A New Member Of The Family

I traveled down to Frontier Town, site of many previous blog posts, to pick up a new dog. PeeWee was an elderly Papillon mix with limited hearing and eyesight who had been surrendered for adoption by his family because of a divorce. And if that wasn't sad enough, he'd been attacked by a big dog and nearly killed, his neck now all sutured up like Frankenstein. How could I say no? So I met his foster family at Frontier Town. We let all the dogs sniff each other and then headed off on a walking tour of the old log village:

They clearly had come to love little PeeWee and were sad to see him go while also happy that he was going to a good home:

My dogs gave PeeWee a quick sniffing and then just simply admitted him to the family. After that, we all explored the old log village as if we'd always been together:

PeeWee was surprisingly spry for an old timer, and often led the procession:

We explored the forest and looked inside several of the old buildings. That's PeeWee, by the way, just ahead of Seamus and nose to nose with Clover. PeeWee and Clover look so much alike that sometimes I have to do a double take to know which is which:

We all walked over to explore the old storefronts. PeeWee once again led the way:

And then we walked farther back to see the old rodeo arena and stables:

PeeWee was a determined little dog, chugging along as if he was young and had never been attacked. I thought to myself, "This little guy has heart:"

We explored the old storefronts for a bit, including the old saloon where we discovered that the piano was still playable:

And PeeWee kept chugging along:

But soon it was time for his foster family to say goodbye to PeeWee and we all got back into our cars:

I had a long drive back to the farm and all four Papillons squeezed together on the front seat. PeeWee seemed kind of crushed against the back of the seat, but I think he liked the security of it. He seemed happy jammed in there where he wouldn't bounce around. So now there's a new dog in the family and he will appear, from time to time, in future blog posts:

A Return To Hays Brook, Part 2

The dogs and I were on our way to pick up a new pooch, and on the way had stopped at Hays Brook. We left the trail and had been climbing slowly up a hill toward a crest which I could see through the trees:

We arrived at the top, a knife-edged ridge which dropped off steeply on both sides. I wondered what process had created this geological oddity, but they're really not all that odd. I see quite a few of them. As for the view from the top, it was all forest in every direction:

Madeline romped through the forest on an emerald carpet of moss:

Clover ran every which way but always kept an eye on me:

I managed to get Fergus, Daphne and Madeline to hold still long enough for a photo, but Fergus didn't look any too happy about it, did he?:

The "Silly Sisters" weren't acting silly this time:

Daphne paused momentarily atop a bed of mosses, Reindeer Lichens and Lowbush Blueberries:

And Madeline came over to join her:

Big brown mushrooms sprouted all along the trail and in the moss/lichen beds:

But we still had a long drive ahead of us, so I gave a call and we all began moving back toward our car:

This is one of the prettiest forests and the dogs seemed to enjoy it also:

One last photo of Clover and we were on our way to pick up a new Papillon. But I'll post about that tomorrow:

A Return To Hays Brook, Part 1

I loaded the dogs into the car and headed southward one recent Saturday morning to pick up a new dog to join our family. We stopped along the way for a rest stop at our beloved Hays Brook Trail. There were no other cars parked there and we had the whole place to ourselves:

Monstrous brown mushrooms lined the trail and mingled with the mosses and blueberries alongside the trail:

Big pines and spruces filled the forest on both sides of us, every bit as magical a setting as I'd remembered:

And the Lowbush Blueberries were ripe. They were small, but tasty - and I tasted quite a few of them:

We arrived at a spot with fallen logs which I remembered marked a deer path:

So we left the trail and walked across the emerald moss carpeting to see where it would take us:

This looked to me like the nursery rhyme Black Forest scenes of childhood fairy tales. Fergus seemed to think it was all pretty darn nifty too:

Madeline chugged along like a little furry locomotive, sniffing her way through the forest:

Daphne and Clover kept running ahead and I kept shouting, "Stop!" Apparently, they still hadn't fully grasped the new rule about sticking close to me:

We continued on the mossy deer path, headed toward a high ridge:

The incline was gradual and easy. Even an old codger with bad ankles like me had no trouble:

We continued upward, on alternating series of flat and sloped surfaces. I had no idea what I'd find when I reached the top, but that will be in tomorrow's post:

A Nostalgic Stop At The Schroon River

"Why nostalgic?" you may well ask. Because this rest stop is quite distant from the farm and my days of traveling between Albany and the farm are over. I don't think I'm likely to stop here again. Also, of course, I missed having old Wally and Winky with us. But dogs seem to always stay in the present, so they just ran and had fun:

I'd parked quite far off the road and we had just a short trail to follow to get to the river:

And all the dogs were quite excited about it:

I was pretty darn happy myself:

We broke out of the woods and onto the sand dunes, where wild strawberries were in bloom:

Seamus, of course, went right for the water:

Clover and Daphne went sniffing to see what they could find:

They sure had fun. Decorum and restraint are not among their virtues:

Daphne momentarily considered going in the water, but then thought better of it:

And all in all it was a glorious day on the banks of the Schroon River:

But, as always, it was soon time to go and I gave the pooches a call:

We trotted back to the car. Once the dogs were all loaded up inside, I continued the journey:

Slush Pond - Part 2

We'd stopped at Slush Pond, the dogs and I, to stretch our legs and enjoy the wild beauty. Here's a brief video of what we saw. Notice the White Throated Sparrow singing just as the camera pans over toward the car. They were singing all throughout the trees on that day:


Clover liked to be in the lead:

We hopped back into the car and I drove to another spot. I let the dogs out and they once again ran excitedly through the trees toward Slush Pond:

We walked out onto the floating peat bog again and little Madeline checked out the Bog Laurel/Pale Laurel:

Tamaracks had taken root in many places and would eventually help turn this bog into solid forest:

Madeline seemed to be awestruck by the beauty of it all:

And I spotted another large patch of Bog Laurel/Pale Laurel:

Daphne and Clover did what they do best - run full speed just for the fun of it:

I got them all back into the car once again and decided to try one more access point:

So again we stopped and walked out onto the peat bog, this one seeming to have more solid footing:

This flowering bush was about five feet tall and magnificent. But I cannot identify it. Anyone know what it was?:

Seamus found a spot to access the water though the other dogs weren't interested:

Of course I was taking too long and really should have gotten back on the road more quickly. But I took one last photo of Slush Pond and some water lilies before I called the dogs back to the car so we could resume our journey: