Bumping Lake Family Camping Trip

Well we finally did it.. the 6 of us got out for a family camping trip (Mom/Dad/Eric/Andrea/Derek & I) We had been wanting to get out, it just took all summer for us all to have the same weekend free. My brother originally had planned to head over to Banks Lk area and boat in to camp, but Derek & I really preferred to not do it that way, we kinda like using our camper :)

With just a few days to spare before heading out for the extended weekend, I found a private campground on Bumping Lake in Goose Prairie WA.. What an amazing drive that was!! We went over Hwy 410, one we had not ever been on before, we were innocently driving along when all the sudden we came around a bend and there was Mt Rainier!! I missed getting the really good shots, this was the best I could do on such short notice.
Bumping Lake was beautiful and the campground was pretty cool actually. We had 2 side-by-side campsites right on the water, so we were able to park the boats right infront of us for the weekend. The morning sunrises were so peaceful, I woke up early enough to catch them. Saturday morning I sat in my bathing suit waiting for the sun to peak the mountain so I could get my bath in, the water was clear and inviting at 7:30am!

While I waited, Cooper kept himself busy sniffing out squirrels and such. I'm sitting at our campsite looking out at the lake in this picture, there is a small rock beach on the other side of that log leading to our waterfront.
Here's another view of the lake and mountainsAs the sun came up Saturday morning, I was practicing with the panoramic option on my camera. The beachline was actually straight, but the panoramic makes it looks curved here.
Derek could not get the motor running in our boat, so we left ours behind; we were able to go out in the boat Eric brought. The fishing S U C K E D!! And I mean SUCKED... Mom caught one trout that they released on purpose and Eric caught one trout that Andrea successfully released accidentally! :) Apparently she is not a good "netter" of fish! We had a nice fish finder and even with that, we saw very minimal fish, it was incredible how FEW fish were in that lake that showed up on the finder. Down in the area we were camped, when the water was calm, you could see to the bottom, on Sunday before we left we attempted to troll for fish but realized it was pretty pointless as we would lean over and just looked in the water and saw only one or two lonely fish every 10 minutes and they were sittin on the bottom of the lake.

Cooper was a really good boy for the trip! We only brought him along. He spent some of the time tied up in camp, and some in the camper.
Saturday morning after breakfast, Derek took Cooper out in Eric's boat for a while, it was Cooper's first boat ride. He did really good and seemed to enjoy it! Derek of course didnt catch anything..
Our neighbors at the campground informed us of local trail to Boulder Caves, indicating it was an easy 1/4 mile hike. So we loaded up into Erics truck and drove to the trailhead, which was only about 25 minutes from us. It was a really nice trail, but it was not 1/4 mile, more like 3/4 mile! Dad and I were the slowest of our group, we are in no shape to be hiking uphill that much, but we did it! :) Well dad made it 80% of the way and he decided it was far enough. He waited as the rest of us continued up the trail to the caves.
Once we reached the top of the trail, we dropped down into the canyon where a creek flowed through the caves.. It was a good thing our campsite neighbors told us to bring a flashlight, it was pitch black inside w/o light!!

This is just outside the entrance of the caves which are downstream of us just a few feet.
Starting to walk down into the cave opening
It was a pretty hot day (mid 80's easily) so the dogs were all very eager to get in the creek to cool off.
Now that the pups are all wet, we can continue! :)
It was too dark to get any good pics inside the cave, my camera put spots all over those pictures, but this is coming out of the cave.. it was really cool and we managed to get through w/o any bat incidents!It felt great to make the hike, as badly as I wanted to turn around at times, it was a fun family excursion. We were ready to head back to the lake and jump in to cool off.When we got back to camp, Eric really wanted us to try to swim Cooper w/o his life vest. Cooper had swam with me earlier that morning when I took my morning bath, he looked so sad sitting there watching me, so I put his vest on and he had a great time! He would stay pretty close to me, I did not have a leash on him, he would venture out only about 6 feet from me, so I would swim out a ways, he would follow and then we'd swim back. The only problem was he liked to swim so close that often he was pushing off of me with his paws.. not good when he has nails that are too long!!

When we all got back from the hike, we decided to give it a try w/o the vest, and what do you know.. Cooper swam!!! YEAH! He did the puppy paddle a few times, but for the most part, he was figuring it out. Eric was throwing tennis balls for his dogs and Cooper seemed eager to play the game, but we held him back, hoping by him watching, maybe it would click how to retrieve in water, which he had yet to figure out how to do. When he seemed ready, we threw a bumper for Cooper to retrieve in the water.... well he swam out to it and kept right on going! :( bummer...

Eric was out in the lake, so we threw the bumper to him and when Cooper got to it and was about to swim past, Eric grabbed him and told him to "hold" while he was swimming, so Cooper put it in his mouth and swam back to us. We tried again and this time Cooper clicked!!!! He picked up that bumper in the water and he was HOOKED... He thought that was the coolest game ever, to swim AND retrieve. It really was such a relief moment for Derek & I to see our dog finally figure it all out.. His only issue is that once he gets the bumper in his mouth, he goes back to puppy paddling instead of swimming.

Overall it was a terrific weekend, except for the lousy fishing, but I would definately go back to the lake, maybe earlier in the year when fishing might be better. We have all decided to make it a priority to do a family camping trip every year, maybe going to a different location every year.

On our drive home, we pulled over to get some photos with the great scenery.

CHC Ladies Ride

I always enjoy when I can take 5 days for a weekend camping trip! Especially when my horse and dog are involved, as well as good friends. I was trailboss for the annual horse club ladies ride this year, decided to move it back to Silver Ridge Ranch in Easton this year, I enjoy the riding and camping over there.

