Lemon Tree Tales

Road Trip to Oregon

A couple weeks ago we packed up the dogs and took a road trip to Redmond, Oregon. It was nice to get away for a few days so that we could meet up with the dogs' breeder and other friends. This time we planned ahead and signed up both Fearghus and Fiona for lure coursing. The day that we tried it was hot, super hot. 100 degrees and higher. 

Lure coursing is basically a for fun only AKC event. Three white plastic garbage bags are tied to a cable line that is run through a motorized pulley system. If it goes well then the dog is supposed to chase alongside the bags until the end. A new friend, who owns Fiona's littermate Derby (who's also Frankie's dad) took this video of Fiona's turn. You'll want to have the volume on for the full effect. She screamed like a banshee the entire time that she was running.

 

#fiona the #cairnterriers tried out #lurecoursing for the first time. She was very fast! The temps were hot 100 degrees so they shortened the course from 300' to 200'. Fiona was ready to keep going. Fearghus also did it but we didn't get video of his turn. Of course that means that we also don't have a record of him running away three times! The last time he was in a crate and broke it open when he heard the lures going.

A video posted by Tami Levin (@lemontreetami) on Jun 27, 2015 at 10:29pm PDT

Fearghus also did well until it came time to retrieving him. He took it upon himself to go walk-about. Now this is set in an open field on a grass field at the fairgrounds. After merrily leading me on a chase he came back to Steve. I ran back and had my hand on his collar trying to attach the leash. Of course the next dog's turn came and Fearghus slipped my grasp and took off running. Finally we got him back. This time we put him in Fiona's dog crate while I sat down and tried to catch my breath. Remember that it was 100+ degrees, right? 

As I'm sitting there they ran the lure course again and all of a sudden everyone's yelling that there's a dog loose. I look up and say "Oh, it's a cairn." Then I happen to look down and see the open door on the crate. "Oh no, it's Fearghus!" I handed off Fiona to the closest person and then jumped up to catch him for the third time. Of course I'm beyond embarrassed at this point. Luckily I caught him and promptly took him to Steve to hold in the air conditioned car .. with windows up and locks engaged. There would be no fourth Houdini act.

The following morning we took Fiona to try out the Barn Hunt. That was fun. This was another just for fun event. The area is fenced off and had hay bales making little areas. There are three perforated tubes "hidden" among the hay bales. One is empty, a second has rat bedding in it and the third one has a live rat in it. (I was told by the organizer of the event that all the rats had a frozen teething ring in its tube to keep them cool.) Your dog has to determine which tube has the live rat in it. And you, as the handler, have to know when your dog has made that determination and signal the judge. Of course Fiona found the rat right away but I wasn't sure so I had her take a second look at the other tubes before I was sure and yelled "Rat!" We managed to do it just under the 1 minute time limit. That was fun and we'll definitely look up more Barn Hunt events in the future. After all, terriers are bred for hunting vermin. Fiona only wishes that she were allowed to actually chase and kill the rat like she occasionally does in our backyard.

A mossy tree at a nearby rest stop. I thought the colors were pretty.

Redmond's very interesting statue. Apparently the area near Redmond and Bend is a big tourist attraction. People fly into the local airport so that they can go fishing, hunting or skiing in the winter. We did see how crowded the towns can get. Luckily we were staying in the RV park at the fairgrounds and didn't have to deal with local traffic too much. It is a beautiful piece of country .. high desert. Hopefully the next time it won't be quite as hot.

We did enjoy the cairn terrier gathering at a friend's house. They are semi-retired breeders who host a large potluck every year. This time we had about 30 cairn terriers there. Most of them were related to each other. We played with Frankie's dad and saw two of his brothers from other litters. Fearghus and Frankie had a lot of fun but poor Fiona is the smallest terrier so she's a bit shy with other dogs. She slipped through the wood slats on the deck so that she could stay next to me and all the other humans.

All in all it was a delightful get-away and we look forward to doing it again next year.

Welcome to California ... again

It was a very welcome sight to see this sign on the I-80 just past Reno. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Once we decided to move back to California from Wyoming we went into high gear. We loaded up the cars with 97% of my studio and drove to Sunnyvale for a couple days. Then we drove down to LA for a day to visit some family members. Then a quick drive back to WY to complete our packing. While we were gone we missed a spring snowstorm and 10 or 11" of snow. Yay!

