Just a few pictures from the garden this year

The cliffrose put on an amazing show this spring.  We enjoy watching people walking past our house stop and come back to smell it

The scarlet runner beans always do well.  We don't eat them but the hummingbirds love their flowers

I grew my green beans on an arch (the arch needs to be fixed because it collapsed under the weight of the snow this winter). 

I've always had difficulty getting herbs to grow because it gets so cool in the evenings.  So this year I made a spiral bed out of bricks.  The spiral means the ones that like it drier can be at the top and have better drainage, while the ones that like it moister, are at the bottom.  Also, the bricks soak up the heat during the day and keep the plants warm at night.  It worked really well.  We gave away a lot of herbs this year

I also did some updating on the water garden.  I added a waterfall and foraged a pond lily.

We had been dreading having to say goodbye to Max's for some time.  We knew it would leave a big hole in our lives.  We also knew it would leave a hole in Gus' life.  One of the benefits of adopting Bill had been that he got on so well with Gus, and that when Max passed away Gus would still have his new buddy to keep him company.  But sometimes things don't go as planned.  So, when Max passed away, we suddenly found ourselves a one dog household, which was never the plan.  We decided to adopt another dog sooner rather than later.   So we met a bunch of dogs from the shelter, and Gus picked a new packmate.  

This is Scout.  The shelter guessed that she is about 1.5 years old.  She is very well behaved in the house and excellent on leash. She loves going for walks and hikes and is a fantastic running buddy.   She sometimes carries our shoes around the house. She and Gus are still working out how to play together. But we know there's a wild dog in there because sometimes she goes upstairs and we hear her playing in the bedroom and when we go up, clothes, pillows, or pajamas will be moved around the room. She's still kind of shy and uncertain about being in the house, but we're looking forward to seeing how she grows into our family.

At the end of May, we said goodbye to Max.  He was almost 13 years old and had lived with us for about 12 of those years.  He was charming and stubborn and protective and devious and loving and funny and amazing.  We miss him every day.

We don't know much about Max's story before he came to live with us.  We adopted him from Lubbock Animal Services when he was probably 7 or 8 months old.  We were planning to adopt a second dog and there was an Australian shepherd there that I thought might make a good running buddy.  When we walked in to LAS, the Australian shepherd was in the first kennel.  As I stopped to meet here, Steve continued down the row.  He stopped in front of a kennel half way down the row and said "This is our dog."  I came down to see what kind of dog could possibly have moved my very non-impulsive partner to make such a snap judgement.  And there was a skinny, swollen faced Max (named Beefcake at the time).

I can't turn down a shar pei face, so we decided that if he got along with Jasper and CJ, that we would adopt him.  We went home, got the other two boys and came back for a meeting.  He was great with both of them, so we filled out the paperwork.  When we turned it into the woman at the desk, she warned us that shar pei are kind of unique personality-wise, and she asked if we had ever met any shar pei's or shar pei mixes --- we pointed at Jasper. 

The first week that we had him was eventful.  We had a distemper scare, he house trained himself --- only one accident in the house --- learned to use a bell on the door to let us know he needed to go outside, learned to abuse the bell to go outside, became Jasper's shadow, and became determined to win CJ's affection.

Max bonded immediately with Steve.  Maybe it was because Jasper and I were so close, or maybe it was because he and I were so much a like (Steve used to say that Max was me in a dog suit), but he and I were not very close early on. In fact, he frequently drove me crazy. We ran together, and he regularly chewed up my running shorts, but that was about it.  But Max and Steve were tight. 

Max and I did have a few things that we did together. We ran together until we discovered he had hip dysplasia and had to have surgery. We did obedience training (sort of).  And we wrestled..

Max was so smart and picked up commands after only one or two attempts.  But unlike Jasper, who was thrilled to show off his skills, Max only obeyed commands when he felt is was appropriate. For example, we generally made him sit before coming in the house after a walk, something that Max found unnecessary.  One evening Steve stood on the stoop for 20 minutes waiting for him to sit.  I found that if I asked him rather than commanded him, he was more likely to do what I asked.    That was just how he rolled (and one of the ways that we were alike).  He was well behaved, but he was unbiddable...and unbelievably frustrating at times.

