Yeah for Spring Weather!!

Cooper is scheduled for College.. We take him to OR the end of April! I'm excited but a little bummed, just not sure what we'll do w/o our LBD (little brown dog) at home... I'm going to miss him alot. We've had no further Bad Dog experiences with him, he's been so good that I have wanted to spoil him and let him up in my lap, but I have restrained myself.. It has not been easy on my part.

All of Dereks work in the shop is paying off, his custom cabinet is 90% done! It looks really great and I'm happy he was able to turn his concept into reality, although it cost a bit more than initially planned, it should last a very long time! The only thing left to do is paint it. He's going to paint all of it except the doors, they will be stained to keep the nice wood look.

Our horse club held a WorkParty this past Saturday at Mann Rd. 4 members walked in with bladed weed eaters and then I was there with a horse to ride in to work on a couple different areas. At first I was the only rider and I thought I might be working alone. I wasnt afraid of the work to be done, just my over-active mind worried about what critters might try to join me if alone! :) Rachelle informed me that because noone else in her group but her was "packin" that she would not be givin me her gun, I was on my own! LOL Thankfully another lady showed up with her horse to help me out, she is from Traildusters and it was nice getting to know her and having her help. I am sure I wouldnt have finished it all w/o help. I opted to take Edgar that day since I was packing in a saw, loppers, bucket, raingear etc.. Red doesnt really like having so much flopping around on him just yet. Mary and I worked really hard.. we filled 6 big sink holes in the trail with river rock and sand, then cut out a good sized tree, manhandling it to then get it off the trail, then cutting another smaller tree out. We spent a good 3.5hours of working, my arms are pretty sore from all the rock hauling and sawing. It feels really good though to have accomplished the 3 tasks Jenny sent us out to work on. We got back to the trailers about 30 minutes before the other group walked out.

The weekend before, Derek & I drove over to Ellensburg for the BCHW Rendezvous, we bid on a couple items, watched a clinic, browsed the vendors. Oh there was a guy there that had invented a feed box for horses that eliminates hay waste problems. Edgar is a real turkey when it comes to wasting hay, we have a whole routine of trying to keep him from getting his hay on the ground where it then gets stepped on and he refuses to eat it. This feeder box can be made to fit an entire bale, so one of Derek's next projects is to replicate the idea and make 2 for our barn. The guy was selling them very reasonably priced and I'm glad for the idea but thankful for a crafty husband who will be able to make them for our horses. Red doesnt really need one, he eats up every last nibble, but this will allow us to set out an entire bale and not have to feed them for another 4-6 days! :)

I think I mentioned before that Derek is now on a bowling league.. oh yes I did.. well he never did get that yellow ball he wanted, it is out of production and he was unable to find the weight he wanted for himself but found another he is satisfied with. It was funny at league 2 weeks ago, the team they played against asked if his ball was new.. not because it looked new but because they could smell it! LOL Yep, Derek discovered that his new ball smells like blueberries I think it is.. Smells pretty darn good, he spent the rest of that evening sniffing his ball every time he picked it up. :) He's been having up/down games with his ball as he learns and adjusts to it, but had a great game of 266 last week! Only 2 frames that he did not get strikes.. I am looking forward to his 300 game!!

So much for braggin...

Yep, just when I brag about how great Cooper is, he goes and messes it all up with a VERY BAD DOG moment! I allowed him up on the couch with me Friday night (spoiling our good boy), he was laying behind me on the top of the cushions. As I sat there almost motionless watching some TV, he sat up and growled.. I thought "hmm, must be hearing something I dont hear" which happens all the time with the dogs :)


So I reached over and pet him, he then growled again and barked, looking off in the distance of who knows where.. So I pet him again, and he once again growled and barked but then he lunged a little at my hand.. basically telling me to leave him the hell alone!! I immediately realized he was barking and growling at me.. OH HELL NO! I grabbed his neck and drug his ass immediately to the ground yelling NO.. BAD DOG.. NO GROWLING.. etc. and then proceeded to attempt to annoy the hell out of him by pulling his legs, ears and forcing him to stay in the lay down position. Once he was on the ground, he softened his eyes and turned into "cute puppy mode" and was not showing any signs of aggression or annoyance at all that I was putting him through.


We were told due to his age and growing hormones, that he's going to start testing his boundaries so we have decided he is no longer allowed to be anything but a dog! :) He lost any priveledges of being on the couches or chairs with or without us. He is a floor dog, end of story and he can sit and be sad that Ellie & Russell are sleeping in luxury on the couch cushions.. lol


It was nice to hear from other dog folk that he is just testing us and that it's not necessarily a trait of his that will turn into anything serious. Mr Couch Diva will learn his roll in the pecking order of our house. He tries hard to be good but the past few days he's been sneaking around the couches and chairs, lurking and waiting for that moment we wont notice him quietly jump up on them and fall asleep. For the most part, when we see it coming, he listens to us tell him no and he stays off and once he's up, 80% of the time he'll get off when we tell him to, the other times we have to drag him off.. so far no further growling instances. I bought him a cushion for the floor (yep still attemping to spoil him) because he seems SOO dis-satisfied with the carpet, but he's not even the one using it!


Did I mention before that our washing machine had a fight with the wall cabinet a week ago? Well the cabinet won and busted the knob on our machine, I believe also breaking the timer which is a $100+ part. Found a 2yr front load washer on CL (not one of the super fancy ones but a decent one), got it hooked up and running last night.. seems to do a fine job although Cooper thinks we've added an alien to the laundry room, he was quite upset with the new washer and sure that it did not belong! maybe because he could see the clothes moving all around.

