Red and Rey

 

Rey and Red - Red has a red collar

Red and Rey are both black labs, are the same age (both born around August 1, 2022), and look practically identical, but they are not siblings.  I got Red directly from a breeder in Palmer, and Rey is rescue dog I got through ARF (Alaska Rescue Foundation).  But she is also a pure bred Labrador originally from a breeder in Wasilla.  What is funny is that Red is an 'English' lab while Rey is an 'American' lab.  And yet they look like sisters.

But if you look closely there are differences, and they also have slightly different temperaments.  Rey is a little longer and leaner with a slightly elongated snout.  Red is a little more burley with a shorter snout.  Red is 'heavy' where Rey is 'light'.  Red also tends to be a little more mellow and secure with herself.  She prefers sleeping in her kennel crate at night whereas Rey has to be on the bed.

And yet they both love to play, eat their food with serious gusto, and have so much in common that sometimes I have to look closely at their collars to figure out who is who.  Finally in my defense - I did not pick Rey's name.  She came named after we had already named Red - Red had a red collar when she was a puppy so we stuck with the collar and name!  But it is also funny that they look so similar and also have similar names.

Now Bode he is Totally different!

Patrick

Rey and Bode

Lingonberries

King Crab For Dinner

 

Thursday night I was already eating dinner when a friend called and asked if I wanted to go in with him on some king crab.  A crab boat was selling live king crab at the docks.  I opted in and finished my pizza.

He picked up two crabs and I took my crab cooker burner, can of propane, and big pot over to his house to cook the crabs.  They were HUGE.  The first step was to clean them - basically flip them upside down, put foot on tail, and pull up with legs.  The shell comes off - it stays on ground under your foot.  Then we broke the crabs in half with our hands and cleaned off the gills etc.  We already had a 'cannibal' sized pot of seawater boiling on the crab cooker.  The guys who sold us the crab actually filled the pot with sea water for us from the hold of the boat.

We put the crab in the boiling water and it came back to a roiling boil quite quickly.  We then waited 20 minutes before taking the crabs out and putting them into a pot of ice water.  We cooled the crabs quick - this makes them easier to clean and extract from the shell.

Then I took my share home and had a couple HUGE legs for a second late dinner.  Way better than the pizza had been.  Friday I ate more crab and picked the rest.  I ended up with a lot of picked crab meat.  So much more than you get out of a Tanner crab or lobster.  Now I am putting it on my salads, and eating a lot of crab.  Totally worth it!

Patrick

King Crab salad

cooling the crab after it has been cooked to 'release' the shell from the meat

Cleaned crab before we put it into boiling water

Checking for Ice

 

Well we almost got ice for ice skating.  But now it has warmed up. It was freezing every night for a while there, and on Wednesday Nora and I went to Jack and Lee lakes with the dogs to see if the ice was thick enough.  I actually had high hopes and even brought along my ice skates.  But no it was not thick enough.  It looked like it needed another couple of nights.  

Last night the low was 46 degrees and it is supposed to rain hard tomorrow.  Oh well, time to wait for another cold cycle!

Patrick

Alder seed cones

More October Sunshine

 

We've had a run of spectacular weather of late - frosty nights with temperatures in the upper 20's and sunny, calm days with highs near 50.  In the afternoons after work I have been taking the dogs on walks up to the alpine.  We get to a spot with a view and I sit down and soak in the sunshine while the dogs do their thing.

These pictures are from Old Womens mountain on Monday.  Yesterday I climbed up Pyramid to check on the ice on a small lake.  The ice still is not quite good enough for ice skating.  But fingers crossed we have ice skating soon!

Patrick

Late Fall

 

The last few days I have been taking the dogs up Pyramid in the afternoon.  Still no snow but it has gotten a bit cooler.  All the long grass is standing and has not been knocked down by snow.  Tree leaves get their fall colors and then fall off the tree and disappear.  But the golden grass in the sunshine just keeps on glowing.

Yesterday I also picked a couple cups of lingonberries.  They have been frosted and are now soft.  But they also taste much better.  After picking the soft berries my hands were stained bright red.

Patrick