Beat the Heat

Our last camping trip was to Voyageur Provincial Park which is very close to the Quebec/Ontario border and not very far from my place so it was a very easy drive for me. It started out very hot but at least the first day there was a breeze so in the shade it didn't feel too bad. That is until it came time to go to bed, my AC in the trailer isn't cooling so it was very hot in the trailer. I left the fan on high, opened all the windows and left the door open. I didn't even need to get under the sheet. 

The next day it was just as hot. After a late breakfast, we went to Beau's Brewery as dogs were allowed in the taproom. I think they both enjoyed the concrete floor while we enjoyed some cold beer. I also took the dogs over to the boat launch in our campground and even Liam didn't need to be convinced to come in wading.  Again I left the door open on the trailer that night to sleep but it did cool down some and I did need the sheet later on.

The following day we went to Higginson Tower in Vankleek Hill and to Confederation Park in Hawkesbury. The temperatures had moderated somewhat.  The Higginson Tower was built as a grist mill but the winds in the area were inconsistent and the mill failed. The tower was then used as watch tower during the Fenian Raids and later was converted to an observatory by the original builder's son. Confederation Park is a park on a small island in the Ottawa river that looks over to Quebec. They have a sculpture to the Franco-Ontario families and some sculptures built of recycled materials.

Again that night, I slept with the door to the trailer open but actually turned the fan off during the night and got in my sleeping bag. Liam actually got up in  bed with me too. 

On our last day we did a wine tour of two local vineyards.  Stonehouse Vineyards, located in Alexandria, is owned by two former RCMP officers. The land the vineyard is on was part of a land grant to one of their ancestors. In 2012, when they had the chance to buy some of the land back, they took the plunge. The vineyard was planted in 2012 and the winery opened in 2017. The dogs were allowed downstairs in the tasting room. We went outside where they have a pavilion and a number of other seating areas.

The second vineyard we went to was the Vankleek Hill Vineyard.  This vineyard has one of the Eastern Ontario Popsilos. You might recall during COVID, I took a day trip to drive around and see the ones nearer to me. Here we all enjoyed a glass of wine while Liam enjoyed a dog white wine. 

Before heading back to the campground, we drove to the other Popsilo in the area, the Farm or Country Boy silo.

It was considerably cooler now this night so I closed the door to the trailer and and I slept in my sleeping bag. Liam again slept in bed with me while Teddy still chose the floor. 

We had a relaxing start the next morning as for me it wasn't a long drive home.  So while we beat the heat during our camping trip, I came home only to have my AC fail. Luckily, the repair company was able to get me an appointment the same day I called and the repair technician soon had it up and running again.

Summer Travels

This summer, we're staying close to home for our camping trips. We've already had two trips and have two more booked. 

The first trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park. We went there the week of Victoria Day weekend. The week before was nice weather as was the week after but the week we went, it was very cold. Luckily it wasn't too wet; there was only one day where it rained most of the day. We did have a campfire each night though. We all had pull through sites, so I was able to get in my site by myself. 

Podrick and Strider

I did need help getting the awning up. My brother in law can get the rope up higher and tighter than I can.  The power posts were quite far away. My sister had to borrow an extension cord from me and I had to use one as well. I was camping with two of my sisters, their husbands and another couple, friends of one of my sisters. 

This was the first trip out with Strider, other than bringing Podrick home from storage. Everything seemed to be working fine, a new converter was installed last year but I found at the end of the trip that the battery still wasn't charging when the trailer was plugged in.

One sister and her husband bought a bigger fifth wheel last year as they live out of it for two to three months and found the smaller fifth wheel to be tight especially when they have their grandsons to visit. That trailer was most welcome on this trip as we ate every meal in the trailer. It was just too cold or wet to eat outside. The weather did keep the bugs down.

In the glamping trailer

Even though the weather wasn't great, we did get in a couple walks to two old homesteads that are in the park. If it had been later in the summer, there is also an old silver mine you can visit.

And it's still a good camping trip when you set up in the dry, pack up in the dry and have a campfire every night!

Last week my youngest sister, her husband and I went to Bonnechere Provincial Park. It's one we hadn't been to before but it's only about a two hour drive from my place. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere though. I arrived before my sister and her husband did. I had planned to try and back into my site myself but when I saw how tight the road was and that there was a big tree that I would need to get around I knew that wasn't happening. I went back out the waste disposal site and messaged them to see when they'd arrive. I walked the dogs and then went to the dump station while waiting for them. It turned out to get into my site, you had to come the other way down the camp road.  There happened to be someone parked in my sister and brother-in-law's site so they had to book another. They ended up taking mine and I took the site that they had just booked. My brother-in-law still backed me in as this site is on the passenger side. I did get everything set up myself, even the awning.

We had much better weather here. It still wasn't really warm but we didn't get much of the rain that had been called for. We ate outside for every meal. The first day we just hung around the campsite. We did do the FIT trail. It's not an exercise trail but stands for Footprints In Time. That evening we also saw the Strawberry Moon rising over Round Lake. The picture doesn't do it justice, the moon really was strawberry red.  The next day we drove into Petawawa; it's about a 40 minute drive. We went to Centennial Park and then to the Dog House Brewery.  

The next day we drove into Pembroke, again another 40 minute drive. They have a series of art murals throughout the downtown area and a nice waterfront park on the Ottawa River.

