We were able to get an early start out of Beckley and headed east on I-64 to the Sandstone area for our first two falls of the day. Brooks Falls was rather underwhelming, but Sandstone Falls (below) offered several lovely shots and was an easy raised boardwalk hike.

only one half of the falls, a little further down you see this.

Our next stop was Twin Falls State Park, which I can safely say is the the absolute middle of nowhere. Although the drive was crazy long and we had to go all the way back north near Buckley to get on the interstate to go south, it was some lovely scenery. Pup also enjoyed the mile or so roundtrip hike (and a few pieces of cheese from our lunch).

Marsh Fork Falls

The next two spots were just off the interstate, so easy hikes for the rest of the day!

Campbell Falls

Brush Creek Falls

We stopped at Foothills Brewery on our way back home for a beer and dinner. Both were delicious.

As always, you can see directions and more photos from all the waterfall hikes we did on this trip (and others) on our waterfall photography page.

Riesling has taken to “killing” various toys which she then presents to me for both breakfast and dinner. I can only imagine that this is her idea of a trade. :) These antics are ramped up significantly when, say, beef stew is added to her ordinary kibble. We decided to capture it on video for your enjoyment… how can this not make you smile?

As I write this our 20+ year old washing machine is sitting at the end of our driveway, in the rain, waiting to be hauled away. This is the 3rd major appliance we have had to replace since we bought our house four years ago, not too shabby considering  the advanced age of these machines.

The last few times I did laundry, the end result was a giant puddle behind the machine slowly making its way into the adjacent kitchen. Upon inspection, we discovered that all the hoses and connections were intact but the bottom of the unit was rusted out.

As always, we carefully research any purchase over $100 and ultimately both agreed on this Samsung High Efficiency front loader. You can’t beat getting a $850 washing machine for $510! Eric also did a great job of talking me out of getting the matching set, after all, the dryer is still working fine and it’s hidden away, so we’ll worry about that replacement purchase at a later date.

Sears delivered the washer yesterday and after swapping detergent with a friend of mine (HE detergent only! Grr!) I am now able to do laundry puddle-free. :)

As part of the standard procedure around here, Riesling gave everything the once over and she approves.

We had a great time at the fifth annual SchnOcoberfest fundraiser for the North Carolina Schnauzer Rescue on Saturday afternoon. We took Riesling for a two mile walk before the 30 minute drive to the event, so she was pretty chill by the time we got there.

The organizers had set up a few agility course items, but nothing I said was going to make Riesling enter the tube thing.

There is no way I am going in there.

She was more game for the jumping obstacles, but I had to put a bar underneath the top one or she would just schooch underneath. No one said she wasn’t clever.

wheeee!

Riesling and I tried our luck at the sit & stay competition but she was eliminated after a few distractions. I was most proud that she wasn’t the first up! After that, she spent a little time as the donation dog while we hung out in the shade to cool off.

All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be outside with 50 mini schnauzers!

Our first day of waterfall hiking was a bit of a wash… literally. We knew it was going to be wet/muddy because it had rained for a full week before our visit to the NC mountains, but we were very much hoping it wasn’t going to rain all day on Saturday.

As you can see from this very sad schnauzer face, it did, in fact, rain and this photo was taken before the torrential downpour that was our mile hike back to the car at Linville Falls.

you wouldn’t mind carrying me all the way back to the car, right?

The weather cooperated on Sunday and we were able to do more hiking and stay relatively dry. Riesling spent much of her time in the car like this…

She did do about 4 miles of hiking with us, including this short hike to an unnamed falls off FR 63 near Craggy Gardens.

I’ll be posting more photos of the 10 waterfalls we photographed this week. Visit the Flickr photoset of our trip for updates and check out some of the other waterfalls we’ve photographed here.

Right after we got back from Peru, we agreed to pup-sit our friend’s mini schnauzer, Pasha, for the weekend. Riesling doesn’t particularly enjoy the extra attention, but they do enjoy tugging on the rope together.

(grrrrrr!)

Sometimes I have to break things up and start over. Clearly, when I have the rope, I also have everyone’s full attention!

(my pants are rolled up due to bug bites, not a fashion preference)

Inevitably, Riesling wanders off by herself to chew on bunny.

(what? bunny is tasty.)

We will be stuck inside for the next few days as it’s supposed to be in the upper 90s which means shorter walks with pup; she looks like this when we get home…

Her collar is on because she can’t stop licking her shaved front leg from when they put in the IV for her dental cleaning two weeks ago. So she will be silly looking until that heals up.

Thanks to some creative driving by my fearless father-in-law and the separate security line for AA Gold status passengers at JFK, we made it onto our flight this afternoon with just a few minutes to spare. Whew!

So, we are now home with a very happy (and relaxed) schnauzer…

The weather was sunny and we had a great time this weekend: visited with several family members, did a bit of wine tasting and ate some tasty pizza in NYC.

I will be posting more about the three wineries we visited later in the week once I get my notes in order and catch my breath from running through the entire length of JFK’s Terminal 8.

Riesling has been healing amazingly well and it’s becoming much harder (thankfully) to see her scars. We’ve come a long way from 60 staples, exploratory surgery and one broken rib, back to a healthy and active pup.

Thank God.

I have been taking periodic photos and it’s obvious how well she has healed in the five short weeks since mid-May.

on May 24, 6 days after the attack

on June 2, 15 days after the attack

this evening, June 23, 36 days after the attack

She just came back from a short stint at Camp Bow Wow and everything went just fine. We’ll probably head back to the dog park sometime this week to see how she handles other dogs around us.  I imagine it will be a harder adjustment for me than for her.

I spent the morning at Urban Ministries in Durham weeding their outdoor family area while Eric picked up a bunch of new plants, fruits and sunflowers at the farmer’s market in Raleigh. As soon as I got home, I was put to work helping Eric clean all the windows in the house, both indoor and out.

Now Eric is planting and I am trying to do laundry…

… if only a certain someone would move.