Three Days in a Car
This week saw our return to Canada for the Christmas and New Years holidays. We finally received some much needed rain on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I can now tell you, officially, that it is no fun to stand out in the rain, with water flowing around your ankles, at two in the morning and again at four am, with a puppy that isn’t feeling well. This happened to me this week. We finally capitulated and gave him the medicine that the vet said would cure him of this plague. We tried everything we could including the turkey and rice meals which certainly helped but he must have eaten something that really messed up his system so he needed a little extra something. It worked but I didn’t give it to him until the four am trip outside. Maybe that was when my brain finally registered that I had an option to help improve this situation. Not only did the weather improve, our outlook on life with puppy improved too.
We saw far too many sunrises but they are beautiful in South Carolina and they are beautiful in Canada too. Maybe it is the best part of the day. This was the sunrise on our last day of 2016 in Dataw.
Day 1
We were very apprehensive about getting in the car with Winchester for a three day drive to Canada. We were using a harness which we have never used before and we had the three fur babies in the back seat of the car. May I say that it worked and it worked perfectly. We have always seat belted the cats in so we arranged to put Portia in the middle, sort of like separating squabbling siblings; she was the referee. Winchester was on one side and Miss Q on the other. Miss Q actually seemed jealous that she didn’t have a harness so we used the extra piece that came with the harness and seat belted her in too. All slept well. The harness allows them to get up and move around in a limited space and it hooks into the regular seat belt system. I must say we were both a lot happier knowing they wouldn’t be projectiles if we stopped suddenly. At the end of Day 1, we arrived in Lexington, VA at a Best Western. Once again, unsure of how things would go we opted to stay in and order pizza and salad to be delivered. In all the years we have travelled I believe this was only the second time we have ever done that. We had as an option a playpen to put the puppy in for the night but the old softie in me said let’s try him on the bed and see what happens. You could have knocked us over with a feather when we all slept, through the night, until almost seven the next morning. No panic to get out for a piddle, he waited until we could take him out. We were both so impressed and very surprised.
Day 2
Day 2 was a really long day. We started on the road at 7:38am. Roads were clean and dry and really not much traffic which was a pleasant surprise. We thought we might make it to our daughter Katie’s for the night but she and her family were busy. We were pretty sure we weren’t going to make it all the way to Canada and we knew we weren’t when we were about an hour and half from the Vermont border and said wonderful puppy decided he had had enough of the car. We stopped and gave him some food and took a break for ourselves and decided to push on to a wonderful Inn called The Chesterfield Inn in West Chesterfield, NH. They have a perfect setup for people traveling with pets and they have an in-house restaurant. We had a room, with a fireplace, and its own entrance and a backyard that opened up onto a huge field where we could run the dogs. I have never been so happy to be anywhere in my life. We were welcomed, the place was beautifully decorated for Christmas and we put the puppy in his playpen and enjoyed a delicious dinner. He was fine during dinner but when we got back to the room he had pushed the playpen part way out the door of the bathroom so it was no longer a square but rather diamond shaped. He was quiet and seemed to be quite pleased with himself. Gave us quite a chuckle. The sleeping situation was ok once again and we all slept until 7am. The total time on the road with stops included was 11 hours on the nose. John and I have decided that is about two hours too long so from now on our maximum will be 9 hours. Even with sharing the driving, two hours on, two hours off, it was really a very long day.
Day 3
Our third day was a really short one and we were in North Hatley by 12:30pm. We drove through a little snow in the mountains but just a squall. What impressed us was how the thermometer on the car kept going down until it reached 16F. We were not impressed!!! Once we arrived here we found our down coats, our boots and our gloves and we were better prepared to unload the car and begin the settling in process.
To say that this puppy, Winchester, feels at home here is an understatement. He loves, loves, loves snow, he came into the house and immediately went to the bed his predecessor called his own and claimed it and as I write this he is sound asleep on that bed. He slept on it at the foot of our bed last night and didn’t move off the bed until morning when he made a very brief woof that said he needed to go out which we were happy to oblige. We are so lucky this guy is so easy going. We had some rough nights with the upset tummy but he seems to be in his element now and so are we.
Walking is a little harder here because of the road and at this time of the year the mucky slush that is on the side of the road. We did a walk today to the Frog Pond at Manoir Hovey with both dogs and they romped and chased each other in a way that I have never seen Miss Q do, ever! She seems to have taken to Winchester and is now quite happy to run around outside with him. Who knew?
Two Weeks Until Christmas
Settling in and getting ready for Christmas and the arrival of family is always a lot of fun as well as being a little stressful. I keep going with the mediation in the early morning and the walking which are great stress reducers. In addition, trying to eat as healthy as possible. I am craving fresh vegetables right now and salads. Must be something about the winter and the lack of green around me might have something to do with it. What always amazes me is how early it gets dark in Canada. As a child I had a project that I did that recorded the sunrise and the sunset for a whole year of school. I remember talking with my Dad about it as he drove me to school. Back in the olden days, the only way I could get information was through the newspaper and our daily paper posted this information. I made a chart out of it and used it for a project. It was my first realization that the days shrunk in an uneven way. You don’t lose the same number of minutes at each end of the day. Now I compare South Carolina to North Hatley, Quebec. Currently the sunrise in South Carolina is 7:13am with the sunset at 5:17pm. Compare that to North Hatley where the sunrise is 7:17am and the sunset – get this – is 4:05pm. That is a significant difference. One of my favorite days of the year is December 21st because that is the day we finish the shortening of days and the days start to get longer. Only 10 days to go!!!
Recipe
This week’s recipe comes from Health Holistic Living and addresses something we all worry about – Dementia. It is a recipe for Sage Butter. Both ingredients are good for you. We have heard for so many years that fat is bad for you but in fact, it is not. There are good fats which are Omega 3’s found in nuts, avocados, salmon (preferably Pacific), and olive oil. There are bad fats and I think we all know where they might be found. If you can find grass-fed beef butter then you are way ahead of the game. It can be found in the grocery stores now but if you are lucky enough to live near some farms, you will find it there too. Sage is a wonderful herb. It is known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and it also is known to improve memory. So go ahead and make some and use it whenever you need butter in a recipe.
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Have a wonderful week everyone!
