Last week, I took a 3 day felting workshop. While showing the teacher pictures of our farm, the pigs, the sheep, the chickens, the garden, Mosie-the barn cat, and Kai-the border collie, she asked, “how do you ever take a day off from farming?” Leaving the farm for an extended period of time, takes much planning and the help of friends, family, and neighbors, and therefore, those trips seldom happen. Instead, we learn to appreciate the small excursions, like the one we took yesterday.
On Sunday, we had to drive our son to New Hampshire, to meet a bus which would take him to the northern part of Maine for a month long wilderness leadership training camp. Since we were more than half way to the coast of Maine, my husband and I decided to take Kai with us, and after dropping off our son, head to the beach for the day. I found a state park, Fort Foster, which allows dogs on the beach, so we packed our umbrella, lunch, and beach blankets and left the farm animals to fend for themselves for the day.
Kai had never seen the ocean. He plays at the pond down the road so I knew he would enjoy a day at the seaside. He loved running in and out of the water, but preferred to stay on all four feet rather than swimming. He dug holes in the sand, watched seagulls fly, and wanted ever so badly to play with the other dogs.
After a couple hours, he crashed on the beach blanket under the umbrella, right next to the big hole he just dug. It was a good dog kind of day!
Dinki Hyde
Your blog always makes me smile!