Author: Bryan

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Little Maumelle River

 

We borrowed boats from our friends over at Arkansas Outside to try out a stretch of the Little Maumelle River.  There are so many things I love about central Arkansas.  Imagine being able to paddle a kayak for eight plus miles down a river, within the city limits of the largest city in your state.  We began at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and floated through a forest of cypress trees, ending our trip just past Two Rivers park, at the boat launch at the bottom of River Mountain Road.

Ivydog was nearly perfect.  Hayduke was terrible.  He and I ended up in a single kayak, hanging back out of sight of the rest of the group.  When he can’t see anyone else, he’s a lot calmer about being in the boat.

I wish I’d had a camera, because he was extremely excited today about lily pads.  We floated through big stretches of water that’s so still and shallow that lilies grow in big ‘fields.’  Hayduke thought it was great fun to hang his big head out of the boat and try to snatch the flat leaves in his mouth.  Once he grabbed a lily bud and pulled it up, four foot stalk and all.  He looked at me as if to say “well, I caught it, but now I don’t know what to do with it.”  We left a trail of leaves with bites taken out of them.

Hayduke is a nightmare on the water but he has so much fun it’d be sad to leave him at home.

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Adventures in Dog Boating

In preparation of a future Buffalo River trip, we decided to spend the morning on Lake Ouachita.  We could try different kinds of kayaks and canoes, we figured, and we could check out how well the dogs would do on the water.

Ivy likes water but not too much, and she’s a little afraid of riding in cars, and she generally likes to sit up straight and be admired.  I predicted that Ivy would sit still in the middle of a boat and allow herself to be paddled around the lake like the princess that she is.  I was right.


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New Mountain Bike

In the back of my head, I’ve thought that mountain biking would be interesting to try but over the years I’ve never gotten closer than riding my Long Haul Trucker (LHT) touring bike on gravel roads near Lake Sylvia or in Newton County or riding my polo bike on a very flat beginner mountain bike trail while my daughter rode her mountain unicycle.  My LHT is pretty nice on gravel roads because of Surly’s “fatties fit fine” policy that allows me to fit fenders and 50mm tires.

photo (7)

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Dog House Project

Hayduke has a pretty good life.  That little stray puppy huddled in the tree roots, hungry and scared, has made a fine life for himself in the house across the street.  He gets good dog food and an endless supply of toys and treats and belly scratches and long hikes in the woods.  It’s his first winter here, and even though he sleeps inside at night, he needs a doghouse for the cold mornings and evenings he stays outside during the winter, or during the rainy parts of the year.
But will any old doghouse do?  No, it will not.  No doghouses we can buy locally are insulated.  No doghouses we can order online review well.  Most dogs in Arkansas do just fine with a non-insulated doghouse.  Most dogs don’t read online reviews.

We’re BUILDING a doghouse.  We ordered plans online from doghouseplans.com and gathered ideas from reviewing hundreds of doghouse photos.  We’ve gone to Home Depot a half dozen times.  We’ve spent good money and large parts of four days building this doghouse.

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New Years Hike

Happy New Year!  The last supper of 2011 was Jarion’s excellent steak and veggies, eaten by the light of a camp lantern on a picnic table.  We spent the last night of 2011 in a tent near the top of Mount Magazine.  It’s a windy, windy place.
We were up early, in the cold.  Jarion had lost the lighter the night before, so I loaded up the early risers to obtain a replacement (and coffee) at the Lodge.  Then we drove back to camp for pancakes and eggs and sausage before loading up the dogs and the gear and driving back down the mountain.

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Festivus

This year we added an official Festivus celebration to our holiday calendar. (Wikipedia has a well-written and comprehensive article about Festivus, and you should read it if you’re unfamiliar with this winter holiday.)  Bryan made a Festivus pole for the house (under $10 DIY or you can buy one here –Bryan), and our friends Kathy and Jarion went with us to a movie (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol; worth the IMAX surcharge –Bryan).  After the movie, we ate supper at our house and participated in an extended Airing of Grievances session (she’s holding a Grievance form against his chest, above.)  We went to their house for carrot cake for dessert, and the dogs took care of the Feats of Strength portion of the customary Festivus celebration.

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Guest Bathroom

When we bought our house, we knew that our second bathroom was sort of terrible.  The fixtures were nice, but the room was painted bright yellow with a sort of multi-layer brown/gold spongy finish.  I suppose the previous owners had thought that the effect would be rich and elegant.  I thought that the effect led one to believe that a large mammal had been smeared in its own poop and then had seizures in the room, blotting the excrement all over the walls.

A second problem involved the sink.  It was a nice Kohler pedestal, but its lack of a cabinet meant that there was no storage at all in the small bathroom.  This was a problem for our teenager – even a low-maintenance girl like Mandy needs a place to store a few bathroom things.  Since the room doubles as a guest bathroom, there was no way for her to store her own lotions and potions that still allowed the room to be presentable for guests.  It was getting more and more frustrating for all of us.

So this year, one of her holiday gifts will be a remodeled bathroom.
Bathroom-Before&After

On the Saturday Mandy left for her annual winter trip to Tulsa, Bryan and I shopped for and bought a new vanity, counter, and sink for the bathroom.  Sunday was spent removing the fixtures, repainting the room, reinstalling the toilet and adding the new vanity.

Bathroom-Composite

We all wanted a brighter orange wall color, but it would have clashed with the granite countertop.  It’s actually turned out rather more classy and grown-up than we’d intended, but it’s very pretty and I suppose we’ll manage.