The Forecast Said "Showers and later, more showers".

 When I was feeding critters tonight I went out and picked up the fox food bowl in Kobae's yard and it had an inch and a half of water in it so we got at least that Monday night and Tuesday morning. About a two food drop off going to Last Hurrah and a little bit more at the bottom of the Base Camp driveway.

There's no point in fixing it while it still has water going through it as you just have to do it again. I went back up to the lodge to work for awhile until the creeks finished draining and Kobae was walking across the drive way to check out his house again. He walked down to the entrance like he was going in, threw a little mud on himself, then turned around and walked back out.

Nate called after a few minutes and said they had the bottom of the drive way fixed and he came and got a side by side, Tony, one of the guests took another one and after a bit of packing things down the driveway to Last Hurrah and now two approaches to the Base Camp entrance were good to go.

Most of the guests staying at various places around the property began gathering at the numerous road issues and grabbed shoves or dropped rocks. We headed out to do the driveway by the sign and it was ready to go in 30 to 45 minutes.

We all headed next door to the problem spot on the way to Last Hurrah but it had been mostly solved since we dug a big hole on the other side of the road which collected most of the water so damage wasn't too bad.

Couple new spots developed but I think I know how to fix those. We're getting better at this.

When we got back Kobae headed down the drive way like he was going hiking but it was cold and the wind was blowing and I didn't even put my hiking gear on. He slowed down,  then headed back, went in the lodge and into the laundry room. I closed the door and never saw him again so Jax and I got to get a little hike in, just the two of us.

Little More of My Life Back

I try to give Kobae suggestions as to where to go to avoid danger and to keep him from doing the same stuff over and over. I know he understands me because he always does the exact opposite. That's too big a coincidence to always 100% of the time do something other. I got a little bit of satisfaction as he somehow found his way into the one spot the fence at the sheep pen is down and he went inside. The pen is a bit of a maize and then I found a nice shady spot for Jax and I and watched him wander around the pen for three hours trying to find the way out. Knocked off another book. 

It's still hard to imagine I use to jump across this creek bed and even Kobae at five years old could easily hike up and down it as well as the dogs Bishop and Chewey.

I forgot to mention and I didn't have my camera with me but a couple days ago a guy pulled up on his bicycle and said he was doing the Intercontinental Trail which is a bicycle trail that goes from Fairbanks to Chile except this guy, John I think, and his dog, were going to Paraguay as I recall. He had a basket on the back of the bicycle and when he got ready to leave he called his dog who jumped from the ground into the back of the basket, probably a four or five foot jump and landed right inside. Then they peddled off.

Still

 Still a boat going down the river occasionally.

Still a mud puddle for Kobae to hike through occasionally.

Still no shortage of punk ass weenies driving off the road and tearing the landscape up. When Covid hit and all the production lines shut down the production line cranking out punk ass weenies clearly kept going at full blast. If you find it, please let me know.

Things

 This is the pen where Pinto, Thelma, and Louise use to live and eventually with their babies. I use to feed the domestic sheep every day but felt bad for them being locked up so eventually I let them go. They were recaptured when I was told 30 years ago domestic sheep bred with big horn sheep and it killed the big horn herd as the domestic sheep have a disease that is not a disease to them but it makes the big horn go blind. Fortunately we got them taken out before the rutting season. This fence was five feet high at one point which gives you an idea of the flooding over the years.

Jax is such a good guy. He tracks Kobae for me. He's so smart he can learn about anything. He has to wait so long for Kobae to catch up but he keeps himself occupied exploring things both sides of where Kobae is hiking.

Apparently some stuff is going on across the river. I never noticed all the new solar panels in the roof of the clubhouse like building.

After the purchase I was told they wanted to be good neighbors and they would be by to visit soon but it's been six months so that's probably not going to happen. Yesterday five of those para-gliders I think with the little lawnmower like engine and fan just flew circles around the valley over and over with a few of them coming just a couple hundred feet over the lodge. At first guests were waving at them but after an hour plus guests were asking if this was ever going to end. Was like being in the grass at the middle of a NASCAR race. I called the agent to get a phone number but never heard back. Later I saw them packing all their stuff up and leaving. I thought that was a class act but then an hour or so later 30 something mile an hour winds came up and I think that's probably why they left. Can't fly in that. Didn't want to shut them down just have them visit further away places. Today they opened up the firing range and that went on most of the day. Fortunately most guests had just checked out and the new ones hadn't arrived yet. Good thing we weren't filming a commercial or having a wedding. I don't do weddings anymore.