Amber came along with Oakley, it was her last weekend with him as he came home with me for good. She would have gladly kept him, but timing is not right for her and Derek is in need of a riding horse since Edgar has been having lameness problems off/on this summer again. :( I brought Ellie along, thought it would be a good bonding weekend and a good safe environment to work off-leash with her and see how she handles it. She handled it perfectly! She was my little angel and I was so proud of her!! Just made me love her so much more, by the 4th day I was able to keep her off-leash for most of the time I was in camp. She was comfortable in the camper as well and would lay quietly when I would go out riding.
The lake was SUPER SUPER high this year, the highest I have ever seen it by a couple hundred yards!! And thats no exageration. It was so beautiful this year and because it was so high, it was perfect for wading the horses in to cool off. Had I been prepared, I would have rode in my swimming suit (well with clothes over the top as that would not be a site for sore eyes to see me riding down the trail in a bathing suit!!) :)

The area Barb & Nadine are looking straight over at is normally not covered in water. We were up on this almost-an-island high section. The weather was perfect for us, in the 80's mostly.

Amber & I. Oakley looks so great!!

Amber & Oakley in the creek. The trails around the creek were not great, they have been de-commissioned in this area to keep ATV's out which is a pretty big bummer. We tried crossing the creek and hitting the hills on the other side, but those trails have not been maintained much and there was a lot of blowdown.

Hot & Dry! I love this picture and amazingly it was taken with my horse riding the same direction as all of them! I turned as sideways as I could get in my saddle (which isnt far) and turned the camera behind me, hoping to get a decent picture.. looks like I succeeded.

This was my favorite place to ride to over the weekend! Went here all 3 days that I rode, a really nice watering hole to play in. Amber's looking down at all the baby fishes, there were hundreds!
Chillin!

On Thursday as we rode, I hid some flagging out on the trails and then told the ladies Friday night that if they found a group of flags, to bring them Saturday night for a prize. I had 4 prizes to hand out, it was fun. I also brought some bells and beads for the girls to make either a bear bell or just fun bells to hang from your horses or dogs, some made bracelets and rings and tack attire, it was fun... Amber & I rode 3 days in a row, putting in 12 hours, I think I wore her ass out though, she was a bit sore.. :) she does not have the natural cushion that I do.

By Sunday, Ellie was ready to go home.. as well as me. We are loaded up and almost ready to hit the road. She seems happy to know her life will get back to a normal routine.

Once she realized we were headed home, she just sat back and enjoyed the full-bast AC on her face!!! AHHHHH
It had been a very stressful couple days building up to the ladies ride this year.. I left on Wed wondering if Derek was going to have a job when I got back on Sunday and it turns out he did end up unemployed within that 5 day period. But all is OKAY and with the BS, it truly was for the better for him. It just means something bigger and better is waiting on down the road... :)

Family Reunion 2011

Dereks family reunion was 2 weeks ago, over at Lake Wenatchee as usual. We had just gotten Cooper home a few days prior to leaving, so he came along for the trip while we left Russell & Ellie home. We camped Wed - Sunday, had a good time even though many were not able to make it over this year.

The weather was not great this year, the lake temperature registered almost 4 degrees colder than last year and it was windy the entire time, so the lake was very choppy and wavey, not great for swimming. Thursday morning was the ONLY time the lake was calm and clear, I did get in around 9:30 for my morning bath, but it was so damn cold that I was unable to dunk my head. Just using my hands to splash the water over my head to dampen and wash it, made it sting real bad it was so cold. Fri morning Tammy and I went in the lake and it again was too cold to dunk. After 2 days of being chilled all day from the morning swim, I opted to not go in again on Sat or Sun morning. I think the daytime temps felt like the high 60's, very low 70's due to all the wind.

We did get down to the lake on one of the nights to watch the sunset. Crystal, JoJo, Derek, Cooper, Rick, Marley, Shelbie, Kristen, Barney, Kiki & Randy!
Here's the best shots I got of Derek & Cooper hangin out watchin the sunset.. well Cooper was not watching the sun, all he cared about were the waves crashing on the shore and that he wanted to jump in!!Ahh.. a moment of relief where Cooper actually sat still... but notice he is still intently focused on the water! Since we knew we had water issues with Cooper, we wanted that weekend to focus on getting him in the water. On our walk on Thursday morning, he seemed interested in walking by the water and he even waded in it just a little. The wind had not kicked in yet, so it was smooth and calm. A couple hours later when we returned to the water, he immediately wanted to go in and really seemed to enjoy being in the water. By the 3rd trip to the water that day, he started to get very excited the closer to the water we got and was pulling very hard to get in and he went straight to playing! He was jumping and splashing and paddling at the top of the water, trying to catch his own splash with his mouth.. he was being so damn cute, he drew the attention of many on the beach with some telling us he was the funniest dog they'd ever seen in water!

The 4th trip to the water that day, he again went crazy playing around and did NOT want to come out.. but I started to realize he was only going out as far as he could touch with his back legs. A couple times he got swallowed up by a wave and was rolled completely over under water. Didnt seem to faze him one bit. He was using his back legs to jump up and out of the water, it really was hilarious! We talked a bit that day and could not figure out why the trainer struggled when clearly we had a dog that LOVES the water!

The next day we took Cooper over to the dock before allowing him to play in the water. I wanted to know 1) if he would jump off the dock and 2) if he could actually swim. Well with a little encouragement, Cooper jumped off that dock!! YEAH!!!! and he immediately went vertical in the water, reaching for the bottom with his back legs and started to really struggle with the potential for drowing, so I got over to him, put my hand under his belly and helped him get to shore. DAMN my suspisions were correct, we had a dog that did not know how to swim. After that, Cooper was not willing to jump off the dock and we concluded that the reason Butch (the trainer) struggled is because Cooper was not confident in the water so he just would not jump in for Butch. I spent the next 20 minutes in the water with Cooper and helping him learn to swim, felt like the only thing I accomplished was getting wet and full of scratches on my arms and legs from him flay-ling around in the water.

I was dissappointed, a bit upset and also frustrated. We immediately quit allowing Cooper to go in the water because we knew he needed to learn to swim and letting him play was not going to accomplish that. We'll let him play once he learns to swim. The good thing was that we clearly had a better understanding of our dog and what needed to happen to move forward, although we were unsure how to accomplish that.

