Cats and immersion diuresis

This months mystery photo is from our kitchen:

We are enjoying the last of this seasons flowers:

Helen found the last of some tasty grapes in Irena & Boris garden:

And the last of our cherry tomatoes:

That process (or maybe it was the brain surgery that she finished the day with) wore her out.   Meowskie (a.k.a. the brown cat) helped her relax:

Speaking of cats, the word apparently got out that free food was available and another cat has adopted us:

Helen named her/him Belyie (a.k.a. the white cat, Bely is the Russian word for White).   Meowskie isn’t sure she wants to share:

But we have have been liberally sharing the attention:

We had a visit from a family from CA.   Father is an avid photographer who had a lot of fun with Salt Lake City scenery:

Mother has MS, but copes amazingly well for being paraplegic:

Daughter is an avid swimmer: 

She invented and perfected the alligator slide:

For the last swim of the season, I swam 180 laps in 1.5 hours, about 2.2. miles.  I discovered my limiting factor is immersion diuresis filling my bladder (cold water makes you pee):

That mystery photo was a Sturgeon head that Boris found in a Chinese grocery store.  Some of use were a bit apprehensive, but it was pretty good:

I bought a fancy motorized computer desk:

This allows me to stand while working:

Even being in pretty good shape, so far I can only stand for about 2/3 of the work day.   Then I push a button and revert to ball chair height:

Last weekend I did a new route (14 miles!) to Black Mountain up behind our house:

I found this remote tree with a geo-cache called Morbid Curiosity, named so as the valley below is where 14 year old Elizabeth Smart was held captive for a summer back in 2002.  She was never found there (was rescued the next year at a bus stop), despite massive search efforts and being less than 5 miles from her home:

I found a bunch of baby rattlers all knotted up, trying to warm up in the sun:

My picture taking (with telephoto lens!) got them a bit excited.  These 2 went on guard duty while the others slithered back into their underground lair:

If you think that was scary, imagine a herd of these guys heading towards you: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g&feature=player_detailpage#t=40

Bruce

Dacha 2013

We had a nice 2+ weeks at Helen’s NH lake house, meeting up with Z&T.   Here they are planning their lake entry strategy:

Which they then execute in style:

Helen provided lessons in mushrooming:

They found lots of them:

Not sure this was a mushroom, but it was cool:

Some mushrooms came with frogs:

We also found a not-frog, probably terrestrial:

There was a 65’ dead birch tree teetering towards the neighbor’s cabin, so Zack got all excited for a chance at hopefully controlled destruction (for the tree, not the cabin).  That’s him wrapping a control rope 20+’ feet up the tree:

We were all relieved when it fell in the right direction:

For the trip back to MN, they had a really full car, but an empty trailer, so Zach loaded it down with a rubber ducky:

I imagine it brought lots of smiles to fellow Interstate travelers:

We also had good visits with Aya and friend Max.  Aya’s look of horror is at the amount of butter Helen loaded onto the toast (she is scared of butter):

We had good weather and swam every day:

I did a mini solo biathlon, swimming around the lake perimeter (2.5 miles, 2 hours), then running up and down nearby Mt Lovewell (5 miles, 1.2 hours) … got a bit sweaty:

I lost my camera.  Figuring it might have slipped into a couch cushion crack, I started digging and found many years of accumulation:

I didn’t find the camera there, but playing Sherlock Holms, I calculated one other place it might have fallen, under a kitchen cabinet.  Not only was my camera there, but hidden behind a few dust bunnies I found another camera I had lost 4 years ago!

We attended friend Sophia’s wedding at a lake on the Canadian border:

Helen got some help with rarely applied makeup:

Sophia and Lil were a very happy couple:

The border fence had no warning going into Canada, but once there, you could not come back:

Aya in the foreground and Helen is somewhere far in the background, swimming into Canada:

Helen has decided to sell the lake house, so we posted a for sell by owner sign while we were there:

That prompted a couple of options that Helen is considering.

Although the lake swimming is very scenic and unrestricted, the first minute can be a bit chilly at 72 degrees and I’ve come to appreciate the 86 degrees we keep our pool at.   At a recent pool party, we introduced some doggies to swimming:

But they preferred boating:

Bruce

Red Deck, Blue Dog, Heavy Tree

Did a few projects this month.  Replaced the shelves in the pool pump room:

Stained the bedroom deck … was a little redder than I expected.  I can only image how red it really is to a non-color-blind person, but Helen likes it:

Caught a mouse (I hired this task out):

Re-potted a bunch of fast growing plants.  10 more years and they will likely be re-potting me:

Moved a 20 foot cedar tree 20 feet, across a 10 foot retaining wall.   This one was a bit of a challenge, those root dirt balls are heavy!

I enlisted a helper:

And got a bit dirty:

But it made it mostly in one piece.  I tied it up, as it no longer has strong roots. 

I’m pretty sure it will die, but seemed like a fun challenge, and doesn’t look dead yet, a few hot summer weeks later.

We gave Helen’s new electric bike a inaugural ride 20 miles up City Creek … I had a hard time keeping up:

Our friends Jason and Marie got a 2nd Dachshund, this one is blue:

And really small, only a little bigger than my big toe:

But from his stance, I suspect he will be fearless like his older brother:

We took them up on a 4 hour hike up Grandeur peak, the 1 year old hiked all 3300 feet up on his own!

The peak was 1 foot short of 8300 feet, so we jumped the last foot for extra credit:

I took a tour of the new Salt Lake Fire, Police, Emergency building.  Largest net-zero energy building of its kind in the country, and it can withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake:

This is a massive 15 foot LED display that shows real time police activities:

And this is a map showing simulated results of how buildings will stand up after the big 7+ 1000 year earthquake that is overdue hits us.  Our house is one of the red dots … 70-100% predicted damage:

Its those darn mountains … to make them, you have to shuffle things up periodically. 

But to end on a more positive note … those darn mountains can be pretty pretty, especially when they spit out rainbows, this one over Mount Olympus:

Bruce