Instructions for Life - Vizsla style

The Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Follow the three R’s:
-  Respect for self,
-  Respect for others and
-  Responsibility for all your actions.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone every day.

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

Be gentle with the earth.

Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

100,000 visits to RBD

Just a milestone I wanted to reach. 

 Important to no one but me. 

Thanks for those who have been along for the ride. 

 It's been great so far.

                        redbirddog                          
                                         

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Willowynd Winter Base Camp

California City is in the huge Mojave Desert. 

Camp H is where many field trials are held during the cooler months before the snakes come out with the hotter weather.

Training Vizslas in this country is a true pleasure with great terrain. A land of low hills and valleys, where a well-bred and trained Hungarian Pointer can range out and show their true hunting qualities.

Ken trains here in the area during January and February.  Great to watch him work the dogs in his charge.

"Roading" to build endurance.  This Vizsla LOVES roading.

Ken's "students of the bird" ranged from 7 months to 7 years old. 

 

Ramon's pup Ducati getting "birdy"

 

It was very enjoyable to spend a couple days "way out there" with my friend and some wonderful red bird dogs.

 

Boondocking with Vizslas

"The word boondock originated early in the 20th century from American military servicemen serving in the Philippines. It comes from a Tagalog word for mountain bundok. They started using it to mean a rural, remote, bushy area. When they came home they developed the slang word "boonies". The RV community adopted the word to use it to describe remote camping in rural areas. So if you were going fishing in your truck camper to a remote National or State Park, when you got there you were camping in the boondocks. Since you had no hook-ups, but were self-sufficient, you were boondocking."
- Bob Wells (http://cheaprvliving.com/Boondocking.html)

 Our 27 foot Lazy Daze is a great boondocking rig.  With its on board generator, large water storage tanks, waste water tanks and propane, one can "boondock" for a couple weeks or more never needing more supplies than you brought along.

 In the deserts around Quartzsite, Arizona in the winter, you will come across THOUSANDS of people "boondocking" on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas.  http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html

 Solar panels charge the batteries and run 12-volt electrical systems during the day.  Running everything off the batteries during the night, or if need be, firing up the generator to charge up the batteries more, or run the microwave or in the summer, the air conditioning.

 My Honda Trail 90 or mountain bike, carried on the back of the motorhome, is how I get around once I have set up camp.

Bailey looking over Quartzsite from the hills to the southwest.

Most full-time RV types I came across have small "toy" class dogs.  Very few had bigger dogs for obvious reasons.  Space in an RV is  very limited.  But there are many hunters among the RV owners.  Many of them knew what my dogs were.  "Vizsla?  Right?"

Some areas of the deserts of the Southwest are EMPTY. 

 With the advent of the smart phone and the cell phone systems, even out here I could call someone anywhere in the world, or search the web.  I did this as little as possible.

.   

Kind of disappointing in a way that you can't "get away from it all."  But on the other hand, if you were in trouble, it was good to know help was just a call away.

Lake Havasu Balloon Festival

One unplanned stop on my ten day trek into the Arizona southern desert was Lake Havasu.  While on the road I had heard they were holding their 3rd annual Balloon Festival and decided we would pack up the motor home and head over for a couple days. 

Adding the hot air in a cold desert morning at dawn

riding with the dogs along a 4 mile trail on man-made  "Havasu Island"

One of a hundred Volkswagon buses gathered at the lake for the weekend

This balloonist came down just feet over my RV to land.

Back on earth after drifting through a calm desert blue sky

No, not really in London.  

A nice walk way along the "river" going under London Bridge