Merry Christmas to You

We couldn't let Christmas come without wishing you a joyous holiday.

from me, Emma Rose (who turned 6 years old today!)

from Sir Bear

from Mister Higgins

Christmas Blessings from our cookie jar to yours!

Kisses,

Pawsing for Reflection

Dear dear friends,

First I want to let you know that Sir Bear is doing marvelous on his new medication. He is getting around without trouble and seems to be pain free.  Thank you for your well wishes.

You may have noticed that we don't post very often anymore. We don't mean to be gone so long each time but circumstances keep getting in the way of posting.  So, rather than having the guilt and stress of worrying about the blog, we are going to take an official "Blog Holiday".  We would rather you not expect to hear from us than to wait and wonder if we are still alive!  This blog has been a blessing in our lives.  It has never been a burden.  We have met so many wonderful bloggers and their humans :) We will be back!

Till then . . .

Kisses,

Same Old Same Old

We were sailing along, just enjoying our summer weather when BOOM, Bear hurt his back / hips.  He had a muscle spasm in his back and ended up hurting something.  He cried. It was terribly sad.  So, The Duke had to put him to bed because Bear could not sit down or lay down by himself.  We doubled his Vetprofen (Rimadyl) to see if that would help him sleep.

It was a long night because he cried off and on throughout.  The Duke and Duchess took turns going to see him and give him some love and reassuring words. 

The morning was much better but the medication still had to be doubled.  He went to the Vet today, of course he is almost back to normal :)  The Vet gave him some pain pills, Tramadol, to help make him comfortable.  She said he will need to take them for the rest of his life.  Poor old guy.  And if he keeps having muscle spasms they will give him a muscle relaxer.

He seems to be doing much better now thank goodness.  It's a terrible thing when Sir Bear is hurting.  It makes all of us hurt.


I still spend as much time as I can with my feathered friends.  Most of them are pretty cool.

But then there's Harriet. . .

She just won't leave me alone.



She's always trying to tell me secrets.  Mostly gossip about the other Hens.
This is really stuff I don't want or need to know!

And she follows me wherever I go.

Maybe she will be the first one in the dinner pot!  Ha!  I'm kidding, of course. 

The Duchess says the girls are all part of the family now and nobody is eating them. Ever.

Um, excuse me Miss Hen, I don't think that's a very good place to be laying an egg.

Meanwhile, we have been gardening. . .

and this,

became this!

I hope you are enjoying your summer!

Kisses,

And Then. . .

We had a trailer tire going flat so we stopped off at Les Schwab on our way to Washington State.  The nice man said it was a faulty stem and then he fixed it for free!  When the Duke thanked him he smiled and said "Enjoy your vacation!".  Wow.  There are still some really nice people out there.  He must have dogs at home :)

So off we went to Cascade Locks, Oregon to cross "The Bridge of the Gods" into Washington.  You may recall last year we had to cross this very same bridge and it is quite unnerving.

It is a Toll Bridge, so we had to stop at the booth and pay.  It costs $1 for the truck and $1 for the trailer.  And it's guaranteed to scare you as good as a Haunted House, if not better.  All for $2.  Not bad :)

Oh dear, why does that sign say Flagger Ahead?  There is not room for a Flagger on that bridge!

Oh, they closed a lane. Wait! What!!!???  They can't do that!  This is getting really dangerous.....

Hmmm..... Ya' think?????

This is the worst part.  The metal grid you drive on.  Even if you close your eyes you can still feel it and hear it.  Horrible if you are afraid of heights like my Duchess.

She almost fainted after she took the next two pictures!  Hahahaha.  We love to tease her.

Finally we got into the little town of Stevenson, Washington, and look who greeted us?  A friendly local :)

After all that excitement it was a relief to settle down at our new camp site.

A cutthroat friendly game of Domino's was first on the list of things to do.

We get to supervise all the action.  And if a piece falls to the ground we are in charge of finding it quickly.

That silly Duke is wearing his favorite shirt again :)

We had a fun time on our camping trip but the Duchess was unhappy with her camera.  She took it in to have it cleaned and was hoping that would solve the problems she was having, but it didn't.  The pictures this year just are not up to snuff.  The shutter is not working properly and the Duchess has become quite frustrated.  Oh well, I tell her not to worry about it, someday we can get it fixed proper.  But till then "what we get is what we get".  And that'll do!

Thanks for stopping by.

Kisses,

Dog Creek Trail

Down past the fish hatchery is a trail to the river. 

It's called Dog Creek Trail.  It is really beautiful.

So let's get started! 

Just follow Sir Bear and he will lead you to the trail.

Oh look, we beat him there. He's an old slow poke you know. That's cause he's just plain old.  He likes to stop and smell the roses. And the leaves. And the dirt. And the grass. And the bugs. And - - you get the picture, he stops to smell everything!

This is a very interesting storyboard. I hope you can enlarge it to read it.  The pictures I posted yesterday did not enlarge like they were supposed to. I don't know if it is a Blogger thing or what.  But you used to be able to click on them twice and make them huge. :(  Anyway, I hope you can read it.

Looks like we are on the right trail!

There were a couple of bridges to walk across and the water below was so sparkly. Somewhere I have a picture of it for you.  Hmmm. Now where did I put that picture?

We walked and we walked. We were so happy that it didn't rain. 

 It was a beautiful day.

Finally we came across a resting place. 

The bench had a dedication plaque on it.  Very touching.

Lady G and I paused a moment to pose for pictures.

And here is another storyboard. I hope you can read it!

Another bridge!  Will we ever get there? 

More of the seemingly endless trail. . .

But look!  What's that blue stuff?

We made it!  Isn't it beautiful?

Wow!  Who knew this was at the end of the trail?

Sir Bear was ready for a cool drink after all that walking.

I just wanted to cool my feet off.

It was a secret fishing hole too. We saw three fishermen and two more were coming down the trail as we left.

This tree had some cool moss hanging on it.

Back on the road to the truck.

And time to load up and go back to camp.  Bear has a ramp because he cannot get into the truck anymore.  But I like to use it too.  It's much easier than jumping up that high.

This was the last day here. 

The next day we moved on to our favorite spot in Washington....

But first we had to go see our friend Les Schwab.

Stay tuned!

Kisses,