Summer of the Owl

A couple of years ago I had twin owl fledglings with an adult and I remember thinking how lucky I was. Then this summer, I ended up with 3 fledglings and an adult.

I think I would love owl just a little more if they were insectivores. These little lovelies brought an unbelievable amount of noise and carnage to the peaceful, baby bird filled yard.

The first time I realized I had 4 of them was late at night. I kept hearing a lot of upset birds and loud sounds on the roof. I flung open the window and all 4 of them froze, just staring at me. Some were on the fence, and some were hanging off a fir tree. It was the beginning of a strained relationship.

 I wish I had got any photos earlier in the season. All three young owl would line up with the adult on one single branch. One was noticably younger than the others (I am guessing because of his extra fluff).

There were one very funny morning in which all 4 were lined up, squawking away at the large white rabbits on the ground below. The wild rabbits would have had a coronary. The large white rabbits didn't even flatten their ears.

It has taken almost 2 full months of steady hunting and begging for these guys to finally start to grow up. Supposedly owl are most active at night, but these 4 brought 24/7 chaos.

If there is any confusion in my mind as to where they are in the yard, I only need listen to the upset bird noises, or feel for the staring.

If you would like to listen to them yourself, enjoy the video of three of them. Notice the upset bird noises in the background:

Áegis of Bellevue Four on the 4th Dog Jog & Walk

Happy 4th of July! In the North Bend area, this has been an exceptionally loud one...even days leading up. That has been a bit of a bummer, but hopefully after tonight it will slow down a bit.

The morning started with a fabulous little dog walk in Bellevue.

Nim and I decided to join our friends for the Áegis of Bellevue Four on the 4th Dog Jog & Walk. This walk benefits the Seattle Humane. The weather was overcast and cool, which was an added bonus to the nice start of the day.

We got there early because I was a last minute registration. I think this was a good thing too as Nim definitely needed more time to get used to the noise and amount of people. We got a cute shirt with the registration as well. This is a much bigger and boisterous walk compared to the Old Dog Haven Walk for Old Dogs which we will be participating on July 17th.

We had a great time walking with our friends: Mickie and Charlie. Mickie you might remember as a rescue dog my friend Cindy got a couple of years ago. Charlie is a house guest with Mickie and fell right in with Nim as if they knew each other their entire lives.

Charlie is pretty darn cute. He only got tangled up in Nim's legs once during the walk which I considered a success given Nim's general lack of awareness of his body, Nim's size in comparison, and the amount of dogs we were walking with.

July is looking to be a full and fun month! Today's walk was a great start.

Workshare and Summer

Today was my 3rd official workshare day at Jubilee Farm. I find the work hard and yet every week I wake up looking forward to it. The work uses your body in such odd ways and often moving through the plants and soil is almost meditative. My back is always tired, and surprisingly often my hands are too.

Week 1 and week 2 I did a lot of roasting, some soup making, and stir frying. I try and do all the prep on Tuesday when I get home from the farm to cut down on waste.

This week I have shifted to chopping and freezing. I have burned out on roasted turnips. :) I am excited about the zucchini. I will be shredding that later to see if I have enough for bread. I can't wait for the squash to really take off.

The irony off all this is that part of the reason I signed up for workshare was that I was going into the summer basically unemployed after tax season. Then wouldn't you know? I got a part-time job at the end of May. Regardless this has been a great experience and I am buying very little in the way of groceries right now. All my Mint "overspending" alerts are always on the pets. :) As it should be.

Summer is upon us, and after a week of rain, we are currently in a week of sun. It is a good thing the days are long right now because I feel like everyday has too much to get done.

Its A Friday. White Rabbits and Dog Shows.

Happy Friday folks. I believe thanks to the holiday week last week, this week felt extra long. I don't know. All I know is that it has been exhausting.

I woke this morning to Nim losing his mind. Turns out, I have a rabbit infestation. I had been trying to figure out who took out one particular plant, I have a strong suspect now:

A couple of weeks ago I had seen a single large white rabbit. I contacted the family on one side of me (not the elk killing neighbor) because it is a family with kids and a pet pig. It was not their bunny.

Fast forward to this morning. When I went outside to chase them off because they were digging holes there were actually 4 of them this time. The photo doesn't give you much, but these are over 2x the size of the wild brown bunnies we already have out here. I have a bad feeling about this.

On to dog show happiness...

Last Friday Nim and I head out to Seqium for the Hurricane Ridge Kennel Club trials. We only did one day, but it is a three day event. This really is a beautiful location.

This is Nim's kennel with two Leonbergers he knows. You will notice their crates are even larger. I believe next year if I do this I will need to bring an actual tent shelter.

The single downside was really the constant sun. It honestly wasn't even terribly hot, but the beating sun made it far worse. We had some great areas to walk in between trials and it was a nice day to have a little road trip.

