One last post before I leave.

In 8 hours I will be heading for the shuttle to the SeaTac airport.
In 19 hours I will be boarding the flight to Anchorage.
In 29 hours I will be arriving in King Salmon.
And sometime after that, I will make my way first to the Leader Creek office, then onto a tender, then out to Nushigak, then on to the m/v Whiskey Creek with Tim and Joe and Woody.
And Tilly will have to be a very good dog while I'm away.

But what good timing to have my parents come just as I am leaving! Just in time to watch the chickens and sweet Puppy Tilly! In the few days of overlap we've had, we have been very busy with dinner guests and house work. First on our list of visitors were Heidi and Launi, the previous owners of our beautiful Honeymoon Bay house and the party responsible for all the outstanding landscaping and arboretum.

Heidi and family

Over grilled salmon on the sunny porch, they shared the stories of the house and let us love it through their eyes of 30 years here. We walked the gardens deadheading rhododendrons, learning the names of all the plants, and pointing out which ones should go. By the time we reached the cars, conversations lingered. We bought the house for the view and the buildings and the land without knowing it also came with such good friends and neighbors.

Launi and family

The following night, we kept our good hospitality flowing and had friends from long ago for dinner. About 15 years ago, Rhonda and Gordon moved from Juneau to Whidbey Island for the Waldorf Schools and peaceful gardening. With more potato salad and grilled salmon, we had yet another lovely evening visiting until dark threatened to impede their motorcycle ride home. In the morning, we stopped by their house to return items and got the full tour of their enchanted gardens and delightful goats and ducks and tiny dog.

 Grandpa and Gordon taking a turn churning the ice cream

I've just been looking back over my bloggy records and saw that Tilly had her first "run away" search training on April 13th! It has only been just over a month, and already Tilly can find a person hiding over 100 feet away in thick brush and then lead me back to them reliably! I am amazed at how quickly she picks up on new information and applies it, in a few short lessons going from chasing someone who runs away to being let out of the car and beginning searching for an unknown person in the woods somewhere, following my ques what areas to head towards. I generally do not know where the person is hiding other than a vague and increasingly large area to search, and my only indication of her successful find is the cues she gives me. She quickly follows scent back to the source, then after spending a few minutes evaluating that source with tail wagging, she races back to me and touches me to alert me to her find, then leads the way back through woods to the hiding volunteer. Even with deer popping out of the woods near by, she stays focused on her task until she's gotten her frisbee, stick, treats, and praise to end the game. She'll have three weeks off from training while I am gone fishing, but I have no doubt she will be right back at it when we return to training.