Trip to Jamaica

I recently got the opportunity to go to Jamaica with a group of other students. We spent the week donating the supplies we brought with us and our time to a few orphanages, schools, and handicapped centers. It was an incredible experience. To see people who have very little be happy with what they have was overwhelming. The children at the orphanages, deaf school and rehabilitation center were so glad to just spend time with visitors; to let them take you by the hand and let them show you their world made them smile. It was a great experience.

The scenery and location was almost surreal. It was so interesting how the ocean met the beach or cliffs and then within a few yards was lush green forest and further up were mountains. In Montego Bay we got to watch gorgeous sunsets. Where we were staying was right across the beach and the planes flew very close to us (the runway was just a few blocks away). We visited lots of cool places like Dunns River Falls and ate a lot of interesting food (jerk chicken, jerk pork, curried goat, fried plantains). It was quite an experience, but it was very enjoyable.

North American Flyball Association CanAm Classic Pictures

Today we went to the fairgrounds for a couple of hours to see the North American Flyball Association CanAm Classic. Today was the last day of events, but yesterday a world record was set for the "Largest Flyball Tournament". A total of 810 dogs participated. You can read more on their website http://www.nafacanam.com/

Here are some of the photos:

Morning Garden Pictures

This morning I went out and took some more pictures of the garden. The top picture is a young cherry tomato plant I grew from seed. The second picture is of the bed where the flowers were. Now there are peas growing on a trellis, and cilantro (still very small). You can also see our PVC gate and the huskies' pool. The third picture is of a zucchini blossom. Hopefully, today will be sunny, not rainy, so I can go pull some of the weeds.

The Green-Eyed Boy on the Ladder

Twister enjoys the view from a ladder



While we took a break from cleaning the fan in the living room, a mysterious man in black decided the ladder was a luxurious post from which to view the indoor world. With green eyes glistening he struck a pose, then another, then he decided it was too much: with tail flicking he descended and disappeared into the shadow clad hall.

Garden Overhaul

This has been a very rainy week! We've had morning showers a few times and today there was a random afternoon shower.

The garden took on a new look in the past few weeks. We built two raised garden beds that are 8x4 and 10 inches high. We also moved the flowers at the back of the house (they were being uprooted by the dogs) to the front. Now there are three garden beds total, not counting a 1x5 row outside the fence. We bought some good soil, filled them and transplanted/planted all the vegetable plants. As you can see though, we had to change the 2ft plastic fence around it to a 4ft wire fence. We built a PVC piping gate that was inspired by a gate I saw on the Skippy's Vegetable Garden blog (http://carletongarden.blogspot.com).

The seedless grape vines are doing well (top picture), the zucchini plants are beginning to blossom (2nd picture), and everything is looking great. We look forward to a good harvest!

Extreme Makeover Yard Edition

Over the last few weeks our yard has been renovated. We now have a 6ft chain-link fence and two 8x4 garden beds full of wonderful soil.

A storm system moved through last night, I'll post pictures of that too.

The garden needs to be planted soon since we are now past the frost date. I've got peppers, tomatos, corn, zucchini, and cucmber started so far. Hopefully, this group will make it. My tomatos had serious problems and I've had trouble with the cucumber this year. I hope to get some onions and cilantro in soon too; the cilantro did really well last year.

Happy gardening!

Gulf Shores Vacation 2010

Our vacation summarized in under three minutes.

The Rainy Season?

The rains came today, so no progress could be made in the garden. (Note the wonderful puddles, not)Unfortunate, but despite the rain the ducks seem to be having a good time. This pair was enjoying an evening swim. The light colored one has been around here since it was a baby. It was good to see it again.

Garden Prep

Today saw the perfect day for garden prep. We cleared our roughly 8ft by 6ft garden and added some nutrients to the soil. Including the past week's coffee grounds.

In addition to that, we added some square bricks to our patio thereby increasing it's width by a foot. It took a good part of the day to get it done, but it looks good.

The seeds we've started indoors are doing rather well. Unfortunately, I mixed up the peppers again and now have no idea what is what! We've got the peppers (sweet and hot), tomatoes (regular and cherry), and cucumbers all started inside. Cucumbers took a turn for the worst last week, but two of the six have recovered. I think I watered them a little too much.

Hopefully next weekend will bring some more progress.

A Day At The Park

After playing in the park for a hour, Kingu and Maruq were tired.


Kingu makes a good effort at clearing the jump.


Maruq looks like he's effortlessly floating over the jump that three weeks ago he was afraid of.


Kingu is tired.


Maruq running and Kingu ignoring him. He looks so funny here.




RUN KINGU RUN!!!!

Huskies and rain puddles

Today the sibes went to the paw park. Unfortunately, since it had rained recently, the area of the park I call "the trench" was filled with a couple inches of muddy water. Kingu ran through it with her mouth open and Maruq ran at full speed through it. Needless to say, we had two muddy huskies on our hands, which was not good for any of us. Then Kingu's allergies started getting to her and she kept reverse sneezing; so we left early, muddy huskies and all. After the huskies were bathed things settled down.

We also went to the Brickyard 400 this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was an ok race, there were only three cautions I believe though, and in due time I acutually began to doze off. It was what I expected. It was a nice experience but I don't plan on going back any time in the near future. I think my taste leans more toward IRL than NASCAR.

