We officially made it through 2020 and, surprisingly quickly, we are already half way through the month of January. While the world is still going crazy, personally things are going well to start the year-or at least as well as can be expected.
January is always a tough month and is definitely one of my least favorite months of the year. It's cold and gray, and after the beauty and sparkle of the holiday season, it is just dark, dreary, and unmotivating. I'm always sad to see the end of the holiday season arrive, but never as much as I was this year. At my house, the Christmas tree and outdoor lights stay up and on until January 6th-the official ending of the Christmas season. However, this year January 6th came and I just couldn't bring myself to take the tree down...so I didn't. I decided it would stay up through the weekend instead, but I still couldn't take it down that Sunday, so it remained up several days longer. It is officially down now, and while I was still sad to see it go, I know that it was time. After all of the holiday decorations are down and safely put away until next year, the sad reality of the month of January becomes much more apparent, so I am glad I left things up longer this year. I know I'm not the only one and I am still seeing trees and lights up around town, although they appear less every day. I just think we all needed a little more joy in our lives this year and keeping the Christmas spirit alive a little longer certainly helped.
I'm hoping to keep a little sparkle alive by decorating the second tree, which is in my office, with some different holiday themes over the next few months. First up, I'll be decorating for Valentine's Day. I'm excited to see how that turns out for me and hoping that they fun theme will keep things a little brighter during the long months of Winter.
One positive this Winter is that we have had milder than normal temperatures. The girls and I have been trying to make the most of these milder days by getting outside and doing some exploring. It certainly makes Winter easier to tolerate when I can get out for walks without freezing!
We haven't had a significant amount of snow this year, but we were lucky to get a few snowy days. One of my favorite recent walks was through a snowy Winter wonderland at Hartrick Park. The paths were snowy, but not icy, and the beauty of the snow on the trees was exceptional. We thoroughly enjoyed our walk. There is something special about the woods covered in a snowy coat.
We have been adjusting our recent adventures to help accommodate Maddie's slower pace. While she still wants to join us on all of our adventures, she is slow and unable to go as far as Peaches. Just because she can't keep up is no reason to leave her behind though, and I know she wouldn't be happy if she didn't get to go on some regular adventures. Most of our walks begin with a slow meander with Maddie until she lets me know she is done, and then she gets to snuggle up with her cozy cave and a blanket in the car while Peaches and I continue the fun. It has been working well and keeping everyone happy.
Most of our adventures during the week include a little geocaching which helps me find new places to walk. After my busy work days lately, it is nice to get out of the house and find some places away from home to explore. It is nice to find areas that we previously had not discovered. We have found new parks and new areas around the city as well as some areas in nearby small towns...and we've even rediscovered some area we haven't visited in a while.
One Friday night, we jumped in the car and headed to Pinckney for an event at a local lavender farm. Before the event, we had a chance to walk around town and explore a bit. I loved the quaint little town with the community ice rink. A really great way to keep Peaches happy while involving Maddie in our adventures is to explore new areas. Even a short walk in a new town can keep Peaches very content. With all of the new smells, she spends lots of time sniffing while Maddie plods along with us at her own pace.
While the event at the lavender farm was not quite what I had expected it to be, I was glad it was dog-friendly and the girls were happy about that too. We walked the short lighted path at the farm with both of them sniffing away and then stopped by the bonfire for a bit to enjoy the fire. Afterward, we drove back into town to purchase take-out from one of the local restaurants. It was a nice night and I was happy to do my small part to support some small businesses during the current economic situation.
For the sixth year, I have signed up to complete the North Country Trail Hike 100 Challenge. For the past five years, I have been joined by Maddie on this challenge and I've always wanted to include her, but the reality this year is that we would never be able to complete the challenge with her. So I have let go of the need for her to join us for every mile. She will still get out on the trail with us for some short sections and I will be happy to have her with us for any of the miles she is able to join. Peaches, on the other hand, will be completing the challenge with me again this year. It will be her fourth year out on the trail with me and we are excited to see where the trail takes us this year!
We started earlier this month and Maddie joined us for our first 1.25 miles. The girls were very interested in all of the new smells as we started this year's journey.
This year we are excited to have Vanessa join us for the challenge too! With her along for the journey, it makes life a lot easier because we can each take a dog, and Maddie loves having a person all to herself! Another advantage is that we can stage cars to walk longer stretches of the trail without having to cover any section of the trail twice. Plus it's nice to have some company out on the long stretches of the trail. Our first walk on the trail covered 7 1/4 miles, mostly road walk, in Calhoun County South of Homer. It was the mid-30s and sunny with almost no wind, the perfect day for a hike and the perfect start toward our 100 miles.
Last week, Maddie started acupuncture and cold laser therapy for her arthritis I am hoping it will help reduce inflammation and pain so that she may be able to join us for some longer adventures. I didn't see a lot of change after the first treatment, but she is scheduled for a second round of laser therapy this week, and I am hoping to see more improvement. Even if she can't join us for longer walks, if it helps her feel better that will make me happy. She is my special adventure dog and I want to make sure she can happily and comfortably continue to adventure for as long as she wants to join us.
As I began writing today, I realized that I don't have many pictures of our weekday adventures since most of them happen at dusk or after dark, but I am going to try to be better at getting some pictures on some of them over the next week. I did get a picture of Peaches as we explored Old Town on Friday. Despite several distractions, she sat pretty nicely for this and I was pretty proud of her.
The previous weekend we had started at the Calhoun/Hillsdale County Line to begin our hike North and West toward Kalamazoo County. The Calhoun county section is 58 miles which will take us on dirt and paved roads, on paved trails and sidewalks through Homer, Albion, Marshall, and Battle Creek, and even through some small parks and wooded areas. This is definitely different than some of the hiking we've done in the past, but we will also revisit some of our favorite areas of the trail. It should be a great adventure!
On Saturday, we started in downtown Homer, right where we had left off the previous week. Maddie joined us for the portion of the trail that ran through town before we left her in the car to continue a 3.5 mile road walk section. We completed the first section of our hike and took a quick break for snacks, to move cars around, and to get Maddie out for another short walk before we continued on another long road walk section We even passed another hiker out enjoying the trail and had a nice chat.
While the road walk sections may not be the most interesting sections of the trail, they still offer some interesting views. It was another day with temperatures in the low to mid-30s, and while it was gray, it was not a bad day for a hike. In total we hiked 9.5 miles for the day and are making great progress in our first month. Only 83.25 miles until we reach 100 and 102.25 miles until we complete all three counties.
We're hoping to keep up a good pace and complete the challenges before the heat of Summer arrives so that we can continue to have Maddie join us for portions. Because no one wants to leave an adventure dog at home!
Now it's time to take advantage of my day off and get the girls out for a little daylight adventure for today before our busy work week starts again. I hope you are having a good start to your year and that you all have a great week!
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