Adjusting/Settling In

Adjusting/Settling In
May 24th 2010
wolfmoonsleddog
Southeast
Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 6:55pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 75 degrees F (28C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, raining, thundering
Forecast: Thunderstorms possible tonight and tomorrow. Highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s


Susan, Calypso and Bonnie play in the dogpen.

Everything’s so #&!&*$#@ green!
-”Death At A Funeral” (2007 version)

And so here we are settling into some semblance of a routine, despite the fact that I am still getting my room in order, my stuff in order, my stuff in my room in order, etc.

I forget how lush things in the Southeast can be. Coming through Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama into Georgia, all the hills and mountains were green and welcoming. There really is a mysterious feeling in some of those places. We traveled through secluded hollows (I know, Southeast, hollows. CLICHE!) and places that seemed nicely mysterious. And after beeing used to pointy trees, I noticed how everything resembled broccoli.

I missed mountains while in Minnesota. There are, of coures, the Sawtooth Mountains around the edge of Lake Superior’s Noth Shore - which seem especially mountainous during the Beargrease races - but I must say, I enjoyed coming through some of the South’s ridge and valley country.

And it’s just so lush. And it hasn’t been *too* hot yet. I know soon the lushness will turn into a dry firehazard while the air remains muggy and that the heat will hit full-tilt later this Summer. But right now I am enjoying it. Though I still feel a bit displaced. I keep thinking ‘oh I need to go do this…’ only to realize that the place I need to go to is back on the North Shore. I miss my friends and my MN “family”.

Jen gave birth to a healthy baby girl last week. Her name is Elena and I am sorry to have missed her arrival. However I continue reading Jen and Blake’s updates and I’ve seen lots of pictures!

I am currently working on several projects. More on most of these later. Right now, I have to figure out how to put everything in my room in order. I moved all of my notebooks off one bookshelf, onto another and all the books off THAT shelf…

I am weeding out some of my books. I hate giving books away, especially ones I enjoyed. For instance, I have a large collection of the Animorphs books that were popular back around 2001 (”back” around 2001? I remember that like it was yesterday!). I used to LOVE Animorphs when I was about twelve. I thought they were the best books ever written. I introduced one of my friends to the books and we drove all of our other friends up a wall by making EVERYTHING some-how Animorphs-related. And we both wrote some spin-off fan-fiction (although we didn’t know that what we were writing was even called fan-fiction). When the series ended, we resolved never to read the last book until it went out of print.

I haven’t read any Animorphs in years. The other day, I started flipping through them and was shocked to see how big the font in them is. Kind-of like a large-print book.

I am passing these books on now. Not because I don’t like them…but I am not going to read them and there is really no need to keep them. Maybe someone else will find them and enjoy them the way I did. Still, it’s kind of sad to let go of books that meant such a huge amount to me at one time. A time that doesn’t seem at all that long ago.

As a matter of interest, I got on Wikipedia and looked up what happened in the final Animorphs book. My thoughts were ‘Wow, that is amazingly depressing.’ It left me feeling sort of the same way that passing the books on made me feel. I’m glad my friend and I chose not to read it when it came out.

But this is getting terribly off-topic. Sorry.

Another thing I realized was that I had all of my harnesses and lines and dog gear stored in my room. Um, why? I’d never really thought about it - that just seemed the logical place to put it. And when it was just one, two dogs this wasn’t really a problem. But with three huskies now (plus the two pets here) and being more seriously involved in sled dog sports…I have a lot more stuff! If I tried to keep it all in my room there wouldn’t be any room to walk…and that’s with my room TIDY!

And then in the meantime, I have things hanging on the dogpen fence. A scrub-brush, a hose, poop scoop, etc. And the poop bucket lives upside-down on a small stump. It works but it looks kind of tacky.

And THEN I have food and food-related stuffs in the basement by the back door. So I have dog stuff EVERYWHERE. Not to mention the sled in the woodshed.

So I had the brilliant idea of why not fix some sort of shed by the dogpen? Then ALL the dog stuff could go in there and be out of the house and we would have room to move around with out bumping into harnesses, lines and food buckets. My first thought was one of those plastic, pre-fab sheds but they are ridiculously expensive for what you get and they aren’t particularly easy on the eyes. So we are going to build a shed for dog stuff. I am excited about that.

The huskies seem to be very happy. They are constantly playing, which freaks Wilson out to no end. His response is to scream/bark at them in a very disturbed way. I enjoy being around them and they are enjoying lots of hugs and attention. Susan has gotten into the habit of jumping into my arms and doesn’t mind if I cradle her like a baby. Bonnie is blowing her coat very nicely and I am pleased about that. Susan is starting to shed out too. I wish Calypso would shed out. Like last year, she has that wooly Winter coat that just doesn’t want to come out.

Bonnie has been enjoying part of an old dead tree in the lower yard of the dog pen. Part of the trunk and the upturned roots are exposed and Bonnie has been digging around it. The other day, she actually lay down on her side and dug at the trunk, pausing now and then to stick her nose in the dirt and snuf!

The girls have also decided they like to wipe their muzzles on my shirt after they eat in the morning. And they ALWAYS have kibble mush on their chins after they eat. Punk puppies!

I clipped April yesterday so she should feel so much better. She is aging and I can see a difference in her even since I was here briefly in March. However she is still happy and seems to really enjoy the antics of the huskies. She doesn’t participate but she seems to enjoy the frenzy of activity going on around her.

On a totally different topic, I am going to take the GED. Some places want transcripts but the classes I am wanting to take require a GED rather than transcript. So I have a book to study for said test and have been reading about it. It doesn’t sound too bad, other than that it’s a 7+ hour test. The next step will be to take the diagnostic test in my study book to see how I do and what areas I might need to improve upon. All and all, though, it seems a lot more straightforward than the SAT.

I am going to be doing some work at a farm near here. The people there have been family friends for a long time and I have seen them off and on throughout the years. I will be doing gardening work and such. It will be good for me to stay active doing things outside like that (not that I’m never outside here - I’m outside at the house a good bit). And on the plus side, there are two approx. 6-week-old Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd puppies named Albert and Ana. They are seriously CUTE and they are HUGE compared to the little husky puppies I am used to - even the little chunks like Alcan, Capt. Spruce or Roisin (THE Chunk).


Me with Albert and Ana

Over and out for now! I am working on a post about dogs from MCK and the different places they have ended up and all the great people they have ended up with! Stay tuned.

A

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4 Responses to “Adjusting/Settling In”
colddonkey on 25 May 2010 at 6:20 pm # edit this

Alice, good luck on the GED. Really though with your writing ability I see no reason why you would have any trouble with it. What ever classes you plan on taking I hope they involve writing you seem to be a natural.

wolfmoonsleddog on 25 May 2010 at 6:56 pm # edit this

Thanks, Colddonkey. I don’t think it is going to be as scary as I initially thought.

I am planning on working on a veterinary technician degree but I certainly will continue writing. I’ve always loved to write - both fiction and nonfiction!

A

Dave Lukosik on 25 May 2010 at 8:01 pm # edit this

I think the caption to the first photo should be “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” , Thanks Cindi Lauper! As always you ended your post with another great photo! I will be fun to see the reaction of your girls to the smell of Albert and Ana on your clothing and person! Welcome back home!

wolfmoonsleddog on 30 May 2010 at 3:16 pm # edit this

LOL, yes! The girls would happily play all day long (and they do!).

The girls were VERY interested to smell Albert and Ana. I could tell they were thinking “Who are those puppies and why can’t we see them and play with them!’

A