When we returned home, a few days later we took Cooper to a local lake and I again went in the water with him to help teach him to swim. We put a training bumper in his mouth so he would not try to bite at the splash, that did help, but he still was flay-ling his front legs all about, trying to splash the water instead of having them under water to swim. He did a tiny bit of actual swimming after 20 minutes of working with him but then he would go back to vertical and drowning! When we got out of the lake, I was covered in really fine lake bottom dirt, it was rather gross.. so when I got home, I jumped straight in the shower.. a few minutes later Cooper came into the bathroom so I opened the shower door and he joined me! I figured if I was covered in dirt, he was too so I washed us both up.

The next day I found a yellow dog swim vest on Craigslist for $10, decided to give that a try and Saturday morning we took Cooper to a better cleaner lake to swim in, Flowing. The boat launch area has nice big gravel out as far as you can touch, so its not dirty or nasty to walk into. We put the vest on Cooper and since I anticipated having to still help him out, did not put a leash on him. He ran right into the water and took to swimming like he'd been doing it all his life! He actually started to just head towards the middle and I got a bit frantic that he wouldnt turn around. But he did. We put a leash on him and just let him swim circles around me! He was LOVIN IT!!! He paddled above water a few times to "play" but I discouraged that and made him focus just on swimming. Derek tried to get him to retrieve bumpers in the water, he had NO interest. At home, he loves to play fetch with the bumpers, but apparently he loves the water more than fetch.

Derek did pull him out of the lake and made him do some retrieves on dry ground, we have a lot of work to get Cooper to figure out how to combine swimming with retrieving, but we are now on the right path. We have done a lot of brainstorming and talking about what is and is not working for Cooper and are happy that we seem to be progressing!

Derek took Cooper to a Hunt Test in Duvall this past Saturday while I was gone at our annual ladies ride (seperate post for that). He didnt run Cooper in the test, just took him for exposure and also Coopers daddy was there as well as his trainer. Elroy (who owns the daddy) was happy to see Cooper and hear of his progress and Butch (the trainer) was very impressed with Derek & I for the ideas we have come up with on our own with helping and training Cooper, he said we've done everything right so far and he liked that we were very logical in our thoughts and practical. He was happy to know we seem to have a good sense for training our dog so that we are not ruining him and wasting time doing it wrong. Derek helped out during the hunt test as well at one of the stations, a great way to meet people and he was able to observe what is and is not working for other "started" dogs which is the level that Cooper is at.

Derek recently self-taught himself how to make these survival bracelets which was cool, but then he started venturing into making dog whistle lanyards, leashes, duck call lanyards and more.. the office has been over-run with paracord!! He donated a couple of them to the Hunt Test as auction items for their fundraiser. Now that he is unemployed he has time to maybe learn other braids and make some to sell! :)

Good Dog - BAD DOG!

Derek has been working on retrieves, a few every day with Cooper and he is doing awesome. Showing tons of enthusiasm for it, he wants to get out and work with Derek, it was really great to see him so happy to work yesterday.

We had a club meeting at the house, Wendy brought her dog Patch over to play. All was good, the dogs got along great and after they left, we were winding down watching a little TV when Cooper got up, walked to my chair (which I was not sitting in) sniffed it, then turned towards it and pissed on it! Mother Fucker was marking my damn chair..

Excuse my language but I got red hot, immediately screamed/yelled at him, Derek ran over to him and he proceeded to get thrown outside to poddy and then he sulked in the corner. Wendy's dog at one point had rubbed against my chair, so we are thinking he must have smelt her on the chair and decided he had to put his scent back on the chair.

I absolutely HATE dogs that mark indoors, and I'm not real sure how to get a handle on this and make sure it does not become a problem. It did just happen the 1 time that we know of, and maybe it was a one-time deal, but what if he continues to test his manhood?? Guess I have some research to do online with this situation on how to correct it if it turns into a problem.

It's all about Cooper..

The plan initially was to pick up Cooper on Saturday, but the trainer called and said he would be gone all weekend at a hunt test; therefore we had to drive down Friday to get him. I was able to leave work early, picked up Derek from his job in Seattle and we headed south.

When we arrived, Butch brought Cooper out of the kennels and he was running free.. We called Cooper over to us, he stopped about 6 feet away, hunkered down and looked at us as though he was unsure of who we were and why we were calling him over. For 3 months, he basically has probably only had Butch's attention and I would assume no other interaction with people other than the kennel employees and Butch. My heart sank in that split second, my worst fear came true that Cooper did NOT remember us! :( Derek and I were only 2 feet away from eachother and I called Cooper to me again and he decided he would come visit, as soon as he got to me, he REMEMBERED who I was!! He got super excited and then he immediately went to Derek. My heart smiled and I knew all was going to be okay.

Butch pulled a live hen out of the pen to work Cooper a little, demonstrate his abilities and how he'd like Derek to work Cooper etc. Cooper sat next to Butch as he threw the bird and then Cooper waited for the command to retrieve, slowly loped off to get the bird, struggled with wanting to pick up the live bird, needed some guidance and support and finally picked it up and brought it back. After that, he was doing retrieve after retrieve of the bird. At one point Cooper brought me the bird and Butch told me to grab it and throw it.. as I was swinging back to throw, Butch says "hold it by its wings" but it was too late and I threw the poor hen from her ass feathers, plucking about half of them out as she went flying in the air, she landed poorly due to the lack of tail feathers, I felt a little bad about it all.

We went in the office to wash our hands and for Butch to say goodbye to Cooper, we could see very clearly he was sad to see him go as he let Cooper jump up in his lap and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. :) Its pretty special to watch the trainer love on your dog so much and know that he was in such great hands and see the connection between them. As we loaded Cooper into the backseat of the truck, he got very nervous and hid his face under Derek's arm. He panted most of the way home. He is used to going places, but it's been in a metal box all this time and not in the backseat, but he did NOT get sick! :) Yeah!!

We pulled in our drive at about 10:30pm Friday night, Cooper was a little unsure in the yard, he was slowly starting to figure it all out and remember things. Ellie of course was pretty excited, she remembered him. Russell just had this look of disgust as I'm sure he thought Cooper was gone for good. :) Derek went in the house and I stayed outside for a minute.. A few seconds later, I could see it all just clicked in Cooper and he bolted for the front door, burst through that doggy door without a second thought and in the house, he just went crazy running all over, down the hall, in the bedroom, out in the living room.. he was truly happy! It was like the lightbulb turned on and he knew 100% he was home and safe.

