Ft. DuPont campground?
March 24th, 2021
The other day, while hanging out over pizza, REAL pizza, at the DNREC park where we used to run the doggies…
MOV00166 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00165 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00164 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00163 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00162 – At Delaware City Park – check Ken running!
MOV00161 – At Delaware City Park – Look at them go!
And now they want to wreck this park with an RV parking lot.
I realized yesterday that I’d not posted about this dreadful idea:
Here’s the powerpoint with the “preliminary plan” from August, 2019. There’s no final plan in the Delaware City Council’s Agenda or Minutes.
Blue Water’s Proposed 422-Site Del. Proj. Receives OK
Delaware City Council okays controversial RV campground near Fort DuPont State Park
Given the water table, I cannot imagine what they intend to do with the sewage from that many sites.
Despite that approval, I don’t see any sign of construction starting. There were dump trucks up and down the road, but they went to the C&D canal and then headed east!
Videos of Ken & Krie
July 23rd, 2016
Found some videos hiding of my dear departed Kenya and Krie, and I’ve posted here to archive:
MOV00315 – Chasing Wubbas at Frontenac Beach
MOV00314 – Krie heads to Wisconsin
MOV00312 – More Fetching Wubbas
MOV00166 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00165 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00164 – At Delaware City Park
MOV00163 – At Delaware City Park
On Sunday, it’s Summer!
April 7th, 2011
Noooooo, we know it’s spring, but on Sunday, we’re going to Wisconsin to meet, and likely bring home, our new adopted doggy, a 12 y.o. GSD named Summer. She needs a retirement home, and that’s something we’re good at. What struck me about her is she’s Kenya’s twin, that perky smile, bright eyes (even if they can’t see) and this dear dog has 4 legs that work.
She doesn’t eat cats, and in case you didn’t notice, she’s a big’un, 120 pounds, WOW, that’s bigger than Krie the Big Galoot! She has some health issues, but nothing we can’t handle, and with her good attitude, she should fit right in with Kady and Little Sadie.
Who can resist a smile like that?
Oh, it’s a sad day…
May 26th, 2010
Our dear doggy Kenya has died — we took her to the vet this morning. She had a good long life, nearly 13 years, which is old for a German Shepherd. Kenya is the doggy who went everywhere with me, touring the state for whatever meetings, off to Delaware to get acquainted with Alan, chased agency and utility personnel across parking lots, and for years she slept under my desk in my office in Northfield, with apples or carrots for friends and visitors to placate her.
Kenya was a rescue, from the now defunct Badger German Shepherd Rescue in Wisconsin. After I lost my Katze in a most gutwrenching death, an engineer, “whose name I can’t recall,” was in rescue with BGSR and he found her for me, and I picked her up from her foster mom, Kelly, and we’ve been together ever since, nearly 8 years. Kelly had had her twice as a foster, and she loved this dog. Ken was just a pup when she climbed over a cage and got her leg caught and fell and broke her leg and hung with that broken leg until someone came in. A woman who worked at the vet saved her and adopted her, and Kenya’s mangled leg didn’t slow her down as she grew up. After a couple years, her first owner got divorced and couldn’t find a place to live that would take a big shep, so Kelly fostered her, and then a man took her to Indiana and then a couple years later, same story, divorce and no home that would accept a dog, so back to Kelly she went. Then I got her and Kelly wanted to make sure I wasn’t married because Ken shouldn’t have to go through that again, and then Ken hopped in the car, which became her den, and we hammered west. I’ve kept in touch with Kelly over the years, updates about Kenya and our other doggies, particularly about Ken’s progress in being a dog. This is the most difficult update. In the time Ken and I were together, she grew so much and learned how to fit into my life — no easy task.
Kenya loved being in the car, loved to go for rides with the wind whipping her firmly shep ears back (means we had to go fast) and taking naps in the car when I was trying not to do the same in some boring meeting. She loved the car, shout “CAR!” and she whips her head, finds it, and takes off full bore. Above is the Delaware van, where she always begged to spend the day, hanging out in the yard, watching the world out the back door. We got the new van just to cart them cross-country, a platform so they could see the world go by and bark at everyone waiting for the train in Chicago! Alan’s love for the dog is obvious, and he’s the one who carted her around the last few months, carrying her down all the steps to the car here in Red Wing, and carrying her so she can sleep upstairs and then down in the morning. Despite her infirmities, we continued to take her most everywhere, for a ride, to lay in the sun on a picnic, and to lay in Lake Byllesby. He’s also the giver of the chicken, her concentrated protein favorite, and a frequent provider of ice cream and donuts for her vet ordered diet.