Miniature crop circles.

Things Are Changing

 All the credit to Nate and Collin who are doing almost all the work now except administrative and they are each starting to show up in reviews which they deserve as a result, here it comes, I read a book. Out hiking with Kobae which is probably 50% of most days now I have a chance to read. It was pretty amazing how the book varied from the movie Field of Dreams and yet they were both done very well.

Kobae hiked down the now non muddy creek to the still some muddy beach and when I told him we weren't going out into the mud he actually acted like he understood me and instead went up the boat ramp.

Fran Tully is doing his motorcycle rally again next door at Last Hurrah.

While hiking with Jax and Kobae by the gravel pit I saw this thing laying out in the field sunning itself. It's the second one I've seen. Saw one by the Condo a few years ago. I have no idea where it came from or what it does. I couldn't find a hole that it might have come out of within a couple hundred feet.

Around Here Stuff

It rains every 4th or 5th day so the beach never gets dry. It's a cool beach, the most unique I've had in all the years but still muddy.

Been at least a month now. Kobae still won't go down in his hole. He walks by it and he grazes in his yard but he won't go in the hole so it appears his last two or three weeks here this year will be in the laundry room before it's time for him to go to San Diego for the year.

Worse yet, for Kobae anyway, he broke the stairs humping them a while back and Nate built some new ones but he doesn't like them so Collin built him some new stairs which are almost identical to the ones he had before but with an extra brace on each side. He's walked up to mount them three times but he doesn't like them either so all he does now is try and eat the metal braces.

Jax and I wait around each day for Kobae to go hiking and then we go with him. I'll sit in the office working with the window open so I can hear if he moves on the porch and I have my pack, camera, canteen, and gloves ready to go. I shouldn't need gloves but Jax gets a little wilder the longer he stays out here and when we go out hiking he'll get a ways ahead and hike behind a boulder or tall brush and then attack me. He just goes crazy running around me and I have to defend myself with my gloves on. He's lost his mind some days. On this day Kobae didn't want to go hiking and went in the laundry room early so Jax and I got a hike in on our own.

When Jax and I can get away by ourselves for an hour or so we spend it in the Predator rocks. I've seen bobcat, fox, raccoon, and most everybody that lives out here tracks. It's also where the Ghost Foxes live that you can see through their bodies so we're hoping to have another encounter with them.

We're spending a little more time above the lodge assuming at some point that's where we'll live. There will be very little traffic, we have a 360 view, and I'll actually be able to retire (again) with but a five minute hike down the hill if Collin or Nate need help and we'll have a complete view of the property. It's a very expensive price he's asking but I'll have to figure it out. My property taxes went up 20% this year and that's without them knowing that the guy across the river paid $6,000,000. It will be worse next year.

Random Stuff

 I keep hearing different stuff about the place across the river but probably I don't care much anymore. My fear was it would be really crowded with planes flying in and out all the time but that hardly ever happens. One day I'll see three or four trucks and then none for a couple days.

Today, Sunday the 17th, Kobae is taking us on the high road by Doug's hogan who I've made no progress in buying and along the river.

I don't want to leave but if I buy something using my VA the requirement is that you live there. Not now. With two good people working here I'm able to hike with Jax and Kobae almost every day. The down side is I hardly know the guests checking in. Collin is taking care of check ins

so sometimes I don't meet them until their second or third day. Kobae is taking us high up on the viewpoints above the river going south toward the Wind Caves.

Kobae is always cooperative when he's deciding where to go but while he was cooperative getting back to the road, once it was time to turn around and head for home we fought for about a mile. My right boot against his left front leg. He have to step at the same time and as his foot is coming up and he only has three legs on the ground I have to push his left to the right with enough force that it pushes his head slightly to the right or at least straight ahead. Wherever his head is aiming that's where he's heading.

Neither of us took a step with out being connected to the other ones foot or leg thousands of times. Can't let him win even once or he just gets more determined and then I have to call the lodge to get somebody to bring a truck and we both lift him in the back. Last week one day he was really pissed off so I left him in the bed of the truck when we got back and he rammed the sides of the truck bed for an hour plus until he finally got tired. Then we opened the tail gate, picked him up and set him down and he was fine for the rest of the day.

We ceased the battle when we got to the mud puddle. I knew he was going through the middle and for a few brief seconds not trying to turn around and fight me. Then it was just a brief here and there battle the rest of the way back. We barely made it before dark but all in all a pretty good day. Special thanks to Jax who is so bored when we hike with Kobae as he's so slow but he's a trooper and goes out each time.