Gage spent the night with us when Jared and Amy went to see a show and would be home late... I took him out with me and the dogs. Tend to get "king of the mountain" pictures :)
It is sad how much of the area where we used to run the dogs is all torn up. Not sure where the bunnies and associated predators have gone.
Side note, once I was out with the dogs and saw someone walking down from mountain view corridor carrying something large and dark on top of a long pole. My first thought was a surveyor (sad. Another open area gone) but he was too far away to tell. Next time I looked he was without pole and swinging something around and around over his head.... I realized it was a lure and the pole had carried some type of hawk he was teaching to hunt. I bet he too will be sad when the bunnies are gone.
I'm on a roll. Now "out with the dogs" stories involving coyotes. I may have already mentioned the time a coyote followed Daisy as she was jogging back to me. My first thought was "get away from my dog!" which I yelled very loudly... It was scary! Later I thought perhaps I should have seen what it did when it got closer. It was lean and pretty, all mottled with shades of browns, yellows and white, not grey and scraggly like NM and Vegas coyotes.
Second coyote story. I had walked out 10-15 minutes with the dogs on a dark, dark night. Suddenly in front of me a loud yipping started up. It sounded coyote-like but I thought maybe Daisy was in trouble. She ranges much more than Cooper when it's dark. I started running towards the sound yelling Daisy's name. Checking to make sure Cooper was behind me, I saw both dogs behind. Now Daisy was anxious to go check it out and went around me. Calling her and after a couple tries, I grabbed her collar and tried to decide what to do. If I had leashes to control them I would have checked it out. As it was I turned around and made them come back with me along the canal. Now I really wish I looked. Jenny and Emily suggested it was a dog rather than a coyote in distress. :( Next day I went out when it was light and didn't see anything.
Ok, back to the regularly scheduled blog.
Typically a Saturday morning finds us at the South Jordan Farmers Market. This morning Gage got a crown from a balloon guy.
August is also Bluffdale Old West Days. First, the family rodeo where Gage tried again to stay on a sheep.
Then the parade, which stopped in the middle because a little girl in the parade fell and got run over. Luckily it wasn't fatal like a parade earlier in the summer.
We had gone to the actual rodeo last month when Angela was visiting but of course I didn't take any pictures. Bailey, Talon, Talon's sister also joined all the SLC Helms... which I only know by the photo evidence on Amy's blog :) I just remembered a nice story from the rodeo! Jared was worried about getting seats so Aaron graciously headed over early to save some while Emily and I took the kids out to In and Out. It took a long time to go, order, wait for food, and then drive back to the rodeo that we were late. Thanks again Aaron! He was much happier about the situation after we brought him food :).
Work decided to go to a Bees baseball game for the summer activity. With no takers from my immediate family, Gage obligingly came with me.
He seemed to really enjoy it.
We were going to leave right after the game but fellow coworkers said the fireworks would be great. Gage decided we should stay :)
Carly had a birthday.. sometimes I take pictures, sometimes not. I think James had a birthday in July.
Kade let me use his glasses.
Loved the pattern of the leave shadows.
I took picture of the ducks to show Emily. Thought it was funny how dirty daffodil was... and that Emily had left the other gate open
Now some skunk news. This is a picture of the 3rd time Cooper was skunked.
Emily got good at washing him down (Dawn, vinegar, then some essential oils) and protecting his eyes but he sure stunk for weeks. Always around the face.
First time was right at the end of a walk out chasing bunnies... It was dark so I wasn't sure what happened until I smelled him. My only thought was to get him home so I threw the dogs in the back of my car and drove home. BAD plan. My car didn't smell good. Aaron had already caught one skunk a couple days before and just the blowback permeated my car, especially after sitting closed up all day in the parking structure. Something had been eating the duck eggs and finally killed the baby ducks we didn't know Gerald was trying to hatch. That's why Aaron (under Emily's direction) started trapping. The orchard/paddock/pasture hadn't smelled like skunk so we thought it might be a weasel.
Emily suggested I try setting my car out in the sun to try cooking the smell out. Cooper had originally scared a skunk under OB1 (Out Building 1) earlier in the summer and she said the smell dissipated fairly quickly under the sun. Aaron let me use his car to get to work and the cooking did work well.
Aaron caught a total of 6 skunks, one of which skunked Cooper when he went up to bark at it... That was the third skunking. Emily said as soon as he realized what was happening he ran as far away as he could get in out backyard. He knew what happened next! The second time Emily saw it first and thinking it was a cat, tried to keep the dogs off. But once the skunk tried to run out under the gate, Cooper wouldn't listen anymore. Emily was so mad! We have very naughty dogs. It's funny because when I take them out off leash, Cooper is the one that comes when called and Daisy doesn't listen. The good news is, he listened to Emily on the other ones we caught so he hasn't been skunked a 4th time... Yet. We don't think we've caught them all yet... Still loosing duck eggs.
Its a little strange to say Daisy has been the smart dog :)
(this post has information into November but I am still pretending I posted it in September :)
