My camera is home and the weather this weekend was warm and sunny. The dogs and I headed out for an adventure.

The leaves are changing

and the views were (as always) gorgeous.

We hiked through the trees.

Across the fields.

Up into the foothills.

And then we reached the highest point where we overlooked the plains.

This high point was also our destination.

The reservoir!

I once again tossed some dog treats in the water for the dogs to retrieve.

I also shot a video of Sadie swimming for treats.  You can see it here

Sadie knew that the dog treats were in the backpack and took it upon herself to guard that backpack.

I love watching the dogs play in the water.

Once the dogs started getting tired I was able to snap a couple of good portraits of them.

It was a wonderful day.

I’ve talked before about how Luka loves to burrow and sleep behind my furniture. Because of this, I’ve suspected that Luka would like a crate. Since a Luka-sized crate is not in my budget I’ve been looking for one on Craigslist.

A couple of weekends ago I was driving home when I passed a yard sale. There was a huge crate sitting in this person’s driveway so I pulled a quick U-turn, counted the contents of my wallet ($30) and asked them how much they wanted for it. I nearly fell over at the answer: $5. The crate was filthy (it had obviously been used outside) but I stuffed it into my little car and brought it home. An hour outside with the hose and a container of Comet restored it to nearly new condition.

The verdict:

Luka loves it. He spends about half of his time in there now. This is easily the best bargain I’ve ever scored at a yard sale.

The crate is huge and took the last bit of floor space I had left in my tiny living room. The top of the crate is also a wonderful end table.

The other morning I finished my breakfast, put the bowl beside me and told the dogs they couldn’t touch it. Luka sat like this for about 10 minutes before I caved and let him lick the bowl. How could I resist?