Head toward the Light!

The days are finally getting noticeably longer.  I nabbed the following information from our US Naval Observatory page.

 

Wednesday

2 April 2008          Alaska Daylight Time

SUN

Begin civil twilight       6:32 a.m.

Sunrise                    7:17 a.m.

Sun transit                2:03 p.m.

Sunset                     8:50 p.m.

End civil twilight         9:35 p.m.

 

Thank heavens we're finally getting some sunlight around here!  I think that's got to be the most difficult part of living in Alaska – at least for me.  Last year, the winter bummed me out and the summer kept me awake for all hours of the day and night.  As you can probably guess, I've had to do some adjusting up here. 

 

I can tell that the dogs are feeling the coming spring, as well, since they are spending more time on the tops of their houses.  Zed, in particular, has been snoozing on the flat plywood top of his bachelor pad.  (Pictures of that to come this evening, when I catch him at it once again).  Actually, last night I woke up at 3:00 AM to take File' out to go potty and there Zed was, still snoozing on the top of his box.  I suppose that with such an insulated coat, 30 degrees must feel pretty tropical!

 

On the puppy front, I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't posted anything especially derogatory about our poor puppy lately.  File' has finally settled in at our place, becoming more of a puppy and less of a flat-out hellion.  Don't get me wrong – she still gets into things and she drives some of out adult dogs batty, but she's acting more like a dog and less like a demon.  She absolutely loves to play with Clover, and I think that the feeling is probably mutual.  Last night I saw Clover actually shift gears into protective mommy-mode, even though she's not File's biological mom.  Calvin, it seems, got a little too close to File' and attempted to take a nibble of her.  Clover quickly lay down the law and after some gnashing of teeth (Clover's!), Calvin exited stage left and left File' and her new friend alone.  In as many ways as Clover drives me crazy sometimes (she's happy about everything from feeding to playtime and is usually quite vocal in expressing her pleasure), she also really impresses me.  I really scored a nice dog when I bought her (thanks, Ed and Ruth!!)  I'm especially excited that I have more dogs from essentially the same breeding headed my way in the coming weeks.  It's going to be a great 2008/2009 sledding season!