Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my baby sister Patti, seven years my junior. That makes her....

Annual Winter Weather Reports

I just can't help myself...









It was -16 at my house this morning,
-20 at my brother's house next to the
Little Susitna River.

Starlings

Memories of the 101st Airborne

In 1973 I was a Medic in the 101st Airborne Division stationed at Ft Campbell, Kentucky. Out by the airfield on the post were fields that looked just like the ones in this video. The fields were populated with flocks of Starlings that as I recall numbered in the millions. At the time there was an on going war to eradicate them because obviously they were a hazard to aircraft operations. I ran across this video that brought back the memories. This flock is estimated to be 300,000. The flocks that I remember were twice or three times the size. If you were standing on the edge of the field when the took off the blocked out the sun.

Click on the picture to see the video.

Just because I like it...

Bumper sticker...

'To err is human. To forgive is divine.
Neither is official USMC policy. Semper Fi.'

Smart Dog

Old Dog, New Trick



Every evening after work I take my old dogs for a walk. Our routine goes something like this. They meet me at the door, tails wagging, overjoyed to see me, the source of all good things to eat. I give them each a dog treat while I put away things I'm carrying and glance at the mail. Then I go upstairs to my loft bedroom to change from work clothes to blue jeans. My malamute follows me upstairs talking to me constantly. The older dog, Kiska, stays downstairs in the kitchen, she doesn't do stairs anymore. After I change we return to the kitchen, I put on a hat and coat and out the kitchen door we excitedly explode to go for our walk.
Last night I was delayed in the kitchen by some mail that I took the time to read. The malamute, Shadow, was dancing around talking to me but I was ignoring him. Suddenly he stopped harrassing me and bolded for the stairs. He ran up the stairs and waited about 20 seconds. Then he ran back down the stairs, bounced into the kitchen talking excitedly and poking me with his nose. With his toenails clicking loudly on the laminate floor, he scrambled around and headed back up the stairs, waited a few seconds and then came looking for me again. The third time it finally sunk into my distracted brain what he was doing. So while praising him for being so smart and being a "good boy" the fourth time I let him lead me upstairs where I changed clothes as fast as humanly possible and raced him downstairs and out the kitchen door for thier walk.

Camouflauge

"Follow the white rabbit."

It was a balmy 29 degrees this morning when I took the dogs for a walk. Sticking out like a sore thumb about 30 feet from my driveway was a Snowshoe hare all huddled down secure in the belief that his natural camouflage would protect him from being seen by me and the dogs. The dogs couldn't see him over the driveway berm and the undergrowth. Since we have no snow yet, his white winter coat wasn't doing a very good job of concealing him.

Results of the Wind

"Where have all the...leaves gone?"

The wind blew pretty good last night, stripping the last of the yellow leaves from the trees. The termination dust had crept about half way down the Talkeetnas this last rainy week but the wind brought warmer temperatures and the snow retreated over night. It currently 51 degrees at Trippingovermoose Ranch.

Fall and the Case 450

First blog update from my I-Phone.

My friend Bob brought his loader over this week. He's preparing a
building site on the Eastern edge of the ranch for my daughter and her
family to build a house next spring. That leaves the western 1/3 of
the ranch available for my son to build on when he returns to "God's
Country," after college.

Fall Fell

After the Rain

It's been raining the last few days with a bit of wind. Most of the autumn leaves are now piling up in wet drifts on the ground. When the sun peaked out this afternoon I thought I would get a shot of the leaves remaining attached to the trees and the termination dust on the Talkeetna Mountains.

September 16, 2009

One Year

Everyone said, "wait a year, before even thinking about the future." I guess they were right because today it's a year later I still have no goal, plan or vision for the future without Kate. Maybe sometime during the next year ...

The healing process means that after one year I think less about the weeks of bad times when she was sick and find myself thinking more about and enjoying the memories of the years of good times. Like when she and I attended Marti Gras in the cold, windy rain in Galveston, Texas. It was just one day while we were waiting to board the Carnival Cruise ship to attend Matt and Deanna's wedding. The Marti Gras parade was pretty good and people on every float threw beads at us. I gave her almost all that I caught to add to her haul. Kate was smiling and laughing like a kid collecting all her beads. When we got home she put them all in a wooden "pirate's"chest for the visiting nieces to play with.

A Voice From The Past

Talk Radio
In April of 1987 my father, Gordon R. Nelson, had a telephone interview about his cookbooks with talk radio host, Tom Carrol, of WENE, apparently in Endicott, NY. The interview was suggested by one of Dad's fans in the area. Sometime afterward a tape of that interview was send to my parents home. My mother and I listened to it for the first time today. I captured it digitally and post it here for the rest of the family to listen to.
(Click Here to Listen)
To copy the file to your computer, click on the Click Here to Copy link, then right click on the Interview.Mp3 file and do a "Save Link As"
(Click Here to Copy)