Tug Of War, Water Games And Other Fun

This time we decided to take the babies and mama to the pond. We (the pups and us) really like to crawl into the woods, off the trail, rather than following the well known path. It´s definitely more fun! :)

So this time, I headed into the thick bush quite shortly after reaching the forest, and I told Toly Rose to "lead us". She is such an independent cute little puppy! I just love giving her the chance to show us what "she´s got" and watch how she solves different situations she faces and how she chooses where to go and how to proceed forward.

We took several stops to play tug of war with some sticks and to see who from the babies has the biggest focus.

Cora seems to be the winner of that one :)

After tug of war, we headed straight for the water of the "First Pond" as we call this little spot beside the trail.

 

This was another new experience for the kids. After last week´s experience at the creek, the pond was very different - being calm and still, so they decided to try their paws at it a bit more.

Toly Rose was a definite "winner" of the water games. She seemed to especially enjoy it and taking a little bath made her run crazy fast around, before going for another splash.

 

 There she goes! :)

On the way back we also played our favorite hide and seek game. This time both Jachym and I, together with mama Lucky, hid in the bushes alongside the trail. We walked towards home, the kids of course ahead of us, and then we quickly "disappeared" without a word. And we watched and waited.

The three stormed back on the trail towards us, as soon as they found out we are not following them. They passed us in our hideaway, but quickly realized we are not further back and returned. Using their noses and ears, they dove into the bush and - found us! I swear, the biggest reward for them is always the fact that they find you. No need for treats. 

Satisfied with themselves and their afternoon game time in the woods, the little huskies jumped into their kennel joyfully and settled down to dream of their next adventure.

Fragile, Yet Strong

I just had to share this fantastic bloomer. Yes, this is our Christmans Amarilis, which blooms for every single person on the planet during Christmas time. But us.

Being as independent as any other creature around this household, be it dog, cat, flower, tree or a person, our beloved Amarilis surprised us this week with this magic beauty.

I hope this gorgeous flower with the most fascinating color will please us with it´s fragile, yet strong presence for a long time!

Jigsaw Puzzle Friday - Let the Fun (And Weekend) Begin!

Ok peeps, it´s Friday! You know what to do! :o)

In case you have missed the past puzzles, here is a link to all the previous Jigsaw Puzzle Friday posts.

And a link to our Jigzone Gallery.

Have a great weekend ya all!

Mouse's Diary Entry: "Being Smart Ain´t Easy"

Alrighty, before some other dog jumps at the opportunity to bark out their thoughts, I am going to call this blog space mine! :)

I am called Mouse since I was a tiny 2,5 months old puppy. In the pedigree, it clearly stands ANUMATI, which is a very suitable and poetic name, because it means moon in some Indian dialect or something, and I think it´s much more noble than Mouse. So, here is the beginning of me - the noble special dog, being called just like an ordinary husky.

on my cloud, erhm, I mean dog bed

Anyhow, I am not going to tell the entire long story of my life, how I was supposed to be racing long distance sled dog and how I, being the super smart (and that one is not out of my head, but my human mom says so) dog, was of course doing so well as a young lead dog talent, until the day the team I led got attacked by a moose and I defended my team mates and my mom by jumping at the moose, but the moose threw me in the air and I simply decided that it was a bit too much and too dangerous. Eventually the humans understood how I felt about this and I became what they call a full time house dog, although I took the time to train and help harness break all my puppies and other young dogs. 

as a young race team lead dog, together with my friend Magpie

Yes, I am also a mother (of seven) and this year I became a (young and beautiful) grandmother of two litters, sired by my two handsome sons, who are talented sled dogs. And my daughter is the new lead dog talent around here and I say she´s got all the brains (and looks) from me, so here you go - I made sure the humans have all their sled dog talents and all in my kids so they don´t have to feel sad that I retired from the sport early.

Leading the puppy team, teaching my daughters Snorka and Modra
how to be a sled dog (they are the same color as me)

as a mother

Anyway, I wanted to say that I am very smart and that I drive my humans crazy (and I like to drive them crazy) very often with all sorts of things! :)

Oh no, I do not destroy things, chew furniture or other silly things that other dogs do. That is below my style. I choose to pretend to be deaf and I love to play games, helping to strengthen the humans´ patience and nerves and help to stimulate their brain function. 

I heard mom the other day saying how she needs to think out of the box when she works with me!

And this is something I want to talk about. As much as I love being spoiled rotten and lay around all day long on the sofa, and as much as I am called lazy (which is truth into a certain extend), I do love to be active. Or activated. I do love to have that smart brain of mine challenged. Yeah, I know, if I wasn´t a dog, I could´ve entered myself into some TV show for smart people, quizes and such stuff. But because I am a dog, it had to really take me a while to get my hu-mom figure out what really makes me tick. Aaah, us dogs, we have it sometimes hard with those humans!

So yesterday hu-mom took me for a walk to the island. And she forgot to take treats with her. And was lazy to go back get them. Ha - so I am not the only lazy one around here! 

