Late evening report.

In case you missed it, Lance Mackey won the Iditarod Sled Dog Race today in a time of a little over 9 days and 20 hours. It's the third consecutive year he has won "The Last Great Race" and he did so in a grand fashion being over 7 1/2 hours ahead of his nearest rival. Mackey started the race with 16 dogs and 15 of them finished the race. (The one dog that was dropped along the way just wasn't having fun and didn't have his heart in the race, according to one report I read.)

Like most Iditarod races, this one is far from over, however. There were still 56 mushers and their teams on the trail after Mackey checked into Nome and the race won't be over until the last one either crosses the finish line or withdraws from the competition. Now, however, it's no longer a competition against their fellow mushers, it's far more personal than that. Truth be told for all but a few at the top, this race is always a personal challenge rather than anything else. It seems you battle Mother Nature and yourself far more than the other teams.

Did some digging this afternoon and got four more wheelbarrows of mostly clay out of the cut bank out back. It's almost enough for the large raised bed. If I can get three or four more I'll be happy.

I also took one wheelbarrow of compost and spread it over a 6' x 6' raised bed near the bird feeders. We had four zucchini plants in there last year and, while they produced some squash, the dense clay loam lacked organic material to provide necessary nutrients and texture. Between the compost and some grass clippings I put in there at the end of last fall, and the five bags of top soil I've set aside for this bed, I'm hoping to get a little more from the cucumbers I'm planning for this spot.

I quit working around three because we had a visitor. A local contractor was brought over by Adam (our contractor's son and the assistant building inspector) to show him what we did in constructing the Aerie. Matt's been hired to build a log home just over the mountain. He's done stick construction before but has not done a log home. The folks he's building for chose a kit from Kuhn's Brothers so it's not exactly the same as our Beaver Mountain home, but it will have some similarities.

After Adam and Matt left, Terry and I had our dinner and then went to Wellsboro for the monthly meeting of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society where tonight's speaker gave a presentation on land management. We heard some good ideas and got the contact number for a regional forester. I do believe I will be making a call in a week or so to have a sit down discussion about these 17 acres.

Tomorrow morning, if it's not raining--did I mention it started to rain this afternoon? Thunder and lightening and everything. But it didn't last. Anyway, IF it's not raining in the morning, we are going birding on the bike trail that parallels Marsh Creek on the west side of Wellsboro. We'll be starting on the western end near Ansonia and walking east. They've covered parts of this on bicycle last summer, but I was elsewhere at the time so this is a new area for me.