4-Legged's Down Under

Are hosting a GIVEAWAY for their friends in Celebration of their 100th post and One Year Blogging Anniversary! Can you guess who it is? It's Inky and Molly  in Geelong, Victoria, Australia! Something fun for the 4-legged's and something for the pinkie too! WOO-HOO! So go visit their blog to read all about their Molly Giveaway and NO- don't get too excited, they aren't giving Molly away or her tail. She is quite content in Down-Under Land and will stay there with her own pinkies and Inky-Dale, thank you very much. So go make new friends and have a great end of the week!

See ya later alligator,
Karen Raye and 
Bentley Beargrass

Not too much

Damaged fence from attack of Mr. Ed

Going on this last week but we did have some excitement over last weekend. Friday night we were hanging outside on the back porch and heard a big thump from the front of the house. Kris went in to check and as I was looking across the backyard at the fence, I saw a big horse head looking over frantically. Now mind you, we have a 6 foot high wooden fence so I wasn't sure if I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. I ran into the house and out the front door just in time to see the horse being roped by one of two men in the street right in front of our house. The poor horse was bleeding on its head and side and I asked the man if the horse was ok. He nodded and the other man came and took the horse back down the street while the the first man got into his truck and drove behind the 2nd fellow. I looked around and saw many of our neighbors standing in their driveways watching this interesting scenario. Anyway, I waved and went back in to get some A/C while shaking my head at the strangeness of it all. Later that night, 10:30ish, we got a knock at the door and it was our next door neighbor asking what had happened, it looked as if a car had gone through our front chain link fence on his side of the yard. We had no idea what he was talking about and went out to see what was up. It wasn't what was up, it was what was down- our fence. Apparently the horse had gotten spooked before it came to our back fence and run head on into the chain link fence in the front yard, and flipped taking the fence with him. That's where the cuts had come from. The thump we'd heard was him kicking terrified into our garage door as he ran down the sidewalk on the side of our house towards the backyard. In my moment of surprise and confusion earlier, I'd completely missed noticing our fence laying over in horsey disrepair. 
The next morning we played private investigators and tracked down where the horse had come from. Fresh horse poop on a dead end street and my remembering seeing a horse about a week ago in an unsecured looking field helped and Voila- we found him, got the address of the land he was safely pastured in, looked it up on city tax records, and paid a visit to the property owners. The family is from El Slavador and didn't speak much English but I spoke with one of their kids and found out the horse was ok. Talked to the Dad on their phone and made arrangements to get the fence put back up. Everything worked out fine but let me tell you- you just don't expect to see Mr. Ed looking over the fence at you whilst living in the big city of Houston-town! Well, I say that laughingly now because the previous week we found out we had bats in our our chimney and had to relocate them. It took a little bit of research and a few days but we did it with the help of sonar devices. I even felt bad that they had to find a new home but you just can't have bats in your belfry. I'm beginning to think I live in the Wild Kingdom or something....


Till next time,
Karen Raye

Bentley's "I am alarmed- there is something way bigger than me out there

" look!

Hectic week...

So I am going to take a shortcut and give you a link to my partner Kris's blog. Not being lazy and it wasn't all bad but this week has gone to hell in a hand-basket! Bring you up to date on that another day. Her synopsis of our wedding and trip is fantastic and I am unable to do a better job of her description. So if you are interested in reading her version, click here http://whyallthecontroversy.blogspot.com/  The blog is called "Life is Fantastic!" and it is! There are approximately 3 or 4 posts to read before the most current one. The last one she posted is funny and about our 4-legged's. I hope you take the time to check out her blog. I promise I will get back to posting something current on mine soon. I hope everyone has a great weekend and stays cool. August has turned into a scorcher here in Houston-town and the humidity is making me melt....

Till next time,

Karen Raye

More New England in the Summer time...

Right now I am wishing we were still there enjoying some of that nice weather. And one of those yummy lobster rolls...hmmm...guess I better make some breakfast soon. I found out what I will need to recreate the special hot dog buns that are used all over Massachusetts and Maine for the various foodie items we sampled. It is a special pan that I can order from King Arthur if they had them in stock but since they don't, I will get one from Amazon from American Pan, made in Pittsburgh which is a plus since the Steelers are big in this house. Then we will see if I can make a bun as good as the ones we sampled with our dogs up east.

Anyway, back to our fantastic trip. We flew into Boston arriving at 12:45 am due to delays in Houston-town. Never fails when flying out of Houston we get delayed for at least an hour on the takeoff. No big deal because I napped and then finished reading my Pride and Prejudice and Zombie book that I've been trying to get to since last Fall. When we got in to Boston, we got our car and drove directly to Salem. We stayed at the Salem Inn- actually their Peabody House- pronounced kind of funny- you say it real fast and in one syllable- not in three like we do here in Texas. The next morning we took the trolley and checked out the town, went to the city hall, and found Winter Island http://www.salemweb.com/winterisland/ where we decided to have our ceremony.

