Busy days and a little fun

This week has been a blur.  As we grow closer to the end of August, I really don't want to miss any opportunities to enjoy the Summer weather, but with a busy schedule at work and home,  it feels like I don't get to slow down enough to really enjoy it.  But I'm trying!

On Monday, we took a lunch time break to get out and enjoy the weather and picked up some Mexican from the taco truck on our way home.  The girls weren't as excited about my burrito as I was.

I had lots to do around the house and in the garden, so after work Monday, we stayed home.  The girls enjoyed playing in the yard while I worked through my to do list.

Tuesday, Mina had her final puppy appointment to get the last in her series of puppy vaccinations.   She was pretty happy to see all of her friends at Patterson's.  Now that she's fully vaccinated, we can start having some more adventures without worrying about her potentially getting sick.

After work Tuesday, we needed a little adventure, so we headed downtown for a little geocaching around the LCC Campus.  

It was a beautiful evening for a walk and the late Summer flowers were beautiful.   The girls thoroughly enjoyed their walk and even let me get some pictures.

Wednesday night we headed out to Sleepy Hollow State Park to visit my parents at their campsite.  It was a great visit and we enjoyed some really great weather and a beautiful bonfire.  I think Mina could get used to camping.

Friday night we took a drive in the country.  We found some beautiful cornfields and everything was so green. 

We then stopped in the small town of Mulliken to take a walk around town and do a little training.  I'm taking any chances I get to work with Mina in new places with new smells and distractions.  We still have work to do, but I think she's doing pretty well.

Saturday I spent my morning out at the shelter helping with the Dog Walking Club.  We've been on hiatus since COVID hit, but I was happy we were able to get started again, and even though it was a small group, I have hopes for more people joining us in the future.  I loved getting to spend some time with Goober.  He's a sweetheart. 

The rest of my Saturday was spent on yardwork, gardening, veggie prep, and cleaning.  It was a busy day, but I got a lot done.  We took a nice break to meet Vanessa for ice cream, but other than that, I was busy all day.  My whole body was exhausted by the end of the day, but it felt great to get so much done.

I have the next week off from work and I have a nice week planned for us in the UP.  While I hadn't planned to leave today, I left the option open.  Shockingly, everything fell into place to make it work.  I spent the morning packing and finishing up some final tasks around the house.  By late morning, I decided if I could find a room for the night, we would leave today.

I was able to find a room in one of our go-to places, so we loaded up the car and started the trip North.  The girls were excellent travelers. 

We made a quick stop in Gaylord to stretch our legs and do a little geocaching.   The girls enjoyed the walk, and so did I.   Gaylord is a cute little town with lots of restaurants,  maybe someday we'll spend a little more time there.

After our walk, I didn't plan to stop again until we picked up dinner.  Mina got a little restless, but I distracted her with popcorn, and eventually she settled down again.  I made a quick stop at Clyde's so the girls could have a potty break and I could grab a burger for dinner. I got lucky, and we were all back in the car before a storm with heavy rain moved through the area.

We drove the remaining 30 minutes in some pretty heavy downpours, but luckily the rain slowed down enough for me to unpack the car when we arrived at our hotel.  The girls ate dinner and then we jumped back in the car to make a quick trip to the Dairy Flo for a little treat before they closed.  We made it with just two minutes to spare and enjoyed our doggy sundaes and caramel malt in the light rain.

Once we got back to our home for the night, Mina quickly settled into hotel life.  While there were some zoomies, several rounds of fetch, plenty squeaking of her squirrel, and a little wrestling with Peaches, they were both quiet so they didn't bother our neighbors.  

Mina finally settled down a little after 10pm.  Considering just how good she was for the ride here, I'm really impressed at how well she has done in the room.  The toughest part so far has been keeping Peaches from barking while they play...because Peaches loves to bark when she is playing(not a lot, just an occasional bark but definitely enough to bother neighbors).  For the most, she's stayed quiet though and that makes me happy.  I'm very proud of both of the girls.

After a quick final potty break for the night, she and Peaches have been sound asleep.  Now its time for me to head to bed too!

I've never traveled with a 4 month old puppy before so I'm sure this week will come with some challenges, but I wouldn't have done this trip if I didn't think Mina was ready for it.  But it is time to introduce her to life as a traveling dog.  I think she's going to make a really great travel pal!

