Surf's Up!

The water heater on Plain Jane was an easy fix...well, for me because my hubby took care of that. LOL. He cleaned out the vent pipe that goes through the roof and it had a big nest of some sort in it. Old...because I haven't seen any signs of mice or birds in the trailer. He also took the components out of the element and cleaned them up. It's working perfectly now. No money spent...like those kinds of repairs! Hot water in no time flat.

Daisy is rallying this week. she is out exploring right now after her weekly bath. I've upped her protein intake on food. That's all i can think of that is helping. More real meat (cooked) and less dog food. Plus my daughter has been out spending lots of time with her and Daisy loves the company while we're at work during the day.

Okay, so onto one of the highlights of our trip--surfers in Westport, WA. We pulled into a state park (can't remember the name right now) outside of Westport to have a picnic lunch while we were out exploring. First off, the parking lot was completely full and yet not that many people around. Almost turned back out to leave but I told hubby I was starving (this danged diet!) and I wanted to eat before we went trekking anywhere else. Must be a great hike somewhere I am thinking....but soon I am noticing all of these black suited (as in dry suits) people with funny dry-suit shoes and gloves on, just their faces showing. It felt like we had entered another world. Almost everyone looked the same. We found a parking space after a couple of rounds through the parking lot and ate our lunch while we watched these guys donning and undonning these suits, waxing their boards and listened to them talk about the waves, etc. Lots of pot-smoking going on. We began noticing that every single board had a camera on the very front. Hubby asked one of them what that was for and the reply was "vanity" and "my girlfriend likes to see my legs." Ha! We followed a couple of guys up and over a hill and found THIS! In the fog and very cold, brisk March weather....wow. THIS is where all of the passengers to all of the vehicles were. People were there with high-power lens cameras taking cool shots but I had my little Canon digital and it was foggy so here's the best I got. If you look close, you can see some guys wayyyyy out there. They look like they are walking on the water from the distance. This was really a cool discovery. I never knew surfing was such a big deal here in Washington.

 

Next time I'll show you my shots of sand patterns from the surf. I had lots of fun taking photos this trip.

Trip to Grayland, WA in the TravelEZE

Anniversary time rolled around this year and we chose to take my little travel trailer to the ocean. We booked a reservation at Grayland State Park on the Washington coast. The park was very nice with electric and water hookups, bathrooms, showers and pretty private campsites compared to many RV parks and campgrounds. Hubby is an outdoorsy guy who likes wilderness camping in a tent but it's too cold for that this time of year so instead of our usual hotel, we got Plain Jane ready to go. I had never used the hot water heater before, nor the heater, so we decided to test it out on the fly when we got there. We unwrapped her from her winter cocoon and went to flush out the water system of the anti-freeze and first thing...the water line under the sink was split and sprayed water all over. Clean-up ensued and a re-plumbing job. All fixed.

Got to the campground and started playing around with the heater and it fired up and worked great. The hot water heater was another matter. The flames were coming out of the orifice and up the side and scared us both. It would need a good cleaning and maybe a couple of parts. I'm thinking it might need more. So, no showers were taken in the trailer but the campground had very nice showers available. We had our own path to the beach.

It was clamming season. We will go back next year to clam and fish for crabs. We watched folks doing this from the docks in Westport. This is a beach that you can drive on which is pretty fun. There aren't too many of those left anymore.

The fun part of the trip was there was a yarn store right in little old Grayland! It was well-stocked and the owner, "Buhl" (spelling...sounds like bew-el) was a very nice lady with a cute little sidekick pup who didn't like hubby very much at first until he sat on the floor and played ball with her while I looked around.

 

It was a great long weekend even with the few glitches with the trailer. Repairs will soon be underway to update the water heater system and I think we should replace the holding tanks too. 

Little Daisy went with us on the trip. She is not feeling well lately. She has end-stage Cushing's disease and we thought we should take her on one last trip since she's been on so many with us..bittersweet for sure. She didn't do as well traveling as in the past. Her stamina for beach walking and hiking was just not there but the upside is that she was happy to cuddle up in her bed in the trailer or the truck while we drove around one day exploring places around. 

It's almost lambing time around here. I have more to post about....lots of fun photos from this trip that I will share and a new Baa'dgirl baa'g fresh out of the studio for all of my knitting and crocheting friends. Here's a sneak peek. They are $15 and are available through our website very soon. We had a contest on Facebook and the name that got the most votes was the All Ewe Need Baa'g....and here is one fabric...more to come!

