Party Time

This blog is about BrownStone Chinooks but I would be remiss to not include other big events in our lives. Dave, my remarkable husband, retired and had a birthday on the same day.  What better excuse for a party?!  All summer I planned a party with tables dispersed under the fruit trees ending with a spectacular Harvest Moon rising over the pond. We had not had any rain since April. I had to mow at sunrise because of the fire hazard level. I hand-watered daily to keep the gardens fresh. My efforts paid off. The yard and orchard were beautiful. Then, Ma Nature decided that maybe we could use an end to our drought. While we were desperate for rain, it could have been any other day.  I did a last minute, mad scramble to turn the carport and garage into party central.  Several friends came early to help decorate and set up. 
Dave knew I was throwing a party but was totally surprised when over 150 people showed up. He shouldn't have been.  He is so well loved and has done so much as a volunteer for the Yacht Club, Ski Patrol and community.

 Without the boat, truck and motor home, the carport provided cozy shelter.

My sister Linda and her husband really came through for me.  Totally unlike me, they love to clean house and spent the day before and day of the party cleaning everywhere from windows to inside the garage refrigerator.  During the party, Lind took charge of the kitchen.  We had so much food, that everyone went home with baggies of leftovers which she prepared and handed out.
My nieces, Natalie and Emily made this picture collage: Lind mascaraing as Dave; the singing of "Happy Birthday"; decoration; and Natalie (who came down from Portland), Lind (who I didn't know stopped long enough for a picture) and Emily, (who came down from Seattle).

 Some of our wonderful friends.

The Chinooks spent the day in their kennel with huge, meaty bones.  Three dogs underfoot, in close quarters with an abundance of food...I think not.

Up on the Roof

In anticipation of the end of summer, one morning last month, I put away the patio furniture. The dogs assisted by crowding the stairs as I went up and down to the garage attic. To ease my hazardous trips, I opened the door to the roof so the dogs could supervise my work rather than escort. I happened to glance up as I gathered another load of cushions. I threw down my load and grabbed the camera. The dogs were proud of themselves and the light was perfect.

Koyuk

Grandma Cedar and Grandson Trask

 Cedar

 Mom Koyuk and son Trask

Who would have guessed that we would still be having sun with temps in the 80's in the middle of October. All of the patio furniture has been replaced and continues to be enjoyed on the back patio. 

BrownStone Cascade Mt Karuk - Luca's First Two Years

Luca's forever family was kind enough to not only send pictures of their beautiful "purple" girl, they also sent a narrative. I on the other hand have been lax with the blog giving fall chores, harvest and food preservation occupy my time. 

Luca had her two year health exams. She has normal hips and eyes. Her next great adventure may be finding the perfect stud and puppies.

Luca’s first two years:

Luca’s second year of life was filled with fun, new experiences and becoming a teenager.  Here are some of the highlights:

Luca has a mellow temperament and great personality.  She is sweet, calm, very smart and extremely affectionate.  We have used only positive reinforcement training methods and the only correction we use is “leave it”.  She does not recognize the word “no”. She responds very well to a positive tone and encouraging words and will immediately shut down if she is spoken to in a harsh manner.  If anyone lets out an expletive Luca feels it is her job to make everything okay and she will come from anywhere in the house wiggling and wagging until you assure her that everything’s ok. Anger or frustration is simply not allowed in Luca’s world.

Luca is game to try almost anything we ask her to do, and she learns very quickly.  

 A few months ago, she showed an interest in riding on the flatbed cart we use to transport our trash cans to the road, and we invited her to get up onto it for a ride.  She jumped right up and let us pull her around the driveway. Now she thinks the cart is hers. She recently started bikejoring and has learned some mushing terms.   

She still enjoys walking on the treadmill and playing with any dog we invite over.  She is not fearful of any of the usual dog triggers such as the vacuum cleaner, thunder, fireworks, or even the tornado warning siren that sounds off a few times each summer.  She actually howls along.  I think we owe her calm confidence to Brownstone socializing at an early age which we observed and tried to duplicate by continually exposing her to unusual experiences. She loves water, but doesn’t yet know how to swim. She fully cooperates with toenail trims, although she really doesn’t like them, and actually enjoys her daily teeth brushing and occasional baths.

