Since we left a lot of our stuff back in Massachusetts – especially outdoor furniture – Dad has been busy making some things out of discarded pallets. First there were a pair of Adirondack chairs (why not 4?, I ask) and he is currently working on planters that will have benches between them. At least that is what he is telling us but it just looks like a bunch of differently sized rectangle blocks of wood. Some of them were pretty chew worthy but Zoe and I got yelled at when we put our teeth to work, and once he applied paint to them the fun was done.
In between these two projects he made an Elevated Dog Bed for us – so I guess I can forgive him for only 2 chairs. Since we lived in the Chicagoland area for the first few years of our life we simply call it The El.
Zoe later discovered another use of The El: A perch for observing any activities in our backyard – kinda like a guard tower.
I realized she had found a good utility of The El and I thus used it myself for that purpose.
Although it was more comfortable then the Solo stove that is currently between the two chairs…
…my aunts pointed out that for it to be a true dog bed there needs to be a cushion on it. Dad’s sweatshirt did improve matters some but he still has some work to do on the comfort side of things.
Turns out when food is placed on it – as occurred yesterday afternoon – it could also be a sort of table!?! This was our first meal from Luttickens which is a restaurant a few blocks away. And it was AWESOME GOOD (if we were in MA it would be WICKED GOOD). A woman named Nicolle who saved us on a walk told us we had to try it. She wasn’t kidding! She helped us when two of our kind were running loose in the middle of the street; she came out and helped us corral them and safely get them back to their house (with a guy named Steve).
But once the table was cleared The El’s true purpose (the dog bed) was again in play. But with two the two of us up on it, I realized he didn’t make it quite big enough. Or he needs to make a second one.
Back in Carlisle, we had many chances to sniff and see horses. Every trip to the vets in Concord we would drive past a horse farm on Monument drive and some other houses with one or two hanging out in their yards – and with the windows partly down we (especially me) got super excited to breathe in their intense odors.
Then there was a house in our neighborhood that we walked by once or twice that had mini horses which were about our size! How weird is that?
But our most common routine was to walk down to Skelton Road where there were often four horses hanging out in their humongous backyard – and more often a wee Corgi in the side yard…he was Zoe’s BFF.
One of the last times we visited there before we left for CA, all four of the horses came over to the fence right near us which was very exciting. It was if they were saying hello and we were well behaved … if I don’t say so myself.
Seeing them just wandering around their space was something I could deal with and actually enjoyed quite a bit. HOWEVER, there was one time we were driving down their street and they all weren’t behind their fence but one was right there in the road in front of our car. And that isn’t the worst part. This particular horse had captured a child and was carrying it away on it’s back! I lost it. I was so concerned for the kid, even though they were wearing a helmet, that I commanded Dad to stop driving and let me rescue her. But he just kept driving and it took me a good mile or two before I started to calm down.
So, on our second trip to the Windy Hill, you can imagine how we reacted on the way up when we saw another horse absconding with another young woman! Zoe made a short video with some of the action (see below) but most of our reaction went undocumented as the iPhone was a bit inaccessible as all hands were on deck to control the two of us.
After picking up the phone we continued on up the hill. Even after a turn or two we were still amped and looking behind us. Then in front of us were a couple of dogs with their parents. We were put on “short” leashes since no one was sure how we would react to another challenge in the state we were at that point in time.
Mom warned their pack about how we were wound up and may not behave. They said they heard the racket we had made and was wondering what caused such a commotion…to which my parents said: Horseback. I guess we made an impression on the entire mountain…
I tried a new version of Winded Hill since something went wrong yesterday. Since the title was similar, you may not get an email letting you know that a new version – with more than just a title, is now available here:
“GRRRR.” That was me growling this morning when I found out the only part of my blog to post yesterday was the title. That Mom. Everytime she pushes the “Publish” button something goes wrong. I have cut her off from the button!
