Stray Dogs

On By stefrobrtsIn petsLeave a comment

Occasionally I see stray dogs, and usually I can’t help them. Mostly because it is inconvenient at that particular moment – I’m on my way somewhere I need to be, I already have a dog with me and don’t want to risk picking up a stray dog, or there’s no room for a strange bouncy dog in the car. And I always feel a little bad because if one of my dogs got lost I hope someone would help them get home. But today two stray dogs gave me no choice – they walked right into our store and behind the counter and made themselves at home!

I was sitting at the store and a cocker spaniel and a dachshund trotted in like they were just stopping by to have a look around. They came behind the counter and I offered them some water out of Barclay’s bowl, and they lapped it up while I put up the gate to keep them back there. Hey, we were on an adventure here! Let us go!

Only one of them had a collar, and I called the number and left a message. I looked up the address and it was a ways north of town, looks like they walked a couple miles! The cocker was a girl and the weiner dog was an unfixed boy, and he only had one thing on his mind so I had to keep telling him to cut that out! Dude, you’re in public!

They hung out here for a while, and seemed like very nice dogs, but after a while they started to get restless, so I called the local vet down the street. They looked up the number and said the dog had been a patient, but not for a long time. They suggested I try the other vet in town. So I called them and they said the same thing, but they also said that they are the humane society shelter for our town. So they suggested I call the cops (who get to act as animal control) and they will give them a ride over.

So I called the cops and gave them the info, and a little while later two nice officers showed up and they had already investigated it a bit and knew the dogs names (Jin Ju and Hershey) and where they lived, and were going to take them home. So a happy ending for all, and I finally had a chance to help out a couple of lost dogs (even if they didn’t seem to think they needed help, they looked like they were having a great time!)

Selling my telescope, or not…

On By stefrobrtsIn telescope1 Comment


I have been selling off some of my extra toys, and I listed my telescope for sale on Craigslist. After all, I never use it anymore, it just takes up space and gathers dust in the garage. I am kind of attached to it, it’s the very first thing I ever built with my own two hands, and I’ve had it over ten years now. I’ve taken it to many local ‘sidewalk astronomy’ public viewing get-togethers, two Table Mountain Star Parties in Central WA, and took it all the way to Oklahoma on our big trailer trip a few years ago. But ever since I started having cold hives (I get hives if my skin gets chilled even a bit, and it’s miserable) I just don’t want to stand around outside in the cold all night, and I can only use it if I’m bundled up like I’m going on a mountain expedition, even on a warm summer night. So I got it out and cleaned it up, and someone came over to look at it yesterday. They said they’d think about it and left.

So it was just sitting out there in the yard when it started getting dark, and there was a nice sliver of a moon out after sunset. I brought out an eyepiece and started looking at the moon. The sky was perfectly still and the view was superb! So I went inside and got another eyepiece, and put on a coat and my fleece pants. A bit later I came in for another eyepiece. Then my moon filter to pick out the details. Then I noticed the big dipper directly overhead and remembered there were some spectacular galaxies to look at in that area. So I went and got a star map and a flashlight. By the time I came back in around midnight I canceled the ad for the telescope.

Maybe the scope is one of those things I should just plan on keeping.

The glamorous life of a chicken keeper

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens3 Comments

My chickens have mites! Not their fault, they can get them from the wild birds who come visit to steal their food. Penny had a dirty bottom the other day, and when I caught her and turned her over to clean it off, I saw little buggies on her bum! Yikes! But when I got over being totally grossed out by that, I asked my chicken mentor what to do. She said to go get a powder at the feed store and powder her bum and under her wings, and treat the other birds and the nest boxes too. So tonight Dave and I went out after the birds had been asleep a few hours and caught them one by one and I flipped them over so he could powder their bottom, then I rolled them over and lifted each wing, and once they were done set them back on their perch where I found them, still sleepy and wondering what the heck happened!

No pictures of their indignity, needless to say!

Luckily chicken mites have no interest in people. But it’s still creepy!

Chicks are feathering out

On By stefrobrtsIn chicken tractor, chickens, turkeys5 Comments


The chicks are getting their real feathers now, so they aren’t cute fluffy chicks anymore, now they are gangly, scruffy-looking teenagers!


It looks like this is Penny’s only chick in the whole batch, at least it’s the only one with feathered legs.

These chicks are a week younger than the other batch, but they are feathering out too. They’re about four weeks old now.

Mom is still very protective.

We moved the tractors to a new grazing area today. They are tucked under the trees next to the chicken pen/orchard.

The spot where they were sitting is well picked over and fertilized, I’m guessing the grass will recover pretty quickly.

Meanwhile in the coop the third game hen mix has gone broody, so I gave her a nest box and ten eggs to sit on. So in 21 days we should have some more chicks.

The turkeys are doing fine, growing wing feathers and eating like little piggies! I’ll get some pics of them again soon.

Sleeping Beauty

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Not far from Trout Lake is a popular trail hike to the top of a rocky outcrop called Sleeping Beauty. This trip I clearly saw how she got her name.

As the sun went down and silhouetted the horizon she clearly looked like a woman laying on her back! Apparently she had more of a nose before the CCC blasted it off to put a fire lookout up there in the 30’s.

In the morning I was shocked to see she looked even more like a woman! The early sun highlighted the shape of the rocks to give the impression of flowing hair and a neck line. Beautiful! What an amazing natural formation!

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.

Lots and lots of llamas!

On By stefrobrtsIn 4H, llamas1 Comment
Today we had a 4H meeting at my house (since some of the llamas were already here). So people brought nine more llamas and alpacas, and we had quite a crowd!

Once everyone was there and settled down, they did a little show practice. After that we all headed off on a little hike. We walked across the street and about a hundred yards up the road to a trail entrance to the state park across the street. One of the leaders drove behind our group with her hazard lights on to keep traffic from coming up fast behind us. Once all the kids were on the trail she drove back and parked the car and came and joined up. Then we walked along the horse trail to group camp where we all stopped fo a rest.

There’s the llamas that used to live with me, Scoops and Patrone 🙂


Cameron gives a thumbs up to hiking with his new buddy, Julio!


The alpacas are oh so cute!

Along the way we met a horse, but the horse was very well behaved and the rider was in control, and we were able to move off to the side and the rider calmly took her past all the scary llamas safely.


Then we all hiked back home and had cookies and milk. It was a beautiful day for a hike!

Llama shearing

On By stefrobrtsIn 4H, llamas1 Comment

Last week our llama 4-H club had shearing day scheduled. To prepare for it Martha (the other club leader) and I got together on Mother’s day and built a chute to shear the llamas in.

The chute turned out really nice. She had a plan in mind, and I am pretty good at building things, so we just dove in and did it. It’s portable so they can move it around with the tractor. For shearing day, since it was raining, they put an easy-up over it. It worked really well!

Even the crankiest llamas pretty much gave up and let us do what needed to be done once they found themselves in the chute.

The kids took turns helping hold their llamas and keeping them calm, while the little kids picked up wool and bagged it. We ended up with a LOT of wool. Now we need to plan some activities and show the kids what to do with it. Sorry I don’t have any nudie pics of the finished llamas!