I wanted to walk more of this path between runs, but we needed to go in the ring again.

We didn't qualify in either run, but there were some really good things in the second run that I am happy about. For Nim this was a perfect day of laying around, people watching, and my undivided attention. 

Have a great weekend!

Birthday Dogs Getaway, The Sandpiper Beach Resort, Day 3

On day 3 it was Jack's birthday (Nim's is on 5/12 and Jack is on 5/15). Courtney, being far more prepared than I had presents for both dogs!

(Photo credit Courtney)

If you follow my Instagram, you probably saw Nim sleeping on his monkey later as we started our trip home.

It was very hard to pack up and be adult about going home. We both had full weeks ahead of us and needed not to be late.

We checked out at the Sandpiper and headed to one more location on the beach. We actually even drove on the beach a bit.

I have mixed feelings about this. I guess as someone walking on the beach I find the cars kind of annoying. However, I also see the relaxation of it, and moreover, if you have a limited mobility dog or human, what a way to let them get up close!

In our case it got us closer to some rock formations I had been interested in, and helped with lack of time and improper footwear.

Happy Birthday boys!

This was definitely not a long enough vacation for me, but it was a great chance to slow down for a few days and I am grateful we went.

Birthday Dogs Getaway, The Sandpiper Beach Resort, Day 2

Wow! I didn't mean not to finish journaling the beach getaway! Life just went nuts these past few weeks. I had a couple of dog events and started a new job. I pretty much look at the photos from this trip daily. I can't wait to go again.

So where were we? Oh yes, Day 2...

Day 2 had more wind, some rain, and generally cloudy conditions. I spent the day alternating between quiet reading (always with all the doors and windows open) and walking the beach. Notice that the path to the beach is right outside the door.

On day 2 I realized 3 things I should have packed:

1. Knitting
2. Rubber boots
3. X-pen/dog gate

On day 2 Nim decided he would pee in the ocean. I don't know what to make of that, but he was generally pleased with himself. We did have to always go to the dunes for any pooping. And yes, we picked it up.

I love this photo of Jack and Nim because basically they are both smiling and laughing. Such happy dogs.

Sometimes Nim would sit on my lap while I sat around and read. The windows were always open so we could hear the ocean.

On day 2 we did a quick drive south to Ocean Shores and went to the jetty. We were a bit nervous at first when we saw the backhoe, thinking there was going to be some giant dead whale, but it turned out the backhoe was trying to pull out a truck that was part of a shrimp boat salvage.

The shrimping boat had actually sunk in early April. It was tethered to the shore and there was an ongoing salvage attempt. I love looking at stuff like this. I think the plan is eventually to fully recover the boat. I am not sure if that ever happened.

Nim and Jack as usual brought their party with them. Nim looks like Jack just said something scandalous in this photo. You never know. There was more people watching on the jetty and they had a good walk before Courtney and I went to Galway Bay Irish Pub for dinner. Oh man did I have a good portabella mushroom burger there. Had we not been so tired there was live music for later that night and a full bar.

Instead we went back to the Sandpiper for a dusk walk, and beer on the porch. Not a bad night at all.

Birthday Dogs Getaway, The Sandpiper Beach Resort, Day 1

On May 12th, Nim turned 6, and on May 15th, his GSD friend, Jack, turned 4. In celebration of the pups and both of us desperately needing to get away, Courtney and I hit the coast for the The Sandpiper Beach Resort, in Pacific Beach, WA.

(Photo credit Courtney)

Getting out the door for a trip is never without issue. In my case I had to make sure I got some homework submitted and the cats settled. Also, if I know I am going somewhere that I can't possibly die if I forget something, I tend to be pretty last minute in my packing.

We hit the road around noon, and got stuck in traffic around Tacoma which is pretty much Tacoma's normal state. The longer I drove, the more I relaxed. By the time I hit Aberdeen I was already in a completely different state of mind. Long overdue.

(Photo credit Courtney)

We immediately hit the beach once we had roughly moved our supplies into our rooms. This would turn out to be the one really sunny day. While Jack is a seasoned beach dog, Nim is not. Nim had 2 top concerns:

1. Why was he not allowed to catch ocean birds?
2. How does one go to the bathroom on the beach?

As you can see from the above photo, Nim lost long line privileges after day one. That photo makes the battle look a lot more tame than it was. I guess I can be glad that at the supposedly mature age of 6, Nim still can play like a puppy.

Jack and Courtney are playing in the surf in the background. :) There will be better photos of Jack and Nim in a later post.

I have been wanting to go to the Sandpiper for years since a friend of mine talked about it (she goes for quick getaways to the Sandpiper regularly). Now that I have been there, I wish I hadn't waited so long.

The pace of the weekend was exactly what I needed and when it was time to check out I was truly sad I didn't have a day or two longer to stay.