Dog Fix

We've been enjoying trips to the dog park much more since we benefit from the confidence of Sasha. She has a very Emily-like attitude and it's hard to find a dog she doesn't get along with. (Unfortunately, my dad's dog Molly is one of those. The one thing Sasha cannot stand is being growled at. She growls back, which makes Molly more frightened and growly, which makes Sasha...well, you get the point.)

So, since we've had beaucoup time off with the holidays, we had a couple trips to the dog parks, both in Modesto and Turlock, and I brought my camera along...

I think my dad would call the usual crowd at the Modesto dog park a "happy swirl of dogs". And I say Ha! to the "no unneutered dogs allowed" rule at some parks... Look at how well the Modesto dogs are getting along! There are usually at least a few pits or pit mixes at the popular times, and everyone generally gets along fine. Note how confident Cyrus seems... (although he's still not willing to go up for a sniff and petting of a person stranger). Sasha is harder to catch on camera, since she's dashing around like the social butterfly she is.

Enjoy.

Herding dogs intimidate our dogs a little, since the "stalking" predatory behavior is what they use to get herds to move...or other dogs to play with them. Cy and Sash worry that the dog is really "after" them which is why there's some tension here, but they're learning to relax a little.

Tag team the big dog. If the two of them weigh as much as the one of him, that makes it fair, right?

The beagle's cute and he was friendly, but it's not hard to remember why I never wanted a scent hound... Every time he'd get excited, or other dogs would run near him in the same approximate direction, he'd start up with the baying again.

The Green Ring Press is born!

One of the last classes I took as an undergrad was printmaking. I loved it. We worked mainly in intaglio, mostly etchings. I've wanted to get back into printing ever since the end of that class, but etching presses are horrifically expensive. And extremely heavy, what with the steel rollers and press beds, so even if you can find one used, it'd cost a king's ransom to have it shipped.

So, to make a long story short, Matt and I have been trying to think of ways to build a press for some time. I am not a machinist, or even particularly mechanical, so it did not seem likely that I would be able to build an etching press myself, no matter how much I wanted one. Then I found out that my favorite online printmaker, of http://trailhoundz.blogspot.com/ (how could I not be a fan of someone who does printmaking and adopted 3 retired racers?), built a press from instructions at a Mosswork's studio website, http://www.mossworks.com/ .

This is not designed to be an etching press, and I haven't tested it with drypoint yet, but it will do any manner of relief printing. (Unfortunately, the plates for those take a lot longer than I was hoping, so I won't have images of our prints to put up until a little later.) Still, it's very, very exciting and Matt and I have been having a ball so far with it. What a lovely guy I have to make something like that for me. (Afterwards, I bought him a "thank you Wii", so don't think he's all work and no play. ^_~)

Here are some images from the Making of the Press.

Here are the major components, plus a lot of fiddly hardware bits and some springs.

Getting started in the garage-cum-workshop

The doubled 2x4 is centered under the press bed, with a matching set at the top of the press.

All it needs now is the driving force, Jack. Captain Bottle Jack, to be precise.

This square of plywood will become the platen. The countersunk eyebolts hook up to the springs which retract the platen when the pressure from the jack is released.

Ta da!

We're still getting the hang of the actual printing process, so I'll have to post scans of our prints later. When we have nicer ones and I want to take time out of carving printing blocks to scan images...

Yay! Living up to the hype!

We'll work up to this slowly. Here, really quickly, is an image of a drawing I'm working on. I believe it's a 1.5'X2.5' image a tree against the sky. (pretty much branches, foliage, and blue), using my ink pen collection with tiny lines.

Yes, I'm neurotic. But it looks cool. Very Chuck Close meets George Seurat.

This weekend I attended the ASA Scramble and Archive Hunt. Wicked cool! But the best two hours were spent in Fresno, getting to visit Laurel, Nate, and their criminally adorable children. I had Cyrus with me and he fascinated the kids. He was ok (shy, of course, but not as bad as with adults) and they were extremely gentle and good around them. We've got to visit again! Here's the kids and their adorableness. I didn't take picture of the cute apartment, I was so preoccupied thinking Cyrus would growl. (Unfair - he never did, he's way too sweet for that)

Logan (his shirt says "My Parents are Exhausted")

Cutie Chloe! She was playing Peek-a-Boo with Cyrus. If you're related to me, friend Laurel on Facebook and check out her photo galleries of her kids. Particularly "Chloe loves".

Puppy hunt! Cyrus didn't actually get to chase any rabbits. His group (himself, JJ, and Pearl) didn't scare up any rabbits close enough for them to see. The first person to see a rabbit run yells "Rabbit!" to get everyone's attention. Since the puppies didn't know what they were doing, they all looked at the yelling person rather than trying to find the rabbit. Oh, well. It was great fun anyway. The other 5 sets of dogs got pretty good courses, particularly the veterans (who all know what to do when they hear Rabbit!), and it was a full day with interesting saluki people and beautiful dogs. Plus, getting to walk Cyrus. We are both exhausted.

