Category Archives: About Us

Laddy goes athletic!

Because Laddy doesn’t have the ability to run around in a yard as he did (for a short time) in the house on Glenroy, we’ve been trying to find dog parks whereever we are.

There was one in Visalia that we took him to a few times.  He really enjoyed running with the other dogs, and there was one border collie that would “herd” Laddy.  It was fun to watch; Laddy wouldn’t know which way to turn as Peaches would be right there herding him backwards.

Now we’re in Morgan Hill, so one of the first things we did was find a local dog park. Morgan Hill has a real nice one as part of the community center (http://morganhilldog.org/).  It’s attached to a larger park; it has a pond with lots of ducks and gees, basketball courts and shade, picnic tables etc.  The dog park itself has a big dog and small dog section, and it’a BIG with lots of shade, benches scattered around and lots of buckets for water.

Laddy sure enjoys running around and meeting the other dogs.  He’s so friendly with everyone, dogs and people.  He’s starting to figure out that the purpose of us throwing the ball is for him to go fetch it and bring it back.  At first he would just run with the dogs chasing the ball, then he started to see the other dogs get the ball and run with it so he would do that too.  Today, for the first time, he brought the ball back to Jeff and me.  It took a couple of times of wrestling the ball from him mouth stating “Drop it” before he would do that but when he saw that we would throw it again he got better at it.

Here are a couple of pictures of Laddy enjoying himself at the dog park.

The hair comes off

Almost a year ago I decided that when we’re on the road I didn’t want to deal with a new hairdresser every time I needed a trim.  I’ve gone home and cried in the past when a new hairdresser just butchers my hair!  I had found a great hairdresser and had been going to him for a few years but on the road…who knows!

So, I started growing out my hair.  It’s been about 35 years since I had hair past my shoulders.  My logic was that telling a new hairdresser “Straight across the bottom” with long hair would be easier than explaining the shape and style and hoping they got it right.

After several months it did get below my shoulders.  Not all one length yet, so to keep strands from flopping into my face and eyes every time I look down I was putting the top part into a ponytail up high on my head and putting the rest into a second ponytail at my neck.  The top part did feed into the bottom part.  Here’s a picture that sort of shows how it was from the back (click on picture to enlarge it if you’re interested in seeing my hair):

(by the way, this picture is of me walking THROUGH the hollow trunk of a giant Sequoia tree.  Over a hundred years ago loggers working in the area bunked in this tree trunk – you can still see carvings they made in the walls)

But, long hair is more difficult to take care of.  In the trailer we can’t take long, luxurious showers as we have holding tanks and we have to pack up and tow the trailer to a dump site when the tanks get full.  Every time I brushed it or re-did the ponytails I’d find hair all over the place (and I thought only dogs shed!).  It took longer to shampoo and rinse.  I found I really don’t like having my hair down around my shoulders – flopping into my face when I bent over, getting in my mouth with a mouthfull of food.  How do people with long hair manage that!?!?  And, I have thick hair so there’s a LOT of it to take care of.

SO, I decided to head to a Supercuts in a nearby city and get it cut off.  I had a picture of when I had short hair so I showed that to the stylist and she suggested making it a bit longer in the front so I can tuck it behind my ears and shorter in the back where my hair gets curly.  She did a GREAT job and I really like it.

I had Jeff take pictures front, side, back so next time I want it trimmed I can show the stylist exactly how I want it.  Hopefully I get good stylists who can keep this style going!

One of my hobbies – baking my own bread!

I help my mom make rolls every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but other than that I don’t really have experience baking bread.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, but time and other commitments got in the way.

Now that we’re retired and have lots of time to do what we want, I’ve decided to start baking my own bread.  I made a simple white loaf this morning.  First time using the oven as well so I had to figure out how to light the pilot before putting the loaf in, and I was a bit unsure how well the temperature would match what’s on the dial etc.  Here’s a link to the recipe I used (click here).

