The (newest) Big Barker

Dad did it again. Ordered us another bed from our favorite dog bed maker. Our first one came to offer Sammy some comfort for his old bones (clinical trials support this!). Then we had to get one customized for the car (for Sammy). Then one for the bedroom so we didn’t have to tote the living room one up and down the stairs every day. It then it became apparent that one was needed for our Grandparent’s place in the mountains of New Mexico since it wasn’t good practice (space wise) to cart one of these beds back and forth during our drives out west from Illinois. Then Zoe arrived – after Sammy left for college, no doubt with his bed in the U-Haul with all his other stuff – so there was a sort of turf war that developed between Zoe and me for the remaining bed. But then Big Barker came out with a special edition Blue cover. So naturally, we had to get two so neither Zoe or I had to fight over who got the cool blue bed…and my parents were wise enough to know Zoe was going to use her trump card that “her color” was blue and mine was pink/purple. Thus we had what could be turned into a double wide BBB (not blood-brain-barrier, but Blue Big Barkers). We were sure this would be the end of the dog beds since the floor space in our old house was pretty much completely occupied by our beds – and made walking through the house a little bit of an obstacle course which I was afraid would cause the old guy/lady to trip and possible break a hip or something…which I understand to be a bad thing for someone of their advanced age. But then we moved. And our new house has a LOT more floor space. So when the package arrived yesterday in a box with the Big Barker I just knew good things were about to occur!

So, I guess I should back up a bit and explain that we got an email a few days ago from the makers of these wonderful beds that they had another one of their special-limited-time-only-bed-colors! This time it was Pink! My color!!!! And part of the proceeds go to fund breast cancer research – which is quite important to me in that our Michigan G-ma is a BC survivor…and there are so many other women who need this research to continue to supply better and better medications and treatments so they’ll be there for their children. But I figured there was NO way we’d be getting one of these despite our additional space and the worthy cause. But then, as Zoe alerted us, the UPS truck had arrived and our good friend who we always give a fond welcome, dropped off the previously mentioned box.

Dad quickly pulled the cardboard off the contents and left the exoskeleton on the parking pad in our driveway. The scrumptious inner portion was dragged in the house…but encased in a plastic wrapping which was left as is by The Scribe. Arggh. How aggravating he can be at times. Lucky for me, I am a “get-out-of-my-way-and-watch-me-do-it” kind of gal. So, here I am unpacking MY new bed.

Upon realizing his ineptitude in not completely opening my package, Dad came quickly over and helped me remove the plastic from the bed – apparently the potential choking hazard got him in marching order faster than would have normally happened.

So with the bed unfurled, I immediately got on it and breathed in the gorgeous odors of my new bed – falling in love with it right away…

Zoe takes over what is not rightfully hers…

At which point, Zoe heard that good things were happening and immediately commandeered the bed for herself. As I think you can ascertain by my expression, I was not happy with this outcome. And even worse, she totally Bogarted the bed the rest of the night so I decided I’d take up residence in the human bed.

Zoe, Zoe, Zoe.

However, today being a rainy day, except for a few strolls around the neighborhood I spent most of my time on MY new bed. And while my parents have only captured the below photo (of me chewing my toe nails on it), I must say I look great on the bed.

And despite having MY new comfy zone, I am still not opposed to some quality time on the couch with my pack.

I leave you, dear reader, with a few fall foliage photos from our walk this afternoon:

The Tempest

I hope you are able to enjoy the beauty of nature that is all around us and to stay safe when things go amok (wildfires, hurricanes) or strangely awry (pandemics).

WATER, PART 2: The River

"Riding out the day events
The River!
Tom Sawyer
Rush

Yesterday we visited the Cahncahd River in the neighboring town which apparently is named after a brother and sister: Bill and Erica. In this town of Billerica, they have a park for dogs to run off leash but not like the acres and acres we had back in Illinois. Adjacent to this park is an area for flying remote control airplanes, some soccer fields (which dogs are not allowed to play on – whatever), and some decent paths through the woods to the river. We have been to this river before but in Cahncahd (more on that later) and Car-lie-lee in two different spots! Did I mention they named the park after all those soldiers who served in the Vietnam War – a horrible war (like they all are) but one in which those who fought should be honored.

After a good stroll, up and down many hills, around rocks of all sizes, and through (or over) trees – standing or fallen, we got our first glimpse of the river. Due to the sub-optimal photography, you may not be able to appreciate we were a got hundred feet or so above the river.

After a rather treacherous climb down a hill – made so by the fact that Zoe had spotted the water and her mind just about blew up a bit (well, and Dad and I got there first so she really freaked), thus dragging Mom down the hill over an uneven terrain which if her lunges were timed at a point when her handlers’ (mom’s) feet were unstable we might have had an unfortunate scene, and possibly some scratches or contusion had mom fallen – we arrived water side. BTW – my parents were dreading the walk back up the hill 🙂

Zoe nearly dragged Mom into the water while she was trying to navigate the last few steps to the water – did I mention she lost her mind again when seeing the flowing water? Mom eventually got her 30′ leash attached and off she went. I was close behind but after about 1 or 2 steps my paws no longer touched the river bed and I did a quick about face, swimming directly back to shore in order to get my feet underneath me. Zoe continued her laps around and around in short arcs – given the whole leash thing. I think if they ever unhooked her, we think she’ll end up in the Atlantic Ocean…which doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me. HAHAHAHA!

Mom and the Noise Maker on the Concord River

When Zoe finally got out of the water, I made a sneak attack on her and then ran up the hill as far as my 30′ leash would take me.

Waiting, and expecting, a Counterattack

On the walk back, the hill was strangely not so daunting. And then we came across what might have been my favorite part of the whole experience. A rather large tree had fallen across a gully those creating a perfect bridge for yours truly:

Of course, Zoe was able to jump from the ground up to the log without a running start. Unfortunately, this was not captured on video (another failure of The Scribe). We estimated that at the spot she jumped up on it that it the first time, it was over 5′ off the ground. She did struggle with the landing but ended up crawling up and walking the remaining length of the log. Our parents tried to encourage her to do it again (this time on tape) but her confidence appeared to be a little shaken…that is until the camera was no longer on her – and she wasn’t as far down the ravine.

On the way out of the park, we passed a family having a celebration in the park marked by two balloons, which Dad read as 20 – so he said “happy 20th”, to which one of the men at the party said it was a 50th party. OOPS. Being around our Dad is often so embarrassing. By the way, we noticed this event as one of the dogs in attendance escaped, and came at toward us. We took it in stride but our attention was now fully on the escapee. The family quickly got her back under control and apologized. What for? Nothing untoward had happened after all. But Mom made some nice comments about us being friendly and appreciating that they were on top of things and thus making the scene a non-issue.

Then after a few more steps we walked passed the pond again, and the clouds and sun light were perfect to catch the fall colors (The Scribe doing better this time with the photography).

All in all, it was a fun trip to the River and a new part, which despite the traffic noise over the bridge on Rt. 3 (noises we rarely hear on our other treks along the river) we may end up coming back to this park – if for no other reason to run off leash with some other of our kind.

The Tempest

Barred

I know I owe you more Water blogs, but so much that is so interesting keeps happening. This place is a mile a minute action, folks! This week on our midday walks we had so many adventures. Today, for example, we came across three snakes as we wandered trough the Davis Corridor – but reptiles and amphibians are stories for another time (we’ve met a lot of different ones in our backyard alone!).

This post is about birds. We have a lot of varieties of these critters in these parts that we did not have in Illinois (nor have we seen in Michigan or New Mexico for that matter).

The first was my sighting of our old friend Ms Owl (we don’t know if it is a girl or boy, but we girls like to think that something so wise is female):

We’ve come across her a number of times this year but we haven’t seen her for quite some time. We hear her allot talking to herself and to another one of her species – maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend? We haven’t been able to get a good recording of her speech … or did we?

Who cooks for you?

Well the YouTube video isn’t really ours but the crows constantly cawing and tall pine trees made me think for a minute Zoe had snuck out and captured these songs without my knowing it.

Dad tried to get a slow motion video of her flying, but it ended up out of focus – he says that two dogs on leashes are not the same as using a tripod. He is always one for excuses, I tell you what. Here is a screenshot that kind of captures the amazing wing span she has:

Ms. Barred is at the top of the orange arrow

So it was exciting to see her again and we hope to see her again soon. In the meantime we will enjoy her sounds from our abode. It is fun to wake up at 3am and hear the soothing noises she makes and then go back to sleep. I guess this will probably end now. Given we are having fires we probably won’t be sleeping with all the windows open much more.

Then the very next day, on the very same stretch of road, we came across those turkeys again. These we’ve seen a lot recently including in our very own front yard. On this occasion we were asleep on the couch when we heard Mom and Dad whispering together in the kitchen which was a clue to us that would should investigate. Upon entering the kitchen we didn’t see anything untoward – and certainly no food being shared between them behind our backs. At first they didn’t notice us – as they were intent on taking pictures of our front yard – and then they became aware of us and made the mistake of helping us look out the window at which point we saw a whole Rafter of Turkey’s! Right there in our yard!!!

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Turkeys coming over our wall, and then running away

Then shortly after the kitchen event, I saw another Rafter on a morning walk with Mom and Zoe…Zoe’s brain was somewhere else and totally missed the whole scene. While I know I am more observant than Zoe, I do have sympathy, as there are a lot of smells around here! On even another morning walk Mom claims we both missed the cadre of turkeys – but I doubt the veracity of this account on account I can’t imagine missing such a thing.

Anyhow, as I was saying, the day after seeing Ms. Owl again, we were walking up the same road when we came upon all these turkeys. As the video evidence will no doubt verify, I saw them first. Then Zoe. Then Zoe went nutso and even tried reprimanding me. For what you ask? Your guess is as good as mine as that was my question.

I think what really got her hackles up was the fact that she was being barred from chasing those feathered delicacies due to the fact that she was still constrained by the leash around Dad’s arm…which might be an inch or so longer now 😇. I guess the good news is Zoe didn’t give Dad stink eye like she did Mom when Zoe was swimming after the geese.

The Tempest

The Kanc (Rt 112)

“Go west young pups,” said a new friend of ours, Mark, who came to test our water. I thought this would be a huge of a waste of money since we could have told them that our tap water had roughly 2 parts per million of iron – until he said there was no charge for this visit. And then, while he was doing his measurements, he told us about this amazing drive that we should drive in New Hampshire – which turns out to be closer to our new house than New Mexico was to our old house in Illinois. In fact, it was even closer than Michigan was then. Spoiler alert: the strangest thing is that we ended back at our own home and not a hotel after the whole drive was over…which of course means we decided to take Mark’s advice and head up yesterday. America’s Scenic Highways at their best, folks! You heard it here first!

Here we are adhering to social distancing guidelines and Dad muzzled

Mark also recommended driving the route from east to west since the east side of the road often resembled a parking lot. He also said normally the Columbus Day weekend – which is next week for us – is usually the best time for colors but recommended we go earlier on account that things where he lived in southern NH seemed a week or two ahead of normal due to the drought (more on that later).

So as I alluded, on Sunday we took a road trip!

Enjoying the view from the backseat

This was our first time out of our new state since our arrival which was exciting but was also a bit nerve racking given the current outbreak in DC…but we were told we were going in the opposite direction which calmed my nerves – a bit. It also prepared my Mom a little for the big trip we are planning end of the year.

A few snapshots of our drive.

Our plan was to stop at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead. But before we got there, we saw evidence that Mark was right on the whole “head west” suggestion.

On and on the line of east bound traffic went…

Then it ended…after what seemed like miles.

Then, near the end of the “Western” route, we arrived at the Trails. Apparently we had many options for walks but Mom kinda freaked on all the people, many not in masks, so even though out doors and appropriately distanced she pulled an audible and took a different route than she had researched. We apparently selected the “path less chosen” according to the volunteer park gentleman who also intimated we were on the better route. This person was not Chance’s Mr E – apparently there are more than one of these national park volunteers. Who knew? And how cool?

