Fun with Mocha

We have been having fun just being with Mocha and he with us.

He is quick to learn, but like most Huskies, is easily bored and needs a lot of stimulus. We usually play with him as often as we can and bring him up to our roof or out for walks, but we do admit that since we are busy, he has to find ways to enjoy himself.

So he usually bites everything that he can get his teeth on and even though in the beginning, we naively bought 'chew-toys', thankfully the cheap-ees are best - rinsed out plastic bottles, old socks and towels, and tennis balls taken from the land around tennis courts. He is gnawing on the leg of my computer chair as I write this, which is ok - it feels like I have a vibro chair now. Plus, about 2 weeks ago, he lost almost all his teeth and needs to get used to these big ones that prove he is a big dog now!

Anyway, here are some photos and vids of our big boy...

We have blocked him access to the living room - since he blessed the rug with an "angry" poop ( we think he was angry and purposely pooped there), so he now tries to be with us by hanging out on the sides of the sofa. When he is older, we will perhaps let him back in to watch movies with us, but he is quite content to rest on the cool tile floor instead of our rug.


This last one is a pic of Mocha's mom (on the left) and one of his sisters (on the right) - it was a litter of 9 pups in total. We think that Mocha will get pretty big - perhaps as big as the mother! He does indeed look like the mother.

This is a vid with Mocha and I playing.




This one is teaching him to stay.

That is all for now from our house!

Jeff & Jo

Mid - Autumn Festival in Wu Ling Park

Hi all,

Jo and I decided to get back into the woods over our 4 day holiday here called Mid-Autumn Festival. We decided to go to Wu Ling Park, about a 5 hours drive from Taichung on windy switchback roads through some of the most gorgeous mountain ranges anywhere and we just got back a few hours ago.

We did not go for 4 days since there was another typhoon warning, we figured at least a 2 day excursion would be enough and it was. Below are some of the pictures we took (the good ones are prolly Jo) with some write ups.

Mid-Autumn Festival or "Zhong Chiu Jie" is the most important holiday after Chinese New Year here and many families and friends get together to BBQ and hang out. We did our own little BBQ with some friends and then took off to Wu Ling Park. We can't wait to go back!

We are on our way to Wu Ling Park - a 5 hour trek through some of the most beautiful scenery, yet coupled with some of the most dangerous roads to drive on (at least for me - Jo loves it). Anyway, this is a shot from the car about an hour into the trip.

See that little line up the mountain there? That is our road and while you can see for many miles, you can also fall for many miles if the little girders didn't work. Course, I have to keep telling myself - look up! And it is weird since I am not afraid of heights, but while driving, it is different. Anyway, that cloud just rammed against the side and kept floating up!




Here is a vid of the area above.

This is a pic of another Cloud Sea since we moved above and below the cloud line on our travel.

This is a lake called Bi Hu that we saw after coming out of that cloud sea....(we are not even there yet and it is so cool!)

AH! We arrive at Wu Ling Park Recreation Facility, which has been in operation since the 50's. It was clean and comfortable and since we were the only people there besides another couple, we had a great time! (We purposely went on the last day of the holiday to beat the rush and took off another day as well! Great idea!)

Here is our first walking trek - up to a waterfall about 2 hours away. We arrived around 2 pm and did the trek to return just in time for dinner. Was a nice time to spend walking and communicating with the birds along the path. Oh, plus the waterfall was nice, too!

Here we are in front of the waterfall.

And here is a Vid of the waterfall (so fresh!)

We trekked a bit more the next day and just absorbed being surrounded by trees (and bugs) and very few people! Such a nice change from Taichung!

Just breathe...

In and .....


Out......


And the coolest thing of the whole adventure was seeing the moon on our night walk. I mean, that IS what Mid-Autumn Festival is for - to mark the Autumn Equinox when day and night are equal times (and just another time to eat lots of food!).
But imagine a crisp clear night punctuated with so many bright stars, plus the brightest moon that we have ever seen! Holy Cow! It was so bright we could see our moon shadows!
Jo did a great job taking the pics!

Ok, that is our newest news. I will try to get on more to upload vids and pics of Mocha, who is now almost 35 pounds!

Here's to wishing you all a great Full Moon Festival!

Jeff & Jo