Tuesday, 5/22 pm

     The evening rolls in. Dinner - caribou stroganoff on noodles I made with a package of ground caribou a friend gave me Sunday and fresh raspberriesfrom the store -  is done. Dishes are done. Dogs are fed, played with, and yard poop scooped again for the night. All is quiet out there. Tricky has chased the squirrel off and is laying on his bed in the corner of the living room, dozing. I went into Wasilla today for groceries - Three Bears of Alaska grocery store. Pretty neat place. I got food, plastic folders for school I've been looking all over at home for, and a pair of warm socks.  Everyone I came across today was super friendly. Tricky rode with me, and it is SO neat to be able to go places and take a dog with me. I have always wanted one of my own dogs to be a good traveling companion. Unfortunately, 5 dogs later and not one of them is. But Tricky is. He sits in the passenger seat and watches out the window. When I went into the grocery store, he curled up on the seat and slept and waited for me. He's SO calm, and such GREAT company. I love him.



Tricky

Tomorrow I am going to stay home and do a little hiking. No place I need to go, or even want to go. I love that feeling. That I can just be here, and just BE here. There are several places around here I want to walk to.I want to see if I can find the Sandhill Cranes, for one. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id  They make a pretty cool noise. I can hear them, and Kristin showed me the path to where she has seen them, so I think Tricky and I will take the camera and go for a walk there tomorrow. The other really different bird I've heard a frequently is a snipe, a Wilson's Snipe, to be specific. They make kind of a rolling continuous hoohoohoo jabbering noise. I like them. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/sounds. I did hear my Ravens on Sunday when we went to Tracey's in Willow, and I've heard one once out here in Big Lake, but not nearly as much as I'd like to. They are my all time favorite bird, hands down, and I miss their croaky calls. There are always a ton around Anchorage, so I know I'll see/hear some probably as I head down toward the Kenai peninsula at the end of next week. Maybe I'll hear some tomorrow when I'm out walking http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/sounds
Lots of songbirds around as well - woodpeckers, Juncos, etc.
     Birds are not the only wildlife. There is a resident moose, and I've seen her several times now. The dogs HATE her, and I can usually tell when she's around by the noise in the dog yard, and the way that all the dogs are all facing in and barking at the exact same direction. Last night she was up at the end of the driveway:



That dark spot, behind the flags? Yep, that's her!



Hello, there. Good thing I have a looooooong zoom on my lens!

And this morning, she was behind the dog yard:



Look way at the back, right at the corner of the fence, in the middle of the picture. A dark spot in the trail.



I finished a book today, took a lot of time this morning to download and sort and organize photos, and sent some email. One thing I did NOT do today that I'm also putting on my list for tomorrow is to take a nap. Just because I can. Tomorrow I intend to take a lot of pictures of individual dogs, too. Every time I'm out there, I learn a little bit more about each one's personality, and I think "Oh I love this one best..."  Truth is, I don't have, can't have, a favorite, because they each have something different, something unique, and something very uniquely loveable, about each of them. I love them all, but each for a different reason. I'm sad when I leave the yard, and always happy to go back out to them. Is it possible that I have, after nearly 50 years on this planet, found both my home and my calling?  <3