An Almost Coyote Dinner

This past weekend Travis and I were working on the truck in the garage. Well I was being the grease monkey assistant, I guess you would call it. Anyway, we usually let Lily roam around the front yard while we're in the garage and she rarely goes farther then walking around the side of the house to the back wall in the empty dirt lot next to us. So we were all in the garage and Travis goes around the corner to clean off a part in the front yard rocks (we obviously don't have grass living in the desert) and sees something dart out of the shadows right next to him toward the street. At first he thought it was Lily chasing after something, but then saw the big bushy tail which meant it was a COYOTE! He called for me to grab Lily because there a coyote out front and ran inside and back out the front door with a high-powered flashlight. (I couldn't believe he didn't grab a gun!) Travis went running down the street chasing after the thing while I stood in the front yard holding Lily for dear life! Once the coast was clear, Trav came back and hopped on a bike and took off even further down the street to make sure it was long gone. (There are lots of empty dirt lots and un-lit streets by our house so there are lots of places for coyotes to hide). I finally put Lily down and realized had Travis not walked around the corner first, Lily would've been a coyote's late night dinner! Needless to say, I'm completely worried now that she's going to be attacked. Ugh! Dumb coyotes... Travis just might buy a silencer for his gun. I hate coyotes!
This is a picture of a coyote Travis killed once up in Northern Nevada. They get mutilated when you shoot them with a rifle.

Mt. Charleston: Cool Air Get-Away

Ok, I'm getting sick of the summer heat. So we took off this afternoon up to Mt. Charleston to try out the South Trail Loop which takes you up to Griffith Peak (~11,000ft) and Mt. Charleston Peak (11,918ft). I love hiking to the tops of mountains and figure if you just start out early enough you're good. Well, we're both not in the best shape and we didn't get started until 4pm, so we just decided to test out the first few miles of the South Loop Trail to get a feel for it and see if we'd be ready for a full day hike to the top. The total trip to the top of Mt. Charleston Peak is 16miles round trip that climbs 4,000+ feet. We probably did about 3miles of it. It was a pretty steep trail and we were already feeling it on our way back down! Now don't get me wrong, I still want to hike the entire South Loop Trail all the way to the top of Mt. Charleston Peak, but I think I need to get these feet into some hiking boots more often! Lily, of course, came with us and did great, as usual. Overall, it was so nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather! We'll probably go again next weekend. :)

Us on the trail. It was a pretty dusty day so scenic pictures didn't turn out that great.

Painting Again

Our main living area of the house (which includes the kitchen) has been unfinished as far as painting goes for quite a few months now. I left off on a good spot last time, but it was really starting to bug me that it wasn't finished. So I finally hunkered down this past Sat at 11am and finish painting the kitchen and underneah the bar at 8pm. I know, it takes me FOREVER! I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to painting, I don't know why. But I do love it when I'm done!