My Princess

I love my wife like there is no other.  She is the light of my life.  She makes me laugh, keeps me in check and keeps me doing charitable work.  She is the real deal, but this post isn't about her.

My princess.

Five years ago I meet my future wife.  She has two dogs, one trained and one wild.  Very wild.  She barks at full steam in the house, she bites, she runs.... she is a mess.  She had mange as a puppy and was in quarantine for months as a pup after being found on the streets, but she was three wheeled.  She walked with a limp.  When I came into the picture we found a GREAT vet who understood the dog and amputated the bad toe that caused the limp.  I carried the 60lb dog.

She had never bonded with a human, but on a boondocking trip to Panamint Valley, I had to chase her miles down Remi Nadu Road.  She realized she was loved.

She is now my princess.  Scabs, bald spots and all, she is the most proud dog you'd ever see.  She will chase rabbits miles across lake beds and still come on command.  Man's best friend, indeed.

This dog has taught me more about grace than anything I could ever experience.

Free Camping Freedom!

I don't like to pay for camping.  I don't think I should have to and rarely do.  I don't need a picnic table, toilets, nature centers, chubby rangers with Smokey the Bear hats and signed trails with more and more intrusive Globberment regulation.

I used to backpack, Jeep camp and now have a slide in camper for the truck.  I come equipped for six or seven days, self contained and happy.  We camp for free on public land all throughout the desert in California.  We have a love affair with the desert, the freedom and sheer loudness of complete silence.

Where we go we have no neighbors to speak of and are a few miles from the nearest paved road.  It allows time to decompress, to explore military ruins (it was part of Patton's desert base for WWII) and search for Indian villages (we've found two).  Everyday is rewarding, even if sitting in the shade of the RV reading a book or listening to Miles Davis... or doing nothing but staring off into the distance.

The nights are inky unless you have a great big moon, then the desert becomes this amazing silvery-blue that glows for miles and miles.  The coyotes howling in the distance, it makes quite a remarkable scene and soundtrack.

Go find yourself a spot, far away from others and slow down.  Make it your spot.  Build a sundial out of rocks and a stick.  Play some no-out-of-bounds bocce ball.  Listen to the breeze.  Take photos of things that seem ordinary but really are extraordinary.

Camp for free.

Be free.

Baseball-bat Zucchinis

If you turn your back to your zucchini plants for a few weeks, they will produce baseball-bat-size zucchinis.  Usually, I like to ding-dong-ditch extra large zucchinis in my co-workers' in-boxes, which is a very professional and adult thing to do, especially as a member of the Bar. 

The issue with such large zucchinis is that they get rather tough.  That is why you see only small zucchinis in your super markets.  Besides leaving a two-feet long zucchini in the inbox of someone in accounting, we have found that if you grind them up, you can make sausage and patties.  Also, as long as you cook them for quite some time (45 minutes), they're great sauteed.

As of late, most of our baseball-bat-size zucchinis have been used in our homemade dog food.  Like everything else in our lives, our dogs get the right of first refusal.  "Honey, Chuie wants to sleep in our bed."  "Where will I sleep?"  "Well, the bed in the camper is awfully comfy."  No wonder they don't bark (let alone lift their heads off of a pillow) when visitors enter our house, take a shower and find a guest bedroom at one in the morning. 

Chuie (one of our tough guard dogs):

Mindy (the second guard dog, so much for pitbulls being aggressive):

Back to the matter at hand.  Dogs can eat zucchinis.  So, we take a zucchini, leftover chicken bones, whatever vegetables are about to perish (except onions - no onions), beans and/or rice, top off with water and let in all cook in a crockpot for a day or two.  Remove the bones and let cool.  Bon dog appetit!  Add a splash of milk so the dogs get calcium.

Because we have two fat dogs to feed: