Mom's Got a Trunk / I Got Steps

Mabel Lou here. My new wooden steppies came last week! Whoo Hoo! I still pretend to need Mom to help me place my feet but I think she's caught me getting in bed by myself a few times! It is much less scary to do it by myself when I know the steps won't turn over on me but I like to make the Momster feel useful most days.

Here they are:

My creek uncle even took the carpet off my old ones! Then Mom got the bright idea that we could use the old ones for me to get in and out of the car so we went over to Chloe's and fished them out of the recycle bin. Mom's theory was since she's always with me when I get in the car (cause I can't drive...yet), they would be O.K. Only, they are not as tall as the car and as soon as I hit the top step, the rolled under the car and freaked me out!

So Mom is hoping to ask for a 2nd set of wood ones...

Now I'm supposed to tell you all about Mom's new trunk. She's going to be showing it off on the Facebook at some place called Artisans Open Market. It will be August 28 - 30 and she's going to have her beads and lots of her jewelry. So if you are into that kinda thing, check her out.

She's even having a contest to give away two gift certificates. One of them is for $40 on Facebook. She wants ya'll to  share her fanpage thingy > SHARE the original post and you are entered there.

And here on the blog even though this is MY post, she's got a  $25 gift certificate via rafflecopter (You can repeat certain entries for MORE chances to win!):



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting for Otto

This is Sue...waiting for Otto.

And she can't wait anymore!

The Boys

Tila boy and his dad...digging for rats! Mabel did kill one that day... Sigh.

Looking for Rats

Mabel is snoopervising one of her creek uncles digging for rats here:

Four Happy Dogs

From front to back: Hank, Mabel, Sue and Otto the Rotto.

Photo by Ms. Rottrover.

Happy Waters

Mabel Lou here. My mom has been acting really strange lately. She drives our car to the levy where we used to hike before the water went away. She parks and walks over to the levy, looks around and comes back all sad.

Now we do have our wonderful ponds, but Mom and the aunties only go there when we can go as a large pack.  If the pack is not available, we go to Dirty Creek. And if that stinky black and white kitty is there, I don't get to swim at all!

I was most concerned the today when we left our little town and drove into the mountains. Hmmm... we used to hike here years ago until I figured out there was a horse farm across the highway! Mom apparently still has nightmares of scaling boulders to find all the traffic in both directions stopped as I went from car to car greeting all the dogs! For some reason, she doesn't like me to sociable like that. Pftt!

Anyway, she parked and left me in the car! She disappeared behind a tree and down a hill. Finally I could see her again and I noticed she was walking toward trees.... GREEN TREES! Green trees mean water! Suddenly, she turned on her heel and ran toward the car. She was laughing like a little kid and she was squeeling, "Creek! Let's go creeking!" I know what that means!!!!

She rolled up the car windows and got my leash and we both took off running! And just look what we found:

This is a few miles above where we hike but the water is flowing strong! We're hoping it comes down to our spot soon but, in the meantime, it's nice to have options!

Mabel In the Morning

I just love how sweet and cuddly my girl looks in the morning!

Those long legs have to go somewhere!

Peeling back the duvet ...

To scratch her face on the quilt!

"Ear scritches please!!!"

"Nom nom! My ears taste good!"

What's Up Mom?

I've often marveled here about the way my weird, part-greyhound girl sits and I finally managed to get half a picture! (Naturally, she turned away when she saw my camera!)

I was headed into the shop to make some beads when I stopped to catch up on the our local fires and watch the midday news. I sat down on the foot of the fainting couch. Mabel knew we were about to do something...but not sure of just what. She went to her bed but decided against getting too comfy. She came over and sat down beside me on the fainting couch and looked at me with her best "What's up Mom???" look!

Right Where She's Meant to Be

We've been having issues in this house... old dog issues. I haven't wanted to write about it. That makes it real. But Miss Mabel came back from Granny's house, where the bed is just above knee high and suddenly had issues getting in our almost hip high bed! She has fallen several times and I have cried many nights.

Many moons ago, I wrote of the stairs I purchased for Mabel. It turns out, they flip over if she doesn't hit the exact center of the step! This doesn't exactly encourage her to keep trying! Just when I get to start using them! Angry and frustrated, I took them to our hiking buddy Chloe's dad. He's a master carpenter. I gave him some specs but knew it would be quite a while before I saw a heavy wood version.

