Brothers II

 Today was a snowy spring Saturday.  The brothers of the house were very cuddly today.

And a sister, who was cuddly with me.  :-)

Astro's Open Standard and Jumpers Titles

 It's been awhile since this happened, but it was a pretty big deal so I thought I should share it.  The last weekend in October 2013 Astro earned his Open Standard and Jumpers with Weaves titles.  I was super happy and proud of him.  Astro and I are learning agility together and I couldn't ask for a better partner.

 Astro was also very happy about getting his picture taken with the judge for his Open Standard title.  We finished our Open Standard title Saturday morning with a really nice run.

 He wanted to make sure that Judge Dan Butcher knew how much we appreciated him.  :-)

This is our Jumpers run from Saturday.  It was our second qualifying Open Jumpers run.  Pardon my shrill voice, I was a little nervous.

 

 On Sunday we had our third qualifying run and finished our Open Jumpers with Weaves title.  It was a great run with lots of turns that he nailed.  I thought it was smoother that our run on Saturday.

We are working on on our Excellent titles now and have also started entering Time 2 Beat and FAST.  Astro loves Time 2 Beat because the courses are designed to be open and fast.  When I decided to try agility I didn't really know how it would turn out because Zephyr and Astro are my first dogs, so of course I was/am learning along the way.  I'm so happy that we've made it this far.  The Excellent level courses have been really challenging.  The courses are harder and there is much less room for error.  But, it's a lot of fun.  So far Astro has one Excellent Standard qualifying run and two Excellent Jumpers with Weaves qualifying runs. 

Firepups

 Spring has been here for awhile now.  In fact, unlike many other parts of North America, we barely even had a winter.  It was one of our driest winters, less that 2 ft of snow fell at our elevation of about 7,000 ft and there has been hardly any spring rain.  A normal winter has around 100 inches of snow followed by some rain.  So, now we are very dry and windy and have extreme fire danger.  To top it off, in the past week or so it seems that there is an arsonist around Flagstaff that has been lighting forest fires.

One day in March, a time that usually still has snow cover, the boys and I went out for a hike.  The forest roads were still closed at this time, so people can't drive into the forest.  It was a Red Flag Warning day, which means it was super windy and dry with high fire danger.

 This is what we came up on in the middle of the forest.  Someone must have come out and made this fire and then left it very hot with lots of coals and embers.  Within a minute of me taking this picture flames came up from the wind blowing on the embers.  I had about 3 cups of water that I poured on it that put them out, but then I dialed 911.  In Arizona we've had devastating forest fires start from things like this.

It was quite a hassle getting the fire department out there.  I actually don't have a smart phone, so wasn't able to give them coordinates.  However, I knew where I was and I'm really good with maps, roads, and directions (former geologist), but I'll make a long story short and just say that the people I was stuck talking to were not.  Very frustrating, I hope I'm never hurt in the middle of the forest and have to give directions to be saved.  I do have a GPS and have started carrying it more.  As I was walking along a small road toward the main road to try and meet the fire truck I met a man who was also walking his dog.  He helped get them the coordinates and came back to the fire with me.

 When we walked up to the fire it was in flames again.  At this point we had been told to just cover it with rocks, so we kicked in the pit walls to cover it.

Finally the local fire department came and they uncovered it, dug it up and dowsed it.  This was about a mile from houses.  This week our national forests, county, and city put fire restrictions in place.  Yesterday I was so happy to see that a forest road that people camp along and that comes within 1/4 mile of my neighborhood, but has technically been closed for a few years, finally has signs saying it's closed.  Just need to block the road now.  It can be scary living next to the forest, but it's hard for me to imagine living somewhere that I can't step out and be in nature with the dogs.

Sedona Hike

 Zephyr, Astro, and I went on a nice hike in Sedona.  We took the Brins Mesa - Soldier Pass - Cibola Pass loop which is about six miles.  The weather was beautiful in the 60s.

 This month is the 3 year anniversary of Zephyr getting encephalitis and it's been a little over 2 years since he finished his chemotherapy treatments.  Everyday I remember how lucky I am to have him.  He's a super healthy boy.

 

Zephyr and Astro met lots of people on the trail and received some nice comments on how sweet they are.  They were on leash for the hike.  I just took their leashes off for the pictures.  They would have loved a run around, but there are cactus and it's a pretty public trail.

 

A beautiful day.

Happiness is .....

running in the forest with a deer leg in your mouth.

Not the best pictures because they were taken with my phone.  But, they were so happy with their find.