Over the next three days we toured Salem and Boston with Kris's Mom and her brother and his family. We had a wonderful time being tourists. We went to the House of Seven Gables http://www.7gables.org/, the Jonathon Corwin House also known as the Witch House http://www.salemweb.com/witchhouse/,  the beautiful Friendship http://www.salemweb.com/frndship/, and had a funky Chop Suey sandwich at the boardwalk in Salem Willows http://www.salemweb.com/willows/. Now that was an interesting taste sensation! Here are a few pics:

The Friendship

At the House of Seven Gable's.

The Witch House

View of Boston from the Salem Ferry

We toured Boston on Sunday and walked all over following the Freedom Trail http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/. Lots of historical places to see like Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. Of course I was fascinated with the old cemeteries and explored them with Seamus trying to see who could find the oldest tombstone. Kris's brother called us ghoulies. Hmpf. Don't think so!

More pics:

One of our haunts.

In front of Paul Revere house.

Statue of Paul Revere in back of Old North Church

Copp's Hill

And I found this sweet 2-legged feeding the pigeons with a bag of day old bread.

Check out the size of that bread bag!

And this made me laugh:

That's bread!

We had lunch at a lovely old world Italian restaurant, celebrated family with a glass of vino and then I bought a funny hat!

It was wonderful touring with the family but all good things must come to an end and we ferried back to Salem to get a good nights sleep.

Peabody House

Stay posted because there is more to come. I'll leave you with one of my favorite things I found in Salem that made me a little bit homesick for my Bentman and other four-legged's....

Who would have known the Bentman had a street named for him!

Be back soon. Hope ya'll are having a great week!

Karen Raye

Side trip to Dog Mountain

I am a bit behind in getting all the photos together from the incredible tour of New England but ya'll will just have to bear with me. If you're new here, just check out the previous posts to see what this is all about. For those of you in the know, read on and feast your eyes on the beauty we experienced in New England. I am jumping ahead to our side trip to Vermont after Massachusetts and Maine for this Saturday post. We left Maine and thought we were following our map but almost ended up in Canada before we realized it. After stopping at a McDonald's and using their WiFi, I turned around and drove us through New Hampshire to Vermont. We were on a time schedule to get to Dog Mountain before the shop closed because I needed a t-shirt. We knew the chapel and grounds would still be open till dark but I have a collection of t-shirts that I needed to add one more to. The scenery was more beautiful than I believed possible and when we finally got to Dog Mountain, I was already starting to get a lump in my throat thinking about how this beautiful place had come about. If you aren't aware of this doG place, go read about it on the link http://www.dogmt.com/. We arrived at about ten minutes till five and browsed through the store while deliriously happy and wet pooches from swimming in the nearby pond came through to visit with us and get lots of love. Of course, after being in the car and driving like a maniac for hours on end, I had to use the ladies room. This is what I found in there:

And this:

Fun, huh?
We thought so!
This is more of what we enjoyed while there:

Now, I am not the greatest photographer in the world but here are more pictures. It was a little overwhelming and my tears flowed freely while walking around. Stephen Huneck had quite a vision and I've always admired what he accomplished from afar but actually getting to see Dog Mountain made me realize what a fantastic job he had accomplished. I'll leave you with a few photographs because for some reason I get all teary eyed when looking at all the love left here for the beloved companions that have gone on to the Rainbow Bridge. Makes it really hard to continue typing if you know what I mean....

The chapel with love notes and goodbyes:

Like I said- the pictures are not the greatest but they should give you a general idea of just how beautiful Dog Mountain truly is. In remembrance of all our beautiful 4-legged's that are already at the Bridge- Run free and fast in the Heavens. We'll see you again one day and fly free together.....

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. 
Till next time,
Karen Raye

Exploring New England....

Alas- we're back. I loved every second of New England and the weather rocked. It felt as if the season of Autumn was wafting through the aire. That is- how Autumn feels in Houston! I am sorting through hundreds, no wait that would be thousands of pictures and am trying to decide which ones to share. So baire with me and I will post a few soon. By the way, there were two Airedale sightings in the New England area while we were there. One was at a Hamptons Inn parking lot in Danver/ Peabody and her name is Maggie and she is four. She is the 3rd 'Dale the 2-legged has had the pleasure of  sharing his life with. She head-butted me appropriately and gave me lots of kisses. The 2nd 'Dale was sighted by moi as I was driving down the street to the lobster pound in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Isle. Not sure if said 'Dale was a he or a she because the 'Dale went to barking like a maniac when I slowed down to get a picture. Very good 'Dale though- stayed in it's driveway and never once came out of it property line. Didn't see any 2-legged's, so I didn't get the chance to say hello. I must say that the East coast area we toured was extremely dog friendly and made me miss our 4-legged's. Everywhere I looked there were small shops and restaurants that were dog-friendly so I amused my inner dog-self and took lots of photos of the 4-legged's we came across. 

Anyway,  I will be posting photos soon. Hope everyone has a great day! I'm leaving you with a little gem from Kahlil Gibran that I enjoy.....


A traveler am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul. - Kahlil Gibran


Be back soon,
Karen Raye

Sea Wall on Mount Desert Isle in Acadia National Park 

Porcupine Islands viewed from Cadillac Mountain  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from the room in Southwest Harbor