More Snow Please

I know that looks like a beautiful peak to many of you. But it's missing some snow and I would like to have it here now please. Niwt and I hit the slopes on Sunday. It wasn't a ton of fun with no new snow in so long, but it was a good workout and I had a great time skiing without a dog between my legs.

Pardon my helmet head while I pause to ponder the beauty of the shinning orb in the sky. We haven't seen much sun around here lately. It's amazing what you don't realize this does to you until you actually see the sun again.

Niwt skies old style - without a helmet - because he thinks he is that good. Imagine how hard I'm going to laugh after he wrecks. After the doctors declare him okay of course.....

Not Today, Jim, Not Today

Last weekend I was on the tail end of a cold and was a little desperate to get out of the house. I had a brilliant plan to ride down to Girdwood with Niwt and go check on an ice worm site (maybe install a datalogger or two) while he skied the day away. What I remembered just as I pulled off the highway is that they don't plow the road out to the site in the winter. It was just a few degrees above freezing and I didn't have snowshoes. The dogs would have gotten a great workout, but I think I might have invited another week of illness into my life. Oh, and the wind was blowing so hard I was worried about trees blowing down across the road. So I checked out the gift shop instead. Never been in there. Turns out they make a great veggie sandwhich.

New Yearsing

After an evening of sitting on Niwt's couch annoying him with my constant coughing and equally constant refusal to consume his evil nyquill drugs while losing at Scrabble I awoke with a desire to skate more. Undaunted by the late night with fireworks starting not long after dark and continuing for many, many hours (several times making me check the clock) the rolling thunder subsided and Percy stopped trying to crawl under the covers with me.

We collected Fitz and part of her herd and tried skating with dogs on leash as we were clearly not the only ones who thought skating on New Year's day was a good idea. I would classify the results as 'sucessful' because there were no subsequent trips to the vet or hospital. For which we were are grateful if not a little bit surprised.

Mostly we established a pattern of hanging out at one end of the oval and throwing snowballs for the dogs until a large opening appeared in the stream of people. Then Niwt jetted off with the dogs and Fitz and I followed, trying not to fall down.

Except occasionally the dogs did a lap without us and we could only watch in wonder. Tatonka found two labs bigger than him whose humans thought he was gorgeous. They stopped and threw snowballs for him when they got to us. And I only took one hard fall, taken out by a small child playing with Tatonka. Not a bad way to start the year at all.

Christmoosing

Christmas tree? Check. Christmas lights? Check. Presents under the tree? Check. Decorations on the tree? Check. Super cold weather outside and no new snow in waaaaay too many days? Check.

Two bored dogs behaving well mostly? Got em.

Three foot long rawhide candy cane for Percy? Yes!!!!

And one for Tatonka to add to his collection of hoarded toys? Oh yeah, it's starting to look like Christmas alright.

30 seconds later Tatonka has increased his Christmas joy twofold by absconding with Percy's candy cane.

Don't feel too sorry for this turkey. She gets to wear a bow and barks non-stop until somebody gets her bone back for her. Mind you, this is the same dog who gleefully kicks Tatonka's butt in public for no reason at all. Also, this is only the beginning of Christmassing for these two. These were just distraction toys so stockings could be emptied and packages unwrapped. Later this day they were to attend dinner and unwrap a new universe ball and a squanking giant stuffed warthog. Followed two days later by a box from their grandogma they will be working through for many weeks yet to come. And earlier this week they got a couple three new toys from Fitz. Apparently it is good to be a dog in my house.

Lift Me Up, Snowplow Me Down

Tatonka and I finished out the year with a trip to the ski resort, our first one this season. Mostly this went without a hitch, despite the extensive avalanche control bombing which meant the group did an extended obedience session while we waited for the lifts to start up. Tatonka didn't mind the loud noises in the slightest, but he did have an attention issue with the plethora of roaming dogs Girdwood is known for. After stepping out of the lineup to regain his attention, he performed his appointed tasks well.

Our biggest challenge has been loading him onto the chairlift. He is happy to unload at the top and to ride along and eat cookies and check out the scenery and to ski along between my legs. It's just the getting on the bench he has struggled with. Lucky for him his human finally found something that just might work. But it's going to take a little off resort work with him to get it all lined out. I have to find a way to get him to do something he historically has gotten in trouble for: facing the wrong direction when at attention by my side. Then he can see the chair coming and jump his entire body onto it, not just the front half and have me pull the rest of his 100 pound body up onto me. It's just as fun as it sounds.

Then we will figure out how to side slip down really steep terrain. Sounds like fun, no? I've got just the hill for it and it's close to the house, so I suspect most nights you will find us there in the coming weeks for a short session of 'How not to die or hurt your dog while on skis on a steep slope'. Tickets available at the door.

Then, and only then, will the mountain be ours completely. Until then, we'll just keep riding that learning curve to the sky.

Keeping an Eye on You

Dear Mom: I'm not sure Santa got your annual report on my behavior this year, so I wanted to give you a summary so you can be sure to send an ammendment and have a new truck appear in my driveway shortly. The year in summary: I am alive, the cat thrives. The end.

She's 17 and being the queen. She was most dissapointed in the lack of live mice for Christmas as she knows the season well by now, but she understands the challenges of shipping to Alaska and how cold it has been outside lately.

She bribed the big white cat to get on the counter and distribute the catnip trapped in the package when she deemed the amount left for her to play with while I took the dogs skating was insufficient. He is not stupid and so complied.

She was satisfied with his offering and thus was content to play with last year's fake mouse.

At which point he was allowed to play with all the other toys and the smaller amount of catnip previously deployed. Now that photographic evidence has been submitted, complete with date stamps, please tell Santa how good I have been. Also, feel free to tell him about your birthday present.

Love,

your wonderful northern living daughter

Skating into Christmas

I got an early Christmas present this year: hockey skates. And I have been wearing myself out learning how to use them. Niwt has been showing me around town getting me acquainted with the local hockey rinks (outside in our freezing and below freezing temps) and the local frozen ponds I had no knowledge of. We were all quite sick of being cooped up inside with cold air and no new snow, so we headed out several times to my new favorite winter location: Westchester Lagoon. We drug along my girl, Fitz, and part of her dog herd. Above is the superstar of every day, KC. So far Fitz has been afraid to introduce us to her lab who sounds like Percy on PCP. KC is a darling border collie (be still my heart) with three legs. 5 dogs, 2 balls, 3 humans : KC maintained control of one ball at all times!

Fitz and Niwt were left with one ball and four dogs while I took pictures. You might think hitting that big squishy ball with a hockey stick would be easier than hitting a little hockey puck...but you would be wrong. The darn thing is so squishy you get no purchase on it unless you swing so hard your chest muscles hurt for the next three weeks.

Added bonus: it doesn't seem to matter what time of day we head out there, the dogs are great off leash. Yay for the influence of a three legged border collie and a big golden retriever. We will continue to enjoy the sunshine since we can't enjoy the temperatures. Hope you all had a super merry Christmas and plans for a splendiferous new year.