A Miracle!

Vacuuming a hound? Dimond Willow and Molly would never allow it. Vacuuming a bloodhound? Hmmmm. I don't know how or why Gus suddenly decided that this was okay, but who am I to question him? I will just enjoy it as long as he decides to humor me. 

Travel Time!

Busy, busy, busy.  Closed out the school year May 18th.  Flew to Palm Springs with a group of 14 kids (and my own 2) from Kodiak, Alaska for almost 2 weeks.  Learned that I could indeed survive 100+ degrees.  It is WAY more comfortable than east coast humidity!  Studied the desert, learned about the oil business from a guy who has been in it for half a century. Viewed wind farms. Boat tour of San Diego Harbor.  Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Laguna Beach. Went to the San Diego Zoo.  Hollywood.  Disneyland. Learned that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth until a bird poops on a kid's head! And had to stand in line behind a woman for 45 minutes at Disneyland with the most obscene tattoo I have ever seen. Wow. (Yes, I took a picture, no I'm not posting it!) Toured the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. Knott's Soak City water park. Learned that a 30 minute drive can take 3.5 hours when you use GPS. Met Evans Downer, an artist that spends summers in Alaska and the rest of the year in Joshua Tree National Park, where he works in his amazing desert studio. Learned that McDonald's closes at 10 pm in Palm Springs where the median age seems to be upwards of 75. And had a FABULOUS TIME with an unbelievably great group of 14 year olds!

Alyssa has this habit of hugging the first palm tree she sees after landing.  You'd think she was from Alaska or something.

We noticed right away that the desert is, well, rather brown.

Entrance to our condo in Palm Desert.  A bit of luxury!

Our fearless leader, my brother-in-law.

Desert sculptures in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Taking photos of the monkeys.  I mean kids.

Evans Downer.  Fabulous artist!

Relaxing at the condo in Palm Desert. Only MY children would sit in this hot tub when it was 103 degrees outside! We had a little discussion about something called "heat stroke".

Craziest place to build a house.  Directly on a fault line.  With a pile of loose rock about 50 feet directly behind the house.  Oh wait, in California they call that a mountain!  Either way, some day it is going to fall on that house.

Got back to Fairbanks and enjoyed 70 and 80 degree temperatures while trying to catch up on yard work and do some planting, along with the million other things that need to be done.

Flew out of CA on the coolest plane ever!

One more thing and the car would have exploded on the drive back to Fairbanks from Anchorage.

Aaaaaah! Fresh air once again in Cantwell, Alaska.

A happy hound greeting.

Awwww.  Gus can be so sweet!  Sometimes.

Now I'm going to prove that I can learn a lesson from some of my favorite blog buddies, and post more often!

TTFN!

I hate packing.

School is out for the summer.  Just finished closing down my classroom, which means putting EVERYTHING away.  Grading, recording, filing, sorting, boxing, organizing, cleaning.  The classroom is done at last.  Which means my house looks like a hurricane went through. Twice. Can't see the dining room table.  Mountains of laundry.  Dirty dishes.  Piles and piles of mail and bills to pay. And of course, dog hair.  Everywhere.  And we are supposed to leave tomorrow.  So what do I do? I quit.  That's right.  I'm done for the night. I am NOT packing anymore.  Right now I don't care if I drive to Anchorage tomorrow or not.  

We are traveling to California with a group of students from Kodiak Island.  It is a trip based around career explorations for the 8th grade students, which is actually a lot of fun.  Last year we traveled with them to New York City and Washington, D.C. Our flight leaves Anchorage Monday, but I was hoping to get there a couple of days early, since I have absolutely nothing to wear in the sweltering heat of Palm Springs.  But at this point, I don't care anymore!  Maybe in the morning I will care, but not now.  I am tired, I have a cold and I just want a day of vacation.  Sleep would be nice. Time to cuddle up with the dogs and relax.

Here is a current photo. This is what the front yard looks like.  Yardwork.  Woohoo. Something else to add to the list.  At least the snow is finally gone! 

Palm Springs, here we come... the yard can wait!

A Dog in School!!

