Why is Kiska looking so happy? Because we are on an S-RV trip to the beach! Yep, we are headed for a long weekend of sand, surf, and fun. Will keep you posted!
Apr 302009
Apr 292009
Sorry that so many of you had hot and humid weather, or, worse, tornados this past weekend. We were fortunate and had a spectacular cool spring weekend:
We hiked a portion of the Mountain to Sea Trail , a 1,000 mile long (not completed) hiking trail stretching from Clingman’s Dome on the North Carolina / Tennessee border to the North Carolina Outer Banks. We, of course, walked only a few miles just north of Mt Pisgah.
The part we were on is commonly known as the Shut In Trail, a legacy of the Vanderbilt family. The trail was built by George V. Vanderbilt to go from his house, which was actually just a little 175,000 square foot summer home with 250 rooms, to his hunting lodge – a 16 mile trail that stayed on his property the whole time because the yard was 125,000 acres. Nope, none of those number are wrong. Here is a little picture I took of the house from several miles away:
Let me repeat. Summer Home. All we can say is – Wow! Well, and wouldn’t we all like to have zoomies in that house. Oh my.
In our video, you can get a little feel for the Shut In Trail name because the Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron wrap over the trail in such as way as to give you a “Shut In” feeling.” You can also see some of the original stone work that formed the foundation of the original trail:
Ok, enough for the humans. Pups – we found this tree to be one of the most fascinating things on the trail.
Anyway, enjoy our little Walking Wednesday video – a tribute to a small part of the Mountain to Sea Trail:
Apr 282009
We get really behind on the awards sometimes, but we do really appreciate them. But since we get behind, we lose track of who has and has not received them. So these awards are being passed on to our readers – thank you!
First, Kodiak from Team Husky nominated Kodiak of The Thundering Herd for this one -
According to the interpretations that are floating around, it means “Proven. Your blog has sweetness.” Kodiak says he is honored and thank you.
Thor and Marco Polo shared this award with us:
We particularly liked this because Thor has been at the Outer Banks this week. This is what he said, “The Thundering Herd who travel around showing us the world from their RV.” Well, that is really cool because we are taking the S-RV out starting Thursday and also heading to the beach. So you know what that means, don’t you? Yes, Cheoah is practicing her S-RV face:
Oh, yeah, we are supposed to list 6 things that make us happy. You see this coming don’t you? Natasha, Rusty, Kiska, Kodiak, Qannik and Cheoah. How dare we name six of anything else?
And from our good neighbor to the South (ok, a few hours South), Ozzie the Ozzball:
Why do we love blogging? Because blogging helps us humans remember all of the little things that our furry friends do everyday that seem so routine, but make so many memories. The original Herd may not have had a blog written daily about them, but they are the heritage of the current Herd and were the inspiration for the original Thundering Herd web page. So we leave you with a couple of pictures of the Original Herd – Cocoa (the blond Corgi), Ginger (the red headed Chow mix), and Nikita (the first Siberian and mentor to Queen Natasha the Evil).
Apr 272009
The weather was perfect. Few clouds in the sky. Warm, but not hot, temperatures. A constant cool breeze. Kodiak’s only question was why oh why did the weekend have to end.
Pbbbbbbbbbbbt!
Apr 262009
WARNING – The following story contains graphic images and may not be suitable for all readers. Especially if you are a stuffie.
Our humans visited Cousin Tartok last night (well, and our hu-grandparents, but we are sure Tartok was the real reason for their visit). Cheoah did not get to visit this time, so we do not have wrestling videos like this or this. But since we know Cheoah is very innocent and would never cause trouble, it was probably a good thing that she did not go.
When we entered the house, we saw the terrible, terrible scene right away. Poor innocent creature. Look at this face:
Notice the left arm. Notice the lack of a right arm. Despite an extensive search, no right arm was found. We believe an extensive search in the yard will reveal the right arm. In a day or two.
The picture from above yields the entire extent of the damage:
Autopsy results (well, that, and a really quick look) revealed that the back had been broken and – brace yourselves – a hole created and all of the insides carefully removed. We know. Such shocking details.
And so the search for suspects began. At Chez Herd, that involves the questioning of multiple dogs. But a Chez Tartok, the list of suspects is much, much shorter.
Frankly, the investigators scored a break. The suspect returned to the scene of the crime and – brace yourself – took the victim. I know, shocking. But that allowed the investigators to catch the suspect red-pawed (or was that green-toothed).
Caught in such a predicament, the suspect knew the game was up and immediately surrendered.
Finally, there was the interrogation. There was torture involved in the form of vigorous chest scratching, but Tartok appeared to totally confess to the crime. At least, Natasha shook her head in disgust at the sounds.
Apr 252009
It is a clear, sunny Saturday. Guess what we are going to do all day?
Apr 242009
Once again, Cheoah was able to go with us over to my parents and visit her good buddy Tartok. Here is a video of her evening.
Apr 232009
We went down to one of our favorite spots, the Nantahala River, Sunday afternoon. We figured between the drizzling rain and the late Sunday afternoon, we would have the river mostly to ourselves. We were right and everyone had a blast, particularly Cheoah who is ever so appropriately named after the Cherokee word for Otter.
Even better, this time the humans remembered the camera unlike the last time we were here, so we have video to show you:
In case you were wondering, this is the bridge that we crossed at the end of the video:
Is this a cool Trippy-Trap Bridge or what, Ammy? The bridge is located at The Nantahala Outdoor Center where the white water rafters end their trips (and kayakers, too, of course). This was actually the first river that our humans white watered on many, many, many, many moons ago.
Apr 222009
Several weeks ago, the Op Pack asked, “When do we get to see the trek back down” (as opposed to all of our hikes uphill or on flat ground)? We answered in this post that, “Our humans say our pulling is very helpful up the hill, but pulling downhill is not as helpful. They require all of their concentration to keep from creating blooper videos on the downhill trek, so we do not film going down hill.”
(By the way, we loved Kat’s answer, “We like to use the tactic where we hardly pull at all going uphill and then try to run at top speed going downhill. We do it all in the name of exercise for the humans.” And is this not the greatest picture of Kat?)
Well, as any good Siberian knows, you tell us something can not – or should not – be done and we, of course, have to do it. So we filmed this on April 4. Unfortunately, that Walking Wednesday video was preempted by our great spring snowfall, so we held the video until today. So enjoy our downhill trek:
Apr 212009
Valuable lesson learned today, as demonstrated by Qannik. When you are white and fluffy, you should be careful about where you sit. Like, never sit in a pile of leaves. And, more importantly, never let the human with the camera walk behind you after you sit in the leaves. If you do, embarrassing pictures like these may appear on the blog:
