglycemia. I thought he briefly looked disoriented/freaked out there while we took a quick break, but it turns out he was ok and Harris was hogging the gangline and shoving him off to the side.


So after the dog run, I decided it was time to get the rest of the crew, Kuna and the 3 monsters out for a ski. Well, I was skiing, they ran loose. Skiing without dogs is soooo damned slow, but what a workout! The conditions were perfect for my skis that haven't been waxed in like, forever. So it was pretty fun. Until I started to get a bit freaked out as we delved deeper into the woods and the new trails I'm making. I don't know them that well yet, so my imagination was running wild when the dogs disappeared and I was briefly disoriented while on my own. Damn them. Turns out there WERE out there, just off in the bushes.... no doubt purposely screwing with my mind.

Although, all of that imagination stuff COULD have something to do with the fact that I watched the bad, yet semi-freaky "The Happening" the night before. Y'know, the movie by M. Night Shyamalan - where people were poisoned by plants, then start to become lemming-like and suddenly have an urge to kill themselves (the people that is) by jumping off buildings, poking themselves in the neck with knitting needles, and the most innovative suicide I've seen on film - death by a riding lawnmower. Yeah, a real light-hearted movie. The old lady at the end COMPLETELY freaked me out as she bashed her head through the window while vacantly staring ahead. God I have days like that.

I guess you go off the deep end like that when you um, live in the woods, ah... alone, don't really like people and have no power. Whew! All I can say, is thank goodness I'm on the grid now.

Hopefully, if my demise comes at my own doing because of angry killer plants blowing toxins in the wind (you really have to see this movie to understand what I'm talking about) I would hope that if I choose to bash my head into a window, I hope I choose the one that has insulation in it instead of a glass pane.

But I digress!


Fresh snow, what could be any better than that?!?

Putting my excellent skills to use

The newly wired up light bulb and light switch!

Over the kitchen table. I can't get enough light lately.

Here is the switch, for all of you who are teetering on the edges of your seats for more shots of electrical crap.


And the bulb.

Here's the amazing thing - you hit the switch... and the light turns on!!!

It actually works. Thanks to some help from my long distance handyman, that is. Even though I accidentally knocked one of the breakers out of the panel which turned off the cordless phone and hung up on said handyman... it all works.

It seems a few months after the wiring course, everything kind of went out of my brain. It's slowly coming back though... :)

Meanwhile, the Dave and Heather visited the other night and Ivy and Sage were smitten!

Yeah, you come here and you MUST LOVE DOGS - otherwise this nonsense might get annoying. But the dogs rule the place, what can I say. It looks like they're deprived of human attention though.

Ha, this looks like Dave and Ivy are having a good ol' chat. I bet he was telling her just how BIG the fish were he caught that morning. "So I caught this 12 pounder..."

She actually looks interested. Which is more than I can say for Heather and I...

She wasn't buying the fish story, but pretended she was just for this:

Mmm... sweet pets...Yeah, yeah, so you caught a fish how big??!! Yeah right.... who cares. Pet me!

Ok, I must note that this is the closest Ivy has ever let any MALE human get to her. She has rarely let men come near her, hell, some she even barks at if they come near. She definitely had a thing for Dave! Now I won't say anything about Dave's masculinity having something to do with that. And that's not just because he's watching the dogs while I'm gone for a few days over xmas! :)

Meanwhile, Harris pops up to say:

Oh HI!!! I was just hiding behind this bush but you found me... hahahahaha


George is loving the new snow! We were out packing trails this day and they loved bounding through the fresh snow. Yippee!

Please, take this puppy!!!

So I don't!!!!

She's the last one who needs a home!!! Help meeeeee....

Somebody discovers the couch

Took her a while, but by climbing all over me and ending up on the couch by default, Pooh Bear! finally figured out that the couch is pretty damned comfy.

Wow, this pillow is pretty sweet too...


Pet me, can't you see how much I suffer?? A dog's life ain't easy y'know...


Amazing. The maniac is actually quiet for a few brief moments...ahhh...

ON THE GRID!!!!

Yippeeeeeeee

The powerline is finally connected. Note the new sensor light! Woohoo!

It points toward the one annoying dark area I had left - the driveway and wood chopping area.

'scuse me while I go INSIDE and plug things then unplug them over-and-over-and-over-and-over again... :)

For a brief moment, the ridiculous amount of money I'm paying (ah, for the next 15 years!) for these power poles is worth it. We'll see if this bliss lasts after I get my first power bill.

And let's hope Yukon Energy figures out all these recent power outages! Gasp! Moment of realization: these outages are going to affect ME now. Crap. Oh well, guess I'll keep that ear-shattering gas-guzzling generator, just in case.