Astrid's 5th Birthday

 This is from last year but is too good not to capture.  This was Astrid's 5th birthday and all her friends were over to celebrate!

Hops the First

A Canine Companion puppy was named after Hops to honor what a great mentor she is to all the dogs that come through our home.  This is Hops the First....but really the second!  

 

Anna and Hops

At the end of last year, Anna broke a vertebrae in her back and had a very long and difficult recovery.  To cheer her up one day, we brought Hops over.  Hops did what she is so good at - gave Grandma some love!

World's Most Ethical Company Honor

 I don't post a lot about work but I am super proud that under my management, my company has been honored for 5 years as a World's Most Ethical Company.  Here are our 5 trophies!

And here is a video of the company celebrating the honor!

Happy Pack

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of the dogs looking so happy on a hike.  But the best part is how happy Lydia looks!

 

Kaylene's Shower

At the beginning of August, we attended a shower for Kaylene!

It was hosted by her cousin in Gilroy and about 35 ladies attended.  It was a beautiful day celebrating her and her love for Drew.

 

Wedding Kicks

 The wedding is coming up quickly and I think this is my favorite part so far!

Fridge Drama!

We remodeled our house about 23 years ago.  And Jim designed the kitchen to have a built in fridge - which are more expensive then regular fridges.  I hated the fridge from the second in was put it - it didn't have much room, the water dispenser never worked right and the ice stopped working.   I always talked bad about it....until I realized how much it cost to replace it.  It started failing a couple years ago but we got it fixed.   It worked until the beginning of this year and we got it fixed again.  But this time it didn't work.  It wouldn't cool the fridge below 54 degrees!  

So we went on a hunt for a new one and settled on this beauty.  It is a subzero and cost $17k!  It should be able to serve me dinner for that much money.  But - I do love it!  I hope it lasts about 23 years like the last one.

Cherry - July 2025

 We lived at the cabin for 6 weeks this summer and only managed to get to Cherry for one of the weekends.  It did not disappoint!  I caught over 20 blue gill and Jim caught a couple trout.  We swam and paddle boarded and played with the dogs.

Kierstienne Graduation

Kierstienne, the latest puppy we helped raise graduated a week ago as a service dog.  She will be helping a 20 year old man by interrupting unwanted behaviors and opening the doors to social interactions!

I was lucky enough to go up to the graduation, have lunch with her new family and walk her across the stage at the official graduation ceremony.  She will be living in Washington and I hope to eventually go visit her.

The video is of our reunion.  She certainly remembered me and her main puppy raiser, Cathy.
 

Honey Harvest 2025

We harvest 188 pounds on Aug 15.  That's up about 82 pounds from last year.  

Grace was home so she helped, as did my friend Allison.

Along with the honey, Grace rendered a bunch of bees wax and made lip balm and Jim and I made two different types of hot honey.

Above is the rendered bees wax and below is the lip balm.

On the bottom of the pic above is the red pepper hot honey and above it is jalapeno hot honey.

More rendered wax above and below is the set up in the garage.  Since Jim has developed a bee allergy, we got a screen for the roll up garage door so we could safely keep the bees out.

Our hives above - 3 of them!   And our crew below!

Honey Harvest September 2024

We had 40 frames this time - which is way more than we have ever harvested.  Last year we had 24 frames which was our previous high.  One box of frames weighed 53.6 pounds!  And the water content was about 14% which is really low and means the honey is really thick.

 This is 50 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon bucket that is not even filled to the top.

Total amount of honey - 108.8 pounds!

Kierstienne the CCI Pup

Kierstienne is a CCI pup who turned 1 on July 4, 2024.   Her puppy raiser is a delightful older woman who found herself in over her head when Kierstienne was about 5 months old.  She reached out to the CCI community asking for help.  Ideally, she was looking for a co-raiser.  I reached out and said that I could help but likely did not have time to be a co-raiser.  At that point, she brought her over for a visit and I gave her a bunch of tips.

A little while later, we took her for a day and worked on some stuff that she was having trouble with - including being resistant to her gentle leader.  We played gentle leader games with her and BAM - fixed that problem!

