The Sleepy Schnauzer

So, if you are looking at this blog, you have seen a picture of a rather strange gray dog, "Murphy."

Sandy acquired Murphy about 15 years ago, just after I had to take a "remote" tour to Osan Air Base, Korea. Sandy felt she needed a little full-time company with me gone, and found Murphy just before she left Indiana to head up the Alcan highway for Anchorage.

Along the way up to Alaska, she taught Murphy how to "sing," which he practiced at every opportunity. We were especially fond of his singing practice at 2:00 in the morning (he seemed to like to sing in his sleep...)

When she finally got to Eagle River, Murphy had the run of the new neighborhood until one day he was up on the end of the road being walked by Josh. Murph got an instinct that Sandy was home... He left Josh in a flash, and tore down the hill to get home, and, as he was crossing the road, managed to get himself run over by a frantic neighbor (poor gal). A few stitches, and a little recuperation time later, he was out and about again. His skill in dodging cars was suspect, so I installed a "wireless" fence, to try to corral his wanderlust. A radio signal around the perimeter of our lot, and a receiver on his collar that would apply a 'harmless' shock to him if he got to close to the signal--'twas guaranteed to keep him in the yard. It worked, but most of the time, instead of exploring his yard, he'd sit in the middle of the property, trying to figure where it was safe to go. I kind of felt bad for him the time that Sandy put a leash on him and accidentally dragged him through the perimeter...ouch!

Murphy's favorite thing in the whole world was to go camping and hiking with us (unless he was chasing a squirrel). It was his job to hike the trail at least three times for each time we did it. One time we were biking around a 12 mile lake, and he got a bit winded at the end of the hike...I mean, wouldn't you if you'd just run 36 miles? Sandy felt bad for him, so she took a disk rack we used for camping, strapped it to the back of her bike, and taught him how to sit in it as we rode around. Murphy was extremely embarrased to be seen in a dish rack on the back of a bike, but after a bit of hiking, he learned that it wasn't so bad...and he could even lean his little head on Sandy's back as we bumped down the trail.

When Murphy wasn't hiking, or eating, he was sleeping. His favorite hero was Snoopy. Since Snoopy would sleep on top of his dog house, that's what Murphy wanted to do. But since poor Murph didn't have a dog house, he figured he'd just have to sleep on top of Sandy...

Murphy left this world in August 2008, and is now happily exploring all the trails that heaven has to offer a little gray dog.

A Firewood Day

Well, it's been a colder than usual winter these past few months. The local natural-gas company, Enstar has increased everyone's gas bill by about 30 percent, so I'm more motivated than usual to keep our wood-stove-insert stoked with firewood.

So for the last few weeks I've been scouring the neighborhoods for downed trees (birch preferably), that the property owners will allow me to remove. A rather nasty wind storm we experienced last October has made the hunt for downed trees a little easier. A couple of folks have given me about a cord worth of wood, and others haven't responded to my requests...oh well.

I did take a look on my own property, and yesterday, just above our home, discovered a 30-40 foot spruce tree that fell sometime during the past year. It's about 40 feet above our home, and the ground is covered with about three feet of snow, so getting up to it has been a challenge, and cutting it up safely has also been a challenge. Getting all the pieces down to the house has been an exercise in exercise (which, I suppose, is a good thing). I got about 12 feet worth of the tree down today--and we're burning a touch of it as I 'pen' this blog.... ahhh...warmth.

Whoever came up with the phrase, "Wood heats twice...once when you cut it, and once with you burn it" knew what they were talking about.