Weekend Update

So much time has gone by since last post, not sure where to start.  I was part of the Equifax breach/identity theft thingy and sheesh what a pain.  As a result I retreated from social media.  I doubt the thief has found this blog and there isn't much useful to thieves stuff here that I can see but who knows?  The internet is an increasingly creepy place.  I also pull back from Facebook this time of year anyway.  The whole Christmas/holiday cliche thing grates on my very last nerve and the fewer pictures I see of dogs in antlers and awkward photos with Santa the better.  Now if only there was a way to avoid the horror of treacly X-mas music in the grocery store . . .  Anyway, yeah, I'm a holiday grouch so it's best I just keep my head down and away from my poor Facebook friends who are into it all and we'll agree to meet up again after New Year's.  Or maybe not.  Can't say I miss it one bit so maybe I'm finally done with Facebook unless I need some quick info. about something because it is handy for that.

Anyway, Tess!  She turns a year old in a couple of weeks.

Photo from Nov. 26

She seemed to go through a fear period the last week or two but this week seems much improved.  She was happily going up to the instructor and assistant at agility class this week whereas last week she was fear barking at them.  A couple things were different this week so it's hard to say if it's environmental or a true shift in confidence.  Both she and Ruby are doing well in class and I'm enjoying it.  So thankful for a great facility and instructor.  She's been great working with Tess' fear issues, not necessarily a given skill with agility instructors.  I love the One Mind methodology but wow, it feels like I'm starting all over.  Really fun though, I love learning new stuff.  The instructor told me she can do online instruction for me when I move and it occurs to me that One Mind has online classes as well so I won't have to give it up.  We have snow today, finally, and I've spent the day binge watching the One Mind videos.  So much stuff, it sometimes feels overwhelming, like these dogs will never ever learn it all, let alone me.  But I'm eating that elephant one bite at a time.  Patience patience patience.

Speaking of agility, I have videos from class, some are up on YouTube and I can post them on the blog.  If anybody is for sure interested, leave a comment and I'll post them.  Otherwise I'm debating with the idea of whether or not to put them up because I'm not sure if this super basic foundation stuff is interesting to anybody.

 Not sure how she manages to carry that Jolly Ball around like that.

Something else that is starting to feel overwhelming is all the homestead stuff.  I've been pouring over these books:

Finished 'The Resilient Farm and Homestead' by Ben Falk and currently slogging my way through 'The Permacultre Handbook' by Peter Bane.  Both of these books are very dense and yet touch on most topics very generally.  They're a great way to get a general idea of permaculture principles but don't have a lot of specific information to guide you through setting things up.  Unless you want to know how to grow rice.  Ben Falk has lots of stuff about how to grow rice.  In Vermont!  I looked at a piece of land that I joked would be good for growing rice but the realtor said it was too cold in Colorado to grow rice.  Now it may be possible but it's not for the meek.  All I can say is that if anything, Ben Falk convinced me that I don't want to take on growing rice.  I don't even like rice all that much.

I haven't even touched the 'Holistic Management Handbook' by Allan Savory yet.  The other 3 are from the library so I need to hit those up first but I bought that one for myself since the library didn't have it.  They do have his 'Holistic Management:  A New Framework for Decision Making' book which again has more general information about his theories but is light on the details of setting up an actual, specific grazing system.  The book I bought should do the trick.  Allan Savory is amazing, he is going to save the planet with livestock.



Coincidentally, an interview with him popped up on a health themed podcast right about the time that the TED talk popped up somewhere else, probably related to Joel Salatin, who credits Allan as his inspiration.  He's a fascinating guy.



Anyway, my head is spinning with it all and I don't even have a place to move to yet.  But I suppose I should learn as much as I can first.  And there is so much to learn.  The more I learn, the more it smacks me in the face just how far removed I am (and most of us are) removed from our food.  I watched a video on how to kill and process a chicken and realized I had no idea or appreciation for what is involved and this was common, everyday life just a few generations ago.  Never mind killing and processing a sheep or a pig.  I'm saving those videos for another day.  But at the same time I'm beginning to realize that even if you raise animals humanely for food, their 'one bad day' can be made even worse if you send the animals away to have someone else do the 'dirty work'.  The most humane thing is to do it yourself, provided you are sure of what you're doing.  I'm not sure I'm there yet but I'm starting to feel a certain responsibility towards getting there.  If I'm going to eat meat, shouldn't I fully own it?  But maybe I should focus on getting some land first.

