Peace in the Mountains

With all the tumult in our country these days, we are seeking out the peace of our mountains. There's nothing like the quiet of sunrise in the mountains. And winter sunrises are the best.

We rarely see anyone on our mountain bike rides - and when we do, they are sensitive and friendly people. All of us have needed a little extra space recently, and we've been giving it to each other.

Shyla and I head for our quiet little corners of the forest, enjoying the sunrise light. Both of us have been feeling physically good for a few days, which is wonderful!

During our rides, I've been thinking about world and national affairs much more than usual. However, I realize that some real work can be done more locally. For example, I have continued to find illegal campers and get them thrown out. The latest crew all had warrants out for their arrests so getting them out of our neck of the woods (and into jail) is a big relief. What is happening to our world?

When did everyone forget that the wildlife need non-trashed forests to live out their lives? -- Like this owl. He graced my trail camera with a visit. 

According to my research, the only large owl that winters here is the Great Horned Owl but I don't see "big horns" on this owl. However, he never looked at the camera while except in that last blurry photo so I am not certain that he isn't a Great Horned Owl.

I hope that we can find a way to preserve the health of our planet and our local forests, even if the new administration doesn't care about those things.

I made this silly little symbol of hope the other day. Let's all try to be like those safety pins, pulling factions back together to bring more peace to our world.

Time Stops for No one

I've been moving slowly, trying to get my equilibrium after all those migraines and events of last week.

It seemed perfect to stroll out back and watch the super moon rise last night. No matter what happens in our little human world, the universe marches onward. At least, up until this point, we haven't altered the Earth enough to stop celestial events.

The moon peeked over the ridge.

And rose until a tree was just barely tethering it to the horizon.

I love the simple things in life like watching the moon rise.

And then standing in the rapidly cooling air watching it levitate still further.

Seeing the moon continue its pattern despite all the tumult on Earth felt almost like when I discovered that my mother's watch had kept ticking after she died. My soul had assumed that time had stopped at the instant of her death.

Alas, time stops for no one, and I want to keep living, immersing myself in the world around me. That's what my furry friends do.

I try to emulate them!

As the Mountain Lion World Turns

As many of you know, I adore following our wild cats: bobcats and mountain lions. Last summer, we had a mother mountain lion who had small kittens in our neck of the woods.

This was my first glimpse of one of them. The spotted kitten is in front of his mother.

Very soon, his sibling caught up and is by his mother's hind legs in the photo.

These photos were in a dark forested area. Just a short time later, the family passed through a brightly lit area where my cam captured color photos of them. In this photo, mom is just leaving the frame and a kitten is behind her.

The kitten dawdled a little, probably sniffing the tree - which is a tree that is frequently marked by bears.

That was the last that I saw of the family. In fact, my trail cams captured no photos of mountain lions for a long time - a fact that left me very concerned about our wild cats.

Now, many months later, mountain lions have returned to our area. I seem to be capturing photos of them at least once per week. Phew!

In the interim, the study that was following lions wearing GPS collars ended. The researchers tried to capture all the lions in the study last winter to remove their collars. They did a pretty good job although there is at least one lion in our neck of the woods who is still wearing a collar.

One pair that I've gotten photos of has intrigued me because it could be a kitten and a mother from that family photographed last summer. They may have moved to another niche in our area for the past year.

The first set of photos was of a youngish looking lion. He came up a hill toward my trail cam.

Like most young lions I've seen in this spot, the scents of the animal marking post next to him caused him to freeze and sniff. Note the very black "mustache" spot above his mouth - that's one sign that he's young.


Another sign is that his body doesn't look proportioned normally yet. His legs look too short for the rest of him.

Nonetheless, he looks extremely strong and healthy. He's about the right age to be nearing the end of his time with his mother. He's also about the right age to be one of those tiny kittens who we saw more than a year ago in the first photos of this post.

Later that evening, a larger lion who had the proportions of an adult walked past the trail cam very fast.

I suspect that this is his mother. At the kitten's age, the mother will leave him with the carcass of their last kill while she goes hunting for their next meal.

I really wish that I'd captured photos of them together. I will be watching and hoping that I do!

Saturdays are for recharging

Life marches onward, and Shyla and I are falling back into our routines. This is one of my favorites - visiting the top of our little world to play.That's the Continental Divide behind Shyla. I have never known it to be so devoid of snow at this time of year.

