The End of the 2015 Gardening Season

With one exception, the rock garden, the 2015 gardening season is now officially over and the garden has been put to bed for The Dark Time.  I spared the rock garden simply because a couple of sedum are desperately trying to bloom.  I will need only about two hours of non-wet weather to put the rock garden to sleep so I'm willing to take the chance.

It was an interesting year.  May was the driest on record in this burg and the garden got off to a wonderful start.  This was a good thing.  Because June was much wetter than normal and July the wettest on record.  August was slightly wetter than normal and September nothing to brag about.  On the other hand, we're ending on a high note with five days of beautiful October sunshine.  It is almost a true fall.  Although the statistics argue against it, I feel like it was a pretty good gardening year.

So...a few final garden pics.

C'mon baby...you can do it!  A sedum struggles to bloom before a serious frost (we've had two non-serious frosts already)

This guy nailed it...just in time.

All the perennials have been cut down and the annuals tossed.

All secure 'til next spring.

 The buckets still look festive.  Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

The Barney Bench will keep an eye out...

But on a serious note.  I owe an apology to the resident porcupine whom I have cursed roundly for another assault on my apple tree.  Upon inspection, I have concluded that Yogi - not Porky - is the culprit.  The stove pipe you see (below) was tightly bound around the victim with many, many plastic ties.  I thought it impenetrable by even the most ferocious porcupine in these here parts.  The pipe was ripped-off with great violence.

The plot thickens on this whodunnit.

Upon a closer inspection by a completely untrained forensic examiner, it was noted that TWO large branches, both exceeding two inches in diameter, were severed from the main trunk.  The evidence suggests that the perp must have been in excess of 70 pounds and probably snapped the defenseless limbs either on the climb up, or the climb down from the victim.  The fattest porcupine seen in this neck of the woods of late couldn't have been more than 40 pounds.

But circumstantial evidence strongly points to Yogi as the perpetrator.

Sigh...what can you do?  At least the NRA is not yet arguing that bears have the right to arm.

Company Gone - Will Bob Return?

Bob Chapman left yesterday for home.  I very much enjoyed his company and I think his brother, John, sister-in-law, Cindy, and Uncle Don Milnes enjoyed his visit too.  John and I are working on him to make the move back to the ol' hometown.  He was non-committal but did not say "No".

Here are a couple of pics of the Chapman boys and Cindy I took at John's place.

 Bob and Cindy.  Not many October days us Juneau people can be out in our yards in the sun.  The furry creature is Mickey - a very nice dog about twice the size of Mischief but similar in demeanor.

John, Bob, Cindy and Mickey 

The Chapman Estate out North Douglas is really cool.  John and Cindy have put a lot of sweat equity into the property in the fashion that I am familiar with...pick and shovel work.  Lots of dirt and gravel to improve drainage.  They are on the edge of a muskeg...our temperate rain forest version of a swamp.  They have dug and filled with gravel lots of french drains.  The yard and garden are coming along nicely.  And they love what they're doing. 

I do believe they are fond of one another too.

I promise lots of pics from the Chapman digs next gardening season.  They just harvested 40 pounds of Yukon Gold and red taters.  I plan to plant a few spuds next year myself. 

On the home front I have been busy putting gardens to bed and enjoying every minute of our uncharacteristically dry first week of October.  Mom's and auntie's yards are now secured for the winter.  Mine is nearly so - today I dug my dahlias and raked more leaves.  I also put a bunch of stuff up in the rafters of the garage and a bunch more stuff outside for a dump run this week.

Tomorrow I will dig and toss the few remaining annuals in the garden and clean the garage.  I am inheriting Amanda's car for the winter and it will go in the garage.  I will use her spanking-new Suburu to transport the elders when a clean vehicle (as opposed to my filthy and fur-lined bark mobile) is called-for.     

It's predicted to be dry on Tuesday as well and I have penciled in a roof/drain cleaning expedition at mom's place.

Life is pretty damn good.

Yet Another Sad Day for the GOP

So Speaker Boehner has thrown in the towel.  On a personal level, it is hard to blame him.  The Speaker of the House has a daunting job under the best of circumstances - and lord knows Mr. Boehner has not been Speaker under anything resembling the best of circumstances.  He has suffered far more personal abuse at the hands of his Republican colleagues than he has from Democrats in Congress or the Obama Administration.

Still, my natural sympathy for the man is tempered by the facts.  Speaker Boehner, like the rest of the Whim-Whams of the Republican Party, cheered the rise of the Tea Party extremists.  And Boehner like his Senate Majority Leader colleague, Senator McConnell, has done much to make obstructionism and partisan gamesmanship the norm.

This is not to say that there are not Democrats also culpable for gridlock.  There are plenty of them.

But it is the Republican Party that has truly upended the apple cart. The much courted  Republican "base" is now largely just a rabble of the old, angry and disgruntled of the caucasian persuasion.  They apparently fear EVERYONE- immigrants, young people, anyone of color, gays, uppity women, and now even the Pope.

