Sorry for the picture, but here is a cell phone picture taken early this morning of the driveway on the way to work. As you can tell, a fairly light snowfall, but the furkids had a blast in it.
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Monthly Archives: October 2008
First Snow
First, our apologies for not posting over the weekend, but we were a little busy. More to come on that later, but let’s just say that we decided that the Siberian Utility Vehicle works great for day trips, but we needed something a little larger for those longer trips. Stay tuned.
And, yes, we owe everyone a Rusty P-up-date. But, hang on, we have even more exciting news.
Ready?
We are having our first Winter Weather Advisory and first snowfall of the year.
Ok, it is a little one. The Weather Service is saying only 1-3 inches, but it is falling and we are wooooooooing like crazy. It was last May 12th when we had any kind of winter weather, so The Herd is really excited.
And, even cooler, the ski resort behind the house announced it is planning to open tomorrow. Man made snow of course, but them being open is great. Why? Because they maintain our road down off the mountain (because they want the skiers to come up) and that means we can go about anywhere we want to. Better than relying on the state to get around to it.
Sadly, this will not stay on the ground. More snow showers expected next week, but it is still getting too warm during the day.
Excuse us while we go howl at the sky for even more snow. We want drifts and this is not getting it done yet.
Panoramics and an Unimpressed Herd
I was filming one of those panoramic views like this:
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I was impressed with the clear skies, the long range views, and the fading colors of the leaves. The Herd, however, was totally unimpressed as evidenced by this:
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It’s a very tough crowd to impress.
Walking Wednesday
To join those who post Walking Wednesdays, here is a short video of The Herd:
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Poor Rusty
Rule of thumb for a dog. Any ride by yourself can not be a good thing. I went downstairs, put on Rusty’s seat belt and leash, and loaded him into the Jeep. He was really excited until it hit him that he was alone. Then he gave me the “uh-oh” look:
And why was he getting to go on a solo trip. The V-E-T. But not just for a simple check-up. Nope, it seems Rusty had developed a hot spot and the vet had to clean it out. Not a great picture, but here is the idea:
We did not notice it until Sunday, so we took him in for the first appointment available Monday. The treatment itself is relatively easy, but there is a catch. That’s right, Rusty can not lick the spot for a week. And how do you prevent that?
That’s right, the dreaded cone. Of course, all of the other dogs are treating him with the proper respect.
NOT! They keep leading him on obstacle courses that are sure to have him collide the cone into solid objects. And, of course, they sit around him with their paws over their mouths snickering. Really! So Rusty plans to sulk for the rest of the week. Or, get really good satellite TV reception:
Everyone now – Poooooooor Rusty!
Sleepy Time
A little over 7 miles (11 km) on some steep, rocky trails yesterday, so the dogs were good and tired at the end of the day. Just a few pictures from last night in the den, starting with Kodiak who would not even raise his head to look at me:
Next, Qannik who not only would not raise his head, he would not even open his eyes:
And Kiska, who was so tired that she missed the bed and still was sound asleep:
And Natasha who, of course, being the royalty that she is, would not be found on the floor, but is taking up most of the couch.
Now Natasha is the one dog who responded to my trying to get her to look at me while I took the picture. Not exactly what I was going for:
A Tired Sibe is a Good Sibe. Unfortunately, now that they have slept through the night, they are outside wrestling in the cold air and are singing for breakfast, so have to sign off and go feed The Herd.
Walking is Too Slow
The air is crisp and cool, which means The Herd has entirely too much energy. So, sometimes, walking is not quite enough for The Herd. So here is video of The Herd jogging on an abandoned road (sorry for the video quality – it looks a little like Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Project, but we were trying to keep up and video at the same time):
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Comments & Questions
We were catching up on all of the questions and comments posted this week, and thought we would answer a few of them:
Digging Holes
Kat (which is one of my favorite Siberian names and I plan to “borrow” it some day) of Steve and Kat fame asks about the Journey to the Center of Earth:
How do you get your humans to let you dig big holes like that? Every time I start a hole, Mom puts poop in it. It’s so frustrating!
