The Freezing Garage Sale and Spiral Staircase:

Saturday morning found us rolling out of bed at 4am to make a run up to Kansas City. My friend, Lisa, had hired my oldest to run her garage sale. Darcy was thrilled to be given this responsibility and handled it quite professionally. ...but, it was FREEZING cold! A few days earlier it had been in the 70's, but Saturday it was in the 30's. We could SEE OUR BREATH it was so cold! Which, isn't exactly conducive to a successful garage sale. I mean, who in their right mind goes cruising garage sales when their body is in SHOCK at the sudden appearance of full blown winter?

None-the-less, Darcy was able to move the really big items (ie either large space consuming or expensive). Meanwhile, I spent the day laying the groundwork for teaching Ransom to climb ladders and scale walls! Lisa's home has a REALLY SCARY steep, narrow, tightly wrapped spiral staircase...imagine the pole in a firehouse and you pretty much have her spiral staircase! The opening going down is about the size of the "manhole" leading down a firepole and the stairs are small, flat triangular pieces that are about three inches wide at the point where they connect to the pole and maybe 12 inches(?) wide at their widest point! The stairway is bordered by narrow metal rods which are wide enough for a full grown shepherd to fall right through (not to mention the wide open space between each step--wide enough for a shepherd to nearly slip through if a step is missed). There is no reassuring wall anywhere near. (This is not evident in the photo--but, the nearest wall is actually several feet from the spiral staircase.) When a DOG goes down this staircase, it is nearly standing on it's HEAD (SEE THE PHOTO OF GABBY DESCENDING AND YOU WILL SEE WHAT I MEAN!). When a DOG goes up the staircase, it is practically standing on its hind legs all the way. Really, it is much akin to climbing a ladder, except that the dog also has to wind their body tightly around as it is is climbing or descending (otherwise it will shoot right out between those thin metal rods and fly out into open space). Physically it is CHALLENGING for a dog to navigate. VISUALLY it is TERRIFYING! Frankly, it really IS dangerous. Add to that the fact that Ranson had never even seen a NORMAL flight of steps before Saturday and you have an idea of how CHALLENGING learning to use the spiral staircase was for her. It was hilarious the first time she went down the regular staircase...it reminded me of Gabby's STEALTH CRAWL! She got her center of balance as low as it could possibly go! Too funny! But, by her second time up and down the regular flight of steps, she was taking them ninety to nothing like a regular dog. But the spiral staircase....WHOA....THAT terrified Ransom (and she is not easily rattled!). In fact, I've NEVER seen her terrified before...but that terrified her. However, by the end of the day, she had it mastered! She was coming up and down the spiral staircase independently! I don't have photos of RANSOM doing the stairs (didn't have my camera with me by the time SHE was doing it), but I do have some photos of her sister Gabby doing the stairs (just to let you see the steepness in relation to the dogs). The stairs are AT Gabby's house...so, she zips up and down them like no one's business!



Ransom and Gabby spend all their time together happily CHEWING on each other!