Snow Day?

Of course not! We never have snow days here.

I was going to take my new snow shoes out this afternoon, but I'm not driving up to the foothills in this mess. I will at least have to try them out in my yard. And no, I don't think that I can take a picture of myself snowshoeing.

We've had about nine inches of snow today and it has finally tapered off. Single guy hasn't been home since it snowed last Wednesday. My theory is that he has chosen to go to a motel rather than shovel his driveway. I made it all the way into my driveway, but as you can see I didn't make it to the garage.

This doesn't give you the best perspective, but this pile of snow is about 4 and a half feet tall. I say kill the groundhog!

I Have Snowshoes!

I have been keeping an eye on the classifieds for cheap snowshoes for about a year now with no luck. I was really only mildly interested in getting them until I got Shady and realized that it would be great to be able to take her up into the mountains in the snow. I was babysitting Ava today since her daycare was closed for the holiday, and we spent the whole day looking for snowshoes. We went up to Smith and Edwards, then we hit several sporting good stores in Ogden. I was hoping to find something on sale since we are nearing the end of winter (I hope), but no luck. When I was looking on Amazon this weekend I found some sort of chain webbing that you can put over your regular shoes that act like cleats on the ice, but I didn't see anything like that in the stores either. When I dropped Ava off I asked Steph if she knew where I could get something like that, since Brandon had been into the winter sports, and she said that she had a set of snowshoes that he'd given her sitting in her garage that I was welcome to have. Needless to say I am thrilled with free snowshoes. It was too late for me to try them out today, so hopefully I will be able to take them out tomorrow and then we'll see if I'm still excited about them once I've tried them.

Winter Hike

I'm tired of walking through town, so I decided to take a walk up Farmington Canyon on Friday afternoon.

I parked my car at the entrance to Farmington Pond, then Shady and I walked up the canyon for a while.

I was hoping that the gate on the bridge would be closed so we would have the road to ourselves, but my hope was in vain.

The road was plowed and we only encountered a few vehicles until we got to the point where the pavement ended. At that point the road was not plowed, and there were a bunch of people racing snowmobiles up and down the road. On our way back down the canyon we detoured on to the fire break road for a while.

Note the noble bluetick coonhound in her natural element. She was very excited about following deer tracks. I'm trying to decide what I could do to make hiking in the snow with her easier. I have some old cross country skis, and while it would be great to have her pull me up hill, I'm afraid that having her pull me down hill might be a disaster. I've been thinking about buying some snowshoes, but you all know how cheap I am. I'd like to find some at the DI, but I don't have much hope for that. Trucks had driven on the fire break road, so while the snow was packed down, it was also extremely slippery. What I really needed were cleats.

Eric recommended a head collar instead of a pinch collar to curb her pulling. It doesn't stop her from pulling, but it does take away some of her strength. When she catches a scent that she wants to follow I don't think anything could stop the pulling.

She absolutely hates the head collar, and she stops every couple of minutes to rub her face in the snow and try to get it off.

It has snowed another 5 or 6 inches today. I know we're not as bad off as Erie, but I am really getting sick of this. I hate to be cooped up in my house. It looks like the snow has tapered off now, so I guess I should go shovel my driveway for the second time today

Settling In

Shady is adjusting well to her new home. This picture shows you what happens every time I forget to close the bathroom door, but other than this she has been pretty good.


Shady and Connie Francis met on Saturday night, but we were too busy holding onto our respective puppies to get pictures of the meeting. Ava is very protective of her baby. My baby is freaking out about playing fetch, so that is all for now.

Swiper, No Swiping!

Barnes family, it is beginning to frighten me how much this animal reminds me of Copper. Everything from the shape of her body, the texture of her fur, her pleading eyes, and her desire for destruction.

She did really well while I was at church yesterday and while I was at work today. She seems to be completely potty trained now, so I don't know if she had some previous training or if she just caught on really fast. Friday night and Saturday morning she had a number of accidents, but the first time I caught her going potty outside and gave her a treat for it she seemed to catch on.

While she has done really well while I am away from home, this is what I walked in on when I got out of the shower yesterday. I'd brought down a roll of paper towels to clean up one of her accidents and I left the towels on my night stand just in case I needed them again. Apparently she had great fun shredding the roll of paper.
What I was unable to capture in a photograph is that while I was trying to clean this mess up she was leaping up onto the bed, snapping at my hands, leaping down, running in a circle, then repeating the process over and over again with a look of absolute frantic glee on her face.

Another Naughty Bluetick Hound

This is one of my favorite commercials of all time, and it is also what first made me fall in love with the bluetick hound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGppj1PdZlA

1st Trip to PetsMart

Our first trip to PetsMart was an absolute disaster. First of all, what was I thinking when I decided to take a big, unruly puppy to PetsMart on a Saturday. Between trying to drag the cart and the dog through the crowded store I lost my hold on her twice and literally tackled her both times right in front of the doors. Imagine me soaring through the air and landing on my stomach with my hands wrapped around my dog's leg not once but twice. We did provide a lot of laughs for the cashiers and the ladies who were selling cats. I can't believe I actually caught her both times. She is now the proud owner of both a nice leather collar that is too tight to slip, AND a pinch collar that she will wear whenever we go outside.