Once I master this, I plan to make some sourdough starter so we can have sourdough bread, and also to make other types of bread such as pumpernickel, rye, etc.

Here’s a picture of my first loaf of bread…I had to take the shot quickly while it was still cooling because Jeff couldn’t wait to slice some of it.  He declared it is delicious!

Laddy poses with a model

A few days ago we took a drive in the afternoon and ended up at the Sunrise Hiway Kwaahii lookout over the desert.  We noticed that there was a male model and photographer there already and they were doing a photo shoot.  The model was all dressed in black and as we walked by with Laddy, they asked if they could use him in some of the shots.  We said “Of Course!”

The result is that Laddy is featured in the photo gallery of the photo shoot!  Here’s the photo that includes Laddy (below) and here’s a link to the photo gallery from my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sinsayfitography#!/jazzzr.  Just scroll down on my Facebook page a little and you’ll see it.

Laddy likes travelling and being in new places

We weren’t sure when we headed out from San Diego how Laddy would do in new and different places instead of being in the backyard he was getting used to.

But he’s doing just great.  He’s very well-behaved when meeting new people and while he gets excited when he sees a squirrel, rabbit or turkey he’s still easy to control.

He’s not too excited about how hot it’s been this week (in the low to mid 90s every day)  and our A/C still isn’t working.  In the afternoon he and I hang out in the shade near our trailer and try to wait out the heat.

Moving Sale – Everything Must Go!

Well, it’s the end of day 1 of our Moving Sale.  Anything that doesn’t fit into the trailer or truck bed is being sold as we are not going to have a storage unit.

People were knocking at the door at 6am!  Luckily we were already up and dressed.  By 8am most of our big items were gone and much of the little stuff was gone as well.  The rest of the day was pretty slow.

Day 2 promises to be slow since there’s not much left.  What doesn’t sell will be donated to charity or hauled away by a junkman.

Next step – fit all the stuff we want to take with us into the trailer!

My First Day of Retirement

I consider today to be my first day of retirement as it’s a Monday and is the first day I am not at work.  It’s been a fairly quiet day, I haven’t done anything exciting or really worthy of a first day of retirement.  Mostly I’m preparing the house for this weekend when we’ll sell all of our furniture and most of our belongings, as well as packing and organizing what we’re planning to put in the trailer and take with us.

The first day of our new adventure will really come on August 1st when we have everything sold or donated, the trailer packed and hitched to the truck, Laddy in the back seat and we take off!

 

Did you notice the background pictures?

The background pictures scattered around the top of the page are from travels we’ve already done.  This blog won’t focus on previous travels and I may replace the pictures at some point but for now it’s what we have pictures of.

The picture on the left is on Coronado Island during a whale watching tour.  Six hours from San Diego down to Coronado and then back again.  We did see a blue whale and followed it for about a half-hour watching it spout, surface etc.

On the right are pictures from other trips we’ve taken, Morro Rock at sunset, Bryce Canyon, and Lake George in New York.

The trips that Jeff and I have taken in the past inspired us to do what we’re going to do now – travel full-time living in a trailer!  This country has so much to see, so many varied and unique places that we have to do it full-time or we wont’t get it all done. 

Of course, we’ll be spending time with our grandkids too, and other family members that we haven’t seen much over the year.

Thanks for checking out my blog and be sure to check back once in a while and see what we’re up to!

Meet Laddy

Here’s a picture of Laddy, our new dog and companion.  Jeff and I have always known we would want a dog with us on our travels, and a Dobie is a great choice because they’re very smart, easily trained, and almost always well-behaved with strangers and in strange places (unlike other dogs we’ve known and loved).

We recently adopted Laddy from Dobie SOS, a rescue group out of Tehachipi.  Laddy had been picked up by Animal Control running down a busy street, thin and with wounds.  They nursed him back to health and out of 8 dobies we looked at, Laddy was a clear first choice!

We’ll talk about Laddy’s adventures more in our blog.