Work, Walking, and unseasonably warm Weather

As I sit here writing, Mina is happily chewing away on one of her Benebones and Peaches has already put herself to bed for the night.  After all of the hiking we did today, I was hoping for two sleepy dogs, but I guess Mina got a second wind.  But I know we'll all sleep well tonight!  More about our Saturday fun later.

After our storms last Saturday, we had decent weather on Sunday so I spent a busy day outside doing yardwork and inside cleaning and prepping meals for me and for the dogs for the week.  The girls spent most of the day outside while I buzzed around being very productive.  Boy did I feel great about all I accomplished.  We also made sure to take a break and watch the Lions game.  Peaches napped through most of that! A Lions win against the Packers was a bonus.  It was a great day!

After a busy day of work on Monday, the girls and I had a great time outside playing about a million rounds of fetch.  They were zooming around the yard and I had balls for each of them since Peaches won't chase a ball if Mina goes after it too.  

We worked on some training to make the game of fetch more interesting and there was an occasional wrestling match or game of chase.  We all had a great time. I think Mina would play fetch all night if I let her, and she is never happy when I tell her the fun is over and it's time to settle down for the evening.  

We came in for dinner and after a little more wrestling, we were soon all settled in for the evening.  Mina really likes to snuggle on my lap every evening.

Tuesday was election day and I was scheduled to work the polls that afternoon.  Thankfully the weather was beautiful so the girls could spend plenty of time outside while I worked my normal job in the morning.  I headed out just before 1pm to vote and then start my work at the polls.  I am glad to say that the lines stayed steady most of the day.  I got out for my evening break at 6pm, and the girls were thrilled to see me.  Peaches and Mina spent 10 minutes zooming around that yard, and then we played a few rounds of fetch while I heated up my dinner.  The girls came in for their dinner, we all ate, and then after one more quick trip outside, I headed back to finish my night at the polls.  When I got home shortly before 9:30am, Peaches and Mina headed right back outside to zoon around the yard.  I stayed out with the girls for about 20 minutes while they chased each other and we played a few more rounds of fetch before heading inside for the night. It had been a long day and we headed to bed...all of us slept well for the night.

Wednesday afternoon I had to head out of town overnight for a meeting for work.  Since it was going to be a quick trip, I decided to take the girls along with me.  We arrived in Troy before sunset and I decided to use the time to get out for a nice walk.  I found a park nearby with wooded trails and some geocaches and headed out for an adventure.

It was a beautiful park for a walk and the girls really loved all of the squirrels and new things to smell.  The weather was beautiful, especially for November 9, and the park was pretty busy.  The girls were happy to meet some new people too.

We stayed until just before sunset and then headed back to the hotel for then night.  

Mina and Peaches settled into our night in the hotel pretty quickly after dinner and a couple rounds of wrestling.  Mina's pretty cute when she's sleeping!

Thursday morning during my meeting, the girls napped-Peaches happily in the room and Mina in the car since she figured out how to escape from the travel crate the night before.  After the meeting, I stayed at the hotel until my noon check out to get some work done before making the drive home.  Mina was happy to get back to the bed!

On the way home,  I stopped for a visit with Nicol and Fiona.   I can't imagine a better way to spend my lunch hour!  Fiona is crawling and standing up and was happy to show me all of her tricks. 

It was 70 degrees when I got home, so once my work day was done I headed outside to get the Christmas lights put up.  You can't beat putting up lights while barefoot and wearing shorts.  I won't turn them on until Thanksgiving, but I'm happy that they are done!

I started my Saturday walking shelter dogs with our Dog Walking Club.  Tipperary and Wentworth loved their time out of the shelter.  

After my walk at the shelter, I headed home to meet Vanessa.  We had plans to get in some road walk miles on the North Country Trail.  We headed toward the Lowell area for our day of adventure.  We parked near the Barry County/Kent County line where we were met by Tom, who helped shuttle us to our starting point.  

This section was all on paved roads, most of it on one road, so it wasn't too difficult.  We passed a couple of dairy farms, a pig farm, and a few homes with businesses-one selling cheese curds and another selling homemade bread.  We both came home with a loaf of bread.

Luckily the wind was mostly at our backs for this walk since we haven't adjusted to the 40 degree temperatures and there were some pretty areas and a couple of geocaches along the way.  Mina enjoyed her walk with Vanessa.  Peaches also enjoyed our walk...but somehow I didn't get a picture of her.

After 7 1/4 miles on the road, we were back at the car.  We were parked right next to the Maher Audubon Sanctuary, so we decided to hike the 3/4 mile loop and pick up the caches there.  The girls really loved all of the smells and I even saw a nice buck.  

We had one other small section of the NCT that we needed to complete to link sections we had previously done.  It was a nice wooded section of the trail and we did a quick out and back hike to add another 1 1/2 miles to our total for the day.  

With 8 3/4 miles on the trail today, I have completed 92.8 miles on the trail this year and Vanessa has completed 80.5 miles.  We'll complete the last 19 1/2 miles to get us both over 100 miles over the next few weeks.  We have a 10 miles stretch of the trail to complete in Hillsdale County, but when that is done, we will have hiked all of the NCT miles from the Michigan/Ohio Border all the way to Fallasburg Park North of Lowell.  Go us!

I'm excited to have an extra long weekend since I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off from work and we have no specific plans for the time off.  I'm just going to relax and go with the flow.  I'm sure I'll get some projects done around the house and get the girls out from adventures close to home.  I'm mostly looking forward to three days that I don't have anywhere specific to be!  While the weather has been unseasonably warm this week, the temperatures dropped over night and we're now looking at a string of  days that the temperatures won't get above 40 degrees and the potential of snow...I'm not looking forward to any of that!  But we'll adjust and have some more fun as we head into Winter.