I've been doing a LOT of hiking, so many photos, don't know where to start.  Maybe with yesterday's buffalo since I'm already yammering about livestock.  These were taken during yesterday's bike ride, in the 60's with bluebird skies.  On December 20th.  So not normal but may as well take advantage of it.

Typical East Boulder County.

Some nice lenticular clouds over the foothills.  We've had many other days in the 60's these past few weeks with way more dramatic clouds but I never seemed to have my camera with me at the right time.

Meyer's Gulch Hike

Boulder's iconic Flatirons from a climbing access side trail at Chautauqua Park.  We did a little exploring on some unmarked trails to escape the weekend crowd.

Button Rock.  Kind of an odd hike, the first part was on a dirt road then there was a dirt trail eventually.  An odd mix of man made structures (the pictured dam) and nice surrounding views.  It's nearby and we'd never been there so we wanted to check it out.  It was interesting for a one-off but I don't think I'd go back.

Looking back at photos I realize I didn't take that many.  Lately I've been leaving my camera behind or in my backpack and enjoying things as they are in the moment without worrying about documenting everything.  So many of the hikes were places I've been to a million times so I didn't feel the need for yet more photos of the same old same old.  Looking forward to having a whole new world of trails to explore, if only the right house would come along.

Mancos Yet Again

We took another trip to Mancos, mostly for vacation but as long as we were going down there we figured we'd look at a couple few houses.  Long story short, we put an offer on a place that had a hugely inflated asking price.  We offered a bit above the market value and the people countered with a still way too inflated price so we said, 'Nah, we'll keep looking'.  The house needed a lot of mandatory work like a new roof and a new hand railing (Ruby could easily have ended up falling to the floor below) and a new garage door opener and and . . . the list went on.  It was too much of a fixer upper for the price though the land and location and water were awesome.  It's possible the sellers will become more motivated as time goes on, I can't imagine anyone snatching that place up and if someone does, well, good for them.  Anyway, the search continues.

In the meantime it was a beautiful trip, leaves starting to change on the Eastern Slope, less so on the Western Slope.  We missed the peak by a  week or two.  Still pretty spectacular.

Outside of Durango

I heart Mancos.  We will get there.

We're having a very odd fall, some days are typical sunny bluebird skies and others not so much.  So much rain this year after a super dry August.  As a result it's been more difficult to find good fall colors.

Drive up Wolf Creek Pass on the way home.

The Eastern Slope on the way there.

The Collegiate Peaks

Ruby taking in the spectacular San Luis Valley

We stopped for a little hike on the eastern side of Wolf Creek Pass.

San Juanderful. Everybody enjoyed the opportunity to stretch their legs and Ruby was off her head looking for critters in the many boulder fields we hiked through.

And today we have snow.

Not a lot will accumulate, the ground is too warm, but a lot of snow is falling.  This likely spells the end of color season in the high country but we should still have some around town as long as too many trees don't lose too many leaves.  If only fall wasn't so fleeting.

It's So Busy Nobody Goes There Anymore

I haven't been to Lake Isabelle in 2 years because the hordes of people, oh the hordes of people.  Last time I went I took Strummy and looking back on the pictures I can't believe how old he looked.  When we lost him it was such a shock because he didn't seem old at all and while he certainly didn't act old it appears that he had aged a lot physically and I was so close to it that I didn't even realize it.  Kind of shocking how that works.

Anyway, school is back in session so the crowds have died down a bit and apparently Wednesday is the new day of the week that you have to hit the trails if you want some peace so Jonny took the day off and we headed for the hills.  We even got a parking space in the lot at the trailhead, something that hasn't happened in maybe 10-15 years.  Usually we have a 12-15 minute hike from a lower parking lot.  Doesn't seem like a lot until you have to do it on the way back after an already long hike and it's thundering.  We ended up giving a ride back down to the parking lot to a fellow Boulderite who had 2 visitors from Boston with him.  They were struggling with the altitude and were thankful not to have to hike that extra bit.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

It was like the good old days out there, quiet and peaceful, some people but not too many.  I didn't realize this was even possible anymore.