I am thoroughly exhausted today, after a week of migraines, a big shock, and a panicky attack. I did figure out one aspect of my panic attack - I'd just drunk a fair bit of an electrolyte replacement drink that has a lot of matcha tea in it. My research shows that a very small percentage of people have a paradoxical reaction to a chemical in matcha tea, and it causes neurological symptoms like I experienced. My neurologist always says that I am her most sensitive patient to medicines designed to affect the nervous system (i.e., migraine meds) so I guess it all makes sense.

I'm relieved that my awful experience the other day has a good explanation. I'm never drinking anything with matcha tea in it again! My experience was so scary.

I hope that all of you are finding some relaxation and recovery in your weekends. It's a tumultuous time and all of us need to find ways to recharge.

Dog Training Fun!

Today, in the midst of a week of profound soul-searching, I want to post something fun and something that I'm proud of.

Most of you know Shyla's history as an extremely fearful dog who has recovered almost to the point of being normal. I didn't want to stop there - I wanted learn more about how to communicate with dogs and train them in a confidence-building way. For that purpose, I've kept on taking training classes.

Recently, I took a course on "Cues" - a "cue" is a word, gesture, or object that you use to communicate to your dog that you want them to do something specific. A good test of a dog's understanding of individual cues is to try to string a bunch of them together so that your dog does myriad different behaviors all in a row.

With Shyla, we reached the point of stringing together 10 different cues! I was so proud that we'd reached a point of such good understanding.

I'm sharing a 45 second video of Shyla doing her series of cues. Excuse my ridiculous outfit - we did this during a break in a bike ride, and I didn't even bother to take off my helmet! And, to avoid confusion, I've had to use the word "swing" in place of "heel" because I'd previously poisoned the word "heel" with sloppy training. Also, be sure to catch that her cue to wave to me is that I waved to her!

To me, another amazing thing is that Shyla has learned to love to tug. You saw me give her a treat and then start to tug with her at the end of her series of cues. For a timid dog, loving to tug is a big accomplishment. And, as you can see in the next photo, she's even willing to grab the tug toy with me facing her. It took a long time (4 years) before she was willing to do that!

After she grabbed it, she pulled!!! I let her win sometimes to keep her motivation high! That is counter to what every dominance-based trainer would tell me to do. I've trained both ways - dominance-based and positively - and I can attest that positive training is a thousand times more effective, especially with a dog like Shyla.

I hope that you all can have some fun with your pets to take your mind off the momentous events of the past week.

Throwback and Thankful Thursday

Life has continued to be rough here. I'm just hoping for a nice normal day sometime soon. For now, I'm severely limiting my exposure to media coverage of the election. It's raised my stress levels to an extreme high - so high that I experienced my first glimpse of a panic attack today. I think that an herb in a sports drink contributed to the panicky feeling but it was scary enough that I'm going to focus on less worrisome things.

A hugely happy memory is Angel K's puppyhood.

For those new to the blog, K was my chocolate lab trail buddy and heart dog. She died at age 8 from osteosarcoma, back in 2012. I don't write about her as much these days but I feel like she is always with me and helps guide me as I navigate the world with Shyla.

One of my friends commented that K was "almost too cute" as a puppy. I have to agree. 

Her eyes were special even when she was 8 weeks old.

She also loved to make eye contact with me, even as a tiny puppy. Many dogs are never eager to see out eye contact with humans.

She could be very serious, even as a puppy.

But she also could be playful!

I miss her but I thank the universe for every day that I had with her.

Few Words Wednesday

The sun did come up this morning, contrary to many predictions.

Many are scared of the outright bigotry observed in the election. I made this image to represent my fears this morning. I value equality among all living beings above all else.

But, let us have hope that perhaps the two sides of that equal sign can be rejoined.

Without hope, we have nothing.

Election Day Thoughts

Please excuse me as I stray from the usual content of my blog. I promise that this post tries to remain neutral between the candidates. It is mainly about the strides that women have made to get to today's historic election.

The right to vote is a precious right that people fought for over many years until amendments were passed allowing all adult citizens to vote.

Amendment XV. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. (1870). (but the voting rights act of 1965 was key to finally getting African Americans a stronger right to vote).

