the return of the river dogs and climbing adventures

It's still on the chilly side here in telluride but the boys are enjoying the San Miguel River with their friend Stella. Chaos loves swimming more then Mayhem but they both enjoy the time outside.

Dave's been scouting out new places to climb and we went up to a wall overlooking town this weekend. The weather turned south but it was good to go for a hike with the monsters and get back on the rock.

We put a pack on Mayhem with a small amount of weight in hopes of tiring the little man out. Chaos also has a pack but we're giving him a break since he's the big guy.

We even caught sight of this little guy in the tree... thankfully the boys didn't see or meet up with any of these quills.

The boys had fun and learned to stay off our climbing rope. It's important to not let it get too dirty since little rocks or grains of sand can break a rope down.

Also new on the homefront this week is the grumpy kitty's attitude towards Mayhem. She still yells at him for no reason but has been sighted hanging out near him.

chaos, mayhem and the grumpy kitty

life at campchaos has settled down. the animals are all getting along well and even pissy kitty joins in the snuggle fun sometimes, but mostly she just runs around and meows at Mayhem. 

And I want you to marvel at the fact that we managed to get all three animals in one shot, this may never happen again.

Mayhem and Chaos have started to play more and the living room has turned into a play arena each night. We've traded dogs during the day and they'll take turns coming to work with me or running errands with Dave. Chaos is great at holding the floor down while Mayhem is learning that the chair is for me and not him.

It's snowing again in Telluride. We've begun packing away our winter gear in hopes that mother nature will take the hint. There were a few inches on the ground this morning and tonight it looks like a blizzard outside with fat flakes filling the sky.

mayhem has settled in and is now living up to his name. he's full of energy and even tires chaos out. that's why he's photogenic late at night while chaos just wants to sleep.

off season?

Most ski towns have an off season where things and life slows down. Technically we are in off season but I'm still spending a lot of time and energy working. Dave worked Saturday and started snowmaking tonight. We managed to take a bit of a break this weekend and hit a pumpkin carving party at Jim's house. He made his signaure chili and even made two pots and made one with Gluten Free Beer! I'm very lucky that our friends have been great about helping me eat gluten free... guess it just goes to show you how grumpy I used to be when eating gluten.... or that we have good friends. Either way we had friends ensure that there were chili, crackers, dips and cupcakes that were glutarded for me.

Here's a little photo montage from the event. At the end there is also a Munee and Chaos segment...



And a shot of Team Dave on their first night of snowmaking... we made a really good slow cooker meal tonight to send them off into the night shift and 18 degree weather warm and happy.

a trip down memory lane via the Last Dollar Road

Dave's enroute to the East Coast right now (should be landing in Boston any moment) and Chaos and I are home with the spaz of a cat holding down the fort. I've been catching up on cleaning and even managed to trap the cat in the storage under the window seat when I made the bed. It's ok... she meowed an hour later and I let her out... really- I didn't leave her there on purpose. Although I may wish I had later when she's overtaking my pillows. I've been waking up congested a lot and blame this on the small furry one.

Oct 2007 Last Dollar Road

On our way home chaos and I took the shortcut. Last Dollar Road was the first way Camp Chaos ever attempted to drive into Telluride. The 2006 Visitor Guide showed the road and Dave and I thought it would be a good shortcut. Although it is shorter it is a more scenic drive on a dirt road in the mountain, in late April 2006 we found this out the hard way and didn't make it the whole way. We had to turn around and go on the Sawpit road instead--- but not before killing the midpipe of the subaru's muffler in a deep puddle. In April 2006 the road had been partially snowed in and was impassable. We have had some snow this season but only small patches remain in the woods and the 4runner had no issue with our scenic route today.

Our 2006 road trip covered Maine to Washington in three weeks and over 9,000 miles.

We packed a subaru and thule box with all the things for a good trip and only managed to camp out one night... where we didn't even set up the tent because it snowed 4".  It's funny now to think that we wanted to camp in Colorado in late April!

The trip gave us a chance to see ski towns all over the west and try to plan where we wanted to move... we ended up in the town that we spent 3 hours in. We had came into Telluride during the spring off season and it was a quiet town. The gondola was closed as were most of the shops. We walked Chaos in town park then grabbed pizza at BIT while taking advantage of their free Wi-Fi to send out an email update.... this was before camp chaos became bloggers and had a crackberry.

