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!