Izzy Comes For A Visit

Hiking in the mountains is a favorite activity for Izzy, Carla and I.

A few weekends ago Carla and Jim came up with Thomas's dog Izzy for a short visit.  When it was time to leave, Izzy did not want to go.  She loves it up here and is not as naughty when she is here because she has room to roam and has many things to investigate.  She never has been left anywhere except at the vet's, though, so Carla was worried she would try to go home to Casper after they left.  She also didn't have enough dog food for Izzy.  I wasn't worried.  We have had lots of dogs and have always been able to feed them!

Carla pulled out of the drive and Izzy was in the house.  She kept running up to their bedroom and checked out all the other rooms in the house and wanted me to let her outside.  I waited for about 30 minutes and then put her on the leash and took her out to see where she would go.  We ran up the road and much to my surprise, she turned right instead of left and headed up the mountain toward the metal gate!  We barely crossed the first ditch and she stopped to investigate a tree stump.  She turned around and headed back to the cabin.  I guess out of sight out of mind!  I took off the leash and she happily investigated all her favorite places around the house.

Izzy wishes she could climb up on the Thinking Rock with Carla and I.

That night she had a little trouble finding a spot to sleep but finally opted for the top of the stairs--her favorite watch dog spot at home.  About 3 AM she wandered in to our room and spent the rest of the night sleeping on the bottom of our bed.  She was very tired from all her weekend adventures so slept in until I got up.

The next day our neighbors put their heifers in the meadow behind our house.  They are very curious and love to play.  Every evening they come up to our fence to see what's going on our side of the fence.  Izzy was thrilled!  At first she tried stalking them and tried to chase them but they just wanted to play.  It was funny.  Then she tried herding them but as soon as she got them in sort of a bunch, she would try to play with them and they all scattered.  Some just hung out and played butt heads with her.  It was so cute.  Here were all these big black heifers and right in the middle of all of them was this little white dog pretending to be one of them.

Izzy was so busy checking out her special places, digging holes and going over to the pond that she was worn out by the time she came in at night.  She was too tired to get into any mischief indoors.  Luckily she never found the porcupine that got needles in her nose and paws at Christmastime or a skunk.  Her favorite thing to do each morning, though, was to go out into the meadow and find the freshest cow pie to roll in!  Phew! she was a stinky dog but perfectly happy! 

Izzy loves rolling in cow poop!

 As is my habit for visiting grand kids, I pretty much let them do their thing and don't push the baths and clean clothes every day as their parents can attest to.  Years ago I even let the boys play in their Sonic, Batman and Power Ranger PJ's all day and then sleep in them at night.  They didn't care and neither did I.  So Izzy did not get a bath either.  By night she had rolled around in dirt and grass enough the smell had worn down and hosing her down was a major production.  She really didn't like the cold hose water and she is not a swimmer either.  So I just decided Carla could wash her when she came back up for her.

Carla has to give Izzy a cold hosing down after she rolled in cow poop.

Carla did come up and got her the next weekend and Izzy did not want to get in the car.  I finally got in and she got in with me so off they went.  Carla said she sulked around their house for several days because she missed her cabin!

June 1 Hike to the Thinking Rock and the Headgate

The new Headgate which is not opened yet.  I guess we'll have to go back up....

**You can click on the pictures to get a better look and then click on the back button to get back to the blog!  It is worth it!


Yesterday Erin, Brent and I went for a walk up to the National Forest.  It is one of my favorite hikes and we just HAD to see if there was any snow up there.  On the way up I took a few pictures of the dog-toothed violets and the snow banks we had to traverse to get to our destination.

The first flowers of the spring.  Dog-toothed violets!  Don't they just brighten up the mud?  They are blooming as they stick their heads out of the snow.  I love them!

A whole carpet of them out among the trees.  So pretty.

The first snow we encountered was at the big hill going up to the thinking rock.

Looking down the hill.  Notice the slash pile from the clear cutting at the bottom of the hill.

We made it to the "Thinking Rock" with very little snow but were amazed at all the trash of twigs and branches around the rock.  We could hardly climb up it because of all the sticks and "stuff".  But, of course, we did get on top of it and sat there and thought for awhile.  Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that none of us were acclimated to the altitude yet and had to catch our breath after the first hill climb.

Brent made it!  On top of the Rock!

Erin and Brent with that old dead tree still leaning up there. 

Then we decided to head on up to the headgate to see what Richard had done to fix it.  We came to some trees in the road and heard some scary creaking in the woods as the the breeze blew through but pressed on.  At the National Forest gate we came to another huge drift but we could walk up it pretty easily without sinking too deep.

OK, now we're getting into some serious snow!

Erin, you're going the wrong way!  You have to come UP the snowbank.

We made it to the weir and saw the big new ditch.  I had to do a little back tracking

to figure out what had happened to the road but finally figured it out and made my way to the top of the hill.  Erin and Brent chose to walk up the ditch--which was not running yet.

The new ditch,  Does it look like it is going up?  Must be an optical illusion!

Brent and Erin standing on the old headgate.

Look at that snow in the trees!  This is June 1!

More snow pictures!  Those drifts look deep.

Not much bare ground.

The leaky old headgate.

The shiny new headgate!

  I walked back down to the headgate and took these pictures.  It was incredible.  The whole north face of the hill on the other side of the creek was covered with snow and huge drifts.  My pictures just couldn't do it justice!  The creek is rushing but not as high as I've seen it. Seeing all that snow tells me it will be a lot higher the first really warm day we get! 

Brent surveys the snow drifts.

The old headgate and more snow!

Water is leaking under and through the old headgate.