Home At Last

For the past 7 days, I have been away, teaching sailing at the Eugene Yacht Club sail school. I have missed the dogs terribly though I have to admit that sailing my Laser comes close to the fun I have with the dogs.
Today I picked up Koyuk for a week visit. She is always a treat to have around and the other dogs, especially Willy, love to play with her.

Willy and Koyuk

Koyuk is a water dog and leads even her mother, who is not a water dog, into the pond.
wet and happybeautiful Koyuk

New Digs

Houdini McKenzie was aided in her escape from the kennel attempts by Willy's propensity to pee on the highest object. After 7 years, the kennel dividing gate finally rusted through. The function of the dividing gate was to allow us to keep the dogs in the outside kennel when closed. When open, the dogs have 24/7 access to the house through the dog door. At 7 months old, McK could scale the 7' kennel walls. Thus a roof was added to the kennel. She still managed to climb the rock wall and squeeze through a space between the kennel wall and window. Thus a chain link section was screwed to the roof support and tie-wrapped to the kennel upright. She can climb the rock wall and break the tie-wraps but it takes her quite a bit of time. Thus they are checked and replaced frequently.

McKenzie can open any out-swinging, human door (mouldings and wooden doors have suffered badly from her attempts to open in-swinging doors); our double-click pantry doors; anything in the pantry; and the bear proof, dog food containers. Fortunately she only performs these maneuvers when we are not at home. When she breached the rusted dividing gate last week, we moved it to a place we could jam one edge into the rock wall and tie-wrapped the other to the kennel wall. We could not move it but came home to see all three dogs happily jumping back and forth over the tilted, panel. Time for a new panel.

the culprits and the too well marked gate panel

Since we were replacing the panel, we got a 10' section to eliminate the need for the chain link spacer. Replacing the panel was not easy. The kennel is fixed to the roof to keep the roof from again flying away. We needed to rearrange the kennel panels so there would be a joint for the new panel - no more tie-wraps. The roof had to be raised to get the panels over the 7" rebar posts drilled into the concrete. The very heavy, 12', double pane, glass wall had to be moved away from and then put back against the kennel wall. After a lot of jury rigging to temporarily raise the roof and a truce from ill mannered words, last night, we got the job done.

Cedar inspecting the new digs

Rural Mushing

I am proud to say that loading up for a carting trip is now down to mere minutes. Early this morning I took the rig to a county park at the reservoir. It was a long drive but worth it. We ran from one side of the bay, through the park and campgrounds, to the other side and back again. In all it was over 1 1/2 miles. The dogs got to take a dip at the end of the run.

Note to self: bring flexies. As mentioned before, the breaks on the rig do not work when wet and the gangline was not long enough to let the dogs swim.

Spring Finally Here?

The weatherman keeps promising Spring but Ma Nature has had other thoughts. My vegetable garden still has standing water and waist to head high weeds and grass. I can't even find the hardscaping. The greenhouse is getting overrun with plants needing more root space. On the plus side, I have not had to water; work in cool overcast is better than blazing sun and my Rhodys are about 1 month late so I can enjoy them without going out in pouring rain.

I put on my coat this morning to go outside to take this picture.

This year the Robins think they are swallows are are forgoing trees to nest under cover. This Robin chose to build her nest right over a vent containing a swallow nest.
Five solid hours of running a heavy duty weed eater and the garden is "mowed". The weeds weren't the only thing that took a beating today.An idle hand means an ear needs to be scritched. Willy positioned himself right under my hand as I attempted to take a picture.

Nome

I love getting updates and pictures from the BrownStone families. Susan just sent me this one of Nome. Handsome boy!

Logo Design Finally to Printer

This summer the Chinook National Speciality will be hold in the Seattle area. Chinook dogs from all over the nation will be competing against each other on confirmation. The last time this prestigious event was held closer than Kansas was nine years ago. I completed my design for the Chinook National Speciality logo a couple weeks ago but had to hide it away so I would quit fiddling with it. I just took it out to get ready for the printer. I wanted to incorporate traditional Northwest Coast Indian (sometimes referred to as Chinook) Art into the design to celebrate the place and breed name tie in. This final version is a long way from my original idea (rough draft below). The creation of the logo was an arduous process but worth it. I am excited about how well it has been received.

Rain and Flower Clouds

Yesterday, between rain showers, Nonna and I took Cedar for a stroll through Eugene's Rhody park. The park is a magnificent place to be when the rhodys are in full bloom. Many are actually large trees. Hiking the paths is like walking through clouds of reds, oranges, pinks and purples.Cedar was not really excited about posing but I did get a couple of pictures of her.