Rachael Sent These Photos from July 2013

Where I manage to go through the entire "photo shoot" with my fly open, or so it looks to me. 

Where I get to pet a goat. 



Thanks to Rachael,  animal communicator extraordinaire, who made the shy goats come forward to be petted.

Check out the gorgeous nature in the background of the above pictures. 

Thanks for your comments on my vacation from blogging. I thought I would mention that I am putting blogging on hold for a while since so many bloggers seem to just take off, leaving those of us who care to wonder what happened. I have a very busy week ahead, then I will start getting back to part-time blogging and to reading your posts. I tell you, harvesting this enormous garden of ours is breaking my back, or so it feels, but I'm loving it. I also have doctors to visit and a diabetes group meeting this week, so busy for me who never goes anywhere. 

When Rachael sent these pictures, I just had to post them. Memories from a good day with a good friend. Open fly or not. Hope you enjoyed them. 

Taking a Blogging Break

After four years, I decided a while back to take a vacation from blogging. I wanted to take some time and think about how I blog, how I read your blogs, how I never seem to be able to read all I want to read, and so on. I'm sure we have all been there. This was a while back and I'm still blogging ~ because I love it, of course.

But I need a break, I need to sit up by our garden and watch it grow while listening to birds chirping and watching chipmunks dashing about, madly. Of course, I also need to help hubby harvest, cook, and freeze everything from our garden. And I want learn more about photography and available online photo programs. Then there are all the chores that were left behind, postponed, due to the extreme heat of this summer. So I think I will become a part-time blogger for a while, which appeals to me as a good compromise. 

P. S. 

Looking at the date, I just realized that today I have lived here for seven years. I moved to the canyon with three dogs, one cat, and a parakeet, leaving hubby in Los Angeles to run his business, which he did for another four and a half years. 

The following year, I got a job at the donkey rescue where I met Rachael, fell in love with donkeys, fell in love with a bearded dragon, kissed an albino Burmese python, and learned so much about all kinds of animals. And some weird people too. After I quit the rescue, a year went by, then I started this blog in 2009. 

I love living in this desert mountain canyon; I love the winter snow, the autumn morning fog, the flowers in spring, the mountains, and the wildlife. Most of all I love the peace I have found here.


Take care, my blogger friends, I will keep you updated.

Thank You

Rachael spotted this old tree when we were out driving on the mountain earlier this summer. And this is sort of how I feel: Old, and gnarly, or is it gnarled? But I digress:

Thank you all so very much for your kind words of sympathy on our loss of Soldier. I knew that once I posted about his passing, you would send me love and support. For I have learned over the years that blogger friends are just as much friends as those you have lunch with, those you can touch, those you can hug. Your love and virtual hugs mean just as much. This I want you all to know.  

I developed a special bond with Soldier because he needed special care since he was injured nearly two years ago. And through this process, I learned how to give the special love of a caretaker. This was a good lesson for me, a needed one, that I was happy to take on. So you are right, it will take time for my tears to stop, but he will live in my heart forever. And I still have someone who needs me:

Someone who is pretty high maintenance, who needs to walk for miles before the sun comes over the mountain ridge; someone who has a weird disease, who needs a special diet, who needs eye drops every other day, and vet visits every three months.  Someone who needs to be brushed more often than I want to think about, someone who, for all that, will lick my face, kiss my ear, and give me this great smile in return. 

It doesn't get much better than that!

Thank you from my husband, Samson, and me. 

In Memory of Soldier, 2000 ~ 2013

Soldier died Saturday night, he was around 13 years old. I noticed that his eyes had that different look a few days ago, and he wasn't quite right. But he ate well and walked without problems, so I hoped he would be OK again. But on Saturday, after a few hours of pain and restlessness, he laid down and died peacefully with his beloved daddy at his side. 

Of all the dogs that lived with us during our 30 years together, Soldier was the toughest, the bravest, and the most courageous. My friends, you know his story. He was my inspiration to get up and get going every morning, no matter how I felt. His previous owners named him well, and that's the only good they did for him. 

Soldier was a trooper who stole my heart. Soldier's heart, though, belonged to his daddy. He knew his daddy rescued him; and for the six years he lived with us, his daddy was his hero, and the greatest love of his life.

I am glad Soldier died without having to suffer any more vet visits, without lingering and feeling ill for a long time, or worse, a final vet visit to end his life. I worried about that a lot. Instead, he passed away peacefully, with his daddy petting him, and soothing him; that is what I wished for and that is how it came to be. For this am very grateful.

But Soldier, my boy, how I will miss your brave heart. You will always be my boy and mommy will always love you the mostest and the bestest. (That's how I used to talk to him, because he was my hero.)

This is Soldier on the day I first met him in early fall 2007.