dogs: lab meets water

[kellan_the_tabby]

[ Remy, a big black dog with a white chest, is flopped in his crate, which is in the van. He’s wearing a blue halter and looking very alert. ]

Or not, because despite being approximately a quarter lab, Remy DOES NOT LIKE water.

But we were at Fountain Creek, & I wanted to look for creek glass, & Remy was bored, & it was too snowy & muddy for Loiosh (who was BIG MAD but wound up napping about it), so I stuck a leash on Remy & off we went.

They’ve done a lot of work on Fountain Creek in the last several years to help deal with flooding, & maybe half of that is still there (the rest got flooded away), so my usual haunts had gotten VERY rearranged. Add to that the part where, while I don’t mind walking in snow, it’s hard to find creek glass that way, there was really only one place I could get to, & even that spot was tricky.

Remy got his paws wet & also learned that the ground is not always the ground, by which I mean that sometimes trying to stand on snow can be tricky. Plus, you know, running water, & he was definitely at least unnerved. But he was also having a good time, so onward we went.

& finally got to a nice gravel bank, maybe fifty feet wide and a couple hundred feet long, just barely above water level, the perfect spot to find creek glass.

& the first piece I found? Rare blue, an EXCELLENT omen.

I showed it to Remy, so he knew what we were looking for. He tried to eat it.

He also found trash & tried to eat that, but I’m quick. (No I’m not, I took pictures & then hauled him away, I’m just glad he wanted to sniff it good first.)

[ Remy’s standing on a gravel-scattered mud bank, sniffing carefully at what might have once been an orange juice carton. That’s a guess. ]

Some of the time he was VERY EXCITE, smelling everything, pricking ears at birds and cars and the wind and the water, & generally having a LOVELY time.

[ Remy’s staring off into the distance. The distance consists of a broad, shallow creek, more mudflats, and, on the horizon, trees. ]

But several times he got kinda freaked out, & needed reassurance. He is easily reassured by shoving himself up against a human & getting squished. So I squished him. He made it easy.

[ Remy butt, seen from above. The blur across the bottom of the pic is my belly, because he shoved himself between my legs so I could squish him. ]

He made it easy enough that I could squish him AND take pictures, which is the best way for this kind of thing to go.

No pics of the way back to the van, because I was exhausted & it was through, like, a foot of snow. But Remy learned how much fun it is dancing through a foot of VERY fluffy snow! & then he was very tired & we all had a nap.

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Comments

[chanter1944]

Awww, Remy. *pets*

Lab meets snow? XD Sounds like he's got the 'joy of running in the snow' labby thing down, at least!

Rare blue creek glass, oooooh. Whatcha making with it? Do you know yet?

[kellan_the_tabby]

I can't wait til we can get him somewhere he can run in the snow without having to drag me along!

The blue piece is vaguely triangular, which means it'll be pretty easy to wrap. I might use it for the tip of a pendulum if I can find my lapis (& tbh if I do that I might keep it). Or a pendant, probably a pretty simple one to show off the blue. I could use it as the focus for a faery home decor piece, along with some white creek glass in complementary shapes, I haven't done one of those with mostly creek glass in a while.

Basically? No idea. Too many options.

[siliconshaman]

Huh.. I never thought of it before but I think I accidentally trained Penny, the golden retriever we had as family dog when I was growing up, to hunt for sea glass. I praised her a couple of times when she found a nice bit, and thereafter whenever we went for a walk along the shore she'd run around and come back with a bit every few minutes. I just thought it was a dog thing...see shiny, pick it up and show it off.. you know. She'd do that with drift wood and sea shells too... I totally could've done some fun wire wraps and muddles if I'd known as a kid they were a thing!

Never knew creek glass was a thing though, but I should've realised it would be. Live and learn.

[kellan_the_tabby]

That isn't terribly common dog behavior to my knowledge -- sure she wasn't part crow? Sounds like the two of you found a LOT of good stuff.

(It's never too late to make stuff like that now!)

Fountain Creek is the only creek (or river or generally inland water thing) where I've found weathered glass in any quantity. I don't know why!

[siliconshaman]

I had quite the collection of interesting bits at one point, although the only bit I've got left is the one I made into a handle/hilt for my athame.

Unfortunately I'm a long way from the sea nowadays, so no handy source of free stuff. Still, I can always give it a shot, I've a couple of spools of brass and copper wire to experiment with, and while no sea glass, there's some nice shale banks with fossils locally.

As for the creek glass, I'd bet there's an old rubbish dump somewhere up stream that's the source of the glass being washed down. The fluid dynamics of the creek is probably sorting it into patches. Come to think of it, depending on local geology, keep an eye open for gold flakes as well... if there's any there, it'll collect in the same spots more or less.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Yeah, I don't think I have any of the cool stuff I collected growing up any more, although considering how much cool stuff I collect now, that's just fine; I don't know where I'd PUT it all.

Even if you can't get creek glass, or seaglass & shells, there's always _something_ around -- I've done several pieces with old beat-up washers found in truck stop parking lots, there's always cool sticks, if you've got a junkyard nearby there's almost limitless possibilities. I could see you working with mostly metal bits, & doing WAY bigger pieces than I've managed so far.

& YES, I also find pieces of brick & sometimes ceramic, so a dump upstream somewhere _would_ make a lot of sense! I haven't ever seen gold, & I feel like I would have? But still totally worth keeping in mind.

[siliconshaman]

Well, I'm no expert but the most likely sort of gold bits you'd find would be about sand grain sized. Probably no more than two or three in a pan full, and that's if you've got a gold bearing vein somewhere upstream. But honestly, if you're finding junk like that, it might be part of a dump at an old prospecting site. Cobalt glass like that hasn't been common since the turn of the century... last century that is.

As for bits of old metal...that I can find in abundance. I know a few tricks to get some interesting patinas too. I'll have a play and see what I can make.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Ahhh, that little I'm not gonna bother with, then. Too much like work!

YAY have fun making cool things outa metal!

[siliconshaman]

Well, that's the thing, that would be the median size... and then you could find something the size of your thumbnail. That's what hooks people you see. Plus, you get maybe two or three grains in a pan, but you can process a pan-full thirty seconds maybe? It adds up I guess.

but like you say, too much like hard work. (which is why the whole business ended up automated.)

and if I come up with something worth showing off, I'll post pictures... although I suspect at first I'll end up with a junk-yard wind-chime sort of thing..

[kellan_the_tabby]

junk yard wind chimes are EXTREMELY classic

[danabren]

I showed it to Remy, so he knew what we were looking for. He tried to eat it.

And that right there is all you need to know about a dog LOL

[kellan_the_tabby]

it's so true, why do they eat Things

[meridian_rose]

I have some blue seaglass which I love, so I understand the excitement about finding rare blue creek glass :)
I especially love the photo of Remy staring over the water :)

[kellan_the_tabby]

it's the perfect blue, too, is the thing, that gorgeous cobalt!

Remy really _is_ a handsome lad, isn't he?