Summer in Reverse - Garin/Dry Creek Regional Park

While we didn't get a lot done around the house (a little difficult with two of us running day camps) we did go places and do things. I will hopefully remember to keep posting belated summer events and current events frequently.


The first Saturday of September, we took our dogs and went with our friend Bruce and his dogs to take a long hike up in Garin/Dry Creek Park to Jordan Pond. It ended up being a really nice three hour hike. The dogs were tiiiired afterwards. It was great! And, surprisingly, our 12-year old pitbull (Joey) recovered from the hike within an hour. We were thinking he'd be out and need pain killers for a few days. He's had a lot more energy since then, too.

We took the long way there along the creek paths, across old tiny cattle bridges. We were never sure if we went the right way to get to Jordan Pond, so when we finally got there it was like an oasis to come up on.








Jordan Pond, with the dry, golden hills surrounding it.



We started at the Whipple entrance and hiked to Jordan Pond. The next time we go without the dogs, I'd love to check out the Dry Creek Garden which looked like it had a lot of native plants to check out.

RIP Old Dog, Hello New Pup!

(in front of our old house, that we owned for our first thirteen years in California)

We ended up having to put our 12 year old dog, Chandler, down a few weeks ago. He was having a lot of hip and rear leg issues and the vet believes he'd been having mild seizures for awhile. One day, he just snapped and begun tearing up couches (he's NEVER torn up anything, he had stuffed animals for years), not being able to sleep and would pace for hours in the middle of the night while on meds that reduced his pain. After trying a change of meds for a few days, with hope the old meds were what altered his behavior, he had no change. Sometime around 3am on St. Patricks Day, a few days after his initial huge seizure/freak out, my mom took him to the emergency vet to be put down.

For several weeks, Joey (our pitbull), was without his buddy of 11 years.

After many shelter visits all over the area, we brought home Jax, a 5-month old cattledog/pointer mix.



He's incredibly smart! He housetrained himself, learned the dog door in minutes, understood sit, lay down, no and drop, and could already fetch balls and frisbees.

He LOVES to hug and cuddle and he'll lick your face if he can, loves the attacking water from the hose, loves dog parks and mud puddles...

Jax interrupted from a hug and lick attack and me hiding my face from Jax's tongue:


Dan and Jax post-lick after a "Jax Attack":


And Jax and Joey relaxing on a blanket we brought outside one day for them:


He's been home for two weeks, as of tomorrow.