Trail Breaking

Time to make sure the trails are in good shape.  We took a tour around this afternoon in the Ranger.

Too Quiet

Matilda was our announcer and door bell.  When there was something to be noticed, Matilda always sounded the alarm and didn't quit until we fixed whatever was wrong.  She was the tattler on escapees.
Now no one is barking, sounding the alarm.  It very, too quiet.  We moved Rosie to days with Buffy and Herman so she won't be so lonesome.  This morning we moved Ruby and Yo over next to Rosie before her
transfer to Buffy's.   Everyone is a bit too quiet, probably sad as we are that Matilda is not with us.
When you drive up now there are four empty pens staring at you.  But no one really wants to move.
We could move Sherpa but she'd tear open yet another gate, so probably we won't do that.  For now, it is too quiet.   Rest in sweet peace, Matilda.

Photo:  Buddy in front, Navy and Ruthie (in the pen)

Matilda, age ten

Matilda lost her battle with cancer today.   She was very shy, but the sweetest dog with the most beautiful
gait and fur.  When she was in harness she ran wherever we put her, no nonsense, giving her heart to the sport for which she was bred.   She was an excellent leader, pairing nicely with her sisters, Buffy or Ruthie.

We moved her to the pen closest to the house because of  a respiratory issue, but also more recently because of a tumor on her leg.   We had hoped to have a surgery for her this fall, but it was not to be.

Born in June of 2003, Matilda gave her all to life and we tried, in turn to make her life very special.   Her sister, Rosie, her next door neighbor will miss her very much.   Born of Liller and Skinny, she leaves behind her sisters, Rosie, Buffy, Kiddo, Ruthie and Ruby and her brother, Herman, all of which are mainstays in our kennel teams.

Rest in special peace, dear Matilda.

Matilda, right in wheel as facing photo.

 

 

Another Heat Wave

We're having a long lasting heat wave again.  Tonight is the first break in five days of hot, very humid, buggy , sun intense weather.  The dogs have been so patient but they've had enough.   We've done all the usual things and today Nick washed down every dog with water.  Late day Jim sprayed pens and redid all the water.
Now it's thundering again, lightning, scary for all of them.

We are seeing more deer in at the apple trees and in the raspberries.   Can't wait for the oppressive weather to go away for all of us.

Nature's Bounty

The apples are ripe and falling;   raspberries continue producing;  blackberries are ripening; pincherries are waning and chokecherries are turning purple.   The wildlife have taken notice and are appearing nightly to eat the harvest.   They seem to leave my plantings of sunflower and kale until all the wild things are gone.  They usually don't touch the kale until November.

The Navy goes to sea

Navy had his first lake visit since he's been with us and he appeared to love it.   He submerged himself several times, and even jumped off the dock (pursuing a distant water skiier), but he smelled rather fishy, surprisingly, so Nick gave him a bath when we got back to the kennel.

He seemed perturbed when we first put him in the back seat of the truck, his first truck ride since he has been here.   Of course we can't know what he was thinking, but he was happy to see that he was back at the kennel an hour or so later, very happy to greet Eos, as she was him.  He had a nice adventure that turned out well.

Dog Days

Not sure why these are the ''dog days" of summer but they're cooler, thus better for dogs than July's days.

Not too much wildlife visible and it's possibly because there is good wild food for them... they're not coming as close to humans because they're able to find food farther away from us.

The deer are pretty consistent about walking through, eating berries, apples, so we do see them. 

Rabbits trigger the field camera as do the deer.

Josefina on front page , Sled Dog Central.com

www.sleddogcentral.comwww.sleddogcentral.com published the photo of Josefina, age 5, taking her first dog sled driving lesson.
She is accompanied by Jimmy Richard and Tanner Johnson, handlers.  Check it out!

And a cold spell

Billed as a cold spell, this past weekend was refreshing.  Temp went as low as 36 degrees in the valley where we photograph the wildlife with the field camera and the temps ranged into the 40's and 50's for the weekend.  Add pouring rain to that and it was quite fall like.   We even contemplated soup for the dogs on Sunday but it seemed a bit early for that.

The wildlife is happily eating the many available wild berries, grasses that seem to be abundant this year, thus not coming in as closely as usual.   The apple trees are full and dropping. Blueberries here are still not ripening and they are small.  Raspberries look to be waning already, maybe from the grazing.    The cherry trees are literally dripping with the weight of the green ones, yet to ripen.

Two fawns were in with a doe yesterday afternoon, looking healthy.

Heat Wave and Remedies for it

We've had high heat (90's), high humidity (80 to 90), dry conditions (sand, sand), flies, mosquitoes, gnats, etc.

One of our favorite topicals for flies on ears is Burts Bees Hand Salve, but this last crop of biting flies must have liked it, so we had to go to applying SWAT.  Some dogs suffer more than others (Yeti, Yuki), while some seem to not be bothered much at all (Sherpa, Zoom).

For shade we rely on easy to fix tarps strung overhead with bungees.  While it doesn't look so great, it does a good job of creating shade.  Sunflowers provide great shade for Ruby and Yo every summer.

Of course, water, water and more water is necessary.  The water pails and pools are changed once to twice or three times daily.  Yeti loves his pool and kicks all the water out of it, so his needs refilling.

Nick rigged a great solution to beat the temps down... he wired a soaker hose to the top of the pens and it shoots out sprays of nice cold water, cooling the pens down by as much as twenty degrees.

Timeout for the 4th of July

We, of course, don't take a time out from the dogs, but things slow down when the temperature and humidity increase.  Today it is 86 degrees, 35 % humidity and very buggy.  We have been treating dogs for flies almost every day.   They are digging DEEP holes for hideouts and we encourage that... a place for them to cool off and hide out from bugs and sun.  The shade tarps are mostly up and each pen has a cool corner.  We fill pools each day and water is changed twice a day.   So with dogs just relaxing in the heat, we headed for the lake for some water activity.

Summer Handlers

Sherpa and Zoom took off on a great trail walk with our new summer handlers, Nick and Jenna.
The dogs love the new energy and it shows.   One of Nick's first jobs was to fix four torn apart gates, done by the bored dogs.   We haven't had a broken gate again, yet.    It's been hot and humid and very tick-y, so we've been treating dogs with Burt's Bees hand salve, a favorite of our for repelling insects.  (it has eucalyptus in its mix).

Summer Helpers

Welcome to our new summer helpers, Nick and Jenna!  They dove right in today ,  repairing gates, filling newly dug gate holes, weaving torn fence, sprinting on the trails with dogs in harness, trimming,  mowing, mowing and more mowing. The trails look great!   Tonight it looks like we care about the place and the dogs are very content.  Looking forward to a nice summer for Summer Place!

Ready for Summer

Docks in; boats in; first swim (brrr!); wild iris coming up.

Feeding fox faces

This detached turkey wing awaited the baby foxes yesterday morning.  It was there all day but this morning it is gone. 

Our Summer Blog

Welcome to our summer blog.   We are just a bit late moving to the off season blog, but , at last, the snow is gone and the leaves are popping on the trees.   Blossoms abound on the wild cherry trees, it appears to be Spring at last (two months after calendar spring).

Perhaps most interesting right now is that there are two baby foxes living under our largest outbuilding.  It appears that Mama Fox drops off food in the night for them.   This morning's dropoff included a large detached turkey wing,  all feathers still intact.  It was placed at the underground entry , almost as a turf marker.