November 2015

I bottled the Alaska Amber Ale that I started last month.  I didn't even know what that's supposed to taste like, but it sounded good.  After the primary fermentation it certainly smelled good.  I was finally able to use my new bottle washer and bottle tree.  I got to taste it on Thanksgiving, and it was fine.  I racked the apple wine, and it's looking good too.

One day Stacey and I took the dogs down to the Levee Walk.  I had the sisters yoked with harnesses, pulling me on a longboard.  I hadn't set up my action cam, but I shot some spontaneous video with my phone that turned out OK.  Here's the edited video:

https://youtu.be/OPBZESwhVWQ

I missed one night of agility class because of a horrendous storm that came through.  I feel lucky that it didn't drop a big tree on my fence.  Some branches fell in the back yard.

A week later the big old willow tree in the back yard, which I call the Whomping Willow (see Harry Potter), finally fell down.  It's been rotten for years, and bits of it have been falling off over time, but the main part of the trunk fell during some high winds.  At least no people or dogs were hurt.  Now I'll have to cut it up.

All our dogs were groomed, one week after the other.  For some reason, I had to go back to my office after picking up each one, so they got to visit students and colleagues.  I found out that it's primarily men in hats that Miss Kitty doesn't like.  She was perfectly nice to everyone else.

We had a delayed Thanksgiving, but Stacey put together a fine meal.  We had Lowell, as well as Savannah and Josh over.  Lowell finally got to meet Savannah and Josh's dogs.  He's always been a lover of German shepherds.  It's a bit crazy having 6 dogs in the house though.  We watched Guardians of the Galaxy after dinner.

Since we rehomed the cat, the dogs are now obsessed with squirrels.  The dogs are always looking out the windows for them. They do visit the yard occasionally.  When I see them on the ground, I let the dogs out to give chase.  I figure that statistically they're eventually going to catch one.  They've come close a couple of times.

I built an A frame and teeter totter for Isabel's agility training, as I think I've mentioned here before.  I had taken some photographs along the way.  I combined them with some text and published two instructables you can see here:

A frame: http://www.instructables.com/id/Dog-agility-A-frame/

Teeter: http://www.instructables.com/id/Dog-agility-teeter-totter/

To my surprise they were both chosen as features on the site.  Then I found out they're having an Animal Innovations contest, and I entered them.  If you're a member, you can vote for them.

It has not been a good month for photography.  It has been the dead season between fall and winter.  Most of the images below are of the dogs.