Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

(Note: the above post title must be sung to the tune of the 'Oklahoma' song.)

The leaves are nearly ALL gone! I'll have to take a picture. There's still enough woodland duff and green grass that we're not into 'Bleak November' yet. That will come with the killing frosts, I suppose.

The full Hunter's Moon has filled the valley below our bedroom window these past couple of nights, making the birch trunks glow! Last night, it was bright enough for me to momentarily turn off my headlights on the drive home.

Just as I was falling asleep Monday (?) night, I heard the wolves far off . . . . But the sound was different, causing me to raise up in bed to strain my ears. Next to me, Tom did the same. The wolves were yipping, yapping, yelling, chat-chat-chattering . . . really carrying on! We've not heard them sound like that before. We're assuming they'd just made a kill and were getting ready to feast. I dunno - anyone out there know wolf behavior? Anyway, it was incredibly cool and reminded us HOW FORTUNATE we are to live out here!

I had a great - but exhausting - trip to Canada with a wonderful girlfriend yesterday. I needed to get all the critters (Maisy, Tucker, and Annie Blue) to the vet for their annual check-ups and vaccinations, and she was willing (glutton for punishment?!) to go along for that long haul. After the vet, we got in our Starbuck's fix as well as stops at Home Depot and the Superstore (a combined Target & massive international grocery store). Dinner at Tom's and my favorite sushi restaurant up there, Wasabi, followed. Yum-meee! (Although dummy me forgot - for the SECOND time in only four weeks - that I can no longer eat avocado unless I want to experience excruciating gall bladder attacks. Thank gawd for pain pills. And, yes, I THINK I've FINALLY learned my lesson! Duh . . . .)

Annie Blue came through her rabies vaccine and exam with flying colors, although her needs to . . . "eliminate" over-road her confinement in a travelling kennel. :( On the up side, I DID have a stool sample to present at the vet's! (Ah-hem.)

Our since-we-picked-her-up-at-eight-weeks-old ongoing skin problems in Maisy have finally culminated in a planned visit to a dermatological specialist in Minneapolis. Maybe she'll FINALLY get some relief in the near future. Stay tuned.

Tucker is now on a 600 calories-a-day new diet / lifestyle change. He's 7 lbs. overweight (which ain't bad, certainly, but still . . . ). Also, there are some concerns that he has hypothyroidism (common, unfortunately, in Corgis). A blood test in a couple of weeks will reveal that. And, the poor pooper has yet another bladder infection (another indication of the hypothyroidism). So, we have to trick him into swallowing a pink horse pill every 12 hours. Pill Pockets (great for Annie Blue) don't work for him, but peanut butter does . . . as long as Maisy gets an "empty" glop of PB at the same time. (Psychological trickery works every time! Otherwise, he'd suck the PB off - as he does the soft Pill Pockets - and spit out the clean pill.)

Tom had a really productive day yesterday - although he worked here at home instead of at his "weekday job" doing Trapper Cabin Handyman projects (the previously-promised yards of rock he needs were not delivered). He's been studying to take his CDL test (Commercial Driver's License) so he can drive "the big rigs" . . . or dumptrucks! No, he's not going to become an OTR trucker, but it's a great asset to have tucked away in your back pocket up here. So, in addition to more studying for that, he got the stonework on the entire northeast (driveway) side of the long front entryway structure done! That makes the top, ends, and one whole side of that one done, for those of you keeping track. I'll get a picture of that progress later today.

Tuesday-Feels-Like-Monday

Good morning!

It's been cold lately. It finally got above zero yesterday, but not by much: 7/10s of a degree to 0.7 above. The coldest we had was -18 on Saturday, but my folks in town beat us (an unusual happenstance). I think they had -20 or -22.

The picture I've posted here of the thermometer outside the kitchen window is from Saturday morning. I think we were up to -16 or so. Tom was heading out to log, and I was heading up to Canada. Then, check out the picture of the tuber I've been trying to root. It sits in the kitchen window, too, and you can see how the frost was working its way inside the window frame. If you look closely (or enlarge the photo), notice how ice is starting to form in the water . . . spreading almost horizontally from the window side of the vase inwards!

As I said, Tom went out to log on Saturday but the ATV wouldn't start, so he had to haul the cut wood the old-fashioned way . . . by toboggan. Believe me, working like that, he stayed PLENTY warm!

And, back-tracking, I spent the day in Canada on Friday. Annie Blue had her spay/surgery appointment and had to be left overnight. I also got Maisy - whose been having more skin/itching problems than usual - in to the vet. Turns out, she's allergic to her food! She'd been losing a bit of weight a couple of months ago and had been sick for a couple of weeks, so we upped her food. Yes, that being the very stuff that was making her sick. (Of course, she never complained and gobbled it up as usual). But, can you say GUILT? So, yeah, we've basically been poisoning one of our dogs. Or, at the very least, making her life very uncomfortable. So now, she's on medicine, salmon and Vitamin E oils, and a different, very healthy food (herring). Oy vey.

Now for a few comments about Canada and Canadians. They are tough, and I absolutely love that. I was back up on Saturday again (to retrieve Annie Blue and finish the shopping that I didn't get done on Friday), and the high was -8. Yes, the high - that's not a typo. The SuperStore parking lot was just as packed as ever. On the drive up, the highway did seem less busy, but in no way shape or form was town less busy. Cold, schmold. Bundle up and get on with it! I love that!

Canadians are also smart. Large stores keep their shopping carts outside under year-round awnings, placed throughout the parking lot. But, shopping carts aren't free. They cost a loonie - a buck. A loonie is a coin about the size of our quarters but gold in color with 8 - I'm guessing - sides. So, when you need a cart, you go to the cart corral, stick your loonie into this little box on your cart and then insert a key that's attached to the box. That key pushes your loonie all the way into the box and releases another key on the back side of the box . . . which is on the end of a short chain attached to the cart behind it (and so on and so on) . . . thereby releasing your cart. (I'll have to take a picture sometime to help the illustration.) So, why do they do this? To make money? Nope - and this is the really brilliant part - it's to eliminate unreturned carts! After you're done shopping and have loaded your stash into your car, you return your cart to the corral. You push it into the cart behind it, grab that cart's dangling key and push that key into the back of your little box. Out pops the front key AND your loonie! You didn't lose any money, they didn't make any money. What they DID do was eliminate the bother from those unsavory characters who leave their carts right next to where they parked! Smart, eh?!

I'll sign off for now but try to get more up later today or tomorrow.