It’s been a long time since I did a blog post about walking Across the Road. In my old blog on Wordpress that I started almost ten years ago Across the Road featured heavily. And it was also important in Rusty’s blog, also on Wordpress. Rusty hasn’t written a blog post in a long time because, being a dog, he needs my help, and I’ve been preoccupied. Sorry Rusty. And Sorry to Rusty’s avid followers. Maybe I’ll help him write one more post coming up here.

Anyway, Across the Road has always been an important place to the dogs and to me. The enjoyment has changed a bit from the first several years when the road was shaded by large black walnut trees. Those were taken down a few years ago and there have been some ownership changes.. There are more complications lately with other dogs that live across the ditch that is Across the Road. I don’t like being the reason that other dogs start barking because we look like we’re invading their space. We’ve seen coyotes, otters (not recently for me but my DIL saw one this week), turtles, and lots of birds. Over the years the crops have changed from alfalfa to tomatoes to sunflowers and back to alfalfa. I like to feel like I’m a part of the cycle of these crops—I’ve certainly photographed plenty of it.

I want to make sure that I thank the owner of this fabulous property for giving us permission to walk there and act, to some extent, like it’s our own. It sure extends our feel of freedom when without it we would be limited to our ten acres. That said, we try to be good neighbors. When anyone is working over there we stay home and when it’s wet and the road is muddy we stay home.

I’ve been trying to do some walking rehab lately so have some photos from recent walks.

Sometimes I try to sneak away without the dogs knowing because this is not fun. They are on leash until I get to the dirt road. It’s not that far from our driveway and it used to be easier. Ginny will usually walk off the road. Maggie refuses because she knows that’s where she picks up puncture vine in her feet. Rusty is in the bad habit of pulling on the leash. They all need a refresher course on proper leash walking.

Once we get to the dirt road I take the leashes off.

This field has had alfalfa growing in it for a couple of years. I think it’s on a 4-year rotation.

This is what alfalfa looks like when it’s blooming. This plant is along the edge where it wasn’t harvested. They usually harvest before flowers develop because at an earlier stage of growth their is higher nutritional content and it’s not as coarse. Usually there will be 6 or 7 cuttings in the season and they are all timed to maximize yield but not at the expense of quality.

This is the view across the alfalfa back to our place (the red barn).

When we take the longer loop we walk past another farmer’s field. This was in alfalfa last year but I think these are sunflowers.

This ditch goes near the edge of that last field. I think Rusty likes to walk in here because it takes the weight off his joints. But he has a hard time getting out of this ditch now—the sides are dirt, but they are steep.

Ginny likes to chase the ball into the ditch that is behind her. But lately I haven’t been taking a ball—she has lost so many in the big canal.

This is Maggie coming out of that same ditch. The property on the other side is where other people and dogs live so I usually stay on this side of the ditch.

Good old Rusty.

The dirt road that cuts through the alfalfa field.

Alfalfa.