Helper Girl

Jim was fixing the fountain out from today and had a helper!  She was watching his every move!

Arrows

We went to a local archery range and today and shot Grace's new bow.  Jim and I also shot ours.  We did the regular range to warm up and then did the par course and shot from different distances and angles.  Good clean fun!

New Do

Look who got a sassy new hair style!  When I look at myself in this pic, I see my Aunts:  Maureen, Rosemary and Linda.

Swimming Pool

We got a used swimming pool today for Hops and she immediately jumped in it - without water - and rolled around.  Then I threw a bunch of tennis balls into it and she chased them around as they rolled.  Later in the nite she would run outside and jump in it!  Silly pup.

Bow

This is Grace's new bow.  When we wen to pick up Hops last week, we stopped at Bass Pro Shops and Grace and Jim checked out bows.  Jim promptly came home and used all his Bass Pro gift cards to get G her own bow.  Now all three of us have them.  Hers is really fancy....mine is much simpler. Although mine is beautiful!   I can't wait til tomorrow so we can go try it out.  There is a cool place by us where we can hike and then shoot and then hike to the next target and shoot.  Etc.

PS - that's her new pup to match her new bow.

Happy 1st TNDC

Last nite was Hop's first TNDC and it was at Tina and Marty's house.  It made her very tired!  She spent a good 15 minutes napping like this!

Throne

Ahi has been loving the new chairs I got.  She lays on this one all the time and we have started calling it her throne.  Today Jim found her in this spot on it?!?!?  Crazy wiener!

Relaxing

A man and his Labradors

Good Morning

This is what a pup looks like after a morning run at the school, a game of chase around the coffee table with the wiener and a big breakfast!

Friends?

I love this series of pics.  Hops is popping out from between the chair and the couch looking at Daisy and asking her to play.  In the first pic Daisy clearly says "you are an idiot leave me alone".  So Hops keeps backing up and asking, "can we be friends if I am this far away?"

Welcome Hops

This is Hops, our 16 week old yellow Labrador.  She was born on 9/26/14.  Her mom is Surf Betty and her dad is Max.  She came from a litter of 5 and she has a great back story that I will fill you in on if you want to ask.

We are thinking about giving her a first name to go with Hops, and it will likely be a type of Hops.  Right now Noble Hops and Liberty Hops (call her Libby) are in the running.  Jim and Grace like Noble because she is an English Lab.  I like Liberty because I think Libby Hops is cute!

She is what we call a guardian female, which means we agree to breed her up to two times before her 4th birthday.  Of course, that is contingent on her knees, elbows and eyes passing the necessary tests.  We can have the puppies at our house with the help of the breeder or Hops can go to the breeders house to deliver and stay until the pups are weaned.

My two ladies were not impressed at first.  But they have moved into the second stage of emotion now - irritation.  Pretty soon they will move to the ignore stage!  And finally - acceptance!  Ahi is particularly snarly....but that doesn't surprise anyone!

Daisy is enjoying the training sessions I do every morning with Hops - she gets right into the middle of it and does everything I tell Hops to do.  They are so cute laying next to each other in a "down" command and then come running together when I give the "come" command!

So far, she is the laziest puppy I have met.  She is very mellow and likes to sleep a lot.  The vet was really impressed with her temperament and even said "this is the dog I would like."  She has one minor medical issue - she has an umbilical hernia....just like her cousin, Pepper.  Luckily it is no where near the size of Peppers!

She received training before we got her so she knows, sit, down, stay, come, leave it, drop it and fetch.  Plus she knows to bring the bell on the door if she has to go out. 

See the green bell hanging on the door behind her.

oops - her face fell off the bed!

We are looking forward to teaching her about hiking, backpacking, boating and all the other fun stuff we do!

During this mornings training session

Mani

Grown up nails - Take 2!

Broken Down....Again

Packed like sardines

On Monday nite of the holiday weekend, we were on a boondoggle in Turlock on our way home from the cabin and the truck broke down.  We had noticed that there was a small leak in a hose and it was causing steam as the fluid leaked out.  But on our way home, the whole hose fitting broke and it was like a sauna!

