Frozen Paradise!

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  I mentioned the other day that we had an ice storm here on Tuesday, so we weren't able to walk anywhere exciting.  The next day, though, yesterday, we got to go up to The Top Of The World!  Mom and Dad thought that would be the route with the least road chemicals to get on our feety-feet AND that it would be pretty up there.  They were right on both counts!  Take a look:

"Everything's frozen!"
"This is heavenly!"

The grasses were all encased in ice still; it was so beautiful! Mags and I were really good about not pulling, and footing was good for Mom and Dad, so we got to keep going and going!

Me and Mags on the trail

We took one of the less steep paths to get up to the top:

"Engage fur-wheel drive to get up the hill, Ragnar!"
"Good idea, Mags!'

It was a little slippery going up, but not bad.  We were careful to watch for ice patches.  Check out the view when we got to the top!

 

Isn't that a great view?!?  We walked over to the cliff edge and I took in all the sights:

"Wow, Mom!  It's a frozen paradise!"

Oh.  Where was Maggie?  She was  getting into something   umm ... no, wait ... otherwise engaged.  Yeah.  That's it.  She was otherwise engaged, or we would have posed together.

Moving right along ...

How about another look at the beautiful scenery?!?

Ice-coated shrubbery and grasses

We walked along the path up top:

Mom took lots of photos up there!  Here's one of our favorites:

Ice on wire

And here's one last shot of Maggie and me as we headed back:

"I hope we get to come up here when it snows!"
"Oh, me, too, Mags!  Me, too!"

There's snow in the forecast for tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Sköl!

Ragnar

Wordless Wednesday

 

Ragnar and Mags

 

I Think I Have "The Gift", Too!

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  We didn't get to go on a walk this morning due to an ice storm, but yesterday we went on a great one to The Top Of The World.  We took a little bit different route to get there.  We went out to the big road, up to where Hudson Trail starts!

"Mags!  We get to walk the whole length of Hudson Trail!"
"This is so awesome!!!"

There are so many interesting smells along Hudson Trail; it's one of our favorite places!  Before too long, we got to the "open prairie" part of the trail.  Here's Mags:

"We should go all the way to The Top Of The World!"

"Great idea, Mags!  Let's hope Mom and Dad buy into it!"
"Oh, they will.  They can't say 'no' to me.  Especially Dad."

And she was right!  We hooked into the Washington Marlatt trails, then went down the road to hook into the trails that lead up to The Top Of The World!

"How do you get Dad to say 'yes' all the time, Mags?"
"It's one of my magical gifts.  It'll work for you, too.  Try it!"

"The woods are that way.  Oh, I hope we get to walk through the woods!"
"Me, too.  I love the woods!"

Dad said we needed to take a different route on the way out due to a guy with a loose dog, so we headed up one of the other paths to get to the top.  I totally understood that - but I was hoping we could do the woods on the way home.

Action shot of me and Maggie!

We got to the top and had a good look around:

"I think I can see Missouri!  Our homeland, Mags!"
"I'm looking at Colorado!"

Then Mags said to try again, asking about going through the woods.  At first, Dad didn't want to go that way because he said "certain members of the family go crazy in there" and there are all kinds of roots to trip over.  Huh.  We all know I walk really nicely on a lead, so I'm assuming he meant the girls - Mags and Mom.  Anyway, I summoned all my powers ...

"Oh, please, Dad!  Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please!"

Then he said that if I was good, we could go on the woodsy path!

"Me?  I'm Ragnar Jimmysson.  I'm always good!"

So we headed down the hill, and when we got to the turn-off for the path into the woods ... Dad said, "YES!"

"THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!!"
"I KNOW!  I LOVE THIS!!!!!"

Sorry the picture isn't the best.  Mom must have been acting up or something. But how cool is that?!?  Maggie was right -- I have the same magical gift she does!  This is awesome!  I promise to only use my powers for good.  Mostly.

Sköl!

Ragnar

Posing By The Sign

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags!  On one of our recent walks to The Top Of The World and back, Mom asked us to do a bit of a pose for her -- you know, since most of the photos on our walks are from behind.  I thought it would be a good idea to strike a pose by the Washington Marlatt Park sign; it's nice signage and has big limestone chunks in front of it.  I hopped right up ...

"This is cool!  Hey, Raggi!  C'mon over and pose by the park sign!"

Ragnar came over and jumped up, too ...

"Strike a pose, Ragnar!"
"... established 1940 ..."

I held the pose as long as I could, but ...

"I can't work under these conditions."
"Sorry.  I was reading the sign, Maggie."

Sometimes being a Working Breed Dog is REALLY tough.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar!  I hope all of you had a great Christmas!  Maggie and I sure did!  Guess what we got to do right after breakfast?!?  Go to The Top Of The World!!!  I had Mom take lots of pictures so we could take you with us. Ready?!?  It was cold, so bundle up!

Here we are out on the trail:

"What a great Christmas gift, huh, Mags?!?!"
"The BEST, Ragnar!"

   Here's a cool action shot of Maggie:

 

Mom liked how the light was filtering through the grasses! We took one of the curvy paths to get up to the top ...

"Wow!  There are a bunch of ways to get up here!"
"I liked going up that cliff face best!"

   ... and before we knew it, we were at The Top Of The World!

"What a VIEW!!"
"I think I can see Colorado!"

 We walked the length of the top trail ...

