OCTOBER IS FOR PINK

WELL....after a completely wet, cool and unfruitful (literally, no fruit on my plants) summer, fall passed by quickly in glowing interior Alaska colors and right into grey and white winter. We've had our first snow and I was not, and am not ready for it.

As my friends know, I work a two week on, two week off schedule most of the time. On our time off we try to do a lot of out door recreating. But when I'm off and Ric's working, I like to spend as much time as possible working in the garden. I splurged and had another 12yards of garden soil delivered to start making new raised beds for next spring. Seamus the wonder mutt and I had been driving south several trips a day to collect some nice basalt and quartz rock to use in constructing the raised beds. After getting a 30 foot section built I had to go back to work. I even managed to get some painting done in the house each morning before going out to work in the gardens. So, going back to work I figured I had some time in the lovely fall evenings after work to continue on the gardens, get the Koi pond emptied and net the fish. I would also probably have plenty of time to get the established beds ready winter and collect all the hanging baskets, bird feeders and baths, baskets on the back fence...etc...

Then a few days into the work schedule winter hit. I mopped a day, hoping the forecast was correct and the warm up to the 40's would melt the snow... Ok, so the doggie and I were out there at the Koi pond, dressed in fleese, hats and gloves (Seamus in booties) using a garden shovel to break up inch-thick ice. I had to remove the ice to get the fish, filter and fountain out of the pond. Once the ice was broken into small chunks that I could remove with the shovel, I started using a 2 gallon bucket to remove the cloudy, murky water low enough to see the fish. As the temperatures dropped the pond filter didn't do a very good job of cleaning the water, and the chemicals didn't do much for the clearity either. After netting the larger fish into totes, I took more water out to find the smaller fish, inadvertently dumping one of the moors onto the snow...(don't worry, he survived) Unfortunately the little feeder fish were small enough to dart under leafs and between rocks where the scary net could't get them. I think we put around 3 dozen little (under 1") feeders in there in the summer, and I probably only found a dozen and a half. Needless to say they are fishcicles now.

And wouldn't you know it...a female hairy woodpecker flew in to check out the suet feeders behind me ...my camera was in the house, bummer. There she swung, not 4 feet away on the suet feeder. Naturally I had to stop slinging water and enjoy the moment. After lugging the fish totes into the garage I relized I was half frozen from the effort, and smelled like the pond. Except for one of the larger Koi dying overnight, the others seem uneffected by the change so I'm hoping they will survive the winter in the garage...or maybe the spare bathroom tub...the kids are gone now...hmmmmm.

And yes, I did manage to get all the plants pruned back for winter, baskets collected and even remembered to remove the garden hose this year!..it's sitting coiled by the 11 yards of soil waiting for spring.

The kids have all moved down to Seattle now; starting new lives there. The calls have slowed from multi-calls a day to a week or so apart...snifff...WOO-HOO...get to clean, paint and remodel some rooms now.

The days are getting shorter, the temps colder so the garden tools are in the shed for the time being, and the sewing tools are coming out. We were hoping for some time off together to make it to either Haines or Valdez this month for some critter photos, but that may have to wait until even later in the year. Winter also gives me more time inside to correspond. I had an email from brother Bob with email addresses for some of my long time no-see cousins down stateside, so I will try again to reconnect with some of them. He also included some photos of relatives down south that I had not seen in years...gosh I hope I didn't get that old already...:-)

After the kids moved I claimed a computer for myself and will attempt to set up another email account. Couldn't access the last one from work, so it was shut down from lack of use. Same thing happened to my flickr account. Hopefully I will be able to do that next time I have some time off...4 weeks from now I think. When I got back to work this time I found 5 emails from my friend Bon down in the Aleutians. She had attached photos of her new grandbaby Tatiana. It was an especially happy birth since her parents had lost premie twin boys nearly a year to the day. She is a beautiful little girl with a very proud, happy grandmother.

And a last thought for this blog....October is breast cancer awareness month. One of my co-workers just had radical surgery shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer. I was a bit shocked when a week later my doctor found a lump and sent me in for a new mamogram. When I had a baseline mamogram done years ago, they smooshed the poor boobies flat, one time each and called it good. This time they took films in several different angles, one having a redo from a blurred image. Yep, it was just as uncomfortable as I'd remembered but if it can help find something in time to cure it, then I'll suffer the discomfort gladly. I've not heard back from the doctor; it's been three weeks so I'm hoping that is a good sign. They haven't called and told me to come in right away, nor has there been any thing in the mail. Soooooo....if you haven't done it, become a member of the smooshed boobies club TODAY. Call your doctor, get a referral to the Breast Cancer Detection Center near you as soon as you can. Even if there is no history of breast cancer in your family (blood related) you can still be at risk. If it's been a while, go get a new one...it could save your life...

Here's hoping all you folks still enjoying fall have a great one, but if you've headed into winter as we have up here in the far north...may it be a quick one.