Chaos looks so young in all the photos. He was a year and four months old and still living up to his name. He had a sweet set up in the back of the wagon. Chaos was still using a crate so we packed his foldable soft sided crate along with his LL Bean dog bed for the trip. I loved that crate but am glad that phase is over. It's a lot easier traveling sans crate.  We used to take it into hotels when traveling with him. When we moved cross country we had Chaos with his crate and Munee Kitty and her litter box plus their food and our stuff to contend with each night.

While going through photos tonight I found this shot of the Last Dollar Road and also the one above taken in October 2007. It's funny to see how we capture the same mountians and now view them so differently. In April 2006 we thought this was a great shot of pretty mountains... after three years here I can now see how  this isn't...it's almost drab in comparison to the Fall 2007 image.

It also goes to show you how long we've been here now. This September marked three full years in Telluride.

winter days... on the disabled list

Chaos has been loving his new toys! I am also happy to report that the turtle has lasted over a week. I knew the Planet Dog collection would since they are the most durable, fun toys ever. The turtle is from the egg babies collection and has small eggs that go inside and Chaos is suppose to pull out. The eggs all squeak and chaos has always loved pulling the squeakers out of toys so I thought he may like this. He is only allowed to play with it while we are home and has done really well with it.

We went for a moonlight snowshow with Steve and Jess for the full moon. We had Budo and Mako with the group... chaos stayed behind with Jared since he is not able to walk 500 yards let alone a few miles. He is healing... we graduated to the front half of the cast but it got wet and began to rub. I called Dr Taylor and she told us to take it off but then he had to take it easy. No more friends for him until things are more stable. Budo is gentle but also loves to wrestle... then he'll kiss Chaos until we make him stop. Chaos isn't using his foot much but that should improve soon. He has a few sore spots and his foot is getting used to not being constricted.

I worked 7 days straight over vacation week with some long days. At the end of the week we found a great diversion on the way to pick up Chinese take out... we brought Mu-nee kitty along for the 15 minute ride to town. Silly but her spaziness was full of entertainment! I think she was nervous on the way there since we told her we were going to trade her in for an entree.

We also hit the climbing wall with Jess and Jared. It was fun to be able to show Jess the ropes- literally. Jared had done it before but it was Jess's first time. She was able to make it pretty far up and also became a champion belayer. This is important since I do fall and she handled it like a pro... even while the wall guy was talking to her.

a dog's life

these days work has been busy and chaos has stayed home more often then not. This plus the early darkness leads to chaos being home alone a lot without much outside time. Today chaos even tried to get mu-nee kitty to play with him to help ease his boredom! She rested on the couch (throne) and he pushed his big puppy nose at her until she ran.
thankfully chaos plays by himself very well thanks to his toy collection. he has been playing with his beloved LL Bean ball, ropes and planet dog toys.
Tomorrow we'll ditch him to ski but then head into town to play with his friend Budo and new dog sister stella. I'm hoping this will alleviate some of the guilt from these last few weeks...

the critters take on christmas...

so as you know mu-nee kitty is a very grumpy kitty. she has taken a reccent interest in kitty toys again and santa made sure her stocking was full of them... plus a sweet kitty hat for her to wear.

Chaos found a huge bone in his stocking and demolished it! He didn't even notice that we put his Santa hat on him... we could have dressed him in a tu-tu and he wouldn't have flinched! He was a happy guy and an exhausted pup by the end of the day. We're glad he had a good day- he's currently suffering from a cold and the vet said no puppy friends for a month which is an eternity for our social puppy!

best buddies

So Mu-nee Kitty is happy to be back to a one dog house. Tipsy is really gentle but Mu-nee would never let her get close enough to learn that. Today I worked from home in our newly claimed office/guest room and the critters curled up beside me on the bed. Chaos is used to sleeping by me as I work but it's new for Mu-nee Kitty.

I was also suprised to see the funny little kitty jump on the bed beside the monster and hang out. At times she seemed to even be copying him. When we brought Chaos home 2.5 years ago I thought it would take her a month to adjust to her new playmate- now all this time and a cross country move later she's almost friends with him... maybe by his 3rd birthday I'll be able to post pics of them cuddling!