the woods

Everybody,
Brax and I and a few other folks stayed at my parents house for Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great time, and if we called you and sang you a drunken song, you're welcome, I know you totally enjoyed that.

My family lives on a farm with 100 acres of woods. On Sunday morning, my mom woke us all up, and we had a nice leisurly cup of coffee. Certain parties had to be dragged out of bed (ahem, Christopher), but in the end we all got our boots on, got the dogs together, and we went on up the hill.

Fall! The woods! It was chilly and muddy. The pond was all electric green...

The dogs were frolicking and romping:

The old fat black dog is Blanche. Blanche is my parents' dog, and she is awesome. I begged my parents for her when I was 17, and then I moved out 8 months later. It must be great to have kids.
Anyway, the black and white dog is my uncle's dog, Sparky. Sparky was a half-grown pup when my uncle's girlfriend found him all alone in the road. They tried to find his parents, but no luck, so now he lives on the farm with my uncle. He's about a year old now, and he is a little maniac. He and Blanche have a love-hate relationship. (In fact, in a hike a few days previous to the one documented here, these two crazies romped up behind me at about 80 MPH and knocked my legs up into the air. I landed flat on my ass about 8 inches from a big steaming cow pie. The dogs didn't even slow down. This incident is, unfortunately, undocumented in photographs. )

Hooligans!

Other things we saw on our walk:

Matt and Sparky had a race.

Sparky won.
Christopher fed a cow. Most of these girls are raised by hand by my uncle, so they're used to people, but they're still a little scary up close. Blanche won't go near them. Some guard dog.


Brax crossed a small ravine on a log. It should be noted that my mother fell off of the log right next door to this log and brusied her butt once. But Brax was not to be deterred.


She made it all the way across! All the way until she fell...but she only fell a little bit. See how gracefully she caught herself? Fortunately I was right there to document it.

My dad arrived late, dressed like some kind of mountain man. It was cold! Handknits, man.

It was a great morning. Hiking on the farm is one of the things I miss most about home, so I am so excited when I get to do it. I'm already excited to go home for Christmas, and hike it up with these same jokers.

Hike it up,

Bruce