I sometimes took him to the office with me.  He had two spots to hang out in the office.  One was in my arm chair.  The other was in the open doorway.  He knew that he had to be in the office, but decided that meant that if his feet were in the office, the rest of him could be in the hall.  He also knew he couldn't just approach people to say hi. He had to wait in the office until they came to see him.  But he also decided there was an exception to this rule when our friend Frank was in the office.  When Max would see Frank down the hall, he would just run down the hall to him, and then come back after seeing his friend.

​And he did this thing that we called "twitching".  He would sometimes decide he wanted to be wrestled, so he would do this thing where he would sit next to a person and growl.  Then he would flip on his side, growl, and roll around.  That was my cue to come wrestle him --- grab his neck skin, shake him, squeeze him.  It was a thing that he mostly did with me --- maybe because other people sometimes had a hard time telling the difference between his play vocalizations and aggression.  We wrestled frequently.  On more than one occasion we knocked heads and at least once he gave me a black eye when he threw his head back into my face. This continued throughout his life..  As he got older, he was less energetic with his wrestling --- he mostly made noise while I shook him, but he continued to twitch and we continued to wrestle until the week that he died.

He was a very sweet dog who loved people, but was also a good judge of character.  He seemed to be able to tell people's intentions, and he had no problem being a protector if needed.  On more than one occasion, he put himself between me and men who were behaving is a scary or hostile manner.  And he had a growl that was totally unlike his play growl.  Every time I heard it, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and gave me goose bumps.  I never worried about going for a late night walk or a run during the dark morning hours when I had my big dog with me.

But it wasn't until I got the job in Flagstaff and Steve was still at TTU that Max and I got close.  He had always been more of a partner than a pet in the household --- he had responsibilities, that he took seriously.  But, when it was just me and the dogs in the house, he took those responsibilities extra seriously and we finally bonded.  When Steve came home on the weekends, Max was still pretty much just his dog.  But when Steve was away, Max and I learned to enjoy each other's company and eventually became very close.

He was such a character.  His favorite things were rolling in snow and swimming --- you know, things you always think of when you think of shar pei *sarcasm* He also loved beer.  We didn't know this until we were driving to my parents' house for Thanksgiving after being in Colorado for Jill's wedding to Ben.  We had stopped and picked up a couple of 6 packs from one of Steve's favorite Colorado breweries.  We put them on the floor in the back seat.  We were not far out of Denver when we smelled stout.  I looked in the back seat and there was Jasper laying on the seat, minding his own business.  And next to him was Max, half in the foot well, lapping up the spray of imperial stout coming out of the punctures he had made in one can.  We stopped at a rest stop, threw out the can, cleaned up as much as we could, and continued on our way, hoping we wouldn't get pulled over because the car wreaked of beer.  Over the years, he continued to try to steal beer anytime one was left unattended.

I could share a million stories about Max and it would never fully capture all that he was.  But in the last year or two he had slowed down considerably and had a lot of health problems and lost a lot of mobility.  In the last week of his life, he couldn't get around without support.  So, we made the appointment with the vet and spent the day and a half before the appointment doing all of his favorite things.  We took him to the lake and helped him to the water for a swim.  We got ice cream. He had a Boston cream donut for breakfast. And he got his first, non-stolen beer (not the whole thing, obviously).

We knew it was the right choice, but it was extremely hard to say goodbye to our big dog.  We still miss him every day, but are so grateful for our 12 years together.

Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary was in April.  Jill, Aaron and I organized a dance/party for them, and since I was going to be back in Nebraska for their party, I stayed a little longer for Emma's first communion.

My parents' relationship is inspiring to me.  They are two very different people who have chosen each other for 50 years.  One of the things that I most admire about their relationship is that they have found hobbies to enjoy together, just as a couple.  I know for Steve and I, it sometimes feels like there is so much work to be done and things that need our attention that when we have free time, there is an inclination for each of us to do our own thing.  And there is nothing wrong with that, but if we don't prioritize doing things together for fun, its easy to feel like we're roommates rather than sweethearts.  I imagine this is doubly true for couples that have kids because you are constantly parenting and "doing" things together and with the kids, but there is less time to just enjoy being a couple.  I really admire how my parents have found and prioritize doing things they enjoy as a couple, like dancing.  That's why we prioritized holding a dance for them rather than just a dinner party.

