Rain and Berries

We had enough of a rain on Saturday to at least refresh the pens just a bit. It was accompanied by thunder which scared the dogs, but the short rain was a brief respite. Back to hot and humid again on Sunday, but this morning is 40 degrees and fresh, some hopeful clouds in the sky!!

The cherry trees are really quite beautiful.

Dry blackberries

The blackberries looked to be in good shape until this last extended hot spell... not looking so great now.

For some reason, the choke cherry trees are resplendent , dripping with loads of cherries, the trees look red in the distance and now are starting to ripen to their deep purple.

But the forecast says some relief is in sight. We had a few drops of rain yesterday, nothing measurable.

Fires in U.P.

There is a very large wildfire in Luce County, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at about 18,000 acres right now. It is near the land of several mushers. We did hear from the Stielstra kennel that they are OK for now and that they have had rain, but fires are about five miles distant .
Hopefully, the rains will come again. There are 220 firefighters, 6 helicopters and much equipment. They are dropping water bombs as well. Sounds like the Alaska type of fires.

A little bit of color, relieving the drabness

This batch of flowers hides under the big cherry tree for now.

The sunflowers droop at the end of each day and are watered, hoping they'll hold out for fall and give some nice color then, as well. Even hearty cosmos are having trouble blossoming, but they're almost there.

Here comes the sun! again!

The relentless sun, as I've come to call it this summer, rises at about 5AM and dries and burns all day long, every day. It is beautiful in the sunrise and in the sunset, but the in between hours are merciless. It isn't just the heat and the humidity, but the days of drying out and dust, dust, dust that are the challenge. The grass crunches and I run sprinklers/hoses all day long when I 'm not filling pails and pools. We do seriously need rain. Even the back well is sputtering.

Each time I refill the water pails they are covered with a layer of dust within minutes. I know my lungs feel it so the dogs certainly do as well. The best of the worst days are the ones with lower humidity, fewer flies/gnats, etc.

We're treating for various summer maladies: allergies, hot spots, ear infections, one has a chronic cough (dust); they eat grass and it plays havoc with their digestion and they're just plain bored and hot. While they protest their baths, they do seem much happier after they are bathed.

Retiree Walks

This is a great photo because each of these tough female dogs holds her own in a dominance challenge, yet they trail run peacefully , side by side.

Sierra, the little Elkhound , was found in a dumpster and brought to us as a rescue (age 11); Liller, leader from Iditarod 2001 (age 12); Chena, Queen of the house and a rescue, (Lab) (age approx 14/15) and Sulatna, (age 13)wonderful and spirited 'gazelle' and leader... they tolerate each other well on trail walks and enjoy sniffing out wildlife scents together. Each of these dogs has some health challenges but they are doing fairly well and enjoying life. Each of these is a good house dog as well.

Surviving Summer with "Showers"

Songs that come to mind: "Where have all the flowers gone?" (into the shade) and

"All the fields are brown and the skies are gray, " ( now if only the sky were gray!)

We're using every means we have to keep down the dust, the heat, the bugs. This summer is very labor intensive as , without rain, I am the rainmaker. I schedule my time away from the kennel to be late day, if at all.

For all the stress on them, the dogs are doing very well. They still come out for their free runs in the mornings, shortened, but free. We still take our trail walks, but also shortened and early before the relentless sun is too hot.

So the days are about feeding early, cleaning and filling water buckets, cleaning and filling pools, repairing tarps, moving sprinkler hoses around , hosing down dust, bathing dogs and being thankful when the sun goes down!! Ice cream is their favored late day treat.

Another wrinkle is that both of my dog food suppliers ran out. This is fully unexpected.

More of the same for the next few days, whew, enough already! Soon I'll start on rebuilding dog houses, but for now it's just summer survival.