Rogue River

Yesterday several of us took our dogs to the Rogue River. It is apparently still running pretty high and fast for the time of the year.

I was fine staying mostly on the river bank which was very hot. The surrounding woods are full of ticks, poison oak, and fox tail.

Later in the day...

Nim took a long needed nap after Jacksonville and I did homework. After that he was willing to do a bit of obedience and seemed less out of sorts.

I don't even want to know how many ticks I am sleeping with now though. I have pulled three off him already.

After the nap I took him back into the one acre fenced area with a favorite toy and sat on a bench to read while he played. This time he actually played. I think the toy helped a lot. And another dog showed up later that he could follow and be with.


Rusty meanwhile is hating the rain and making my sister's cat angry.

His dislike of the rain is causing a lot of the accident problems.

"Please let me in!"

Rusty's log 07.14.2011

Went swimming yesterday. Always the same. You circle one direction, and then I get held straight because I like to hitch the right leg. I fail to see the problem. I don't drown now do I?

Anyway, possibly woke up in a new location. Hard to tell. My smell is all over the place, but somehow the way out to poop is different. Occasionally I poop on the floor. But at least I am not peeing on it. Besides someone cleans it up.

I attempted to impress by tracking a deer. Why doesn't anyone ever appreciate how smart I am?

I sense an angry presence in the area. Goes by the name of Merlin. I am putting up my wards as we speak.

"Homework"

Clearly I brought this computer to blog instead of homework. That is Nim standing stone still in a full fenced acre. I have a series of photos like this because he would not move. He is standing still because he is too overstimulated to move.

Tonight my friend comes in with her more mature lab. I am hoping he will move more with another dog to run with and we can explore more of the acreage. This is an amazing property.


So. I decided we would take the few hours I was supposed to do homework in and go into downtown Jacksonville.


I really liked this well. They had a plastic bubble over it to keep the garbage out and presumably to protect the stone.


Nim has dropped all but basic obedience so far on this trip. His leash walking has been really a challenge which is frustrating for both of us. Since he spends most of his time with his ears back or scanning around I know that this is just the stage we are at and we will move through it.



His current favorite place to be is the trailer. I am guessing he will sleep better tonight.



Downtown Jacksonville didn't seem all that large. At least not the historic part. We did try and look in the windows of the rectory, but I think they were doing repair.





The main street set up looks like a frontier town.



And most of it wasn't even open yet. Nothing seemed to open until 10am or later.

Meanwhile back home, Rusty seems to think that my sister's house is where he has lived his entire life.

Oregon roadtrip - Day one

Today Nim and I left for a road trip down to Jacksonville, Oregon to stay for about 5 days. It is about an 8 hour drive. Thankfully it rained less and less the more south we went. The above photo is at an Oregon rest stop that actually had a walking trail. There is supposed to be a representative tree for each state.

Thanks to my mom, I currently have a laptop and will actually maybe blog some of this trip which I hadn't planned on doing. I got nervous about my current class and was able to borrow my mom's laptop for the adventure! The added bonus to my Grammy is that there will be blog posts.

In addition to the laptop I also borrowed my parents Suburban. Nim likes this space a little too much.

Prior to heading out, Rusty and Nim had swimming so Nim slept for about the first 3 hours (thankfully).

He can stand and see so much more out of this car.


We are staying in a small trailer on about 11 acres of land. There is a lot of dogs around and Nim is driving me nuts. Although at this very moment he has given up and gone to sleep. I am really tired but can't sleep yet. And I always stink a bit at laptops so this post may be exceptionally disjointed.

He is smack in a suspicion stage. I really hope the last of the major suspicion stages. As the trip goes on he will adjust more and more. It is hard being a teenage Doberman.

He is confused by our new house.

In Rusty news I got a good call from my sister who he is staying with and thankfully he has decided to have a good day and is totally content.

Redmond School of Glass

On Wednesday I decided to check out my sister's evening glass blowing glass at Redmond School of Glass. In the above photo she is just at the start of her project. A small amount of glass is put on the end of a stick that is hallow so it can be blown into.

These benches are set up so that you can roll the bar back and forth while you shape the glass. A person can crouch at the end of the pole to blow into it as needed to expand the project.

During the process the project is expanded by either blowing in the pipe and by adding small amounts of molten glass.

Now the shaping is occurring using damp newspaper. During this process you are always continuing to roll the project to keep it symmetrical and keep gravity from pulling it lopsided.

Continuing to roll, and the project is expanding from blowing on the end of the pipe.

The scoring is in prep to transfer this project to another pipe.

Flattening the base of the project before transfer.

Still being flattened with a wood paddle.

The pipe being held to the base of the project also has molten glass. The project will be broken off at the score mark on the original pipe and then balanced on this new pipe.


Now that it is attached to the new pipe they will break it at the scoring line.

In the above photo the project is now on the new pipe which leaves the hole that was on the previous pipe for blowing air into now accessible to widen the project open.


Final shaping and smoothing with wet newspaper.

After a little more final smoothing the project is then taken off the pipe so it can sit until it is ready to go home.

Yardwaste Recycling, 2011

Saturday kicked off the first day of yardwaste recycling in North Bend for the season. It is free for residents and despite having a large yard for piling up my storm damage, I really do take advantage of it. If nothing else, it tends to be easier to load up my truck than drag everything into the woods.

Yardwaste day always makes me thinking of going to the dump as a kid. Except it smells better and there are not spiders on the garbage cans. My friend's son really gets a kick out of going to the dump too and she finds it so odd, but I totally get it. For some reason it is one of my enjoyable childhood memories too.



The sun came out Friday rendering me "functional" and greatly improving my relationship with Nim. I was able to take advantage of the weather to load my truck for the first run Saturday morning.

The Trillium are coming in. I always get a few in the same section of the yard. Trillium are apparently on the toxic list for dogs. Fortunately my dogs really only want to stomp on them.

Costco has been selling three pack of dog toys lately. I can't really trust Nim with fluff-filled toys anymore, but if I am watching him I let him have them.

Nim was perfectly content to run the yard all day. He also doesn't try to sneak out the gate while I am loading the truck.

Saturday morning it was time to head out to the recycling facility.

Rusty doesn't get a lot of opportunity, but he really has become quite the truck dog. My jeep was in the shop again recently and Rusty really thought he was top dog tootling around town with me out of his crate.

He has come far for a dog that was super anxious in the car when I first got him.

He is always a great companion for this errand. While being an easy dog to love, Rusty is often a hard dog to like, so I really value the things we do together that really bring out the best in his personality. Rusty likes routine and simplicity. He likes things to happen in his preferred order and at his comfort level.

At the North Bend facility, the people watching for Rusty is fantastic.

When we got back from our first load (I did three on Saturday), I let him explore the yard while I started gathering piles again. For him, the movement of the piles is like a brand new yard for exploring.