The mountain was out the other day, ya see!

FIRST OFFICIAL MOOSE SPOTTING on our property with the wildlife camera! (moose picture not cooperating at this juncture...soon though!)

It's moose season and moose are frantically going far, far away from humans. Wednesday though at 5:55 a.m. a moose sauntered by our wildlife camera on our new property! Do you know what this means!??!??!

Casey could get up at 3:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and sit out there for a few hours and maybe get a moose!!!! Moose for food. Moose for a full freezer. Moose for 2 years! Moose stew, moose steak, moose chops, moose jerkey, moose jam, moose pizza, moose grilled cheese, moose cereal.

Hint some of those are not possible.

It's Friday! We're off in the Jeep to try to 4x4 it back into our (new) property - maybe to set up a sitting station for Casey's hunt?

If it doesn't work out, at least it's fun to get into! Moose season is only 1 and 1/2 more weeks.....

Here are those shed/post pictures that I promised you all a while back :) HAVE GOOD WEEKENDS!

Well then, you sure can tell a whirlwind of school flew the days by! Bloggo missing of late de la Maria!

The school is going well and way less care factor easy mo-core 3rd year, same classes - catch that? Except I teach a last period of the day PE for varsity athletes which requires some last minute planning. They are wimpy complainers, and, but our job is to get them conditioned! Kids these days, they don't make 'em like they used to - Peter Cetera song.

Right now I'm watching "Drop Dead Gorgeous" a movie recommended by a friend, and I'm thinking, recommended? There are some quirks that's for sure. It's girl guffman stuff. Enjoyable enough to vege on a Monday night. I'm thinking I should treat Monday nights as party nights? Good idea or not good idea - you respond to me if you will a la comment cart.

The Alaska state fair is going on all this week, and we're thinking, "nah, had enough fairs in our Ohio time". But still they have those 300 lb. cabbages on display. Tempting, but not really.

In better reports, here are the singles I'm into right now as I grab a piece of pizza!

Womens Needs by The Cribs (inspires a certain shoulder shake dance within me)

Can't Believe a Single Word by VHS or Beta

Trading Twilight (an entire album) by Great Northern (worth a $6 pick up on itunes - some over the/sixpence/cardigans mellow feel)

Veruca Salt on new Charlie and Chocolate Factory sdtrk

I don't know why by Ben Kweller

Any Spoon singles off their new album - appreciated in the past - attention now given to officially

(new) Galvanized by His Name is Mike

Ride Like the Wind by Christopher Cross (absolutely excellent! Is Rick Ashley backup on that dad?)

Blackout by Muse

Born Losers by Matt Good

You Picked Me by a Fine Frenzy

Promentory on Last of Mohicans sdtrk

Check some of those out if you just need a lift in shuffling good singles. Much variety :)

Heard you're in the broken Land Rover window club Tracey!? That's hilarious and bad and weird and welcome to the club!

Hey anyone, ever tried Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches! TRY THE OREO ONES! AMAZING! Mom is here in 2 weeks! Woooyeah!! by for now ;)

A few extra pictures to post here while I explore some new music to start out the school year.

Still need to post pics of our shed - as I know you are all dying to see large peeled tree trunks cemented into the ground totem pole style. :) Teacher school tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

This weekend of camping was full of berry wilderness tundra excitement at Brushkana Creek!

Tundra is the crazy almost treeless land that only defrosts to 2 feet down and then it's back to frozenness the rest of the year. Berries grow rampid there! We picked for about 5 hours in the Saturday afternoon sunshine as our dogs quietly sat near onlooking in joy to have been taken on the trip at all :)

We picked about 15 quart size ziplock bags worth of the almost too ripe blueberries. Off to the freezer and it's blueberry pancakes and muffins all winter for us! Mom and Dad you'll get those special treats while you're here!

Check out my evil berry picking game face!

