Denali Park

for the weekend of my birthday i headed to Denali park. since i have never been down on the train before a friend decided that we ought to be in the dome car ( the expensive one) a great place for photographs i must say , while i got his white water rafting. ( how can you never have been rafting).

anyway on the train it was brought and sunny and i did get some pretty cool photos.

then we went for a walk around one of the nearer lakes called horseshoe lake. we saw some evidence of some beaver and some squirrel. dam cheeky things. My personal opinion is that " the only good squirrel is a dead one. preferably one that died of lead poisoning" i think this one in the park was used to too many humans and thought they might be good for getting food maybe.

my camera has a 12 x zoom that i am at long last getting the hang of using at high zoom, and think myself very cleaver to have got this of the beaver. we walked really quietly to get in position , and he just carried on like we weren't even there. it was about 5 pm ish and its august so maybe he was just in a hurry and he thinks fall is in the air. - beside the fact it was at least 80 in the park Sunday. got to stay at a cool hotel called the grand denali lodge. that's the one high on the hill. great service great view. more photos of the weekend can be found here. ( click on the photo below)

Denali

Rafting was ok for a grade 3/ 4 river but you know me it wasn't really enough. My friend tony had never been rating before and now he really likes it. so i have passed my addiction on to someone else.

a great weekend.

The tales of a Waitress

last Monday I was waiting on these people in the restaurant, 2 parents, 2 kids ( boys) 8 and 10 maybe and grandma. I served grandma her her soup, and said "here's your soup." after i left the 2 boys started giggling, and developed a serious dose of giggles that went on for quite some time. 10 ish minutes later when i was bringing everyones dinner, the boys and parents were leaving the restaurant, I was thinking this was just a bathroom trip. But grandma explained to me that they had had such a fit of the giggles about my accent they hadn't stopped giggling.

they managed to make it back OK, but were somewhat mollified when grandma told that she had told on them. i thought it was just funny. And kinda interesting that the parents made the boys leave over a fit of giggles.

Other news of the week is that it had been 80 every day of the week since then, and humid as well. Today it rained and was only 70. I am almost ready for cooler weather. and yes it gets dark today. its actually dark at 12 30 for the first time in 3 months. do we remember what a dark sky looks like?

Welcome to the jungle

The garden grows apace, this is cucumber number 4 I think, I took the first 3 camping last weekend. I tried celery this year and it has done way better than I thought it would. these photos were all taken last weekend, so there is actually a weeks growth on top of this.
The basil beside it is just amazing, tomorrow I start giving it away. so i need a recipe for pesto something, and the tomatoes are trying to climb out the roof. But currently there are only a couple of tomatoes, not as many flowers as i had last year, but that is ok. Maybe I will have bigger fruit.

My peppers that i tried again I had to pull (again ) as the aphids just came and got them. It was later than last year i managed to keep the aphids away for 2 weeks extra and actually got 2 peppers , but when i went to cut into it i discovered they were the hot variety, that i don't like, so I was less sad at having to pull them out.

Work this week has been crazy.-waiting tables just as busy as hell , an unusual week to make lots of money, 3/4 of it is in the bank. but I have had to have 3 cups of coffee this week to see me through the day job.
somehow i managed to find time to water the greenhouse and pull the peppers this week.
Now to find time to mow the lawn when its dry.

fielding lake camping

I thought I better get out a bit this year since I don't usually.
So Amy, Matt and friends went camping out to Fielding lake. ( head to Delta turn right drive 70 miles. Mile -post 200.5 on the Richardson.) This is the headwaters of the Delta river, its supposed to be good fishing. they have public use cabins there and for a small charge you can reserve them. 4 of July weekend was popular. so the campground was full. I took my tent and new sleeping bag to give them a test drive. its up in the mountains so it cooler than Fairbanks. but the views were spectacular.
Friday was a nice sunny day but Saturday and Sunday it rained 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening with low hanging cloud the rest of the time.

There goes my theory that 4 of of July its supposed to be 90, it was 55 maybe. but it was still way cool, we had some night visitors come passing by mother moose and calf crossed the river, and her yearling that she had just kicked out was 10 minutes behind her.
the public use cabin sleeps six, but could be cramped if it was raining. Matt being resourceful put up the tarps and we had a comfortable area to sit in with the fire going all weekend. We all sat around and had a pleasant time doing nothing, eating, and talking. it a 3 hour drive each way ish. I think the guys went out briefly to try the fishing.

Sunsets &

The other night I was driving home from work at 11 pm- ish in the middle of a rainstorm and sunset. I cant remember why I had my camera in the car but as luck would have it but I just had to stop and take these. we have had a bunch of interesting weather lately, with clouds and rain and smoke. but these 2 just caught my eye. Our sunsets just cover the whole sky, not just part of it. So I say sunsets rock in Fairbanks.

Then these is the flowers that i have outside my door, $20.00 will get you as basket from Fred's about 3 weeks ago anyway. so i actually managed to water them every night and with some of the rain we had they are just doing nicely. i have almost decided that they were worth buying, rather than buying seeds and planting my own and not having flowers till later. or forgetting to water them. I wouldn't have bought them if i didn't have my house for sale. and they look better in real than they do photographed.

Tip Income

Instant gratification.

Sometimes you look in the purse and see you don't have any money, but you cant be bothered to go to the bank, but you need groceries. Well that's why I wait tables. because tomorrow i will have money in the purse and I can get groceries.

Instant gratification. going to the bank is something that those who don't wait tables do.

I surely don't this time of year.

tip income .. such a great thing

you work you earn money ... cash in hand.

So the groceries can wait until tomorrow.

The Garden

I cheated this year- Risse greenhouse was planting the garden at work, and since I was helping I noticed they had the largest bean plants that were nice and healthy. So rather than trying stuff from seed, that i should have started 2 weeks ago. i went out to Risse Greenhouse on Saturday and just spent money.- sometimes money is handy for that -- it saves you time.

Today I borrowed the neighbors Rotor-tiller and spent an hour doing that, watered, then I went to wait tables. when I came home I planted the seedlings that i had got, lettuce, broccoli, peas and beans all done. I even got to run the weed eater around to clean the edge next to the fence, it will be a sunshine issue, and it looks better.

The green house is off to good start, the cucumbers have sorted out their roots and look like they are about to take off. I found some dwarf basil this year out at Risse. so it wont grew as high as it did last year. With any luck i am just growing this for someone else.

now all i did to do is weed... any volunteers?