life with chaos and mayhem

Mayhem is settling into life at camp chaos nicely. Chaos is learning how to be a big brother to someone who likes him a lot more then Mu-nee Kitty does and Mayhem is learning our rules and routines. Dave has another full week of grooming and being a creature of the night before off-season hits the lifts stop for the summer. Chaos and I are really good at taking up the whole bed now after a season of Dave working 5 nights a week. Mayhem sleeps in his crate as it enables Chaos and I some sleep in and cuddle time in the morning. Once I let Mayhem out he springs onto the bed with us and squirms vying for attention. Mu-nee has also figured out that Mayhem's crate time and take the opportunity to have her free roam of the house back.

Munee and Mayhem have had some kitty therapy time and Mayhem is actually afraid of the grumpy cat. She tends to avoid the new monster at all costs and was pretty upset when we made her spend some time with all of us in the living room one day. I think she now realizes how good she really had it with Chaos.

The boys and I play outside each morning then Mayhem has some crate time while Chaos enjoys some couch time before Dave comes home from grooming. He also takes them out for a bit before going to sleep for the night.

In the evenings I like to avoid the mud pit and slush that has become many of our trails and drive the boys to a empty cul-de-sac to play. It's at the base of a hill and tennis balls roll back to me in case one of the dogs (Chaos) loses interest and drops it. Mayhem is quite the ball dog and will play for as long as I let him. Chaos loves to play fetch while swimming but quickly loses interest on terra firma.

Our new spot is great as the hill also lets me pretend to be the ski coach from hell and I make the boys do uphill sprints. I keep waiting for them to catch on to my game but they just keep running. These workouts let Mayhem (and the rest of us) have a quiet night.

Mayhem enjoys sleeping in the tub on occasion and isn't afraid of it like Chaos. They each had a shower on Sunday and the lavender puppy shampoo scent lasted a few days before the spring mud smell returned.

Chaos has been excellent about sharing his toy collection and Mayhem is learning how to use the treat spot in the kongs and Planet Dog Toys.

We're working on our manners and although Mayhem eats like he hasn't been fed in years, he is sitting before his meal is presented just like Chaos. We've been adding some toys to his food bowl so he has something to work around and helps to slow down his pace. This little step also ensures that each pup is in his own spot and we haven't had any food fights at all. In general the boys don't wrestle with each other. This helps keep things at campchaos pretty calm overall.

Mayhem had his first vet visit on today and he was dropped off early in order to get neutered for an early birthday present. I'm sure he'll love spending his birthday on tomorrow wearing a cone... perhaps we can dress it up like a birthday hat?  When I picked up Mayhem, Chaos had a few routine shots done. We don't get to schedule vet appointments very often... usually chaos will find some reason to see Dr. Taylor, he'll do anything from getting sick to a ski injury to see his favorite vet.

We have less then a week left of lift service here in Telluride. We lucked out on Saturday and had 22" with bluebird weather. Jared, Dave and I even did a hike-to. Bald Mt is a 20+/- minute hike for some pretty deep snow.

campchaos welcomes a little mayhem

It's offical... campchaos is now also home to a little mayhem. We picked Mayhem up yesterday and he is settling in well to life at campchaos. Mayhem is almost a year old and a pure golden. We weren't able to see photos before we picked him up and were pleasantly surprised that he looks similar to Chaos. We've been talking about getting a second dog and this was set into motion around Christmas when we asked our landlord. She knows Chaos well and consented. Last week she called and asked if we were interested in an older puppy. She had a friend who's daughter had a golden that needed a new home. It was a big week and we decided to have Mayhem join campchaos. We kept it quiet in case it fell though... what if they backed out? what it the puppy was a monster? 
So Friday morning we were up and on the road before the sun to go pick up our new pup. We did drive through a storm because it was the first time we've ventured past Montrose all winter and that's the way the world works. Since we drive the car so infrequently we also learned at the top of Monarch Pass that it was time to invest in some new windshield wipers for the 4Runner. Thankfully there are a number of places to pull over a clean the windshield.

Chaos has the entire back of the 4Runner to spread out in on the way there and ended up curling up on top of our bags. The normally six hour drive to Colorado Springs turned into an 8 hour drive and we all felt a little cooped up by the time we arrived in the Springs. (Go Turtle!)

We picked up Mayhem and went over to the nearby Garden of the Gods Park to walk the boys together. The weather was moving in and we grabbed a quick gluten-free dinner at PF Changs before the long drive home. They just added a few more items to their gluten-free menu and it was great to be able to try them out.

21 hours after we left, we returned home with our new monster.

This morning I took the boys out for a walk and Mayhem had his first gondola ride. He slipped his collar and was afraid to get on but Chaos climbed in like a seasoned pro and I scooped up Mayhem and added him to the cabin. He rode it fine after that and I tightened his collar for the exit.

