The life of Jake

Jake is now free to run and chase and swim and hang out with all of our past pets.  Earlier this year we had to put down Scooties our 20 year old cat. These fur balls really get into our hearts!

 Jake our Golden Retriever has been a very active part of our home and travel adventures for the last ten years. Today he took his final walk, we will miss him so much. He was an awesome smelly old dog that loved living life! 

Some of his finer attributes that didn't show up in facebook photos:

-Jumping into a very muddy stinky pond on our back property after he would run away and get hot, it always made him happy but our house would stink for a week!

-running away on our snowshoe hikes so he could find a dead animal to feast on only to spend the next 24-48 hrs expelling his treasure in many ways, great sound in the middle of the night! He did get to sleep in the barn on a couple of these occasions.

-For some reason he liked to rip up the t-shirts I would purchase from different parks we went to on our travels??

-He chewed up many of our things, glasses, hats, gloves, clothes!!!

-Loved stealing our priceless chicken eggs, he would follow the hens around till an egg came out of the factory!

-On many occasions we would turn our back for a second and he would steal breakfast, lunch or supper off the table or countertop, this lead to the installation of invisible fencing in our kitchen!

-At one time he stole a quart size mason jar of Jan's can goods out of the kitchen sink, carried the jar and yummy contents off to a quiet spot in the house to enjoy, never broke the jar!

-He was very good at sneaking up from behind our unsuspecting grandchildren and stealing whatever  yummy snack they had out of their hands! He was very good at looking sad and sorry for his sins!

-We could insulate our house with the hair we have swept up over the last 10 years! It will probably take 10 more years before it is gone!

-To celebrate our granddaughters 4th birthday he ate about 60 birthday cupcakes + the wrappers off the counter just before the guests arrived, yep he was in a little trouble for that one but O it was so worth it to him!

-He didn't score any points when he stole Jan's new scarf from under the Christmas tree and chewed that up! or when he chewed up the stuffed reindeer  family I've had since I was a kid!

-His bark is so loud it shakes the windows in the house, he was always ready to let us know of the possibility of some imaginary crisis inside or outside.  The neighborhood will be quieter!

-The delivery people will miss him climbing into their trucks to find his treat!

-We loved it on a hot summer day when he would jump into our muddy pond and find an open door into the house and leave tracks and mud everywhere, that was a great time!

-He loved harvest season from the garden and would steal  potatoes - apples - cucumbers -strawberries- broccoli and beans, crazy dog!

And the list goes on!

Yep going to miss this dog??

How many humans would do all of this and we would still love them so much, he was an incredible friend and adventure partner!

Jake has been on all of Nellie's (our Airstream camper) adventures from the start, over 40,000 miles traveling the country, he loved all of our trips! 

He loved running around the back hills of our property. From this perfect photo he ran off and came back with a deer leg for a snack! Seams he always had a stash hidden out there!

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

1000' above Moab, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Jake was there when Jan needed help on the trail in Custer state Park, good thing he was there for her, I had to get the picture!

Grand Marais, Mn

Sunsets in Kansas

St Croix Falls, Mn

Port Aransas beach, Texas

Helping me through some troubling days

Jake always liked a good cliff with a view!

Custer State Park, South Dakota

Horse and buggy rides on Mackinaw island, Michigan

We shared lots of sunsets and sun rises together.

Brunet Island State Park, Wisconsin

Loved a good snowshoe walk, Jake and Henri were always hunting together, teaming up to chase anything they could get to run. They were not very successful in catching to many critters but chased a lot.

Thermopolis, Wyoming

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Troublemaker!

Countless swims in Willow River State Park

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Michigan

Indiana Dunes State Park, southern end of Lake Michigan

Always protecting us! Big Bend National Park, Texas

Lake Gogebic State Park, U.P.Michigan

His first painting

Followed me everywhere.

Always ready to have his picture taken, Copper Falls State Park

Park Point, Duluth, Mn

Loved the water, especially when he thought it was time to go! He was very happy to get into the truck or camper dripping wet!

He was loved wherever he went and made friends all over the country.

He has created much trouble, many tears but spread lots of love!

We will miss you Jake!

The love of my life

Happy Anniversary Jan💕

35 years and Looking forward to many more!