There was a good turnout at the party, almost 100 people.  Many of Mom and Dad's dancing friends came and made good use of the dance floor.

After the party was over, EJ wanted to take a picture of my immediate family lined up oldest to youngest.

While I was back, we also went to a couple of my nieces' soccer games.  Both EJ and M becoming excellent athletes --- not only did they each score goals at games I watched, they also both have good intuition about playing defense.

I spent most of my time at the farm while I was back because they were in school and were hit with a bout of strep throat.  Frosty was shedding off his winter coat, and now that he's a senior citizen, it doesn't shed very efficiently.  So, I spent some time brushing him.  He's showing his age these days and I'm not sure that he will be there for many future visits.  I was glad to have some time with my old friend.

EJ invited me to her first communion that was the weekend after Mom and Dad's anniversary party. Since I am on sabbatical and have more flexibility than usual, I decided to stay.  EJ is growing up so fast and it was nice to have a little extra time hanging out with the kiddos.

Over the last couple of years, because of injuries and other obligations, we have not been hiking as much as we have in the past.  This year, we've been trying to make it a more regular part of out lives.  The forest service closes roads to many of the trailheads near us during the winter, so we have to travel a bit farther for our hikes until April or May, but we've done a few within an hour or two of home.  We're looking forward to more during the summer

We started the New Year right with a hike to Sycamore Rim on New Year's day with our friends Jessie and Neal.  It was overcast and chilly, but still a lovely 8 miles.

In February, we went down to Wet Beaver Creek. It's an easy ~7 miles round trip. Jessie was out of town, so we invited our friend Neal to join us.  It is a popular spot for swimming during the summer.  During the winter, the beauty remains, but there are fewer people, and now swimmers.  The creek is filled with spring water and snow melt from up on the Colorado Plateau --- and it felt like it.  I debated whether to bring a towel and change of clothes, and decided that as long as there wasn't ice, I would rather jump in than miss the opportunity.  I was glad I did, but I only did it once.

Jessie and Neal had never been to Fisher Point --- which is one of our favorite hikes and very close to home.  So we got together one Sunday for a hike.  On the way in, the trail was snowy and in some places packed ice.  Jessie and Neal were smart and brought their Yak Traks, but we did not. On the way out, some places were puddles of slush.  The uphill portions that were in shade were very difficult. But we had a lovely time and enjoyed one of our favorite hikes.

Over spring break, we took the kayaks down to Prescott and kayaked around Granite Basin lake.  It's a small lake and we made several circuits.  But we saw a variety of birds, including black phoebes, red winged blackbirds, great blue herons, and several species of ducks.  We also saw a pond slider.

We told Jessie and Neal that we go down to Prescott to go to Costco every couple of months.  They have never been to a Costco and wanted to got with us sometime.  So, for Neal's birthday, we spent the day near Prescott.  We went down in the morning and hiked around Watson Lake --- a dammed (and damned) reservoir in the granite dells area.  Even though I could go on a long rant about the problems with dammed reservoirs, it is a very pretty lake set within and around the granite formations.  After our hike, we had lunch down on the square and then went to the Superstition Meadery for a flight of mead, before going to Costco.  We had a really nice time. 

In July of 2022, shortly after our first foster, Sam, was adopted, we took on another, more challenging foster.  His name was Billy and he was red heeler mix that was found out on the rez.  We were told that he was 2-3 years old, seemed to have some old injuries (possibly from being hit by a car?) and other health problems, and was terrified of people.

It became clear pretty quickly that Billy was actually only about a year old. He had a variety of health issues including some leg/back/neck pain that the shelter was trying to diagnose as well as allergies. The x-rays they took when we first started fostering showed growth plates that hadn't fully set yet --- which suggests less than a year old.

Our dogs treated him like he was a puppy and were mostly pretty patient with him.  He and Gus became friends immediately and spent hours playing.  He was less sure about the two-legged people in the house.  

