Category: barclay

Cute and fuzzy

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, mouse, petsLeave a comment

 My camera does a terrible job in low light situations. It’s happy to flash and give it a shot, but the results are usually blurry. These pictures are cute anyway…

Barclay often plays hard until he is what we call ‘stupid-tired’, where he’s tired, but he just won’t lay down and take a nap so he keeps running around doing destructive stuff, barking, and being annoying until I lift him up on my lap, and he’ll just flop over against my chest like this. That seems to throw a switch, because after a few minutes I can set him down and he’ll flop over for a nap. I swear he’s ADD.

Then later he was napping in the living room when Mouse came up to him…

And gave him a little face-bath. Aww, how cute! Considering he likes to pounce on her and drag her around by the scruff, they seem to have a special relationship. They just like to play rough!

Houseguest – Dioji

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, pets1 Comment

Our friends Brian and Merilee had a family thing to go to this week, and Dioji the Golden Retriever needed a place to crash, so we said ‘bring him on over!’ He’s a sweetie, and since all the dogs are friendly (except Alki, who sends out bug-off vibes just fine) we figured they could have fun playing together. Seems to be working out fine so far 🙂




Barclay likes to chase and be chased, and wrestling. Dioji wasn’t sure how to play with him, and he even scared Barclay a couple times by barking at him (sending him running back to me until he felt brave enough to go play again). But Jack and Barclay gave him a demonstration of their favorite play style. You can see him studying them intently! And they had a couple scuffles over toys. They’re like teenage boys – one minute they are partners in crime, next thing you know someone is howling because they got punched. But overall it’s been great and everyone seems to be having a good time.

Walk around Battle Ground Lake

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, hiking, petsLeave a comment

I took Barclay for a walk around the lake on Tuesday. I wanted to go somewhere cool and shady where he could jump in the water if he wanted to. That was the perfect place to go! But there were a lot of people there, even for a Tuesday. Luckily most of them were in the wading area, and so we only ran into a couple groups on the lake trail. One couple looked like they were on an expedition, and they were from out of town so we chatted for a bit, talked about what other stuff there was to see in the area. It’s funny to see people outfitted for a long hike on the lake trail, because it’s really just a stroll, and it’s less than a mile total. Though sometimes I have gone with a full backpack just to get in shape for carrying my pack. So I suppose then I look silly too 🙂


It’s hard to get Barclay to sit still for a picture – he wants to go go go! There’s so much to see!
Like baby ducks!

We stopped and waded around in the water a bit here and there. I just wanted to make sure he stayed cool. He doesn’t know if he can swim yet, so I want to encourage him to play in the water whenever we get a chance. One of these days we’ll have to get him out into water where he can paddle a bit. I think he would enjoy it.

Barclay and Jack

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, pets1 Comment

Barclay and Jack were playing hard the other evening, and what great expressions they get on their faces. They look so fierce! If you didn’t know they were playing you’d think they were trying to kill each other! It’s just great to see them playing, they are best buddies 🙂




Chicken-vision

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, chickens, Copper1 Comment

Barclay watching Chicken-vision. What’s on tonight?

Barclay is frustrated by Copper’s presence in the house. He thinks Copper should be out in the yard being chased, like my other bad wandering chickens. I had Barclay trained to where he would watch a chicken walk by without chasing, but lately I have had four pesky chickens who know how to escape the orchard and go wandering the yard, and I never know when we’re going to walk out the door and find them there, and so he has gotten into the habit of chasing them again. Hopefully he’ll learn to ‘leave it’. As I work with training Copper, I’ll work on Barclay too.

This has been a busy chicken-day. After shuffling the chicks around I moved Mom and her 8 chicks into the empty tractor. Then I opened up her side of the brooder so the turkeys could have twice as much room. Of course the new side of the brooder was scary, so they all stood on their side and stared at it with long necks and big eyes, but refused to walk over there! Then we ended the evening by powdering chicken butts again. Penny still has mites, and so do two others. Everyone else looks fine. So we powdered them one more time. I might have to do it again next week. I hope they get over this soon!

Trout Lake Campout

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, petsLeave a comment

Every year our friends with Airstream trailers get together for a campout at Trout Lake. There’s no lake at Trout Lake, but there is a mountain, and a river running behind the campground. It is our top secret hideaway. I think it is paradise, the most beautiful place on Earth! Fields of grass lead up to miles of national forest land and wilderness area, all the way to the slopes of Mt Adams.

23 trailers and motorhomes gathered at camp. We weren’t going to go, but friends sent pictures of what it looked like there (we’ve been several times, so we already knew it was beautiful!) and emailed us to get our butts in the car and get up there! It’s only two hours away, and a very relaxed and pleasant drive. So we closed the store early on Sunday and drove over in time for dinner.

No point roughing it, so we hooked up the airstream and took it along. It’s nice to have a comfy bed and your own bathroom.

Barclay waded around in the water. We left Alki and Jack at home. Neither enjoys car rides anymore, and they could keep each other company.

Folks gathered around the campfire after dinner and played music until well into the night.

Hank appointed himself guardian of the marshmallows.

Dave and Barclay went to bed earlier than I did. Barclay had been playing with all the other dogs and was pretty tapped out by dark! I stayed up til 1am laughing and telling stories around the campfire.

Early in the morning Barclay had burrowed under the covers and kept our feet warm.

In the morning we packed up and hit the road home in time to open the store on Monday. Can’t wait to go back again, there’s never enough time to spend relaxing with friends around the campfire. Glad we got to escape for a little bit.