Over the weekend, Cooper has gone back to his normal self, like he never left. Except now he is smarter! Derek took him in the backyard on Saturday and did a few retrieves with him and we were so happy to see he was actually excited about doing it.. actually he wanted to retrieve so much so, that he was heading out for his retrieve before he was given the verbal command to go, whereas with Butch, he would sit and wait very patiently for the command and then would non-challantly trot off to retrieve. Cooper also remembered how he loved to show off his toys to us and show us how proud he is of himself.. when he gets the bone, he loves to bring it to us, puff up his chest, hold his head up high and whine with joy at his great accomplishment! :) We really encourage it from him because we want him to LOVE LOVE LOVE showing off to us, bring out that desire to please so he will continue to make for a great hunting partner.

Butch did indicate that Cooper was not as far along in his 3 month program as most other dogs are at that point, sounds like Boykins have a mind of their own and can take a bit longer to get the same results, so we have some work to do, but it is the fun kind of work.

I think Ellie is a little annoyed, Cooper thinks she is the bees-knees (whatever the hell that means!) and he likes to chase-tail with her and since she has no tail, he really just has his nose on her ass constantly :) He puffs up to her, shows off his beautiful self, side steps over to her, paws at her to play and notice him and occassionally mounts.. she's been a little bit bitchy these days as she certainly does NOT appreciate it as much as he wishes she would. They get along just fine though, but at times I can see she just wants a break.. Russell, well again he is just annoyed that the kid is back, he really thought the problem was solved and gone for good. We have to be a little cautious though, because Cooper we've noticed is trying to establish himself back in the household and occassionally he seems to want to prove he is the new man of the house, and Russell is having non of that BS. Russell is standing his ground and demanding Cooper to back off, I just hope Cooper doesnt overstep his boundaries because I worry a tiny bit that Cooper will get a little too cocky and an actual fight might happen. So far its been okay, but part of the problem is that Russell is cranky and likes to growl at Cooper and Cooper LOVES to antagonize Russell.. If Russell has the bone, he will bat his legs at Russell, he'll play bite at Russell and just do all he can to annoy the shit out of him and if Russell is relaxing on the couch, Cooper thinks it is such a hilarious game to raz him up and bark at him, so then Russell starts barking like crazy, which gets Cooper even more riled up and excited. I am not sure Cooper understands that although he is playing and thinks its all funny, Russell on the other hand truly is pissed off and does not think it's so funny!

Cooper

We were very excited to go down and see Cooper this past Saturday, it has been a long 3 months without him. The trainer had loaded up his trailer with 19 dogs that morning, although we didnt see Cooper go in, we were pretty sure he was in there as the trainer, Butch, knew we were his owners and there to watch him work and talk about his training to date.

We watched black lab after black lab after black lab (and so on) work for most of the morning. The dogs sit in their kennel on the trailer until it is time to work, come out and do their job, then go back in the kennel so Butch can work the next dog. Of 19 dogs, 17 were labs and 15 of those labs were black! The 2 non-lab dogs were Cooper and Molly..

Here is Molly, she is 1/2 sister to Cooper and owned by Elroy (who owns Earl, who is Coopers daddy). She is 2 and a very pretty little girl, very dainty like.
Finally after hours and hours of watching the other dogs work, Cooper was brought out. He hardly looked the same to me, his coat has changed A LOT! As you can see from this picture, it is a lot curlier than when we dropped him off (but I love it!).
It was 85 degrees that afternoon.. and we were excited to watch our dog work. After watching the other dogs retrieve their 2 or 3 birds and the dummy, we had high expectations for Cooper. Butch set him up for 3 retrieves I think it was, as he approached the first duck (in a really slow, lazy fashion) he hunkered over the duck, a little reluctant to pick it up. We realized he was pawing at the duck to roll it over so he could grab the softer belly side of the bird!
He looked very proud as he carried his first duck back to Butch!
I could look at pics of our Cooper all day long, he's just so beautiful holding that bird!!!
Cooper slowly trotted out to retrieve his second bird and managed to carry it back to Butch, no problem. He seemed to be a little lazy and uninspired to work that day.
Cooper's desire to work was going downhill, quickly! After he retrieved his first 2 ducks and was supposed to be on his way to retrieve the 3rd, Cooper decided he was done for the day and bolted back to the kennels which were a hundred or so yards away.. Butch snagged the 4 wheeler and chased after him, bringing him back to work. He set Cooper up to retrieve a dummy, inwhich Cooper reluctantly did so. After that retrieve, Butch was attemping to set him up for another dummy retrieve, Cooper here is getting a little lecture on behaving at this point. :)
After Coopers 2nd bolt back to the kennels, Butch took the 4 wheeler again to go get him and brought him back, placed him behind the blind where Cooper is supposed to "stay" and wait for instruction. Cooper thought it was funner to ignore Butch and sneak out behind his back! lol

Look at him hunched down, practically crawling out with both eyes up on Butch..
After attemping to once again get Cooper to go out and retrieve the dummy, Cooper bolted a 3rd time back to the kennels. Now imagine you are his owner.. imagine our horror as our dog is the ONLY dog to bolt like this, of 19 dogs! To realize you have no say in what is going on, to know your dog is pushing through his shock collar and just out-right not listening.

I was sad at this point, dissappointed that Cooper did not look happy. I started to question why we were putting him through this if he wasnt enjoying himself. After the 3rd escape attempt, Butch realized Cooper was HOT and when he was up at the kennels, he hosed him off, brought him back down and put him back in the trailer to sit for a while and cool down.
45 minutes later, he brought Cooper back out to work, as you have to end on a good note. Cooper retrieved 2 more dummies without any more problems or bolting episodes and he did look happy doing so!
We left that day unable to pet our dog or give him praise, just had to watch it all unfold. Cooper is very smart, we could see he knew where all his "marks" were at, which means he knew exactly where the ducks or dummies were at, he just didnt feel like working on Saturday. Blame it on the heat, not sure. Butch indicated that it was NOT a good representation of Cooper's abilities and that just a few days earlier he was doing triple retrieves with one being 100 yards away no problem.

