So, the shape of our day was a little different to that which we had planned. The up side of this is that the tree will provide us with top quality logs and kindling for next winter. Ash doesn't need to be seasoned, it will burn beautifully even when it is green!
The hens soon came along and started pecking and scratching, they don't like worms, but they love insects and grubs. Living in our wood is a lovely retirement for three old battery hens. They are three little characters, we enjoy their company.
Before long we had this pile of wood, the next stage will follow when the weather is better.
Billie likes to think she is boss.
We may have lost a tree but Mother Nature balanced things a little because we thought we had lost our rhubarb when the new soakaway had to be dug last year. Imagine our surprise when we found this!We have covered some with the rhubarb forcer and look forward to some lovely fruit before too long.Not such a bad day after all!
On our last night, there was a train setting on the tracks next to our RV - Dad took a picture of it glowing in the sunset...
Next morning, we took off for Las Vegas - about 300+ miles; here are Momma's white knuckles!
Gassin' up...
We had a really good ride over to LV and a great sleep at a cool RV Park called Arizona Charlie's! Here we are descending into the valley where Las Vegas is!
We passed this place called Primm, which is a town right on the border of Cali and Nevada.
Great rates, but Ma and Pa weren't interested heheh!
Next morning, after gassin' up again, we headed out for Virgin, Utah, about 10 miles from Zion National Park. We took a potty stop.
This is the Virgin Canyon Rec Area heading into St. George, Utah.
After we set up camp, Mom and Dad took us to some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land to shake out our feets and stuffs. It sure felt good and there was so much to smell and a ton of acreage to test out - wooeeeeehhhhhh!
This morning, we left early to check out Zion NP - is it ever gorgeous! However. It is not really dog friendly. So we took liberties in some areas and dipped our paws into the Virgin River etc. etc.
Above... the Virgin River with a buncha Red Rocks - awesome scenery.
Canyon after canyon stilled our breaths...
Oh how good that felt to dip our tootsies!
These are called the Three Patriarchs (above)
Checkerboard Mesa
By the shores of the Virgin...
More scenery from Zion
On the Pa'rus trail, where dogs are allowed - whew!
All the roads in Zion are paved with red sandstone! But this photo's special - check out the wild mountain goats crossing the road and on the slickrock - can you spy them? (There are three in this picture, but hard to see!) We have a video of them, but can't upload them at this point - it was a truly rare moment...
We did manage to get this uploaded, so here is a very short, very poor quality movie of the goats we saw - Dad had problems finding and getting the camera going, so it's not great, but you can see the "family group" anyway. Mom put music over the track, cause we were talking very loudly at those goat/sheepie animals, all allowed to go loose out there on the slick rocks! Anyway... enjoy! http://youtu.be/iGlW4yYWjdA 
Help! We don't even know where to begin, except to woof that we all had the most awesome time in the snow! It was Avalon's first Christmas, first New Year's (of course!) and first snow; both of us were enchanted by all of the festivities and miraculous acts of nature! While we did a lot of trail running with our peeps and also a cool hoo-guy, who took us on super walks through the snowy woods, our peeps went skiing on some days. Above is a picture of Lake Tahoe from the chairlift.
Here we are at lunchtime, trying our best to score some delish snacks! Don't we do a good job of beggin'? Later, we got yumzers Pizza - woo hoo - was it good!
This is the backyard of the house we stayed in - I've played in snow before, but have never seen so much! We loved our house - there were so many icicles hanging down - Mom said it made the place look charming - like a glittery old European postcard, whatever that means!
Here's Avalon tending to her investigations - of what... I couldn't woof.
Tandem investigating... and below, a longish photoshow - please biggify for best viewing!
The Truckee River with snow-laden pine trees lining the banks.
This is a picture of Percy, who owns the house where we stayed. This was such a cool place - everywhere we looked, there were photos of goldens; there was a deck of cards in the shape of a bone, a huuuge basket full of dog toys for us to play with, an emergency dog medicine kit in the front hall and towels to wipe ourselves dry when we finally came in from the snow! One of the coolest ideas he had was to provide tags for us to wear that had our Tahoe address on them - how pawesome is that? Percy laid it all out for us and we are furry grateful! Hands down, it was the best place for dogs and kids! If you want to see photos, you can go here - and that image of Percy, above, is by Keoki Flagg, who is pretty famous - out here, at least. Check out his site here. And lastly, we are furry proud of our former-ski-instructor Dad (years ago) - he still cuts quite the carvy turns. We'll leave you with this movie - he's the last one comin' down the hill in the white jacket!
I confess that I bought my tea olive bush because I liked its name. Little did I know that it would grow so big or smell so good. It smells like an orange tree or something mighty similar. It's blossoms are tiny yellow flowers that all fall off the same day and make this lovely, mass profusion of petals.
I wonder why it's named Tea Olive? And does it only grow in the South? I've never seen one anywhere else. Does anyone know the history of this plant? Do you have one?