Fall fruits

Most of the berries are gone from shrubs in our yard except for the bright red ones on the European Mountain Ash. Each day they attract many birds, Red Shafted Flickers and Cedar Waxwings are the most numerous. Black oil sunflowers in the bird feeders bring pine siskins, yellow goldfinches and an occasional house finch. Little snow fell through most of fall 2008, and temperatures remained above average. Still by the first half of December things were getting frosty and I captured some of this magic with my lens.

Sammy Play Day

On Saturday, November 29, we had a Samoyed play day at Jim and Susie Malcolm's place north of Blanchard Idaho. Jim and Susie live on 20 acres north of 640 acres of State Forest land. Our purpose for the day was to gather together a group of samoyed enthusiasts and introduce those whose dogs had never had a chance to work in harness to doing so and for those that had to get out and try some new trails. We had 2 inches of snow fall the day before which provided us with a new opportunity for those with one or two dogs to try out a kick sled. The photos show some of the activities enjoyed by all.

First Snow

This past weekend has brought the first "significant" snow to the valleys of northern Idaho, around 2 inches. The past week has brought, finally, some seasonably cold temperatures which has been encouraging for our dog teams. Thurs was thanksgiving and was was filled with a feast for both canine and human.

Friday was the cold day and Bob and I took two teams out north of Blanchard ID. The pictures to the right show both teams on the trail, Bob's with Rose and Cody leading and mine with Pepper and Jezebel. We practiced passing did several loops around this area, which is on Idaho Department of Lands, State Forest Land.

Samoyed National

Late September and early October was the Samoyed Club of America National in Topeka Kansas. There were close to 500 samoyeds enterred. The pictures above show some scenes. First is our Pepper, Dashing Chili Pepper in the Novice Weightpull. Second is Pepper again, handled by Beth Tallentire. The final picture is our Nova, Am Int Ch Sizzlin's Supernova Stardust in the BOB competition with her breeder and co-owner Beth Tallentire handling.

What a wonderful July!

Summer is about half over now, hard to believe. We've passed the longest day. Days are still very long but we have definitely turned the corner and are headed by to the equinox. In northern Idaho one can always tell mid summer has come and fall is not far away because the ninebark shrub will begin to turn. The leaves on this shrub turn a brilliant red, and are one of the first plants to do so in the fall. As I drove over through Spirit Lake last week I noticed the first ninebark leaves begin to turn, the first harbinger of fall, already in July. But this is northern Idaho.

Bob has been very busy in the back yard creating a new bed for vegetables. It is a raised bed. It won't be ready this year but it will be for next year. Today we went over to friends and picked up some manure, now a little more topsoil and we'll be ready to go. We've also "surveyed" our hay field, with our GPS, 7 acres...

Earlier in the month we visited Cedar in Old Town with his new owner Luanne. He has a wonderful home there and seems to be fitting in really well. Here are a few photos to capture some of our recent activites.

Cedar's New Adventure

Our brave boy Cedar is off on a new adventure. Cedar, also known as Abakan Snow Falls on Cedar, is our boy who was shot at the tender age of one year. Because of his injuries he has never been able to run with my team. He ran for only a few months before the accident, in which he was shot three times. Cedar is 5 now, will turn 6 in October. He is a beautiful dog, with broad head, and proud carriage. Cedar left today to live a brand new life in a new home with a wonderful lady name Luanne. It seems like a twist of fate that has brought Luanne and Cedar together. Cedar will now enjoy the undivided attention he deserves! I think for Luanne this is a very special time as well since she has lost her own samoyed.

Catching Up

I

had a computer glitch so my last post did not get finished. I am catching up with this post, since I started this blog. It is July in northern Idaho, a time when days are long and it seems like we have hours and hours to get things done. This in contrast to our short days in December. This July brought some firsts to us. We planted a pasture to grass in 2004. Our idea initially was only to replace the knapweed field that was our view out our front door. However as the grass grew the thought occurred to us that perhaps we should be doing more than just growing hay, perhaps we could cut and sell hay. So this year we did that.

July and summer in general is also a time to enjoy the outdoors whether it be to hike, get out on the water, garden or barbecue. This year we are making some major changes to our gardens. When we came here our front yard was a juniper maze, carefully clipped every year to maintain it's pattern. This was not the landscape we typically choose so finally this year we hired a landscape contractor to come and remove half of the junipers. We are now in the process of designing and planting our new landscape. Where junipers once ruled, flowering perennials abound.

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog, devoted to my four legged friends here, our life and adventures. My name is Jill Wilson and my passions include Samoyeds, sled dogs, forest ecology, gardening, bird watching, music, good food, friends, among other things. This blog will be my journal of these activities and others. My dogs are Samoyeds, a beautiful breed descended from dogs from Siberia. They have rich plush white or white and cream colored coats, and natural or more wolf style heads with prick ears, narrower muzzle etc. Samoyeds are an arctic breed, historically used as draft and herding dogs. I live in northern Idaho, near the southern tip of Pend Oreille Lake, an extremely scenic area of mountains, dense forests, lakes and meadows. I can't imagine living in a more beautiful area and I have lived in several!