Water Saga

Hooray for Friday! We are actually looking at maybe some rain today. I predict the rain to arrive right when my repair people show up.

This morning I looked out and this bunny was in one of  Nim's beloved dirt troughs. That is his bear and deer watching one to be exact. Nim isn't allowed in his dirt right now because he just had a bath for some obedience competitions this weekend. I am glad the bunny put some time kicking and smelling it up for him. I am sure Nim will be thrilled.

Although maybe the bunny changed the shape enough that it will be like the Simpson's when Homer's couch groove gets ruined and he says "You better put on a pot of coffee Marge, this could take awhile."

Look who is growing some antlers:

In other news the leak detector people came out yesterday and we found my water leak. It was pretty exciting actually. They push gas through the line and then you listen. It was crazy to stand in the leak area and feel the surrounding ground echoing (almost like a cave below you) - lots of water spreading out. After they left I rapidly dug the hole hoping to sweeten the deal so the well people would come out at night. No luck.

The failure seems to be actually at this joint or whatever you call the gray piece. And it leaks a lot.

Without the dirt to slow things down, the hole instantly fills and overflows when I do turn the well pump back on and suffice to say what little water pressure I had before is way less now. So, the water pump is shut off and I am not going to turn it on again until we get this fixed. 

Hopefully they come this afternoon...before all the rain comes in. :)

Hello Babies

This summer I have been working like crazy to open up parts of the yard that are historically used for the wildlife traffic. I think the past 2 years of neglect is not only closing in the yard, but discouraging the wildlife.

Between yesterday's bear (who I actually think never cares what the yard looks like) and today's small elk herd I am thinking my efforts might be paying off. I have also had persistent deer this year...probably in part thanks to the plum tree.

What I don't understand is why they don't help clear this vegetation for me? They were even chewing on some of the dead stuff I had cut down!

This chestnut beauty definitely kept the eye on me as the rest of the group passed. There was a total of 5 babies in this group! So much loud peeping.

I wanted to run back out after they left and do more yard work for them. At least someone appreciates it.

But studying first.

I feel insanely lucky at times like these.

Amazing.

I even took some terrible video, but it makes me happy.

This video has some loud peeping as the little guys are still trying to come down into the creek (from the left side):

After the last (and noisiest) group makes it down:

Hello Beautiful

Possibly the only upside to this unusually hot summer is that even gardeners like me are having success and having it early. My tomatoes are just starting to turn (unheard of for me to have a ripe tomato mid-July) and I have been picking handfuls of beans like this several days in a row.

Once all my greens ripen, I am going to have an out of control tomato situation. I love yellow tomatoes. Love them.

My plum tree is also out of control. This is just a snap shot of a much larger plum-littered area. I eat them when I can. The deer are doing damage, and I also suspect a bear.

Yesterday Nim blew up much more than he does for the deer and I went to the fence to see what the big deal was (he and I were both in the yard - that is where I work at my picnic table). There was a beautiful bear in the stream.

Nim maintained bear-vigil for awhile.

Then went back to his favorite dirt trough for a rest. :|

Later that evening I had Nim in the house, I was waiting for Well repair people, and doing yard work in the front area. I could hear heavy crashing in the back area of the property and assumed the bear was back in the yard.

I was right. He was actually up in the plum tree (which is probably where he wanted to go earlier in the day until he was foiled by Nim's big mouth and my presence), but didn't like that I had spotted him and came down. 

Once again, I am torn about having fruit trees in bear country. To be honest, it is "feeding the bears" just like leaving trash out. The plum tree is on its own schedule and only fruits some years apparently when it is in the mood, but this isn't the first time I have had a bear go up it.

Anyway, I had watch him to see which direction he went to make my direction decisions. He sauntered back into the stream and I went into the house to watch him out the window. As you can tell, he knows darn well I can see him. :) He was panting a bit and definitely drinking and messing around in water. Everyone is hot.

2015 Old Dog Haven Walk For Old Dogs

Hello! The Seattle area is having such a challenging summer. I feel like I have been off any normal routine for over a year anyway with all my job changes and CPA studying, then this summer heat hit and really foiled my plans to get back on track. We are HOT. I hate complaining about the summer because I struggle so much in the winter, but this is a challenging one. The rest of this week should stay in the 70s and that will be wonderful.

Sunday was the Old Dog Haven Walk For Old Dogs. This is my most favorite event and I almost missed it. :( It was about 96 degrees in Seattle, Nim's morning training went late, and the walk was in a new location in Shoreline.

Still, I made it around 2pm. I just love this event so much. Truthfully, I was pretty worried about Nim. As you can see there is really no shade and the air had that oven feeling. Poor Nim. So hot. He could hardly socialize at all. :) People that do recognize us from year to year noticed right away he was not attached to a toy or a long line. Nim. Growing up.

Nim gave a big paw of approval on the free ice cream however.

I was so bummed. Normally I can photograph lots of dogs and watch their antics and just relax. Sadly it was just too hot. I swear I don't know which is worse for the dogs right now: the dead grass or the asphalt.We said our hellos, got our bags, and hit the freeway. Sometimes I just want to drive and drive to have the A/C - or to escape. Both are optimal.

Next year! I need to be there for the entire thing again. And I have to hope it won't be this hot.

4th of July

The North Bend area loves guns and explosions. We shoot when the Seahawks win, we shoot when they lose. On New Years Eve we mark every hour because you know, somewhere, in another time zone, it is a new year. I was hoping the fire risk would quiet the 4th this year. Nope. 

