June & July 2015 Catchup

In addition to the bigger trips and adventures we had in June and July, we did some local adventuring as well.

Susan often finds things that are going on or things she simply thinks will be a good outing. The trip to the zoo was one of those. There was a "wildlife" weekend event being held at our zoo, and teachers (Susan) had free entry tickets and could bring a guest (me) for half price. We had a grand time.

The most interesting part for me was learning about Karelian Bear Dogs. They are a special breed that come from the Karelia region of Finland. Historically they were bred to hunt down brown bear and moose. These dogs are incredible! They are docile and friendly to humans and agressive and strong against bears.

 

The ranger demonstrates the need to keep our garbage covered securely

 

Savute prepares to chase any released bears away from here and into the woods where they live.

 

 

The dogs are used to help Department of Wild Life do the work of "hazing" animals away from civilization, capture work, and education. The program helps with mangement service and in assisting with wildlife conflicts in Washington. Among other helpful work, the dogs are brought to chase bears away from residential homes, and consequently have helped avoid the bear from (unnecessarily) being killed.

There was a campsite set up that was poorly kept and showed how the bears will ransack it for food as a natural way to feed themselves.

There's a bear nearby...

 

...and he smells the hanging salmon...

 

... so he considers this an easy catch for dinner.

 

The lesson here is to KEEP A CLEAN campsite. And don't feed birds or leave food in your back yard in the spring and summer months when the bears have awoken from hibernation HUNGRY.

 

The summer months had been abnormally hot this year. Susan set up our patio for some relaxing in the shade.

 

 

I of course had some nice bike rides -- alone and with others.

A sample of the tile are along the bikeway to Arlington

 

A walking path that Lynne and I took at Mill Creek on the way to lunch at the Rusty Pelican

 

The flowers that Connie bought from a roadside truck brighten up her pannier on our Rainbow Ride to the Red Barn

 

A solo ride takes me by the elementary school vegetable garden

 

The scarecrow keeps the garden growing

 

Dorothy and me at the gnome home.

 

A little whimsey along the trail that Dorothy, Bette-Ann and I rode for tea and crumpets

One more adventure in July just before leaving for a week out of town. Susan and I joined Sarah and the Grands for a bike ride from their house. We cycled some back roads, carefully crossed a main road and reached a park with a pond and a playground. Riding around the pond, we dubbed that as a circumnavagation of a "lake".

Oh yeah -- Higgins joined us for this outing...

 

Kaitlyn has company in the chariot

 

Lucy takes Higgins down the slide

 

Higgins and Kaitlyn snuggle for a swinging time

 

Higgins is pretty good about walking on a leash

The interesting thing is that Higgins would rarely allow adults (except maybe Jeremy) pet, hold, carry and be terribly close to himself, let alone sit quietly in any space near a human. The children in his family are a different story.

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