Thanks for the Birthday Treats

Thanks to my family for the birthday treats.  Grandma took me out to lunch and Denise and Jo took me out to a movie.  Mom sent me a Target gift card which I used to purchase a George Forman Grill, and Angie sent me some gluten-free brownie mix.  The brownie turned out surprisingly well.  I will remember that brand in the future.  The best surprise came from Steph and Brian.  The came over on Saturday to install a drainage system next to my retaining wall.  While I was having lunch with Grandma they also installed three new doors on my 2 upstairs bedrooms and my bathroom.  Those of you who have never seen the old plastic accordian door on my guest bedroom door can't appreciate how exciting this is for me.  The other two doors were the flat, cheap sixty year old doors that were installed when the house was built, so it was great to have them replaced as well.  I will be doing some painting this weekend to get them looking nice.

On Friday Brian brought Ava over  while he was digging a trench for my drainage system.  I took her on a little hike and we collected all of the cool rocks that we could fit in our pockets.

Here is my coonhound with her latest prize.  It appears to be the pelvic bone and part of the spine of a deer.  She was thrilled with this find, and Jef will be pleased to know that I didn't make her put it down.  She carried it for about 20 minutes before she got sick of it. 

We had our third coyote encounter today.  I tried to take a picture of it, but I only had the camera on my phone and it doesn't have a zoom feature, so you couldn't really see the coyote.  Shady is very excited about the coyote scent and she bays about it.  It was funny to watch her today because she was following her nose and she never did see the coyote, but I watched it for several minutes before it ran away.

Hmm...

I posted a blog earlier this week, and while I can see it if I click on my blog I notice that it is not showing up as a new post on my blog list. Nothing much, but I wanted to see if this would show up.

Not a Lot

I was downloading some pictures from my phone the other day and realized that I had taken pictures when we were at the horse show a few weeks ago.

Here are the adults both texting as they watch the show.

Butch and Cindy Lu enjoyed a little extra attention.

I spent some time leading Grace and Ava around on one of the horses. Ashlyn wasn't interested.

I just like this tree. If you look close at the trunk it is all broken and cracked, but it's still alive and flourishing.

The leaves in the mountain have all changed now, and they are falling like crazy. They will be bare pretty soon.

Here is my sleepy weasle lounging on the bed. She started chasing a coyote today but she came back as soon as I called to her. I was very proud. I have been worried about what would happen the first time she saw a deer, but I figure a coyote is every bit as interesting as a deer so I think we'll be okay.

If You Have a Pet You Need a FURminator!

I was talking to my dog's trainer a couple of weeks ago about shedding, and he recommended a tool called the FURminator. I've been using a regular brush on Shady but when I use it I only get a dozen or so hairs in the brush and she still sheds like crazy. I throw a sheet over my bed but after only one night of her sleeping on it it is absolutely filthy. So I went to Petco today and in a moment of reckless abandon decided to splurge on the $50 grooming tool. After one use I have to say that I am in love with the FURminator! In just a couple of minutes I had amassed this fist sized wad of fur. It would have been a bit bigger but one of us decided that it looked like something she would like to eat, so she took a big bite of it. I will be using this tool on a daily basis and hoping that I have a much cleaner house, and a much less furry bed.

At Long Last

Three and a half years ago I planted a mimosa tree in my yard. There are several of them in my neighborhood and I love the feathery pink blossoms. The first summer that I had the tree it grew from about 4 feet to about 6 feet but it didn't bloom. The next spring I waited in anticipation for it to do something but it never did. April and May passed by without any sign of it putting forth leaves and by June I admitted that it wasn't just a late bloomer, it was dead. I decided to cut the tree down before I dug up the root ball. When I unwrapped the tape at the base of the trunk I found several tiny green shoots growing out of it. I decided that since the tree was trying to live I would give it a chance. I cut it down to about 6 inches from the ground and I watched it grow. It grew really fast, about 5 or 6 feet that summer, so I was hoping that it would make it. The next spring I found that it had died down to about 3 feet, so I trimmed it back and decided to give it another chance. It grew several feet again last summer, but it never bloomed. This spring I found that it had again died back somewhat, but not nearly as much as it had in the past. Still, I was getting really irritated with the tree. I told it that it had better do something besides look weedy this year or I was done with it. Again, it has grown quite a bit this summer, but there have been no blossoms until I went out yesterday to mow the lawn and found six blossoms. Today there are nine. My poor little weedy tree is finally starting to look like a real mimosa, so I guess I will keep it around.

Fall Colors

I took my camera on my hike this evening so I could capture some of the great fall colors out there. It's amazing how much they have changed just in the last week. Nothing exciting to report. I did try to take a picture of Shady carrying a 3 foot branch in her mouth but she was always moving so fast that I couldn't get a photo to turn out. She carried that branch for about 10 minutes and she was clearly thrilled with herself.

Fernwood Trail

Shady and I hiked the Fernwood Trail in Layton this afternoon.

This is the view from the bottom of the trail.
Later we got to a spot that was burned a few years ago.

One happy coonhound enjoying the trail.

These are the tops of the mountains. We got close but we didn't quite make it all the way to the top today.

Here we are at the top looking down.

Here are a few statistics courtesy of the cool GPS unit Mom and Rick gave me.

Elevation at the trail head: 5228ft

Elevation at the point where I'd had enough: 7792ft

Total gain in elevation: 2567ft

Total miles round trip: 4.1

Trip duration 2 hrs 56 minutes