Seven of the 11 Rock 'n' Roll puppies came. Here are JJ, Strider, Kody, and Quila (from the left). Not shown are Pearl, Rider, and Cyrus.

Cyrus strikes a pose while we break for lunch, after a frustrating 2 or so hours of being "on the line" and seeing no rabbits close enough for a course. Isn't he cute?

I tried getting some video of the courses, but the dogs were sooo far away by the time the camera turned on that it never worked. Plus, my camera doesn't have great zoom. So here is a consolation video of Cyrus and Sasha playing on the porch. Trust me, it's more action than you can see in the grainy, blurry, "this is a field of dry brush" videos I took at the hunt.

Busy month

So, it's been a busy few weeks and my blog is woefully neglected. I'd like to point out that my zoo still has it fairly well. We signed Cyrus up for a puppy hunt next week (no, we're not hunting puppies) and he had a show last weekend. We brought Sasha with us (Mya happily visited Mom and the rest of the family), so she had a good time too. Once again, we came in dead last, second to brother Rider, who - incidentally - was gimpy. >sigh< I think I am not meant to show. I believe Cyrus will do much better when Jim takes over showing him. We know, in my own unbiased opinion, that he is clearly a gorgeous dog, deserving of all wins. :)





But the up note was that we visited the Turlock dog park for the first time. That's a nice park. Set on a slope, so there's good exercise on varied terrain. They divide the park between large and small dogs, and on Saturday there was this little black dog whose favorite game is getting the big dogs to chase her up and down the length of the dividing fence. All us owners leaned back in satisfaction and said, "Yep, they'll sleep tonight!" as they ran pellmell up and down the 150 ft fence, slope included. Good pups. On Thanksgiving, we had the park to ourselves most of the day, so even Mya got to go in. While we waited for the last couple people to leave, I took Mya over to the great children's play area they have. Here's some vid of her on the slides (I'm not sure everyone believes me about how much she loves them). I didn't get better shots because I was manning both the dog and the camera - Matt was in the dogpark with the big pups - and it was tough to get Mya to wait at the top of the slide for me to get ready with the camera rather than zoom down pellmell as soon as I put her up there.

Happy Moments

My mom seems to think that having 3 dogs and 2 cats and a snake is unbelievably complicated and a drain on time and energy.

Right now, I'm busy with a lot of things, including working full time and deep in two master's classes online.

All these crazy animals help keep me sane. Sure, it takes time to walk them, play with them, feed them, and clean up after them. But there is only so much time I can spend on "work" things. Judging by my previous two semesters, I am probably not spending any more "free" time doing non-work, non-chore things. When I reach a certain stress threshold, I check out and do something like read or watch a movie. Pet-time has taken the place of much of my reading or other elective activities. Walking the dogs is much more refreshing than watching an episode of Kare Kano. Sure, neither activity gets the bathroom cleaned right now, but cleaning the bathroom doesn't leave me feeling happy and recharged, the way a good 10 or 15 minutes of tug and fetch with Sasha does. The Zoo gives us a full and happy house. I wouldn't trade that for a spotless floor or even a magically-emptying dishwasher.

Here are some happy moments from this weekend, despite working on two school assignments and some house projects. (You can bet I wouldn't be posting pictures of a clean kitchen counter, even if I had one)

Sasha test-drives the new dog house, under construction. She seems to approve.

I love this shot. True, she is still round as a bullet, but this pic makes her look speedy. She accompanied us to Home Depot for dog-house-building supplies. It must have been Take Your Dog to Your Local Hardware Store Day, since she was one of three pooches there.

Cyrus borrow's Sasha's collar (he can do that, now that I walk the big dogs separately, to work on pulling issues). I think he looks snappy in it. Matt says he looks girly (he already has enough people saying, She's pretty! because of those lovely blond locks framing his face). It's hard to get walking-the-dog pictures of their faces... there's too many interesting smells! (In contrast, almost all of the at home shots are face shots. Never know, I might be getting ready to feed them something at any moment, right?)

Building a new exhibit

Between work and school, I hate to spend more time at a computer than necessary. This is bad for a blog. So, for a quick update... Sasha and Moira continue to settle in nicely. We are also working on a new exhibit named "Dog Palace" which will be big enough to shelter all three dogs from the weather at once. We do at least know they will all curl up pretty close when they want to, as is evidenced by the picture below.

Lest you think they don't get along after you watch the video. The kittehs get along great. And are super cute together.

'Course, Moira's supercute on her own. A little circle of kitteh.

Here is the new exhibit as it develops. Good to have a handyman in the house! I helped. I didn't mash my thumb.

Mya appreciates Sasha, who contributed the lovely lounging platform that Mya is using. She was bored being inside on housecleaning day. It was so nice outside...

As we can see, Sasha is now perfectly comfortable on all furniture. Cyrus' look of concern is from the fact that Sasha is clearly possessed by demons.

Now for the fun video from our local panther exhibit.

And Now for Someone Completely Different

Well, not completely different. If you notice, she's quite like Cyrus...

Sasha is a greyhound-husky mix and her arrival means the zoo is full. She is a joy to have and is fitting in well her. I think she likes us.