A Walk in My Woods

It has been two years since I've had a dog to walk with in my woods.. Fritz just wasn't up to it his last year... Because it has been a bad year for ticks I waited until June to start Morris... The first couple weeks I kept him on a leash so he realized this was a TRAIL activity we did as a team and not a "chasing through the woods after rabbits" activity.. Molly will follow about 100 feet into the woods for a few good sniffs but then she goes back to the house. Here they found a particularly good spot and practically buried their noses in the ground.

Morris has found a balance between wanting to be in the lead and stopping to sniff. The vetch is in bloom now and it's so gorgeous. My woods are 20 acres and I made the trail to loop around the outer edge and then another loop in the center..... a mile total...

Morris stays on the trail through all the trees but every so often there's a meadowy part and he loves to run and roll in the tall grass. In years past the elk have wintered in these areas scraping away the snow for the grass.

But where the trees are thickest and the trail bends out of sight, Morris stays real close. Here he is waiting for me to catch up because a wild turkey flew out here the other day and put on a terrible ruckus to distract us from her young...really scared Morris.

And I finally got a good profile shot for his puppy book... He has lost his puppy face.

Afterthought!!! The woods looked like this in 1995 when I planted the 5,267 trees. High school kids came and helped on Arbor Day... Of all the things I've done...... I love my forest the best... In fact my tombstone should read "she loved her dogs and her forest."