Walking Two Large Male Dogs

Yeesh, I just got back from a frog marched walk/run with Amber and Eric's dogs. Ceasar, where are you, I could use a little help here! With these two, it does not help to whisper though. The minute you put the leashes on them, if they will sit still long enough for you to even get them hooked up they are ready to blast off into neverland. If I do not brace myself before I open the gate, I will be dragged through the flowers and across the lawn immediately. Hence the need to be very thorough about planting ones feet solidly, and leaning back as you flip the latch to open. While I have not lost it, I have left some skid marks in the grass and some scuff marks on the cement just trying to get up to the street.

These two, Murray a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix, and Jake a White Lab/Pitbull cross are typical male dogs.  They want to sniff every bush and tree, lampost and telephone pole, realestate sign and fence, and anything else high enough to pee on.  Several times tonight I felt like I was tied to a rack when the dogs chose different trees or bushes on either side of the sidewalk.  It is necessary to walk holding the leashed like I am about to do curls, because if I don't, I won't have the ability to stop their plunge or rush in a different direction. 

Anyone who sees me fast walking these two down the street takes on elook at Jake and recognizes the pitbull head and immediately crosses to the other side of the street. Really a shame. because if Jake had his way, he would lick them to death. He is fortunate to be heavy with Lab genes, and he just wants to be your friend.  Has his own mind, but is a loveable affectionate dog.  Murray on the other hand is schizophrenic when it comes to meeting new people along the way, unless they have a dog of their own. If they don't, he puts his head down, and bares his teeth and growls and barks. A nasty habit I am trying to gently break by quickly pulling up on his leash and saying stop, firmly. He seems to think that everyone but dog owners is going to hurt him or me. Dog owners are automatically accepted as good people because, well, in his mind they have a dog, and that makes them okay. They are safe because they are dog broke and he will sniff and let them pet him while he gets personal with their pet.

I try to be a good dog owner/care person and pick up after these two. They can crap like a 1000 pound steer without effort. One has to be ready with plastic bags to pick up their leavings quickly and carefully.  Again, one must brace oneself, make the dogs sit keeping one eye on the dogs and one eye on the hand that is trying to pick up their excrement with a doggie bag.  One does not want to be dragged over their leavings at that point. Yes I know, too much detail, but at least you were spared the smell!  Fortunately they both seem to know that they must hold their bowels until we get down to the park. They can pee to their hearts content on the way there, but they dare not lay any turds along the way. I try to keep them on a short leash until they get to the park for this very reason. 

I have to be ever on the look-out for cats or squirrels as we walk. If I am day dreaming, I will be snapped awake as they suddenly veer in the direction of some snotty taunting pussy cat who just loves to watch dog owners get dragged around. We have had several close calls, and some of these cats have no idea what they are playing with when it comes to these two died in the wool cat haters. I think they must have been teased by cats when in their back yard in Lincoln, because they just detest cats. The same goes for squirrels of course, and we have several in residence here that like to climb up a tree and scold them.

I made it down to the pond in Deer Ridge in record time tonight. The way back was just as exciting, and I certainly got my walk/run for the day. Stay tuned for more doggy tales.  

Busy Day, Workin Away

Today was another beautiful day in Auburn. We are enjoying this rain free period with bright sun and warm temperatures in the low seventies. I bought all the materials on Monday to be able to install some drains to collect the water that flows down from the improperly graded street, into our front yard and then pools by the North side of the house, and then flows under the house to exit on the South East side.  That much water under the house is too much even though I installed a drain. It makes too much dampness beneath the house and I do not want mold to take over.

Monday after coming back from Home depot and unloading 130 feet of 4 inch corex drain piping I began digging a trench along the sidewalk that goes around the front of the house to the small deck. The first twenty feet were not too bad, the ground was pretty soft and saturated with moisture. The next twenty feet were murder because I hit granite lava cap at 25 feet and so for the next 15 feet I had to use a pick to break the rock up. That really slowed me down, and I am sore tonight, and probably will take a day off of it tomorrow.

This afternoon after a shower and lunch, I thought I would try out my new (used) C&H mat cutter.  I had finished another pastel painting of "No Hands Bridge", that crosses the American River just below Auburn. The bridge was built for the Quarry Mountain Railroad line to haul gypsum from the mine further up the river. The old bridge was well built and has stood through many flood surges when newer bridges have been inundated and collapsed. 

