The Thundering Herd | The Thundering Herd

Ruby Tuesday – Working Hard

D.K. Wall — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:00:56 +0000

You may be wondering about the post title.

But this is really about the hardest work I have done all day.

How else would this table keep standing without my help?

Mud Versus Snow

D.K. Wall — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:00:45 +0000

What our road looked like this time last year.

Our road this year

This might be fun, but no where near as much fun as being buried in snow.

Showers on Saturday

D.K. Wall — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:15:30 +0000

What do you do when your Saturday is rainy and foggy?

You go walking anyway.

And use rain gear as appropriate.

Rusty Hide and Seek

D.K. Wall — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:46:31 +0000

Rusty trying hide and seek behind this tree was not as effective as he thought because Qannik found him right away.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Ready to Go

D.K. Wall — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:14 +0000

The Queen has done a head count to make sure every pup is in the Jeep.

Kiska has found the perfect spot to keep her hair from blowing in the wind.

The Jeep is loaded, hu-dad. Let's go!

Racing Rusty

D.K. Wall — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:00:34 +0000

There we were walking around the Velodrome, a former NASCAR track that is now a center piece of Asheville's Carrier Park.

Just a leisurely, non-competitive walk.

When suddenly this competitive type came flying by on his bicycle.

Should we race? Chase after him?

Of course not, said our King of Cool Walking, Rusty the Rooster.

We have to out style Speed Racer.

Cool is as Cool does, so says Rusty.

Wow Walking Wednesday

D.K. Wall — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000

As we have often mentioned, we are blessed to live with our neighbors Cataloochee Ski and Cataloochee Ranch. While we miss our horse neighbors in the winter (they are moved off the mountain to warmer weather in our normally harsh winters), that means the horse trails on the 1000 acre ranch are open to us for exploring and hiking. We literally can step out our back door and onto these wonderful trails. Last Sunday, we took one of those horse trails to the top of Hemphill Bald, a 5,535 foot summit that straddles the ranch and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (the boundary literally runs along the peak). It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning and we want to take you along on our hike.

The Black and White Team settled in early for the hike.

Rusty was always exploring the edge with the Red Team.

But don't worry, the Red Team can get serious when need be.

The good part of a horse trail on the ranch is that they have set up places for the horses to get a cool drink of clean, fresh mountain spring water. Don't mind if we sip a little too.

As you near the top, there are hitching posts for horse riders to secure their horses while they picnic and enjoy the views.

Oh. Did we say view?

In this view, you can see our neighbor, Cataloochee Ski. You can also see the only snow we have is the man-made snow at the resort.

Good thing for the ski area that it was cold enough to still be making snow.

Time to head back down the hill to the house. Hope you enjoyed our hike.

A closing note. If you are ever curious about what our weather is like, the ranch has installed this webcam on the top of Hemphill Bald. The picture is continuously updated, so you will what we are experiencing. Just click here and bookmark the page.

Ruby Tuesday – Situation Normal

D.K. Wall — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:00:36 +0000

Ruby here. The Herd Annex is being as normal as we ever are.

Tartok and I are performing our normal kitchen patrols.

Well, except for when Tartok is upside down snoring.

And then I just have to keep a close eye on things in the kitchen by myself.

A very close eye

A very, very close eye.

A very, very, very close eye.

And then I reflect on the one that got away.

Qannik’s Monday Morning View

D.K. Wall — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:58 +0000

Qannik here with my opinion of Monday mornings.

YAWN! Good thing the humans have busyness to go to so we can catch up on our sleep.

But the humans not being around to feed us snacks, scratch our ears, and play with us brings me to my second opinion of Mondays.

Pbbbbbbbbbbt.

Stereo Sibe Sunday

D.K. Wall — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:00:47 +0000

Hey, hu-dad, what are you working on?

Oh, I see you already have help.

We have both sides covered - sort of a Stereo Sibe set-up

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Did you guess what was wrong with the video yesterday? Several of you noticed that at 0:35 in the video, the driver turned the heat up. Totally a Sibe faux pas – we want the heat turned down. Of course, we do laugh at the look shot at the driver right after that. It is sort of the look we give the hu-dad when he does something we don’t like.