Teri J Pieper

Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Fall to Winter and Back Again

November 11, 2013 – 4:20 pm
Posted in Aspen Lake
Tagged Aspen Lake, Barrows Goldeneye, dogs, fall photos, hike, puppy, snow flakes
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Saturday afternoon Ken and I and two of our friends and a total of six dogs went for a quick afternoon jaunt to Aspen Lake. The morning sunshine was replaced with leaden clouds that made it seem colder. And sure enough, it was snowing when we got to the lake. My new camera was confused by that and instead of focusing on a distant duck, it focused on the snowflakes. It made for an interesting effect.

Aspen Lake

An interesting painterly effect, if not exactly what I was looking for

The obligatory puppy photo

Subtle fall colors with a touch of snow

Through the aspens

Lindsey helps one of her old dogs over a log

Healthy sagebrush seed crop this year

Barrow’s Goldeneyes

That old tree looks like something out of a story

Overlooking Moccasin Lake on the way down

Frosty Morning Walk

Oh this puppy is growing! She’s now over twenty pounds and was just ten when we started with her almost four weeks ago! And the cuteness is growing just as fast. At some point she will become a teenaged dog and we will yearn for these days.

A sunny morning was welcome after the last couple of gray days. It was a good opportunity to try out a new ‘superzoom’ camera too. It goes out to 600 mm and is small enough to easily carry around.

Mountain Chickadee

Frosty bitterbrush

Following her nose

Oh! What’s that?

Mt Robinson, I think

Hey! Whatcha doin?

Goat Peak

Zoomed out to 600, I can see the lookout

Love the sun shining through the trees

Up the driveway

A boy and his dog

And let’s not forget about Luna.

Tiffany Lake with Puppy

November 1, 2013 – 8:58 am
Posted in hike
Tagged black labrador, brook trout, hike, puppy, Tiffany Lake
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Sky is going to be a good hiking dog. So far she has been to Cutthroat Lake and Tiffany Lake in the North Cascades. They are both short hikes but for a ten week old puppy, they are real expeditions. We were surprised to have Tiffany to ourselves on such an outstanding fall day. Here are a few photos from last Saturday’s hike to Tiffany Lake.

This late season butterfly was on a firewood trailer we passed along the road

It should be easy to identify

A very late blooming wildflower. It’s stem was maybe an inch long. I think it is an agoseris.

Tiffany Lake through the snags

A light coating of ice

Sky likes the water

Snags from the Tripod Fire in 2006

Watching Luna

Something stinky that Sky found. Maybe a baby beaver skull?

Beautiful brook trout

Cute

Gorgeous fall colors

Luna doesn’t mind cold water

Sky isn’t so sure about that

She’s a retriever!

Splash

Hmmm, a fish

Helping

I can get over this

Nothing to slow down Luna

She’s getting taller

Another late bloomer. Aster?

Lots of brook trout

Ice

A puppy’s got to rest now and then

An Owl Pellet

Just to prove that this blog is NOT about puppies all the time, I thought I’d share this owl pellet that I found yesterday. Ken and I were in the Okanogan Highlands (a work trip for him; a chance for me and the dogs to get out of the valley) and at the end of the day we were walking the dogs before the long drive home. I found this pellet at the end of a bench. Now that the busy summer season is past and hunting season too, the owl must have found it to be a quiet place to perch. This is the largest pellet I’ve ever found – nearly six inches long. What is an owl pellet? Owls don’t have teeth and swallow their food whole. They do not digest the hair and bones. These parts are regurgitated as a pellet. We picked it apart to try to determine what the owl ate. We found gray hair and the bones of a small mammal. Ken speculated that it was the back half of perhaps a rabbit since there were no scapulas or a skull. You can see the vertebrae on the bottom of the image, thigh bones and hip sockets in the middle, tiny claws on the right with perhaps some long toe bones above them.

Puppy!

We were not able to bring home the little brown puppy. The vet reported that she might have an abnormality in one of her vertebrae and since we plan to have an active busy dog, she suggested we get another one. So Ken went back and picked out a little black lab puppy from the same litter.

We brought her home one week ago and she is rearranging our lives constantly! Her name is Night Sky Star Shine – Sky for short – and she is nine weeks old today. At first Luna was unhappy about this new addition to the family. Sky bit her ears, jumped on her, took all the toys and declared the big dog bed to be hers. She also soaked up all the attention! Two or three days into this, Luna decided she was going to have to learn to live with her and began playing with Sky. Sky adores Luna and tries to follow her everywhere. That’s good for when we go on walks. Sky is also independent and will go off in her own direction if we don’t pay close attention. She is starting the process of house training and yesterday actually went to the door to say ‘it’s time’. Of course, we are diligent to take her outside every time she wakes from a nap and a couple times at night when she wakes up. And she gets special treats for relieving herself outside. So far, so good. We have been introducing her to lots of people and other dogs and she seems to enjoy just about everyone that she meets. I’ve been taking her for walks at different locations and she always enjoys them. She is ruled by her nose and can find some of the most disgusting things. How do I get her to stop that?