Alaska State Fair, 2017

We went to the Fair yesterday, but there really isn't much to tell about that.  It was pretty much the same ol', same ol'.    We basically just paid some money so we could walk around there for a couple hours.  But one nice thing happened.  As we were standing in line, almost at the gate, someone randomly handed Chuck a ticket for free admission.  It was a "vendor ticket", so apparently for some reason he just didn't need it that day and just wanted to give it away to someone.  We have no idea why he picked Chuck out of all those people.  Chuck joked that maybe it was because he was wearing his Wisconsin cap and a Brewers shirt.  Oh well, it doesn't matter.  He saved us $13.

So we walked around.  And walked around.  And walked around.  Being a Sunday, it was really crowded, so we really looked at more people than anything else.

I hate going to the Fair on a weekend, but we knew that, if we were gonna go this year, it had to be yesterday cuz we plan on going up north next weekend.  And if we come home a day early, I wanna pick more blueberries.

We went to the Farm Exhibits and looked at the cute cows, fat pigs, watched a goat get milked.

Tons of bunny rabbits, as usual.

And interesting produce.

We were too early to see the giant pumpkins this year.  Those usually aren't displayed until the last couple days of the Fair.  (The growers want to give their pumpkins as long as possible to gain every ounce possible.)

Then we went to look at all the quilt displays.  There's always lots of them to look at.  I always like to look for the Halloween ones.

And I also took a picture of this other one cuz I thought it was really cute.

Then we went to another exhibit where there was supposed to be instruments from all over the world.  It would've been interesting to stop and look at everything, but Chuck was "complaining" that it wasn't what he thought it would be, so we didn't take up too much time in there.  We saw some exotic animals in there though, and Chuck found a ukulele to play with.

kookaburra

I would like to borrow this for Halloween.

macaws

Then we walked around some more.  I took a couple photos of some of the unique food signs - foods that you can only get at the Fair.  Foods that I wouldn't wanna eat.

There was also a baked potato booth and one of the items on the menu was "Happy Heart Attack" for $12.  I wanted to get a picture of it, but I had to keep up with Chuck.  Maybe next year.

Okay, I admit that we did buy some kettle korn.  It was Chuck's idea.  It was good, but that was the problem.  I always feel "guilty" after eating something I know probably wasn't good for me.  It wasn't the popcorn I was worried about.  I was lamenting about not knowing what kind of nasty oil they used to pop it.  But I ate it anyway, and now I'm probably silently and secretly forming a gallstone or clogging up my insulin receptors. (Do I worry too much?)

Need to make myself a kale smoothie today...

But at least I can say, that was the ONLY thing we ate from the Fair.  We brought our own snacks from home and munched on those when we got hungry.

By the way, I feel that we kinda got ripped off when we bought our popcorn.  See those three bag sizes on the left?  Chuck asked for a small bag.  Guess what we got.  Not the plastic bag that you see here, but the white paper bag that that's stuffed inside the display bag, which holds about half of what the plastic bag would hold.  Talk about deceiving!  I said something to the lady about it when she was filling up the paper bag, but apparently Chuck asked her for an "open bag" so we could munch on it.  So it's Chuck fault that we got ripped off.

Oh well, didn't I say that we shouldn't be eating that junk anyway? 

But still, she could've at least charged us less for that paper "kiddie bag".

I digress.

Other than spending time and money at the Fair, I have been pretty busy.  The end of August is always a busy time for me.  Harvest season.  Our cold wet summer hindered my garden this year.  No pumpkins, no butternut squash, no tomatoes.  But I have been getting some zucchini (not as much as previous years though), already harvested my green beans, half of my carrots, and started salvaging what the moose left of the celery.  Still need to finish collecting the rest of the carrots and celery, and still waiting for my pea pods to fill out.  If not, I guess I will just have to use the flat pea pods in a Chinese stir fry or something.  And I'm also still waiting for my Brussels sprouts to mature.

Our blueberries came in really well this year again, so we picked a bunch last weekend.

It took me all week to get them all cleaned, sorted, and frozen.  We were gonna pick more this last weekend, but I told Chuck I'd rather not because we are leaving for Fairbanks on Thursday.  That means, it would make sense to only pick enough so I can get them all in the freezer by Wednesday (otherwise they will sit in the fridge and rot while we're gone).  If we're gonna pick blueberries, I don't wanna limit myself!  I CAN'T limit myself!  They are everywhere, and you just keep picking and picking and picking and picking.  You can't stop picking them if you keep seeing them!!!!!  

So, I told Chuck I'd rather wait until after we get back from Fairbanks.  That way we can pick all we want, and I will be home to get them all cleaned, sorted, and frozen before they rot.

He thinks by that time they will be overripe.  But I am willing to take my chances on that.

In the meantime, we are dealing with this other little problem.

It's getting to where we have to tip toe around them.  Disgusting!

Weeners is increasing her hunting skills and she likes to brag on her progress.  She is up to 3 in one day now.  I can't believe I still have to explain to Chuck why I don't want to leave that door open for her anymore!  Does he really want our house littered with these things?

So ya, on Thursday, Chuck is turning 50.  And the following Tuesday will be our 30th anniversary.  For the past several months we made plans to celebrate these events, and they got changed, and changed, and changed.  Our plans transformed from going to England, going to New England, going to D.C., to just staying home, to going up north.

With Chuck talking about retiring and moving to WI all the time, I figured it would be a good idea to take advantage of Alaskan opportunities while we still can.  I've always wanted to see the Arctic Circle, and this would be our best opportunity to do that, while Steph is still living in Fairbanks, so we have a place to stay.

I will tell you all about that trip after it's over.

