Late Summer sunsets and Warm Sunny Days

As I shared last weekend, we started our Sunday morning at a hotel in Elkhart, Indiana as we made our way toward Chicago for the ISR Reunion.  After making the two hour drive from Elkhart to Palantine, we arrived just as the reunion was starting.  We were all excited to be there.

After getting Peaches set up with the donation dog vest and me with the 50/50 tickets, we enjoyed some of the normal fun reunion activities, starting with the frosty paws eating contest.

Mina finished quickly, and we went to pick out a prize while Peaches finished hers.  She didn't even realize we had walked away.  When she finally finished, we took her over to the prize stash to pick out something fun too.  This is definitely always a highlight of the reunion.  Some of Peaches' favorite toys have come out of those bins over the years.

She and Mina did a great job helping me sell 50/50 tickets.  Peaches also collected lots of donations in her donation vest.  

The girls also had a wonderful time making new friends.  There were so many wonderful dogs at the reunion and we were happy to say hello to them all.  Of course the girls also got lots of love from everyone there.

Peaches also loved bobbing for hot dogs.  She got all of the hot dogs pretty quickly, but kept looking for more.  It was pretty cute to watch her.  This was a favorite activity for her last year too.  

At the end of the day, we sat down for the raffle drawings and had a snack, then helped with a bit of the clean up for the day before we got into the car for the drive home.  Next year will be the 20th anniversary of ISR, and we can't wait to join the fun of the reunion again.

The traffic was clear and we made great time on the way home, with just one stop outside of Gary, Indiana to fill up the gas tank, take a potty break, and grab Naf Naf Grill for dinner.  Then we were back on the road to finish the drive home.  It was a quiet drive, and we arrived home before sunset.  It had been a wonderful day.

Monday was a warm sunny day and the girls were pretty quiet after the fun of Sunday.  They spent time napping in the sun both inside and outside much of the day.  I, on the other hand, had a full, very busy day of work.  

After a day full of meetings, I was exhausted from my day.  I thought maybe we'd be able to have a quiet evening at home doing some work in the yard, but the girls needed to run.  So we made a trip to the Island City Dog Park, which we once again had all to ourselves.  It was a nice evening and the girls were happy to be at the park.  There was plenty of running and sniffing, but we only had about 40 minutes at the park before sunset.  

On Tuesday, we stayed home after work so that I could do some work in the garden.  I took a portion of the fence down to make it easier to do some of the clean up, and Mina immediately took that as an invitation to join and help me.  She really enjoyed snacking on some green beans and tomatoes while I worked.  I think she thought she was being helpful.

I picked the last of the green beans and then pulled all of the plants, which were taking over the garden.  Somehow, this year the seeds I planted ended up being climbing bean vines when I expected bush beans.  Since I didn't have anything for the vines to climb, they had attached themselves to my tomato cages, fencing, tomato plants and even the zucchini plants.  What a mess!  

I also picked all of my carrots, a few tomatillos, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, and lots of tomatoes.  It was a great night and the garden looked so much better when I was done.  There are still zucchini growing, and I have lots of tomatoes and basil too.  Thankfully our weather has remained very summery, so everything still has time to grow and ripen.  It looks promising for the temperatures to remain in the 80s for the next week, and for temperatures to remain above average through the end of the month which will really extend my growing season.  That makes me happy.

On Wednesday, we had a small group for our dog walking club, so Silver Sparks and Wild Watermelon were the only dogs to join us.  They are the longest residents of the shelter currently and they are such nice dogs.  I am rooting for them both because I really do love them both.  They really enjoyed their walk.

Peaches had a really tough day on Wednesday.  I spent some time Wednesday taking care of all of the veggies I picked on Tuesday, freezing the tomatillos, cleaning carrots, prepping the green beans, and tying the basil to dry.  The whole time I was working in the kitchen, Peaches paced. 

She's been struggling with some restlessness and anxiousness some days, and I've not been able to determine a cause at this point.  Sometimes I wonder if it is just old age, other days I wonder if she just needs more exercise, and others I wonder if her hearing loss is affecting her.  Luckily I have some Trazadone left from when Mina had her spay surgery, so I have given her half a pill on a couple of occasions which has helped.  I'll be scheduling an appointment to make sure there is nothing serious going on with her.  She almost drove me crazy on Wednesday, but I know she can't help it.  I just feel terrible for her.

