Wednesday began as a foggy and dreary day.

October 4, 2012 – Thursday

37 degrees

Pentoga Road

I’m not sure what I’m doing up at three-thirty this morning reading papers and entering grades. I awakened around two, wide-awake, ready to spring from bed for the day. Now, is that sick?

Poor Sargie. Our clocks are definitely set to different sleep cycles. If I put in the long days of work that she does, I’m sure mine would be different. Sargie often arrives home from work around 9 PM and is ready for some kind of social interaction and down time. After getting up at 5, sometimes 4, each morning, by 9 that evening, I’m beginning to think of bed and if I see 10 PM, my skin turns orange and a stem spouts on the top of my head as I begin morphing into a pumpkin.

When I sleep, I sleep hard. If I awaken past 3 AM the following morning and open my eyes, I’m usually awake for the day. When that happens, I quietly sneak from under the covers, close the bedroom door on my way out, then hit the floor running. It’s the only way I know to live. If Sargie can grab an extra hour of sleep, she takes it. I don’t blame her.

With cold and rainy/snowy weather forecast, I took the time on Wednesday to fill the wood box.

Speaking of turning into a pumpkin, Wednesday morning was spent cleaning and clearing the garden; preparing it for the coming winter months. I thought it might take me an hour, possibly two. In the end, I spent almost four hours hauling residue to the compost pile, removing stakes, and gathering what few vegetables were left. The only evidence of what grew this past summer are the corn stalks and pole beans. Sheri wants some stalks, I’m assuming for decoration and I’ll shuck the pole beans once they are thoroughly dry either for seed for next year or to make soup from this winter. I was going to put a few stalks on the front porch with the pumpkins, but it sounds like something I don’t want to clean up next month when the snow is falling and the winds are howling.

What to do with the pumpkins that remained in the barn? No one here is going to make pie from any and other than Mark and Sheri’s nephew, Leroy, and his baby sister, I don’t know who else to give them to. I decided to display them on the front porch. For sure, we’re ready for Halloween!

The thermometer was registering 70 degrees early Wednesday afternoon. I changed into shorts, plugged in the iPhone to my favorite podcast, and set out on my five-mile stroll. As has been the case all week, the weather was ideal and the miles flew under my feet.

I talked with the neighbor across and down the road and received permission to trap on his 120 acres of fields and woods. He’s an avid deer hunter and I told him I’d stay out of his woods in November. Most of what I’ll be targeting, coyotes and raccoons, will be on the edge of the woods or walking the dirt roads in the fields.

I started working in the barn by late afternoon. Things were put away and a table was installed in the area that I’m calling my trapping shed. Everything inside should be squared away by today’s end. After that, I’ll begin boiling, dying, and waxing my traps in preparation for October 15, the opening day of trapping season.

Gourds anyone?

It appears I’ll be teaching three classes of Alaska Studies for UAS this next semester. Here’s a quiz that is being posted today in ALST 300, an undergraduate course required for all new Alaska teacher hires or beginning teachers. How good is your Alaskan modern history and geography?

1. What year did Libby Riddles win the Iditarod? 

a. 1888

b. 1985

c. 1967

d. 1790

e. 1945

                       

2) Mike Martin and George Clark opened what in Ketchikan?

1. Hootchie Kootchie Parlor

2. Salmon cannery

3. Saloon

4. Boat building factory

5. Saltery and general store

3) A native Alaskan community east of Palmer is called?

A-Chickaloon

B-Sutton

C-Willow

D- Talketna

E- Butte

4) The Russians attacked the Kiksadi at which river?

a) Yukon River

b) Indian River

c) Stikine River

d) Chilkat River

e) King Salmon River

5) Who designed the Alaska state flag?

A. Vitus Bering

B. Joe Juneau

C. Richard Harris

D. Vince Vanier

E. Bennie Benson

Of course, there’s been discussion and research by the class on all the above.  Anyway, we’ll see how well you do. I’ll post the answers in the next day or two.

It’s almost 5 AM, time to throw another log on the fire and get a fresh cup of coffee.

The last vegetables from the garden for this season.

And so are the tales from Pentoga…