Astrid

Grace has been helping regularly with the "A" litter and I have visited (and helped a little) a couple times a week.   Last week I worked from home one day and ran over at lunch for a quick visit.    She is about 6 weeks old in this pic.

The litter is being turned in on Feb 5 and we will go back up and get Astrid on Feb 7.

This video shows Astrid's feisty personality.  She is the pup in the litter that causes the most ruckus.  She takes on the biggest puppies when she is one of the smallest.  She is awake when everyone else is sleeping.   And she thinks she can win tug o war with a puppy way bigger than her!

Happy 3rd Birthday Oakley

I love my Grand Dog, Oakley!

Oakley was at our house on her birthday and when Drew came to pick her up, he brought her a hamburger and a stick toy.  And Grace gave her a bag full of tennis balls.  A good time was had by all.

Sharing the burger

Lands End

Sutro Baths

For our First Sunday Hiking Club hike of 2020, we went to Lands End in SF.   This is an iconic SF hike that I had never been on.   The reviews did not disappoint.  It was a cool hike and an outstanding day.  It was not hard and more like a Sunday stroll but the beauty and good company made us forget that we were not really working out!

We picked up Staci on our way by her house and Lisa B met us there.  We got to see amazing views of the coast line and the bridge and looked at new flora using our Seek app.   Two thumbs up and fun to do something totally different.  Staci and I committed to at least 6 NEW hikes this year.   That may mean we need to travel farther afoot because we have done A LOT of them in the South Bay.

Two boys and their dogs.

Foresta Falls

I stumbled upon a website about waterfalls and found information about the Foresta Falls within Yosemite but totally off the beaten path.  We decided to go check it out and it was well worth the effort.

We went through the town of Foresta and parked at the top of a dirt road and wandered around for a couple hours.  This area has been devastated by fire 3 times in the last 3 years.   So much of the terrain is still in recovery.

After the hike, we drove into the Valley and stopped at the chapel which I have always loved.  This time we checked to see if it was open and it was!  So we got a look inside.

Whitney and Pups - New Years Eve

Whitney and her pups partied it up for New Years!   Being only about 3 weeks old, they didn't stay up too late.

New Year's Eve 2019 - Badger

We spent New Years Eve day at Badger Pass soaking up the sun.   Bug learned to ski with the best instructors ever:  Mr C, G and Jim!   She killed it!

While they skied, Marty, Cindy and I went on a ranger led snow shoe hike where we learned about ermine and saw where a bear freshly scratched a quaking aspen tree.  We also played cards while watching all the activity.

We went home and scarfed down spaghetti before going to bed at about 10:30 and missing all the mid nite festivities.  Oh well!

Carlon Falls and Hetch Hetchy

The Cindy's and Kayla came up for New Years (soon to be followed by Tina and Marty).  We did a great hike to Carlon Falls followed by a drive out to Hetch Hetchy for a picnic lunch and a quick look around before heading back to the cabin to meet up with Tina and Marty.

The big excitement of the Carlon Falls hike was locating a freshly killed buck, that was still warm!   The dogs noticed traces of fur next to the trail and while we were examining it, they found the dead deer a little ways away.   There was all kinds of CSI analysis going on as we checked out the deer and mapped where the attack took place through the forest.  (Note:  when I say "we" I do not include myself as I was off identifying plants and gagging a little!).  We are pretty sure that it was a mountain lion kill from earlier in the morning.

The Carlon Falls hike runs along the river and is a great place for a summer hike as you can dunk in the river if it gets too hot.    But on this day, it was in the 40's and there were spots of snow and ice in places.

We kept the Weener close to us after seeing the dead deer.  The mountain lion was probably hunkered down somewhere close, watching, or at least listening, to us.

After the excitement of Carlon Falls, we packed up and headed out to Hetch Hetchy for a picnic and a hike across the dam and through the tunnel.   Then back to the cabin for BBQ chicken and some games.

Red Hills

We did a day hike over the holidays at Red Hills, an area we have only been to a couple of times.  It was a cool, clear day and we checked out all the plants on the Seek app.