Luca is very connected to her people, loves dogs, and spends a good deal of time hanging out with our cat and flock of chickens.  Her interest in other dogs makes obedience classes and dog shows very hard work for her, and us. We also have to be very aware when bikejoring around the nearby lake on the bike path.  On the bike paths, she is getting better with other dogs around and generally ignores humans unless they show interest in her first, but the sight of a squirrel or rabbit sends us careening into a hot pursuit.  Despite her small size, she has some serious power, and when inspired can launch us well off-trail in an instant.

Luca sleeps on her back and welcomes tummy rubs whenever anyone feels inclined to give her one.  

She throws her head back while lying down and waits for someone to give her kisses on her neck.  If we say, “do you want a back rub”, she comes up and sits very still, facing us with her head hanging out of the way to receive a neck massage.  She flips her food bowl over every time it’s empty, apparently just to let us know, and waits for us to come and see. Sometimes she even wants more food.   

When we are eating, she quietly lies nearby and throws her head back, rolls onto her back, and does whatever else she can think of hoping we will notice her and give her some of what we’re having (we do notice, but we have never rewarded this behavior).  She’s a 52-lb. lap dog who never misses an opportunity to cuddle and snuggle (and lick).

She loves all her toys, but especially her section of nylon climbing rope.  After her walks, her reward is to have a game of tug-of-war with her “special” rope. Just saying the word “rope” in casual conversation sends her to the door with rope in mouth expecting to play. 

Her true love is Otter, given to her by her first human mom, Kay Lee.  She would love him to death if we allowed her to.  Otter is kept in a safe place and only brought out for special occasions like birthday blog photo sessions.  Luca will occasionally lie down by the closet Otter lives in and cry for him until you distract her.  She is very persistent when she wants something.

When it’s time to play, she carefully selects a toy from her overstocked toy bin, which by the end of the day is always emptied. Luca must take the right toy with her to greet anyone that has been away, wagging her entire body and making all sorts of guttural noises while she holds the special gift in her mouth.   

She has a way of immediately curing even the toughest of days. In short, Luca is a constant source of joy in our lives. She is our perfect companion.

Happy 2nd Birthday BrownStone Cascade Mt Klah (Luca)

Beautiful Luca came from Colorado for a pupdate.

Grandma Cedar and Mom Koyuk were not welcoming but Trask was thrilled by his special guest.

 Brief rest.

 "Ready?"

Luca may be smaller than Trask, but she easily out ran him.

Whenever Luca drinks, she buries her nose in the water and blows bubbles.

Luca and Tule Loowit have the same high-pitched yelp to engage Trask.  Luca's family had never heard the sound. Tule Loowits family swear Tule only vocalizes when she plays with Trask.

 Sibling love.

BrownStone Cascade Mt Klah - Luca.

Backpacking with Koyuk

The Where's Waldo 100K Ultramarathon is sponsored by the Willamette Pass Ski Patrol.  Starting with a run up to the top of the ski area at 4 a.m., 172 crazy people, from all over the world, actually attempt to run 100K through the wilderness, at 5,000 ft in altitude and higher,  up and down 5 mountains, in less than one day. I go into the wilderness with all my comfort and survival gear.  They wear shorts, socks, shoes and little else.  They only carry a minimal amount of water. The patrol provides aid stations about every 6 miles where the runners can grab a bite to eat and hydrate.
Eight years ago someone moved our trail direction signs sending the lead runners miles the wrong direction. When we were having our debriefing meeting, the race coordinator speculated that it would be hard to find someone to sit all day in the middle of no where. My hand was up before he finished his sentence and the Bobby Lake junction has been my spot ever since.
In the past I have camped at the trail head and hiked in very early in the morning.  In need of mountain therapy, this year I decided to pack the extra 1/2 mile from the junction to the lake and spend the night there. I took Koyuk with me.

 The trail was hot and dry but...

 the sky was clear and deep blue unlike the forest fire smoke filled air we left in the valley.

Bobby Lake has an enormous, office building size, boulder at the south end.  The boulder extends into the water making for perfect swimming. Both of us were ready for a swim. Koyuk was in the water as soon as I took her pack off. 

I had been dreaming about this campsite all year. I hauled our packs up the rock and was starting to set up my tent when a really rude couple came over the top of the rock and told me I could not camp there.

Koyuk checking out our campsite.

I repacked my tent and pack and loaded up Koyuk. We went in search of another campsite. Unfortunately the one we found was 1/4 mile away.  Except for the boulder, the shoreline was a jumble of downed trees and lava rocks. Not wanting to leave my gear so far away and really wanting to swim, we hiked back to the boulder and both went swimming.

