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conscious use of trails

-- Chatter --

Today, Dave & I went up to one of our favorite surrounding mountains to walk along a shady trail we found near one very small man-made lake. While there we stumbled upon some of the most beautiful trail scenes that we have witnessed in some time. Tall green, wispy grass with straight and strong stems of daisy flowers everywhere. Surrounding this is a mixed evergreen forest with a few deciduous as well. It was so lush and shady we hardly noticed the heat. Unfortunately I was driven nearly insane by a few very persistent horseflies - which I happen to have a hate on for. You see, certain insects actually make me ill, and fly bites are one of them. So here I am flailing with my arms, alternating with sprays of water from my bottle (reuseable of course)... great fun. And it was very hot - but here we found this amazing shady, lush spot - so random, so beautiful... it was really a memory making moment.

Dave has been training the dogs to go for a pee while traveling without having them become too excited or want to chase something they see. So every so often during little day trips like we had today, we stop along the dirt road a few times to let them pee and learn to come back to the car right away. It is very effective and the dogs are responding beautifully.

So when we do this, as Dave is busy managing the dogs, I take the opportunity to pull a few invasive weeds if I see them and pick up garbage or recyclables and place them in one of the plastic bags we always have with us. Usually I'll take the lids off any containers and tip them upside down to rest while I finish with the area. This way they are dry and clean when placed in the bags for the rest of the trip. Today I saw perhaps a couple dozen beer cans alone, not including water bottles and so forth, in the ditch on the way up the mountain. However we only stopped at a couple of places for the dogs or for the trail use, so I was able to retrieve 6 recyclable containers, a few of those are returnable for a few cents, and a dozen pieces of recyclable debris. It was really sad to see those resources just sitting there. People may not realize how much water is consumed to create each of those items, how much damage is done to the earth when mining the raw ore... how many jobs are created by placing that can in the recycling system, and the benefits to the environment are too numerous to mention here - as this WAS meant to be a short post - lol!

On the way home we stopped by some rubble pile on the side of the road for some amazing rocks with really neat designs and colors - we will be using these to finish the mini-rock wall Dave is creating for the landscaping bed that lines the fence line of our property. It looks really good so far, kind of a country-estate looking landscape bed that is filled with an array of perennials and a few shrubs. We lost one of the evergreen shrubs we planted, however one cedar and two juniper bushes have decided to live with us - lol.

This morning before we left, we had a lot of gardening chores to attend to - everything from training the tomato vines, to weeding and harvesting beans, lettuce, radishes and cucumbers. While we were doing these chores, the hose was set over the compost bins, one at a time, to soak them down real good and keep the critters happy and actively breaking down the goodies in there.

I was late on starting the fall brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, etc) so I am hoping that I can find a local nursery who will have these available. In the meantime I found I have a few garden spots opened up in the full sun that I don't know what to do with! lol I'm thinking perhaps some more beets, or carrots, perhaps green onions... I'm not sure... I already have a lot of those going.

As soon as the temperature cools off, Dave and I will be canning another 7-9 jars of pickles and freezing some beans. After that we hope to work on that rock wall for the remaining portion of the landscaping. The job is so close to being done, we can hardly wait to see the final result :) The one thing that I like most about the mini-wall is that Dave is creating a little path for the lawn mower's wheels, making maintenance a snap! Woo-hoo! :)

I've nearly completed the two book review projects that arrived over the last few days, and will have these reviews posted on www.curledup.com soon. Well the office is getting hot and I did promise myself that I was going to take this day off - Good luck - right? lol At least Dave and the dogs are resting... I wish you could hear them all snoring - it's cute. At least the afternoon (possibly) will be all mine... until next time everyone :)


Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca

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