Travels Behind and In Front of Us

My trip to Vermont went well: 4000 miles in 2 weeks is not restful by any means but I packed in as much visiting and fun as I could.  I was able to take 5 puppies to their families, visit with my own family and friends, visit and meet some other ryman setter and Fr Brit folks, and hit a couple of favorite food and drink spots.
This was home while I was there:

Even Tweed got to visit some of her grown pups.  I swear dogs can recognize 'family' - even though she had not seen Parker for 5 years since he was a pup they sure seemed content with one another.  Fitting, we met with Parker's owners at Parker Pie for lunch.

Folks often ask how I travel with puppies (without going crazy.)  My travel pen makes it wicked easy: the pups have plenty of space and messes fall to the papered trays below that are easy to clean.  The pups mostly sleep while I am driving although occasionally in the rear-view mirror I could see them quietly playing.  This pen also ensures that the pups never have to be walked on public grounds, making it quite safe from the many viruses and such that are out there.   I delivered 2 to families in MI and these 3 hostages went on to New England:

There was just enough room left in our little Escape for a Fr Brit sized crate and Jazz took the trip with Tweed and I.  She is a fun, game little girl and even tried dock jumping at the lake.

Storm's puppies are happily settling into their families.  It is great fun to almost daily receive photos and emails telling how the pups are doing.  Last night I received this one that I thought was cute, showing little Tucker learning good manners from his big brother.  Tucker lives in MN and will be hunting grouse and woodcock with his owner.

Mike was wicked busy while I was away, taking care of all of the produce and gardens, house and yard, 6 dogs, 1 puppy and trying to get some canning done.  All of the fresh produce really kicked him into cooking overdrive and he is filling our freezer and shelves with wonderful food.

These are just a couple of his gardens and they show the hard work he puts into them.  These are some of the rows of strawberry plants that will keep us busy next spring.

Tomatoes are late this year but they and the pepper plants are heavy with fruit.  This is one section.

All of this is fun and busy but what really has us energized is the fact that in just 3 weeks it will be time for us to leave for Montana!  We plan to hunt Montana huns, sharpies and pheasant for 6 weeks, then travel over to Minnesota to hunt ruffed grouse.  November will find us coming back home for bobwhites and pheasant.  Let the fun begin!!