Anyway, so she thought for herself, that I will have to go on a leash the whole way.

But once we got behind the gate by the road, she changed her mind and let me off the leash. I darted over the meadow, full speed, right to the lake shore. There were some ducks there in the water and I  had to check them out. 

Mom called me but I didn´t really wanna go back on the trail, I mean, common it´s so boring to walk on the trail and let all the fun stuff around unchecked. 

But mom did something different this time. She didn´t insist on me coming to her and did not keep repeating my name. She just started to walk over the meadow on the other side of the trail!

Now, that was interesting, because the other side of the trail also called for some exploring, so I decided it could be fun to join mom over there.

And what more, she told me what a great dog I was, when I came to her, and told me to go play and explore some more!

And every time I wandered somewhere, nearly out of sight, she just found a more cool place for me to visit and check out. She even led me to spots that she knew I would like, like the little lagoon with the ship wreck where I could walk in the shallow, calm water. You know, I really like water.

yup, I like water

Well, let me tell you, soon enough I was more interested to keep an eye on where hu-mom is and stay closer to her, because she had all these awesome ideas where to go and what fun things to do, that it was more interesting for me than finding my own independent things to do.

How cool was that - nearly an hour of exploring and chasing, and running wild over the mud - field that formed in the bay, crawling over the rocks on the beach, sniffing in the water grass for mice, searching for moose antlers, racing with the flying ducks and playing in the water.

At about the halfway of our adventure, mom stopped and investigated the mud for quite a while so I came to check it out and boy - there were quite fresh bear tracks there! Mom said that I should not run over them, that we´ll come back the next day to take pictures of them, because she didn´t take her camera. But she also said that we should get going and I could feel from her that she wasn´t as relaxed as before we came across these tracks.

She said we won´t go through the thick brush on the way back and she also said to herself "let your dog´s behavior be your indication". I have no idea what that means, but she watched me more closely and when I hesitated before entering a certain spot, she chose to go another way. Hmm, what a different behavior on her side. But in her mind, I sensed her thinking different thoughts. She said that we are living in the wilderness and that we can´t ignore the fact we have wildlife as our closest neighbors. And that we have to know how to co-exist with them, which means not only tolerating and not distracting them, but also being cautious and learn from the nature and listen to it.

Well, I think we huskies do that all the time and I am really glad that our very own humans try to learn from us what we have to say about all that, instead of trying to make us become someone else.

Anyhow, as you can see, I did not chose to fill my blogging space with things purely about my boring life, which was actually my first idea. I could write about how spoiled and mischievous and lazy I am and what a prima-dona I am and how I get so jealous when there are puppies and other dogs coming in the house all the time and all. I chose to be the smart dog I am and to tell you how my wonderful day went yesterday, but also how I totally loved mom´s approach to the walk we made, how she rewarded me with things that were far more interesting for me than treats, and how I helped her to be the guide when bear was likely nearby. 

And because I chose to write about this instead of being selfish, I got a chance to write another Diary Entry some time again!

Have a great day and take your dog for a nice walk full of fun and games and surprises, I KNOW they´ll love it!

Your Mouse. (the smart dog - just so you know ;-))

Poor Man's Enchiladas

Ok, if you are rich, you can also read this! :)

The reason I named this recipe Poor Man´s Enchiladas is simple - we were out of ingredients. In fact, our fridge had a hungry empty stomach and all we had were a few left overs of this and that.

You may ask where is the problem and wonder if we are really that lazy to go get some groceries. 

With 25 miles each way of a rough, dirt forest road and the lifestyle we live, grocery shopping whenever we feel like it is a luxury we do not have. Actually, this makes us think more and plan meals  and shopping, and be creative! :) 

So, after inspecting and evaluating what we have, and really really wanting to make something Mexican as it was Cinco de Mayo that day, I assembled these simple Poor Man´s Enchiladas :)

And they were great!

For 2 persons I used:

1 large chicken breast
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 a can of corn (about 200g)
1 small onion
Mexican Food Spice Mix (from Dollarstore) - use whatever amount you find right and you can use any spice mix suitable for enchiladas, tortillas, or other Mexican food)
a chunk of cheese (I had a leftover piece, normally I would use chedar, but remember - this a poor man´s/leftover recipe :))

On two tea spoons of oil, I softened the onion diced in tiny pieces, then added diced chicken, bell pepper and corn, properly spicing it up. This is done very quick.

You can use store bought tortillas, but here´s how Jachym (the bake master in our house) makes ours:


2 cups spelt flour (you can use wheat if you want, we just try to avoid wheat flour as much as we can)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup warm water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add olive oil and stir well. Put in warm water 1 table spoon at a time until dough can be gathered into a ball. Add more water if needed one spoon at a time. Knead on floured surface 15-20 times. Let dough rest for 15 minutes, then divide into 10-12 equal portions and shape into balls. On floured surface roll out ball from center into a circle. Roast on ungreased pan over medium-high heat on each side about 30 seconds or until puffy. We usually leave them in the oven to keep them warm.