Amendment XIX. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. (1920).

The 19th amendment was passed in 1920 - so half of US citizens were not allowed to vote until relatively recently. My grandmother was denied the right to vote until that amendment passed. That history is probably part of why my mother was one of the most ardent feminists who I've ever known. She's the one who slapped the text of Title IX on the table at Little League registration when the poor man running the sign-up desk told her that "no girls were allowed" and therefore I wasn't allowed to join. After my mother was finished with her persuasive rampage, I was on a Little League team.

She continued to champion the rights of girls during my entire middle school, high school, and collegiate athletic career. She questioned any inequities between the boys' and girls' programs. She led fund-raising efforts to try to take girls sports to new heights. I now look back in wonder at her courage to speak up and fight for what she believed was right - even when her feminism was looked down upon by some people in the conservative area where we lived. I was shaped by my mother in many important ways - and I'd like to think that my independent thinking is one of them.

I find it astounding that it took almost a century before we had a woman as the nominee for president of a major party. No matter what your views or how flawed our candidates may be, this is an historic election. I hope that all of us exercise our precious right to vote. 

Fortunately for me, our state sends mail-in ballots to everyone so I voted by mail more than a week ago when my head wasn't pounding from a migraine like it is today. Research into migraines is one of the many areas where some people believe that gender discrimination still dominates. Maladies that mainly affect women's health tend to get less research funding than other diseases.

I am nervous today, as I expect that most of my US readers are. Let's all hold up the ideals of democracy, no matter how this election turns out. Peaceful transfer of power after an election is one of those ideals. And, learning to compromise with others who hold differing views is another.

R gave his little sister a reassuring nuzzle this morning

And, no matter how it turns out, I wish that my mother were here to share in the strides that women have made in the past century. Despite the ugliness of this campaign, she'd be flying high that a woman has come so close to becoming the leader of our country. She'd never vote for someone just because they were a woman - she felt strongly that women must be held to the same standards as men. However, the fact that it's possible for a woman to be president is what would make her rejoice.

The Joy of a Dog

The unfortunate streak of migraines has continued today so today's post will be short. I'll highlight something that made me smile today despite a migraine. It's now been three years in a row that I've gotten "cluster migraines" in November. Ugh.

Here was the best part of my day before the aura and migraine symptoms started - a simple game of fetch with Shyla. Her joy infuses my heart with similar joy.

I truly believe that we can learn so much from our dogs. Shyla doesn't worry about tomorrow or whether she might have a seizure. Rather, she's simply joyfully playing fetch. Shyla is almost always fully enjoying the moment, galloping with glee and pleading for more play.

I love her. She makes me smile every day.

Happy Sunday

I hope that you are all having a peaceful Sunday. Shyla and I started with a sunrise outing. Shyla kept a watchful eye on the world behind me.

We played a few games.

And generally had a good time.

After our happy outing, I headed out on my bike alone and ran into weekend stupidity. I met a jeep at least a half mile beyond the "no motor vehicles beyond these signs" posts. Then, I discovered that the 4wd'ers are trying to make a "new" road through the forest, using chain saws and other heavy machinery. It appears that they want a "secret" way to drive into the part of the forest where they aren't allowed. Duh - did they really think that no one would notice an entire new road? I called the sheriff's dispatch number to report all the stupidity, something that is becoming an all-too regular occurrence. 

Happy Sunday to all of you. I didn't let the stupidity ruin my appreciation for a November day sunny and warm enough for shorts! That's a treat!

Bears Gone Wild!

Our black bears are enjoying this extremely warm autumn. The males are busily marking trees. I've read that bears have a flurry of marking before they go into their dens. It's as if they want to put a final claim on their territory that will still be there when the first bears wake up in the spring.

I still remember vividly an extremely cold snap that we had in the 1st half of November two years ago. Look at the temperatures in the upper right of the photo. I bet that this bear (Tiny, I believe) wished that he was snug in a den.

Today, I'm sharing a video of a flurry of tree-marking by bears in the past couple of weeks. I included the first clip of Milton because I was so impressed with how easily he snapped a branch off the tree and then absent-mindedly dropped it onto the ground. It's amazing that the marking trees stay alive at all!