I'm looking forward to our vacation and spending this week relaxing.  I'm so excited to introduce Mina to some of our favorite people and places.  I look forward to sharing all of our adventures with you next week!

Summer bounty

Happy Sunday!  We've had a really nice weekend after a fairly relaxed week at home.  As we quickly move toward the end of  August and the days get shorter, I'm really trying to soak in as much of the Summer as I can with the girls. 

Monday night we drove out to the Dewitt area for a quick geocaching adventure  With the sky looking dark gray, I was sure we were going to get a storm and that we wouldn't get in much of a walk, but we found a lovely little cemetery and, surprisingly, the rain held off so we had a nice walk with views of a beautiful August corn field.  It was a quiet place for a walk and perfect for some training time.

Tuesday evening was a beautiful night for a walk around the MSU Horticultural gardens.  I love the rose garden and enjoyed a slow walk through the garden enjoying all of the wonderful roses.  Of course I took some time to smell a few along the way.  We even sat down for a bit to really enjoy them.

There were a lot more people out on campus than I had expected, with lots of family photo and senior photo sessions happening.  But lucky for us, the crowds of people didn't keep us from doing a little geocaching.  Mina even found one of the caches all on her own.  Of course Peaches had to join in to find out what was so interesting.

We enjoyed a nice long walk around the annual and perennial gardens and found several caches, including this one which I thought was pretty cute.

Despite a busy day out in the yard and playing with Peaches all day in addition to our nice walk and geocaching adventure,  Mina refused to settle down for the night after we got home.  I found myself out in the backyard with her at 9pm watching as she zoomed around with the occasional pounce as she got close to a lightning bug.  I was sure that after we spent 10 -15 minutes outside, she'd finally come inside and relax for the night, but I was wrong.  And I found myself out in the driveway doing some loose leash training at 10pm, but that finally did the trick and she put herself to bed for the night.  

Wednesday night we had our final puppy class.  It was interesting at the end of six weeks to see how much the puppies had grown and learned.  Mina was a superstar during class and was most happy with the reward at the end-playtime with the other puppies.  I think she'd have loved it if they could have played for the whole hour!  I was really proud of my puppy school graduate.  

Once again on Wednesday night, even after class and puppy playtime, Mina came home ready to play more.  Thankfully, Peaches was ready to play too.  What I realized that night is that my puppy is getting older, and with that age, she is getting to the point where she can handle more exercise than she's been getting.  She has grown enough that she will settle nicely during the day while I'm working and spends some time in the crate daily too, so our evenings need to include more training for mental stimulation and more exercise.  

With that in mind, when I heard that the annual Farmer's Market on the Capitol grounds was happening on Thursday, I made plans to take the girls downtown on my lunch.  I decided to head downtown for an early lunch, thinking that it would be a little quieter then, but boy was I wrong!  We arrived downtown shortly after 11am and I couldn't believe how many people were there.  While the crowds and all of the new and exciting smells made for a difficult start to our walk, it was an excellent training opportunity for both girls.  They met lots of new people, learned to settle in the middle of all of the craziness, and even had a few pretty exciting squirrel sightings.  I headed home with two pooped pups.  After eating their lunch, they settled in for a quiet afternoon.  

The weekend forecast called for showers and thunderstorms most of  Saturday afternoon into the evening and most of the day Sunday, so I spent Friday evening mowing and doing yard work.  Mina enjoyed zooming around the yard and trying very hard to avoid the lawnmower or wrestling with Peaches.  It was a busy evening and by the time we headed inside for the evening, I was exhausted.  Luckily the girls settled down well for the night too

I knew that I had work to do in the garden Saturday morning so we were up and outside early so I could finish before the rain arrived.  I picked the last of the green beans of the season and pulled the plants, trimmed the tomato plants and picked several tomatoes, picked broccoli, celery, basil, and zucchini, and pulled the carrots and put in a second planting which should be ready in mid October.  I also spent some time fixing the fence around the garden to try to keep Mina out of it.  She really is fascinated with the garden and sneaks in whenever she can.  We're working on that!