I decided to double mat the picture, and used a reddish brown inside mat to compliment the painting and a antique white matting on the outside.  Before I could do that, I had to mount the pastel picture on some acid free  foam core and then take exact measurements so that my mats would look decent.  I cut the reddish brown one without any problems, but messed up the antique white one. The second try produced an acceptable mat and I was able to frame the picture in one of the 14X18 frames I purchased yesterday at Aaron Brothers art marts.  The picture is now sitting on a wall scounce shelf that I put up in my office today.

I also reframed and matted a picture Cindy had bought me of the Old Auburn Courthouse, and the color will now look a lot better when it is hung in the hallway. A busy day, but one in which I accomplished a lot.

Unusual Weather Day

Today was cool overcast and damp to start out. Such a huge change from Sunday when it felt like spring and flowers and trees were opening their blooms to the sunshine. Since it was so nice Saturday without rain, and not a cloud in the sky. I had decided to tackle felling a Lelandia Cypress tree that had been blown at a 40 degree angle into our flowering Japanes Plum tree during one of the recent storms. It looked like the plum tree was actually holding it up, since the root ball was rising and the ground was cracked open several feet back from the trunk of the cypress.

I lopped off a few large branches that were in amongst the plum tree branches so it wouldn't get too badly damaged when I dropped the cypress. I began cutting a notch in the trunk of the tree on the south side just back of the direction it was leaning. Unfortunately the wood there was very hard and my saw started smoking. I had put a new handle on my Pulaski and decided I would use it to cut the notch the rest of the way. After a few good whacks, I managed to cut a pretty decent notch in the tree and so I could begin sawing a new cut on the opposite side, just a little higher up.  It didn't take too long before the tree started to crack and begin its fall. For a minute I thought it was going to stay hung up in the plum tree, but it pulled free thanks to gravity and thumped to the ground across a sprawl of juniper bushes on the bank below right where I planned it. The plum tree branches just sprange back, I didn't lose a one.

Well needless to say, cutting up a 35 foot tree and loping all the branches took a considerable number of hours. Once I had cut everything from the top I stacked it up by the road, off my neigbors peoperty and then raked up the loose needles and small branches. I had quite a stack of firewood and several loads of slash branches to haul down to the bottom of the garden to burn.  I also cut down an Oleander and trimmed all the sucker branches out of the plum tree before I quit. I was plum tuckered out by then, and decided that I would clean the rest up the following day.

Well yesterday I managed to get my recalcitrant garden tractor going, and hitched the wagon behind it and drove it up to the front yard after cutting the backyard grass. I had loaded the wagon behind the tractor from a huge pile I'd stacked in our driveway. When it was time to go unload, I couldn't get the tractor going again. I hooked up my battery charger to the tractor battery and left it all night. I would tackle the rest tomorrow.

Well wouldn't you know, tomorrow is today and it was cool 45 degrees. My tractor still wouldn't start and it took some time to find I had a little water in the carbuerator bowl, and the battery terminals were probably too corroded to take a charge. After disasembling the connections and cleaning them, installing new bolts and tightening them up I was able to jump the battery and get the old tractor going. It took two full loads to carry all the slash to the bottom of our property. I also had a lot of firewood cut up and it made full wagon load to hall around to stack for next seasons firewood.  

I finished at 11:30 and came in the house after parking and covering up the tractor, as it seemed colder and was dark and threatening. Cindy made me a sandwich for lunch and then she looked outside and said its hailing!  The hail didn't last long, but was soon followed by rain. The rest of the day went from blustery to dark and stormy with sudden downpours. We made a Costco run down the hill to Roseville and ran into more hail just as we got to the store. After getting theessentials we needed we decided to have dinner out and had a wonderful Mexican food dinner in Lincoln at Casa Ramos. As we ate our dinner we were treated to a gloriously beuatiful sunset with pinks, mauves and orange tinges in the clouds. A nice close to a blustery day. Then it was time to go back home and unload the groceries and relax. Sorry if I bored you to death!

Pastel of Sedona

I decided to do a second pastel of Sedona Arizona, especially since my brother Michael sent me a really great shot that had an interesting view and lots of color. It seemed perfect to paint a pastel picture. I began with one of my standard 9X13" LaCarte pastel cards and sketched out a few details that would guide me, and make me stay in perspective. I went through the routine of putting in darker colors so I could overlay the lighter ones.  It was for some reason a lot more difficult than I had expected. The mountains or buttes had a lot of detail. Not only that, there were all these trees and bushes and prickly pear cactus that lined the pathway. I was not sure if I had enough different greens to show both shading and different bushes. The other element was the late afternoon suns rays that dappled the trees and bushes and left sunlight patches and shadow on the pathway.

