And thus begins year two...
Hi, friends. I apologize for my absence here. I hope you all have been taking good care of yourselves, and those around you, and of course your fur babies.
We are back in West Texas for a couple of art festivals and to do some headshot and portrait work, and things are going fine so far.
I called a transmission shop here that my regular shop (that doesn’t do transmission work) recommended, to see if I could bring the van by and have them check the slow leak and just make sure everything looks okay, and they are backed up by two weeks, so they took my name and number and asked me to call back toward the end of March.
After the festivals are over, I plan to leave West Texas. My hope is that we will be able to go to the high mountains of Colorado for the summer, but that is dependent on how much money I can make while here, so we shall see.
Wednesday of this week marked one year that we’ve been in the van full time, and I made the video below to mark the occasion. If you haven’t seen it yet, just click below to watch it (or click HERE to open in YouTube).
I don’t have much else to report right now. We are enjoying the still-cool temperatures while we can, and just hoping to be gone before the triple digits arrive, or at least very soon after they arrive.
I do have some YouTube review videos (and accompanying blog posts) planned about the 4G LTE security camera I’m using in the van right now. Waggle, the company that makes the Pet Monitor I use, actually has come out with one that’s very similar, and I’ve considered getting it and doing a comparison. The Waggle is more than twice the price, though, so we will see. Part of me would love to have the Waggle camera, as it would use the same app as the Pet Monitor, and is also a more widely known company with a known support standard. I haven’t had any issues with the camera I’m using yet, and I hope I never do, but I definitely know much less about the company that makes it and how helpful they would be if there were issues.
Additionally, Säker Canine contacted me about testing their newest Muse harness and pack system, and I agreed. They sent me a Trail Green one for Hazel to test (along with a Kelp leash), and we got it a couple of weeks ago. The Muse looks really nice, with lots of things to like about it, albeit with the same small sized pouches as the Canyon. More to come about that. In the past Säker has sent us two harness systems, one for each dog to test, which has been great since each of my dogs is built very differently and it’s nice to see how these harnesses fit different body structures; however, this time Chris said he would send one Muse system and then in a few months he would send me their newest crash-tested harness system to test as well, so I’ll get that one for Japhy. You may recall that the Ascension harness was supposed to have been certified as crash-tested, but that certification was revoked due to the buckle issue Säker encountered. Apparently they’ve been busy working on a new harness that can pass the crash-test certification.
If you’re not subscribed to my new YouTube channel, here’s the latest ambient nature film I created just before leaving the Midwest.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Sending you all huge virtual hugs. Until next time…
As a reminder, if you are a paid subscriber to the Love Dogs blog here on Substack (thank you for your support!), I’d like to ask that you please consider moving your support over to our Patreon page when it comes up for renewal, as I’ve discovered that Substack just isn’t very friendly to small-time writers like myself. I will continue writing here but will be turning off paid subscriptions as soon as I’m able, and I’d like to encourage all who see the value in my writing here to support us over at Patreon instead. Thank you for understanding. ♡