I am really lucky actually all of my dogs have been fairly tolerant. It is still going to be a long day. It isn't like Nim passively ignores. The only thing that would make it harder is 90+ degree weather...wait a minute. Ha!

So last night, after looking at the next week's forecast I went on a late night shopping spree for more fans and just about anything that can be frozen that the pets might actually use. This was followed by an unceremonious reschedule of the CPA exam into August. August will be better right? Sigh.

(The owl are not fazed by the heat)

Apparently (I interrupt this typing for a bang so loud that the house shook)....anyway...apparently the local owl population have a listserv and my address was featured as a hunting stop. I have never had a night quite like last night.

At 2:30am I was outside trying to get Nim to pee. I am fairly certain it was still in the 80s. The owl were so out of control that he stopped mid-stream and bolted for the house. Sigh. My tough dobie. I counted no less than 4 distinct different screeches going off at once. It was unbelievably loud and unsettling. Plus hunting noises. :( I think my bunny population took a hit last night.

(Quit taking my photo)

And by the way, these photos are from this morning. Two separate owl that I could actually locate. The bird population was freaking out. I have never seen robin hit owl like that. The robins were all on side branches taking turns running at her.

We were ALL up last night. At least in the house the 3 fans I have going drown out a lot of the hunting. I can tell we are moderately adapting to the heat because 80 in the house is no longer an issue.

This morning Nim and I went to the Danville Open Space area in Ravensdale. Because I was so tired and he was too hungry we got a late start. We should have been out there before 6am which was my original plan. It is hard hiking at all right now - I really try to stay pretty flat and not push it.

Have a safe 4th!

Early Tokul Walk

Today is another day in the 90s. I am positive I am not the only one that saw the altered forecast for the weekend and swore. We are just not getting a break right now.

A friend and I decided to meet at 6am and walk the dogs. I am grateful she got me out the door. The heat and nights of not sleeping tend to make you lethargic. Honestly, we could have met at 4am and it still would have been hot and we still would have been swarmed by bugs. :)

Still, it was a great walk.The pups were happy and Nim got to show off his new harness skills to his hiking friend Jack. I am sure Jack is relieved to no longer hear the yeti noises with the long line biting. Nim also demonstrated just how much louder he can yell at the birds now. It was short lived. :)

SO HOT and...Ford Ranger Rides Again???

Hello ridiculously hot July! We are sweltering out here for the PNW area. Hard on people, really hard on pets.

I had ordered The Honest Kitchen Ice Pups to try for Nim this summer (you can also use it heated like a gravy or presumably just a water boost).

I made him some frozen treats. He really likes them, but the first one he ate too fast and puked right away. I actually think these would be a good packet to have for hiking/camping. I have never been too sold on the electrolytes for dogs mixes, but there is something to be said for a mix that encourages some drinking and some calories. Dogs, like people, don't always eat or drink correctly when hot.

The other trick is the water + treats frozen in a Kong. Actually, I bet you could add that Ice Pups mix and really go crazy. This is messy with the hole at the bottom of the Kong so I do set in a pan while freezing. A friend of mine that feeds raw does raw meat.

I am sure this was not Leela's idea. Apparently Emile (orange) thinks that Leela can cool him? He is under the bed today.

I had someone offer to buy my dead Ford Ranger this week. I almost did it. What I did decide is that either this truck gets running, or the guy that wants it can have it. It was good motivation, and I love a good car project. He talked to me awhile about the issues with the truck and suggested a good local mechanic.

As you can see I had my work cut out for me. I have interior mold and the entire outside was coated in moss and who knows what else. You couldn't see in the windows.

I had stopped driving the truck because the clutch never worked right after I got it replaced. I am excited about a new potential local mechanic (I do have another one I really like but he is about an hour away) but first I had to make an effort to at least make it test-drivable.

I focused on getting the moss off all the outside windows. I worked on the body as well, but the windows were the priority.

Once it was shinier and you could actually see out the windows to drive it, I pushed it into the sun and tackled the interior mold. If I can make this truck semi-reliable I will actually have the seat assembly replaced.

Once the interior was done and drying in the sun, I started under the hood. My goal since this mechanic is about a mile away was to try and drive the truck there first - if not, it would be towed. To try and start it I had to replace the battery and the air filter.

When I pulled the air filter a mouse took off. Now I don't know where she came from, but clearly she had a nest which I carefully picked through for babies. I found no babies, but I did find a tag from one of my undies. That was somewhat troubling.

In a couple of weeks it goes to a mechanic in town suggested to me. The guy is so popular it will take me 2 weeks to get in. But I have heard from 2 locals now that he is worth it. While I wait, I will probably try driving around town at low traffic times and gathering my issues. Immediate known issues:

• Truck has to be shut off to put into first (not always but it seems to be really hard to get it into first)
• Brake work (sounds like sand...rust?)
• Dome light/door ajar malfunction (I actually researched this one online - how did we ever survive without the Internet? - and W40 in the door latches seemed to be doing the trick. Otherwise I would have to disconnect the battery or pull the dome light bulb
• Heater?

This mechanic probably thought I was a little crazy due to my excitement of getting this truck going again. Although not as crazy as the DOL lady probably thought I was. I had to call her because I couldn't renew the tabs online since I had let them lapse for 2 years and lets just say I was fresh off my double tall soy mocha Frappaccino at that point. She probably didn't know one could be so happy talking to the DOL. 

Getting this truck running again and fairly reliable would be a big deal, especially if I don't have to invest much to do it. I might even need another medium dog to ride shotgun. Something tells me Nim will not fit as well as Rusty did.

Rusty, April 2011 - yard waste day

I probably shouldn't get too excited yet...first to get it to the mechanic...