Northwest Red Head

Its been a while since I've spent time with needle and thread. Between the summer garden and sick pups I had a very busy few months but life is calming down and the cool fall weather has arrived to encourage me to curl up under a blanket and stitch.

As the weather cools for the fall I'm far more likely to be outside and in my mind no better time for it. In the summer I'm in the yard tending the garden and standing in the broiling hot kitchen canning the harvest - why couldn't the canning season be in the dead of winter when the house is cool? That would be too easy.  Where was I? Oh yes, hiking in the rain.  Maggie's first hike on a real trail so we went for a favorite that we knew the terrain, Eagle Creek.  This hike just never seems to get old for me.  

With our 2 older dogs passing this year, the remaining pup is in good enough shape for hiking so we've started back on a few easier trails to see how she handles the hike and to address any training issues before we're out in the woods.  For a start we headed to a park on the river, limited elevation but 3.5 miles so a good test for distance.    

Its been a very long and pretty harsh year, well mostly the summer.  It started in May when my aunt passed away rather unexpectedly.  My aunt battled cancer for many years, she was in remission while she helped my mom through the last year of her life only to have her own come back and end her life far too early. That was just the start and while pets are not as significant for some, I don't have any children so these are my children.   After my aunt passed the hubby and I flew back to my home town to help my brother go through a lot of the stuff.  We had 2 full houses of clothes, furniture and other miscellaneous things so we kenneled the dogs for a few days and took the first trip together in many years.  We came back to find our dogs in an awful state, Lizzie was sick and began her decline.  We let her go July 5th.