Another Relaxed Rattlesnake Encounter

In my extensive travels throughout the breadth of the American West I have seen numerous rattlesnakes up close and personal. Some sadly dead in the middle of a road but many alive and going about their normal, daily snake lives and business. Most are simply moving from one spot to the next and I appreciate …

Pulling Threads, A Mystery…Solved

In early Spring 2017, over the course of several weeks, Willow and I did some extensive exploring around Green Peter Reservoir outside of Sweet Home, Oregon. This happens to be all of 30 minutes from my home so it is quick, easy and cheap (with gas prices as they are and a Tacoma that would …

A Shasta Lake Adventure

Relatively soon after accepting Gia into my life and once she was healed from her spay surgery I wanted to get her jumping into the Adventure Life with all four paws. When up in my old Humboldt County stomping grounds we spent close to a week alongside Horse Linto Creek waiting to find out if …

It’s Been One Year And Gia Is Making Good Progress

As I press the “Publish” button to make this post live it is April 9th, 2024 and the 1 year anniversary of the day I decided to accept Gia into my life. A lot has happened with us in that first year and she has improved dramatically. In that time frame she and I have …

Picking Up The Pieces

When we find ourselves in the Santa Cruz, CA area we inevitably end up at  Lighthouse Field State Beach. The official “State Beach” encompasses a 38-acre (15 ha) area including parking areas, grasslands and hiking trails on the East side of West Cliff Drive as well as the beach itself to the west. We are …

Iceco Dual Zone Portable Refrigerator

After 5+ years of service and while still working perfectly I decided that our ARB Refrigerator was not completely meeting our needs. Not because of anything it was doing wrong but mostly because I wanted to carry more food with us and have a separate freezer section for longer-term storage…especially after stocking up at a …

Rescuing A Dog Didn’t Turn Out Exactly Like We Wanted

While searching for new camping spots in the Mendocino National Forest Gia and I came across a beautiful young dog wandering on a road in Upper Lake, California. I immediately pulled over and hoped he might want to be rescued and not run away like so many other of our rescue attempts end. Luckily all …

The Cow Incident

Fair warning: This post has almost no pictures. The incident happened over the course of a very hectic and tense 10 minutes and there was no time (or even thought) of stopping to get a camera to document the situation. ======================= We spent about two weeks in the Mendocino National Forest with the dog we …

Some Initial Thoughts On Training A Special Needs Fur Missile

I would have liked to have composed and posted this earlier in my new relationship with Gia. While it’s not necessarily a need, it is an advantage if I can get into “the flow” before I write and dealing with a reactive puppy with a short attention span is not conducive to those conditions. Be …

Horse Linto Campground

Soon after bringing Gia into my life we traveled to Humboldt County, CA to visit some lifelong friends who knew and loved my first two dogs, Nohkuma (“Kuma”) and Willow. After a short visit where my friends put themselves on the line to help socialize Gia the possibility arose for a camping and fishing trip …