Originally we weren't supposed to leave WY until this week, but the timing seemed right to leave this past week. I set an appointment with the Cheyenne Meals on Wheels to come and take away our furniture. I also did about three or four car loads of stuff and put them in the RV and cleaned up the rental house. After meeting my friend for breakfast on Thursday morning to say goodbye, Steve and I plus doggies drove all the way to Wendover, NV. We just couldn't drive anymore and stopped for the night. The next day we were up with the crows and hit the road. After another very long day of driving we pulled in front of our house in Sunnyvale late Friday night. It was good to be back home again.

Just a few minutes ago we finally unloaded the last of the belongings from the RV. It'll take me all this week to clean up the house and reorganize everything but we're happy to be back in the CA sunshine. There's no place like home.

Snow Sculptures at Breckenridge CO

A couple weekends ago Steve and I (and doggies too!) decided to get up and make the 3-hour drive to Breckenridge, CO so that we could see the International Snow Sculpture Festival of 2014. The weather wasn't too cold, around 30 degrees. The hardest thing was finding parking in the little ski village. Luckily we spotted a family leaving after a day of skiing. They even sold us the use of their all-day parking pass. Score!

The snow sculptures were outside near a park at the river walk so we got the dogs in their harnesses and leashes and off we went. It turned out to be very crowded and I was concerned that no one could see the little dogs. I ended up picking up Fiona and snapped a few pictures. The sculptures were pretty amazing but I'm afraid that they didn't expect such high temps because a few of them were showing signs of melting.

 

Wanderer by Team USA

Winter Fun by Team USA (doesn't the dog look like a cairn terrier?)

 

The Dark Side of the Moon by Team France? (a nod to the film work of Georges Melies as featured in the movie Hugo)

 

Steve was kind enough to hold both of the dogs while I went through the Ice Castle. I don't think they allowed dogs and I don't blame them. It was very crowded in very tight quarters but oh so worth seeing. Apparently they "grow" between 3000 to 5000 icicles every night for the show's duration. At night they light up the LEDs that are buried in the ice. That must have been a sight to behold. Enjoy the few pics that I took during the daytime.

 

 

There was also a tunnel that you could crawl through but I opted not to try that out. The few people who did it came out the other side completely soaked from crawling on the snow covered ground.

Since we had a long drive we decided against staying in town for lunch. Plus it didn't look like there would be a good place to eat while having the dogs with us. Next time if we plan ahead we can take the dogs to daycare so that they'll be watched while we enjoy the day. But we just hate leaving them home alone for such a long day without walking breaks.

Breckenridge itself looked like an adorable ski village with lots of quaint shops on the main street. Beautiful! We saw people kite skiing along the frozen lake as we exited town. It looked like a lot of fun. So if you ever find yourself in this part of the world next year, I'd highly recommend checking out the Snow Sculpture festival. If you go the week before we did you'll get to see the artists as they make the sculptures. It's all free to the public.

Trip to Cody WY

Last weekend we took a quick spur of the moment road trip to Cody, WY just to get away. It's a good long five hour drive but the dogs are good travelers and end up napping most of the time in their crates. We stayed at The Cody hotel which is near the stadium for the annual rodeo and stampede that they have in July/August. Even though we knew the Yellowstone East entrance was closed we went ahead and headed that way. It's a good thing that we did because we saw some beautiful scenery along the 45 minute drive.

Never knew that Bob's Big Boy was stationed in the middle of the countryside.

 

Some unusual rock formations ... aren't they gorgeous?

 

There were three young buffalo bulls outside Yellowstone. Large, very large creatures. Here's one of them that we took pictures of from the safety of the car.

 

Then we saw a herd of big horn mountain sheep ... I didn't get a good picture of the bigger ram that was by himself but here are two of the smaller bucks. (Do you call young rams bucks or is that only for deer?)

 

 

Even though the East Yellowstone gate was closed we parked so that we could let the dogs play in the snow. It's a good thing that we brought our wellies with us. Lots of fun but soon Fiona got too cold. Poor thing has hardly any undercoat. We spent a good ten minutes in the car with the heater on before heading out again.

 

My two favorite boys, Steve and Fearghus (who was raring to go back out in the snow ... he's more insulated than Fiona.) Excuse the funny haircut on Fearghus .. the last time we got him stripped the groomer did a little schnauzer look on him instead of a cairn stripping.

And here's Fiona after much shivering .. part of it was probably the excitement of being on a trip.

 

Meanwhile back in Cody, the morning that we left we saw a few deer in the hills next to the parking lot.

 

We took a differnt route back home so that we could drive through the Big Horn Mountains in the daylight. At the beginning were the old beef trails that cowboys would drive the cattle along. Glad we were in the car and not the RV because the roads were a bit icy and covered with snow in spots, along with steep hills.

