Happy Fall, Friends

Ninja Monster Dog!!!

So remember the picture of our new little pup. So calm. Sleeping when we first brought her home? Well, she was tired that first day. But has since got her strength back!

Ninja Monster Dog!!!!

Very active, very sharp teeth.

Miss Lily is interested in exploring everything and hardly ever stays still.

And she's really into teething. Eek!

I have many pictures of her as a blur

.... or where she was

But on one sunny day she discovered lying in the sun soaking up the heat was preferable to acting the Ninja.

Lily seems to have decided we are OK and especially likes our laps. And she is a most intelligent dog - and seems to have figured out what going outside is about.

Think we'll keep her!

Mountains, Watefalls, Blackberries, and Bears - oh, my!

Love the Pacific Northwest especially when the weather is perfect.

And a perfect day we did have traveling up to the mountains to check out the new visitor center at Paradise in Mt Rainier National Park. Many other folks had the same idea.

A couple short hikes, pretty waterfalls, and BEAR sightings - plural!

Ended the day with famous blackberry pie at the Copper Creek Inn.

So lucky to have someone along that can discern movement on the hillside. Can you see the bear in the upper left corner inside the circle? She did and was able to let us all see thru the binocs the bear working its way across the hillside.

A little further along our route we found a couple with a spotting scope watching another bear. It just wasn't humanfolk who were enjoying the sunny weather!

Got to enjoy a few cascades, peeks of the peaks of Rainier, and marvel at the destructive force of Mother Nature along the Nisqually River (floods of December 2006).

Miss Lily with the sparkling blue eyes

Welcome to our house, Miss Lily!

Today we adopted a red mini dachshund (defined as a "red" in dachshundese - but looks tan to us). We got to meet her mom and her dad and watch while she played with her sister. Though we had thought we might take home a black and tan colored puppy, we fell for Lily's personality and expression.

First activity as her new parents was to take her to the pet store for a collar, a bed, a travel crate, and toy. Of course, everybody had to come see the new puppy. She was much like Pogo: "adore me if you must" Yawn!

She adapted to the travel crate immediately and let us know that she has had a long day, "excuse me while I nap".

We stopped in Gig Harbor to introduce our friend Kay to her. Kay was playing horsie at the boarding stables. Miss Lily likes Kay but wasn't sure about the big-footed snurfing horses behind the fence.

Next stop home and Lily had a romp around the yard (it's hard to run with the dog and take pictures) before cozying into her new bed and letting her eyes drift shut.

Long day for a new baby.

Have Goats : Will Travel

So you have a lot of blackberries taking over your property? Are the weeds getting way too high? Go Green! Use Goats! Call the Goat Trimmers. The company will bring their herd to your property and let them chomp. If needed, they will install an electric fence to keep them in the problem area and out of your gardens! Just 3 days and they had our neighbors blackberries chomped away.

Milking the remaining good days out of summer

We have had such luck with great cruising weather this year. We milked it for all it was worth! We have just returned from 3 lazy weeks in our South Puget Sound waters.

Nothing too exciting, except sun and warm temps. Too warm to even have the leaves turn their fall colors. Nice! Picked huckleberries and blackberries. Read a lot. Just a couple cool days with showers but that just gave us more reading time!

One highlight was seeing a pelican afloat off Gig Harbor. We were amazed earlier this year to see a pelican on the Strait of Juan de Fuca as we've never seen them this far north or in our inland waters. And then here was another sighting!

We would have enjoyed it much more if we had been able to tune out the reports of the economy's financial problems! Ha!