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September 3, 2021: Home on the Range

My absolute best days are the days in which I don’t have to go anywhere. Used to be, before we moved here, that I’d ride my bicycle most places. And when we moved here, I continued to ride my bicycle wherever it was I needed to go, mainly to Moose Creek Range, where I cleaned horse pens and hung out with young Raudi.

I wanted to keep bicycling, but the long distances made this prohibitive. It took two-three hours to get to town and back, time that I needed for doing other things, mainly cleaning horse pens on the home front.


Mucking at Moose Creek Ranch


I have considerable regrets about this – I so enjoyed bicycling. But perhaps I will someday live in a place closer to town. It’s not here, that’s for sure. So these days, I’m getting around in my 1991 SAAB. It’s a fine car, has plenty of room for books. And I have plans to transport Sassy, my new goat, in the back once I get her. I will have to put up some kind of partition between the front and rear of the car, either that or crate train her.

I don’t like driving, what I dislike most is dealing with the time it takes to get from point A to Point B or from Point B to Point A. Road construction has been a constant the past few weeks – waiting, waiting, waiting, grr, grr, grr.

The upside of time being consumed by local travel is that I am more appreciative when, like today, I get to spend the entire day here. I manage the time I do have carefully, and today was no exception. I first got Raudi and Tinni out, then I made some project phone calls.

I hit paydirt – I pretty quickly located the right person at the Salvation Army office in Anchorage, and so the Christmas books that I’ve been stockpiling for close to two years are going to be transported by the Alaska National Guard to Alaska Villages right before Christmas. I had attempted to get on this bandwagon last year but was too late.

Next, Pete and I took Tyra and Hrimmi on a trail outing. We were out early enough so we didn’t have to deal with the hunters. Did hear them later, as I was picking raspberries.

As I’m writing this, Pete is making black currant/raspberry jam. Today he also made a goat gate in the goat shed, so I can get in and out of the front room easier. Previously, there was only a wall.

Lastly, I put away the August course agility obstacles and put up the September course agility obstacles. I looked at the course outline beforehand, and it looked daunting. But in setting it up, I foresaw that there were possibilities.

And tonight I put together signage, website, and tee-shirt information for a recycling center staff person.

So yeah, it was a full day, one in which things got done because I didn’t have to venture to town. I will never take such days for granted.

Next: 244. 9/4/21: Wear Your Helmet, Damn it

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