In the meantime, sit back and watch your rodent population decrease.

Bossy's Last Day

It's very difficult for me to write this post, but I'll try.

We knew Bossy's time was coming, and I was really hoping she would die peacefully in her sleep.  But about a week ago, she started peeing outside the litter box.  Then, when Chuck said "there's pee on the carpet", I knew what he was really saying - it was over for her.

So yesterday morning I called the vet and told them Bossy needed to be put down.  They said they were booked all day, so they set her up for this morning at 8:30.  I didn't want to wait that long. I just wanted to get it over with.  I knew if I had to wait that long, I it would be LOOOONG hard day and a LOOOOONG hard night.  But there was nothing I could do about that.

A couple hours later, the vet called and said they could get her in at 4:00.  It still seemed like a long time to anticipate it, but I was grateful cuz it was way better than waiting until morning.

I spent the whole afternoon watching the clock and feeling my stomach getting all twisted up with anxiety, along with the occasional emotional breakdowns.  It was a SLOW afternoon.

But something happened to break up the dark clouds of dread, even if just a little bit.

A bird accidentally flew into my house.   It panicked and didn't know where to go, but it found a place up on the high window ledge in my living room.  Bossy was watching it very closely.

It sat up there for awhile, and then took off and flew to another high ledge in my foyer.

Don't know if you can see it in this picture, but it paced back and forth up there for a long time, probably a couple hours or more.  I tried to coax it with a broom, but it was too high for me to reach.

Bossy was watching it very closely.

I opened the door underneath it, hoping it would fly out, but the poor frantic bird couldn't see the open door from where he was, he just kept pacing back and forth and fluttering his wings.

After a while it finally flew into the living room and landed on the TV stand, and then hopped onto the floor.  I have no idea why it did this.

Bossy chased it and it flew up to another high ledge in my living room.

Then it tried to fly some more, probably to look for another way out, but it somehow got trapped behind my window blinds, and Bossy caught it.

I shook her and tried to make her let go of it, but she growled at me and wasn't gonna give it up.

I took her outside and tried to get her to drop it, but then I saw that she started tearing it up and gnawing on it.

The bird was done for, and Bossy ate a bird for her last meal.

I have never known her to eat a bird before, but just like the mice she was eating recently, I think she was starving from not eating her regular food.

Then she sat by the door waiting for me to let her back into the house.

This is all that's left of that poor bird.

I'm glad I don't have to wait for that thing to end up on my ironing board encased in a poop shell!

So the afternoon clock finally read 3:45, and it was "time".  I stuffed Bossy into the carrier and took her to the vet.  She cried the whole way, but her cries were drowned out by own grief.

As they said, they were really busy yesterday, so even though her appointment was at 4:00, we sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes - more intense agony, but thankfully I wasn't all alone.  PW and her boyfriend Paul were there with me.

Finally, we got called in, and they weighed her at 5 pounds.  Two pounds less than her last visit.  She was wasting away from her hypothyroidism, and the vet said her kidneys were deteriorating which is why she quit using her litterbox.

The vet prepared her shot, and asked me to "give her a hug".  I held her close, he gave her the shot, and seconds later, I felt her go limp in my arms.

It was the hardest moment I have ever lived through.

I miss her so much.

RIP Bossy

Eureka!

Last weekend, we finally had a break from our cold wet weather spell, and the sun came out!!

Yay!

So we were invited to go on a 4-wheeler excursion with some people that Chuck works with.

Usually, when we go anywhere, we go north or south (you can't go west in this state cuz there ain't no highways that go in that direction - weird, I know).  So anyhoo, it was a nice change to go East to a place called Eureka, an area that lies between the Talkeetna Mountains and the Chugach Mountains.  I'm not sure if Eureka is actually a town or just the name of the area.  According to Wikipedia, it's only a "census-designated place" consisting of 29 people when they took the last census.  Anyhoo, when people say they're going to Eureka, they usually mean they're going to a big outdoors mountainous area to play.  Anyhoo, we very rarely go East, and I don't know why cuz it is such a beautiful drive.  

Here are just a few pictures I took along the way.

Here is the scenery across the road from our "potty stop" in Sutton, AK.

(Yes, there is a town called "Sutton" - no relation to us, but sometimes people do actually ask us.)

It took about 1-1/2 to 2 hours to get there.  We got into our 4-wheelers (side by sides) and followed the trails.

The guy that invited us, Mike, was our "guide".  He's been through there many times and knew where all the trails went, and how rough they got.  He was very good at advising which ones to avoid, and which ones to save for another day.

More pictures:

This picnic table invited us to sit down and eat, but it was still too early.  So we took some pictures and kept going.  I'm actually surprised at how well these pictures turned out cuz most of them were taken while we were on the move, and it was a bumpy ride!

More pictures...

After about 3 hours of riding and soaking in the scenery, we got hungry and stopped for a bite to eat.

...and then took more pictures...

Mike's dog "Daisy" was a hot dog, so we stopped and let her cool off in a stream.  She just plopped herself in there and cooled off her belly.

"Aaaah, this feels so nice!"

Beaver dam.

Anyhoo, I know this was a lot of pictures.  Sorry about that, but this is only a fraction of all of them that I took.  It's just too beautiful there to not take hundreds of pictures! And if you went up there with me, you would know that pictures don't do it justice!!  

This was probably about 6 hours on the Side by Side, and we only covered a fraction of the area, and we didn't even go all the way to the end of this trail (the Belanger Trail).  Mike said it loops around but would take pretty much the whole day, and he didn't plan for it, so he promised to take us out another day and go around the whole loop.

That would be really fun!!