We got two different stories about how he ended up at the shelter because there were two Billy's at the shelter at the time and the person at pick-up wasn't sure which story went with which dog.  The first was that someone found him on the rez, caught him, and took him home.  That he stayed with them for two days before they decided he was too scared to keep and took him to the shelter.  The second story was that animal control was called for a dog at a business and had to pull him out from under a car using a catch pole.  We suspect the second story was the right one, given how terrified he was of people.  We couldn't imagine someone actually catching him.
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​It took about two weeks for him to start playing with me.  But once he decided that I was safe, I became his person. And that was it.  He had no use for any other people as long as I was nearby.

It was very clear that Bill had never lived in a house before.  For the first week or two, he was afraid to walk around the house, especially if Gus wasn't with him.  He wouldn't go up or down the stairs, so I had to carry him upstairs for bed at night and downstairs in the morning. When he was outside, he would crawl under the deck and wedge himself into the narrowest part. He also did some pretty weird things early on --- like climbing up onto the windowsill in the office.

We don't think he had ever had toys, but boy was he excited about them.  In addition to playing with them, he liked to gather them all up in a pile.  The first night he was with us, he spent the evening gathering up each toy and piling them between one of our loveseats and the bookcase --- which was one of his hidey-holes when he was scared.  Steve started calling him "Goblin Bill". And after he had been with us for a while, he would line them up on the windowsill in front of ottoman, where he liked to lay and look out the window.

​​Steve worked hard to earn Billy's trust, yet even a year after coming to live with us he would occasionally revert to being suspicious of Steve. But if I was away, Steve was his pal.  He was terrified of everyone he met and adoption events were difficult because lots of people here like heelers, but Billy didn't want to meet any of them.  At these events, he would lay behind one of us and pretend that he was invisible.

​After he had been with us for 6 months, I realized that I was no longer fostering.  So in January of 2023, we adopted him, and started calling him Bill instead of Billy.

​Bill was a real mix of delightful and trying.  When I would get up in the morning or come home from work, he would do an adorable little prancing dance.  If I was sitting on the couch, he always wanted to be sitting with me, preferably tucked behind my knees.  He and Gus spent hours snuggling.  When he was feeling good, he liked to go for runs.  I've never seen a dog so happy about going to bed, but every night he was so excited to sleep in his kennel.  I think he was just so grateful to have a safe place to sleep. And he followed me everywhere.

Bill was exceptionally sweet and cuddly with me and Gus, and sometimes Steve.  He was full of life and generally ready to play.  And he was smart and naturally inclined to be obedient in a way our other two knuckleheads are not.  

But, he was also terrified of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Taking him for a walk without one of the other dogs could be a chore. Having people over was often difficult, especially if the people were dog people and just wanted to make friends with him. Taking him to the vet was tricky.  They finally prescribed anxiety meds for him for when he was going to have to interact with people besides us. Thank goodness that he was a really good natured guy and never snapped at anybody.  He just froze when other people touched him.

He and Gus became fast friends.  They chased and tugged and wrestled constantly.  And when they weren't playing, they were snuggling together.

​Brucellosis poses a serious health risk to humans and has to be reported to the state veterinarian. It also cannot be reliably cured in dogs.  Even after treatment, it tends to flare up.  Which is why the two options that the state vet offered were complete isolation for the rest of Bill's life, or euthanasia.  We knew that it just wasn't possible for us to never have people over, keep him separate from our other dogs, never board him, never travel anywhere with him, et cetera. So we made the extremely difficult decision to put him to sleep. The Monday before Thanksgiving 2023, we said goodbye to this very sweet guy.  

He had such a short life and deserved so much more, so much better.  But, we gave him everything we could for the short time he was with us. He is missed.

​Needless to say, we were heartbroken about losing Bill.  But there was the additional danger of our other two dogs having contracted brucellosis from him and that we would have to euthanize them as well.  They got tested shortly before we had to put Bill down.  They're first tests came back in early December and were negative, but they had to be tested again at least 5 weeks after their last exposure to Bill. We tried to focus on enjoying Christmas and New Year's with Max and Gus, but it wasn't the jolliest holiday season we've had.

