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Let's hear it for snow!
It finally *looks* like Alaska around here as well as actually being Alaska. This week we had our first real snowfall -- this being Fairbanks, it didn't dump a whole lot at once, but it's been snowing off and on all week and I guess we have about 6-8 inches out here in Fox. It's not snowball snow ... too dry and powdery ... Fairbanks almost never gets snow that's wet enough to make snowballs. Seven months of winter and no snowmen! How fair is that?
Even though the roads have been awful, I love this time of year. The trees are all covered with snow and it's a total winter wonderland out there. Wish I didn't have to go to work so I could stay home all day and play in the snow. (Yeah, working on a Saturday ... but at least on weekends I can set my own hours.) Taking the dogs for walks in the snow is a kick -- I love watching them jumping around in it.
Speaking of the dogs, I lost the puppies this morning -- temporarily. My usual walking routine is to take them down our driveway and then down the cat trail to the end of our property line, wander around in the woods a little bit, and then come back. Izzy runs around to either side of the trail, and the puppies follow her.
Well, this morning they took off after something and didn't come back. This is normal, up to a point. Since we have no close neighbors or roads, I don't keep an eye on them every second and I don't sweat it if I lose track of them for a minute. Especially with the snow on the trees and underbrush cutting visibility to only a few feet in every direction. Catching glimpses of them through the trees is okay. There's a steep bluff in one direction that I don't think they can climb, and the cat trail another way and the house another way -- they can't get off the property without going past me and I figure I'll just wait until they run off their energy and then take them home.
But they didn't come back and didn't come back, and I started getting worried and hollering for Izzy. Usually she's really good about coming when she's called. This time, she didn't come.
Vex vex vex. I'm not dressed for clambering around through snow-covered alders, plus I'm carrying my big camera this time, so I don't have my hands free. I went the quarter-mile back to the house, dropped off the camera and changed socks so I wouldn't get snow down my ankles, then went out grumbling to find the dogs, hoping the stupid puppies hadn't fallen in the creek or actually gone the one way I didn't think they could go and got run over on the highway.
When I got back out to the cat trail, what should I see but Izzy, gallumphing towards me through the snow looking very cheerful. No puppies. She comes prancing up to me with a happy attitude of "Look! Finally I ditched those annoying little creatures -- aren't you pleased?"
No, not very.
Luckily there had been fresh snow the night before, so I started backtracking dog tracks through the woods, feeling put upon and calling the puppies every little while -- while I think it's too much to hope for that they might come when they're called, at least I was hoping they'd yelp or something.
To make a long story short, I finally did find them -- two miserable, wet, scared, lost puppies who immediately glommed onto my ankles and didn't go more than five feet from me the whole way home. I was tripping over puppies all the way back to the house. Incredibly, they don't seem to be very tired out. I was expecting them to collapse in a heap as soon as we got home, but they've been wrestling downstairs and yapping cheerfully. Wish I had that much energy.
Even though the roads have been awful, I love this time of year. The trees are all covered with snow and it's a total winter wonderland out there. Wish I didn't have to go to work so I could stay home all day and play in the snow. (Yeah, working on a Saturday ... but at least on weekends I can set my own hours.) Taking the dogs for walks in the snow is a kick -- I love watching them jumping around in it.
Speaking of the dogs, I lost the puppies this morning -- temporarily. My usual walking routine is to take them down our driveway and then down the cat trail to the end of our property line, wander around in the woods a little bit, and then come back. Izzy runs around to either side of the trail, and the puppies follow her.
Well, this morning they took off after something and didn't come back. This is normal, up to a point. Since we have no close neighbors or roads, I don't keep an eye on them every second and I don't sweat it if I lose track of them for a minute. Especially with the snow on the trees and underbrush cutting visibility to only a few feet in every direction. Catching glimpses of them through the trees is okay. There's a steep bluff in one direction that I don't think they can climb, and the cat trail another way and the house another way -- they can't get off the property without going past me and I figure I'll just wait until they run off their energy and then take them home.
But they didn't come back and didn't come back, and I started getting worried and hollering for Izzy. Usually she's really good about coming when she's called. This time, she didn't come.
Vex vex vex. I'm not dressed for clambering around through snow-covered alders, plus I'm carrying my big camera this time, so I don't have my hands free. I went the quarter-mile back to the house, dropped off the camera and changed socks so I wouldn't get snow down my ankles, then went out grumbling to find the dogs, hoping the stupid puppies hadn't fallen in the creek or actually gone the one way I didn't think they could go and got run over on the highway.
When I got back out to the cat trail, what should I see but Izzy, gallumphing towards me through the snow looking very cheerful. No puppies. She comes prancing up to me with a happy attitude of "Look! Finally I ditched those annoying little creatures -- aren't you pleased?"
No, not very.
Luckily there had been fresh snow the night before, so I started backtracking dog tracks through the woods, feeling put upon and calling the puppies every little while -- while I think it's too much to hope for that they might come when they're called, at least I was hoping they'd yelp or something.
To make a long story short, I finally did find them -- two miserable, wet, scared, lost puppies who immediately glommed onto my ankles and didn't go more than five feet from me the whole way home. I was tripping over puppies all the way back to the house. Incredibly, they don't seem to be very tired out. I was expecting them to collapse in a heap as soon as we got home, but they've been wrestling downstairs and yapping cheerfully. Wish I had that much energy.
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