She Has Her Moments

Coulee is generally a pretty serious dog, but she has her moments of goofiness.

On this particular night I had brought a second toy for Lacey.  Usually Coulee is very "loyal" to her chosen toy and no matter what I do, or what I play with, she won't switch even when I want her to.  The exception to this is if I bring out a ball or cuz toy - they trump frisbees and "bumper-like" toys, but I can't switch from ball to ball or frisbee to frisbee or from frisbee to bumper, etc.  Some days it is annoying but most days it is useful as I can play with Lacey without Coulee trying to steal away the toy.

But on this particular night Coulee was feeling mischievous and kept stealing toys right out of my hand.  Whatever one I had, she wanted.  It cracks me up that I can see her mood even in the photos.

Sorry for the crooked horizons.  I was shooting from the hip in order to catch her expression accurately.  :)

SUP with the Pups

I think it was a picture on Ruffwear's catalogue that first caught my attention. Then back in May they did an article on their blog about "How to SUP with your Pup".  I was smitten with the idea but had never seen a SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) before and  I even looked at a few local websites to see if anyone rented them and couldn't find any.  A facebook friend in the states mentioned it a month or so ago and I was again reminded about how I wanted to try it but I didn't do anything about it.  Then on Friday night, somehow it came up in conversation and Marlin said he'd love to try.  Really? OK!!

We found a local place that rents them and decided initially that our first trip would be without the dogs.  The last thing we needed to deal with were the dogs setting off our balance.  We went off to the store first thing in the morning and it was a bit confusing.  They sort of had one to rent, but not two, but maybe they could do two but they weren't really sure....  Errrr???  Do you rent them or not?  It wasn't that they had a bunch out already, it was more like they sort of rent them but not really.  It was weird.

Anyway, they had what is called a "Versa board" - (think of a hybrid between a SUP and a kayak) that was definitely available for rent and they got approval from the manager (who was off site) to rent us a SUP that was brand new and not actually supposed to be rented.  I heard the employee quietly describe us as "older" on the phone to the manager.  I think what she meant by older was "responsible".  ;)

Once I saw the Versa board, I knew for sure the dogs and us could manage that.  So we changed plans... got loaded up, picked up the dogs and headed out to Keho.  Oh what fun.

The SUP was definitely more of a challenge but was more manoeuvrable in the water.  I think an experienced SUP pup could ride on it, but it was too much for our girls.  So we ended up with both the dogs on the Versa and the other person alone on the SUP.

Lacey was awesome.  She'd find a spot and generally just stand there. Whenever we headed to shore for a break, she'd hop back on no problem to go again.  Her tail was down for the most part, but I think Coulee was affecting her quite a bit.

Coulee was not so awesome.  She whined and paced and whined and paced.  I'm actually wondering if it makes her feel nauseous.  Every time we headed to shore she'd eat a mountain of grass (which is unusual for her).  In the end we just let her run along the shore and swim around and she was much happier as was I.  My thighs were quaking like leaves trying to maintain balance on a constantly shifting board.

We also brought our Waboba ball with us and it was the first time we had a chance to use the "person one". (I've taken the fetch out with Coulee before.)  It bounces on top of the water... it is super fun.  The dogs of course also thought it was fun and Coulee got a tremendous work out playing monkey in the middle.  It was nice having someone retrieve it when we had a bad throw though.  :)

The horseflies were brutal!  We were constantly beating them off our legs while paddleboarding.  They showed up in quite a few pictures looking like helicopters while we were playing with the Waboba.

 Lacey swam for the promise of a cookie.

Whenever she got the ball, she'd run around on shore shaking it and not giving it to anyone.  :)

Coulee just wanted us to throw it again and again. so she'd deliver it when Lacey was tired of it.

It's funny how sometimes the GoPro catches what looks like "product placement ads".  :)

This is Coulee playing monkey in the middle and me trying to catch the ball.  Sorry for the crooked angle - I must have been leaning to the side to get the ball.  :)

Delivery service at its best.

PS - All the images are taken with the GoPro on a timer interval.

Fantastic

 Have I mentioned that Lacey is doing FANTASTIC after her surgery?

It almost feels like all that worry and stress was a complete waste of time.  You'd never know she had anything wrong with her or that she is missing a toe. I find it a little mind boggling still that its over. Completely over.

From what I had read (and from what the jerk of a surgeon was telling us the morning we dropped her off to get her toe removed) removing a weight bearing toe in the front should have had an impact on her.  And it hasn't.  At all.  Or at least none that I can see.

I have plans of bringing her to a rehab vet to see what we need to do to keep everything balanced but at the moment, I don't think it is necessary.  One is coming to town next month but she'll be taking appointments at the site of an agility trial and I don't think that is the right environment for Lacey's first visit.  I'll probably take her next time she is in town just in case things are going on that I'm not aware of.  I'd rather try and keep a problem from happening, than to have to deal with it after.

In the meantime, we'll just keep having fun.  That shouldn't be too hard.  :)

Editing

I'll be honest, editing photos is not my favourite thing and I like things to be fairly "true to life" but at the same time I can see what basic adjustments can do to a photo and I even like it sometimes when major adjustments are done to photos.  Part of my dislike is because I don't think I have the time - or rather I don't want to spend the time. I've been getting Photoshop via "subscription" for the past year and it took the sting out of buying a big expensive program that I wasn't sure if I would use.  It has definitely been useful when I had to keep a dog on a long line (editing out that leash was a BREEZE!) and it has been fun for the few composite photos I've done (I've been meaning to do more but haven't had a chance).  But I haven't done a whole lot with it that I couldn't do in Lightroom.