We took the boys back in for their second test in early January, and they tested negative again.  We were so relieved.  It didn't lessen our sadness over Bill, but it felt like we had dodged a cruise missile.  Before the negative test results, I would have moments where I couldn't breathe when thinking about having to say goodbye to these two weirdos in addition to Bill. I'm so grateful that we didn't have to do that.

After about 2 years of silence, I'm trying to get back to posting about what we are up to.  I realize that since we are not on social media and I'm terrible about mailing letters (not writing letters, I can do that), this is the best way for us to share with friends and family

So, what have we been up to the last two years?  Well...

​When we picked her up, they told us that she was afraid of men.  But, at our house, she was deeply devoted to Steve.  That was in part because she had had a rope toy at the shelter and her first poo at our house was a dangler because of some shreds of rope that had made it into her digestive system.  I was the one who pulled it out and she was not pleased.  But also, she just had good taste and could tell Steve was a good guy to be friends with.

Sam was with us for 10 days, until she was adopted.

​Our next foster was more of a challenge.  We decided to foster a red heeler, fresh off the rez, that they told us was probably 2-3 years old, named Billy.  When he first came to our house, he was terrified of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE, except Gus.  He was with us for 6 months before we decided to adopt him.  It turned out that he had an incurable disease and we had to put him to sleep in November of 2023. There will be a longer post about him soon.​

We revisited some of our favorite hikes and visited some new places

We've made some changes to the yard.  One of my biggest projects has been setting up a rainwater harvesting system.  I currently have 325 gallons of storage capacity.  I have one more tank to hook up, and when that is done we will have 600 gallons of storage capacity.

I also finally dug out the basin of the sad little fountain that was in our yard when we bought the house.  I expanded the hole and added a perforated liner to make a rain garden.  I connected the drainpipe on the side of the house to a rain barrel, and the overflow for the rain barrel flows down into the rain garden, filling it from below.  It should enable me to grow some native plants that need slightly wetter conditions.  I'm excited to see what comes up this spring.

We love sitting out on the deck and watching the birds.  Last year we had a couple of new visitors --- a pair of Bullock's orioles.  I put out an oriole feeder with grape jelly, but the only thing I saw using it was ants.  Happily, they were regular visitors to one of our hummingbird feeders instead. I read that orioles teach their offspring their preferred route for migration and teach them to return to the same reliable places for food and water every year.  We're hoping this pair enjoyed our yard enough that our yard will become a safe stop for generations of orioles in the future.  

We also always have MANY hummingbirds. I set up a bubbler a couple of years ago and all of the birds seemed to like it and at the peak of summer heat, they line up to take baths.  But, I usually only see hummingbird baths like the video I took below early in the morning.

We've had a couple of big snows in the last few years.  The 2022-2023 winter was one of the snowiest on record with 163 inches of snow.  In February, we had snow storms every week --- I taught a Tuesday/Thursday class that only had one Tuesday meeting in February because classes were cancelled due to snow all  of the rest of the Tuesdays.  For most of February and March, we had to make trails for the dogs because the snow was too deep.

The winter of 2023-2024 we only received about 100 inches --- much more on par with our average snow fall --- but we did have one storm that dropped 3 feet of snow over 3 days.

​Our boys respond very differently to the snow. Gus is a big baby, prefers to have a coat or sweater for walking when its cold, and when he gets home, curls up with a blanket.  Max, on the other hand, goes out every morning to roll around in the snow.  

I've been casually learning to crochet for years, especially since we moved to Flagstaff.  But I've been doing it with more intention over the last couple of years.  Part of what drew me to crochet was that I'm not very good at sitting still and crochet gives me something to do with my hands.  Also, winter in Northern Arizona can be long, and its very cozy to have the half-finished blanket I'm making on my legs while watching TV. But the primary reason I have been doing it more lately is because once you pass a certain threshold of skill, there are just so many fun, cozy, and/or unique things you can make. At first, I was thinking that I would mostly make blankets and maybe sweaters.  But my sister-in-law, Kalie, told me about amigurumi, and I started exploring stuffed toys as well.  Being able to crochet has given me both a creative outlet and a chance to give handmade gifts.  Below are pictures of some of the gifts I've made.

I'm now learning how to knit.  I've made scarves and hats, but my goal is to learn to knit socks.  Here is my first effort at knitting a sock.