We made the best of it while waiting for the tow truck - we had an In and Out picnic and Grace played the guitar.  Then we all loaded into Tina and Marty's rig (5 people and 3 dogs) and headed home.  We put all our gear in the towed Tahoe so we had enough room.

The truck is still in the shop but we should have it back tonite.  I really need a new rig but I HATE shopping for them  I much prefer breaking down and having to be towed....so that tells you how much I hate it.

We all keep needing the stuff that is in the truck - including:  my tennies, Marty's magazine, Tina's brie and Grace's boots.  The good news for Jim is the stuff needed to fix that boat trailer is in there so he is off the hook for awhile!

A little picnic

Steaming

Entertainment while we wait

Wheel hub

Here is the wheel hub from the boat - the one that caught on fire.  Jim brought it home to repair it.

Cabin Kitchen

Granite countertops

Rock back splash

We are moving forward on the kitchen remodel at the cabin.  Our original bid was about $10k but with Jim doing a bunch of the work and finding more cost effective materials, we are down to about $6k. 

The granite was the tricky part.  Because of the shape of the kitchen, we need a HUGE piece or we have too many seams.  The original pieces we were looking at were $25/sq foot but they were too small.  Imagine my delight when Jim found a huge piece that was $8.80/sq foot!

We found the rock back splash for $10.80/sq foot at Lowes.  The original source was $22/sq foot.  Score!

It looks like we will be scheduled in for late February to start the project.

Cherry - January 2015

 I sure missed Cherry while is was closed for over a year. 

After our trailer fire, we spent the day wandering around the lake: hiking, looking for the crapper, fishing, collecting lady bugs, hiking to the magic fishing hole, watching an eagle and finding salamanders.

It was a BEAUTIFUL warm day.  We were all in short sleeves and could have been in shorts.

My friend from work, Allison, and her family were with us (Dad-Ivan, sons- Matthew and Jacob).  They were so lucky to get such an outstanding day.  The only thing that would have made it better is if we caught some fish - but there was no bite.


I feel all right with the world now that I was able to get my boat onto Cherry and wander around breathing in the beauty and peace.

This is the log we normally float and play on.  Look how far it is from the water.

This is our campsite that we stayed in the last 4th of July we were able to camp there.  It has burned areas.

The is Grace hunting for the crapper - we did not find it.

Matthew

I think the dogs might like at Cherry more than us!

Hunting for treasures - found lots of flashers

Heading up Cherry Creek - check out little Jacob smushed by the dogs.

Cherry Creek

Looking down the lake from the Boy Scouts spot.

Ahi dug a 3 foot long ditch and jumped in it when Murray was chasing her!  Brilliant!

Standing at the Magic Fishing Hole and looking towards the lake.

Heading back after a long day of fun.

11 years old and over doing it

On Fire!

Standing around watching

White extinguisher chemicals

Today we took the boat out to Cherry for a classic boondoggle.  On the way there we realized that we had not locked out the trailer brakes which is needed for the steep canyons we were driving in.  So going down a steep hill they were smoking.  Once we got down to the bottom of the hill we pulled over to lock out the brakes.

As we stopped the truck, my friend who was following us yelled, "there's fire!  there's flames!"

All in one motion we bailed out of the truck.  Grace jumped in the back and grabbed bottles of water! Jim flew into the boat and grabbed a fire extinguisher!  By the time I got to the back of the boat, Grace was dousing the flames with water and Jim was leaping out of the boat and diving under it to shoot the flames with the extinguisher.

They got the fire out pretty quick and threw water on the tires to cool them off.  Then Jim regreased the bearings and we were off on our way again.

Boondoggle on!

Used extinguisher

Greasing the bearings

Merry xmas to me

Amanda got me this awesome sweatshirt for xmas.  The front says, "Labrador Mom".  The back says, "Don't Judge my Labrador and I won't judge your kids."

I love it!