Greetings from Frosty Kansas

I'm out in Kansas visiting my mother. It's freaking cold out here and it has been this way for much of the winter. We've had a very wet winter (and summer and fall), but we haven't really had that much bitterly cold weather like they've had out here. If we had this cold weather plus all the moisture that has fallen as rain in Virginia, we would be buried in snow until June.

Visiting my mother also means visiting her not-so-little pug, Jake.

The sock monkey is one of Jake's favorite toys. He does not
destroy them.

This is Jake's "you're in my spot" look.

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen
on Facebook. The pug is perfect for it.



Everyone who has ever lived in this house has sat
in this spot for either the heat or the air conditioning
on some occasion. It is one of Jake's favorite spots.

Jake has always assumed that if it's pug-sized,
then it's a spot for him. No one has ever corrected
him so he has no reason to believe otherwise.

Run, River Run

The Rivanna River runs through Fluvanna County, passing right next to Palmyra. There was a mill at one time and the village of Palmyra grew up and became the county seat. The Rivanna is usually a slow and shallow river. At one time there was a canal and locks along it, when it was used for commerce. Since the era of railroads and trucks nothing much has been asked of the Rivanna and it has become a lazy waterway, primarily used for recreation.

This is the boat launch on the Rivanna River at Palmyra. 

This past year, however, the Rivanna has been full to capacity or even overcapacity more often than not. All the rain has kept it working fast and hard, moving muddy water down to the James. The demands on it have often exceeded its capacity, resulting in flooding. I had a beer with my friend Tricia on Sunday and she told me that she would apologize to the river when crossing it, saying sorry for all the extra water she's had to carry. This is probably the first year since we've lived here that I never got in a canoe trip this past spring, summer, or fall. The water has been too high or it's been raining whenever I had a chance to go.

The river didn't jump its banks this time, but it certainly got
high and was running fast, hard, and muddy.

Maya and Serena and I walked down to the river this afternoon to take a look. Later I took Theo, Max, Smokey, and Trooper out to the pasture for a run.

This walk was new territory for Serena and she was happy
and excited to be going. We also met a woman I know on
the walk back up and Serena greeted her and leaned into her
like they were old friends. She's overcome the social anxiety
she had when she first arrived.

There's apparently lots of interesting smells in the sand.

Maya is my faithful hiking companion.

One route we normally take on the way down was flooded
with standing water, so we backtracked and took the gravel
trail. It has suffered a lot of erosion from the rains too.

This is the top of the river bank. There's a steep drop off to
the water, but down there is normally the sandy beach.

This is the old county courthouse in Palmyra. I stopped on the
way home to finally get my 2019 county kennel license. 

Theo and Max

Max (left), Smokey (downhill), and Theo (right)

Smokey enjoyed the run and he didn't get
his butt kicked today. He actually got Theo
to chase him for a bit, and that's what he
really wanted to do.

Theo, of course, is just interested in playing ball.

Smokey on the run.

That's Smokey front and center, I think that's Max on the right, so Theo is downhill on the left.

Theo the Great

This is the only picture I got of Trooper because
he spent the entire time at the front fence. There
was a UPS truck across the street and he had to
make sure it went on it's way. That's Trooper
on the left, Theo on the right, heading in.

Sweet Serena Walks Again

Serena is feeling good, hardly even favoring her lame leg now, and she doesn't understand why I won't let her out to romp in the mud and body slam shepherds. It wasn't all she wanted, but I relented a bit on the activity restriction today and took her on one of my two mile walks, along with Maya and Trooper. She had a good time and she doesn't seem to be hurting this evening. We didn't go very far or very fast, but it was more than I've done with her outdoors for several weeks.

Serena is on high alert here, excited by a
plastic trash bag that was flapping in the wind.

It's far too muddy to walk any where other than the roadway at Pleasant Grove, but the sun came out and it was really a pretty nice day. It was windy and that makes dogs stupid but everyone was happy to be out and moving. After the first two miler I left Trooper and Serena at home and went out again with Maya and Theo for another two miles. I figured that four miles was enough to satisfy Maya and Clay was home to watch her by that time, so my third walk was a solo with Smokey. He pulled harder than he has in the past, which I attributed to the wind. There were a lot of people and dogs out there this afternoon too, and even a few folks flying kites. We don't often have enough wind to fly a kite, but we sure did today, and it made me think about getting one again sometime.

Serena and Trooper in the back of the van on the way up to
the park. Maya is in one of the crates.

One of the nice thing about Danes is that they are
able to walk and snuggle at the same time.

I parked in a spot where I could make the walk less than two
miles if needed, but both Trooper and Serena seemed fine
and wanted to go the distance.

Pretty profile

Trooper and Maya

I haven't been letting Theo into the dog yard
with Max because it's too muddy, so he really
wanted to get out and go on the hike today.

Theo, ready for the ride home.

Smokey was pulling hard today.

You can see that the leash is pretty taut in this pictures.

Smokey got the "golden hour" today
because his was the last walk of the day.

A little bonding time

Today sucked in terms of weather and work, but I salvaged about an hour of daylight when it wasn't raining for a little bonding time with Smokey. We went out to the pasture, just Smokey and Max, and Smokey was on a long rope so he would stick with me. Max ran around obeying the demons in his head, but mostly following me and carrying a deflated soccer ball. I walked around the pasture with Smokey on a long line.

When I would stop because I was doing something on my phone or whatever, he would come over to me to see about the hold up. I nuzzled his muzzle in my hand several times and got several touches with his nose. I was more comfortable with him than I've ever been and I think, hope, that he felt the same about me. Yesterday I worked on calling him to me and getting him to sit with treats. Today I just called and he would come.

This is the lowest part of our property in the
front and it's developing into small stream. 

Max needs something in his mouth at all times. He
can't focus without it, that's when he goes into his spin.

Max wrestling with his soccer ball reminds me of
a meme I've seen on Facebook: "Sometimes I wrestle
with my demons, sometimes we just snuggle."
That is Max.

Is the neuter beginning to work some attitude change or is he just
 becoming more comfortable with me?  Probably some of both.

He has a favorite chew toy in his crate in the house and he
plays food dish game (think air hockey) in the shed by
himself, but I need some other play activities for him.