High Park Fire

Two weeks ago a lightning strike during a thunder storm in the foothills some 25 miles west of us started a fire.  15 days on, it has burned over 81,000 acres and is still going strong.  Depending on the wind, we can wake up, as we did this morning, with the house full of smoke.  

We have been short of rain this spring and the ground is extremely dry.  Temperatures have been steady in the 90s and have exceeded 100 several days in the last week.

While looking online for the latest news on the fire this morning, I came across The chirpy headline:

"Colorado's High Park fire competes with blazes across the state" with this map:

And this after reading about the rain and floods Britain has been experiencing.  Nothing like a bit of contrast.

Shaggy Dogs

Such a long time since my last post.  One recent thing that has been keeping us busy is below:

Thing One and Thing Two

Or, as you can see, two things.  These are MacKenzie and Mabel.  Two Lhasa Apso dogs that Sally is fostering for the local Humane Society (I suppose this is the equivalent of the RSPCA).  These two little doggies are puppy mill refugees and probably not the best thing to initiate us dog virgins into the wonderful world of doggie care.  We were told that they were mother and daughter, Mabel being about two years old and MacKenzie about nine months.  Mabel is very protective of MacKenzie and will follow her around, which is useful, as neither of them will tolerate a lead.  If allowed, they would sit in their crate all day coming out only when no one is looking to eat or evacuate.

Mabel & MacKenzie

They are sweet and mild mannered in the extreme.  We are slowly, slowly acquainting them with the big outdoors, and have, after about a week of fostering, finally seen an upright tail.   We've had some small success in house training; I fear Sally in inclined to sleep too late to really knock this on the head.  No idea how long they will be with us.  But kinda fun for now.