We really want to get Cooper home at this point. We feel he has learned what he needs to learn from Butch and Butch has done a GREAT job with him. Our dog is healthy and as happy as a dog in training can be. But Cooper now needs the one on one time with Derek. He needs to remember his passion for retrieving simply because he loves Derek enough to do it. Cooper is probably a little bored and tired of retrieving for what Cooper would see as just this trainer guy who doesnt love him! When he retrieves for Derek, he will get TONS and TONS of praise and petting, something the trainer doesnt do. Cooper loves to retrieve for Derek and he just needs the time to remember that! Butch did tell us that this happens, the dogs will almost always work better for their owner because there is that special bond and love between man/dog that he just cant duplicate.

One other area we have work to do, is on the water! Cooper has not had a positive water experience is how the trainer phrases it. Cooper loved water at our house, but has yet to love water with Butch. But to be fair, Butch's expectations is for Cooper to run off a ledge and JUMP into the water. We need to take Cooper back to baby steps and get him to love just running and playing in shallow water, and work him up to swimming and then we can work on teaching him to jump in the water. We have a lot of work to do, but are looking forward to it.

I think I am most excited to just grab Cooper and hug him. I miss that little guy and I know he will be more than happy to get back to his old ways of doing whatever it takes to please us type attitude! 3 more days and he'll be home :)

How do YOU cool yourself off in the heat?

Well apparently THIS is how Edgar cools himself off when it gets to 85 Degrees...Dad caught these pictures of Edgar playing in the pond this past weekend. Silly horse!

Dexter has been so bored at home, he looks for anything he can to play with. Some days I play with him, we play a horse/human version of hide-n-seek and when he finds me I jump out at him, he bolts and prances away and comes back for more! When I'm not around, I watch him out in the barn having a fight with a tarp! There is a tarp over the feed room that used to hang above the feed room, but he tore it down so now it hangs on the wall. He bites that tarp and tugs on it, rears up at it, goes between the tarp and the wall, he will trot away from it and then turn around run to it and get pissy at it, biting it some more! His ball used to be in the barn, now its in the middle of the pasture.. he is quite the character these days.. and I love every minute of it. I feel a little bad he is so bored, but this really is still so great for our relationship that I'm not ready to let him have horse company quite yet.

We have decided to add a couple goats to the farm again! We've been contemplating for a little while and after seeing all the brush that has been starting to take back over what was cleared, decided it was time.. We went to a farm in Snohomish just around the corner from my parents, she raises Nigerian Dwarf goats.. she had a couple online that looked pretty cute, so we stopped by on Sunday.. They are a lot smaller than I anticipated and my initial reaction was that they are too small. They are less than half the size of the Kinder goats.. but Derek fell in love with them as I knew he would and we committed to not just 2 goats, nope not 3, but 4!! There is one that is really small, not growing as well and we didnt want to leave him behind... so the plan is that they will come home to us in a couple weeks when their naughty bits have fallen off and hopefully the little one will get a bit bigger and stronger. We have yet to name them, 3 of them are less than 2 months old and the other is a year old. I cant wait to get them home, they will be seperated from Dexter until they all are ready to share the pasture together.

The top left goat is the smallest one that needs to grow up a little more and is full brother to kitty corner goat from him. The one on top right is about same age as the other 2 and the biggest of those 3, and then the bottom left goat is the one that is a year old. Just for a little perspective, the little guys are only about 10 inches tall and the year old one is about 18 inches! :)

My Plan is Working...

I moved Edgar & Red to their summer vacation home (parents property!) for a couple reasons. 1) My sacrifice gravel areas REALLY needed the relief, w/o as much rain to wash the gravel out, the smell was gettin pretty bad 2) The boys I'm sure love having grass to eat and being out free to roam vs cooped up in a paddock with hay & 3) I thought it would be good for Dexter to be left home alone without them, so he could learn to count on me as his support.

In the beginning when I moved the horses away, Dexter would sometimes whinny when he heard me in the driveway or yard, and he always came trotting up to see if his buddies were back. As soon as he would realize it was just me, he would turn around and leave almost as quick as he came in! I was a little dissappointed that he still was not really connecting to me. After about 4 days, he just quit coming up and worrying about being alone. Then this past weekend we took out the temporary fencing inside the main pasture and moved Dexter out of the sacrifice area, so he only has pasture now and the center barn isle. Not sure what it was about all that, but he got all worked up, he was playing and running all over the pasture as we made these changes, he was feelin frisky! Ever since then, he comes up to me every time I go out, he's in my pocket and wants to know what's up.. :)

He actually will go out of his way to make sure he practically rubs up to me, expecting me to pet and scratch him (which I do!) Sometimes he'll walk past me just far enough that his butt is almost in my face and then will back up to me a little just to get a good scratchin.. He follows me around the barn, will follow me if I walk out in the pasture and yesterday as he was turned in the yard to eat grass, he and I were playing a game of chase!

I think he sometimes looks at me as his pasturemate and a couple times has tried to play bite me, but I am nipping that real quick and the second he thinks about biting, he gets smacked!!! But after he bolts away, he always comes right back and stands quietly and realizes his mistake.

He still needs more and more desensitizing but we've really come a very long ways. I need to get updated pics of him soon so I can get him registered and will post them on here as he lost all the silver color from his winter coat and has shed out to be a very dark roan.

Who the hell is in my pasture!

A couple weeks ago we had Jen/John over for a BBQ and as we relaxed in the living room, I was looking out into the pasture and noticed something "blue" was out there behind a pile of brush/sticks. I looked at it for a minute, trying to determine if I was just seeing things or what.. About this time the horses started snorting and running around, looking at this same thing.

