Productive Weekend

April 28-29, 2012
We got a lot of chores done over the weekend. Jeremiah finally screwed together the back driver's side corner of the fitty that's been messed up after our first trip to Colorado. We obviously hit something on that trip, because when we arrived we discovered the back trim was ripped up and messed up. So now it's been roughly patched up. He and I also took care of the windshield on the pickup. There's been an issue with the sealant pretty much since we got the truck. It leaks when it rains. So I cleaned the truck off really good, and Jeremiah took care of applying the sealant. I hope it cures okay with the cold overnight temps.
The other thing we did was get more firewood. I tried out my new handsaw. The handsaw is what I thought Missy was going to be purchasing on her first trip to Lowes. But Jeremiah talked her out of that and into the chainsaw. When we went to Lowes for the second time, I bought the hand saw. Jeremiah scorned me…actually scorn. He didn't think I'd be able to saw through anything. But it works great! I told him I didn't mind the exercise, and so it might take longer than the chainsaw, but it works fine. I sawed some smaller downed trees around the ski parking lot. Missy and Jeremiah loaded the genny into the pickup and got some bigger specimens. We got it all loaded onto the truck and went back to camp to cut logs. One older gentleman came over during our chainsaw session and said didn't we need a permit to cut wood. Missy assured him that it said on the website that you can help yourself to anything that was down. After the guy left, she turned to me and said "you looked that up, right?". Um….not really. I do know that this is the case for the National Forest we were in in Colorado. So the question is, is this a national policy? Or a forest by forest policy? Hopefully we're not breaking the law. There is soooooooo much downed around here, I can't believe anyone would object to our cleaning some of it up.
We had one bit of scary drama on Sunday. Early morning, Missy and I were on a scouting mission to see where the best collection of firewood-potential trees were. Cassie and Buddy were with us in a small woods next to the parking lot. All of a sudden, a huge dog shot past us and attacked Cassie! It was terrifying…Cassie was yelping and Missy and I were yelling and kicking at the dog. It was a massive white Malamute. There was no sign of an owner, and we were trying to yell for someone to come call the dog off. Finally the dog released Cassie, and I chased it into the parking lot. The area around the ski hill is a loop with 3 parking areas. I didn't know where this dog's owner was, so I followed the dog. Missy said Cassie was limping, favoring a back leg. I was determined to find the bully's owner to make sure they took responsibility. Finally, a woman came walking over to where we were. I told her what happened, and she seemed shocked that her dog attacked mine. I think she wanted to make it Cassie's fault. She kept saying "I didn't see what happened". She said her dog never attacked before. She went to put her dogs in the car. We examined Cassie carefully, and thankfully she seemed ok. I put pressure on her whole leg, and she didn't react at all. So we let the woman know there didn't appear to be any injuries and she left. This was such a surreal experience. The way that dog just bee-lined for Cassie and attacked. There was none of the typical lead-up, where aggressive dogs circle each other and growl and then attack. Poor Cassie.