I came home and got to work. I found a heavy milk crate that would hold Mabel's weight. I got a carpet scrap from my neighbor's carpet store and some carpet tape secured the rug to the bottom of the crate. That worked fine...until the afternoon I came home from teaching and found it over-turned and Mabel being "weird."

The next day, I hit our magical thrift store again. I found a lovely small ottoman for $10. She puts her front paws up there and I lift her hind legs onto the step and from there, she gets onto the bed. Not ideal but I'm trying to make do until our wood ones show up. Still, I came home one hot afternoon and found Mabel in bed all by herself! But I know she is skittish getting up there without me.

Cut to: last night... I taught a late and rare weeknight class. When I got home at 10:30, I was almost afraid of what I would find. Would Mabel have put herself to bed??? It was chilly on the porch...she wasn't there. I walked in the back door and ...no Mabel in the two dogs beds in the living room. I was overjoyed that she may be in bed! I started down the hall when a movement caught my eye! There she was, right in the middle of the fainting couch!

Pardon the old pic...didn't have my phone handy! I wish I could show you her sweet, sleepy face and the joy that washed over it when she realized I was home!  I was so happy to find her there.

And I had to laugh... She has not got up on the fainting couch all by herself since she was a puppy and I used to scold her for that! (Before she trained me!) But when I bought that sofa at the thrift store, I made a big deal of telling her it was HER sofa! And she listened.

It reminded me of the time I gave my Maggie May her very own futon in the laundry room where she could have access to the indoors and a/c while I worked. For a solid month after I told Maggie the futon was hers, she dutifully took every human and canine that visited us back to the laundry room to show them her furniture!

And I'm sure if you popped by here, Mabel would share her fainting couch with you...

Going

It has happened to all of us who hike the mountains around here... sometimes nature calls and you can't hit the ignore button! And I'm not talking about the number one thing that comes to mind...no, it's the second. I was chatting with the hiking buddies not too long ago and explaining that a stomach bug had hit me, not once but twice (there's that #2 again!), within the span of thirty feet on the trail. Both times... I HAD to go!

Since we have a number of homeless that live along our favorite trails, not to mention golfers who won't take the time to find a toilet, we've all had unpleasant encounters out there as well. The most "city-fied" of my hiking buds asked me point blank where this happened so she could avoid it for a few weeks.

I explained that as a good girl scout, I buried the evidence and marked it with rocks and sticks. It wouldn't affect her hike. But this led to a flurry of questions:

HOW do you dig a hole when nature is calling that urgently?
 
I find a soft loamy or sandy place (ideally 200 feet from water) and quickly dig a trench with the heel of my shoe. I can dig a 6 - 8 inch deep trench in seconds!

What on earth do you use for toilet paper?

There's a tree with large heart shaped leaves all along our trails... four leaves make a decent t.p.

What are the rocks and sticks for? 

To make it harder for an animal to dig up. After burying the evidence, rocks are placed on top. A stick is placed in the middle of the rocks, straight up to make humans aware not to dig up a camp site there.

So if I find a pile a rocks with a stick straight up, I should avoid it?

Yes!

At that very moment, we wandered up onto the levy area and saw this:

Without missing a beat, my hiking buddy asked: I wonder what was large enough to need a pile of rocks that big?

Misty Morning

We have been having the coolest July I ever remember. I think the Universe is rewarding me for being gone during my favorite "June Gloom" month and the fact that our May was not typically gray. I those cool misty mornings, when the sun comes out late, if at all. Based on our hot and sunny May, I thought we were in for a long, hot and miserable summer. But somehow, the ocean breeze has been making it over our mountains! Even though our days are in the 80s, the nights have been in the lower 50s! Everything is a good 15 degrees cooler...which begins to make up for no water in the creek!

Mabel is insisting I tell you that this was the first of TWO hikes she got yesterday but...there were NO  swimmies either time! We followed the dry creek bed in the morning and when I made it home early last night, we headed for Dirty Creek. We were hoping for a quick swim but...the skunk beat us there! We've already got a swim planned for tonight at the ponds!