The five of us pulled down the snowy driveway around 11:45—Lyssa, Jake, Josh, me, and our new dog, Hannah. This is Hannah’s first trip anywhere with us. We just got her three weeks ago from a local shelter and she’s acclimating well. Turns out she’s a very good rider; she barely even moved the whole trip up.

Hannah’s first road trip.

It’s been fun to watch Hannah learn how to be a dog. She’s four years old and I don’t think she’s ever been off a short leash or out of a small kennel run. She absolutely loves it up here, running fast enough to squeeze tears out of her eyes. The boys get a kick out of watching her.

I was still getting the boys’ sleds out of the back of the truck when Lyssa called me over to the front door of the big house trailer but said I needed to get ahold of Hannah first. There, half-underneath the trailer, was a dead six-point buck. I don’t know if it got hit by a car or someone was taking potshots out of season, or what. It didn’t have any obvious wounds.

King of the hill.

In any case, I didn’t want to leave it there to rot and give our new pooch an irresistible target for rolling. I got a length of rope and the green ATV and dragged it out to the edge of the property by Peter’s woods. Thankfully, it was still pretty frozen and pulled clean. After I got back, Jake and I took the ATV out to the marsh trails with Hannah galloping along behind. She kept pace with us up to 25 mph. Bet she sleeps well tonight.

It’s good to be back up here—to be out of the house in general, really. Winter can end any time now. Lyssa and the boys played around the yard a little more and I checked on the keep. Still smells fresh! Hannah seemed to have found the limit of her stamina and fell asleep in the snow. We got the boys out of their snow stuff, packed up their sleds, gathered our pooped puppy, and were on the road around 1:30. A short but sweet trip!