Category Archives: dog

dog, health

The Border Patrol Challenge 2024

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Friday, I skipped out of work a little early to run 13 miles on the Arcadia Trail with Rusty and my friend Ian. It was 25F and icy. The trail took us 3.5 hours to complete and we finished about 45 min after sunset. While it sounds a bit stupid, we didn’t have a choice; we are in the Border Patrol Challenge and had to get it done.

The Border Patrol Challenge is an annual running challenge that highlights various trails along the CT/RI state line. The BPC began on the Winter Solstice (Thursday, December 21 2023 at 10:27 PM EST) and ends on the Spring Equinox (Tuesday, March 19 at 11:06 PM EST). There are 20 total trails range from 1.9 miles to 26.5 miles. The total of all 20 trails is about 164 miles and 99 people signed up this year.

The way it works is, you download the gpx file for the route and go run the designated courses whenever you want within the 3 month Winter season. Once complete, you upload a link to your own file (Garmin, Strava, etc.) and your time gets ranked amongst those who have completed the course. Each course has a technical difficulty rating that combines with the distance to create an overall multiple. Using some hidden math formulas, points accumulate for each runner as they complete my courses. But the rankings are constantly changing as more people complete the courses.

I participated last year, however, I got sick multiple times and wasn’t able to make as much progress as I hoped. I love this challenge because it pushes me to try a different local trails I probably wouldn’t otherwise experience. It also creates motivation to push myself through the winter season.

My goal for this year is to complete all 20 courses; so far I have made it through 10 of them in the first month, so I’m definitely on track. The fact that days are getting longer helps. The warmer temperatures that are coming again this week are also beneficial. Considering that I was coming off no running as my ribs healed, I have been very pleased with my progress so far and I have laid out some running goals for 2024:

  1. Complete all 20 Border Patrol Challenge Trails
  2. Complete the Traprock 50k trail race in April
  3. Run at least 1000 miles in 2024
  4. Run the Twisted Branch 100k in August

Rusty loves to run with me and has completed all 10 of the trails so far. The 3.5 hours on snow and ice did a number of his paws, so he is going to be limited to shorter runs whenever we have the ground covered. If everything thaws, he can probably do all but the 26 miler. Here is a photo from another trail we recently completed that passes by this marker at the corner of MA, RI, and CT.

dog, fitness, health, marriage

Hiking in Pachaug State Forest

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Last night when Rob got home from work, we went for a walk in the forest. Our property directly borders Pachaug State Forest, Connecticut’s largest state forest. We walk out of our horse barn and are in the state forest in 20 yards. It is my absolute favorite thing about our house. Rusty loves the forest too!

Rusty in the creek just behind our house

There is something special and relaxing about hiking. I find it resets my inner peace. This time of year, the earthly smells of leaves and water, ground me like nothing else really does. Maybe the Japanese are right about that forest bathing thing…Exercise and nature fill up my bucket.

The blue trail is flooded by Heron Marsh due to beavers. Rusty was wondering why we wanted to go around.

We didn’t hike for very long, we walked for about 2 miles. The sun was setting and Rob is still recovering from his accident. He took a few running steps and said: “Not yet”. Yes, I agree. Not yet. Patience is a virtue.

Sun setting over Heron Marsh

We walked over to the “water fall”, which is a popular destination for our kids when they hike or run in the forest and we contemplated new better ways to connect to the Yellow CT Horse Council trail without having to go out to the main gravel road first. Maybe this is a good project for Rob’s recovery this winter. We had found an overgrown forest path several years ago, but never finished clearing it.

As we came down the path to the house, the kids texted that goat chores were done. The light was fading and the view of the sunset across the road was, as always, spectacular.

The view from our drive way
dog

Farewell Mack

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Today was hard as we were forced to say goodbye to Mack. Mack has always had some health issues, but in the past month or so he developed a cough and had fluid around his heart and lungs. The vet told us it was likely heart failure or lung cancer. Over the past 24 hours he declined extremely fast and we knew that it was time. We got Mack in 2012 as a 1 year old dog. He was the patient teacher for both Turbo and Rusty as puppies. Mack was a typical Golden Retriever: everyone was his friend, he was always happy to see you, and he left a trail of water across the kitchen after he drank out of the dog bowls.

The pictures don’t show how loyal Mack was to Alex, which is the hardest part of today. Alex was there with Mack (and Rob) when he passed. Mack slept in Alex’s room every night and Mack was Alex’s closest confidant. The two of them would take walks in the woods together because Mack had to give up running with me years ago. At just under 10 years old, we wished we had more years together, but I think that’s true of all good dogs. Heaven gained a very flappy angel dog today.

dog, Uncategorized

Rusty Red Waggin’

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Our new Brittany puppy, Rusty Red Waggin’ came home yesterday night.  He has had a busy first day meeting Mack and Turbo.  It was a rainy day, but finally cleared up enough this afternoon that they could run around outside for a while.  Mack was happy to have another dog in the family.  Turbo was more skeptical, but finally decided it was ok.

Today is also Vicki’s 12th birthday.  As usual, she demanded to bale her own cake.  Anna bought her a new cake pan that is a 3-D cupcake.  It is baked as 2 cakes and then assembled and decorated.  She made a unicorn cupcake, complete with fondant ears and horn.

 

dog, goats

Lamancha babies

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Last night, Anna went to bed as I stayed up working on some things (ok, I was on Facebook).  Around 11, I was ready for bed, but first went to the barn to check on West View Swan’s Saffron, one of our Lamancha does, who was in the kidding stall for the night since she was already 2 days overdue.  I discovered she was in labor.

I headed back in and woke Anna to tell her I was getting more warm clothes and heading back out to the barn since Saffron was in labor.  She thought I should get a couple of hours of rest first and then go out around 1.  I didn’t think so.  As she drifted off to sleep, I headed back to the barn.  When I arrived, the first kid was already on the ground.  She was a long legged doeling that looks a lot like her sire, Blue-Ridge Apache and weighed in at 6.6lbs.  Her brother followed not too long after and weighed in at 6.9lbs, and has the look of his mother.  Both started with wobbly legs, but by this afternoon, they were getting around a little better, so we took them out for some quick photos.

Introducing Sawyer Farm’s Sassafras (dark colored doe) and Sawyer Farm’s Birch (light colored buck).

Turbo, our Sheltie, was watching over the photo shoot.  After we finished, he went back in the barn and hopped up on a bale of hay to take a break.

dog

Puppy time!

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Introducing the newest member of the farm!  This little 3 month old boy sheltie joined us this evening. Names are currently being tested. In contention are Waldo (because I expect to say Where’s Waldo a lot), Turbo, Geyser, and Rocket. The plan is to train him for agility amd 4H showing.
Mack is very happy to have another dog around.

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