   

... then down the dusty road to the lookout point:

   

Remember the other day when Maggie posted a really cool shot of herself at the cliff just past the lookout? Mom said she and I could walk down there if I went slowly. It's super rocky and there are steep drops on both sides of the narrow path:

"Good boy, Ragnar!"
"Slow and steady, Mom!"

   Mom even shot some video!  (If it doesn't load, please click here to watch on YouTube!)

   

It's really beautiful up there!  Here I am at the very edge:

Me, Polargold's Einherjar, the mighty Viking explorer!!!!

On the way back, we took a different route; that park has really cool trails that we're still exploring!

"This is so cool!"
"The sun's making the frost all sparkly!"

We even found a new-to-us Trippy-Trap Bridge!

"A Trippy-Trap Bridge!"
"Let's check for trolls!!!"

There weren't any trolls under that one, either, but we checked just to make sure!  You just never know!

Thanks for coming along - we hope you enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  We just love it up there!

Sköl!

Ragnar

Boxing Day!

 Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  I'd like to wish all of you - especially my fellow Boxers! - a most wonderful Boxing Day!

May all your dreams come true!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Christmas 2020

 From all of us here at Ao4 Headquarters ...

"We wish you a cool Yule!"
"And a very merry Christmas!!!"

"That's it, Ragnar!  Just one more shot with the hats on, 
then we toss them in the air!"

"Mom?  Can we do it wearing the hats bandana-style?  Please?"
"❤❤ Oh, Ragnar!  ❤❤"

"We hope you've had a wonderful Christmas!"
"Ready to toss hats in 3 ... 2 ..." 

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." 

   Luke 2:11 (King James Version) 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Mags, Ragnar, and our mom and dad

Christmas Eve 2020

 Hi everybody!  It's me, an unknown Siberian.  I'm here with another unknown Siberian to remind Santa (and show Santa!) that we've been extremely good this year.

"We should have taken her on a much longer walk this morning."
"Seriously, whoever you are.  We really should have!"

It was great weather out - a windchill in the lower teens!  Awesome!  For some reason, though, Mom and Dad wanted to cut our walk on the shorter side today.  Bipeds.  I'll never figure them out!

But in case Santa's reading ... it IS me and Maggie!  REALLY!!!    

Merry Christmas and a cool Yule to all! 

Sköl! 

Ragnar

Wordless Wednesday

 

Yours sincerley, 

Margaret Thatcher

 

Why We Take Long Walks

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  Some of you might be wondering why Mags and I take our bipeds on such nice, long (4-7 miles) walks every day.  It's to get Mom at least a little bit tired and to take up a bit more time in the day.  Why?  Let's take yesterday.  We took a shorter walk (on the 4-mile end of the spectrum) so after her treadmill workout, Mom had the energy and time to do this:

"Good, Mags!  Now stay!"
"Aw, c'mon ... where's Raggi?!!?"

"Who, me?"

"C'mon, Raggi!  She's got Zuke's!"
"Are they the good kind?!?"
"Umm... yeeeessss..."

"Tomorrow, we have to take them on a much longer walk, Ragnar."
"I wonder what's beyond The Top Of The World?"
"Good puppies!"

Which leads us to today's walk ...

"Oh, yeah, awesome!  Let's go, everybody!"
"Let's go fast up this hill, Mom!  C'mon!"

I don't see any Santa hat action happening today.  Whew.  It's like Maggie says, "A tired biped is a good biped."

Sköl!

Ragnar

Man, That Was Fun Monday

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  Did I tell you about seeing chick-hens yet?  Oh, right.  OK, I did.  Gotta put that behind me, right?  Sorry.  It. Was. Just. So exciting!  Know what else was exciting?  Walking all the way to The Top Of The World the other day!  Mom took tons of pix, so Maggie said I should show you more.  Especially since I don't have any more chick-hen pix.

OK, lot's of turf to cover, so I'll get right to it.  Less chit-chat, more pix!

Here we are, at an exciting part of Hudson Trail:

"New trail!"
"Oooh, steep trail!  COOL!"

We were about to head down into a ravine!  It was really cool! We hadn't taken that leg of the trail before!

This is Maggie, getting to choose the route:

"Which way, Mags?"
"Bear right ... then I think today's the day.  Let's go all the way to The Top Of The World!"
"Wait ... what?"

Mags likes to stop and check things out along the route.  I like to keep going!

"C'mon, everybody!"
"Hey, what's this?"

I'm a very good walker!

Here we are, making our way to The Top Of The World.  Can you see the path on the upper left part of that hill?  That's where we were headed!

"Take the lead, Mags!"
"Follow me, everyone!"

Maggie's a great leader!

"This is going to be a blast!"

We showed you pix of us reaching the top the other day, so I'll skip ahead to the trails & road we hiked up there! First, we hit this trail:

   

...then this dusty road:

"It's windy up here, Mags!"
"Windy and wild!  I love it!"

We walked all the way down to a lookout point:

   

It was super cool! After having a good look around, we turned back and headed back home. Mom and Dad spotted a path leading back home that didn't involve going down the cliff we walked up; for some reason, they didn't want to go down that steep, rocky hill. Whatever.

"It would have been fun going down that cliff!"
"True!  But we get all new smells this way!  AND it's longer!"

"I think we're almost back to the trail we came in on!"
"I think you're right, Ragnar!"

It was SO FUN!  Thanks for letting us share more photos with you.  We love how beautiful our trails are!

Sköl!

Ragnar