Yreka California June 13th through the 20th 2022

Destination number: 10/181/39

Upon my return to Yreka from the week-long trip up to the Portland area, I slid back pretty much into what should very well be the routine for the foreseeable future of work, spending time with Family and of course volunteer work. With that being the case, I will try to focus future blog posts only on those things that I haven't covered in a past post, so, over the next few entries, the content will reduce, and the frequency of the posts will drop off as well. However, the reason I haven't posted this and the next entry in as timely a manner as possible is because I have resumed working with two of my favorite dog rescuers on doing dog videos. Getting the dogs adopted is far more important than my blog posts, so I need to focus on them first. Since I'm not caught up on dog videos for a few days, I can now work on trying to catch the blog entries up a little bit.

On Saturday's I'm back working with my video team member the wonderful Amy on working with adoptable dogs at Rescue Ranch Yreka. We work on walking dogs, giving them some socialization and also working in some obedience skills. We get each dog out of their kennel for 30 to 45 minutes and it is wonderful to see how the dogs light up and their true personalities come out when we get them out of their kennels for a while. It's this ability to get them out of their kennels to help people see what the dogs are truly like away from the kennel environment.

For the most part, during this part of the year, I'm trying to get to Rescue Ranch both days of the weekend. On Saturday's Amy and I work on videos and then I return again on Sundays to help with cleanup and anything else that they need help with.

Because I work a 9 hours a day every two weeks for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, I get every other Monday off. On those Mondays that I have off, I go and help my other rescue friend the amazing Stephanie on whatever tasks she needs help with at her shelter. You see, she is the shelter manager, cleaner, feeder, walker, socializer and marketing wizard for the Siskiyou County animal shelter. Siskiyou county is the same geographic size as the state of Connecticut. They have two full time Animal Control Officers and one part time officer. Then, Stephanie takes care of every attribute of the shelter operations during the week. Fortunately, the ACO's help out on the weekends to care for the animals so that Stephanie can have an occasional break. There are many weekend days however that you could see Stephanie driving up and down I-5 from California to Oregon helping dogs and cats get moved from shelters in the northern part of California to meet up with other rescues from Oregon and parts north. So, it is my distinct honor to be able to help Stephanie out when I can, because she really needs at least one part time person to work at least the mornings with her. But, there is no money in the budget, so Stephanie carry's the load. Needless to say, I am very proud to do what I can to help her. In additional to cleaning and anything else I can help Stephanie with, I also offer to do at least one dog video one of her deserving dogs at the County shelter.

Here is an example of the kind of videos that are put together with the efforts of those like Amy and Stephanie to help these unwanted dogs to find new furrever homes.

On Thursdays after work in the summertime, Mike's Ashland Community band performs at the Lithia Park Band Shell. So, as soon as I get off work, I make the drive up to Ashland to see Mike perform in the community band. Before the performance, we always sit and enjoy a light dinner and quality family time getting caught up since the last time we visited. The back of Mike's head even made a Cameo appearance on one nightly news cast!

For Father's day this year, Steve and Elena Wraight came up from Long Beach for a visit. First, they stopped at Elena's mom up by Bend Oregon. Then they took what we call a "Scenic route" from Bend to Phoenix Oregon. When we all were there, it was sure nice to have the brothers Wraight (of which I'm a gleefully renewed member of for another year) for Father's Day this year. We got a chance to play a little bit or Corn-Hole and enjoyed some Chicken, Shrimp and vegetable shishkibobs.

Sadly, we have officially entered "Fire Season". The good news is that CAL FIRE and USFS are starting to "Staff Up" in the area in the event that a fire breaks out in the region. There are so many staff on hand that they can't all bunk at the nearby Armory, so on a rotating basis, the firefighters get to stay at a nearby "Holiday" for a few nights.