The awhile later, the puppy raiser ended up in the ER and had no one to watch Kierstienne and didn't know how long she would be in the hospital.  Jim ran over (I was at the cabin) and rescued Kierstienne from her crate and brought her to the cabin.  We had her for a couple days and brought her home once the puppy raiser was released.

Most recently, the puppy raiser had a more significant medical issue and reached out to let me know since I am invested in Kierstienne.  She had talked to the Puppy Program Manager who told her she had a couple choices:  re-home Kierstienne or find a co-raiser.   And then she had a longer term option of sending her to San Quentin in November.  The inmates would work with her for the month, giving the puppy raiser a break.

If you have read this far, you have figured it out:  We agreed to take her for a week to allow the puppy raiser to rest.  After the first week, we checked back in and she asked if we could keep her until Aug 10.  Because I am living at the cabin right now and not going to the office, the answer was an easy "yes".    So this is our guest, Kierstienne, living the adventurous life that we give our dogs.    

She is a great dog who is super easy to manage.  When she first came to us, she was dog crazy.  She just could not get enough of the dogs and played a bit out of control.  But these last couple weeks of having dog friends 24/7 has solved that problem.  There is so much they learn from other dogs that this has been a really good experience.  Plus I have seen her confidence grow as she watched the other dogs do stuff that she was not sure about.  

Date Night at the Brewery

Since we are spending a good chunk of the summer at the cabin, we get to do stuff that we wouldn't normally have time for.   Including a paint and sip class at the brewery.  We went on Friday night and really enjoyed it.  We met some nice local folks and learned some stuff in the process!

The pics we painted are of Tenaya Lake, which is a lake in the high country in Yosemite.

Memorial Service for Daisy Mae and Ahi Wasabi

On July 21, 2024 at 5:30 pm, we held a memorial service for Daisy Mae and Ahi Wasabi and sprinkled their ashes together in one of their favorite spots.  They will forever be together.

Before the ceremony, we spent the day enjoying the beautiful weather, nature, swimming, fishing and playing with the dogs.  The extra dog in the middle is Kierstienne, a CCI pup we were watching.

The ceremony was held in the grove of trees at the end of the lake.  Right near the Magic Fishing Hole.

Our special guests:  Astrid, Hops and Kierstienne.  They seemed to understand that this was a special occasion and were incredibly well behaved, staying in a down the whole time.

Here they are watching Jim walk up from the Magic Fishing Hole.

After the ceremony we had some quiet time fishing.  We then had dinner on the boat before heading home.

This is the Euology that I read to the dogs who were in attendance:

Eulogy for Cherry

As we bring Daisy and Ahi to their final resting spots, we want to remember them for the joy they brought to our family. 

 

In remembering Daisy we celebrate her uniqueness.

We remember:

That she was the labrador that raised the children in our family.

How she liked to fetch rocks from the bottom of Cherry Lake.   And wore down her teeth doing so.

 

How she didn’t like to listen to anyone but her mama.

 

How she panted all the way to Cherry Lake.

 

How she welcomed (with some grumpiness) new dogs into our family or tolerated rescued dogs that we would bring home.

How she would jump off of boulders at Cherry to follow her kids in the water.

How she would cry when she had to stay in the boat when others were jumping from 40 foot high rocks.

How she broke her leg when she was just 4 months old while sledding with her family - and how that never held her back.

How she was the most loyal Labrador there has ever been.

How she grew to be quite grumpy when she got old and we respected that.

How she hated Lola the German Shepard from the second she met her.

How she was a trust running partner for years and years.

In remembering Ahi we celebrate her feisty nature:

How she thought she was a Labrador and that she was the leader of the pack, regardless of how many Labradors we brought into the house.

How one of her very important jobs was to let Canine Companions pups know that not every dog was “rainbows and unicorns”.  

How we had her out on a hike one day and ran into a bear hunter who said “that there is a bear dog” and pointed at Ahi.

How she went from a terrified rescue to an angry, over confident weener.

How we almost lost her twice - once at the local elementary school and once in the forest behind the cabin - and she made her way home by herself.  Much to our surprise.

That she almost died multiple times from intestinal issues and liver issues but fully recovered to spread her spicy opinions!

RIP Daisy Mae - may you forever fetch sticks.

RIP Ahi Wasabi - may you find peace and occasionally put others in their place