The hike to the lake is fairly short and easy (took us 50 minutes).  We continued on a trail that goes above the lake because there are amazing wildflowers up there and I've seen a moose up there.

Still a lot of wildflowers.  Normally the aspens start to turn yellow by now but I barely saw any.  Fall is taking it's time this year.

There's an alpine bench and some nice tundra at just under 12,000' but we didn't go all the way up to it.  The trail is getting eroded and it's steep and rocky.  The view up there is o.k. and if you really want a workout you can go another 45 minutes or so on the moon rocks and go up to Pawnee Pass.  We got close to the bench and decided we'd had enough of the steep loose rock.  We've both been up there zillions of times.

It's hard to take a bad picture up there.  I accidentally left my camera behind so these were taken with Jonny's cell phone which is older and not super fancy.

It's perhaps my favorite trail on a quiet day.  It's weird to think that that could be my last time on that trail.

Last Boulder Birthday?

Not sure if I'll be in Boulder next year for my birthday so I did ALL the Boulder Things for this birthday.  My Boulder Things anyway.

Started off hauling my ass around the Boulder Reservoir for my Boulder Bare Bones Birthday Bash race.  I only did the mile so I could go fast.  Fast for me anyway.  I had a great race, a wee bit faster time-wise than last month but the exact same pace of 1:48/100 yards.  Distance was 1.05 miles per Garmin, can't get much closer than that. The lovely finish line ladies serenaded me with a birthday song when I exited the water but I was too dizzy and winded and embarrassed to fully appreciate it.  My friend Marcie braved the Pearl St. Whole Foods in Boulder to get me this nummy cupcake and she managed to do it without ending up on the 5:00 news.  It is that sort of a Whole Foods.  Or maybe all Whole Foods are that way.

I was tired enough after all that but Jonny insisted on hauling my ass up a mountain.  Sort of a mountain.  Goshawk Ridge again, third time this summer after never having been there since the trail was created I don't know how many years ago.  Turns out it's a super quiet trail close to town.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

It was hot.  Ms. Deer had it made in the shade.

Wait, there's more.  We had dinner at a super snooty Boulder restaurant called Arugula (says it all right there) because I had a gift certificate from my office landlord.  We went at 4:45 to avoid the worst of the Boulder Scene.  And also because we were tired and hungry.  I have to admit that the food was really good, like really good, though I'm hardly an expert in Fine Dining.  They were playing Bob Marley live on the loudspeaker, something I was not expecting at such a snooty place.  Only in Boulder.

All in all a great day doing all the Boulder things.

Fireflies and Smoked Fish

I took a little trip back into my Midwest roots last week.  Met up with some family in Ann Arbor, Michigan and while I grew up in the Chicago area, Ann Arbor has many nostalgia invoking things.  Like fireflies.  I don't miss much about Chicago but I do miss fireflies.  And smoked fish.  There are no authentic Jewish delis in Boulder.  Maybe there's one down in Denver but I don't care enough about smoked fish to drive that far.  But my aunt lives just under a mile from a real Jewish deli with the real smoked fish of my youth.  It's been 35 years or so since I've had smoked fish and the fish from this deli was pure heaven.  Plus I was hungry after a day of travel and not much food and about 2 miles of walking to get to/from the deli so that made it all the tastier.  Funny how things like that bring you right back to your childhood.

My aunt also lives in a historic district complete with the old timey framed houses and big trees, sort of from my childhood.  I grew up in a relatively 'modern' subdivision with 1950's tract housing that was kind of ugly if I have to be honest.  But I would often ride my bike to the snooty, historic part of town and I loved the old houses.  And I lived in such a neighborhood in Urbana, IL when I was at university.  So every night after dark I took a 'Firefly Walk' through the old Ann Arbor neighborhood and soaked it all in.

One thing I was not sorry to leave behind was the humidity which greeted me with a vengeance on my first two days there.  Wow, horrible.  I don't miss that at all.  Thankfully it cooled off and dried up for the last 2 days.
But the point of the visit was to visit my 2 aunts, one who lives there and another who came in from Chicago for a little reunion of sorts.  Great to see them both, it's been a few years.  My family is small and difficult and scattered far and wide so it was good to get together even though it was only 3 of us.