On Thursday, I drove out to the farm on my lunch to buy a bushel of sweet corn.  Of course, I took the dogs along for the drive, and we made a stop at the Dewitt Dog park on our way home.  It was hot, in the mid 80s, but I knew that they needed to run.  We spent about 30 minutes there, and both girls ran and sniffed to their heart's content.  The rest of the day was quiet while I worked.  I was glad we'd made the dog park visit because I think that the exercise really helped Peaches settle down.

After work, we made a quick visit to the South Lansing Farmer's Market.  Although I didn't really need anything, I had to get my weekly egg roll fix, and the girls just enjoy walking around and saying hello to everyone.  

Then we made the drive to Vanessa's house to drop off half a bushel of sweet corn for her.  The bonus was that the girls got to see Vanessa.  They were both ecstatic to see her!

Before we headed home, we stopped at the nearby Sanders Farm Preserve Natural Area for a walk.  We didn't have much time before sunset, but we made the most of our time.  It was such a beautiful evening to be out for a walk and the girls really enjoyed it.  We don't visit this preserve often, so it's always extra fun for the girls when we do visit.  I loved all of the goldenrod and other late summer flowers, and I was really happy to see some milkweed.  

The run at the dog park and the walk on Thursday evening really must have pooped them out, because both girls slept in on Friday morning.  I awoke to Mina looking like she thought she was human.  

After they got out for their morning potty break and had breakfast, both girls crawled back onto the bed for a nap.  They were being so good, that when my work day started at 8am, I didn't want to bother them, so I grabbed my laptop and sat on the bed with them while I did my Friday morning work.  This peaceful morning actually lasted a couple of hours before they were ready to go outside and I moved to the dining room table for my work day while they went outside.

I had a busy but productive Friday at work, and the day went quickly.  When 5pm arrived, I had decided that we were going to get out for a little adventure because I knew I had a lot to get done over the weekend, and I wanted to make sure that we had some fun too.

After a little debate with myself, I decided I really wanted to get some miles on the North Country Trail, so we made the 33 mile drive to Albion.

I was pretty excited to see that there had been a trail reroute since the last time I was there.  This new portion of the trail takes the trail off a paved path and into some grasslands. 

We didn't walk far on the new section because we needed to head back to the car, but I'm excited to go back and check this whole section out soon.  

The sun was beautiful in the distance over the soybean field as we walked back to the car, and we saw this interesting tree along the trail too. 

The girls even cooperated a little and allowed me to get a picture of them on the trail.  I really enjoyed this walk, and we ended up with a total of 5 miles on the trail before leaving town.  It was dark before we got home, but it was definitely worth the trip.  

Saturday morning, I made the drive out to the shelter for a Saturday morning dog walk.  While no one else had signed up to walk a dog, I was okay with it because it gave me the flexibility to leave whenever I wanted, walk for as long as I wanted to walk, and to get some good quality one on one time with one of my shelter favorites, Wild Watermelon.  He was so excited to see me when I arrived to get him out of his kennel, but he always calms down nicely and walks so well.  He had a great walk and got to make a visit to Family Farm and Home before heading back to the shelter.  I'm happy to say that he went into a foster home for the weekend today, and I'm really hoping it goes well for him.  He's a good boy who just needs someone to give him a chance.

 

After leaving the shelter, I took the girls, who had been waiting in the car, for a walk around Mason.  We had a really nice conversation with a lady who, like Peaches, is a breast cancer survivor, and then we made a visit to the Mason Farmer's Market.  Everyone there is always so nice that I came home with some goodies from multiple vendors.  We made the walk back to our car with all of our goodies in tow, and then headed home where the girls went outside for a few minutes then ate lunch.  The rest of the afternoon they spent napping quietly while I was busy checking some things off my to-do list and watching football.

I tried a new recipe for an early dinner, using tomatoes, zucchini, and basil from my garden.  It was pretty tasty.   After the girls ate dinner and spent a little time outside, I spent some time playing with Mina, and now they are both snoring away.  Peaches has already put herself to bed and Mina is stretched out on the couch.  It's going to be a nice quiet night here.  

Our final Sunday of Summer will be filled with end-of-Summer activities, so I decided to finish the blog this evening because I'm not sure I'll have time tomorrow.  We had a pretty quiet week overall, and it's been nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather that we're having, especially knowing that soon this weather will leave us.  We are entering the final week of Summer, and slowly preparing for the transition to Fall.  But for now, I'll happily continue to wear shorts and sandals and bask in the warmth of the sun.  

Enjoy this end of summer hurrah.  When I write again next week, Fall will have officially arrived.  Where has the year gone!?!?