Side story: While driving there was a skinny mini-moose walking on the left of the highway. As we drove nearer, it started sprinting forward challenging us to a race! It was hilariously awkward and gangly freaking out trying to beat us/get away from us as fast as he could. Eventually he cut our friends off behind us and headed into the woods. Those of you who have seen a giraffe run, it's the same weirdness.

Our campsite was right on a creek and we just slept in the truck. After such a beautiful drive north about 3 hours and the berry picking in the sunshine that day, we would have camped for weeks! Unfortunately it rained all night and the next day was pure clouds....yet oddly getting back to Willow Sunday it was pure sunshine. Must have been the altitude in that Denali National Park region, and it's everso coined "own weather system". We'll definitely go back there every summer from now on!

Also, we'll pick cranberries around our land after the first frost and make even more muffins and whatnots with them!

Anyways, today we set up the back posts to our shed, measured and leveled them, and I sealed them with the brush on wood sealant. Tomorrow we finish the other posts like so. And maybe get the shed all done next weekend....rafters and roof need some more lumber though.

Good, good weekend prelude to a good school start this week. ONE MORE DAY OF SUMMER LEFT FOR US!

Moose spotting, up close and personal! AND NO CAMERA AVAILABLE!

Biked 17.2 miles on the Anchorage coastal trail Tuesday, and we were 5 feet from the puniest moose I've ever seen. It had big antlers though. Apparently the city moose are tiny growers as compared to our big fat waddling butt type Willow wilderness ones. HA! In fact we saw one on our road a couple days ago, proving that bears are off to hibernate?

That would be a good thing considering we're headed to bearry picking (you like spelling?) this weekend 3 hours north near Denali Nat'l Park and at a place called Cantwell.

Side note: I've been downloading a random slough of genres of music lately. Mostly lay low, jazz, night club type feels - minus the (nowadays) night club feel though and add Sinatra type martini feel? Also, in a completely different direction Veruca Salt from the Willy Wonka sdtrk. (Danny Elfman). One of the most hilarious songs I've EVER heard!

Will do's: read RSB on drive north tomorrow, post pics (won't forget camera this time) and report the camping trip later Sunday or Monday, avoid thoughts on 5am-5pm+ duties. Next week, teacher time calls.........

First August Post.

20 strawberries bourne! And they are so very, very good. Casey wants to plan a humongous field of them on our new property. Our other property building timeline is as follows for those interested: get land surveyed, marked, and layout building site this fall. Next summer, clear out trees, make driveway, put up LARGE fenced front yard for dogs and garden, put a well, septic and build a garage with 12x30 3 floor apartment on side of it (counting basement). Live there for 1-3 years until actual house building, unattached next door to garage/apartment. All log building!

Lately, days have been filled with sleeping, playing catan with friends, going to Anchorage for movie and shopping, searching for berries on our property, and just flat out milling around in enjoyment. Got lunch type groceries and school clothes rolling, necessary "ready for school" activities.

Bourne Ultimatum: B+
Saw it yesterday at the Fireweed Theater: Loud, fast, choppy, intense, recapped other 2 movies well, predictable, lots of slap noise-can't really see fighting and car wrecks, enjoyable, worth seeing in theater, might be less satifying at home, would see again only with other two prior to in the same night if I had the strength. Fun to see European city scenes as usual for me, and I must note I saw it on only 4 hours of sleep - most likely a major factor in viewage review.

Tomorrow we actually are going into school for me to meet the new English teacher in our dept., and for Casey to see if he gets his own room. Our newly (4 year old) built school is so nice but poorly, poorly planned in sizing, especially the elementary type gym size! Anyways, Casey was going to have to share (common for special ed smaller classes), but might not have to! WOO!

Rain, rain go away! It's been cloudy and rainy literally for 2 and 1/2 weeks straight! Argh! Need to have Indian summer sunny days at least before school starts which is August 15 for teachers, August 20 for us. By the way they took my tennis net down at the elementary school here! NOOooooooo!!!!!!

Countless 1960s buildings and signs in Anchorage. Good thing it's labeled like so, I was going in there for tires, but I guess not.