Happy Wet Victoria Day

Our stretch of decent, a taste of summer, sunny weather came to a screeching halt about lunchtime Sunday.

It had been dry for long enough to create Death Valley type cracks in the soil of the garden paths, and I had to keep watering the basil seeds to make sure they germinated.

Some people went away camping for the long weekend, in tents, and the rain poured down.

Been there, done that, and it might not be much bigger than a tent, but I'm sure happy that we have our little trailer now.  Not that we went anywhere this weekend anyway.  Not that we have a choice, we avoid going away on long weekends.

We went down to the dyke instead.  It's a long time since we've been there.  We lucked out and picked a time when the rain had eased to a drizzle and we got all but the last bit of the walk in before the deluge started again.

The water is high, most likely because the Fraser River is running high with snow melt, and it backs up into the creek.

The dogs got a bit of water time, but all we could find to throw were rocks, so they weren't terribly impressed, since rocks don't float.

Next time we'll have to remember to bring something that doesn't sink.

A Glorious Afternoon.

The clouds parted, the sky was blue and the sun shone.  Feb. 1 must be sunny quite often, just like it was today.

Because this was Feb. 1 last year, 

And this was Feb. 1,  14 years ago

Larry's 64th, 63rd, and 50th birthdays. 

You'd think we'd have something better to do than go to the dyke.

But then there are always dogs to be walked, and that's as good a place to go as any.

I bet that old stump will still be there 14 years from now.

This was on the way home.  After four o'clock and the sun is still shining. Yay for lengthening days.  Lots of water sitting on the fields in Glen Valley.  

And because I forgot to mention another birthday, here's a cute picture of Calli.

She turned 12 years old on Jan 26th.  

She's still doing really well.

To Stink Or Not To Stink.

  No question is Luna's mind.  She'll take being a stinker (literally), any day. Eau du poisson is her smell of choice. 

The salmon have been spawning somewhere up Nathan Creek, which is where we go for a walk along the dyke.    Just about every time we've been down there lately, Luna has managed to find a dead and smelly salmon to anoint herself with.

Here's the setting.  Golden Ears glowing white with snow, and the bare blueberry bushes adding a cheery touch to the flatlands.  And that schoolbus....well it takes a scenic side trip through the bushes.  Actually, it's been sat there for a long time, not sure why.  They use old school buses to transport the pickers. Maybe they are just storing it there, or maybe it's there as a lunch room of sorts during picking season.

And here we are. We had a photographer along this time.  All pictures are courtesy of Meredith.  Not quite sure what I was yapping on about here.  Practicing my flying technique may?  And the dogs, well they are there somewhere.  Jake and Luna are probably already at the swimming hole, which we tell them is closed for the season.  That's where those pilings are out to the left of my left wing arm.  The water level is quite low, and the swimming hole has changed a bit. Now there's more sand, which Calli thinks is a great thing.

Jake is ever hopeful.

Got a stick, or a ball, or damn it, got anything?

This is the only fish we saw. Calli just gave it a quick sniff, and here is looking for the rock that she had been carrying.  We don't think that Luna even noticed it, although really we weren't keeping a very good watch for Luna and her fish shoulder roll at all. 

We did get in a bit of water play near another set of pilings. If we haven't taken anything with us, sometimes it's hard to find a stick that will even float. Most of the wood is waterlogged stuff that has been washed downstream.

Jake was the only one that got any swimming in, and not much of that.  There was a bit of ice along the edge in spots, so the water would have been very cold.  When it comes to fetching, Jake doesn't have any common sense, so we have to use ours.

Jake on stilts, or maybe pilings.

See these teeth woman.....you'd better throw that stick

It was a gorgeous afternoon, the third of four dry and relatively sunny days we had in a row.

And there were three tired and happy dogs

When we got home, I was taking my jacket off in the utility room, and all of a sudden I'm wondering why I'm smelling fish.......

Luna was about eight feet away.  I went over to smell her. Sure enough.....

Meredith gave her a whiff, and she thought it was just the remnants of the previous trips.  I didn't think so, as I hadn't noticed the smell before.  There was no evidence of anything gross stuck to her back, but I got out a soapy rag and rubbed it over her shoulders anyway.  Cleaned her off, repeated a couple of more times, and now there's just a hint.

No doubt she'll be looking to top it up on the next visit.

And those four nice days we had, well they are now just a memory, because look what we have this morning!

About 7 or 8 inches of heavy wet snow:(

Bad photo, but that's Nelson checking it out.

The Best Part of Their Tuesday

They being Calli, Jake and Luna of course.  Our default walk if it's a nice day and we want to go somewhere off-leash is to drive down to the dyke.  After all it's only 6 or 7 minutes away, and that's enough when you have dogs whining in your ears.

When we got down there the first thing Calli did was to stand right on the edge of the bank above the creek and chew on some nice fresh grass.  The dogs seem to prefer that wide bladed stuff that ends up growing about five feet tall.  She managed to not fall in or cause any of the bank, which is undercut in some places, to collapse.  I've never seen a dog enjoy munching on grass the way Calli does.  We used to joke that she was part moose.  She would stand in the shallows of the creek and chew on the grass growing along the edge.

Jake, while enjoys the occasional chew, is more concerned about getting to what he thinks might be a suitable spot for his favourite thing

Which of course was playing fetch. 

 I was actually 'on the ball' and had remembered to take some balls with us this time, but then was reminded that I'd rather have something thinner so they don't have their mouths open so far.  I figure that makes for less chance of sucking some water into the lungs as they're swimming.  In a pinch a stick works just fine in the water, but we can't always find one.  Or if we do find one, it is so water laden that it just sinks.

