The day dawns sunny but a little cool. There isn't a cloud in the bright blue Yukon sky to begin with, but somehow there's a new, brooding presence. By noon big puffy clouds are building their way upward and there is an insidious cold breeze. In midafternoon purple masses start to loom broadly over the Miner's Range; it has become uncomfortably chilly.
Some of the fireweed has already gone to cottony seed below a diminishing spike of magenta flowers. I'm afraid to look at the squatting wild rose bushes, because I know they will be setting masses of rose hips already. I'm sure if I look around, I can probably find a willow or two showing the first yellow leaves.
In the kennel two of the bitches are in heat; others will quickly follow. Again comes the same old question: must we breed one or two of them? Why won't more of them come in season in the spring? Nobody who drives dogs really wants fall or winter puppies; they make everything much harder. All sorts of logistic difficulties and hard choices arise. But we want to keep the bloodline going. Too much of our stock is already old; we need to think of the future.
Suddenly it's August. And although summer isn't officially over yet, here in the Yukon it might just as well be. It will get gradually cooler and probably rain frequently through this month. By the first week in September, guaranteed, the aspens will go yellow and will, at the first nip of frost, suddenly lose all their leaves.
What about that trail work we planned to do? What about our winter firewood? Both our trucks need mechanical work. All of a sudden a host of nagging chores become urgent: things that just must be seen to before the ground freezes and the snow flies. I just hope we can fit it all in and still manage to break last winter's litter of pups to harness. While the rest of the continent swelters in the August heat, here in the Yukon we are forced to think about winter.
Posted by jjeffrey at August 1, 2003 09:37 PM