Just a little while ago, we were reminiscing with
@ShawneeShep about the
great hike we took together last September. She and her mom drove all the way up from New Jersey to hike in southern Vermont with us, and it was such a great day! We decided to do it again this year.
For this year's adventure, Shawnee and her mom found a great hike in Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire. The days leading up to our trip it was pouring rain, but luckily the skies cleared in time, and we had a perfect day for hiking!
We drove down from Burlington and they drove up from New Jersey and we met at the park. Once the dogs had gotten a chance to greet each other and were properly outfitted in their don't-hunt-me orange, we were on our way!
Since there had been so much rain, I was ready for the trails to be a muddy mess, but overall it was pretty dry! We had to make our way across several streams that I'm guessing usually would have been quite small, and there were some great big puddles for the dogs to play in. (Roger made it his mission to get soaking wet in each one of them.)
Shawnee led the way for the whole 10 miles, keeping us moving at a good pace. The hike was pretty challenging for Roger and me, and as soon as we reached the summit of Pisgah Mt, Roger wasted no time hunkering down for a nap!
Once we started the hike back down, I kind of wish I had followed Roger's example...never underestimate the restorative power of a nap.
Shawnee brought her boy along this year! At first Roger wasn't quite sure about him, but by the end they were good buddies.
The views were fantastic, and it was so peaceful at the top. We only passed a few other groups of hikers all day. We had hoped to catch the foliage at a good time, but it was still mostly green leaves everywhere with only random bursts of color. It could have been more dramatic, but of course it was very pretty anyway--and that means the trails were less crowded.
Daniela got so many great pictures (like this one below and the first one in the post), and you can see more of them in
Shawnee's blog post about our pawsome day together!
Thank you, Shawnee, Daniela, and the Boy, for making the trip to New Hampshire to hike with us! We can hardly wait until our 3rd annual hike next year--we should be just about rested enough by then to do it all over again!
Look at our beautiful city! 
For this year's adventure, Shawnee and her mom found a great hike in Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire. The days leading up to our trip it was pouring rain, but luckily the skies cleared in time, and we had a perfect day for hiking!
We drove down from Burlington and they drove up from New Jersey and we met at the park. Once the dogs had gotten a chance to greet each other and were properly outfitted in their don't-hunt-me orange, we were on our way!
Shawnee led the way for the whole 10 miles, keeping us moving at a good pace. The hike was pretty challenging for Roger and me, and as soon as we reached the summit of Pisgah Mt, Roger wasted no time hunkering down for a nap!
Shawnee brought her boy along this year! At first Roger wasn't quite sure about him, but by the end they were good buddies.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
A good portion of the day last Sunday was spent playing in the garden with Roger!
The other big project was planting grass. It's never been a particularly luscious or robust lawn, and it seems to have only gotten worse this summer.
And look! I'm already being rewarded for my efforts! On Friday I harvested my first round of lettuce and spinach! Now I just need the tomatoes and carrots to catch up...
wonderful compost and then raked and tilled some more.
Ready? Now I'm going to tell you my secret weapon. For general pest repellent that's chemical-free and pet friendly, use crushed red pepper. Just sprinkle it on top of and around the garden. Ground red pepper works too, but it's harder to see where you've applied it. Just be sure to reapply after heavy wind/rain!
a month after the fact, I'm finally going to tell you about my trip to Colorado!
We drove 2hrs to Leadville, then snowshoed and skied out about 0.8mi to the hut, and even those of us accustomed to sea level did pretty damn well! The temperature inside the hut was about 40deg when we arrived, but after a few hours with the wood stove, it was over 70. Those ladies don't mess around - the party theme was "ugly bathing suits" (summer version of ugly sweater) and everyone was dressed to impress.
Rowdy games of Taboo, dinner from the grill, ice cream from snow, and plenty of wine made for a totally awesome evening. The next morning was pancakes and a snowshoe expedition on the trails around the hut. It snowed the whole first day and night, so there was plenty of fresh snow to play in.
I love baking for Roger! He's pretty easy to please. Our standard go-to recipe is peanut butter oatmeal cookies, but for my birthday Meghan gave me the You Bake 'Em Dog Biscuits Cookbook, so we're doing our best to branch out!
Both the Sir and our guest taste tester Miss Madeline gave rave reviews, and the ingredient list is so simple that these will surely be a permanent addition to our regular cookie rotation! Let me know what your pups think if you give them a try!
The great thing about these (in addition to hiding my silly collections) is when I need something it's easy enough to just pull the whole bin down and rummage around. (Plus it made me limit the amount of boxes saved...always a good thing) When I first put them up there, it was a glaring intrusion in the once-empty space, but after only a couple days I was used to seeing them.
All this weekend I'm busily making more crayon roll-ups, putting the finishing touches on a few knobs, and trying to decide how best to display everything. I really hope I'll see a lot of you at the craft show next Saturday! I will be donating 75% of my profits from the day to Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sport!