 

Ah, I forgot to mention that I visited the quilt shop in Cody, Friends & Co. which has a lot of fabric and the world's nicest clerk. I was too overwhelmed to pick out any fabric but I did get a big 60 degree triangle ruler and a booklet on triangle quilts made from strips. All in all it was a fun road trip and lovely to see more of the beauty of the state of Wyoming.

Zion National Park

We took a detour on the way back home through Zion National Park a few weeks ago. It was well worth the time spent looking at the gorgeous mountains. The roads would have been too tight for the RV so it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. We had the dogs in the car so we didn't get on the free shuttle that tours the side canyons but what we did see was amazing. Lovely colors and the textures on the mountains were unusual ... definitely inspiration for quilting patterns.

 

 

 

 

If you ever have the chance go and see Zion National Park. The colors are divine.

Bird City KS Antique Tractor and Engine Show

Last weekend Steve and I took the dogs and RVed to Bird City, KS to meet up with his brother and father at the Antique Tractor and Engine Show. My BIL is in charge of getting a 1909 Avery steam powered engine tractor up and running for the show. He and my FIL worked all through the night fixing it up since it sits all year in an outbuilding just waiting for this one weekend every year. It was pretty amazing to see.

The Levin men in front of the 1909 Avery

 

I loved the bulldog mascot on the front of the engine:

 

My BIL stoking the engine. Apparently it has to have wood burning to get the engine hot enough to burn the coal.

 

During the tractor pull Steve helped my BIL drive it. The engine is so tall that you need one person on each side of it to see ahead. Of course one drawback to a steam engine is that the drivers get coated in coal dust. Steve's hat will never be quite as clean as it once was.

 

The Levin family riding the Avery (I jumped on after they finished the tractor pull ... it was a bouncy ride)

 

We saw a steam powered calliope during the parade, pulled by a John Deere tractor:

 

Sometimes you just need more power ... a double engined tractor:

 

And my favorite tractor of the show simply because it was small and turquoise:

 

There were lots of activities ... a demonstration of a tractor powered sawmill (quite dangerous since it was an open saw blade, not OSHA compliant that's for sure), a museum of antiques, a quilt exhibit (pics later), tractor pulls complete with a sled that the audience were encouraged to jump on to add weight to the tractors, a horse drawn stagecoach, and of course the company of family (our niece and her boyfriend drove in the same day that we did). As always that was the best part. The dogs weren't as thrilled since they couldn't run around. Fiona did catch a frog and tried to shake it and eat it. Apparently the frog must have tasted funny because she spit it out and stuck her tongue out.

We stayed one night and left the next evening. It was only a six hour drive in the RV and definitely worth checking it out. My BIL and FIL have been going for years and I've heard about it for a long time. If you're ever in the area you should make a detour and marvel at what farmers drove throughout the decades.

Lake Minatare Nebraska

A few weekends ago Steve and I took the dogs with us for a drive to Nebraska. We were wandering around and found a beautiful lake near Scottsbluff, NE which is less than two hours away. Lake Minatare was beautiful and had lots of RV parking spaces so it may end up being a good weekend trip destination for us. Dogs were allowed on the beach and lake so we took Fearghus and Fiona in for a little dip. They weren't liking it as much as they've enjoyed chasing the waves at Pismo Beach, CA in the past. Maybe if we went in the water they'd go in as well? Or perhaps it just was that there were no seagulls or ducks to chase. Yes, I think that was the problem ... they need some prey to hunt.

There's a lighthouse, purely a fantasy building but nice nonetheless.

 

It looks like no one was around in this picture, but I just got very lucky in my timing and didn't catch any of the jet skiers in the shot.

 

And finally a quick snapshot of my little family, Steve with our cairn terriers, Fearghus and Fiona.

 

It was a hot day and we were in our car, not the RV, so we didn't stay for a long time. Next time we'll bring the RV and camp out for a day or two. We did check out a couple quilt shops along the way and stopped for a classic car show (but they didn't allow dogs so we only parked and looked at a couple cars in the parking lot before heading on the road again). Day trips are very nice to do.

Asilomar

Yesterday I came back home from a week at the Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar. Before I show you all of the good things from class I wanted to share some photos of Asilomar's beauty. Asilomar, a name created from the Spanish words "asilo" or refuge and "mar" or sea so that it roughly means the Refuge by the Sea. It is definitely that, no tvs or telephones in your rooms to distract you (unless of course you whip out your smartphone or Kindle), lots of gorgeous scenery and the fresh ocean air. The history of Asilomar can be found here at the official site, but in a nutshell it was started as a concept in 1897 by the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) as a conference center for teaching women life and career skills. Phoebe Apperson Hearst (mother of William Randolph Hearst, famous for his yellow journalism, fictional star of Citizen Kane and of course Hearst Castle if you're from California) and a few other successful women founded Asilomar and broke ground in 1913. Now quite a few of the important buildings on the campus are named for these women.