A couple weeks ago we went on a week long vacation. It was with my parents, my sisters and one of my sister's kids.Our destination: the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos for a few nights then went to Hershey for the Chocolate making tour (not the real thing, just the ride where you get in those little cars and it takes you through the steps of what they do and such. Its the one with the singing cows. I can't begin to tell you how long that song was stuck in my head.) Then we headed down to Nags Head. We went to the beach a few days and went to Jockey's Ridge State Park for an evening. Then we came back home, the gps rerouteing my sister the wrong way all the way to South Bend, IN untill someone realized the gps was set up wrong. What a nightmare.

The garden is having some trouble and some of the plants are turning yellowish, but overall it's ok because I have some things I still need to plant. The baby ducks are growing up and have their adult color but still have tiny little wings. They're pretty cute.

Hopefully I will post pictures soon!

The Huskies New Friend

Today, Kingu and Maruq met Lilly. Lilly is a gorgeous black and white husky puppy. She, Kingu and Maruq had a good time playing. Maruq, being only about a half year older than Lilly, was quite the match for her. They ran in the yard, tackling and pawing at each other, while Kingu disdainfully worried over the occasional firework going off (it's just about the only thing she's scared of). Kingu did join in the play eventually, but it's different for her; she's three now and with her little bit of extra weight on those poor knees, play just isn't what it used to be. (Kingu has a problem with both her knees; both will periodically slide in and out of place causing her to fall. When she runs and tries to make a quick turn, or if there is a sudden need to slow down or stop, she drags her back feet. It looks like she's trying to sit down while running, sometimes she ends up running on her knees. Since she's lost about 10 lbs, she's improved. It doesn't cause her pain and according to the vet, it's a common condition in smaller breeds, but rather uncommon in larger breeds.) The huskies played for nearly an hour.

Now they are very tired and sound asleep, and both are having husky dreams.

Pictures of the Siberian Huskies!

Kinguyakkii (meaning "northern lights") is the white husky. Amaruq (meaning "wolf") is the grayish one. As you can see, they are not afraid to get all muddy and dirty. Kingu, as much as she hates rain, really loves to play in the mud. Maruq doesn't care as long as he gets to play with other dogs at the park.

Fruit of the Vines

July 4th is nearly here!
Sure most people will be rushing to the local grocery for hamburgers, hot dogs, grill supplies and such; it's just so inconvenient that in our area it's likely we'll get some rain. We have an 80% chance of precipitation, which doesn't mean we will be hiding from the storms all day necessarily, it just means it makes it more difficult.

Kinguyakkii and Amaruq had a good time at the dog park today (I will be posting pictures soon). Hopefully, they won't be too rambunctious and upset about the rain. (Kingu hates getting her little princess paws all wet.) If it rains all day though, there might not be as many fireworks, which is good for the huskies as that the loud noises make their tails fall between their legs and convinces them to hide in a corner.

However, the rain will be helpful to our vegetable garden, as it seems to need water frequently in our (currently) warm Indiana climate. Our garden consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, green onions, cilantro, various pepper plants (both hot and sweet) and the feared zucchini plants. We are testing one of those latest-craze upside down tomato plants (we bought it pre-planted and it had a few flowers on it), it has two medium sized tomatoes growing on it and is doing surprisingly well. We had bought one that came with seeds you planted yourself, but after 5-6 weeks the plants were doing very poorly and the cats seemed to take a liking to uprooting them and dragging them all over the house. We currently have 15 cucumbers, 9 zucchini, 8 carrots, 20 green onions, 12 tomatoes, 5 peppers and way too much cilantro growing. I need to transfer some more pepper plants outside (yes, I know I need to move them soon before the season is over); a few pepper plants we are going to try to keep alive through the winter since they are able to be grown as perennials. I need to plant the second rounds of carrots, onions and peas, too. The garden is almost like having another pet, it always needs something. We are also trying to grow seedless grapes, one plant really shot up and is has many little vines. The other grape vine is short and has grown a lot, but it isn't growing like the other one. They look very odd in our yard, a very tall plant and a short and stout plant. Yes, I do believe the neighbors sometimes worry about our sanity.

I hope all you out there have a great fourth of July, and happy grilling!

Up and Running

Welcome to The Running Husky Blog! This is the first post ever on this blog, and the huskies are up and running! The purpose of this blog is to document life with huskies, life in general, and any randomness that gets mixed in.

First you should meet the huskies! Kingu (short for Kinguyakkii) is the white siberian husky. She has brown eyes, a stubborn personality, and a strong prey drive. Although she can be quite calm and sweet, she has a multidimentional attitude, and her intent is rarely clear. (Sure those big brown eyes can look so sad, but only while there's something for her to get out of the deal.) Secondly, meet Amaruq, the other husky, (called Maruq to eliminate that pesky extra syllable.) He's the trim, lean, strong looking boy with a big heart and a worried expression. He may look tough, but underneath all that thick fur is a big puppy who's scared of loud noises and anything thats bigger than him (unless it's a dog). He has eyes with brown and blue and a wolf-like grey coat. His tail is always wagging, unless he's being walked to the tub for those oh-so-inconveienient pains called baths.

Other characters that might find their way into this blog include Angel (the eldest cat and a social one at that), Milo (the second cat who dislikes anyone ringing the doorbell and bites anyone who calls her "fat"), Twister (the cat that supposedly lives a double life as both a singer and a blogger, in the between time he finds a can of cat food and lives it up on his weightloss diet), Ginger (the lovebird that may have committed a terrible crime and flew up on our patio one day), the garden (ok, so it's not "alive" but it sure gets a lot of attention), finally the other creatures that live in the lake behind the headquarters here will probably get some fair attention as well.

In celebration of the first post of the Running Husky Blog, and reading through this mess of a first-post go get yourself a treat. Doggie biscuits, anyone?