The next few clips are of a new bear. He's a male with a black stripe down the top of his snout and a black area under his lower lip. He seems determined to lay some claim to this area, despite the scents of Milton and Tiny that were definitely on the trees that he marked. I love his spunk!

Here's the video. I hope that it makes you smile!

After watching it, does anyone have an idea for a name of the new bear? I'd like it to relate to his distinctive nose and chin markings but I'm open to anything! I hope that he dens near here and sticks around.

Happy Saturday!

The return of migraines and Shyla's seizure-related restlessness

It's becoming an annual cycle. My migraines recede for the summer and autumn. Then, in early November, they surge again. Last year, I had 15 migraines in November. I'm presently in the midst of migraines but hoping that I can stem the tide.

This time, it's been accompanied by a surge in Shyla's nighttime restlessness that seems to be part of her seizure pattern.

She was restless in the wee hours of every morning around the time that she was diagnosed with epilepsy in mid-September. Then, when our vet increased her seizure medicine dose to where it is now, she started sleeping through the night again. We've now had two nights in a row that she's been awake in the 2-5 AM range so we'll wait to see if it settles down on its own. I hope that we don't have to switch meds.

I know that some of you suffer from migraines too. Perhaps you feel like I do. I've come to despise auras - those light shows of sparkling zig-zags that dance across my visual field just before and sometimes during a migraine. I know that my brain is creating the sparkles which makes me not trust my brain very much. It deceives me. And, it is the cause of the terrible pain that follows.

So, Shyla and I are a bit under the weather together. She does a better job of bouncing back than I do. She galloped happily early this morning. In contrast, I struggled to turn the pedals on my bike even on the easiest hills.

Our bond just keeps getting stronger through thick and thin. The other day, we met our neighbor's 9-week-old shepherd-lab mix puppy. I was infatuated with the puppy's innocent cuteness. Shyla was very jealous and let out a low rumbling growl as I fawned over the puppy. Her message came through loud and clear especially because she usually hides behind a tree while I interact with neighbors on the trails. I'm glad that I have a dog who cares that much, although I do know that I need to make sure that she doesn't become too possessive about me. That growl was a first for the usually meek Shyla.

It's Friday. I hope that I can kick this new cycle of migraines by taking it a little easier. Enjoy your weekend!

Shocker

Whew, what a day. It started wonderfully. Shyla and I made it up high in time for sunrise. I love the winterish light!

That light, in combination with the dark shadows where the sun hadn't reached yet, catches my fancy every single fall.

We had a wonderful ride. The temperature skyrocketed during the ride. It was 30°F when we started and 55°F when we finished. That makes it almost impossible to dress right for a long ride in autumn!

After that, my day got sketchier. I wanted to be outside for the warm and sunny day so I took a fairly long bike ride. As I went through a fairly remote area, I saw an open bag with stuff overflowing the sides. Curiosity got the better of me so I went to see what was in it. I literally jumped backward when I saw.

What an odd combination - yarn and thread for projects... and a hand gun.

I know almost nothing about guns so I didn't know if it was loaded or if the safety was on. Consequently, I acted as if I was standing next to a hand grenade that might explode at any second. I had no cell phone reception. So, I finally decided to close the suitcase, leave it there, ride home, and then call the police. That's been done, and I truly hope that the gun is no longer sitting out where anyone could find it, including a little kid. (PS - Google just told me that it may be a BB gun - that would be a big relief!).

Some of you have asked if our world has really become much worse in the past year, like you might think based on the photos that I show. I suspect that it has not. Rather, the locals are completely fed up with these vagrants who start wildfires and steal stuff from nearby houses and cars. For that reason, we are sharing our observations and reporting them to the police rather than pretending that things didn't happen. For now, it feels like things are getting worse because we are all so much more aware of what's happening around our entire area. Despite that downside, I think that this approach will work better in the long run.

I feel fortunate that we live in a slice of the forest that is completely inaccessible unless you own land bordering it. We don't have the same problems as the accessible parts of the forest - so I can let the Duo romp and I'm not worried about what I might find when I'm out on the trails alone. Usually, I see only my neighbors and wildlife.

We can focus on our mountains and the beauty around us rather than all that awful stuff. I love it.

Wordless Wednesday - The Labraduo in a Sun Puddle

These two lie together like this a lot of the time. It melts my heart.