North Again!!!

Hmm...if any of you are still checking in occasionally. Here is the update. I am headed back to Alaska. Anchorage this time.

I have enjoyed my little visit to Texas (in particular spending time with my sister). I am not one to turn down opportunity when it comes knocking. So when the phone rang and he said "Meg this is opportunity knocking." I knew I was in trouble. I tried to convince him that part of my hire package would be that they had to notify my mother.

However, she and Glenn both handled it remarkably well. I personally still think they are in a state of shock. So Phin and I will be headed north again.

Sometime soon I will have to update with some photos of TX, but for now, just a little update :)

In Austin

Phin and I are in Austin. Go figure. Who would have thought we would end up here?? Certainly not me, but an opportunity we couldn't pass up arrived and in January we moved to Austin.  I been enjoying spending more time with my sister and her dog Fafner. I have a challenging job that I am slowly settling in and starting to settle in. It's coming along.

More to come.

Fall in WI

So I haven't updated about the folks lately. Mom and Glenn got themselves a new puppy! Merrick is a little handful. But really a very sweet handful.  Sophie is almost used to having a little annoyance following her around her kingdom.  So we have a new photo of my sister with Merrick, the little wild looking puppy, and Sophie, the slightly annoyed looking dog on the left.

It has made Mom and Glenn's life a little more hectic and exciting, but I think it's just keeping them young.

Last grand adventure

So my last grand adventure was to conduct some research the on some historic material on the property I manage.  To get there however I had to hitch a ride on a Chinook.  Thanks to some wonderful pilots and engineers (known as the SugarBears) we got out there safe and sound, dropped off, slogged through the swampy musk keg, found our site, and then hiked back to the landing zone and met up with our ride again. 

That was just a couple of weeks ago.  Today, the last day in September I drove home to our first snow covering. Phin was having a blast and raced in circles, but he took the time to stop for a photograph. So winter has well and truly started.

Hi My name is Meg

It has been over a year since my last post.  Ha ha...  Yes I have heard from some of you, that you would like a bit of an update.  Well life has entered the beginning of winter here again.  We had our first flush of flurries and sub-freezing temperatures.  The state is in a bit of worries and fears for the coming winter and the scare of the rising cost of heating fuel.  My last fill-up was as $4.70 a gallon for fuel and they expect it to head toward $10 a gallon by the end of  winter.  So everyone is trying to do the most to insulate their homes and cut back on their energy costs.  I would estimate it is a locale with the most LED lights in town (although I still have to get the LED lights for my exterior lights for winter.)

So this is just a little update and I promise a more exciting update soon with exciting stories.

Family Visit

we sealed the cabin

the family built new stairs

But the highlight of the summer has been the family visit. Unfortunately, I don't have a tone of pictures from that as Mary was in charge of the camera. I only have the advantage of living with the finished products and the bit of sunshine they left behind.

Update

Well we've established that I'm not very good at keeping up to date when things get hectic. I have just a few highlights from my trip to Florida (primarily a conference, but a bit of a fun trip when Maribeth and Gemma showed up to help me enjoy Walt Disney World.) I also highly recommend Animal Kingdom at WDW. There are some great chances to see some incredible animals, especially the Gorillas. I will get to Africa someday.

Extra puppy pictures

Well you also knew I couldn't resist adding some new Phin photos. We've got Phin yesterday in the lawn, Phin playing with a collie puppy over at Maribeth and Craigs (a week before he almost caught a chicken), Phin with his new toy from Herta, and Phin enjoying a little rest after all the play, notice his head is on the throw pillow. He's such a good boy when he's not shredding the house.

Back on Blog

Well it's been 3 months, winter has gone, spring has come and gone, and summer has arrived. Phinny has turned one, I've turned 32. The summer field season has started and work is crazy.

The planting season is in full swing. So Phin and I have been doing our best to keep up with the lawn and work on some landscaping here at the homestead. Taking all of our numerous lessons from the master WI planter (Glenn) into account. So here are the latest photos of the pooch, the house and the porch (the green bushes are Snowstorm spirea that are going to get there white blossoms soon). The bottom character was also a visitor to a neighbors house that I am hoping will stay away from my new plants.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and I will keep you posted as more develops through the summer.

Meet Fafner

Fafner is my sister's horse that she pretends is a poodle. He is just a big loveable gangly boy. Full of pep and energy, well at least for those few days in TX when it's not miserably hot. When it is really toasty out he likes to take it easy and lay on his back on the couch, lay in the yard and watch the birds, he loves nap time. Unless of course there is a cockroach or cat around, then all bets are off and the hunter is out, especially if the birds happen to land in his yard, then he's ready to go.

We don't really know what Mary fed him, he started out a normal size, he once fit under the seat in an airplane. Now he can pretty much cover the yard in about 4 big jumps. I'm 5'10" and you'll notice his head almost comes to my waist. Add to that he has springs in his feet and from a standing position in front of the door he can do a vertical jump and practically hit the ceiling. It's pretty amazing, if only he had an opposable thumb we'd be making some serious money off this dog in basketball.

He is by far the best bed cuddler I've ever met. Sophie is good but she is always hyper-aware of what is going on. Phin just doesn't have the knack of it yet, he just wants to play play play. But Fafner, he'll just close his eyes and nod off. Not to mention he'll keep you warm from the tip of your nose to the tip of your toes if you curl up right. I could use him up here this week. (Although I suspect he would curl up under the covers with me, he gets hot at Mary's house but I doubt he'd have that problem here.)

So now you have met the rest of the poodle babies of the family. The only other baby of the family we have is Logan- and he's one of those real babies WITH opposable thumbs, but Sophie and Fafner sure seem to like him, especially now that he is learning to through food on the floor and feed them Cherrios. He's Glenn's grandson and getting to be a big boy himself, not quite as big as Fafner yet, but getting close to passing Sophie in height.

(Size wise, Phin is still growing but he is catching up to Fafner's height, but definately has Sophies, um, girth...it's cold up here...we need that extra insulation, you try staying warm at -50 if you are as skinny as Fafner!)

Meet Sophie

Sophie is Mom and Glenn's pooch. She is the princess of the family and is treated as such. Recently WI has been hammered with heavy snows and, well Sophie, doesn't like getting her dainty feet full of snow, nor does she enjoy having to go out to do her business if the snow is too deep. A certainly understandable protest. So she has a path plowed for her by her manservant Glenn, (he also serves as the waiter, lapservant, and general dogsbody...you get the drift). Pretty much the house has been trained to run under her watchful eyes and paw. Unlike my household where I tell Phin what to do (HA HA HA!)