As I am standing on the porch now, I see movement! The blue is now moving and I see what I think is a face of some sort.. I'm thinking "Who the F is in my pasture!!!" A few more seconds of starring at this moving object, I think I see an owl face.. I throw on the boots and walk out and the closer I get the quicker I realize it is a bundle of mylar balloons! LOLOL

I had wanted to get a picture, there were 3 or 4 mylars and then one regular balloon, the face was a big huge owl balloon, then a blue cake type one, a fire engine one... It was hilarious! The horses were all worked up as I carried the still floating but not enough air to lift themselves back into the sky, back up to the house. How random that some kids 1st birthday balloons from who knows where, end up in my pasture hiding behind some sticks making me believe for a brief second that someone is actually hiding in the pasture.. :)

Time to Catch Up!

Where to start, lots of little stuff to mention!

We have noticed Russell's eyes started to change again lately, going from cloudy to now they are a dark color with red marbled in them and about the time this all started to happen, he started bonking into things :( Poor kid.. he doesnt seem to be blind 100% of the time, he has phases of blindness right now I think, almost like it comes and goes. He definately has issues even on his good days but I wouldnt call him blind yet. Andrea said we would need to take him to a specific eye specialist vet to diagnose what is really going on. He doesnt seem to be in pain but she did think his eyes were very unusual. Probably not what you want a vet to say when they cant help you to fix it.. We are running blood work on him, just to see if that gives us any answers

Ellie & her friend Patch playing.. not sure what happened to Ellie's legs!! I took my friend Rachel riding about 10 days ago, I always like when she goes because I get to ride Edgar! She LOVES Red, so I'm happy to let her ride my horse so I can work with Edgar a little. My friend Tricia drove down from Bellingham with her new mare, we had a great ride, not counting the part where Edgar went lame on me halfway through the ride! :( It was a very slight limp, he wasn't going up any big hills, nothing major it just happened. I was pretty dissappointed, over the next couple days he limped real bad. The shoers came out a few days later and indicated it possibly could be in the hoof and gave me the # for a vet who does x-rays fairly cheap. Well cheap would consist of $250 apparently (after calling the vet to get prices). That price includes the farm call and full set of xrays on his hoof, but now he is back to sound, so will wait for him to go lame again and have the vet out possibly to rule out any navicular type issues that the shoers think could be the culprit for his on/off again lameness problems.

Tricia's new mare is pretty nice, big stout horse who has decided the horse trailer is no longer her friend. It took the 3 of us over 2 hours to get the horse in the trailer after our ride.. I felt bad for Tricia, she lost her best friend horse earlier this year to a broken leg, his femur! Found him in the pasture that way. She told me on our ride how/why he broke his leg, which I had not been previously told. Her horse was very similar to Edgar, draft cross, big bodied, solid good 'ole boy. Well the shoer had filed down his size 3 hoof into a size 1 shoe! The pressure over the months finally caused his leg to just break. I was stunned really at the ignorance of someone you put your trust and faith into that they know what they are doing! So she has struggled with finding a new horse and now has a good horse with a bad loading problem, one of the most frustrating issues one can have! If she lived closer I would be helping her out, but Bellingham is just too far away to be there for her.

I moved the horses to my parents pastures for a while, giving some relief to my paddocks and letting the boys be horses and just free to graze as they want! I left Dexter at home though, he sure misses his friends! He is eager to come see me, but when he realizes it's just me in the barn, he's almost just as eager to leave me... I'm hoping over a few weeks, maybe he'll learn to count on me and trust that I am his best friend since he will have no other distractions. I was SOOO happy, when the shoers were out, John was able to pick up and trim each hoof with NO fight, NO pinning him against the trailer, I didnt have to have him tied up, he just did really great.. that is some good progress!! He's still pretty jumpy, but we are workin on that as much as I can anyways.

We got a dissappointing progress report with Cooper a week ago. Apparently Cooper is NOT loving the water and was refusing to go in. :( and was missing some of his marks lately with retrieving. We are HOPING he is just hitting a wall in his training and will push through it. Derek is hopefully going to get an update this week as the trainer was going to spend a week straight just on water. He LOVED water at our house, well I'm not sure if you can count the bathtub water as pond water, apparently Cooper thinks there is a difference. It is frustrating to get a bad report card, we want Cooper to excel at his training, we want to get A++++++ reports because we have the BEST dog EVER! We are not too worried, we can expose him to more water when we get him home, take him swimming with my brothers dogs who LOVE to run in the water, maybe if he sees that he will change his mind and realize it is fun and not just work work work. He might be craving the personal attention of just being a dog right now too that we are not sure he gets being in training.

This past weekend our horse club was part of a big fundraiser ride at Harry O out of Sedro Woolley, the NW Regional Prize/Challenge Ride. This year the theme was the 60's. I actually was not real excited about the theme, heck I wasnt even alive in the 60's, but a few of us got together at our place and made some tie-dyed shirts.
I bought a couple tie-dye kits and we spent a Saturday afternoon creating some really awesome shirts! When we started doing the dying, I started to get into it a little more.. We had a lot of fun actually, I was glad to have the other ladies there as we all laughed and explored our dying options! Everyone left their shirts with me since there is this process of sitting for up to 24 hours after dying before being able to see the results. I had a GREAT time opening all those shirts and seeing just how cool they turned out, I was really amazed. But then I opened my shirt.. I hated it! See I thought I would be cool and try my own method and not follow the suggested methods and I got an ugly spotted mostly white shirt! Well there was still dye left over, so I just redid my shirt with a swirl pattern and added a LOT of color, then realized maybe I added too much.. maybe I was going to get a big blah shirt all of one deep ugly blurred together color. I was upset and went to bed worried about it, so at about 3 am I woke up and although it was only about 6 hours since I had colored the shirt, I opened it up anyways and WhaLa! I loved my 2nd try!! :) I then went back to bed and slept in peace..

Here are all the shirts we made that day
I got into the theme as much as I could, made some hippy pants, flowers in my hair.. we had a great time at our station on the trail, the weather was perfect and the turnout was good.. some money was made!

Derek & I at our station.. I think we look pretty cute!