 

It's almost here! National Hug a Sheep Day!

I'm busy choosing one but in the meantime, plan your trip to a farm on October 27th for....(drumroll here) National Hug a Sheep Day! Wooooo Hooooo. There are actually a bunch of participating farms listed here.

Beau in Recovery Mode

Beau had surgery a week ago last Thursday and is doing very well in his recovery. He was my little conehead for the first few days but now he's not wearing the Elizabethan collar anymore. He's getting used to being a house dog with a lot of solitary confinement. Trazodone and sleeping pills really helped for the first week to keep him quiet and doped up, frankly. LOL. I'm saving the last 5 sleeping pills for the work days next week. He had an evening of withdrawal symptoms last week when the Trazodone ran out. He sat watching a dying fly (it's that time of year) on our wall and was really spacey acting. It was sort of funny. Then he walked around and smelled all of the furniture in the room like he'd never seen it before. If I hadn't felt so sorry for him, I would have giggled a lot. Well, heck, you know I just DID giggle a lot. He was much better the next day and no more of that oddball stuff.

He has a follow-up appointment with Dr. Davis on Thursday morning. Then we start some leash walking (more than just potty breaks outside) and at the 6-week mark he should be back to normal activity. That's pretty amazing to think about right now when he's been limping for so long, and is still limping due to the surgery. Not terribly but he is stiff when he gets our of the crate.

He and Daisy, the Boston Terrier have been sort of hanging out. They each got a bone stuffed with goodies and have been swapping them and taking turns on each one. Daisy has the jaws of life and she can really chew a bone up but these are real beef bones that have been sterilized so they seem very hard. It's entertainment is what it is. Beau needs entertainment that is quiet and keeps him lying down. I am fortunate hubby can come home at lunch and let him out for a potty break. He can take a longer lunch than me so I am appreciative of his help. Today he went up for a day long of hunting and hiking on opening day of deer season. Of course, he never saw a deer but did see a whole herd of elk and they tracked each other for a long way. He also enjoyed the new GPS and showed me his "tracks". He is really into this thing. I don't get it, but that's okay, I don't need to, right?

Dogville

We've had a lot of dog stuff going on here at Cooke Creek. First off, Sampson started doing an escape maneuver wayyyy to much. He would go on a walkabout shortly after his morning biscuits and though we live 12 miles out of town in what is considered "country", we have a ton of neighbors all around us on 3 sides ever since the population/building boom happened here. Shortly after the Taylor Bridge fire was underway in August and all kinds of people were organized doing animal rescue and rehoming and relocating, Sampson traipsed over to a home across the irrigation canal not far from us and lo and behold, within about 10 minutes his face is plastered all over the animal rescue Facebook page. The people were worried he was a displaced LGD from the fire...he had "muddy feet" and was "whimpering". I don't mean to belittle them because they were sweet to post his mug and try to figure out if he was a fire victim, but this put the last straw in my hat when my daughter-in-law said "I think I saw Sampson on Facebook." Sheesh. So....after retrieval of the poor muddy dog that had gotten into the irrigation canal on his walkabout, I started thinking it was time for Sampson to find a new way of existing here. Over the rest of the summer while I was off work I tried making a pet dog out of him along with a livestock guardian dog. I taught him to come for treats and taught him a few obedience things. He stayed with the sheep at night and got his morning biscuits, locked into his kennel (out by the sheep) and then I would let him in the yard with the herding dogs in the afternoon for some playtime and relaxation. He and Beau became fast friends and wrestled every afternoon. He still would get out once in a while and this drove me nuts. When we had some folks come and purchase a large group of ewes (new to sheep with a new ranch 3 hours away at the end of a road), we asked if they would be interested in taking Sampson and we were very honest about his antics. They are farming full-time so could really watch him and correct his bad behaviors. We sadly said goodbye to sweet Sampson. We had grown attached, of course. Happy to report, he is doing very well in his new home. It probably helps he is with his flock as well (or most of it). It's been really quiet here at night without him but we've managed to setup a little bit different night setup for the remaining sheep to eliminate the need for a guard dog. It's very close to the house near the other dogs' yard so if lots of barking happens, we check it out to make sure the girls are okay.

