Arkansas

We were on vacation last week, and the time away is just what we needed.   We found a remote cabin to rent, with a pond on the land we can use for swimming and lots of land and trails for hiking.

hiking buddy

I was a bit worried of how hot it would be, but it's cooler than home and drier.   We have seen a couple of thunderstorms, its relaxing to sit on the porch and watch it rain.

We brought Smokey with us and he is LOVING his time off leash, lots of exploring and poor guy got stung on his ear.  He's not a fan of water but we did get him to wade and a *tiny* bit of swimming, anything he can do that isn't him crying on the dock is a win.  He mostly just explores the shoreline, and drinks lots of lake water...

We've mostly stayed close to the house, but did decide to try out ATV riding on Tuesday.    We rented a side-by-side so we could share one vehicle and ride in comfort.  It was a great way to explore the Ouachita National Forest and let Kevin do some off-roading.  We saw lots of deer and a turtle, and also saw some sights -- the top of Eagle Mt Vista, and Little Missouri Falls.

We have met some characters in our adventures, and even made a run for the border (with Oklahoma) since the area we are staying in is dry....and wouldn't you know it, right AT the border is a drive-thru beer store, we went to one a bit further down the road, still it was in the owner's front yard and was a mobile home turned into a store, but when in the rural area..it works!

After I wrote this, Smokey finally actually swam!  We got in the boat to try to fish...we head off shore and that's when he swims towards us....we thought he'd come all the way to us, luckily he didn't...he kept trying to get to us, but would just have to turn back.....we finally went to shore and helped him out with us, but he climbed up on me...scraping me up, but still so fun to have him in the water with us, even for a little bit!

Smokey's DNA

saw this sitting  in my drafts...


I'm not sure when it happened, but this has definitely become a doggy blog.....he's way more fun to write about than much of my daily life (need to remedy that).

We've always wondered what our little mutt is made of.  He looks like a lab, but has some traits that are very NON-labrador (hatred of water being one).

We saw that we could do a DNA test to find out his history and so we ordered it.

Toughest part was getting the cheek swab from him.....K had to hold him down while I swabbed away, we mailed it off and a few weeks later it showed up in my inbox.    I knew I wanted to look at it with Kevin so I resisted reading it until we were together, and boy am I glad I did...it made for a very fun dinner conversation that night...

Its a pretty extensive report (14 pages), but the main thing we needed to know was right there on the front page...

Smokey is a Cocker Spaniel, Australian Cattle Dog, Chow Chow, Doberman Pinscher, Labrador Retriever, Pekingese Mix

We were way off...only things we had right were lab, and some sort of herding dog (he herds kids, toys, us).....no idea he had those other pieces...but it was fun to read it, and did explain many of his special traits...it also opened up a whole new world of nicknames for him...

If you are wondering we used the Wisdom Panel, bought through amazon.

this post is not sponsored, just wanted to share what we found out.

July

This month has been a [fun] blur for us.  A few highlights (mostly for myself):

• spent 4th of July with niece and nephews and had a cookout at their house -- complete with sliders on hawaiian rolls...we didn't see any fireworks (we did hear some from our house), but had a great time visiting and even had patriotic dessert thanks to sis-in-law

• visited my brother in Austin and packed a LOT into one day:   I finally got to go off-roading (even drove a little), we found a great natural spring pool to go swimming in, AND we even added a couple of other items onto the day (the first two were what we hoped to accomplish) - found a winery to enjoy, and even brought a bottle to a BYO BBQ nearby.   great trip, and so fun to see my brother and not have to work on our parents' house 

• went to the beach with brother-in-law, his wife, their 3 older kids (baby stayed with grandparents) and 2 dogs.....that many people and creatures made for a chaotic, but fun, weekend.   you know its gonna be a busy weekend when you have to bathe the dog within 2 hours of arriving -- he found something awful to roll in; we also broke in our new pop-up tent at the beach and had it FLIP on us, not major damage and we were able to get it righted, but it was quite a sight - our nephew's reaction, write SOS in the sand!   On our last day we celebrated 2 birthdays with a tye dyed cake.....

• went to our first ever Escape the Room, and actually escaped!!!

• helped my sister unpack her kitchen in her NEW HOUSE!    

dog teeth cleaning

Smokey is getting back to normal, but had a rough (ruff, haha) day yesterday.  This photo makes it look worse than it is, it was just a teeth cleaning, but for a dog that means sedation (can i sign up for that for my next dental appointment?).  Poor guy did have to go without food from 8pm the night before.  The vet's office left the IV bandage on him when we picked him up and it just made him look so pathetic I had to snap a picture......I call it, "our unwilling patient".....the procedure went well, no extractions needed and his teeth look great.  Wish me luck on a weekly treatment I will need to start giving him...

blueberry day

I made my annual trek out to pick blueberries yesterday.    The season opened a couple of weeks late due to the all the rain and flooding we've had this year, so the blueberries were plentiful and plump (and there were tons on the ground, from the rain or just so plump they couldn't hang out)

I brought a coworker with me so we could chat while we picked and I picked just over TEN pounds in under 2 hours.

This time of year I'm like Forrest Gump with shrimp but with blueberries...blueberry smoothies, blueberry muffins, blueberry pies....mmmmmm

what is your favorite blueberry item?

PS - went on my first ever girl's long weekend, and had a great time!   hope to do a separate post for it.