Paradise ponders: dogs and rails edition...

Paradise ponders: dogs and rails edition...  Ipo, our newest field spaniel, acts like she's been part of the Paradise hooligan field spaniels forever.  At right you see her last night, just before she tucked in with us for the night.  I took about 25 flash photos of her, and this is the only one that wasn't completely wrecked – she just won't stand still when there's something exciting like bedtime at hand!  I'm (very pleasantly!) surprised how fast she's integrated with our herd.

This afternoon I walked out in our back yard with the three  youngest (Ipo, Mako, and Cabo) and watched them play and run (two minutes of happy field spaniels at left).  Ipo acts just like the other two, and all three are having a ball...

In between runs to Home Depot, feeding the birds, and other sundry chores, I managed to get a start on the redwood rails for the deck.  For the long rails, on the east and west sides of the deck, I joined two 92" pieces of 2x6 to make a 184" rail.  I used my dowel jig for the first time, and I'm very pleased with the results.  In the first photo below, you can see the jig attached to the bottom piece of 2x6, and the results in the top piece.  I've made a lot of dowel joints, but never have they been either this easy or this precise.  Those holes are positioned to within 1/100" of where they should be, maybe much better.  The second photo shows my gluing clamp arrangement in the foreground, and a glued rail in the background (lying flat).  These joints are darned near perfect – after a swipe or two of 200 grit sandpaper the joints will be impossible to feel...