Barbara Sue & I at our station, watiting for the first riders to show up

This is Rob (who helped at our station) riding his horse through one of the obstacles at our station.. Not many horses would go through this!!
Our 4th of July was fairly uneventful really, decided to stay home to ensure all our children were safe and happy, I think we made it to 10pm watching movies, not fireworks. Earlier in the day we did go over to Adam's place for some pistol shooting and a BBQ. Derek has been wanting me to shoot his 9mm handgun for a while, but I've been pretty apprehensive about it. The last time I shot a handgun was probably close to 15 years ago and I didnt like it at all.. had a lot of kick, I felt like it was unsafe and unpredictable. Derek assured me it was a crappy gun I shot before (it belonged to a friend) and his would be a better experience. Put a shot gun in my hands and I am pretty comfortable, the smaller it is the more I am afraid of it. So I was dreading it a little (okay maybe a lot), but he stood with me and instructed me on how to load, unload, prepare to fire, turn safety off and shoot! Derek kept telling me to breathe, I was a little uptight and tense.. but I didnt mind it so bad and more importantly, I was within inches of the bullseye!! After firing off a few rounds, I sat back down and watch the others for a while, then asked if I could shoot some more.. then they started shooting a tin can and well I just couldnt resist and asked to shoot more again! I actually enjoyed it.. It is a pretty big gun, but the kick was not bad, I felt fairly safe and secure with what I was doing. We will have to get back up to shoot again soon so I can test my knowledge on handling it properly without instruction this next time. I cant imagine shooting it w/o ear protection though, hopefully I'll never have to wonder what that feels/sounds like!

Odd Story

A few weeks ago a girl asked to be my FB (Facebook) friend.. Her first name was Faye and it seemed familiar, but in all honesty, I had no idea who she was. After confirming her friendship, I saw she was from Snohomish, a year older than me but her current pictures did not really ring any bells. I didnt think much of it til 2 days ago!

I am on FB and I get an instant Message from Faye, she says to me:
"Hi Piper, I just want to tell you that you were one of those friends that were never forgotten. I feel fortunate to have had the child hood experiences I was able to have thanks to you and your family. I just want you to know how much those memories mean to me. Thank You!!!!!"

Now I'm thinkin "OH SHIT" WhoTF is this girl! All I know is the name Faye rings a very tiny bell, but thats the extent of my rememberance of her.. So I apologize to her and tell her my gradeschool memories are quite faded, asked if we were in girl scouts together? I did meet some girls way back then and couldnt tell you now who they were. I told her my memory from that far back has escaped me. She then says:

"It is ok but I must say I am suprised and a litte hurt but I will get over it!! I stayed with you a lot when we were young kids and you taught me to ride but it is ok. I got to run errands and all!! Ya know how it is I am sure!!"

So now I'm feelin like a jackass.. I really hadnt intended on hurting her feelings, I just honestly dont remember her. She's musta been talkin gradeschool years and if we had remained friends through Jr High or HS I would definately have remembered her more clearly. So I called my mom, I was actually a bit upset that I made such an impact, but she didnt ring any bells with mom. I talked to dad later that day and he couldnt remember her either, says his memory is usually pretty good but she didnt ring any bells for him. We are talking almost 30 years ago! Damn I'm gettin old.

Well I decided to send her a private message and typed out a sincere apology to her, asking her to please refresh my memory, that it was not personal, I just am not good at remembering friends in my gradeschool years. Well she done UN-FRIENDED me and not only did she un-friend me, she BLOCKED ME!! If I type in her name, I cant find her on FB, yet I had Shana try and she found her just fine.. apparently I really pissed her off and/or offended her quite badly and it frustrates me that I have no way to email her and apologize, she just didnt give me a chance as she blocked me within 10 minutes of her last message to me through instant messaging. GRRR

So tonight as I was getting ready to type out this post, I pulled my Jr High yearbooks and found her (we didnt have gradeschool books back then!).. When I was in 7th grade, she was in my class, Faye Ellis. Now that I hear her first and last name, it definately rings them bells of mine, but I still have ZERO memories of her other than her name. I just feel so badly. The following year, looks like she was held back as I progressed to 8th and her picture was again posted in 7th. I'm guessing we must have been friends in gradeschool, doesnt seem like we would have been Jr High frineds since I dont remember her... But who the hell knows at this point, all I know is she didnt sign my 7th grade book. I'm fairly positive she does not read my blog, but incase so.. Faye, I am very sorry! I dont know what else to say, I am happy we were able to provide great memories for you, I wish I could remember them as well. I have lost a lot of my younger childhood memories as the years go on... Piper

Nothing New

Life seems busy, but I'm not sure much is getting accomplished. Well I know not much is getting done lately around our farm. Everything is green and beautiful, if you can call a driveway full of weeds beautiful! I'm trying to get a handle on it all, but sometimes feel like I'm getting swallowed up. The goal for this year was to get organized, I think we need to start with organizing our thoughts so we can eventually get to organizing the garage, shop and shed.

Taking pictures of the horses has been about the extent of their interaction with us since Memorial Weekend. I did get out for a ride a week ago with a friend around the neighborhood... sad. Derek's been workin OT again, he had a couple week break from it all but things have picked up again. I try to do what I can around the place, I did manage to get the house deep cleaned a couple weeks ago, the bedroom has been un-cluttered for 2 or 3 weeks now.. This may be a first! A bedroom I'm not ashamed to be shown on a whim, cant say the same about the kitchen all the time, which is funny cuz the kitchen is the first thing you see when you walk in the door! lol

I've not "worked" Dexter a lot lately, he's been limping on a front leg, I'm honestly not sure if its his shoulder or his hoof.. He limps at random, it just comes and goes.. one second he's walkin fine and then he limps real bad, then back to fine again.. Not really too concerned about taking him to the vet. I'm still cleaning his no-naughty-bit region almost daily, it seems to be draining well and doing good, swelling is now almost non-existant. Yesterday as I was washing it with a rag, I think he actually enjoyed it! He stretched his neck out and quivered his nose... I still cant approach him in the pasture, thats one of my next goals but that is still all about trust from him. He has come a very long ways, just needs LOTS of desensitizing! LOTS!!

