Hey guys,

We have been with our new foster dog Marley for about a week and I know already that is going to be so incredibly hard to say goodbye. He is an amazing boy! He comes to work during the day, never barks, doesn't chew things he isn't supposed to, sleeps like a dream and loves to just hang out in the shade. He has been a great addition to our life and he waits every morning for me to lift my head up and then he comes over with a big wagging tail.



He used to be a rez dog and is a little sick at the moment. He was neutered this morning and the vet discovered that he used to have fleas that have attacked his immune system and cause his red blood cells not to clot very well. So he has a lot of swelling and bled a lot during the surgery. They also determined that he has a massive tumor in his sheath and is now getting chemotherapy once a week. The good news is that it is curable and also that we aren't covering the costs. We want to find him a really good family because he is such a great dog. I already wish that I could adopt him for life because he fits so well with us, but I know we are doing a great thing by finding him a forever home. He was going to be euthanized by the humane society because he had been there since May so it's a good thing we found out about him.

We don't have that much longer in this area (maybe about 3 weeks) so we will have to say bye sooner than we like. However, we plan to foster a dog when we move to our next location which is the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Springerville, Arizona. There isn't much to tell right now just been working in a pretty hilly area and our new boy in our life.

love

Sedona Red Rocks and Mikey

Hey all,

We finally finished our work area down near Sycamore Canyon which was a bit of a hole. Well, I admit it wasn't even half that bad, but it was south-facing slopes that were prime rattle snake locations (although we only saw one) and difficult plots which made getting up and making money difficult. Alas we finished it and we are back up north of Flagstaff in the hilly, shady and pine-dominated forests once again. Last week we went down to Sedona which is an hour south of Flagstaff and was well worth the trip. We left the tent trailer and brought our tent down for the night. This was our second trip down there and so we had a little bit better idea of what we wanted to do. We camped along Oak Creek in Oak Creek Canyon and then went into town where we met several people who told us about full moon ceremonies and different events we should come down to. I suppose I should have prefaced that but I mentioning that Sedona is home to several vortexes and thus has attracted many spiritual people, from heelers to outdoor enthusiasts.
We are open to all such ideas and continued to meet people who had their own opinions of where we should go and what different parties/ceremonies we should come down to.The Red rocks are truly beautiful and it is nothing like I have ever seen before. It was quite packed with tourists and popular... we didn't go to the most popular place of all but will go next time (its called Slide Rock State Park and it a series of flat rocks that sorta gradually decline like a big natural slide with water running over hot rocks. People flock to lay in cold water warmed by the hot sun.


Anyways, as we mosied around downtown Sedona I kept sayin that I wanted a beer and a hot dog at the same time and we wanted to see if there were any local breweries in town. We ended up at Oak Creek Brewery which was awesome and had some great brews fresh from the tap. We also came on the perfect night because it was an "all drums circle" and we had our djembes. So we hung out and played drums for hours with about 20 other folks (the place was intensely loud and reverberating but sounded wicked) and I continued to alternate from drumming to dancing. I realized how badly I needed to dance and socialize after being in the forest with not much outside contact for awhile.

The next day we went to Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock which are both vortexes. Although I can't say I was in the right mindset to open myself up to anything spiritual, we enjoyed the views and the hike nonetheless. I did feel though that Sedona in general was very spiritual and it felt like I everything I thought I wanted I received. We're gonna go down for the full moon ceremony with a lady who lives in an earthship (which we want to build for ourselves one day) and hopefully we can do some drumming.

Then it was back to Sycamore where we moved camp to a nice lake that we could wash up in after work. We had sorta a wildlife week actually. One day as we were walking into our plots we came across about a herd of 35-40 elk complete with newborns at all, it was quite an awesome stampede that we created but just walking around the corner. Later that day Lou had a close encounter with a rattler, which spooked me quite a bit, and then on the way home we saw a red fox. To top it off that night we were visited by 3 wild horses and about 20 cattle, as well as a pack of coyotes who never stop yipping and keeping me up.

But the greatest news of all happened today and will be finalized in a short two hours. We got a call from Paw Placements and they have a dog for us to foster! So we rushed over to the humane society and visited with our new buddy who is a male golden retriever mix named Mikey; about 1.5 yrs old who hasn't been trained much but is very responsive. Out of all the dogs we play with on our visits he was one of the only who actually wanted to play fetch with Lou and would give back the toy! Oh man, we are very excited about it and I really don't know what to expect at all. We're going to go pick him up from his vet visit and the lady Carol will give us a dog bed, crate, food and everything else we need. It is going to be a big adjustment but I think it will be very great for us. Hopefully we will have him for another month or so until we move onto our next work location. I'll put up pics of our new buddy as soon as we come back into town. He is golden all over, but not as shaggy as most golden retrievers with a white blaze on his head and a medium sized body.

That is all for now!

Love Ally