It took some work, and a lot of detail to get the picture the way I wanted it. Once I was finished I was pleased with the end result. I posted it on my Flickr account and immediately started getting a lot of feedback from fellow artists. They sure help to give one confidence. When I took the painting to class, my teacher really liked it, as did my peer students. I hope you like it.

The UPS Delivery is Finally Here!

I had been hoping I would see the UPS truck stopping at my home this week. My C&H Deluxe, used professional mat cutter finally arrived from the framing store store I bought it from in Minnesota. Wow, it was a heavy package and rather ungainly to carry.  It was four feet long, and almost two feet wide and weighed fifty pounds.  I carried the big wrapped box into the house along with a smaller package that came for Cindy. It was a challenge getting through the door sideways holding the box and not bumping into anything on the way through.

Once I had given Cindy her package, I took my coveted box into my office and quickly saw that with all the heavy tape, that I would need a box knife to cut through the nylon stands in the tape. I retrieved one from the garage and then carefully cut the tape that was securing the ends and then slit open the box at each end. Sliding out the mat cutter was awkward mainly because it is heavy and doesn't slide well. I saw that it was wrapped with bubllewrap in several places to protect more sensitive parts. Way to go Ginny Ward, and thank you. Once I got all of the taped bubble wrap off, I could see I had a heavy duty mat cutting piece of equipment that was almost all in one piece. United Parcel had managed to bang up the box in transit and the top of one adjustment knob broke off, but I glued it back on with super glue.  I will probably end up sending for a new one since it is not likely to hold for long.

I cleared off my big 4'X8'drafting table that is set up in the garage and set the mat cutter up perpendicular to the table so that one end rested on a half inch stop to hold it in place. It was easy enough to attach the squaring arm and the stops that came with the cutter. It was also great to get almost a full box of mat cutter blades and also some long scraps of mat that Ginny sent for me to practice on. Before I could get started it was important to secure the cutter to the table and then read the instruction book that came with it so that I can minimize material waste and mistakes.  This is really neat stuff, because now I can begin matting my paintings professionally to properly preserve them and get them ready for framing.

Stay tuned for my mat cutter trials as I begin experimenting with my new toy!

He's Off to the Army

The days virtually flew by since Eric announced that he had enlisted in the US Army. When he broke the news to us, we were apprehensive for him, but also understood the decision he was making. He enlisted for a four year hitch as an MP. He is hoping that his four years military service and comprehensive training will help him land a job as a police officer when he gets out. Right now that field is seeing layoffs and any openings that occur are being filled by experienced officers.

These are tough times for folks with the high jobless rate, and the slowdown in our economy. They are even tougher for a newly wed couple starting out and trying to establish a home, and be comfortable. We are proud of Eric, and we know he will do well in the service. He has a good work ethic, and good bearing, and will work hard, and that will mean a lot in that environment. He and Amber have a good relationship, and we know she supports him and would have gone in the Army as well if she could.

As Sunday progressed and we had that great meal that Cindy made of Enchiladas, it was soon time for Eric to leave. He had packed his small army issue knapsack of toiletries, phone, stationary, stamps and a bag of great chocolate chip cookies that Amber made for him. It was time to meet the recruiter at the US Army recruiting station in Citrus Heights. As Eric and Amber walked out I snapped a picture for them to remember this day.  Eric quipped, oh, oh, the paparazzi!

As we dropped them off and he was told that he will spend the night at the Radisson hotel and fly out Monday to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri.  They call it Ft lost in the woods, and it is very cold there right now! He and Amber had that last embrace for a long while and he rode off with the recruiter. Amber will certainly be missing him over the next months.  Since Eric was gojng to be staying at the Radisson, we drove Amber down so they could have a little more time together before he leaves. When we got there, we learned that he is already under orders as to what to do, and where to go or not go since there will be other recruits arriving at the hotel.  So off we went for home, and perhaps Amber will get to say one more goodbye today before he leaves.

In the next months Amber will live with us while she continues on with her college and the job she recently landed as a personal trainer at a fitness center in Lincoln, while Eric goes through his basic and advanced training. She won't see him until July, and that is a long time to wait.

It makes me remember how I felt when I was drafted and reported to the US Army induction center in Los Angeles in 1966. Before I knew it I was whisked through the lines, proddded, examined, and interviewed and on a plane to Ft. Bliss Texas for basic training. Then I was off to Ft Ord for advanced training and then Kansas as the Ninth Division was formed up and trained so we could all be shipped to Viet Nam.

I'm hoping Eric receives a good assignment so that he and Amber can be in the US for awhile before he is deployed to some far off place. Keep him in your prayers will you, he will appreciate that very much and so will we!.