Trees are everywhere on the campus grounds but sadly a few years ago a blight left only skeletal remains of the once stately pines. The park rangers have replanted little saplings that are protected by plastic sleeves but so far the Monterey Cypress are good.

Tree arch from the oceanside boardwalk

View of trees from the road near Longview, the bungalow style lodging buildings

Another view from Middle Longview, near my window

They have to protect the saplings from the many deer that are roaming the grounds. These ones were near the path to our classroom in Toyon. (All classrooms and buildings have names.)

I didn't zoom in for this shot, I was this close to the deer.

There are more wildlife at Asilomar. Luckily I didn't see any mountain lions but that may have had something to do with not getting up and out at dawn when they like to hunt. I did see some lovely bluejays but didn't have my camera ready. And then there was this little guy that I happened to see on the steps at Phoebe Hall (the building with cafe, registration, and a gorgeous fireplace and comfy sofas and chairs all in the craftsman style).

I only made time to walk to the beach twice. The second time was yesterday morning but it was drizzling a bit so all the photos are a bit overcast, still beautiful.

The outside of our little classroom, Toyon. It was just barely big enough for all fifteen of us students plus Jill Schumacher, our teacher. Fortunately we were told to bring our own lights to class because it wasn't very well lit. I was fortunate that my lodging was just steps away up the hill. Some of the other students were housed across campus and a few were housed upstairs in the same building.

And the students who took Lonni Rossi's dye workshop were housed in the gorgeous Chapel, but it really didn't have modern lighting. You can't see it very well in this photo but there are words carved in the space under the windows. Gorgeous building.

I didn't take a picture of the luckiest students who were housed in a room called Sand & Surf which was all glass windows and an oceanview. Hmm, perhaps I would have stared outside for part of the classtime.

One evening before walking down to dinner I had to pause and enjoy the stunning sunset. I recovered just in time to snap a picture. This is the view from the walkway in front of my room's window in the Middle Longview building.

If you ever have an opportunity, spend a day walking around, or spend a night there. It's truly magnificent.

Yellowstone

Okay I'm finally posting a few pictures that I took at Yellowstone Park a month ago. My camera was starting to die at the time so the pictures just don't compare to the majestic reality that is Yellowstone. We were only there for a few hours as we made our way home, but all I can say is that you can feel the hand of God everywhere you looked there.

We drove through the Grand Teton National Park and then on to the southern gate to Yellowstone. I guess since it was summertime lots of crews were out to do road work. We just wish that they had warned us that there was no road, just dirt and sometimes rocks. Steve took it slowly as we followed the line of vehicles behind the chase car. Now when we see road work ahead signs we call out "Paved, or unpaved?"

Onwards to Yellowstone, the first thing we ran across was some snow. Since this was the absolute first time that Fearghus had seen it we had to stop by a turnout for a few minutes. We also looked down at a beautiful canyon.

And a sideways video of Fearghus dancing and rolling around in the snow.

 

Once we did that we continued on, just soaking in the beauty of the trees and scenery. We stopped at the center for Old Faithful. It's a very large complex, huge parking lot, a visitor's center, shop, gas station!, clinic and a lovely hotel. The altitude was high, 9000 or more feet, but fortunately the two weeks prior in Cheyenne's 6500 foot altitude gave us enough time to adjust to it so we had no problems at all. We saw other dogs so we got out Fearghus and walked to the benches in front of Old Faithful. This may not be the largest geyser in Yellowstone but it is the most regular one, thus the moniker. Of course the park adds a small leeway when they post the next burst. We sat and waited for quite awhile. It began to lightly snow. Fearghus had no problems with that but the uprights began to get a bit chilly. The clouds had a race and continued to hide and reveal the sun at intervals. When the geyser began it was worth it and the crowd oohed and aahed as one.