We had a good walk and the boys romped in the fresh snow.

Chaos has a lot to teach his new little brother... Mu-nee Kitty checked out his crate last night and has not made an appearance yet today to make comment on this new addition.

loafer invasion

Camp Chaos was headquarters to a Sugarloaf invasion these last few weeks. Here's a few highlights from the trip. We spent some serious time skiing, tubbing and catching up. Chaos was excited to see his old friends again.

Powderhound

We have had a busy march so far at campchaos. We had a few fun sugarloafers to ski with last month and 3 in the last week who have become part of campchaos. Chaos has had no shortage of attention and cuddles and today we found a nice spot to play in the fresh snow. I caught this image in the fading sunlight. I love having the extra daylight after work.

powder days in telluride

We awoke on Saturday to 13 fresh inches and the sky was still dumping. Chaos managed to score a short walk before Dave and I headed out for a day on the hill.

After taking some runs together, we found our friends waiting at the gate to Prospect Bowl... the rope dropped and it was a ski/board cross race to the lift. 95% of the crowd hit Gold Hill and Jess and I met up at Prospect Express. We had first tracks down Stella and captured the image in the low light..

We found some good stashes and hung out in prospect for a while...

Eventually we found Jared and Dave again and stopped for a snack at High Camp.

Seriously... this sounds narly but was actually really good and marked gluten free... a gourmet chocolate bar laced with bacon. While there was more snow this morning I ended up working all day and not making time for a ski break.... perhaps tomorrow if all goes well!

The bacon chocolate only made us realize how starving we all were and we descended on Big Dave's house at Melrose Place for some food and tubby time. We made Brinner (breakfast for dinner) and all the non-glutards piled it high on a bulky roll.  We made gluten free pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and sausage and a few folks managed to get all these layered up into a sandwich.

our other favourite golden boy....seth wescott wins gold in Vancouver

From camp chaos

as you may remember we happen to be fans of our fellow sugarloafer, Seth Wescott. Seth is a snowboard cross racer (sbx) and when the sport made it's Olympic debut in 2006, Seth took gold after a dashing hole-shot. Camp Chaos was very excited to cheer Seth on in Telluride at the World Cup SBX race in December, two of the last 3 X Games in Aspen and other events here in Telluride.

From x games 2009

I'd been watching the Today Show and waiting for clips, Seth has been on the show a fair amount and is always well spoken. Check out his pre-race interview with Matt.

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Yesterday I was a wreak. I was nervous and tried to plan my day so I could watch the races. I checked the web during qualifiers to be sure time trials were ok- the first run- not so much but the second ensured a spot in the race.  I posted happy thoughts on facebook and a friend sent over a link so I could watch the race live. My stomach was in knots as I watched the small figures zoom on my laptop.

Four races. That's it- that's all. Mess one up and it's over. There's a lot of skill in sbx but there's also a lot left to chance. One racer can get clipped by another or hit a rut and spin out. 

Chaos wasn't sure what was wrong with me as I watched the semifinals. Seth and Holland had kept moving forward by taking the top two spots and both progressed to the final medal round. In less then two minutes it was over, Seth had come from behind and slowly picked off the three other races until he sped across the finish line just a half a snowboard length ahead of the Canadian. I was beside myself and wished at that moment I could be back in Maine and celebrating at The Rack like I did in 2006 with all my 'loafer friends. I tossed my favorite golden boy a treat and dug out my "Congrats Seth" button that Sugarloaf had made for Seth Wescott day in 2006. My golden pup posed for some photos.

 I really did try not to tell Dave but it wasn't possible to hide the good news that our other favorite golden boy had done it again.

Just watch it...

Congrats Seth, camp chaos is proud of you!

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From one golden boy to another....

winter woks and more

If you happen to read Think Outside the Breadbox you may already know that one of my favorite glutarded meals is Street Noodles. We made a huge batch the other night and thankfully I was greatly assisted by our favorite Chef Tomas.

Chef Tomas is a legend here in Telluride and when Justin found him at the Free Box one fine winter day in 2007 he was a bit down on his luck. He came to live with us and spends his time between Camp Chaos, Sno Dundah and Melrose Place. He's currently staying at Melrose since Big Dave had a heated pool and a hot tub which helps take the chill off a cold winter's day.

Tomas and I made street noodles for a crowd of seven starving skiers on Saturday. We had friends and friends of friends in town and had a good evening and meal at Melrose Place. Tomas was pretty proud of his wok skills...

I went for a full moon hike with some friends last month and got one whole photo as we departed thanks to dave... I hate taking off my gloves in cold weather. Here's me and our friend Jim as we ready to depart on the hour-long hike up.

Dave had to skip the hike as he went off for some night shift grooming... midnight to 9:30am, five nights a week... kinda takes the fun out of a Saturday night. He was to get some shots like this...

an early morning overlooking the Telluride Airport.