I recently bought some actions (basically they are editing short cuts that someone else has created to give a photo a certain look). I know I can get some for Lightroom as well but I wanted to play with Photoshop. I've done some playing around and even when I use the action at a pretty weak opacity (or strength shall we say) I find it a bit much. But then when I go back and look at my original edit, the original looks kind of dull.  LOL.  I need to figure out how to find a better balance and obviously more play time is needed.

Before and After - I realize the white balance isn't quite the same but it seemed like too much effort to fix.  See - told you I'm lazy.  :)

 Anyway, that's it for my ramblings.  I'll leave you with a few more pics.  :)

I caught this "from the hip" with my 70-200.  I'm thrilled her face is actually the part in focus.  :)

My car was getting a new windshield installed so we borrowed Marlin's vehicle so the girls got to ride loose in the back.

Speaking of vehicles, I'm getting some fun "stickers" added to my car's back windows.  It will be a little cheesy but it will make me smile and hopefully make some others smile as well.

Lacey will be smiling at everyone going by on the passenger side.

While Coulee will be grinning at everyone passing me on the driver side.

I've had this idea for a long time, but I originally wanted them facing towards the front of the car with the wind in their fur.  I imagined taking the photos on a windy day so that the car would be stationary (and they wouldn't be driving with their heads out the window) but I needed a windy day, with the light in the right place (in relation to the wind) and then someone to help me so I could turn their heads.  After taking Micah's photo in the car a few weeks ago, I figured that while this wasn't my original plan, it would still be cute.  I'm getting them on the car on Tuesday.  I can't wait.

Mood

I had to go to the car to grab something... she thought we were leaving.  This is her "What? But we just got here look."

Life has settled down dramatically these past few weeks... at least for now.  But I'm still not really in a mood to take photos or rather to edit or do anything with them.  I've still been taking my camera most days and taking at least some photos but they are mainly just sitting on my computer doing nothing.

I got a Waboba and I like it.

I have a client order that needs to be fulfilled and I keep putting it off - claiming (to myself) that I haven't had the time.  And that isn't true.  I have had the time, but I just haven't been in the right mood, at the right time. Hopefully I'll snap out of it this weekend as I'll need to do the order as well as edit some more agility pictures from Regionals.

They are supposed be used on land but it bounced pretty good so we just went with it.

So while I was going to do a casual review of the Waboba fetch ball, I'm going to leave that for another day.

And I wondered why she stunk to high heaven after this walk.

Coulee enjoyed it.  What more do you need to know?

Riding home with her new toy.

A Little Bit of Fun

We've been looking after my sister's family's dog Micah for the last few weeks.  She is such an easy dog to look after.  Even Jack liked her - and he doesn't like anyone.  :)

She went home today and seeing as I had some time to kill this afternoon I thought I'd play around a bit in Photoshop and convert some of my favourite images to black and white.

I really don't know what I'm doing in Photoshop and everything seems to take forever, but I realize I'm never going to get better if all I do is the same things over and over again.

These four images (which have nothing amazing done to them) took me a few hours.  LOL.  I flounder A LOT.  I'm quite enjoying the second and last ones though.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

The Old Adage

When it comes to blogging, I try to keep in mind the old adage - "When you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I haven't been miserable this past month, but let's just say, I haven't been happy.  I've been working.  A LOT.  I've had no time for Marlin, the dogs, friends, family, housework, paperwork and anything else that has been silently screaming my name.  I think (and pray) that I am starting to see a tiny pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel.  I actually took almost the entire day off yesterday - which was the first time since some time in May!  I went in early to work to get some weeding done before the heat hit but then I just stayed home in air conditioned bliss. I read a great book, I snuggled with the dogs, I watched some taped TV shows and I just relaxed.  It was wonderful.

Today I don't need to be at work until noon and it is supposed to be incredibly hot, so I took the dogs out early.  I've been looking for a canola field to take pictures in. I took some a few years ago and have been dying to try again. This year though, most of the fields seem to be way too tall. This one isn't nearly as bad as the one I tried the other day but it was still too tall for what I wanted.  In the field the other day, I couldn't see Coulee at all - the only way I could tell where she was, was by the rustling of the plants.  It was pretty funny to watch the plants moving around but it wasn't going to make a decent picture.

But I found a spot today that the canola wasn't doing so great (the main part of the field was, but I think this area may have stayed damp for too long) and it was perfect.  I was recently assured by a farmer that canola is a very hardy plant that a dog isn't going to damage it, so I didn't feel too guilty letting Coulee run around for a minute.  Although I still felt rushed and worried as we are trespassing.  It definitely wasn't a place where I felt I could just hang out and wait for the right moment so I threw the toy a few times, snapped a few pictures and got out of there and headed to the lake.

I didn't bring the camera to the lake but Coulee had a great time and swam for about 45 minutes straight.  Lacey and I were bored to tears as it is only a good swimming place, not a good walking place , so we just stood around waiting for her.  I threw little sticks for Lacey but the moment it required swimming, she gave up.  :)  She prefers to splash, not swim.  The iPhone photo makes the stick look like it is miles out there, but it isn't more than a few feet!  Sticks aren't really in big supply in the prairies so it didn't take long to exhaust our small supply.  ;)

If I had been sure there weren't leeches in the lake, I would have waded in there with them today.  It was only 8:30 a.m. but it was already hot and muggy and the lake looked so calm and peaceful.  I really wished I had one of those inflatable chairs to lounge on.

Saw this little guy on the way home and for some reason, the tiny bird on the giant bale struck me as amusing.  I can just imagine her thinking that she's found the motherlode of all nest supplies.  :)