Decided to enter her in the Durango Powder Pet contest because of her love for powder and to support a good cause. Voting runs till March 11th. Votes cost a dollar donation to the La Plata County Humane Society. 

Thanks to our Fi friends and family we’ve already surpassed our original fund-raising goal of $100 and have re-set our goal to $300. Please vote for Juniper!

You can see more photos and video of this little fuzzy enjoying her first spring-time snow with us, here on our blog.

The last couple of weekends we’ve stayed home due to the increasing fire danger and afternoon thunderstorms at higher elevations. It’s still easy to take a short day trip and enjoy a few hours on the river.

Garden Update

We are finally getting some established and happy berry plants, especially strawberries; but I expect a little haul of thornless blackberries, too. Juniper loves helping with the watering!

Hope you are enjoying a safe and happy 4th of July weekend, friends!

June 10–13

About six weeks ago, these hoomans got their second dose of vaccinations, and we hit the road to visit family. We hadn’t made the trip since October 2019. That last trip had been the first with our aging husky and our Casita trailer. We found the best route to travel with stops at Clayton Lake State Park and Gentry Creek Campground, make the trip more enjoyable; and we don’t feel like zombies when we arrive.

We park the Casita in Burns Park RV park, which is right in between Juniper’s great-grandma’s and grandparents’. This trip I also got to see my brother for the first time in about 5 years and meet my new niece! And saw my uncle, aunt and grandfather from CA & MT that we hadn’t seen in about 13yrs! If Juniper wasn’t with us in the Casita, she was hanging with Uncle Louie at Grandma & Grandpa’s.

And a week later, we made the same trek back the other way.

Until we reached home again.

#DogsofFi

Having had huskies who were true escape artists—so far Junz is not—we decided to invest in a Fi collar for her. It’s a GPS collar that will let us track her if she does get away from us, and it will even alert us if she’s gone too far from her home base or outside of designated safe zones. Some of the other features the app includes are tracking her walks and steps and a whole social-media-for-dogs based off Instagram.

Juniper has done really well on Fi’s social media. Having not participated on social sites ourselves, we didn’t know exactly what to expect. Chris never thought she could get 50 followers. He made a bet with her that if she made it to 50—she may roll over 100 this week—he’d bake her homemade, cheddar, bacon biscuits; and we’d share it with everybody!

It can be tough to walk around our neighborhood. There aren’t any sidewalks, often other dogs aren’t contained and it’s not at all flat to get into or out of our place. We prefer to get out and do a hike. Even better if it’s an abandoned forest road and we find snow and a creek to play in!

Back to the Garden

This year’s garden is less elaborate than some years. We are getting some good rains, so things are looking beautiful. It has potential to be a good berry year! My roses have just started to bloom. I’ve got carrots, tomatoes and potatoes going, as well as a cabbage that was a sprout last fall. Juni likes to help with the watering, and we’ve enjoyed some great rhubarb for pies.

Watch for our next update.
We’ll post up pics from our cross-country trip to Arkansas.

April 23^rd – 25^th | Chama River

There were a lot more people on the river than when we were last there in March. We ended up in a different spot that had a pretty popular beach. When we weren’t exploring, we were watching all the boaters going by.

April 30^th – May 2^nd | Colorado Camping

Last weekend we were a little closer to home, just over Wolf Creek Pass. We were lucky to find the traffic on the main road light this early in the season and more dispersed than when we visited here in July 2019.

Puppy highlights included our hike, which ended up in playing with a 2yr old Bernese we met, a few little patches of snow left at about 9K ft, and plenty of drainages, seeps and creeks to splash the paws in.

The new harness got a good break-in and after a short nap, Juni learned how to play frisbee. Or at least how to chase and chomp the frisbee. Besides outgrowing her little pink harness, it looks like all of her baby teeth have fallen out.

The next morning after coffee around the campfire and taking our time to pack-up, we bounced over to Del Norte for a few pizzas and beers before heading back to Pagosa.

I think we let Juniper watch Wonder Woman at too impressionable an age. Ever since then, she thinks she can fly. You’ll have to watch the video to see what I mean.

Last weekend another road opened up, and we went in search of a trail to hike before the weather moved through. The trail was still under water, so we opted for walking the road, which in places was also under water. No matter. We giggled over the pup walking on water and logged another 3 mile hike.

All that running makes a pup hungry! And this girl LOVES her vegetables. Out of all the dogs we’ve had, I had one that I remember would be interested in a carrot or bit of lettuce. Juni will scarf down all kinds of fruits and veg: blueberries, apples, asparagus and sweet potatoes are just a few of her favorites.

And even superheroes need some downtime to rest and repower.

With the snow melting and mud season in full swing, the San Juan Riverwalk is a great springtime option for a stroll, and of course there’s the river to play in.

Tuesday, March 30^th – Thursday, April 1^st

During the workweek a pup’s gotta find ways to entertain herself.

EASTER WEEKEND | April 2^nd–4^th
CAMPING TRES PIEDRAS & SHOPPING TAOS

With the forest roads still closed in our neck of the woods, camping choices are limited this time of year. So we headed over the pass, stopped for lunch at Three Barrel and set up camp at Tres Piedras.

The next day, we headed into Taos to shop a little bit and takeout our favorite pizza. Looking for a quick pit stop at the Gorge, we were overwhelmed by the number of visitors and ended up with a front row seat to watch this ram graze his way through the rest area.

Back at camp, there was still plenty of time to stretch our legs and explore. That’s how we spotted these Pasque flowers and took advantage of the best snow patches.

Wednesday April 7^th– Friday april 9^th

We ended the week with both of these hoomans getting their first round of COVID vaccinations. The best part of such a late in the day appointment? Our hometown brewery is open for dinner. It was a blustery red-flag warning kind of a day, so we practically had the patio to ourselves.

Saturday, April 10^th | chris mountain

Before running the usual weekend errands in town, we took advantage of one of the first forest roads opening up and hiked about 3.3 miles up Chris Mountain. There wasn’t much snow, but there was still plenty of mud to be found.

How are you celebrating Spring and what new adventures are you looking forward to?

13 WEEKS OLD, February 21^st

I’ve never met a husky that wasn’t into finding and exploiting the tiniest snow patch. Even our Golden and Shelties loved to run around in the snow. Juniper is no different. A true snow lover.

18 WEEKS OLD, March 24^th

This time of year we can go from a foot of snow to nothing when we warm up to almost 70 degrees. That’s springtime in the mountains! Enjoy those snow days while they last.

First Trip to Durango

We had a busy weekend last weekend! We took Juniper for her first trip to Durango to pick up a few things, and decided to have lunch outside at Ska. It’s been since the end of October since we’ve eaten out (occasional, take-out aside) and well over a year since we’ve been able to visit Ska, which is normally one of our regular watering holes. It was fun to share it with the pup who did a great job hanging out in the beer garden.

Chimney Rock National Monument

Saturday, we celebrated Spring with a walk and picnic at Chimney Rock. We did about a two mile walk up and back the main road. The monument is closed this time of year, but accessible via foot traffic or horseback. It was the busiest day we’ve ever visited in the off-season. Everybody had the same idea for such a beautiful morning.

I also tried to squeeze in an impromptu photoshoot at the new visitor center that’s under construction of my completed Chimney Rock Scarf, inspired by the landscape. You’ll notice the little fuzzy-one photobombing me (above).

Getting our steps in! We even walked another three-quarters of a mile on Sunday around the Riverwalk downtown. Hope everyone else is enjoying the return of Spring and staying safe when you go out.