ASIDE: Personally, I hope dad takes us BARK Rangers to this place over the historic Concord site – so many more smells, even if right now we may want a repeat of history…

We had a great walk, with additional mileage. The additional “mileage” of this walk wasn’t due to our need to see the ancient fender, walk on more benches, but rather that dad dropped his muzzle at some point when a jogger ran by with his dog – which made me really mad. Not the loss of the muzzle but rather the running dog. Maybe ’cause he was off leash and was interested in Zoe? Not talking about the why. Change the subject, please.

After Dad’s muzzle was located, we headed back to the car – avoiding people as much as we could given the swarms of them that had descended upon this “point of interest” – one of many along the highway. Did I mention how many people we saw on this trip? Incredible. Probably more than we’ve seen in our whole time since our move!!! Mom said we can come back next year when the leaves were in season, but we might take a vacation day and do it during a week day. One of Mom’s work peeps said it is also gorgeous in winter, with snow. A place to be we were!

So, I guess it shouldn’t have been much of surprise that when we finally got back on the road we immediately were stuck in a traffic jam – even though we were still headed west. Despite only going about 1 mile every 10 minutes, I was not too upset since it gave me some time to do a little research. While stuck in this traffic at the western end of the Kanc (in Lincoln), I decided to google: Kancamagus.

And what I learned, thanks to our good friends at Wikipedia, is that the highway was named after a famous Native American – which is fitting since the beautiful scenery, lovely trees, gorgeous river (although quite low now due to the current drought we are experiencing…thank you global climate change), and multiple mountain peaks are a tribute to how these people lived here for centuries without a single parking lot or strip mall…and although this highway is wonderful and devoid of shopping malls, there are a whole ton of parking lots – and PEOPLE!

“The highway is named after Kancamagus (pronounced “cain-kah-MAW-gus”,^[8] “Fearless One”^[9]), third and final sagamore of the Penacook Confederacy of Native American tribes. Nephew of Wonalancet and grandson of Passaconaway,^[10] Kancamagus ruled what is now southern New Hampshire. After English settlers arrested a number of Pennacook tribe members, he was forced to make the decision in 1691 to move north into upper New Hampshire and what is now Quebec, Canada.

Afterwards, as we re-entered a normal expressway, I realized that I had not enjoyed my normal afternoon naps and settled into a good position in the back seat to catch up on lost time:

Zoe was well ahead of me in the napping:

Those pictures were taken while I was enjoying the view – given that was part of the reason we went on this trip:

Then we hit yet another traffic jam in New Hampshire – this one on a multi-lane road which was loaded with a ton of cars, like ours, from Massachusetts so we chose not to complain that it was passed our dinner time even though we were still 45 minutes or so from home.

Well, Zoe may have had a bit of a melt down when I told her what the Navigation system in our car told us… we’d be home after 6 PM:

Here is Zoe pouting about our delayed dinner time (and maybe choking dad).

About this time, Khaleesii’s (the dog car) nav system suggested a way to avoid some of this traffic. Interestingly, a number of other cars also jumped off the interstate at this time. But then at a stop sign, a bit down the suggested detour, about half of the cars went left and the others went straight. Then after we returned to the highway, there was a point where all these other cars got back on. This made us all laugh because we have noticed – back in the day when our car didn’t have GPS and we used our phones – that it seemed that the iPhone users went one way, and the Android users chose another route. Well actually, Zoe doesn’t remember these days but has heard the stories. Just like we don’t understand that there was a time when you couldn’t change the channel on the TV with a remote control but rather needed to sit close to the big box (???) and turn the dial (???) with your toes – but dad says this is how he grew up. What is weirder, is I remember hearing one of our grandparents once saying that they would listen to “serials” on the radio since they didn’t even have TV’s (?!?!?!?!?!?). Anyhoo, it was a really nice drive through some very cute areas. Much better than freeway traffic!

We finally arrived home, ate a good (although rather small) dinner, lit a fire – the first in our new house, and went to bed. Well, I went to bed. Zoe sacked out in front of the fire.

To be honest, I didn’t think I’d have the energy to transcribe this lengthy tale, but since I had the Scribes attention, I thought it was my duty to power through and tell you our story of the Kanc. What a great day!

Stay safe!

The Tempest.