Yesterday

Crossfire Tumblin Tumbleweed, JH, CD, JH, CGC

Tweed the Skijor Dog

Yesterday, Tweed and Scott took a walk down to the neighbor’s house and back.  Tweed was happy to be out and about with his man.  Not too many yesterdays ago, Tweed took himself for a walk, as he liked to do, causing us to drop everything and go looking for him.  I think he was looking for birds.

Just five years ago, Tweed led Sally’s first litter of puppies through the forest near the Boundary Waters, giving them pointers on how to make life interesting for their humans.  I’m sure he told them how humans found it exciting to watch them run away, with no care in the world, while said humans chased after them shouting incoherent words which may or may not be fit for polite society.  

Tweed the Reader

Fourteen years ago, Tweed taught me the importance of a good recall and the danger of grabbing the cord on a flexi leash without wearing gloves.  Months before that, he was playing on the trampoline, with Alice and Wayne Guthrie’s kids, at Crossfire IRWSs.  

In August of 2000, I drove north from SE Kansas across Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan just to visit with a couple of breeders, one of whom happened to have a puppy available.  I had no serious intention of actually buying the dog—I just wanted to meet the breed face to face.  As many people will attest, though, who couldn’t love Tweed?  I bought the largest crate that would fit on the passenger seat of my little truck and squeezed the four month old Tweed inside.  

Tweed on the NorthFace

Tweed loved everyone and enjoyed every place that he stayed, provided there was a warm bed for him to sleep on.  In the house he liked to be in front of the fireplace.  While camping he preferred to use Scott’s down NorthFace jacket.  

He was the best eater.  Nearly anything we offered him was eaten happily.  He wasn’t very fond of celery, even with peanut butter, but he loved tomatoes and liked to pick his own cherry tomatoes from the plants we bought just for him.  He even picked his own raspberries without being poked by the thorns.  

It is thanks to Tweed and Ciaran, who went before him, that I learned to hunt, took up mushing, and have the beautiful Sally, Dora, and Shady and the handsome Declan and Lichen. 

Yesterday, Tweed and Scott took a walk down the road together.  This morning we accepted that it was time for him to leave by himself.  It was with aching hearts that we drove him to the only place he ever thought to avoid.  

29 March 2000 - 20 December 2014

May the shamrocks fall softly, my friend.  You will be sorely missed.

Yearling Stacks

Lichen Head

The babies are a little over a year old now, and it is long past time for us to have new stack photos.  So, here they are:

Lichen Stack

Lichen Front

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shady Front

Shady Stack

 

Tucker Stack

Tucker Front

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wylie Front

Wylie Stack

Sally's Birthday Hunt

The Birthday Girl

This post is a bit late, but Sally insists I do it, anyway, as we had such a lovely time together.

On Wednesday, 12 December, I took the day off from work to spend the entire time hunting with Sally.  Instead, I spent half the day getting my shoulder looked at and x-rayed and some of it buying dog food.

Split Tree With Core Exposed

Sally and I finally hit the trail in the afternoon and enjoyed a three mile hike.  We only encountered three birds, none of which provided me with a shot.  We were approaching an intersecting trail when Sally slammed to a halt on the left side of the trail.  She was pointing slightly back in my direction, so I left the trail well in front of her and looked for any movement.  Nothing.  I looked at my dog.  No movement.  She was solid.  I started working closer.  When I got closer than she usually points them, I heard the bird flush from her far side.  Darn.  That bird was pretty stealthy to not have alerted Sally to its movement.

Broken Tree Growing Toward the Sky

The next bird was my find.  I hadn't noticed many tracks and started paying more attention to the snow.  I became quite excited--birdy?--on discovering a beautiful line of partridge tracks crossing from right to left.  I began following them and, just as I began moving to avoid running into a rather large tree, the bird left said tree in a thunder of noise!  It had, I believe, been perched at about head-height, observing my blundering progress and well aware of the dog's distance from us. 

Woodpecker Work

The Trail to Adventure

As with any good handler, Sally did not get upset with me for mismanaging the bird.  She did decline to believe me when I told her where I thought it might be, but otherwise she gave me lavish wags and a few licks on the hand.  Then she went off in search of another bird.  The only other bird I heard flushed very far away from us.  We had a lovely time, regardless. 

18 Week Stacks

I know, I know--These should have been posted on 6 October, when they were taken.  They are better than the 26-week stacks. The puppies are shown right after a bath and blow dry.  I notice Tucker and Wylie are wearing collars.  Oops. 

Digger

Shady

Lichen

Tucker

Wylie

Puppies at Thirteen Weeks

The cutie pies are growing fast!  Here are their latest "formal" photos, in birth order.

Boy 1: 

Boy 1 -- Front

Boy 1 -- Left

Boy 1 -- Right

Boy 1 -- Free!

Girl 2 (Shady):

Shady -- Front

Shady -- Left

Shady -- Right

Shady -- Head

 Boy 3 (Lichen):

Lichen -- Front

Lichen -- Right

Lichen -- Face

Lichen -- Face

Boy 4 (Tucker):

Tucker -- Front

Tucker -- Left

Tucker -- Right

Boy 5:

Boy 5 -- Front

Boy 5 -- Left

Boy 5 -- Right

Boy 5's Hideout

Exploring the Back Forty With the Dogs

Pursuant to our goal of having a short mountain bike trail out back somewhere, I hooked Declan, Dora, and Sally up to the rig this afternoon and went for a ride.  It officially took us about an hour and a half to go 7.6 miles.  The reality was more like three hours, once the time without using Endomondo is taken into account. 

Muck!

We followed the forest road that leaves Colombe a couple miles north of home.  It took about half an hour to get to the end of the trail, or to go three miles.  The hope was to find a route back out to the road.  We didn't.  What we did find was a nice mud hole and a grassy clearing. 

Sally Grazing. Dora Waiting.  Declan Resigned.

On the way back, I marked the trails that appear to go in the direction of home on the GPS.  Failing a route to the road, it would be fun to find a route to the house.  The dogs were very patient, for the most part, though their patience did have a limit.  

Dogs Waiting for Me to Mark the Trail.

Trail to Adventure.

Back near the start of the forest road, there was a smallish grassy trail that I wanted to peak around the corner of.  I parked the dogs and told them to stay.  They aren't very obedient:  I hadn't gotten very far down the trail before I heard the rig tip over as they tried to follow me.  Being pretty easy to convince, I righted the rig and had them pull me down the trail.  Hmm.  I thought visible ruts were scary!  I had no idea what was under the grass as they went tearing down the trail in front of me.  We bent the bracket holding the flag, so that was tickling my head as the ruts, rocks, and rotting logs tried to bounce me off the platform. 

Someone drove down the forest road in a truck while we were off on that little jaunt.  They had gone back the other way by the time we got back on the forest road.  We found them parked in the middle of the trail and out in the trees taking down a tree stand.  They were pretty surprised to be passed by a little team of dogs.

There was a steady rain during most of our outing.  It was nice, as it kept us all cool until we got home, at which point it felt pretty darned chilly!  There was a LOT of scat out there.  I know I saw wolf, because it was huge.  Since being told there are cougars in the area, I nearly convinced myself that I saw some cat scat, but there was no associated litter box and kitty litter, so I'm not at all sure of that one.  I can only say this:  I sure hope that wasn't what I saw!  I saw something that could have been from a bear, but I was really moving to fast to accurately identify anything other than the wolf scat.  Birds were heard but not seen, and none of them were grouse.  I've seen very few grouse this spring.  Oh, well.

Happy Trails!

--Susan