She’s seen the world, well, much of the US, been back and forth and back and forth and back and forth to Delaware, has peed in Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Itasca, the Canisteo Pit, the Delaware and Mississippi and Rush rivers, the Delaware Water Gap and and particularly liked Frontenac Beach and Lake Byllesby. She wasn’t much for fetch, but she loved to have her own Wubba and run circles around Krie when Krie was fetching (and Krie was one fetching dog).
Ken had been significantly declining for over two years, and July of 2008, she was diagnosed with early renal failure, and we’ve been nursing her along with a special diet and some drugs, pee pills too, which helped a lot until maybe two months ago, when she lost ability to walk and then, to get up. She was incontinent more and more often, first peeing, and lately pooping. She was eating and eating and eating and drinking and drinking and drinking, and what goes in comes out. Oh, did it… Prednisone helped her pain, and we took her to the chiropractor, but there are no miracle cures, and though her pain was better, that was obvious and a relief to us all, the rear half of her body was shot. She couldn’t get up without help (unless we were heading to the door with car keys in hand), needed to be held up in her sling to get around and go outside, and needed nearly constant attention. And today, off to see Brent Born, Kenyon Vet Clinic — our favorite vet — the one who helped us have two bonus years with Kenya.
We miss her terribly and there will be a big hole where Kenya was for quite some time… it’s been a rough year…
Long live the K & K Grrrrrrrrrrls !!!!
Kenya October 1, 1997 – May 26, 2010
Krie January 31, 1998 – January 2, 2010
Kenya is better!!!
May 21st, 2010
Last week, well really for the last two months, Kenya has had a very rough time, and so have I. She’s been with me for almost 8 years now, always with in the car, going to meetings, snoozing under my desk, eating carrots and apples, even barking at Matt Entenza’s father-in-law… She’s going on 13, very old for a shep, and about two years ago, she was diagnosed with early stage renal failure. I thought she was a goner, but she’s been taking Azodyl, a pee pill so she’s not, well, peeing, no way will I put her in diapers, and for the last year, she’s been unable to get upstairs. Two months ago it got really bad and she pretty much couldn’t walk anymore, and we used a sling to get her in and out of the house, and carried her up the stairs. Alan really loves the ol’ doggy and carts her around everywhere. But a German Shepherd is not easy to cart around!
The last two weeks, she’s been barking all the time, and obviously not a happy pup, and I was miserable, “feeling her pain” and I couldn’t get anything done between her barking and needing attention constantly, here a carrot, then a drink, then go outside, and then a DQ for the dog, next thing you know, the day is gone. She was so bad off that she started walking on the wrong sides of her toes. I called the vet, and was prepared to have her put down, I couldn’t stand to watch her dragging herself around and flopping like a fish. Alan didn’t want to let her go, and we checked to see if there was anything we could do. The vet said she’s got back problems, and we decided to try this one last thing, and put her on prednisone — in just two days (he said we’d know if it helped in 72 hours) she is obviously better, and when she’s better, I’m better (try working with a miserable dog at your feet…). She even purposefully corrected her gait, and put “the dirty side down” when going out yesterday. All day yesterday she got up to drink and got up to go out all by herself, none of that barking to let us know she needed help. LOOK MA, NO HANDS! Like WOW!
Today we did the other part, we took her to the chiropractor. Really…
Moe Bodyworks
We drove up to the cities, armed with her favorites — bananas and donuts — and Alan carried her in to meet Dr. Moses Sarah Smith, D.C. She went right to it and adjusted her, and knowing what I know from my destroyed back, poor Ken… her neck was off, and some mid back, but in the lumbar, she was a mess, and a hip was weird too, and even one of her shoulders. You could hear the cracks. The poor dear… It hurt her a bit, but she didn’t get all snarly. I swear she looks perkier. We stopped on the way back for a bit of a picnic at Lock & Dam #2, Ken was such a happy dog laying in the grass admiring the big ball bird diverters on the shield wires on that line across the river… she’s smiling again. And when Ken’s smiling, I can kick Xcel ass!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Long live Kenya!