My apologies for my TERRIBLE neglect of this blog.  Here are my sad excuses:

Lathrop Ballroom Dance Team Spring Show & Auction (I'm the team's assistant director)

and other Ballroom Dance Team performances

Easter

Prom (daughter #1)

17th Birthday party and overnighters(daughter #1)

14th Birthday party and overnighters(daughter #2)

Lathrop High School Musical, "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," 5 nights (daughter #1)

Track season (daughter #2)

Spring Choir Concert (daughter #1)

Spring Orchestra Concert (daughter #2)

UAF Graduation Party (2 relatives)

Physical Therapy Appointments (daughter #2)

Construction of a Box Kite (daughter # 2)

Solo & Ensemble Competition in Anchorage (daughter #1)

Retirement Parties

Various other school projects/reports/papers (2 daughters who needed "prodding")

...not to mention my own classroom family picnic, awards, field trips, field day, projects, papers to grade, report cards to finish, and yes, the ducklings that just hatched!!  Did I mention the taxes?.......  AUUUGGGHHHH!!!!

Well, at least I feel better now.  I guess I accomplished a lot over the last 4 weeks!

Despite the busy schedule, it is ALL FUN!  I just wish I had more hours in the day to enjoy it all.

Some of the greatest fun that I have had in a long time came through my connection with the famous Wimsey Bloodhound of Manhattan.  Over the last couple of months, his humans have written and illustrated a book for my classroom, detailing the history and some of the sights of New York City and comparing it to where we live in Fairbanks, Alaska.  My students have been enthralled with the project, and we read the book together several times.  We also looked at many photos of Wimsey and studied New York City on the internet.  In addition, we investigated hounds, learning the difference between sight and scent hounds.  We covered dog anatomy and dog care as well.  Of course special emphasis was placed on bloodhounds!  Last week we wrote letters to Wimsey and sent them along with some gifts, both for the canine and the humans.  My students were incredibly inspired by this wonderful hound, and wrote volumes for him, which was quite surprising in the case of several of the kids.  My principal even took note of the inspiration that Wimsey had on several of my struggling students, and discussed the project's positive impact on the learning environment in my classroom during an educational forum this week.  

How could I follow up on all this excitement in the classroom?  Well, I brought my own bloodhound, Gus, in for a visit, of course!  An ALL DAY visit!  Actually, this is his third year of visiting my school.

What a grand day we had!  Gus arrived with me at 7:45 a.m. and we made the rounds saying hello to staff.  He is always greeted with a smile and a pat.  At 8:30 a.m. my students arrived, and greeted Gus with squeals of delight.  He took it all in stride.  As the kids sat on the floor in a group to say hello, he rolled onto his side and wiggled around the group, touching each student with his nose.  For such a large, awkward hound, he is incredibly gentle with children. When my students went off to Music, Gus and I made the first of our scheduled visits to other classrooms to teach a little about hounds and dog care.  The kindergarten children sang the Dog Alphabet song to him.  We visited a 3rd grade classroom where he ate two pencils and a folder. We also visited the 1st graders and a multi-age classroom during the course of the day.

Gus met the one week old ducklings that our 2nd graders incubated over the last month. It was hilarious.  He was very hesitant at first, but then he and one of the khakis had a "conversation." Nose to nose!  I think the khaki won, because Gus backed off first!

Back in my classroom, we talked a lot about responsible dog ownership, like what to feed/not feed your dog, walking your dog daily and how to pick up poop responsibly.  We drew and colored pictures of bloodhounds and reviewed dog anatomy.  (Do YOU know where the pastern is?) We walked Gus several times and saw first hand how a bloodhound follows his nose.  At the end of the day, the kids were sad to say goodbye, and several wanted to keep the cardboard tubes that Gus had chewed for souvenirs!  What a WONDERFUL DAY we had!  I wish I could post pictures of my students with Gus, but for obvious reasons I cannot do that.

              (Gus says goodbye to the kids at the end of the day)

I am so proud of my big bloodhound.  He is a fabulous dog, gentle and nurturing with each child.  I am very lucky to have him, and to have a principal that is happy to allow a giant dog to come to class for an entire school day!  

Evening Visitor

It has been a very busy and stressful few weeks with many activities and commitments, and I have had to completely put this blog aside for awhile.  As busy as it's been, we have enjoyed seeing owls almost each evening on our drive home.  We generally see them perched on the very top of the birch and aspens at the base of our hill, basking in the evening sun about 7:30 pm,  but always far enough away to make them hard to identify.  We often hear the calls of the Great Horned Owls around our house, but have never been lucky enough to see one up close. So imagine our surprise on Wednesday to see a Great Gray Owl perched in a birch tree very close to home!  We stopped to admire him, but realized we didn't have our camera.  We quickly drove home and returned to find him still there, lazily enjoying the sun.  Photos are courtesy of Alyssa.

