Down to the river

The sun came out Thursday afternoon and it was too nice not to get out. I didn't have a lot of time but Gigi and Maya and I did a quick two miles at the dog park end of the Pleasant Grove property. I don't go there often because of the risk of people with unleashed dogs, but with Maya and Gigi that's not such a big concern. One free running dog came up to them, but he was friendly and they weren't interested so we soon went on our way.

The nice thing about this trail is that it goes down by the river. The Rivanna River is visible from a lot of spots where we normally walk, but this is the best place to go if you want to really walk into the river. Maya waded in a few steps and had a quick drink. Gigi didn't get her feet wet.

Gigi isn't part of my regular walking rotation, but occasionally she tells me that she wants to go. Yesterday was one of those days.

And here's my own personal Jesus singing "The River."

More hiking

This has been a good week for hiking - no rain, mild temps, and the mud is finally drying up.

Monday was five miles with Maya and Abby.

Sparky's obligatory roll on the grass in the sun.

Tuesday I did three miles with Maya and Sparky, followed by another three with Maya and Abby.

Wednesday I took out three dogs for the first time since last winter: Maya, Theo, and Trooper.

I really trying to get back to the daily hike routine. I need to get some weight walked off this winter before the ticks come back and the grass starts to grow.

I'm keeping both Sparky and Trooper to 3 mile
hikes for now. They seem fine with that.

Abby, of course, can go forever.

I hope to be taking Abby to her new home on Saturday.

Serious shepherd business. They are all sniffing another dog's
poop or deer poop. They did a lot of that today.

Not much was missed with three sets of shepherd ears.

Just the boys, Theo and Trooper

Walking into the setting sun.

We do walk like we own the trails, but if we do meet anyone
we pull well off the trails to let them pass in peace.

Can anyone explain to me why some folks
seem to bag up their dog's poop but then
drop the bag along the trail?  What is the
point?  Better to leave it exposed.

Only Maya seems to understand that this was supposed to be a photo op.
The boys just wanted to mark the post and sniff around.

Glowing shepherds

Abby and Maya and I did a five mile hike late this afternoon. We didn't get started until after 4:00 p.m., but usable light is getting later and later now, particularly on non-cloudy days.

Maya's white undercoat really catches the light.

That low-angle, late afternoon sun really lights up the girls fur to the point that it glows. Abby looked like hers was on fire in the last few shots.

Abby has a darker top coat, but her undercoat is quite light.

Prospect for Abby

I took Abby to a Promises Animal Rescue adoption event on Saturday. There were actually two potential adopters there who came to meet her and were interested in adopting her. I have hope that she will have a home soon. She needs someone to be working with her and she's smart enough to learn anything. She's very outgoing, sweet, and friendly with people, so she shows well at adoption events.

I took Maya along, of course, but she stayed in a crate in the car. She was just along for the ride.

Maya in crate right behind the front seats, and Abby is loose
in the space behind the crate.

The rest of these pictures are from my hikes on Friday. Maya and I did three miles with Sparky, and later in the day we did another three miles with Theo.

Maya and Sparky walk very well together.

Here they are teaming up to sniff something important.

Sparky never misses an opportunity to roll in the grass.

Theo is easy to walk until he sniffs a deer.

Theo is one of the best looking shepherds ever to
cross my path. He's a little shepherdy, but basically
has a good, solid temperament.

An evening out with Maya

Thursday was Clay's day off. Although I had to work, we had hoped to head down to Scottsville in the afternoon so I could have a chat with the bee lady at Scottsville Supply Company. We didn't get down there in time for that because I had a telephone conference call at 4:00 p.m., concerning my employer's continuing efforts to off-shore my job to the Philippines.

We did go, however, and had a pizza and a couple beers at James River Brewery. Maya hadn't been there in a while, but she knew just where to go. She went right up to the bar and ordered herself a treat.

Another spring day

Beautiful spring-like day. Almost 70 degrees, only a gentle wind, and nothing but blue sky and sunshine. It shouldn't be this way at the end of January, but I'm not going to complain about it. I got out for a 2 mile hike with Maya and Sparky around noon, and another three miles with Maya and Theo late in the afternoon.

Sparky loves a roll in the grass.

In between hikes I went out to the pasture to check on my bees. I finally got a bee hive started last spring but I don't really know what I'm doing so I pretty much left them alone. I wasn't sure if the colony had thrived and built up enough stored food to make it through the winter. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of activity around the entrance this warm afternoon. I suited up in bee gear and went in to check it out. When I took off the top it was obvious that there were a lot of bees present. The frames were all stuck together but I could see what appeared to be a good amount of filled out comb on them. One consequence of leaving them alone since spring may be that they were not accustomed to having a human invader and they were not too pleased to have me poking around. I was wearing my bee jacket, hood, and gloves, but I had shorts on from the hike. I hadn't fired up my smoker thinking that they wouldn't be too active in this weather, and after getting stung a couple times, I decided to close it back up and leave them alone. I was happy to see them alive and active at least. I'll go visit my bee advisor and ask about putting some supplemental food in the hive for them to help make it through the winter.

Two miles was enough for Sparky today; I need to get him out more
often and get him back in shape. 

Bees don't show up well in photos, but there was
a lot of activity at the entrance to the hive.

Maya and Theo