The Republican Party as it was constituted for most of the 20th century is dead - but afraid to fall.

How much longer can this nonsense go on without a true realignment in our political establishment?
 
Hillary Clinton is a credible person to woo the moneyed elite of the Republican Party - many of whom have, no doubt, had just about enough of the Republican base's excesses.  Gay bashing, women bashing and hispanic bashing is profoundly bad for business these days.

The Clinton's are certainly capital friendly.  And aside from the moneyed, she could certainly make a credible appeal to the moderates of more modest means of the GOP if the party continues on its course of martyrdom.

On the other hand, Mr. Sander's early successes (he is dear to my heart if not my head) is making an early courtship of GOP moderates a sticky wicket for Clinton II.

Over the long term I cannot help but suspect the time is coming for the United States to have something other than our customary two party system.

Mr. Sanders is demonstrating there may now be a critical mass for a party on the democratic left that is truly "leftist."  I would join it immediately.

And the Republican base's Tea Party brand of populism may be viable as an independent party...at least for the moment... until it's angry and aging members die of natural causes or lose interest.

We live in interesting times.

A Dry September Day

It's been mighty wet.  But this morning I woke-up to a foggy morning and once the fog burned-off it was very nice for a few hours.  My old friend, Bob Chapman, is visiting for a couple of weeks and we took the dogs out to Dredge Lake.  It was very nice.

The snow is slowly creeping down the mountains

This is about as much fall color as we will see...

Still a little fog on the lake

The K9s on patrol.

I think Bob enjoys the dog walks.

After I got home from hound hoofing I went out in the yard and cut-back many of my perennials.  Fall clean-up is my least favorite garden chore...because it's fall.  Spring clean-up is much more satisfying.  Nevertheless, I persevered and got about half of the job done before my back began to complain.  The next dry day I will try to finish it up.

The garden soil is very, very wet.  And I bet I rudely disturbed at least a hundred slugs.

Dinner with the Gals and their Pals

Hosted a prime rib supper for Amanda and Leah on Wednesday.  Their friend Kira and her boyfriend were supposed to join us but were unable to make it.  So...at the last minute the gals asked their pals Greg and Ro.  And I had previously invited my pal Enrique who was accompanied by Hope's and Mischief's K9 pal, Nikki.

A wonderful time was had by all.  I had some brie, smoked salmon and deviled eggs for appetizers.  A crab bisque course.  Then the main event with prime rib, pasta with pesto, cold asparagus with a vinaigrette, and a fruit salad.  Cheesecake with blueberry sauce for afters.  Quite tasty.

It doesn't get much better than this!

Leah wants to spend more time in Juneau.  And Amanda is in the process of closing the Happy Camper for the season - although I believe it almost certain she will return next year.  My fervent hope is that they both spend their summers here in the rain forest.

Mighty proud of those gals.

Put on your Dancing Shoes Mr. President...

I've been avidly following the President's trip to Alaska.  It's just possible the trip will prove meaningful in the long-run - the point in time when the petroleum industry led faux debate over whether or not man-made global warming is actually happening morphed into a more productive discussion about what we can do to mitigate the problem.

It was a substantive trip.

But having said that I have to confess that the highlight for me was the President doing a Native dance with the kiddos in Dillingham.  The kids were delightful and the Mr. Obama appeared to be truly at ease and enjoying himself.

If you missed it, here ya go:

In other news, we have now enjoyed three consecutive days of sun here in the rain forest.  Got mom's and auntie's yards mowed yesterday and mine today.  Also cleaned gutters.  Ugh!  Not much left in the garden but the foliage is still green so I have not done any cutting-back yet.

And the bloody deer ate all the impatiens under my trees.  Bastards!

The Daily Dog Walk - On a Beautiful Fall Day

Woke up to clear skies this morning.  And it is predicted to remain nice for the next three or four days.

The Dredge Lake complex in the Mendenhall Valley is my go-to spot for the daily dog walk.  I've been there almost every day since late last winter.  Last year I felt compelled to go elsewhere during the bear season - it seems that every time I turned-around there was a Yogi on the trail.  But I have not had a single encounter this year although they're certainly around.  When I'm walking the dogs I prefer to daydream rather than be on bear alert...

Dredge Lake has many memories for me.  I recall one summer, in particular, when the Chapman brothers and I were out there all the time.  George Chapman had just got his driver's license and liked to roar around the maze of dirt roads in the area.  John, Bob and I were along for the ride.  Big time fun.

In any event, here's the dog walk from this morning in pictures which happens to coincide with the first new snow on the mountains.

Dredge Lake - a favorite swimming hole back in the day...

 Mischief shows no inclination to go swimming however.  Not today.  Not any day.

In May there was little water in the area.  But it's plenty wet now.

 Hope loves her walkies.

Fresh snow on the mountains.

 This water wasn't here a couple of days ago...

Bad BAD beavers!

Beautiful spot on the Mendenhall River

Don't recognize the name; but there are lots of regular walkers.

A very nice morning indeed...