Oh Fetch

I have been trying to teach my cat Fritz to play fetch. We have been working on this for over a year on and off. Being a cat, he only does it when he feels like it, but we have made some progress. He was rather consistent this day, and I though it was kind of funny so I am posting it. I didn't record me throwing and him going after it because it made the filming really bad so this is just him retrieving it.

He is also really good at catching stuff out of the air. It is hard to see, but he does it here then drops it.

Now I just need to train them to feed themselves and use the toilet and flush.

Enjoying Good Weather

Tuesday we went to the temple. The weather has been so nice after our session we just walked around outside and I took a few shots. Always so pretty and peaceful.

A Little Time Off

We just got back from spending 6 days at J's parents. We had a wonderful time. J had a wonderful time fishing with his dad at the Black River. They caught loads of trout. Since there was not room for me in the canoe I stayed home and spent the day with M. She and I made cherry jam and did a little shopping. Here are pictures of cherry picking.
M's service dog was enjoying the good weather too!
She is the best dog.
We ended up spending two days at Lake Crescent. It was all catch and release so we took pictures of the fish instead. W caught the first and biggest.
The boys looking for a good fishing spot.
Lake Crescent is an amazingly blue lake, but what is even more blue are the Beardslee rainbow trout. They are beautiful and the only place on earth they are found is in this lake.
Fish = Good Day
K
I think this is the smallest trout I have ever caught!
My J
The Lake is just gorgeous! The PNW is so amazing. A little slice of heaven.
Found a spot to read.

Livin' While We're Alive

WE DID IT! We had our laurel class reunion. 10 years ago our laurel class did a trip, and this last week we did an abbreviated version of the same, it was just minus San Fran and the Jelly Belly Factory. It was a very quick 3 days but OH SO FUN!

The San Jose Airport

Oakland Temple Visitors Center

Oakland TempleGreat America: Flight Deck

The Four Of Us In Line

The Flying Wives

Drop ZoneGreat America

Our Gracious Hosts. We Couldn't Have Done It With Out Them!
THANK YOU!!!

Rider Up

Abby's first time under saddle.

I had the best rides today... yep "rides," plural. Today was Jake's (Percheron Friesian 17.2 h 9y) second time being used as a ridding horse rather than just a pretty driving horse. Despite his less than half-hearted attempt at a buck (at his size he would have launched me if he had wanted to), he did very well. He is so smart! And the second ride: Abby, Jake's pulling mate. She is a 7 year old Percheron 16.3 hand mare. And today was her first time under saddle. She too is extremely smart and picked it up very fast. Both of these horses just thrive when they have mental and physical work to do, they took to it all so well, and were really enjoying themselves. The only issue we had is that they are just so big, they are not use to people making them do anything that they don't want to. Having someone on their back really making them work hard at something new brought out a little attitude a few times. The results however, were fantastic. The progress we made was extremely satisfying and rewarding. I just can't wait to get back on and work on the next thing!

Jake learns to work at a trot.

Another Great 4th

I have had yet another great 4th at the ranch. I spent most of the day on the hay wagon with Dad and the new team. Also we had a wonderful evening with a big BBQ. We had ribs, corn, watermelon and lots of other yummy stuff including homemade ice cream. We had wonderful friends over to eat with us and we had a blast playing badminton and socializing. This was the first year I did not help light the fireworks, but it was fun to get to watch them for a change. Not as fun as lighting them, but still fun.

Now It's Summer

For me summer starts when I can use my fishing license. Yesterday we picked up or licenses and headed down to the river to a new spot we heard about. It was down on a floating pier (Actually the sunset picture in my previous post is where we went.) and there was a bench and everything. I think I only cast about 3 times because the first cast I got snagged and had to cut my line, and the second I caught a bunch of weeds. It turns out it was not a very good spot, but it was so nice to just sit there and watch the river and other people fish. I wanted to take a picture of an old oriental man with a big floppy sun hat squatting with his poll, but I don't have a good enough camera to be sneaky and take it from a distance, and I didn't have the guts to ask him if I can take his picture. Oh well. But there was a sailboat going up river that we watched for a while that I took a couple shots of. Noting too exciting, but oh it felt good to have the sun on my skin and the breeze in my hair. Here's to summer!