Muku Update

Muku

Hi Kay Lee,

Hope you are enjoying your summer. Here are some pics from a top of Mt. Seymour. It's about a 15 minute drive from our house, and we plan do being doing a lot of snow shoeing and winter activities there this year.

Muku is doing great. She still desperately wants to say hi to every dog and person she sees, but is starting to get the hang of heel and not pulling on the leash. She is great with everyone. She is enrolled in puppy classes, and is starting to get the hang of it as well.

She is well trained inside the house and when we are by ourselves outside. The usual, sit, down, spin, paw, and we have been working on stay, and come.

When she sees other people or dogs all training seems to go out the window for the next 45 seconds or so,until she calms down.She is getting better though, and carrying her favorite treats definitely helps keep the attention focused on you.

Ben and Muku are great together. Even the cat has somewhat warmed up to her. There are still the odd warning hiss to remind Muku who owns the house, but Muku does not really pay much attention to them.

We couldn't be happier with Muku.

Hope all is well,

Brad


I don't think she could be happier than she is with you. ~ Kay Lee

Trip to the Coast

The temperature in Eugene was 96 degrees today. We have not been to the coast together in years and it was much too hot to work around here so we packed up the van and took a very scenic, back road, trip to the beach. The weatherman had predicted it would not be there but as we neared the coast we could see the dreaded fog bank. Fortunately, I had thrown in coats at the last minute. The temperature quickly dropped as we drove to the jetty. We did not even get out of the car to hike over the dunes to the actual beach. It was 54 degrees, misty and blowing hard. Even with coats, we would have been uncomfortably cold in our shorts and sandals. The signs now say dogs are required to be on leash. Getting sandblasted while being pulled up and over the high dunes did not seem like a good time.

I had spotted a little pullout not far from the jetty. The dogs really needed to run and I wanted to get some sand between my toes. We parked, followed a faint path through the rushes and came out on a somewhat sheltered, beautiful abandoned beach. Cedar and Willy race to the water.

first taste of saltwater our own wonderful place to play
"Come on in McKenzie. The water is fine." The third, happy, sandy, soaked dog to put in the back of the van.

No trip to the beach is complete without a trip to the ice cream and saltwater taffy shop, even if you are on the cool side. After eating our waffle cones of "Oregon Trail" ice cream in the shelter of the warm van, we took another back road, scenic trip home - laughing as we watched the temperature climb back into the 90's. Once home, I headed for the large pond to give the dogs a fresh water cleaning. I brushed the last of the sand out of their fur as we dried off in the waining sun. Life is Good indeed.

Food Garden and More Garlic

Our food garden has an orchard of 20 espaliered fruit trees; a greenhouse, tool shed and potting patio; a berry garden; lots of flowers for me and vegetables all behind a 12' fence. Due to hillside runoff, my garden is usually under water until July. Because it rained all June, we still have super saturated soil. Add to that our altitude and we are lucky to get anything to grow. Our solution are these large tires. Along with the greenhouse, the tires add extra months to our growing season. In front of my quad you can see ruts made just last weekend.

There is one huge downfall to using tires as raised beds (besides being really ugly and hard to mow around). The dirt gets baked if not replaced and tilled in the spring. Garlic is planted in the late summer. Today I dug over 200 heads of elephant garlic. Every garlic head had to be individually dug out of rock hard soil.

elephant garlic in bloom

As long as I am showing off my deer proof garden here is my scarecrow: CPR Annie. She guards my raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Well not really - though she has been known to give human visitors a start when they spot her. The dogs have not discovered that the berries are ripe. Once they do, lying beneath the bushes in the cool, damp sawdust is their favorite spot in the yard. They just need to lift their head for a sweet feast.

Garlic and Onions

I love to create unusual bouquets. This morning I pulled the elephant garlic and onions but did not want to waste their beautiful flowers so I added them to a vase of bell flowers. Best yet, they are bug free and don't even smell.

Mr Nome at 14 Weeks

Nome has his mother's drive... and tongue.

Another Gift From Koyuk

While here, Koyuk always had something in her mouth and often it was a gift. I was sorting through pictures of the Iditarod litter and found this one taken the day before she left. When I took this picture, I thought it was just a fun picture of her with an ear turned back. Upon closer inspection I realized she has a flattened, dead, frog.

Koyuk Settles In

Koyuk is settling in her forever home with Shanna and Lexa. Shanna sent this note with the pictures:

She has been absolutely wonderful and I've been amazed at how well she responds to "no." She figures it out that she shouldn't do it and stops immediately. We have now also been able to get her to consistently go through the doggy door and by following Lexa she hasn't had an accident yet. Lexa and her get along really great and Koyuk follows her around most of the time. They like playing and luckily Lexa will let Koyuk know when it's getting too rough. She's also a VERY fast learner.