Second dog issue is Beau. After a limp became more pronounced and a training lesson with Patrick Shannahan was cut short because he couldn't "come bye" (clockwise running) due to pain/limping, I made an appointment at the vet and we had x-rays done that were sent to WSU for a radiology read and diagnosis. OCD of the shoulder was the diagnosis and a referral appointment to an orthopedic surgeon was scheduled. We saw Dr. Mark Davis last week who said surgery is going to fix Beau all up and he'll be back to herding in no time. He goes in for surgery this week. The rehab and aftercare is important and Dr. Davis is a certified rehab specialist so we are in good hands. But, this is an expensive deal too. There goes my sheep money.

Next up is Windy. We tried our luck at a trial in Arlington in July. It was a training trial and it was fun. I surely didn't expect we would do super great but it was pretty pathetic really. Her outrun is really lacking and she doesn't seem to know her directions. Hmmm. We had been working on directions so I was frustrated about this aspect. She did travel well and was a good girl in the travel trailer, sleeping on one of the dining cushions and not moving all night. After the trial, I was thrilled to see some openings for private lessons with Pat Shannahan in early September in Arlington. I took both dogs and we had an hour of Pat's time. He helped a lot. We got home to yet another huge wildfire that prevented us from working/herding sheep for weeks due to terrible air quality (this fire is still going and is 90,000 acres). Windy did help us bring in sheep for some buyer pick-ups but but dang, she was pushing my buttons in lots of other ways, as in personality BS. She growled at me a couple of times and started being a real stinker about not listening. I called a friend who liked her working style and breeding and could find a working home for her on a cattle ranch as she likes to work in tight and isn't pretty brave and is a gripping fool, if allowed. I was thinking this might be the best solution but they wanted to come see her work again. Last Sunday they visited and we ran Windy through a few paces. He thinks she was just started incorrectly and she's too old to change a whole lot. But then he remembered a trainer he thinks could get her "listen" back on. She's got lots of talent and natural instinct/ability...we just need to harness it better. So, this is going to be pursued. I will be talking to the trainer this week and we'll see how it goes. The really funny is...I had started having second thoughts about selling her before the friend came over on Sunday. I get so attached to my dogs. I told my hubby that she was being all nice to me and loving like she knew what I had in mind. LOL. I've had to clamp down on her BS behaviors and that has helped as well. She's got a bit of a passive-aggressive thing going on which I've seen in many a female border collie. Go figure. So, that's the latest dog sagas. I'll let you know how the surgery goes and how Windy's training is coming along soon.

 

Happy trails....

Fire!

We've had a wildfire for the last week. 23,000+ acres burned with over 1,000 firefighters working on it and today it's over 50% contained. Yay. 48 homes lost plus outbuildings. Animals are displaced and fences are burned so lots of rebuilding going on to get critters back home. It's a tough deal for lots of folks but so much is being done to help as well. Great community effort to help those in need.

Thankful there were no lives lost and even very few animals were lost, from the reports I've read.

While I was listening to the scanner and staying abreast of where the fire was located, I sewed up a new coat for Socks, the Border Leicester ram. His fleece has grown out a lot and his old one got tight. I got this Sunbrella fabric on sale. It's a little over the top for a sheep coat but he's kinda pretty, isn't he?

I sewed this on my "new" Singer Rocketeer 500 Slant-o-Matic. What a machine! Wow!! Went through the straps and multiple layers like a champ.

I've put one for sale on Craigslist here that is a very similar model and works great. I don't need two! Pass the word. Pickup only, please.

This week I'm helping with the sheep producer's fair booth display and a float for the fair/rodeo parade over Labor Day weekend for the Friends of Animals local group. Should be fun!

Happy trails!

Plain Jane - After Photos

Here are some "after" shots of Plain Jane. See the before shots here. She, the dogs and I are taking our maiden voyage this Friday to a herding trial on the west side of the State. It's just an overnighter as we have family coming to visit for a few days, so I need to get back home but I couldn't turn down a "trial run"...pun intended. : )

I still have a few things to do but the main stuff is finished. I did this redo on the cheap. I only purchased one gallon of paint (most was paint I had leftover from other projects) and the black gingham fabric for the curtains. It's almost packed and ready to roll. Hubby just bought me a spare tire mounted on a wheel, just in case. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back.

Happy Trails!