Maku Update

I was finally cleaning out my in-box and I came across a very important November post that I had missed. One of the best things about being a breeder of these wonderful dogs is hearing from their forever families. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hi,
Muku is getting all fuzzy for the winter, and has already been up trail running and playing in the snow. She's such a happy and fun dog!
Deavah, Brad and Ben

Five Chinooks at Rest

After a day full of 5-way, Chinook tag games, the dogs were ready for some zzz's.

Koyuk, McKenzie Cedar, Willy and Lupin. Oops, I disturbed them by taking a picture.

Sun

Yesterday the sun hit the back patio for the first time this year. I grabbed the paper and my coat (it was only 38 degrees), camera, and coffee and went out to soak up some rays. Lupin and Koyuk tried mightily to get the ice out of the dog's water bowl until they tipped it and gained their prize.While the youngsters played keep-away with the chunk of water bowl ice, Willy and McKenzie "chilled" on the warm pavement.
Lupin in her lion pose.Within minutes the sun traveled back behind the trees. Before it did, I was able to grab a picture of McKenzie, Willy, Cedar, Koyuk and Lupin. Love those ears!

Not-So-Much Slumber Party

Kerstin, Anna and Klara brought Lupin over yesterday for a play date. The dogs immediately engaged in a 5-Nook game of tag, with rules only they can interpret.

Koyuk ready to ambush anyone taking a short-cut through the pond While the dogs zoomed about, the girls headed for the trees.Anna is "riding the porpoise" on an obliging, springy branchKlara attempting to join her sister.

I got no further pictures of the dogs. They were all way too excited to sit for a picture. Besides, Lupin is our guest for the weekend. There should be plenty of photo-ops once the novelty wears off.

Last night was akin to a 'tween slumber party. Five Chinooks, one cat and two humans on one bed is totally nonconductive to sleep. I knew the dogs would stay where ever I was so I took the "no-dog" couch and let Dave sprawl in freedom without four legged beings vying for the most human contact. The dogs made the most of the greatroom non-slumber party. Every toy in the house was brought out and tested for tugging strength and quality of squeaker. Bones were chewed; dropped on the hardwood floor; and buried under dog beds. Chase the cat became a favored game.

At one point I finally fell asleep only to be awakened by malodorous kisses. One of the dogs had figured out how to open the kennel door. McKenzie knows but has not done it in years. They were able to push up a 5" bar out of the sleeve without pushing on the door then push on the door before the bar slid back into place. Once free, I can only assume the party resumed outside. I do know that at one point it included rolling in deer poop. Later after they are all bathed, I will attempt to get 5-Nook pictures.

Hospice?

Today McKenzie, Koyuk and I went to dad's for a family meeting with the hospice social worker and nurse. Dad and Iris love the dogs and provide unlimited ear scritches and pats. Before the meeting I asked if anyone would like the dogs to go out to the car. Everyone felt better with them in the room. Koyuk and McKenzie seemed to know this was a stressful occasion. When everyone was gathered for the meeting, they both laid down in the center of the group and no longer bugged for attention. Koyuk's head was on dad's feet and McKenzie mine. What wonderful dogs they are. Koyuk is a puppy yet calmed herself and others. McKenzie is always in tune with my mood and feelings.
Medically, intellectually I know it is time to think hospice for potential comfort care for dad. We all want him to stay at home with Iris. His labs and medical conditions say it is time. Seeing dad and Iris, my heart says - "NO! It isn't time. Go away." His spirit says "NO!" Dad is still very independent and full of life. Daddy-Do still gets bored when not producing or fixing something. Dad impressed the hospice providers with his vigor. On paper he is very near death. In person he looks and acts as if he was 30-40 years younger than his 93 years + 331 days.
When the nurse asked dad about any recent falls he replied: "Well, not long ago Iris and I were in the kitchen smooching and we both closed our eyes..."

I NEED a Geek

In 1976 I was part of the first Women's Expedition of the Nahahanni River. We were 6 women chosen from all over the U.S. Our original plan was something never done before: to pull up the Ross river in the Yukon Territories; portage the Rockies; run the Nahahanni from it's source; then run the Laird to the confluence with the great McKenzie river. Record rainfall and snow prevented us from the first part. We had to get a pilot drunk at the one cabin town of Ross River to fly us into the moose pond source of the Nahahanni. A book about the lower 1/2 of the river is titled "The Most Dangerous River". The maps of upper 1/2 were almost useless at 24 miles/inch scale and were highly inaccurate as few had ever run that part of the river and none of them were surveyors. The names of everyone who had run the river, including the vast majority that had started in the lower 1/2 were scrarched into a 2'x2' board in Deadmen's Valley. A group of elite British Marines tried to run the upper river a week before us - all perished - hence the reluctant, drunk pilot. The spectacular lower 1/2, called the South Nahahanni, became the first United Nations International Park a few years after we were there.

The geek part comes in the preservation of my 450+ photos. They are all on deteriorating slides. I took them to Costco to have digitalized. I no longer have a light board so I could not organize them before I emptied the boxes of slides. I thought I would be getting back a DVD that I could just put into my photo editing program. My plan was to organize then edit/spruce up the photos and make a permanent, in-order, record. Well, I did get a nice CD of random pictures. I spent over 4 hours on initial editing and decided I might be better off putting them in order so I could just delete the bad ones before I went to the trouble of any more editing. The editing program would not arrange. I switched to another program and they became again arranged randomly. I now had 800+ photos with the edited ones scattered throughout. I spent 8 hours matching photos (think a mega child's game of matching the pictures) and arranging everything in order. I hit "save" and walla they were saved again unmatched in random order. AARG! Today instead of skiing in fresh powder, I put them on Picasa and rearranged them in order but I can't edit them to the detail I want in that program. All of my intuitive attempts to put my Picasa file into my photo editing program have failed. AARG! I need a geek!

Me portaging my canoe on the upper riverThe Nahahanni has 3 canyons deeper than the Colorado Grand Canyon. I am floating toward the first. Lunch in the third canyon.Our group (I am back row L) at the confluence of the Nahahanni and Liard Rivers.

The poor Chinooks are missing out on training time while I tackle this project - geek anyone?

Water, Water, Everywhere

It appears the more experienced weatherman was correct - we have had rain and a lot of it. Yesterday I awoke to several inches of muddy water on on top of the ice on the big pond. The high water was threatening to breech the pond walls. Before breakfast I chopped through the ice to open up the outflow pond pipes and removed a section of retaining wall. Once the water flowing out, I tackled the drive. I wore my ski helmet while digging out over 1/2 mile of ditches to redirect the water washing out our road. High winds, ice, snow, and rain had stressed many trees beyond their breaking point. Thirty to fifty MPH winds caused branches to rain down on me. They then floated in the stream that had been our drive damming up the weed clogged ditches causing even more flooding. We still don't have heat. My living room looks like a teen's boarding house with wet clothing hanging everywhere. Yesterday when I got soaked through, I came in, took off the wet layers, warmed up by the fire, drank hot coffee and checked e-mail for news of Chinook people in Washington. Their conditions are worse with snow and freezing rain coating a foot of snow. Today we were supposed to meet in Portland but even I-5 is closed due to a major transmission line down across the freeway.
A little flooding adds a new dimension to a game of Chinook tag.The rains continue. A couple more inches are expected each day for several days. Our back yard is flooded. The garage has a stream flowing through it. But with the very real danger of the 22' deep, acre pond bursting the wall and taking out the neighbor's house diminished; and my ditches confining the road and spring run off; I can spend lots of time doing taxes and sorting through old picture slides.