Meantime, Cedar McKenzie and Willy are solemn, especially Cedar. She puts her paw on me and uses her big, sad, brown eyes imploring me to tell her where her daughter and playmate is. Cedar was closer to Koyuk than the other pups. She even let her nurse longer. During the last month they were in near constant contact. Koyuk was a great fan of getting wet and dirty. Cedar patiently cleaned her completely off after each adventure. This afternoon the dogs played Chinook Tag for the first time since Koyuk left. The game was on the low scale of enthusiasm but it was play. Having a visit from Lupin did cheer them up for a bit last evening. Other than that I have a 12 legged, furry mass following my every step. Normally they take turns sleeping in the crates or on our bed. The last two nights there were three dogs jostling for position with two humans pushed in to balls at the outer edges of the bed. Dave needed sleep for work so the dogs and I headed for the guest bed. The guest bed is a 159 yr old Murphy bed. People were shorter when it was made. The bed is larger than a twin and smaller than a double. The mattress is less than 6 feet long. There are no springs, just wooden slats with a foam mattress on top, The slats not only provide couching but they protect the craved mirror on the bottom quite. Often I have had fears of a board breaking causing the mirror to break. I don't know how we would replace it. When the bed is pushed up into the wall, the bottom now wall, is beautifully carved with it's decorated mirror. With all three dogs and myself on the Murphy bed we are wedged as puzzle pieces. Since all three dogs want to be touching or on me, I need to make sure I have an excess of sheet and blankets so I can roll over before they jump on. Cedar has agility class with her friends tomorrow. That she cheer her up some.

Still Too Hot

Ninety-six degrees again today. All efforts went toward weed eradication. Without a curious puppy tasting everything I touch, I was able to mix up what I hope to be a witch's brew of herbicide. I was a bona fide tree hugger in the 60's and still put Ma Nature first but there is a point when facing several acres of horsetail fern, blackberries, nettles, marsh buttercup.... that pulling just can't cut it.
Work ended with a visit from BrownStone Lupin and her family. They came to take advantage of our front yard pond to cool off from the city heat.

The front pond is an inviting place on a hot day.

Wet Willy

Anna and John Cedar, Kerstin and Clara

Koyuk's Last Morning

Another hot day started with early morning photo ops.

Cedar, Koyuk, McKenzie and WillyDave tried his hand at getting everyone into a pose. Not bad. He actually had their heads going back and forth in unison.

The three girls. Koyuk grabbed the tunnel tie down bungee and enticed Willy into a game of tug.

The victor.

Koyuk actually cheated. She let go of her end of the bungie and Willy got quite a nose sting.

All that play calls for a drink.

"Kitty has an interesting water source. "

"Nah - I'll stick with my water own bowl."
Break is over. One last group pose.

Shanna, Koyuk's forever family.

A sad good bye.

I really miss the little girl, even our 2:40 a.m. potty walks under the rain and stars (after I finally found both of a pair of shoes to put on. Koyuk made my slippers unwearable and somehow always managed to hide one shoe before going to bed). Koyuk, I do not plan to voluntarily see 2:40 am skies but if I do, you will be there with me. You and your litter mates brought so much to my life. I can't wait to hear stories of how all of you are enriching the lives of your forever families.

Koyuk's Last Evening

Koyuk goes to her forever home tomorrow. It was dusk before it was cool enough to play outside. Dave helped by taking pictures and playing with exposures while I tried to pose dogs.

There was something more interesting than just sitting going on stage right. "Why do we have to sit-stay while Cedar gets to check it out?"

Cedar and Koyuk always touch each other when together.

The last general recall.

I grabbed the camera and Dave posed Koyuk for the Owl pictures.

Koyuk one day old, 10 oz.

Almost 13 weeks old and heavy. Gotta love the puppy sit.

"Are you through?"

A Note From Alli

My time with Nome is coming to an end and so I can empathize with you missing Koyuk when she is gone. I am sure I will see Nome regularly though as Susan and I plan on getting the dogs together for walks. I think Dakota will really miss the little guy. He has really warmed up to having him around and they play tug o'war and wrestle with each other quite a bit now each day. Neither wants to eat unless the other is standing next to him munching from the other bowl.

Nome playing in the water bowl.

He splashed 2 full bowls empty in about 2 min :) This was after a long hot walk, and cooling in the wading pool. I think the ice cubes I gave him started the splash game and now he loves it. Fortunately he only does it in the outside dog bowl! ~ Alli

What Did She Bring Me This Time?

This evening Koyuk tempted fate in the large pond suck mud to get her prize. A fledgling Red Wing Blackbird must have fallen and gotten stuck. The bird was dead and muddy when Koyuk retrieved it. The hot metal roof now contains both a very smelly fish and soon to be smelly bird.

That is not a shadow. It is a belly high muck line.

This picture was particularly hard to take. The other three dogs were also very interested in her booty.

Does this picture of Koyuk remind you of someone? Cedar was a couple weeks older when this was taken.

The bandaids held nickles used in a failed attempt to keep Cedar's ears from going up. (I thought she was just too darn cute with down ears). We went through a few dollars worth and still find nickles in the grass. Thus far Koyuk looks like she is going to have down ears without any intervention.

The temperature was 98 degrees today. To wash the muck off Koyuk and cool the rest of the pack, we went for another of many swims.