We walked around downtown Ann Arbor which didn't hold all that much interest for me since I'm not a recreational shopper though there was a cool old theater.

And a cool mural with some Chiwowows.

Boulder and Ann Arbor have roughly the same population but Ann Arbor seemed busier and more like a real city.  Big tall buildings downtown, highways and busy roads, LOTS of traffic downtown on Friday and Saturday nights.  The university dominates the town a lot more than the university here in Boulder.  Even with school out of regular session there seemed to be a lot of students around, way more than in Boulder.

My aunt also lives near some small forest-ey areas and some trails along the Huron River so I took a walk on a nice loop through the woods and along the river with her dog.

Only about 3-4 miles or so I'd guess but nice.  LOTS of runners, not many dogs.  There were other trails and nature areas but I wanted to get back and it was getting hot for the dog.

Had a nice time, was great to see my family and visit a new place.

But I missed the mountains.  Took another hike up Niwot Ridge yesterday, mostly because it's not very busy yet has great views, a rarity these days on the Front Range.  Ironically even though we hardly saw anybody, we ran into a guy Jonny knows right at the start. His wife and I have a mutual ultra runner friend as well.  She was running separately from her husband, probably training for some crazy thing, and her husband told us to say 'hi' and call out her name to freak her out.  She wasn't freaked out, just confused because she didn't recognize us so the prank was a fail.

The trail was melted out so we were able to get a bit higher this time.  There were a few snow fields but nothing too crazy.

Gorgeous up there at 11,460' but after 9 miles, 2000' of climbing and almost 4 hours of hiking I was toast.  Been ages since I've gone out for so long, last year I was focusing on shorter, higher intensity stuff, intervals, etc. and very little hiking.  From a health perspective the shorter, more intense stuff is way better but I loves me some high country/alpine hiking and it was so wonderful up there, wildflowers and snow, gotta love it.  I was struggling with the altitude more than usual, not sure why.  Sometimes it happens, I have a hard day.  It was a bit on the hot side but not terrible, maybe 60's-70's and sunny.  Who knows, hopefully not age related.  I'm tired today but not as sore as I thought I'd be so that's encouraging.  Been slacking lately, I need to get back on the bike.  I've been re-introducing running, the sore tendon is still a bit bothersome here and there so I'm taking it slowly, walk/run sessions with gradually increasing periods of running.  I've been keeping up with the swimming, love summer swimming at the Rez and outdoor pools.  Weight lifting, ugh, haven't been doing it at all, have to bring that back.  So important.

Tess has grown a bunch.  I love my new camera, a big improvement over my last point and shoot and a different world altogether from the cell phone.

On the one hand she seems to have made a lot of progress with being afraid.  She seems a lot less scared of her environment in general on walks, especially dogs barking off in the distance or even dogs behind fences barking and lunging at her (hard to avoid these sometimes).  But the neighbor girl came over today for the first time in a month or two and Tess acted as if she'd never seen her.  Previously she'd gotten to the point where she'd fetch a ball thrown by her.  So we went back to the girl feeding treats to Tess and after a LOT of treats and me eventually letting Ruby outside, Tess finally pulled her tail out from between her legs and started wagging it a bit and relaxing  Ruby made all the difference.  Sheesh.  She was good at my training partner's house, going up to her and meeting her more energetic, younger dog.  I was hoping they'd at least play chase but they ignored each other, which is o.k. too.  Hopefully one day she'll warm up enough to play.

Went to the dog park super early so we'd have it to ourselves for some recall practice.  Both dogs doing great with that, will have to figure out a more challenging place that's still safe.  Hmmm.  It's great to see Tess stretch out and run.  She's feeling her legs these days, can't wait to move to someplace with acreage.

Still no suitable houses/locations.  Considering some vacant land, not my first choice, but it might be kind of fun to rent in a different town like Pagosa Springs or Montrose or somewhere for a year or so while we build the right sized house.  But ugh, what a pain.  I know enough about construction to know I don't want to go there if I can help it.  Must be patient.

