Into the Woods

A couple of months ago, my neighbor on the south side of my property allowed his grandson to live in a camper on his property. While the neighbor's trailor sits way back and out of site from my property, the grandson's camper is practically on the property line. Which isn't the problem. The problem, my friends, is that the grandson brought his dog with him. For the first several weeks, he kept the dog chained outside the camper and the dog would bark at me and Libs every time we went out. I'm not a huge proponent of keeping dogs chained up outside but it did, at least, keep the dog away from me and Libs and out of the road. A couple of weeks ago, however, the dog broke the chain and has run loose every since. The problem with THAT, my friends is that now Libby and I can't step outside without him racing over and getting all up in our business. While he's not overly aggressive, he also is not submissive, either and I fear one wrong move from Libby would have him jumping her.

What does this mean for me and Libs? Well, for starters, we have to sneak outside before dawn so that we have the cover of darkness for her to be able to poop. And anytime during the daylight, we have to sneak out the back door just enough for her run out and pee and come back in. No more walking the yard. No more walking to the mailbox. No more outside doing nothing. And that's not good for Libs. She needs exercise and fresh air.

Soooo, the solution we've come up with for now is to take a hike. Literally.

The folks' property backs up to some family friends' property that Daddy  helps care for so in return, they allow us to fish on the pond there, walk the property and ride the four wheeler, etc. Handily enough, there are a couple of trails there that the property owner cut out and these trails lead deep into the woods.

Libs and I had never really noticed the trails before. I knew sorta that they exist because Emmy rides the four wheeler down the trails whenever she's here and I've heard Daddy talk about them. I've just never noticed the entrance to the trails or had any reason to want to look for them. But last Friday, after a week of not a lot of sunshine for Libs and not enough exercise for me, we drove down the road with the intention of just walking around the pond and the field next to it. You know, just to give Libs some room to sniff and me some room to stretch my legs a little bit without the nuisance dog next door.

While we were walking up the long driveway to the pond, I noticed a little clearing in the woods just past the shed and out of curiosity, we meandered over and that's when we noticed the trail. Without even a second thought we set off on a little adventure.

In hind sight, I probably should have texted my dad to let him know what we were doing but I was so excited to have found the start of the trail that it didn't cross my mind to let anyone know. We walked, and walked and walked. Past trees and hanging moss and logs in the dwindling sunlight. I felt like an explorer in uncharted territory even though the trail was well laid and open. We probably walked a little too far that day because on the way back we ran into dusk and Libby's little legs gave out and I had to carry her most of the way back.

But it was fun. And the freedom of it was exhilarating. I knew I wanted to go back. It was late when I got back home Saturday after work and drinks with my friends. Sunday I had a wicked headache (not from a hangover, I promise. lol) And earlier in the week I came home not feeling great. I've been coming down with a sinus infection all week. And I didn't really feel all that great yesterday afternoon, either, but I felt so bad for poor Libs that I loaded us into the car and we went for another hike. We took the other fork in the trail which ended up being a shorter trail than the previous one. We made the hike in about forty minutes and it. was. glorious!

This time, I did text Daddy and tell him where we were going and his dog, Bully, saw my car when I passed their house so he met us up there and walked most of the trail with us. I say "most" because he got bored with our slowness and ditched us on the way back. Thankfully, Libby is mostly used to him and he's a silly puppy at heart who just wants her to love him. ;-)

I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to hike the trails. Soon enough, summer heat and slithery creatures will keep us away. The ticks are already bad enough. I picked five of them off of Libby yesterday when we got back.

We all thought that stick was a snake at first.

My hope is, my neighbor's grandson...and his dog...will move away during the summer. How long can a person live in a tiny camper anyway?