I won't post the video I took, yet another sideways video, because there are much better ones on the net. I really have to remember that I have to hold the camera horizontally for videos. LOL 

It was starting to get a little late and we wanted to make it out to the west gate so that we could stay at the campground there. As we left the complex we saw smoke ahead and then the mists cleared and there were people standing on a bridge off to the side of the road. Well we had to stop for that. It turns out that it was for the geyser pools. Oh, I truly wish that you could have been there for that. The temperature was cold and the wind was blowing so that every few feet on the boardwalk you'd get blasted by all this mist. But the mist was very warm from the pools so you'd be enveloped in warmth even though you were blinded. The pools would be partially revealed every time the wind blew. We'd see little bits of rainbow color that were the blankets of bacteria and microbial mats - life! The large hot spring pool, named the Grand Prismatic Spring, gave us hints of its beauty but we couldn't see more than peeks in between the mists. It turns out that is the largest hot spring in the park. Oh my, it was a sight to behold and the experience of walking in those warm, hot mists was breathtaking.

After that experience I didn't think that the disappearing day could get better but I was wrong. Just up the road we saw cars stopped at the side of both sides of the road. I glanced out the side window and had Steve stop the RV. When I jumped out I saw a large herd of bison, maybe 100 head or so. The bulls were very large and the calves were so red and lively, jumping around their mamas.

And when we started up the road again a much smaller herd was taking its time crossing the road. When you see a big bull in front of you, well he's the boss and gets to go as slowly as he wishes. It didn't take too long, about fifteen minutes, and then we were on our way out of the park and towards our campground for the night. It was snowing when we arrived and the next morning too. It all was magical, almost like Yellowstone knew that we didn't have days to spend there and wanted to give us a show in a short period of time. I'm thankful to President Grant for having the wisdom to set aside this land as a national park (the first one of its kind in the US and widely held to be the first in the world), a land that's protected for generations to come. We didn't see them, but the wolves that were re-introduced to the park in the 1980's are doing well and along with the bears (grizzly and black) and the coyotes are the natural predators of the herding animals of the park, the bison, elk, deer and sheep. As you may tell, I was smitten by this land and highly recommend that everyone take a trip there if you can.

Snow in July

Our trip to Bend, OR to visit the puppies was a lot of fun. So much fun was had that I forgot to snap pictures of everything. I did manage to snap one of the puppy that was our favorite. Here she is with Steve.

All the puppies were adorable and wanted attention, but this little girl was attracted to Steve. Every time he moved to the other side of the ex-pen she hopped to his side and wanted to be picked up. She liked to be held. The other puppies didn't want to be held very long at all. We'll know for sure later this week whether she's ours, but the breeder is pretty sure that she will be our new Fiona. She's the one with the green collar. We won't be able to get her until August since she only turned 7 weeks old on Monday.

The rest of the weekend went well. We saw some of the cairns competing in the show ring and a few were competing at the lure course. That's where a dog is released to chase a set of three white plastic bags tied to a motorized lead. That was very entertaining to watch. There was one border collie who only wanted to chase the bags for a bit and then started to run around in circles. It was his first time and he lost interest in it.

We met lots of nice people who belong to the Columbia River Valley cairn terrier club. Plus we met the earlier puppy who we couldn't have, Brook. She is a beauty and definitely looks like she'll be a showdog in another few months. Fearghus played with her and a dozen other cairns in someone's backyard on Friday night. It was funny but Fearghus would growl at Brook if I petted her. He had no problems with the other dogs being petted but had a problem with her. Of course Brook had the same problem if I bent down to pet Fearghus. Too funny. Hopefully he doesn't do this with Fiona when she comes home. Fearghus' uncle was also there and we met the people who whelped Fearghus' mother. They even had a puppy scrapbook of her - Fearghus looked just like her when he was a puppy down to the same belly stripe. I guess that definitely means that by the time Fearghus is 6 years old he'll be a dark steel grey color like his mother.

On the way back home we decided to drive through Crater Lake. The last time we were there was almost exactly 11 years ago. This time was a bit different. There was snow! Yes, snow in July and lots of it! We had to stop at the side of the road so that Fearghus could play in it. He first got to see some a few weeks earlier on our trip through Yellowstone Park (oops, I still need to post pictures from there).

 

 

As you can see in the video Fearghus is having a blast. After the snow break we drove a bit higher up until we came to a vista for Crater Lake itself. It's gorgeous!

I love how blue the water looks with the reflection of the sky.

There were quite a few people who ignored the little stone wall to step on the ground and the snow to get closer for pictures. I can't believe they did that since most of that snow wasn't directly on the ground but was many feet of snow. It's prime avalanche season so they were taking a big risk. Here's a picture of the many chipmunks waiting to be fed and in the background you can see some of the deep snow.

 

As if that scenery wasn't spectacular enough, further down the road we saw the beautiful Mt. Shasta covered in snow.

 

We got back home last night, just in time to relax today for the 4th of July. I hope you enjoyed yours as well.