Puppy, Hiking, More Puppy, More Hiking

I know, so much puppy.  But how often do I get a puppy?  Sixteen years since my last puppy so I think I get to post ALL the puppy pictures.

These are from June 5th, a week and a half ago.  She's so much bigger now.

She's all legs and ears.

Poor Ruby, she's such a good sport.

Loves her.

This is called the 'Mr. Piggles is SO Much More Fun Than My Undies Game'.  This is also one of the first shots with my new camera, a Canon point and shoot.  My old point and shoot is dying and I can't have that with a new puppy.

These photos are from yesterday, also with the new camera.  The light was not fabulous but I had some spare moments and wanted to give the new camera a shot.

Tess loves Ruby very much and gets a lot of confidence from her.

She seems so big, and today she seems even bigger.

She's made some nice progress with her confidence as well.  Took her to Home Depot and she walked right in no problem, even with the sliding automatic door.  We've worked on that at the grocery store.  She was a bit nervous of the carts and people squatting in the aisles but otherwise she walked around, no freezing.  We went super early in the a.m., not long after opening so it was quiet.  Maybe next time we'll go when it's a bit busier though if it's too busy I may have a breakdown.  I've backed off the socializing a bit, mostly for my own sanity,  I hate big noisy crowds and busy places.  It's funny that I'm going to all this effort to get her used to places I never intend on going but it's good to get her as used to everything as possible.

She had her final puppy shots at the vet and did way better than last time but still was pretty nervous.  Shaped her to get on the scale, she was around 27 lbs.  Scale kept changing numbers so could be plus or minus a pound or two.  Now the vet says keep the rear dewclaws.  They're actually formed toes, not just wimpy flappy claws, and kind of freaky looking but I'm all for less surgery.  Normally I would spread out distemper and rabies shots but I didn't want to subject her to another vet visit so we did it all at once and thankfully she had no vax reactions.

Took her to see her poodle friend today and she did great - pulling my arm off to get to the yard, flying around the yard as soon as I let her off leash, going over to my friend to say 'hi'.  Still not playing with the other dog but mostly not scared of him either.  Something had recently killed a rabbit in the yard and Ruby was more than happy to check out the scene of the crime.  Overall a fun morning for the gang.  Now to get her as comfortable with some other yards and dogs.

Jonny and I took a nice hike over the weekend on a quiet trail in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  Such things do still exist, we saw a total of 2 groups of 2 people, one with a dog.  The trail is an old jeep road for the first couple few miles which is probably why it's so quiet, most people prefer a trail.  But it's not too rocky and we were o.k. with it if it meant no crowds.

The snow melt is in full swing so parts of the trail were running with water right next to some remaining snow banks.

This was above the running water, approaching treeline.

There were some nice views along the way.

Top of the World.  Or treeline at least.

At treeline the trail turned to pure snow and it was super steep, not a great combination for hiking boots so we turned around.  I suspect there are more spectacular views from the top of the ridge but it will have to wait for another day.

Tess is too young for such a steep long hike and despite all the snow it was a hot day so we left Ruby home.  Maybe once things thaw out and we plan for an earlier/cooler start we can take Ruby.  The dogs had a good early early morning romp at the dogpark where we practiced recalls and had the joint to ourselves so I didn't feel too badly about leaving them behind.  It's great to see Tess stretch out and run.  She does these funny flying lead changes, looks like a dressage horse.

Went to Target at 8 this morning to get the dogs a cheapo paddling pool since it's getting hot out and neither dog is thrilled about water.  I did some shaping with the clicker to try to get them in the pool.  Tess was batting the water with one paw after the first session and batting for more reps with both feet after the second session.  Then I took her to my friend's house for her doggie play date and she was batting the water in the water dish in the yard.  Such a funny girl.  By the third session today she was standing in the pool with 2 feet comfortably and had a few reps of all four feet in though she jumped out as soon as all four feet were in.  Ruby was standing with 2 feet in on the first session but I didn't get any further with the second session because Tess kept getting in the way.  Will try again later with only Ruby.

I have a short trip planned for next week, have to deal with the hassle of flying.  We'll see how that goes.  Jonny gets the pups all to himself.  We'll see how that goes.