Christmas! (Warning: this post has been hijacked)

Merry Christmas Everyone! Yay, time to relax and hang out with good friends and eat, drink and be generally merry! In the next few days, we've got plans for skijoring, tobogganing (damn that's hard to spell!), relaxing, watching episodes of The Office on DVD (thanks for the great present, Stacie! I never disappoint myself with the gift giving...) and loads of movies, reading some new books... or... sleeping. :)

The dogs are in fine form and enjoying the mild weather we have here now, -5C! Add a few feet of snow and things would be even better!

Ok, I'm being bothered here by a little white Tasmanian devil-of-a-dog who needs to have her say, so here you go you little twerp (she thought I was emailing Santa, wouldn't believe me when I told her I wasn't):

Hi Santa! This is Pooh Bear! writing on behalf of Chaos Kennel dogs. Ok, the rest of them don't really actually *know* I'm writing, but that's ok 'cause I'm sure they're TOTALLY fine with it!  I have had a bit of time on my paws while Stacie-human is at work all day and I've been thinking and planning HARD about what I... er, WE, deserve. We've been VERY GOOD dogs, I swear.  I planned to get this sent off BEFORE Christmas Day but Stacie kept me off the laptop for most of this past week, it's all HER fault! I was composing this list in my head but y'know, things come and go out of there pretty fast.   


But it really doesn't matter because you are amazing enough to know exactly what I... er, WE, want. So I'd like to thank you for the following:

• Dog beds - even though I am usually moving too much to actually use one for any length of time, I hear the other dogs REALLY REALLY like them.
• Frozen fish - I know you had nothing to do with it but I still love the frozen Arctic Char, I could eat it every meal and then some!!!!
• Cookies - dog cookies from the Feed Store - they give us a FREE BOX every Christmas. Thank you, welovecookies!!! Ok Santa, you had nothing to do with this one either I hear. What's up with that? 
• Tennis balls - TENNIS BALLS, need I say more!?!?!? Ok, you did give us all tennis balls! Yay! (But secretly I think you really meant for them all to be just for me... right?)
• And the very bestest present in the history of the canine world:

OH-MY-GOSH-I-LOVE-IT!!!! I mean WE will love it as soon as we can convince Stacie to get out there and shoot some balls off for us! Thanks Grandma Marilynn!!!! You're the best dog-granny in the world. Ever. I will spin in one thousand circles for you today! Hee heee I'm giddy with excitement. I need to chase a ball!!!!!!!

Since this year was so fantastic I will refrain from asking for the following gifts until next year:

The Dog Umbrella, Santa - maybe an Easter present?

Oh how awesome would this be in the summer!?!? Santa comes every month right?

I would like one of these very much but Stacie says something about the cat not being included? Can you say RIP OFF!

This multi-ball flinger-thingy will be great if Stacie's arm ever tires from the SLINGSHOT! Hee hee.

Oops! I hear the snow machine start, I think we're going for a run, I think we're going for a Christmas Day run I better go!

Oh one more thing, I better grab my toque - thanks for that one Santa! (that is a model below, not me, I can't stand still like that for pictures! Who can?? Is that dog drugged or something? Why is he/she not panting? Or jumping up at the camera? Or spinning in circles?! Weirdo.)

Gotta go, happy-merry-christmas-and-joyous-new-year-and-i-hope-the-dogs-in-your-lives-got-loads-of-presents-and-pets-just-like-us-and-if-not-get-on-it-eh?!?!  Byeeeee.

Skijorrrrrr!

Thanks to our scant amount of snow so far, say a whopping 2 inches...the skijoring and sledding on the sled hasn't happened yet.

So I went down to the river to check out the conditions and.....

WHEEEEE!!!!!!!!!  We weren't down at the river at all last year, not sure why - because it is soooo much fun. Look at the fun the dogs are having! This is also notable as this is the FIRST time Ivy (cowdog) has been loose with this crew. I feared for everyone's safety with her and Gracie and George loose together, but with the G's getting on, almost 10(!!!), they must be mellowing out.

It helped that I had them chasing the skidoo and in that excitement there is no time to think about the new dog joining them on the trail.

I started out with Harris, just trying one dog at a time to start.


The others are loose and not bugging him too much. He's focused!



Obstacles in the trail won't stop us!


Or my skis, luckily!


Ok, one dog not fast or crazy enough - let's try two!

This is me not working very hard, which is apparent by the ski poles hanging there in the air... haha! It's why I love skijoring - it's fast and crazy and if you go short distances, you really don't have to work too hard!

That said, they got a bit tired on the way back and I actually had to work! Poling was impossible as poling on ice doesn't get you far, but I could skate ski, so that was certainly enjoyable. :)








I love how they're leaping together here.



The view from my pant leg.


Milling about after the run. We did about 7km, until we hit (not literally) a tree we (I) couldn't get under. Need to take the chainsaw on the next trip!

Are we done? Can we go back to the couch yet? We hear the wood stove calling our names!

Holy Sunrise!

So bloggers and the papers were posting the amazing red sunrise we had yesterday.  The Yukon News has a beautiful picture up right now, check it out. I woke up to blazing red coming into the loft  and tried to snap a few pics on my point n' shoot - this camera can take a HELL of a beating - it's survived being dropped countless times, run over by 4-wheeler, dropped in snow, temporarily lost in snow, drop-kicked, chewed on my canines... but can't quite capture the redness of the sun. Oh well, at least it still works!

My little spindly tree in front of the cabin. I debate with my inner-self often whether or not I should chop this ugly sucker down but it's kind of grown on me...

Somebody's been using my computer... (and "this post magically takes on a mind of it's own")

And her name is...

Pooh Bear!


Whaaaat?!?! Just checking my fan mail!! People love me, they really really really love me... ooh! What was that over there? What's Ripper getting into? You should really watch him y'know. Geez, some dogs can be a pain in the butt.

So, apparently, PB has re-discovered the couch. Now I can't keep her scrawny butt off it. I blame it all on Amanda's visit, since PB hasn't been on the couch for about a year - she first discovered it then, and was on it a lot. Then she must have forgot about it. Because there are other things to do out there, like chase your tail! Or scream and spin in circles!!!

In other news, we got new lights around here!

New kitchen lights.






Since the remote died on the fan, I put my limited knowledge of all-things-electrical and wired in a speed control for the fan. It even works!

Speaking of electrical knowledge - here is one of the outdoor flood lights.


Boy these are sweet! It's light as day out there in the dog yard now. The switch is indoors too, so if there's any trouble brewing out there, I can flick on the thousand watts of light and see what's happening!

I'm kind of addicted to lights now, I want more...

And.... of course Gracie is always there to give a helping hand!

She was actually pretty brave, as she lay down right underneath me and the ladder. Apparently she didn't notice how I seem to drop things on a regular basis from the top of the ladder.  Just a few small things, like, oh a hammer, nails, a couple screwdrivers, screws, wirecutters, etc. Maybe I should invest in a tool belt or a tree bag.

So, HOURS later... and I got really distracted by going to look for a picture of a tool belt. I thought I might find an interesting tool belt on the internet, and that search took me in a million different directions.  There is probably about 32 degrees of separation between that search and what I ended up with: BACON FLAVOURED DENTAL FLOSS!!!  (god, I really really really love the internet).


AND... that's not all! I found more items to put on my Christmas shopping list. I hope I don't ruin the surprise, but mom - I really think this one's for you!


You needed a new shower curtain right?

'Tis the season!!!! :)