Fortunately, it was all still on our laptop – everything I had The Scribe write down. He decided to try and republishing it before copying it into Word (rookie mistake) and naturally it all disappeared into the non-retrievable ether.
“GRRRR! GRRRRR!” 🤬
Sorry for any confusion out there and now I’ll try and remember the entire story I thought I had told yesterday.
Winded Hill… Redux
One of the things that greatly excited Zoe and I when we were told we were moving to California was all the trails around our new place…and that the weather is almost always conducive to take strolls through the mountains. Once here, we discovered a lot of them were off limits to dogs?!?!?!?!?! Not sure what that is all about but it is indeed a fact. Even “The Dish”, a popular place on Stanford’s campus, has this stupid rule – and we had heard such good things about these trails.
The aptly named open area: The Dish
Luckily, there are still plenty of trails we are allowed – if leashed – and even some off leash dog parks, which for some reason we have yet to visit (?). Our first outing was to the “Windy Hill Open Space Preserve” which is just a short car ride away from our house.
Note the couple of insets with “No dogs beyond this point”, “No dogs south of this point”
When we arrived, we had the good fortune to get a parking spot in the lot at the trail head. After piling out of the car – which may have involved some pushing and shoving on Zoe and my part which may have resulted in some scratches on one or both of our parents – we saw a lot of other people (and some dogs) preparing for their stroll along these trails. A number of them even had backpacks, water bottles, ski poles, etc. which we thought was exceptionally odd. But then I remembered we are in California. So with no more thoughts about these peculiarities, we headed out of the parking lot and into the woods.
Turns out the natives knew something we didn’t – this stroll was more of a trek than we (Dad) had anticipated. So after many miles and more steep hills than I could keep track of, we stopped to “look at the view.” This is a phrase I’ve heard often on walks in the mountains of New Mexico and is usually accompanied by lots of huffing and puffing from our parents who would also be sweating – a strange thing people do when exerting themselves. Even though it is not something Zoe or I do, it isn’t their worst behavior as it usually produces a salty residue on their skin which I love licking off – who doesn’t love salt!?!
While we were enjoying the view, Dad pulled out his phone and opened the app “My Altitude” on his phone. Turns out we had already climbed about 1000 feet up but still had 400 feet or so more to get to the summit.
The altitude on the left is from our new neighborhood. The second one is from the parking lot and the last one is where we were currently stopped. If you look back at the map of the park, the top of old Windy Hill is 1905 feet above sea level.
From where we stopped, if we turned around we could see where we had to go and it looked like it was still a ways off.
So a decision was made to turn around and go back to our car since the only water that was available to us was mud puddles – which we never mind but this didn’t appear to appeal to our parents. And recently our parents saw this ad about the fact that puppy hydration is very important which they claimed to have already been aware of…so why no water folks? Is what I thought.
Despite our parents bailing out on this walk for “our sake” they promised we’d be back soon. And in fact, the very next weekend we went back (with water) and made it to the summit! Of course we had some adventures on the way up but I’m going to save that story for next time and hopefully this version of Winded Hill #1 publishes…hint, hint Dad, save a draft and also save it into Word! 😉 (and don’t let Mom publish!).
Since we moved, our lunchtime routine has changed slightly. We still have to wait 15 minutes from the time the Zozymes are added to Zoe’s food and we still go for a walk for them to activate, but upon return I no longer have to do infield practice. Instead, kibble is dispersed throughout the house and I am off on a scavenger hunt while Zoe plows through her lunch – which once she finishes she joins me in the Easter Egg (kibble) hunt.
Another new bit is the little “Dance” Zoe does when we return from our stroll as is shown in the first of her films in quite a long time. In fact, I’ve been waiting for her to produce a film from our summer trip to New Mexico for … what is it… 7 months…so that I could write a story of our time in Ogalaga Nebraska.
But she came through today with a Zoe Short probably because she is not only the Director and Editor, but also the sole Star of the movie. What a temper tantrum!
Montana Moments 