Despite the forecast calling for rain, we got lucky and had a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon.  After working hard all week and doing so much work in the yard and garden, I decided to enjoy the afternoon.  I got the hose out to fill the pool and discovered that Mina loves the hose!  We had so much fun playing together.  By the end of the afternoon, I had a very wet and happy puppy.

We had a fun and relaxing Saturday afternoon at home and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've forgotten how much fun it can be just staying home and playing with your dogs in the backyard.  I look forward to doing more of it.

The plan for Sunday was to clean and prep veggies and maybe even do some baking.  Since I expected a rainy day, I thought it would be the perfect day for working in the kitchen.  We ran some errands in the morning and then came home to get started.  

Since the weather was nice we headed outside again, trying to take advantage of as much time as we could outside before the ran moved in for the afternoon.  I  dehusked tomatillos, trimmed green beans, and cleaned carrots while the girls sniffed, played, and sunned themselves.   We even got in a second round of bobbing for apples for the weekend.  The rain held off until the evening and we once again had a wonderful day.

In addition to all of the veggies from my garden, earlier this week I headed out to my favorite local farm for some of my favorite Michigan fruits.  I came home with 10 pounds of blueberries, a peck of peaches, a quart of sweet cherries, and a giant watermelon.  While I buy this fresh fruit because I love to eat it fresh, I can never eat it all and always have to freeze some.  But this year I have an even more important purpose for some of these fruits and my veggies.  

My little Fiona turned four months old on Friday and she is just starting to eat some fruits and veggies  So I did the most grandmotherly thing I could think to do-I made homemade baby food.  I can't think about my grandmothers without thinking about the ways they showed their love for me through food.  It is the way that I show my love too.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect with the garden veggies being ready now.  So today I started some of the purees and will freeze them into baby-sized portions in ice cube trays and then pop them into freezer bags.  I don't have enough ice cube trays or freezer space to do all of the purees at once, so I plan to continue to make a few others this week.  By the end of the week I hope to have peach, carrot, green bean, blueberry, broccoli, and zucchini purees ready.  

It is a lot of work, but I look forward to her first taste of zucchini being the zucchini puree made with love from the zucchini I grew in my little garden.   It just warms my hear to think about that. 

Mid- Summer adventures

We have reached mid-August.  Mid-August!  Is it just me or is this year going far too quickly?  While it is the middle of August and many people are talking about back-to-school and the upcoming Fall color season...I have even heard the rumblings of those frightful words-pumpkin spice...I am happily enjoying what remains of our Michigan Summer.  After all, we're technically just a little over halfway through the Summer season, and I'm never ready for Summer to end. 

Since I last wrote two weeks ago, Peaches and I have been busy helping Mina learn everything she's going to need to know to be a successful member of our little pack.  That includes a daily routine, lots of walks, training, and snuggles, and plenty of fun and adventures.  

One of our adventures took us out to Grand Ledge for some geocaching along the ledges and the river in Oak Park.  Peaches was happy to be out an adventure and especially happy to be spending time with Vanessa.  She always loves a good adventure with Vanessa.

It was nice to get Mina out visiting some new places to get her more comfortable with exploring.  She was a champ climbing over the rocks and through the muddy spots.  And I was so happy to be able to get a picture of the girls together during our stop at Lincoln Brick Park.  

I put the kiddie pool out a couple weeks ago in hopes that Mina would show an interest and potentially start playing in the water.  I was pretty excited the evening she decided to get in to the water, but she hasn't shown a lot of interest in it since.  My goal over the next couple of weeks is to find some fun ways to get her back in the pool and to start getting her used to being in the water.

We had a little scare when Mina's eye swelled shut after our walk one day, but the vet was confident that the most likely cause was a bee sting or bug bite.  Luckily the swelling didn't spread beyond her eye and by the next morning, it was gone.  But she looked completely pathetic!

Mina has become more and more snuggly over the last few weeks.  I'm not sure Peaches is happy about that, but I love it.  She is also beginning to show her true inner GSP by experimenting with all of the weirdest sleeping positions.  She's also beginning to use the cozy cave or happily climbing under the covers in bed. 

