Once again, I have help when quilting, even if I don't need it.... 

 Somehow, having the 60 pound GSD in front of the batting roll does NOT help!

Ripley and I visited the off-lead dog park off of Bechelli yesterday, and she was perfect!  I have only had her off lead with dogs that she already knew, so was a bit concerned how she would react to other dogs. She's been good on-lead with other dogs, but the dynamics change when the leads are gone!  I'm still not sure how she will respond to an aggressive dog, since all the dogs we met were also acting properly.  Hopefully, no one takes their aggressive dog there! 

One part of the trail goes under Highway 44 - kind of a cool view.

Cindy M and I met up with some of the book club ladies in McCloud yesterday for the Apple Harvest Festival (which should not have Apple in the name - no apples were in attendance!)  Mt.Shasta was hiding the first part of the day, but was clearing up by the afternoon. 

Some of the ladies were staying the weekend at a "cabin" at the Friday RV Park, and this was the view from their deck.  

I was getting Alli's breakfast ready, and noticed that her TV wasn't working correctly - there were a bunch of pop-ups on the screen. It didn't take long to see the cause....Jessie was pushing buttons again....laptops were not made to be cat warming stations!!

Progress on the Cascade quilt:

Note the Doxie head on the right???  I've converted Cindy M to the dark side, she's making the All Wrapped Up quilt for her sister who has multiple Doxies.  Too cute!!!

Ripley and I took a walk at Turtle Bay - I measured it at just over 1.25 miles per my workout program on my watch (always subject to accuracy), so it will be a nice walk when I'm short on time and want a different path.   

Some more photos from along the Sacramento River.  Ripley is loving the morning walks we are getting.  She looks so upset when I go somewhere without her now.  (Trust me, she doesn't want to sit in the car on the college campus for two hours for my class, but she doesn't agree.  It was 100 degrees here yesterday!)

My latest project - Cascade - is starting to go up on the design board, and it's a good thing.  I had several of the starts up for a while, and then took a second (or third) look at them.... 

Why can't I notice this before I press the block (maybe even before I actually sew it???)  

Even worse, I only noticed one of the blocks that were put together wrong at that time.  I found the other one later that day.  Only 12 more star blocks to make - let's see if I can put the rest of them together correctly....

Not content with just blocking access to my ironing board when I'm sewing, James has also decided that the puzzle table is hers....I have a feeling that when we get close to the end of the puzzle, there are only going to be 999 pieces on the table. 

I spent a bit of time yesterday quilting, and had a few "helpers"....Ripley was crashed out on the bed by the sewing machine.

Luna was crashed out on the bed by my cutting table.

James was crashed out on the ironing board.  Please note that James is laying ON the fabric I was trying to press - it's a bit harder to iron that way is all I can say.  James may be "pressing" the fabric, but she isn't very good at it.

From one of my walks with Ripley...  We still are hot in the afternoons, so it's so nice to walk by the river in the cool morning!

 

The Falling Leaves quilt top is done - it's now in the stack waiting to be quilted.  

 

 

I also picked up fabric yesterday for a quilt that I'm taking a class from Linda Ballard for, Piccadilly Square.  I've always heard that she has really great tips and tricks for quilting, so am taking her class (any help is greatly appreciated!)  The class is mid-October, and this is a sample of the quilt.  

 

I made chicken curry for dinner the other night,and decided to make naan too, using my pizza oven.  I was a little distracted, and didn't watch the first set of naan I put in.....oops! 

The rest of the batch was pretty tasty though.

Well, yesterday was an adventure......I met up with Cindy C at Mt. Lassen to hike up to Paradise Meadows, since it was a hike neither of us had done.  We did so good hiking there, we decided to head to the next spot on the trail - Terrace Lake!  The hike to Paradise Meadows was 1.3 miles (per the signpost) and Terrace Lake was "just" another 1.7 miles.  What it didn't say was that it was 1.7 miles at what felt like twice the incline than the 1.3 miles!!!  

It was a beautiful hike though, and the stops that my legs required enabled lots of photos....I didn't even pretend they were photo ops, I just needed a break.  We went as far as looking down on Terrace Lake, but it was a 0.3 mile downhill trail to the lake, which meant it was a 0.3 mile uphill hike back, and neither of us really wanted to do that to our legs!  Since the original plan called for a relatively short hike, we had water and some Kind bars with us - I should have brought the lunch that was back down in the car!

The chipmunks were out everywhere.

One of our first selfies - still early in the hike!

Paradise Meadows

Looking a bit more tired.

 

And this is Terrace Lake in the background - as close as we got!

Lassen Peak in the background

Looking a bit more worse for wear....

Hat Lake - our starting point - not much of lake, but pretty.

My watch for the hike - 4 1/2 hours, 2,089 foot elevation change, 6.85 miles.  Please note the effort was "All out"!  My feet were tired and my ankle wasn't happy at all (time for another cortisone shot??), but...this morning, I feel fine, so it didn't kill me!

By the way, if we had hiked back to our car and driven over to Helen Lake, there's a very short trail up to Terrace Lake.  Next time!!!

Since my former boss and Team Lead both work in Roseburg, OR, I took a (relatively) quick trip up to see them and go to lunch with them on Thursday.  It's just a 4 hour drive up, so I basically did a long workday, lol!  I dropped Alli off at her day program at 8:00, was up in Roseburg by 12:15, did lunch and a visit with the people I knew in the office, and was home by 7:00.  I left three quilts there - Kevin and Brittney picked out one for themselves and also picked one out for the LSS Manager, Trina.  

Since I was taking quilts up, I did a big push to get these two quilts completed to take.  They both turned out great!  

I got a couple of fall color shots while at the bank office, too, along with some cool clouds on the way home.

Part of my retirement plan is to take Ripley for a walk daily, if possible, now that I don't have to take her right after work/before her helper leaves (a tight window and super hot in the summer!)  Cindy M and I met up at Turtle Bay this week for a 2-mile walk.  

We spotted a couple of deer in the meadow (they moved a bit before I got a picture - originally all I could see were two sets of ears - too cute!) 

Ripley is a fan of the walks, but Luna isn't up to that far of a walk, so AJ or I take her for a shorter jaunt around the neighborhood.  She had an "episode" on Wednesday night - possibly a seizure??  Not sure, but she seem mostly recovery, but it's getting harder for her to get up, take long walks, etc.  Getting old sucks - my puppies should live forever!

I don't often see the bridge from this angle.