Cooling Weather, Construction Projects and the World's Prettiest Ugly Dog.

Hello all. As usual, it's been a couple weeks since our last posting. And also as usual, we're as busy as ever up here. Working full time jobs, raising young kids and getting over an acre of overgrown Alaska under control, not to mention normal household chores, tend to keep us on our toes. The weather has definitely cooled off, with "Termination Dust" now settled on the surrounding mountains. It's the local term for the first snows that signal the end of another spectacular Alaska summer. This morning it was 27 degrees on the now weekly trip to Home Depot. True North Country kids now, however, Malcolm and Chloe spend much of their time outside, wearing only light jackets. Those days are numbered, though. By Halloween last year, there was snow on the ground.

Speaking of Halloween, we're getting set to go trick-or-treating at the Senior Center, where they decorate the interior and hand out tons of goodies. That's nice when it's 15 or 20 degrees outside. Chloe is a tiger this year, and Malcolm is a "ghost" (we bought him a skeleton costume, but he maintains it's actually a ghost). Soon after Halloween, we'll have Malcolm's fifth birthday and party. This year's theme is dinosaurs.

The pictures show a southcentral Alaska well into fall. Snow will arrive any day. There's the Scout, tarped off for the winter, and the bookshelves Brandon just built and stained. You can see the carport Brandon built, too (can you tell he's been anxious to stay outside before it's too late?). It's wonky but strong, and will keep the snow off the cars. You'll also notice the Saab has been evicted in place of a car that starts. Recently we bought a new Chevy Aveo, which is actually a Daewoo built in Korea, then rebadged. So much for Buy American. It gets about a thousand miles to the gallon, and received shiny new studded tires last week.

Finally, there's the wild boar we've adopted. If you look carefully, however, you'll actually see she's a dog, albeit an extremely homely one. In a cute sort of way. A friend bought her as a puppy, but ultimately couldn't keep her, so we took her in. Her name is Emily, and she immediately became a favorite with the kids. She also snorts and roots around like a pig, so Brandon lovingly refers to her as Porkchop. She's a sweetheart. We also welcomed Anna's cat Beauregard into our home, after she passed away. That was rough at first, and resulted in him getting literally thrown out (hissing, growling and lunging at the kids is a great way to get kicked out). After Beau was gone for over a week, we figured he'd become a tasty bear snack. But he returned, a little skinnier, and with a much improved attitude. Now we're all a happy family again, only bigger.

Stephanie interviewed for a dream job last week, and we're crossing our fingers for her. Oh yes, and we would be amiss if we forgot to tell you the kids' school burned down. Or rather, was torched. No one was hurt, not even the school's goldfish, but fire investigators (the ones Brandon works with) are calling the fire "suspicious". It came after a series of poor state reviews for the school (the review process is the job Stephanie interviewed for), unpaid staff and while the owner was "vacationing" in Canada. Hmm. Anyway, Malcolm and Chloe start their new school on Monday the 16th. A lot of their teachers and friends ended up at the same school for the same reason, so they'll be in good company. Malcolm says he's glad to start a new school, because his old one is "such a mess".

As always, everyone up here is great. We love living here more than ever. And with snow just around the corner, we have sledding, ice skating and playing in all that white stuff to look forward to. You can be sure we'll have take lots of pictures.

Love,

Brandon, Stephanie, Malcolm, Chloe, Simon, Jolly, Beauregard and Emily. Whew!