Charlie Don't Surf, But He Loves Seafood

Cool breezy drizzly gray weather greeted me this morning helping to keep me on track for chores rather than heading out for a trail ride. Lopping the trees back all along the driveway from the road to the barn took much of my morning. After watching some Houffalize highlights during a short break for lunch, I felt inspired to get out for a little wet riding.

JD, Charlie, and I headed out for a few spins of the trail that we've been able to clear so far on the farm. Then I parked the bike and started clearing a bit more of the trail. I pretty much lopped from the far Northeast corner to the far Southwest. Then used the sling blade for a good half mile, which should really help my golf swing.

Thank goodness for tubeless, lots of barbwire still under the brush.

Then it was back on the bike for some more laps to help bed-in the trail. Despite the rain the past 2 days, the soil was holding up well. Wet but not slop and drying pretty quickly. Maybe the swamp land won't be too bad after all. I was able to test the pave section too and it rides well. Once fully completed, it should offer a fun, dry path through the swamp.

Charlie don't surf, but he does dig. 

A bit more work clearing the fire road allowed the pups more time to explore. Charlie was quick to start tracking and digging. He'd been up to it in the back as well. I figured he and JD were chewing on dead creatures or deer scat and digging up moles. I decided to take a closer look when a short tussle broke out between the dogs. I expected to see a dead possum or some old bone to be the cause of the ruckus. Nope.

We have a lot of mini-volcano looking mounds around the farm. I told H. that they were probably crayfish, but she didn't believe me at first. Thanks to the internet, she started to believe me, but we still didn't have any physical proof aside from matching mound photos on the interweb. When I got over to the dogs they had mouthfuls - MOUTHFULS - of crayfish. It was an all you can eat seafood buffet out back.

Riding-in my path that will soon become my pump track.

Goofy. Catahoulas are goofy, goofy dogs.

Say hello to Clara.

Oh, we also got a new addition to the farm. Clara is a rescued donkey that we picked up at the donkey sanctuary in Franklin Sunday. She's only a couple years old and sweet as can be.  We now have horses, a donkey, 9 chickens, 4 dogs (two fosters), and a tractor. Our little farm is beginning to take shape.