A meandering blog with no clear topic. You will find me talking about knitting, building, kids, social and economic issues, Alaska, and lots of other stuff.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Not Long

Less than a year ago, we got a second dog, a malamute. There is a picture of him here:

http://lifeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2009/03/monster.html

He was a dog we adopted from someone else without knowing him at all. He was a friendly dog, but he really didn't mesh well with us.
He was afraid of James, especially if he happened to have a tool or stick in his hand, making us speculate about what had happened to him before we got him.
We have almost 3 acres, plenty of room for a dog to run, but he would run too far. And he usually would not come when we called him.
With all of that, he was friendly, very pretty, and gentle with the kids. He seemed like he was bonding with us.
Yesterday morning before I left for work, I went to put him on his chain and he got away from me. I called him but he would not come to me, and took off running. He didn't come back right away, which is not unusual. By last night I was starting to worry, as it is well below zero.
James called me today to tell me the dog had been hit by a car. He was already dead when James found him.
The kids were sad, of course, but seem to be handling it well. We will all miss him. Goodbye, Strider.


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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Winter




Winter has arrived, a little late this year. This is the first year since we moved to Alaska that there was not snow on the ground by Halloween.

Snow finally came though, along with sub-zero temps. Night before last, it got down to -15. That's chilly, even for Alaska. For the last couple days, we have had the wood stove running nonstop.

Unfortunately, a couple days before it snowed, our kindling pile fell over, and it didn't get picked up. Now it is buried under 6 inches of snow. We know where it is though, and the snow hasn't melted any, so it hasn't gotten wet.

I am pretty much enjoying these first few winter days, and the kids have been having a blast in the snow. Steven came home crying today though because he sledded into a tree. He's back at it as I type.

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