City Hall

Again we ate well and enjoyed a campfire every night. This was our last night's meal, Italian sausage and Corn and Tomato Gnocchi. The Gnocchi side dish is done in a foil pack with white wine, butter and red pepper flakes served with Parmesan and fresh basil. I had bought Gnocchi filled with Asiago cheese. It definitely was a do-over side. 

We are off again next week, all of our trips are booked Monday to Friday. I noticed this past week the campground got busy on Thursday night as people got a jump start on the weekend. 

I did pop the GFCI plug on my trailer and so far have not managed to get it to reset so for now I have no outlets that work. I'll have to bring extension cords on the next trip until I can get Podrick back in for service. Oh well, we managed without electricity when tent camping.

Ain't it Great!

Teddy had his eighth birthday with me just a few weeks ago on 6 April, it seems hardly possible that the first birthday he had with me was already five years ago, during our first COVID lockdown.

We had a little party with cookies and presents. We got the birthday photos done pretty quickly, perhaps Teddy is finally understanding that the photo taking will be done sooner if he looks at the camera. 

We had the party in the morning as it was kind of cold and wet as has most of this Spring been. It did get nicer in the afternoon so we went to the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum for a special walk. The museum is closed until the May long weekend but you can still walk the grounds. 

Teddy has an interdigital cyst between two of his toes on his left hind leg. He's on the fourth course of antibiotics since Christmas. The vet says sometimes they are hard to get rid of as it has to do with the structure of their paws and rubbing between the toes when they walk. It comes up just like a blood blister, then it bursts and then we have to keep the open sore clean. Teddy has been wearing a collar each time they cyst bursts and he's also been wearing boots when it's wet outside. We'll see the vet again before this round of antibiotics are finished. It's healed up again pretty nicely but it did each of the other times too. 

It doesn't seem to bother Teddy much when he walks but without the cone he does lick the wound. Poor boy, he can't do the stairs with the cone on. I do take it off if he wants to come upstairs with me at night but usually he only decides he wants to come up after I've gotten in bed. 

Well, it ain't great that Teddy has the cyst but it is great that he's eight.  Hoping there's better health and a few more birthdays in his future. 

Whoop Whoop

I've been doing Hoopers classes with Liam for about a year now. Canine Hoopers Canada (CHC) has been doing virtual trials since there aren't a lot of qualified judges yet and so they can build the organization by getting people to play who otherwise wouldn't be able to. For the first time, they included a smaller space option that could be done at the facility where we take our classes. There were six events, two of each of the games. I entered Liam in one of each, two other students also entered so we got together Friday evening to set up and run the courses. 

With CHC, you can run the courses with your dog like you do in agility and get a qualifying score. Each qualifying score is awarded points and titles are point based. Each course will have distance challenges using either a Challenge line (CL) or a Distance Handler Box (DHB). If you have a clean run and have successfully completed a distance challenge you are awarded extra points, so the titles will come faster if you can work at a distance. 

Our first run was a Hoopers course. It had two Challenge Lines, a 10 point line and an easier 5 point line. Not sure you can see the lines in the image, the 10 point line runs across from the number 2, the 5 point line is just above the number 1. I didn't think Liam would be able to get out to the barrel at obstacle 6 and 13 with me behind the 10 point line so I ran it from behind the 5 point line. You can click on the link below to see our run. I did try it from the 10 point line, twice, and while Liam did go out the the barrel for obstacle 6, he wouldn't go back out again for obstacle 13. 

Beginner Hoopers 1

Our next run was a Parkour, very similar to Hoopers but it uses all the equipment permitted by CHC so there was a gate and a bottomless tunnel as well as barrels and hoops. This course had a handlers box; the judge had allowed two options for extra points, run the whole course from the box or just get the first three obstacles while you were in the box. You can't send your dog from the box to the first obstacle to start the course so your dog does need a sit stay to let you lead out to the box. Let me tell you getting obstacle three while in the box was harder than it looked as Liam wanted to wrap the barrel or he took obstacle 4 turning in the wrong direction. 

Beginner Parkour 1

Our last run was one called TunGO, it uses just barrels, tunnels and gates, with a hoop as the starting obstacle. The other students, who were with me, were doing all six runs so it was getting rather late. As a result, I decided to not even try this one from the distance lines but just run it with Liam.  Again the distance lines are not really visible in the picture. The 5 point line runs from obstacle 3 to obstacle 6. The 10 point line is about half way back from that towards obstacles 2 and 7. Perhaps you'll see them in the video as we were using red and blue plastic tubing. 

Beginner TunGo 1 

You're allowed to practice the courses at a virtual trial, For our Hoopers and TunGO runs, it was the first time Liam did either course. I did try the Hoopers two more times afterwards to try and do it from the ten point Challenge Line. For the Parkour, Liam was a little high and we had to start this one three times before we got a good run. You only submit what you think are clean runs to be judged. I uploaded our runs to YouTube and put the link to each run on the virtual trial's FaceBook group and waited for them to be judged.

Whoop, whoop, Liam got a clean run on each of our courses! We also got a 5 point bonus in the Hoopers course and a 5 point bonus for the Parkour. I wasn't sure about that one, I had to move out of the box so quickly to keep him in line for the next barrel that I thought I might have stepped out too soon. 

So whoop whoop, now Liam is on his way for his Hoopers titles. For those who've seen him run agility, look how smooth and steady he runs the courses. Now we just have to work more on our distance skills. For those agility handlers out there, come give CHC a try, your agility dog will learn the obstacles quickly, they know the body language already and you can work on  distance over time.