Yesterday Derek & I celebrated our 15yr wedding anniversary, 20 years together!! I cant believe its been that long.. holey moley. :) We didnt make a big deal of it, just went to dinner. He had to be up at 3am this morning for more OT at work, so last night was dinner then bed for him.. alone bedtime while I wound down watchin some TV. I sat there thinking about it being our anniversary and how we literally spent maybe 1.25 hours together the entire day... But I'm okay with it, thats what being in a relationship is about, its not about me or him, just about us still being strong enough to accept the reality of life and continuing to love and live!

Cooper is doing great! We havent had an update in a couple weeks, but last we heard, there were no problems or issues. A friend from the Hunt Club we belong to, she is going down to Parkdale this weekend (where Coopey is at) and she promised to take some pics of him, so we are very excited to see him!! When thinking about him being gone, I would say "sure I miss him", I'm in a groove with the morning routine at home and how hassle free it is not having him being his rambunctious self, but then I watched a segment on Dogs 101 from the Animal Planet channel, it was about Boykins.. As I sat there alone at home on a Saturday watching, I started to cry! WTH.. I then realized just how much I missed our dog!! :( I was overcome with loneliness of not being able to hug him and see his face and pet him, I just cant wait to get him home. I really didnt expect to feel so sad about him being gone, but I guess I'm a bit more attached to the little bugger than I realized.

Who knew...

Who knew that the trauma of naughty-bits-b-gone was gonna bring Dexter and I closer! I certainly didnt. Over the past 6 days, he really has jumped leaps and bounds with accepting me and standing still when I approach him for haltering, he even walks towards me when I open his stall door.. I am just amazed by this kid!

Yesterday afternoon he was not feeling well though, very lethargic, his body was really warm to the touch, and he hadnt finished his breakfast. He let me take his temperature (something he wouldnt let the vet do prior to his surgery), it was 104! I phoned Dr Hannah to find out the dosage to put him on antibiotics; this AM his temp was back down to normal and his appetite was normal as well.

I figured this procedure would have been a set back, but maybe because he hasnt felt 100%, he just doesnt care as much to fight me. I can scrub his nether-region daily, although he doesnt like it, he doesnt try to kick me either. I can hose it, sitting right next to him in a chair and he'll stand there perfectly still.. Thats after only 2 times ever being approached with a hose! I have turned him loose in the yard to eat grass and can approach him to catch him. We've gone for walks down the road and although the cars make him nervous, he respects me and listens and when we dont go for walks, I lunge him in circles and he's picked up "WHOA" already and learning to walk and trot just from the click of my mouth and will change directions with just the pointing of a finger and learning to stop with non-verbal signals as well. He's not perfect yet, but he is awesome!

Naughty-Bits B-Gone

A few weeks ago I heard about a castration clinic that was going to be held about 15 minutes from my house on 6/4/11, for a cost of $50.. I had already had Dexter scheduled for this procedure with my regular vet in July, but figured why not send in an application and try to get him in to this clinic instead.. save myself about $250! Well a couple weeks went by and I was sure I didnt get in as it was 5 days before the clinic and I had not heard back yet.

But what do ya know.. 4 days before the clinic I get the email that I was accepted! It sounded like they had a lot of applications come through and I'm not 100% sure what their criteria was, but apparently we qualified! Derek & I hauled him in Saturday morning to the clinic arena, he was NOT happy about the pre-shots he was given and he had to be given extra sedatives because he was fiestier than she had hoped. Once he got the last "knock-out" drugs in him though, he went down immediately and we were able to watch the entire surgery.. It was interesting and Derek even watched the whole thing. His bits were unimpressive (little) and one side was "sucked up" a little ways, so she had to work a little harder to ensure she got it all; 15 minutes later, he was done.

I was told to bute him if need be and clean it every 1-2 days, as well as two 20 minutes workouts every day to help with swelling and keeping it open to drain and healing properly from the inside out. Poor guy, he was hurtin pretty bad Saturday night, really didnt want to move much. Sunday he was doing much better, he got some excersize, showed a little stiffness in his hind end. I was able to actually hose his back legs on Sunday, something I had never done before, but they needed to be cleaned up. He danced around me some, but took to it very quickly with little fight; I was really happy with him. I am not supposed to hose his naughty bit region though but his legs did get cleaned.

Monday we took him down the road for the first time, for his 20 minute walk and he was great. Derek led Edgar incase Dexter needed the moral support of how he should behave! He did fairly well, I would stop him and make him face the cars as they passed by and he had minimal spooking. What really spooked him the most was the kid on the bicycle who rode quietly by! :) I also worked him on not walking past me so as to avoid him trying to run me over or push through me if he spooked.. I would walk 10 or more steps, then stop and expected him to stop with me. He again, picked that up so quickly!

There was an older guy at the clinic with a 2yr old colt that was to be gelded after Dexter. The guy was talking with me, trying to give me advice on how to deal with Dexter when I got home etc.. I didnt ask for the advice, but I wasnt going to be rude, I tried to tell him I had been through this a few times in the past but he still was insistent on letting me know that when I got home and over the next few days, Dexter would be unwilling to want to move for his twice daily excersize sessions.. He told me what he has done and I should do, is tie Dexter to the bumper of my truck and drive! That will get him moving!!! And this guy was 100% serious.. I just nodded and smiled, internally thinking WTF! Old School Old Man! Just an FYI, Dexter actually is more than willing to excersize, this morning I couldnt keep him at a walk, he was trotting and loping circles around me.. :)

When I got home last night from our walk around the neighborhood, I knew I needed to attempt to clean him up and scrub the surgery area. Tied him in his stall, put the wet rag up to his belly and just ran my hand back to his non-naughty bit region and he took it like a man! Never once did he attempt to kick, he actually spread his legs open when I was scrubbing behind his tail where he had dried blood. I was able to get both sides, cleaned the "wound" area really well and put a fly repellant ointment on it. I was smiling ear to ear, just so very proud of him!! 3 days ago you couldnt touch that region without him kicking out (even under sedation) and now I am able to clean an open wound. Wow! Progress!!