As you see on pictures - they don´t need to be perfectly round-shaped, so don´t be too hard on yourself! :)

Fill each tortilla with the meat and vegetable mixture, roll them and place them side by side in a baking ceramic dish.

Sprinkle them with whatever cheese and amount of cheese you have available. I also sprinkled a bit of the spice mix over.

Since the ingredients are all cooked and ready, you don´t need to bake it in the oven for long, or on high. Just enough to melt the cheese and warm up the tortillas. And add that lovely crispy edge to them :)

Woala! And serve.

You can make pretty much any meal even with little ingredients. Just use your imagination and don´t give up! :)

Happy Sweet Sixteen Ceeshiak!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SPECIAL BOY CEESHIAK

who celebrates his 16th Birthday today!

picture taken last May, when we visited our family
and Ceeshiak celebrated his 15th birthday.

Ceeshiak aka Ceeshu or Ceeshi, lives his fairy tale retirement life of luxury with my mom and dad in Czech Republic. 

He still chases their three cats away from food dishes and enjoys weekends spent in the country side, where they travel almost every week.

Thank you mom and dad for giving Ceeshiu such a wonderful, loving, well deserved retirement home after his sled dog career.

In May 2010, Ceeshiak had a malignant tumor removed from his thigh muscle. He´s been living a happy, healthy life since then. We wish nothing less to this brave, tough guy, than happy, healthy life, that he´s always lived to the fullest!

We´re so proud of you, buddy! 

On behalf of your entire pack and family up North, loads of Love

Exploring The Creek

Few days ago we took the Love puppies aka Cora, Finn and Toly-Rose, and of course their mom Lucky, for a trip. Not that we drove a car somewhere, but our usual puppy walks are around half an hour long. This time we headed out into a new direction for the munchkins and explored a bit for an hour and a half. 

The goal was to reach the nearby creek, by conquering the melting snow and getting over many obstacles such as rotting trees, laying across the path, which once used to be a narrow power line, now abandoned, grown over by thick brush at places and visited mostly by deer and our other wild neighbors.

 
First, a little warm up at the garden :)

Then a little practice of jumping over dead trees and other stuff, on the meadow.

And into the wild! :)

The rotting trees where highly appreciated by the kids. They loved jumping and running back and forth, so we stopped for a while, taking pictures, shooting a short video and mainly "practicing" a little with the little guys. Who knows, maybe one day they might try their paws at agility....:)

 They seem quite skilled jumpers for sure! :)

Our little Miss Wild & Crazy Cora. After jumping over obstacles, she decided it was time to SIT ON TOP of obstacles :) She´s such a smart, crazy girl. Her zest for life is so infectious!

And a bit of obedience practice. What can be a better environment, full of distractions, than the wild woods that surround us?

 

The deeper we got into the thick forest and neared the creek, the more remaining snow we found. And the kids of course loved it, using it for some wild and free, full speed running.

The creek was very busy, rushing it´s waters down the hill toward the Vattudalen lake.

It was a completely new experience for the little ones, open and running water wasn´t something they would know during their first three months of live, being born in the middle of winter.

At first glance, they were surprised, but very curious, although cautious. Smart babies!

It was cool to see them how they interact with this new "thing". They watched us carefully, and did what they saw us doing. A complete trust. When Jachym jumped over to the other side, Finn went immediately, without hesitation after him. Soon they will be running through the water and jumping back and forth :)

It´s amazing seeing them trust us and follow us as their pack leaders. They are strongly bonded to humans and take every new experience with an awesome stride.

On the way back, I let Jachym with Lucky (this time on the leash most of the way, as we have a deer couple hanging around) and the kids go ahead, and hid quite some distance off the path, behind a large fallen spruce. Then I called them up. It was the first time I let them go so far away from me and first time I hid myself so far and well. It was a great game, it took the kids quite a while to find me. At first they were quite confused when they heard me call them but had no traces of me when they kept running back on the path. Cora got my scent first and the moment she "switched her nose ON", she dove down the hill, the correct direction, straight towards my hiding spot.
Toly Rose followed closely from another direction and poor little Finn passed all three of us and took him a while to spot us. The happier he was when he finally spotted "mom". :)

Lucky is an expert in finding me in the woods, and she always gets super excited when we unite, dancing around and swirling. But today we were afraid she could take off after the deer nearby.

I also told Toly to "lead" us out of the hideway back onto the path, as she is quite the little explorer. She is so cool, finding paths and clearings and is an independent gal. So different from Cora, but definitely very interesting character as well.
And she did lead us back onto the path, in a quite clever, well thought out way!

When we hit a nice sunny, drier spot, we took a little break. The kids immediately settled for games such as finding sticks, cones and other treasures, chewing them and wrestling over them.

Now the plan is to do more leash training so we can take them further and for trips across the road. Stay tuned for their next adventures! :)