Trouble times 2

These two sure enjoy each others company.  When Paisley is over, they spend hours wrestling and biting each other.  It gets to the point where each of them have chunks missing from legs, faces or ears!

Why do I have dogs??

Are we done yet?

I often ask myself why I have dogs.  They take so much work, time and money.  Yesterday was one of those days....

We had a vet appointment for Ahi and Hops.  Hops needed:  vaccination, heart worm test, heart worm meds, flea and tick meds and for the vet to look at her itchy feet.  Ahi needed a nail trim, heart worm meds and flea and tick meds.

I don't really like a foot bath!

Let's talk about Ahi first:  She needed her nails trimmed and I have stopped doing it myself because it is such a fight.  She ends up hysterical and I end up angry and sweaty!  I decided to let the professionals manage her.  And with that, I decided to drug her before the appointment so she was calm.  We gave her the meds an hour before the appointment and off we went!  At the vet we muzzled her and gave her to two vet techs.  We could see her through the window as they tried to cut her nails.  After about 5 minutes of them trying to wrestle her, they brought her back with ONE nail cut!  One nail - not one foot!  So they asked us to hold her and got two more nails done before calling it quits!  The next nail trim will need to be done under anesthesia! The meds did not work at all....at the vets office...but for the rest of the evening at home, it was like we lived with a little stoner!

Hops is a much better patient.  She happily got her shots, had an exam and had her blood drawn.  She also got a prescription for more allergy meds because her feet are super itchy and she is madly chewing on them. The vet also suggested that we do foot baths for her using Aveeno Oatmeal Bath!  The pics here show the bath.  She was not super pleased about the event.  It wore her out so much she needed to sleep on her back to air dry her feet!

Snow - Take 2

We had another storm come through at the cabin today.   We got about 6 inches of snow.

Drew and Jim shoveled the driveway so that we could go out and explore.  We drove out behind the ranger station and played in the snow.

On the way there we had to drive around an oak tree that fell across Pine Mountain Road.

Cabin Snow

7 inches on our deck

We did a Monday mid day trip to the cabin to get in on a low elevation storm.  It was worth it because we got about 7 inches of snow!  We also we without power for 18 hours.  While many people in the community were complaining, we were fine and I even managed to work by charging my phone and computer in the truck and using a hot spot for internet access.

This is a tree down at Anna and Roy's cabin

There were trees and wires down all over the place.  And we saw multiple cars abandoned, cars off the road into trees and crushed by trees!

This a tree that fell over power lines near our cabin

The was PG&E taking down the tree into the evening

Our driveway

Our little cabin in the woods

Driving along and ran into this downed power line

Anna and Roy's cabin with a tree across the driveway 

The Marina

Labrador Snow Day

We took the dogs up the road to a big meadow off of Evergreen Road and let them play snow plow in snow about 3 feet deep.  It was such fun for Hops and Oakley but Ahi said "no thank you" and went back to the truck.

Jim dropped Ahi in the snow - it was so deep she couldn't move!

Broth

That a chunk of frozen veggie broth!

I collected veggie scraps for a couple months and put them on the freezer.  Last week I used them to make homemade veggie broth in my instant pot.  I froze the broth and then took it out to use for pea soup yesterday.  The broth tastes very fresh and it was so easy to make.  I will definitely do it again.

Pirate Weener

On Super Bowl Sunday, I woke up early and was going to spend some quiet time reading my book and having a cup of tea before I started working to get ready for our Super Bowl Party.  I was sitting on the couch icing my arm (I have tendinitis) and Ahi jumped up and looked at me.  I was shocked!  Her left eye was almost swollen shut!

I immediately freaked out decided I would take her to the emergency vet and spend up to $20k to make her better!  But then I calmed down and started gathering data.

We had beed hiking the day before and she was off leash running through brush and grass so I figured he had a cut on her cornea or something in her eye.  But she wasn't rubbing it at all.  I fretted for a while and did some research on swollen eyes in dogs.  

After awhile, I decided I didn't want to fret alone so I texted everyone else in the house.

Grace got up and came down to help.  She instantly saw a tiny tick on the top of her head and we pulled it out.  That made me think it was an allergic reaction so I started her on Bendryl.  It got worse before it got better but a day later is almost completely better.

ZZ Plant

After

This my ZZ plant.  It was a hand me down from work.  I am the 4th person at work to have it.  It ended up at home during our last move at work and it has not been doing well.  With the help of Grace, I determined that it is a ZZ plant and is a tuber AND it was incredibly impacted in its pot.

Before

It should have lots of stems coming out of it but I am only getting a few at a time.  So today I replanted it.  We basically took a knife to it and cut it in pieces, keeping only a few pieces to replant.  This will either make it better or kill it!

Before

As with everything we do, no one wanted to miss out so Grace and Jim were right there helping and giving advice.  Stay tuned for updates on the ZZ plant.

New Cabin Trees!

I almost forgot to post pics of my new trees at the cabin!  My folks gave Jim and I trees for xmas this year and we were so excited to go pick them out and get them planted.

Water running into the pipe

Timer

Watering system run along the bottom of the deck

The stick trees in the pic are our trees. The colorful pics are what they will look like when they grow up. Right now they are 8 and 12 feet tall. The one on the left is a Chinese Pistache. The one on the right is a Liquid Amber.  Jim set up a wireless watering system so he can water from his phone in SJ! Best Xmas gift ever!

New Trail

Last time we were at the cabin, we found a new hiking spot.  It is off of Ferretti just past Tuolumne Trails.  It has nice wide dirt roads and a single track trail that was littered with fallen trees.  So many trees that we spent a good part of the time crawling thru them or climbing over them.  It was probably a 2 to 3 mile loop.

Lots of dead trees

Ahi loves to hike!

Sometimes...if the sock fits....

The last 6 months have been trying in many ways.  Lots of hospitalizations for family members, the loss of my dear Daisy Mae, big life changes, lots of challenging moments...

To help me cope, Grace gifted me her "Ringmaster of the Shit Show" socks!   They are so appropriate as that is the way I have felt much of the time.

The big message from the last 6 months:  Find humor and recognize gifts and blessings that occur during tough times.  Those things will keep you going!

Brew Dogs Calendar - Stop 1 - Discretion Brewery - Soquel

Mr C being silly

My friend Ann made a Brew Dogs Calendar as a fundraiser for CCI.  She went to different brewery around the Bay Area and took pics of the brewery dogs and the CCI dogs and made a calendar.  So each month is a different brewery.  TNDC has decided to do a field trip each month and go to the brewery that is featured.

The first one was Discretion Brewery in Soquel.   We decided to do a hike in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park first.

It was a nice mellow hike through the forest for about and hour and then we went and drank beer and ate delicious food.  In fact, the overall consensus was the food was better than the beer.  Although they did have a beer called "Uncle Dave's" so the men all took a pic of themselves with the beer to send to Uncle Dave in Kentucky!

Again - Mr C being silly

Next stop - Clandestine Brewery in San Jose.  If anyone is interested in joining us, let me know.

Happy Second Birthday Oakley!

Oakley turned 2 and of course we had a party!  Grace made a doggie cake with pumpkin, applesauce, peanut butter and greek yogurt.  Grace also made her a birthday scarf and got balloons.  A good time was had by all and the dogs loved the cake.

Granite

Drew just finished 2 weeks at Granite - his first job out of college.  This week he came home with his white hard hat!  That means he is not a "greenhorn" who wears a yellow one!  Overall he loves the work and is learning every day.