Peaches is thrilled with our daily training sessions. Who knew that training a puppy could make an old dog so happy?  While I'm not making her do all of the things that I'm working on with Mina, she has been working on her patience and I'm pleased with how well she's been doing.  Both of the girls are doing a great job with the training and seem to really be enjoying it.  

Our days are filled with wrestling matches, games of chase and fetch, lots of time outside, multiple training opportunities, and walks.  We are busy everyday and I am enjoying life with a puppy, but my favorite time of the day comes after Mina's evening zoomies when she goes from 100 miles an hour to crashed and snoring in less than 5 minutes.  The calm after the storm...the quiet after a crazy day.  

We are in the midst of the gardening season and I've had so much zucchini!  I've also gotten a good haul of green beans and broccoli.  I've probably got one picking of green beans left for this season and the zucchini is also nearing the end, but the broccoli is still going strong.  Finally this weekend, I was happily able to pick a few tomatoes.  I really love garden season! There is nothing better than fresh veggies. 

Last weekend we had hot and humid weather, but we were still in need of a little adventure.  Those are the days that I'm happy to load the girls into the car and go for a ride.  We drove out to Phillips Orchard for a cider slush and some snacks and then drove around looking for some interesting new things to see.

We found a beautiful spot to sit for a bit near this historic old bridge and then ended up in downtown Elsie where we stopped for a quick walk around town and a nice picture with the giant cow.

And even though we didn't have any big adventures, several quick stops over the course of a few hours led to a very quiet ride home.

We had a break in the hot and humid weather early in the week, so we were happy to get out for a mid-week geocaching adventure around downtown with Vanessa  It was a nice walk and fun little adventure for the girls.  And all of the work on teaching Mina the down command is paying off.

Wednesday night we had our fifth week of puppy class.  This week in class we really put our place skills to work while we learned about making our puppy comfortable with general care and grooming activities.  Mina did a pretty good job.  This Wednesday will be our final class and puppy school graduation.  We've learned a lot over the last several weeks, but we still have a lot to learn.  

Thursday night we went to visit my parents at their campsite.  It was a good way to get out of the house and gave me a great opportunity to work with Mina on some of her training in a new setting with lots of distractions.  

There was pizza and S'mores for the people and lots of treats for the girls.  It was nice to visit with my parents and my niece Brezlyn.  After a few hours at the campground, the girls were ready to head home and directly to bed.  

With a rainy forecast for the weekend, we had a busy Friday night at home working in the garden and getting things done around the house.   I had lots of plans for our rainy Saturday and Sunday, but the most important plan for the weekend was a visit to see Fiona.  

Mina, Peaches, and I headed out Saturday morning for our visit and I was happy to arrive when Fiona was awake.  She was happy and very interested in the girls and they were very interested in her.  Mina was sure that baby feet are meant to be a chew toy and Peaches was happy to meet the baby.  I was happy to have all of my girls together.

There was a whirlwind of activity as the girls dragged out all of Picasso's toys and sniffed everything.  Mina was a typical crazy puppy getting into things she shouldn't and keeping us on our toes.  While I got quality time with Fiona, they got lots of love and treats from Nicol and Tyler, and we all very much enjoyed our visit.  But I think the happiest moment for Peaches was when Fiona went upstairs for a nap and she and Mina could finally cuddle with Nicol.

On the way home from our visit with Nicol, Tyler, and Fiona, we made a small detour to visit a Sunflower farm.  As we got closer to the farm, it started to rain, but I decided a little rain would not deter us.  

While Mina wasn't thrilled with a walk in the rain at first, once we got into the field, she forgot about the rain and really started to enjoy the visit.  

We walked around the area, saw some interesting mushrooms and some horses, and stopped for a couple of pictures.  And for just a dollar, I got to bring a couple of flowers home with me.

As I was loading the girls into the car, the rain really started to pick up, so we made it out without getting too wet.  It was really a great time to stop for a visit because the rain had kept the crowds away and we basically had the whole place to ourselves.  It was a nice little short adventure to end our day.  We ended the day with a quiet, rainy Saturday night at home.  It had been a wonderful day. 

We had a cool, gray, quiet Sunday at home today.  While I didn't finish everything I wanted to finish, it was a nice day at home.  The girls kept busy and we all took some time to relax and snuggle.  It was just the day I needed.