I spent this past Friday baking rolls for our annual Cinnamon Roll Ride with the horse club. Well I killed my yeast with the first batch of dough and around noon realized I needed to make another trip to the store to buy more supplies to start a second batch.. My yeast was more cooperative the 2nd time around, but then some rolls over-rised, I over-carmelized, I over-baked.. grrr Not a great roll making day for me. I need more practice, maybe I should cut the recipe in 1/4 and make just a couple batches until I really get this thing down pact. But I have to learn how to do this on my own and perfect it.. as much as I know my mom probably wanted to be there with me to help out.. I will never learn if I dont just bear down and do it alone. Of course noone complained, they all thought I was silly for being so paranoid, but they were pretty darn hard when eaten cold! lol and when you cant pick off a nut because there is too much caramel type stuff and its baked into hardness.... reheated, they were pretty nummy.

I decided not to take my embarassing rolls to the dog club potluck dinner, we wanted to impress our potential new circle of friends so I smoked up some delicious ribs and we had a great time. It felt a little awkward going to a potluck of 20 or so, knowing only 1 person.. but they all were inviting and we had a really good time. I can be so shy and reserved in situations like that, but because the lodge we were in was all open, you had nowhere to hide away. It was in Monroe, and although the outside of the building looks nothing like a hunting lodge, it actually is very nice inside, almost like a big apartment with a bunch of rooms and beds for guests, decorated with the lodge decor. It was nice getting to know some of the people and we also talked about other interests besides our dogs, one lady has probably been to our horse club prize rides in the past.

Sunday was Derek's only day off again, not that he had time to relax as he started to build a custom cabinet.. this thing is huge, I cant wait to take pics of it, he is doing a really great job. It is for work so he has a place to store all his tools and paint guns, books, supplies etc.

Long gone are the days of coming home and plopping in front of the TV for hours and hours. Most nights we only get an hour of TV time, which is nice to take some time away.. makes you realize you are not missing out on as much as you think you are when you dont get to watch your shows.. we still have them recording, I'm not ready to give up entirely on watching TV, but have found we are now selectively weeding some out as our DVR fills up and we have to make room for the shows we really think we cant live without, even if it takes months to get to them! A month ago our DVR was empty, now it is 80% full.. I'm not sure what we'll do when we have no shows left to weed out, I guess we'll just have to come to grips with the fact that life has to come before TV.

"What a good pup, he's so well behaved... "

That's what we heard on Saturday afternoon... Cooper was a bit out of his element as we took him on his first outing to a Hunt Test Practice in Monroe. There were only about 10 other dogs there, we didnt introduce him to other dogs since they are all there to train, not to socialize. We took Cooper mostly for the exposure of being out and about and the people. He sat and watched patiently at times, other times he was just sniffing around, but he was not his normal obnoxious self! After his initial shyness of greeting new people, he would get excited when they pet him.. He is turning into a really good dog and although he loves to cause business and is still quite the monster at times, he's pretty good too and it showed. He WAS the cutest dog there of course!

A new friend of ours, Anne, who is part of the Cascade Hunt Retrieval Club, pulled us aside and got a dead duck for us to work Cooper a bit. He was all over the bird when it was thrown, he went right to it, but was unsure what to do at that point. He mouthed it, plucked feathers, attempted to drag or pick it up a few times.. He did eventually grab it a few times and attempt to drag it to Derek. After about 15 minutes he was distracted by the train so we quit, you are always supposed to stop with the dog wanting more, never practice til they are bored.

I originally had planned to take Cooper by myself as Derek had to work, but he was able to finish early and get home in time to go with. His new job is going great, the only drawback is the long drive. He really likes his job and that his co-workers all seem happy and like their job too. Unlike most other places where the guys all hate being at work and their employer. He's been getting overtime every week, hopefully it will help to get some projects finished this year around the farm! :)

Derek & I went out for a ride on Sunday at Mann Rd. We initially where riding with 4 others but Edgar was pretty amped up after having gone 4 months unsaddled, so we broke off from the group and had a nice quiet 2 hour ride. Felt good to be back out with Derek too.. My own ManTracker!

My cousin Marc brought over his pup Elvis on Saturday late afternoon. While he took some wood out of the pasture, his kids Jasmine and Caplin played in the yard with all 4 dogs. Marc actually got to our house a few minutes before we got home, so when we got home, Ellie was hiding under the deck and would not come out until I had the kids take Elvis on top of the deck where she couldnt see him! lol I leashed her at that point and we worked on acquanting the dogs to each other and 15 minutes later they were all running and tumbling together.

A friend of ours that is moving out of state, owns a lot up at Cowboy Campsites. CC is a big chunk of property where you purchase a section to be used as your private camping lot. The property borders the Harry O trailhead up out of Sedro Woolley, so there is tons of riding. Many have built small sheds and corrals on their lot, trailer parking pads, permanent fire pits, etc. They are not very big, but you are ensured a place to camp any time you want to get away to that area, as it is a very popular trailhead in the summers. There are some serious money issues going on with CC, so it may not be available for much longer. Our friend is care-leasing her site to us for the summer, we'll see how it goes. It may not be a site we utilize as much as we'd like due to mainly just being busy, but we will take responsibility of it for the year and hope to enjoy it many times.

And to end the weekend on an even greater note, the guy that hit us 2 weeks ago, came through with his promise to pay up and forked over the cash we asked him for to fix the truck. What a relief!