Adventures in Un-chaining

 

Stretching a length of I-5 from Silver Lake, Washington to Marion, Oregon,

I've enjoyed my last couple times unchaining sweet pups.

I'm sure the long drives turned some folks away...

I mean most people have busy schedules on the weekends,

but I like to keep mine fairly open.

Simon and Bow

Who could say "no" to these faces?!

 

In this case, my open schedule allowed me to meet Simon and Bow,

while helping an awesome group of people free them from a chained life.

Lucky, lucky me!

I'm not a huge fan of driving.

Yes, it gets me to where I need to go and accomplishes goals, but driving is boring.

Somehow driving to help free fidos from chains is easy and not boring at all.
The excitement of knowing that a dogs' life will be changed that day
motivates me the way other things don't.

If my other posts haven't convinced you to join me on a build, maybe this one will. 

Here is a photo gallery look at two freedom days for two deserving dogs.

Simon

Silver Lake, Washington

A small, but mighty crew!

This is Gabby, an amazing photographer who joined us that day.

Please check out her beautiful pictures of the build

and so much more at Blinker Photography.

Blinker Photography

Gabby's photos include this one of Simon helping me secure the ground wire. Love this boy!

Blinker Photography

And my gorgeous mud wear...

Yep, I gather a little more mud at each build and that makes me very happy.

Bow

Marion, Oregon

All hands on deck for this build!

Then, BOOM! Bow is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And man, he's thrilled to run and run and run!

He was a hard pup to slow down...so we didn't...well, just once.

 :0)

 

Bow was a born runner and now he'll be able to run as much as he wants!

Doesn't that make your heart happy?

Thank you Fences for Fido!

You make the world such a better place.



Super-Awesome and Silly

 

Supernatural on CW

I really don't know where this show has been. 

Or really how I hadn't heard about it until recently. 

Oh wait, I don't have cable.

I don't really know any current popular shows.

Cable...

 

That's probably an important component to knowing what is popular. 

Today, I mentioned to my teenage students that I don't have cable.

The main question was, "Wait, you don't have a TV, Ms. Chambers?"

"No, I have a TV, just not cable.
I can watch DVD's or Netflix."

"Why?"

"Well, I choose not to.  I found that it's too easy to get sucked into marathons of ridiculous TV shows and waste away days. (Hello Dance Moms...sigh.)

 

 Even though I don't have cable, I still seem to get sucked into shows on Netflix. 

It just takes me a bit longer with find them.

That's exactly what happened in this instance.

In this case, I'm really behind. 

Apparently, people love Supernatural and now I know why.

 

 

The Top 5 Reasons Why I Love Supernatural

5. Family

Everyone has family.  Some families are close, some are distant. Some times situations draw families back together even after long and strained absences.  Occasionally, even when they don't want to join forces...it's necessary.  Because if you can't trust family, who can you trust.  In Supernatural, family is the one thing that unites a family...at least that's the starting point.  Over time a relationship between brothers is renewed.  To me the lesson is that family endures and protects even in battles of evil creatures.

4. Conflict Resolution
They drive you crazy, but you gotta love 'em...or at least you try to though many times it's not easy. The main characters, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester drive each other crazy, but they're brothers.  They hit each other, ask for forgiveness and move on to solve problems.  Now, I don't suggest hitting as a conflict resolution

















3. Good vs. Evil
Good wins...most of the time.  I like that.  Though there are times where I wonder how the characters will get out of the crazy situations, they do.  No matter how bad things are, I like to think that things will get better and problems will be solved.  Life doesn't always wrap things up that nicely, but when you're watching a TV show you can almost guarantee that it will have an end.  I'm only on Season 5 out of 8 Seasons, and so far good is winning....I like that.


2. Clever Plots
Currently I'm watching an episode when the brothers are stuck in TV shows. Similarly to the old movie with John Ritter, The Dish...where the family gets stuck and they have to figure out a way to live.  This episode is like that, except that they are being tricked, by what is called a "Trickster."

What I love about these actors is that they can play serious,
but they are really good at silly.

1. Humor...Speaking of Silly. 





In my family we use humor to ease stressful situations. 
It may not be the best solution to elevate stress,
but it does help. 
Dean and Sam's characters also use humor to help them through stressful moments and so do the actors.





One of my favorite episodes was in Season 4: Yellow Fever (Episode 6). Dean, played by Jensen Ackles, is generally a no-nonsense, tough older brother.  But in this episode he's scared of everything and runs away from every "bad" situation.  The best part...I mean the best part was one of the outtakes at the end...and here it is. Enjoy!

 I love silly, don't you? 

Not all of life can be serious and I definitely need a giggle now and then. 

Actually, I need to laugh every single day.

Have you giggled today? 

Yes? No?  If not, go and find your funny. 

You'll feel better.  I'm sure of it.

Heart Tugs

SO many times I have grandiose ideas. 

I generally think big instead of small.

I like to tackle big projects...

but sometimes my ideas are just too big for my time restraints.

Originally, I had wanted to make stuffies for a children's charity,

but the hand stitching of the faces has just taken too long to get them done before Christmas. 

So now I have a couple bear faces in the middle of construction and a huge pile of fleece. 

I'm going to save the bears that I've started, but there is just no way that I can conceivably finish them this year...so they will be saved until the summer when I have more time. 

What to do with all of this fleece?! 

I really want to use it for a charity project...but what would be useful and needed? 

Also, what could I really finish in-between all of the other things that I want to finish?! 

Ahhh....dog tugs.

Murphy and his sweet friend IO play tug-a-war using fleece tugs every time they get together.  They fling the tug around, tease each other, run around, and talk smack(Woof! Rrrrrr! You know, smack.) to each other while tugging.  If these two have so much fun with tugs, other dogs will as well.

I love making these tugs and dogs seem to LOVE them just as much.

So, I found simple and easy instructions at The Crazy Simple Life

Please click on the site to read detailed directions.

 

My large pile of fleece would take a lot of time for me to make each and every tug.

Good thing I had a fabulous group of families

with a lot of little hands to help twist, braid, and tie tugs.

 

 Again, a HUGE thank you to Mission:Salt + Light and

the Little Lights for all of your twisting and knotting!

Endless hours of fun will be had using these tugs.