BOULDER HILL, BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST

We took a break from all that back-breaking landscaping work and went for hike. It was Jake's first hike in the Black Hills and he did great; he is a natural. He could not resist on the way back and chased a deer full speed, which with those long legs covers a lot of ground. Still lots of wildflowers this late in summer. Not bad for getting closer to God on a gorgeous Sunday morning. JIR

THE FAB FAM IN MONTANA

Watch that little bit of drool hang

Gidgie is such a good girl...after dismembering and decapitating her toys.

SOUTH DAKOTA SUNRISE

Life has been very busy: the move in late June, unpacking, starting a big landscaping project, and our fabulous week in Montana. I haven't blogged for some time, except for a quickie about the motorcycle rally. So it is time to get back into it. I realized I had several pictures in my camera, including these sunrise pictures from July. Nice way to get restarted. JIR

Good Dog! Bad Dog!

This is Jake waiting to be hand fed, all to be explained at the end of the post.

Actually Jake rarely has to be scolded, but he did do a no no in class the other day. We worked very hard all week on our homework, so when it came to class time, he was bored after we started reviewing everything we did all week long, and he just layed down and went to sleep!


Our instructor confuses us sometimes with mixed messages so we don't always follow her directions. Of course she doesn't like that. She was showing us a certain way to get the dog to lay down, it involved a lot of work, kneeling on the floor, holding them by the collar, and holding a treat in your hand and bringing it to the floor, and when he gets his whole body on the ground you say, "Good dog" and give them their treat. But to get Jake to lay down, I just say, "Lay down," and he does. She told me not to do that, to do it her way, so I did, and Jake did what he was told, only he decided that was way too much work, and just stayed laying on the floor. He didn't want to get back up, and I didn't blame him.

Then the crabby dog next to us began barking at another dog, which of course would set off a chain of barking dogs, except Jake of course, and Jake decided he didn't like that, and tried to exit the room through the door behind us. I tried to explain we couldn't leave but he kept getting up to leave everytime that cranky dog barked. The dog is just like it's owner, very unfriendly and I believe Jake had his fill of the whole lot of them.

Actually he is doing great, and most of the time we obey all our commands. Now we are supposed to hand feed Jake all week. She said, "one morsel at a time." Have you ever tried to give a drooling dog 2 1/2 cups of tiny food one morsel at a time? "Ain't gonna happen!" So I feed him 10 or 12 at a time until we get about half way through, and by then I have so much slobber in my hand it is gross, so I let him eat the rest from the dish.

There is a purpose to this, it is to make sure the dog does not get aggressive with their food, and to remind them you are the boss and the one feeding them. Somehow this sounds perverse to me, but I am thinking in human terms and not pack terms. Jake could care less, as long as he gets his food, he doesn't care how you feed it to him.

Hike up Boulder Hill with the Chix

There are a few things the Chix do well: hike, eat and we laugh a lot.

Some interesting boulders as we neared the top.

We had a great 6 - 7 mile hike on the Flume Trail on Thursday. First we hiked the 2 + miles to the top of Boulder Hill, then came down and went around one of the loops, another 4 miles. This picture taken part of the way up Boulder Hill is looking towards Mt. Rushmore, and you can see George Washington carved in the mountain on the left side of the hill in the distance. There is an old fire tower on Boulder Hill, here is some of what is left of it.

One of the views going around the scenic loop.

This is from the scenic loop, looking up towards Boulder Hill, if I had any idea I was going to end up on top of that, I probably would have stayed home! But I did it, and had a great time.

A view from Boulder Hill.