The Nose Knows!

This morning the Scrapper and I left for a walk in the woods. It was "12 degrees, feels like 4 with the windchill". I had enough clothes to warm an army and the Scrapper had her fur coat---(she's growing hair on her tummy again). Mike is the woods expert ---he knows how to navigate. I usually go with him and leave the "how to not get lost" part in his hands.

I have gone with Mike just enough times to think I know where I am going. At the entrance (or bottom of the hill), the water streams were running. Hmm...it must just feel cold? Then, as we reached the top of the woods, the streams were frozen solid with a light snow dusting, and the wind was a gusting! Whew! Instead of the steady and constant blowing, like it did in Marshall, it would be calm and then BOOM! a gale would blow and the exposed areas of my face would freeze. It was beautiful---yet uncomfortably cold.

Sydney was fine though and she romped and chased squirrels and birds up out of the underbrush. I got lulled into the walk by listening to the leaves crunch on the frozen ground. I remembered how the hard frozen ground was something that amazed me last year in Minnesota. Wanting to steer clear of the gales, we ducked off the main trail and onto the smaller trails. Mike does this all the time and somehow is able to navigate his way back to the trailhead. After about 45 minutes though, I realized I was lost.

And 45 minutes in this weather is cold. I marveled at how in the midst of civilization I had managed to get lost in a small patch of woods. I was even thinking about back-tracking my way back to the main-trail, but Sydney had her nose to the ground and so I trusted she knew where she was. True to Taylor form, she knew. She followed her nose and got us out of the woods!

Hooray for the Scrapper! The nose knows! Mike comes home tonight---double hooray! Happy Sunday! Happy Birthday Spence!