cards....check...

 well, the cards that are just going out as cards are done and i'll mail the rest tomorrow.  i have several packages ready to go as well.  of course, more gifts to buy but not all that many really. plan to do some crafting as well.  people tend to buy stuff they want so better to create i think when you can. liked this shot above from the Monday walk today. 

 amazing how warm it felt today.  after zero temps over the weekend it warmed up above 10F. 

 do need the hat to hide my hair...have been taking the scissors to it again.  usually takes a good week or so to make it not look all funny.  my friends are kind and said it looked fine now...they may just fear that i will turn up next week with a shaved head.  haha.  Lena snapped a few of me with the pups.

 little orbs in some of these...Blossom does make her appearances on walks some days.  :-) 

 with how often these pups lose tennis balls, Blossom will be busy...right after she passed and i guess still, when i find a tennis ball out there on the trails i think maybe Blossom left it out there for us to find. 

 next Monday we will do the tree decoration with tennis balls again.  that seemed to go over well and i suspect it made many folks and their dogs happy.  the trees looked festive for months as well. 

 we put the tennis balls out on the trees by this pond we are walking on. 

 we tried to take this other back trail but it's still pretty wet and slushy.  strange how some places freeze up faster than others.  we turned around. 

 another lovely walk with good friends.  coffee after was fun as well. 

 hit the pet store after and the fabric store....

 then we had day one for dog classes.  the first class is leash walking.  i decided to flip and put Ivy Rose in this class.  she was excited to get out of the car.  mostly the lady talked for half the class.  always kind of annoying especially since the class only lasts 3 weeks.  the other class was a beginner class so i had forgotten no dogs first class. 

 i begged out of sitting around for another hour listening to the basics that i have already heard.  it's a different teacher.  seems good.  always good to learn a bit from different people.  the class mostly just inspires me to work on training stuff.  it's always great to have the distractions of the other dogs there.  focused training 1:1 with my dogs. 

 got busy organizing my spare room...which seems to be becoming the anti-guest room.  gear still out from summer and piles of stuff that i need to really just go through and get rid of.  figure maybe i'll put a magazine or two out in the little library.  some may enjoy those being shared. one is science magazine.  always good. 

 finished the cards and put a few packages together to mail.  check those things off the to do list one by one. 

 perhaps my next days off i can get the tree up and get Skelly dressed.  i have all that gear collected and ready to go. 

 here are the pups snuggled on the bed this morning. 

 they are pretty wiped today.  Monday walk, shopping in Petsmart, class.  the rest of these pics are from a walk this August out at Hunter cabin. 

 Tusker was just dreaming and it woke up Ivy Rose.  she appears a bit alarmed.  he's fine....she's fine. 

 such a beautiful hike.  only just over 6 miles round trip. 

 some sort of drop offs that made us all a bit nervous.  i think i am more paranoid with each dog, worried some awful thing would happen.  with Blossom, i used to have these dreams where she was about to die and then i'd wake up.  not sure i've done that yet with these guys..i'd be fine if that never happened. 

 the big mountain from the trail. 

 may have to hit this trail in the summer when all the flowers are in bloom. 

 Tester with Winston. 

 once we got up here it was open and safe and i felt better just letting them run.  these guys are chasers though.

and Tusker is becoming a roller. 

 both pups are very smart....Tusker is the slowest though.  he does everything in slow motion. 

 a few mushrooms up there in the high country.

 the last season of Downton Abby showed up in the mail today.  yea! 

 fall colors come early...this is late August and well into fall already

 everything changes so fast here.  every week is different...the light is different.  i had debated a trek out to Basher to watch sunset but there was a line to cut fabric...oh well. 

 try to hit the daily podcasts from NYT and NPR.  i like BBC's global news podcast.  nice to hear about other stuff happening in the world besides out insane crap.

 there is only so much we can do.  easy to get sucked in.  the GOP will just have to screw up all they can and implode on it's own.  so odd to see this whole process...from the party that claimed the moral high ground and seems to demand we all live by their rules...to the party of pedephiles.  apparently it's better to be a pedephile than a liberal. 

 many don't look at all the issues, more just one or two and vote accordingly. 

 gun topic came up the other day.  the usual arguments.  second ammendment...and if we control guns only the bad guys will have guns.  it does occur to me that the only reason the bad guys have guns is because they end up with guns that we at one time sold legally.  we don't monitor sales enough...therefore there are too many ways for guns to get lost and placed in the hands of those who shouldn't have them. better control would ultimately mean less guns would end up in the wrong hands. 

 basically, all illegal guns originate from legal sales, control legal sales and what happens after the sale.  it's not like our criminals are being armed by other nations.  they get them here.  so if there are loads of guns in the hands of criminals the ultimate blame is on the gun owners who have acted irresponsibly. 

 nothing will change there anytime soon. 

 we had a little photo session/break at the top.  Ginger wasn't feeling very well, worms i think, so we didn't linger.

 poor pup.  she did really well though. she headed home later that day. 

 best way to get pup pictures is to convince them to climb on stuff. 

 then i can even sneak in a few shots.

 got KR to take a few shots.

 beautiful day.

 can't complain about these views.

 i always laugh to as the same folks who want less gun control so that they can take on a corrupt government.  A. voted in what may turn out to be our most corrupt administration ever  and B.  always vote to spend more and more tax dollars making our nations military bigger and stronger...which seems an odd thing if you plan on being able to take them out with your small stock pile of assault weapons.  not possible. 

 i suspect the best way to manage this would be if each state had it's own military presence so they could then as a state opt to  take on the corrupt government..a much better idea than some idiot gun fanatics. still not likely to take on the corrupt federal government.  seems right now lawyers and the news are our best hope. 

 the right still likes to scream fake news.  there is really very little fake news out there and what there is has come from the right.  pizzagate anyone?  you can say that news is embellished but it's not fake.  fake news actually means completely made up crap.  i think there are have been a few such tales come out of fox news. 

 i suspect the left leaning news long ago put even more emphasis on reporting clean as they are being watched closely.  this is not a bad thing i'd say. fake news does not need to check sources, they just throw crap out there and watch it spread by bots and trolls.  still i see folks on the right toss out fake news when ever they feel uncomfortable with the facts.  easier than admitting that the news they are hearing could possibly be true.  the truth will come out.  i get more and more confident in that. 

 above are a whole lot of sandhill cranes several mountains away...that didn't stop Tusker from becoming very alert and wanting to chase them.  they have a loud call and it carries.

 sweet pic of my friend with her dog. well, i have wasted another hour of my life blogging.  :-)  i enjoy it though.  clears my head. good night and good luck with all your Christmas season chores...hoping you can enjoy the true spirit of Christmas despite any obligations you feel.  season of giving, season of hope...

thankful for:  A.  pure clean water  B.  the amazing diversity of our earth...may they live on, may they grow  C.  the sane, the rational