Well, Kat, the answer is simple. Our humans think its great we dig holes. Something about it tires us out and “A Tired Sibe is a Good Sibe.” But we can’t dig just anywhere. As part of our Sibe Quentin (the Chez Herd Siberian Containment System), we have a small area of the yard that we can get to anytime we want to. And it is ours – all ours. We can dig all we want. Every now and then, they fill some of the really big holes in (something about not wanting to fall in and getting lost). They also have concrete buried an entire foot (30 cm) deep and a foot wide all the way around the fence (which is 8 feet (244 cm) high), but the yard itself is just for dogs.
More about Digging Holes
Thor and Marco Polo ask:
How do you know when you are at the Center?
Wow – great question. Again our humans are very helpful. They tell us. That’s right, they say “Enough” and we can stop digging because we have made it. Of course, they also say that when we start singing really, really loudly or when we are wrestling inside the house, but we are pretty sure that it is an expression of gratitude.
Critters
Biloxi asks:
Woo have bea-woo-tiful hiking trails. Any deer or squirrels to catch your interest?
And The Op Pack asks:
Do you run into very many critters along the way?
We do. We had a very close encounter earlier this summer with a deer (aka, Big Dog with Horns), but our human was not fast enough with the camera.
And our squirrels are interesting here. You see, we have the Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel. We have prayed and prayed for one to come gliding into Sibe Quentin, but no luck yet. Of course, since Meeshka has warned us to be vigilant for flaming squirrels, we have decided to be very much on alert for the combination of flying and flaming squirrels with our history with fires.
Tourists
The Desert Pups ask:
Mom wants to know do you run into a lot of tourists when you’re hiking? Do they freak out when they see this huge pack of dogs coming at them?
We run into lots of tourists and enjoy it. We bet hundreds of pictures a year are taken of The Herd because every time we are out, people are taking our pictures. Sometimes, even at a traffic light, we look over and someone is snapping our picture. The humans have threatened to put a sign on the Jeep that says Pictures = $5 just to see how much money we can raise.
As for freaking out, most people are thrilled to see us and a lot of people pet us. Since most of The Herd are rescues, the Humans believe that the constant social interaction helps us overcome some of things that happened to us before we arrived at Chez Herd. But every now and then, we do meet someone who is not excited to see us (go figure), and we have a strict rule that we step well off the trail and let them pass.
Unfortunately, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park forbids dogs on trails – even when leashed – because other dogs (or, more accurately, their humans) have behaved poorly. We hate that, because we can actually see that park from our house, but we never go. Since we want to enjoy using all of the great forests and parks in our area, we behave on the trails. At home, however, all bets are off!
Thanks for all the great questions. Feel free to post more and we may answer some more in another post.
Fall Friday – Technical Problem
Each Friday for the past few weeks, we have shared the view from our front porch so that you can see the progression of the fall colors:
Friday September 26
Friday October 3
Friday October 10
But, we have a technical problem today:
No, the mountain did not suddenly disappear or collapse into Kodiak’s hole. The fog simply has never lifted for a clear view today. So, sorry, but Fall Friday will be postponed until the fog goes away!
A Different Natasha
This is the Natasha I am used to. Confident. Impatient. Cocky. Telling me to stop taking pictures and get in the Jeep and LET’S GO NOW ! ! ! The Boss of The Herd (I keep telling her that I am the boss, but she just humors me).
But even Queen Natasha the Evil can get tired after a long day of hiking. We are parallel parked on a street in downtown Asheville and she is holding her head out the window trying to watch the world go by. I was able to take this picture from the drivers seat and catch her reflection in the side view mirror on the passenger side of the car. Can you tell that sleep is overcoming her?
Makes me laugh because I remember her as a puppy (terrorizing her “Mama Bear” Nikita). Natasha used to run around the house, but she would get so sleepy that she would literally fall asleep in mid stride and collapse to the floor sound asleep and sleep for an hour. I called her the Narcolepsy Puppy.