Until I looked at the pictures, I didn't realize Koyuk had splashed my lens when she joined me in the deeper water. 

 Cooled and tired, we packed up again and hiked back to our campsite.

 I had the towel out for damp, dirty Koyuk to lie on, but she commandeered my pad.

During the night we had probably a dozen Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers join us at our campsite. These people had hiked, mostly solo, from Mexico. They get up at sunrise and hike to the closest waterhole at dark. They don't cook their food and unless necessary, don't even bother to set up their tents. Koyuk alerted when each one came in, thus my sleep was quite broken up.
I have to tell on myself. During the middle of the night, both Koyuk and I had to pee. We headed for a grouping of trees, skirting and trying not to wake the sleeping hikers as we went. Koyuk and I found our spots.  After going, I grabbed the small tree in front of me to help get my trail sore body back up. Immediately I knew I was in trouble.  Both hands became covered with pitch. The temperature was still in the 80's so it was runny and sticky. Not wanting to get pitch all over my pants as I pulled them up, I wrapped my hands in TP.  A good but temporary solution. There was no way I was going to crawl into my down sleeping bag with pitch covered hands.  The TP would not last. It took a bit of prodding my half awake brain, but I finally remembered I had hand sanitizer in my pack. I wrapped my hand in my ever-ready bandanna and dug for the bottle. In the dark, I managed to clean most of the pitch off and confine it to the bandanna.
The next morning, Koyuk and I packed up and went to our trail junction station. I put on my race official shirt and Koyuk wore her Ski Patrol kerchief.

We were at our junction from 6:30 a.m. until 6:10 p.m. 172 racers went by us in the morning at their 22 mile point and those still running went by us again at their 50 mile point. We also saw close to 100 thru-hikers. A forest fire at Crater Lake had bunched them up. After busing around the fire they were now a large group. By the afternoon, both Koyuk and I were feeling the heat and fatigue. I kicked back in my chair with my cowbell and she crashed on her towel.

It was almost dark when we finally got back to the trail-head. Though not ideal, mountain therapy was a success.

BrownStone Cascade Mt. Koma Pupdate

My computer has decided to do zoomies that would rival any puppy whenever I do sequential mouse clicks. For the past several days, every time I tried to update the blog, before I could finish, the courser would scream across the page, the slide would go up and down on it's own. I had no control over the demon taking over my buffers. Finally a house call  from my computer geek and I can attempt to blog again.
BrownStone Cascade Mt. Koma, CGC (Liaka) second birthday pupdate and pictures from her human parents.

Dear Kay Lee,  Our beautiful Liaka looks just like her mother. Liaka is a star at the Retirement Home. They love her and she loves them. Laika still turns over her bowl of kibble and eats the kibble off the floor. Liaka likes to sleep in our bed. But she thinks it's her bed now. Liaka teases out old dog, Hunter. she runs up to him with a toy and then runs away. He follows and they play tug-a-war with the toy.  Liaka and Hunter are best buddies.

Laika likes to give kisses and cuddles. She vocalizes a lot and looks at me like "Why don't you understand?" I wish I could speak Chinook. Sometimes Liaka howls such a primal howl, I think that she could wake up the dead. Liaka is so healthy and beautiful. I wish that she could have puppies. Laika is very spoiled.  She likes to have her left-over meat warmed up in the microwave. Laika doesn't much like to go out in the rain to do her business. I keep telling her she is a sled dog, but she insists that she is a California sled dog. - Elaine

Kay Lee,  Thank you for writing and posting the delightful account of Alaka’i’s past year! What struck us the most is how similar Alaka’i’s temperament is to Laika’s. Laika is mellow, she loves people and she brings joy to the people of the Coronado Retirement Village that she has been visiting each month. In addition to several classes offered by PetSmart, Laika has taken and passed a class in Therapy Dog behavior in the last year and has also passed the Canine Good Citizen Certification test. 

(Laika is the first of the BrownStone Cascade Peaks litter to get her Canine Good Citizen title.)

Like Alaka’i, Laika has had many and varied experiences in the last two years. Unfortunately there has been little snow at Mammoth Mountain, CA in the last twelve months, so we have not spent much time there. But Laika is an outdoor dog and loves the snow.We take Hunter and Laika wherever we go. When we can’t take them we have a pet sitter stay in the house overnight with them

We consider Hunter and Laika part of our family and the get the best Veterinary care that is available in our local community.  They visit and play at our local dog park several times each day. - Jim