 Homes, cars, pets, children, grandchildren and so many adventures! Hopefully she loves the years as much as I have or maybe she still thinks I'll change my questionable ways??? 

This is the crazy girl I started chasing so long ago! She says I started her on a troubled path of drinking Mountain Dew, that would be the last thing she would reach for now! I seem to be associated with many of the troubled areas of our adventure!

I was quite a looker back then?  Not sure I've improved with age??  I just have to remind her from time to time that she did say yes. She's a lucky women!!

Our little family keeps growing, life has been good to us, this time next year there will be two more in that picture, we need a bigger table😍

We were recently blessed with our 6th grandchild and number seven is being built now. 😍

I seem to catch her in lots of photos where she is thinking about her life choices???

???

Is she still thinking about how lucky she is???

Crazy bunch!

Many adventures!

She was trying to get me to back up a little closer to the cliff,  missed her chance to be free!

Caught her trying to get away!

The couch is starting to run out of room, #6 has to squeeze in there now, followed by #7(still at the assembly plant)!

😍

She is still my favorite wife😍

May-1986

May 2021

You have given me a great life Janell and I love all the years! Life has been very good to us and blessed us over and over! Thanks Janell for saying yes so many years ago, you have made our house a home

Love Douglas💕💕

Fun in the sun

 We made it to Florida for a few days. We really enjoy travel days when our next destination is less then two hours away. Mobile, Al. to Pensacola, Fl. was a pretty nice and short drive. No more snow for a while.

We went from a nice grassy state park with clean paved parking pads in each campsite and signs that said no parking on the grass to Camping in the sand with the armadillos. Both places are great!

It was great to go to the local store and pick up fresh shrimp, we could get used to this!

Jake and Henri really wanted their leashes taken off, the armadillos were not worried that the dogs were only 10' away!

Got a few more miles on the bikes. We found our that we don't like riding down country roads with dogs that are trying to chase down anything that moves! Just for more fun the dogs were on a dead end road and the dogs knew it! They just waited in the ditch for our return!!

Sunday morning church service on the pond by myself! Great spot to watch the sun come to life!

The beach on Gulf islands national seashore is pretty incredible!

This guy was standing in the middle of a bunch of men fishing on the beach, he was very hopeful that they were going to bring him lunch!

Not in Wisconsin anymore!

Beach days are pretty nice! I don't wear shorts too often, so I was toasted pretty quickly.

I took an off trail hike through the park and was blessed to have an early morning walk on the beach by myself.

Henri does this every time, she can take her 10' rope and tie it in nots in minutes!

This guy swam to us each time we went by this pond, we think he was very lonely!

Lots of turtles! At one time we had 10-15 swimming around below our boardwalk!

After receiving news of Jan's grandma passing away we turned Nellie back to the north. We took our travels one day at a time, grandma Doris would have wanted us out there as long as could be. She had so many adventures in her 103 years and loved traveling! We are going to miss these 5 generation photos and all those great stories!

We are very sad to say goodby to grandma and within weeks we will be overjoyed to welcome our newest granddaughter, our sixth grandchild! Grandma's journey on this world is over and "Luella Ferns" is beginning, life is amazing and great!

First campground on our way north, Rickwood Caverns State Park, northern Alabama. We found a new friend from Ohio. Only 60 years difference in our trailers 2014 to 1954!

We arrived here just when it was getting dark, this had all the parts of being a great trail, snakes, caves and unknown dangers, perfect! We decided not to find out what we were missing in the dark, next time.

Traffic got a little busier as we got to the middle of Illinois, lots of semi's!

Always a treat after a long days drive, fresh cookies! Jan gets the dry ingredients together in a bag ahead of time at home.

First time camping in Illinois.

Blessed with another great sunset!

Puppy kisses for Jake and Henrietta!

Can't think of anyone I would rather share these sunsets with!

Lunch stop in northern Illinois.

Home sweet home😍

Back to work, The world knew we were home and my phone started ringing right away🛠

While we were gone my buddy Tom made another sign for my barn. This is a new hobby for him and he does a great job on these!

Total miles 3235 @10.7 mpg and 20 days on the road.

Time to dream of the next adventure.

This trip was shorter then we planned for but we were still blessed to see so much! 

Looking forward to a return trip to Florida.

We are very thankful for these days!