I don't really like throwing a stick on land...too much chance of the stick taking a bounce and jamming itself down the dogs throat or into an eye.

I've heard all the horror stories:(

But, sometimes we do end up throwing a stick.  My solution to that is to fool the dog into thinking the stick is going one way, and then throwing it the other.  That way by the time the dog gets to the stick, it has already landed and has stopped moving.  I know, still room for injury, but the chances are less.

Larry threw a ball for Calli over to the sand on the other side (just by Larry's head)

Calli couldn't be bothered about the ball though.  When she goes to the 'beach', it's all about a rock and some sand and digging holes.  We eventually had to get Jake to go and bring her ball back.

Luna is enthusiastic about the swimming to a point, but the water is cold and she isn't as obsessed about the retrieving as Jake.  Eventually she starts hesitating on going to fetch the ball, which usually happens when we've made a particularly long throw.  So then that involves a lot of throwing rocks at the ball to get her to look at it and eventually take the plunge.

Jake doesn't have the sense to stop, he'd probably retrieve until he dropped from exhaustion.  

And we ran into Donna and Breeze again.  This isn't a good picture of Breeze, as I was looking downhill at her.  She is a tall lab, not a spare ounce of fat, and in excellent physical shape. A fantastic ball retriever and potential dock dog.  A pretty darn good agility dog too:)

Calli carried her rock all the way back home with her, drool and all.

Great Gardening Weather and a Goofy Dog

Yesterday we had a perfect day, the kind that we say that we could take for the rest of the year.  Sunny, warm but not hot, a bit of a breeze, perfect!  

It's the kind of weather that is great for working outside.  We've been picking away at the garden.  Today we just about finished weeding out all the perennial beds, and some of them are mulched.  We are almost to the point that the rest of it could be rototilled.

That little tiller that Larry badly wounded last week.... well they phoned us a couple of days ago to tell us that the part had to come from Alberta, and it would be about $100, and then it would be about $175 in labour.  Add taxes to that, and it puts is over $300.  Good grief.  Do I love that rototiller that much?

That's going to make for some freaking expensive vegetables.

David said he was interested in looking at it and maybe he could put the part on (the intake manifold) himself.  Of course it's going to be really embarrassing if he can't do it, and we have to take the rototiller back in and get them to fix it.  Maybe we could find a different place to take it to.  So the plan at the moment is to bring the rototiller home as soon as the part has come in, which will hopefully be tomorrow.

I should have taken this picture yesterday when I first spread the compost on that perennial bed along the fence.  The hens were all lined up along the fence, their heads and necks stuck through the wire, picking at the worms and other stuff in the rotten horse manure.

And then in the afternoon the dogs always expect some kind of walk.  Sometimes we just walk around the block, but today we went down to the dyke.  The first stop is always their favourite swimming hole.

Calli has a rock, and is on the other side of the creek.

See those pilings in the distance, over and to the right of the dog's heads.

There is a gravel bar there, and that is were we met up with Donna and Breeze, some agility buddies.  Donna always has a chuck-it and a couple of balls with her, so Jake and Luna are thrilled to see her.

At the edge of the bar, right by the water, I saw a pair of sunglasses.  I figured they would be broken, but they were still in one piece.  On the inside of one arm they said 0-2years.  

Yep, they were sunglasses for a baby,

or maybe a dog!

They fit Jake perfectly.

He was one cool dude!

He didn't care that they were on his face. Nothing distracts him from the ball.

He ran after the ball and came back without the sunglasses.  Larry and I were back tracking along his route, and then Donna yelled that they were on the back of his neck.  When he ran they had flipped up and over the top of his head and were resting behind his ears.

Whatever, just throw the damn ball!

And today we got two eggs from the new hens.  One was outside on the ground, and one was in a nest box. 

Lay, girls, lay!

Can Hardly Call it Flooding

Yesterday we got that lovely break in the weather about noon, so I suggested we go down to the dyke.  It was mostly because I had wanted to see how high the water was there.  Well it was flooded, as usually you can barely even see the creek at this point, as it is just a narrow channel over to the left, well down below the banks.  But since no houses and very little property was affected, the flooding really was minor. 

Of course by the time we got there the next system was rolling in.  I don't mind this weather so much though.  The clouds are much higher, there is some variety, it's not so oppressive as the previous two days.

It did eventually rain again, but not for the whole walk.

Towards the end it was clearing again, and the sky was breaking up.

This is the dogs swimming hole.  The water is at least 3 or 4 feet higher than normal, and really moving fast  through there.  See that wave on the left of the pilings?  Normally this is a nice quiet pool with a gravel beach on the right.

Calli and Luna look like they are waiting to see if we are going to stop, but thankfully none of the dogs seemed interested in venturing into the water.

I got frustrated trying to take pictures of the blue patches of sky.  Well either I could get the sky and the landscape was dark, or the landscape was okay and the sky was bleached out.  I suppose it didn't help that I was looking south. 

Can it be done?

So I gave up and just made the trees a silhouette. 

A little towelling off before heading home.

And a bit of a self portrait in the reflection of the truck window. 

Kind of interesting how it turned out, as it is a tinted window, and I certainly didn't look this bright to me when I was taking this photo.

All this picture taking with glass involved just points out to me another window that needs cleaning.

I think that bird poop is on the window, not my jacket.

I end up using the view finder most of the time, and not the back display, because to see the display properly I would need to put on my reading glasses.