When we went home, we looked up facts about the Great Grays.  They are the largest owl in North America, with a 60 inch wingspan!  They are quite rare to see, although they are active in the evening hours. (Remember, there is no "night" in Fairbanks in the summertime!)  Great Grays have amazing hearing.  They can hear a vole under 2 feet of snow, and dive in head-first to capture their prey! We were surprised, and none too happy, to find that the Great Horned Owl is the main predator of the Great Gray.

We were happy that the hounds were NOT with us when we saw this magnificent raptor.  Gus is a very visual hound, and would have most definitely tried to climb the tree to sniff the owl, and the coonhounds, well, it's hard to say what they would have done had it moved from the birch tree...

Pass the Halibut, Please!

What can I say?  Gus loves his halibut!

Yummm!  Later we had deep fried Valdez halibut with a crispy salad.  As for Gus and the other hounds, welllllll..... they didn't!

Wordless Wednesday!

Dog Walking 101

Humans have a lot to learn about dog walking. Especially walking three hounds named Molly, Dimond Willow and Gus.

Dog Walking 101 tips for humans
compiled by The Three SoundHoundz:

1. let the dogs lead

2. let the dogs wrestle

3. do not get in the dog's way

4. leashes are for tug-o-war, not leading

5. let us bay as loud as we wish

6. run

7. run faster

8. hurry up

9. if you fall, roll out of our way

10. provide adequate couch space once we're back home

And good luck getting out of the driveway.

Our best wishes to all you dogs for a good walk with your humans!

Molly, Dimond Willow and Gus

The SoundHoundz of Alaska

"SPRING" Break? I think not.

BEEEEEEEEEP (classroom intercom). Please excuse the interruption. We will be having outside recess today. There is a slight breeze and it is above zero. Be sure to wear all of your gear.

My students stared in disbelief out the window as the announcement came over the intercom. The trees outside the window were bent in half, and the snow blew in great waves horizontally past them. The kids trudged quietly to the closet area and began gearing up for a long 30 minutes outdoors. Only an hour to go until Spring Break would finally begin.

Later, upon returning to the classroom, a student described the recess as "brutal!"

Yes, it is officially Spring Break for the public schools here in Fairbanks, Alaska. But where is the Spring? Definitely not here. Maybe in Minnesota where Bentley lives. Maybe in the DC area where Marmalade resides. Possibly in Central Park where Wimsey frolics. But most definitely NOT here.

Surprisingly, no one hung around to play on the playground after school.

A new weather system deposited about a foot of fresh snow, then promptly left the area with clear skies and temperatures back on the negative side. And a season total of 60+ inches of the fluffy stuff. Where else do teachers send their students out the door for Spring Break with stern reminders to take their boots, snowpants, gloves, hats and scarves because YOU WILL need them?

And as the parent of two teenage daughters, notorious for their ability to shun warm winter gear, I came up with a brilliant plan for celebrating the first night of Spring Break! We would stop at Coldstone for ice cream! Hooray! It was all happiness and love until I mentioned that it would be a photo opportunity for the blog as well.

Are you kidding? Have you lost your mind? It's something like 90 below zero in that wind!!? Mom, this is TOTALLY not funny!

Unfortunately, all I had was my iphone camera, otherwise the disgusted expression on one particular face might have been a little more clear.

I dropped over $20 on ice cream! Where was the love?

It was a long treacherous drive home through blasting wind, and I thankfully pulled the car in the garage.

As usual, I was greeted by the raucous baying of our three hounds, Molly, Dimond and Gus. All thoughts of bad weather flew from my mind, as we turned towards feeding and taking them out for a romp in the snow. By this time, the wind was dying down and the temperature was on the upswing. Time for a delightful frolic as dad plowed the drive for the 3rd time in two days! Even the surly teenager was happy in her sugar rush and was ready to play with the hounds in the snow. A Spring Break miracle, indeed!

(Thanks for your patience with the buffering, it's a rather long video)

Well, it may not be spring yet, but it is a break from the daily grind. And with our hounds, we WILL enjoy it, snow and all!!

Wordless Wednesday!