TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

I knew the day I started this silly blog that I'd have to make this entry someday. Knowing hasn't made it any easier. When I first saw Mattie's adoption picture on Craigslist way back in 2006, I remember thinking "No, you can't actually get a dog. You live in Isla Vista. You're a student. You don't know how to take care of a dog. You are being silly." Mattie's posting in the newspaper. That week, I kept looking at the posting of an adorably muppet-like scruffy terrier mix from Mississippi who "is still a bit guarded" (I've since learned that this is shelter-speak for "This dog has some behavioral issues"). After about a week of falling for her through a picture, I sent off an email to Andrea Stout (the director of DAWG at the time, who had brought her home to foster after Mattie decided to stop eating in the shelter), and we set up an introduction. The dog that I met that fateful day (October 4th, 2006) at Dougl...

Summer ended, booooo! We're back at Santa Barbara cabin, yaaaaaay! It's easy coming home to this place. Here's what we've been up to for the past month and a half. We finished Wrenly's house and it is awesome. Hopefully he'll be moving back in this spring. It's in the same spot as his old hole-in-the-wall house, so he'll probably find it. We love Wrenly. We did more fishing on the Truckee, with a lot of fun little rainbows, cutthroats and browns caught-and-released. That is a fun river for fishing. I didn't get any really big guys this summer, but the little ones are fun enough and it's beautiful hanging out by the waterfall with Greg. We found a radiosonde in the Truckee and we thought that was really cool! We put it back in the mail so NASA can hopefully restore it and send it back up. A few days after this Greg even found the parachute for it while he was fishing. SCIENCE. Just a random family picture (minus Milo). I cou...

AUGUST IS AWESOME! Despite having colds, we've had a fun August in Reno and Aspendell. Here's what we've been up to since we posted last. We went fishing and Yoder the Coyote showed up! We usually each catch a few little fish, but Yoder was definitely the highlight of this day. If you give a horse a carrot... Going through the pasture to get to the river is like running the gauntlet. They chase after you demanding carrots.  I love horses, but I don't love it when three of them (and a burro) are chasing me. Then we drove south and Sam and Sara came up to Aspendell for a lazy, relaxing weekend. We mostly fished, hung out on the deck, cooked, and did some low-key wandering. We found a really cool new stretch of creek up near North Lake with super fun fishing. Sam caught a little brook, brown and rainbow for the slam! The most perfect little stretch of creek, with a shady sandy shoreline to read and relax on. Sam with Mr. Rai...

What a summery few weeks it's been! Where to even start? This will basically be a photo journal with some captions from these glorious three weeks in the mountains and on rivers. First, Greg and I had another long weekend in Aspendell. Beautiful weather and short 'n' sweet hike to Lower Lamarck Lake. Silly fishing for brookies on dry flies.   The next day I made Greg work. He cleared the entire yard. It was pretty hot.  I just kept moving rocks around in anticipation of future landscaping, so was basically useless.  Mattie LOVES going for little "swims" at Topaz Lake on our way to and from Reno. She just walks in until she's chest deep and stands there for a while. Not bad for a hurricane dog.  She absolutely loves it.  Then we had a relaxing week of fishing, work, school business, and spacing out at the ranch. Scott went fishing with us one day and caught the most beautiful giant brown. Right out of the bac...