Running behind

We went to the beach couple of days ago. There wasn't any surf to speak of, so the kids each dug a big hole til they hit water. Then the tide came in and in a few surges the holes were gone. There's a lot of energy in tides!

The fog was almost right up to the waterline, and a couple times I looked up the beach and saw the fog blowing in. The water was freezing!






Worked the farm all week while the bosses were out of state at a funeral. Poor old Balloo, one of the farmdogs, died before they left and we buried him Saturday.

R and young D helped me run some fence to keep the bucks out of the new upper pasture. The neighbors across the street, although they own a couple of Belgian horses, don't like the smell of bucks. Running that upper pasture may have been for naught. The bucks love the new big south pasture, and I just learned that the owner of the property wants it extended even more down through the woods!

A couple of goat injuries this week. My little brown Derek is favoring a front leg. The hoof seems fine, so I think he twisted the knee. Champion Homer at the farm suffered a major rear injury, unknown, up the length of the inside of his back thigh, and a spot on the top of the back- same hip. Willow and I love Homer and wish him a speedy recovery!

So a tumultuous week, looking forward to a great weekend and wishing the same for everybody!

Waiting for the Big One

I promised the kids we would make it to the beach again and we went yesterday. We had a big rain the night before, which I slept through,but it must have been quite the storm since there was actually surf!

Usually at our favorite beach the waves just lap at your ankles during the summer months. Yesterday some of the waves were well over four feet. Willow got swamped a couple of times. I bodysurfed and played with her for about a half hour. The Firebird, now a good swimmer and also six feet tall at almost thirteen, was begging to go to Reid, notorious for its big surf and undertow.

Having had him nearly swept out to sea when he was Willow's age at Reid, I politely declined.

So the two played in the water the whole time. The floating seaweed was pretty thick, having been stirred up by the storm and surf. Willow had seaweed matted into her long hair. Once I stood up from a good bodysurf, and had it tangled in my top and bottom, both of which I lost(fell out of) several times- hopefully not to the laughs of the big crowd on the beach.

String bikinis are not bodysurfing equipment.

After we got home, I found the Firebird's swimming trunk pockets both filled with seaweed.

We had a great day!

Beach

Remember that nice little beach we love to visit off-season? Not so quiet now....







We managed to find our own spot-except for the fella enjoying himself on the inner tube-You notice most people are half-dressed and not many are in the water. This is supposed to be our "beach weekend" since the summer has been such a washout. Might have been 80 on the shore, with a strong breeze off the water.

Another Beach day

We found ourselves with a free day and decided to make another pre-season run to the beach. We were greeted with a new sign at our favortie beach, "NO PETS ALLOWED!!!!" in big giant letters right by the entrance. OOps, busted.

Not to worry, I knew of another beach just down the road. I usually call it "Baby Beach" so of course the kids have refused to go the last few years. At high tide, there is no beach at all, the ocean right up to the retaining wall, but today we were in luck. Low tide and still going out.





I took this pic of one fo the rocks as we clambered down to the beach:



First some jumping jacks to warm up. Actually, you know how when you tell kids you want to take their pictures and they just stand there like soldiers? So I said, "How about some jumping jacks?" LOL



Here we are cavorting, courtesy of the ten second timer:




Peko is over his water phobia, or maybe because there were no waves here:



This was pretty funny when he stole Willow's sand shovel:




Everyone's wet here-the water was bone chilling cold. I couldn't make it over knee deep without my ankles going numb.



This is a wild sweet pea growing on the rocks:




On the way out, we took a cruise by Fort William Henry. The coast is full of these old forts dating to colonial times:

Beach Day

We took a trip to the beach today. On the way we stopped to see if the alewives were running, and they weren't. Peko managed to leave a couple of prints in the fresh concrete the guys were patching in to restore the fish ladder. We missed the alewive run last year-we will have to make another trip in a week or two.

We were the ONLY people on the beach. Friday noon, 67F, and the gates were open. The maintenance crew was mowing the ball field, and I had a moment of panic that we would be be sent packing with the dog, but they ignored us.

I left the leash on Peko just in case-the first time I have let him run at the beach, and I think he had more fun than the kids. He showed them he could dig better holes, and spent quite a bit of time early on trying to drag them away from the water. Once or twice he accidentally got caught by a wave-he looks very upset in the one pic of him with his feet in the water.



Peko also spent some time trying to snatch seaweed from Willow-and then he would "kill it" by shaking it furiously.

I screwed up my lens cover and it stuck shut, but the pics I took in the meantime still came out through the open slit, so I cropped them. Then the ones I took in replacement, I managed to put a finger over the corner of every one.













On the way home, we passed these two bulls on the side of the road. They were enormous. I had to take their pix, too.




On the trip we had McD's and then hand scooped Giffords Ice Cream-Peko had a plain burger and a scoop of plain vanilla topped with a doggie biscuit.

Finally, back in our neck of the woods, we spotted four Golden Eagles hunting over some woods. Can't really see them in the pic, but we still had a golden day!