Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Willy, Cedar, and Lupin took me for a ride on Ferrari while Kirsten, assisted by McKenzie, jogged Klara in the stroller. Lupin soon decided she really wanted to be back with Kirsten and Klara. With their desire to go forward, Willy and Cedar actually pulled Lupin off her feet - not good. We unhooked Lupin and let her run with McKenzie and the stroller. Once there she set her sights on staying up with the other dogs giving Kirsten and McKenzie a good run. The cool morning was great for running. Kirsten urged us all to go up one more hill effectively lengthening our run to somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 miles.This time of year until late next spring, the sun only briefly reaches our back yard. Even though the light was far from perfect, I could not resist taking pictures.

At Last - A Training Road

I think I have finally found my mushing training place. Weyerhaeuser has an old, abandoned, haul road that runs from Springfield to south of Cottage Grove. I love the Cottage Grove end (where we did the tracking seminar). No one is there and the road runs beside a beautiful lake but the drive is over 60 miles. A friend told where to access the end starting in Springfield. I called the Weyerhaeuser lands office and got permission to run the road.

This morning I went to check it out. From the city street it looked like I could not make it by the main gate so I drove to another entrance I had spotted on google earth. It was at the end of a narrow street and blocked by huge boulders and a "no parking" sign. Determined to check the road out, I unloaded Ferrari (my rig) and wrestled her through the boulders; took the trailer off the van: turned them around: re-hooked; drove down the road to where I could park; unloaded and harnessed the dogs and hiked them back up to the rig.
Our run was fantastic. With easy hills and frequent turns, the road is not boring for the dogs. We quickly went the 1/2 mile back to the gate (where there actually is plenty of room to get the rig by) turned around and ran back to the boulder blocked entrance. Once there, the dogs headed right through the boulders. Other than some paint chipped because I was not being fast enough lifting Ferrari over the really tight spots, the trip was a success - well almost. When I had taken the trailer off to turn around, I noticed that the pin on the trailer stinger on was missing. The drag chain was the only thing holding the trailer to the van. Not good. Fortunately part of the cable and a locking beener I use to hold Ferrari as I am hooking up the dogs just fit between the trailer and the van tie down. When I get a new stinger pin, we are heading back to the main gate.

Temperatures cool enough to run the dogs are too cold for fuchsias and plants in pots. This afternoon everything was moved into the green house, including the last of the transparent green tomatoes.

Tractor Wheel Gardens

I have been busy taking advantage of our cool fall days to deal with "before winter hits" chores. That and a trip to Salem to see my dad in the ER are my excuses for poor blogging. Today while I was cleaning out my tractor wheel gardens I remembered that I had recently received a way-too-cute post from my niece. This morning Cadence and I were playing with her Fisher Price Little People. I put a girl with a straw hat on her head and a carrot in her hand on the tractor. Cadence said "she just pulled the carrot out of the tractor wheel. Because that's where carrots grow. In tractor wheel gardens." And it took me a minute to catch what she meant. ha ha ha! She remembered your tractor wheel garden beds and was pretending that's where this little girl's carrot grew. Oh how this girl and her memory makes me laugh. Life is never dull now that she is talking! :) Love, Amanda

No carrots in the tires when she was here but Cadence is pretty clever to realize they must grow there too. (I picked my last strawberry from this patch this afternoon.)

More Honey-Do Projects

Dave took a vacation/honey-do day yesterday. With the help of our 91 yr old neighbor, the hot tub was unloaded from the trailer. The tub is small and relatively light but we needed a third person to help figure out how to best get it off the trailer without busting the tub or our backs. Bud is a great problem solver when it comes to maneuvering heavy things. A couple of straps; the tractor bucket; a bit of pushing and the tub was on the ground in one piece.

the dogs helped Dave with the mechanical set-up

While the water was warming up, we took the dogs and rig 30 miles south to the old Weyerhauser road. Dave was a great sport in going on this adventure but he did not get pictures of our run as he followed us in the van. A word picture will have to do: sunlight, filtered through fall colored trees, fell on duff covered pavement as the dogs silently ran beside a deep blue lake.

After we got back, I took the dogs tracking. Lesson learned: do not set a track for Willy on a downhill slope. He inhaled his treats as drug me along at a rig running pace.

Dog Crate Play Session

What do you get with two girls under the age of 4 and four Chinooks?

A lot of excitement!

After everyone, canine and human, zoomed several laps around the kitchen counter and great room couch, it was time to hit the bedroom dog toy box. I did not get my camera fast enough to capture 2 girls and 3 dogs in the dog crate and the 4th dog trying to fit in. Nor was I able to capture the squeals of delight and squeaks of dog toys from within the crowded confines.

Clara with her toy box prizes Clara enjoys a ride, while Lupin enjoys Clara's bone.

Busy Weekend

Yesterday I drove to eastern Oregon for a mushing club meeting. I had planed to take my rig and run the dogs but the trailer I use for my rig proved to be the perfect size to transport my new (used), 2 person, hot tub. (I need to stain and move the hot tub so I left it on the trailer). I took the dogs anyway hoping that I could borrow a scooter for a run. Unlike the cold, foggy valley, eastern Oregon was sunny. Being too warm to run dogs, no one brought their scooter. Making the most of the trip, I laid two tracks each for the dogs. The dogs are up to 120' long tracks with tiny treats 30-40" apart. The tracks were 20-30 minutes old. All the water evaporated leaving only my scent to follow. Dogs are pretty amazing!

sorry guys - running the rig will have to wait a few days

It poured last night and was foggy and calm this morning - perfect for burning. This year's burn pile was the hottest and fastest burning one I have ever had. I even managed to singe my hair and burn three holes in my tee.

15 minute old, one match fireUsually burn pile fires take a whole day of constant stoking; blowing with the leaf blower; and pushing around with the tractor. This one was 1/3 burned by the time Dave finished breakfast leaving me almost a whole day to clean the garden; prepare 20 lbs of apples and pears for the dryer; and can 13 quarts of tomatoes.

The dogs love apples and pears. (They have picked most of the ones growing on the espaliered trees). After the fruit was put into the dryer, I threw the peelings out on the lawn for the deer but...

Well, the today I am writing about is now yesterday. Better get off the computer.

Tracking

Last weekend Cedar and I went to a Kathleen Monje', two day tracking seminar. McKenzie loves tracking so I thought I would try it with Cedar.

There were 6 dogs. Between lectures we took turns laying tracks for each other. Even though the first two levels of tracking titles are done on grass, Kathleen starts dogs tracking on asphalt so they learn to actually track human scent and not just crushed grass.

A track is laid with a spray of water and treats every few inches. The water holds the track layer's scent and the food gets the dog's nose down. Gradually the tracks get longer with the treats further apart. Riley is giving his owner quite a pull as he runs down the line of treats.Gabe is so excited his legs bypass his nose.Cedar took to tracking like a hound. We did six tracks during the two days. Her last track was 20 yards long with treats every 24". Her treats blended in with the forest duff. The track had aged long enough that the water had evaporated. She was so into the game she also pulled to get to and run the treatless, day old, tracks.

"Vacation"

Friday, Koyuk went to her new home and dad. Her owner got married and moved to an apartment while Koyuk was here. I do get to borrow her for mushing this winter. She is a special girl.No posts this week. Dave was on vacation and my wonderful life routine was seriously thrown off. I am not saying I did not love the fact that Dave actually took a "vacation" and was home - I did. He just schedules his days differently than I do.Dave is fully awake and ready to go by 0530. I am used to a leisurely start to my day at a much more reasonable hour. When he goes to bed, I am hitting my stride on household chores and creativity. He can't stay up later. I can't go to sleep before midnight and struggle to function during the early morning hours.Dave does not take vacations like normal working people. He has to be within easy driving distance from home and likes to be in his own bed at night. In 33 years, I have gotten him to take 6, week long, away from home, vacations. (Actually, I have no excuse to whine. This time last year we did not know if Dave would ever be able to go to work again.)This year's vacation was a honey-do week. The plan was to get all the fall chores done. It did rain all week. But, we did get a lot done...
We met with the 9 new and 5 returning Jr. Ski Patrollers and their families. The winter wood is mostly split and stacked. The road is graded. The huge boulders framing another garden are in place. Most of the garlic is planted and many of the garden weeds pulled. Lawn furniture is away for another year.
Saturday it was briefly Sunny. I took my camera for a walk on a friend's property.One thing not done this "vacation" was the canning. Tomatoes, pears and apples are just now getting ripe enough to process. Guess I'll be spending this week putting up winter's food - on my own easy morning schedule.

Season of Red

With the rain, Fall started yesterday around here. As I madly rushed the last chores in the garden, it dawned on me that this is the season of red.

Red chain saw and Dave with red chaps cutting up firewood.

My red tractor scurrying about.

50 pounds of tomatoes with any hint of red brought up from the garden to ripen indoors.The dogs wore red to (hopefully) avoid being shot the opening day of hunting season. Not that they moved far from their couch. It was raining after all. The first fall storm left my summer faded flag tattered. I hung a new red, white and blue.

Leaves on the trees turning red.
The peppers on the plants moved into the greenhouse are turning red.

Not red: naked tomatoes. That experiment was a flop. Tomatoes on the plants I totally denuded were a shriveled orange.