Almost time...

The crab pots went to Half Moon Bay today!  There was one clean crab test, so they are getting ready.  Although they are still not sure when the next test will be or if that was a clean test, they would open the season.

Three White Dogs

Pepper stayed with us this weekend.  At one point, I looked up and the three white dogs were posing like this!

I feel so sorry for Pepper - he lives this very simple, quiet life as an only dog and he comes to our house and it is total dog chaos!  When he showed up, even Murray was here.  At dinner time, there was way to much commotion for him to eat. 

And later, Ahi got mad at Hops because she was too close to her, so she snarled and bit Hops on the snout which caused Hops to bark and snarl back.  Poor Pepper was standing their watching, like "what the heck?"!  Little did he know that later Ahi got all snarky at him for sitting on the same chair!  She snapped and growled at him but did not make any contact.

Our house is really not for dogs who are faint of heart.

Snowbowl

Drew did his first AZ ski trip this weekend to Snowbowl near Flagstaff.  He said it was a little bigger than Badger.  I had done an emergency "ship his ski stuff" last week so he would have all his gear for the weekend.  Looks like it was a good use of my time and money - he had a great time!

Knocked up Nellie

We have a breeding agreement with Hops' breeder where we agreed to have two litters.  This is an interesting business model and one that I like because it has mama dogs being pets rather than breeders in kennels. 

So we bred Hops about 4 weeks ago and we were pretty sure she was "knocked up" due to her udder development, her fatigue, her looking wider and her wanting to be close to us.  But then in the last few days, her stamina has increased and her udders have seemed to decrease!  Now we are concerned that she might have had a false pregnancy which recently happened with some of the other females who used the same male dog for a stud as Hops used.

At this point time will tell.  We will get an xray at the beginning of December to check for number of pups.  If she is pregnant, she will have pups in mid December.

Stay tuned.

Hail Storm

We had great weather at the cabin over the weekend - Saturday was a beautiful sunny, warm day.  Sunday was rain and hail most of the day.  These pics are hail - not snow.  Make sure you turn up the volume on the video to hear the thunder.

Cherry - November 2015

Butt crack rock had a cone on top of it!

Hike right before Cherry Creek bridge

We did a quick weekend trip to the cabin with no agenda, so we took a ride out to Cherry to see how low it was.  It is SUPER low - the lowest we have ever seen it.

On the way out there we stopped to look around and hiked a little.  First we tried a hike down the river from the Holm Powerhouse.  But it was like hiking on the edge of the world and I got enough of that in Washington, so we turned around.  Then we found a trail just before the Cherry Creek bridge.  We hiked about a mile up hill, saw some cool views and came back down.  Jim was feeling under the weather so we didn't push it.

We took a dirt road a few miles before Cherry and got up on a hill to get the shot of Cherry above.  Hops was also able to play in patches of snow.  Below you will see a pic of Lake Eleanor which is about a mile and a half hike from Cherry.  We were there in July and it was low - but now it looks almost empty.

This is Lake Eleanor right in the center of the pic - it looks almost completely dry.

On the dam looking towards the launch ramp

This is where we would have launched the boat if we brought it

Another view towards the launch ramp area

The "N" Litter

Canine Companions for Independence has a local litter that we went to visit last week.  Each litter is assigned a letter (in order) and all the pups from that litter have names that start with that letter.  This is the "N" litter.  There are TWELVE of them!  That poor mama!

Grace, Bug and I went to visit and help socialize them.  Other than holding them, the highlights were:

• When their human mama yelled "puppies puppies puppies" and they all jumped up from a dead sleep and came running!
• Feeding time - they all climbed all over each other getting to the food. 

They said that the poor mama, Nicole, almost completely stopped eating with about 4 weeks to go because she was so big.  They had to tempt her with hamburgers.

Grace's favorite was Nolan.  I was partial to Newton.  Bug would have taken them all!

Waiting for dinner

It's like "Where's Waldo"!

Fall Ball

Grace went to Fall Ball this weekend at Levi Stadium.  She went with her girlfriends K and Bug.   After we got her hair cut, we went to the mall and got her makeup done.  Bug got hers done too!

Makeup done!

The girls were kind enough to let us join them for dinner, so Bugs parents and us joined the girls for a nice dinner at Birks before we dropped them off at the dance.

The girls reported having an awesome time and looked so beautiful!

Before and After

Before

Grace has been thinking about getting her hair cut and she finally did it this weekend.  She cut 6 or 7 inches off.  It looks so cute!

Before

After

After

Fishing in AZ

Gear

Amanda and Drew were going to go camping in AZ this weekend but then the weather turned bad.  So they decided to go fishing instead.  In the middle of the week, they sent me these pics of them getting ready.

Bait and weights (and a random soccer ball)

Testing out the gear

Then on Saturday they made the trek to Rose Lake.  The road is closed for the winter so they had to hike two miles.  They each caught two fish!

Scooby went with them and enjoyed the hike.  He was watching the fish and jumped in after one and went for a little swim.  But then he got cold and had to snuggle up in the backpack!  I am so proud he is so rugged!

Such a fun adventure!

Wrestlmania

Grace woke up to these shenanigans!  The dogs decided it was time to wrestle on Grace's bed while she was asleep in it!

TNDC - On the Road - Bass Pro Shop

Dinner at the picnic tables behind the store

We have been waiting a long time for the opening of the Bass Pro Shop and it has finally happened!  The Grand Opening was on a Wednesday so we planned a TNDC field trip on the day after the opening.  We all me outside near the boats, hung out on the boats and had snacks and ate burritos.  There also may have been a few beers involved while lounging on the pontoon boat!   At one point we were on the pontoon boat and a woman came up and said we looked like we "knew what we were doing"!  We had to admit we were experts at eating snacks and hanging out on a pontoon boat!  Then we offered her some chips that she happily tried!  At another point, three Bass Pro employees were wandering around watching us....and then we heard one of them say "it's ok, they are just having a family dinner"!

Once we all ate, we went inside and checked it all out.  At one point a couple of us went into the bowling alley to check it out....much to our surprise (NOT!) we found the rest of our party in the bar!

Oh Marty and his statues!

The ceiling in the bar/bowling alley

Its no Pontoon Mama!

This is the pontoon boat where we had snacks and beers!

Mikey was a surprise guest - home from college!

Tina sure got around with this fishbowl drink!

Some Halloween Pics

Uncle Richard

Hottie and a Redneck

Kyle and Mari - there are no words!