Picnics n Such

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were going to a picnic at the homestead of a lady that Jared made contact with through our county message board. So, the event was last week. These folks live on this beautiful piece of property near the base of the mountains. They had it all, barbecue, a live bluegrass band, and pony rides.

The barbecue guys...

We seem to run into beagles everywhere now...

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful and it was good to get out and see another part of our county and meet other residents. While hanging around we walked over to the area where they keep their cattle. In addition to the cattle they have 2 miniature donkeys (I guess that's what they are, or are they burros?--who knows) As soon as we approached the fence one of them became VERY interested in us. He would follow us up and down the fence line, sticking his head out for a scratch. He was also very interested in the dogs. He watched them closely and would get distracted from following me when one of the dogs moved around...

This week we decided to get out and enjoy another beautiful weekend, and hopefully get some good pics of the fall foliage. It seems that next week will really be the peak, so we plan to take a drive out to Shenandoah National Park and see what's what with the leaves then. Our outing this weekend was at the Manassas Battlefield Park. It's a great little place to hike that's local. Most of the time it's not busy, but being fall and all, the leafers are out in full force. But even when it's busy there is plenty of room to spread out with trails through the forest or through the fields, just depends on what you like. Here are a few pics...

If the weather holds like this we'll still have a few more weeks of good hiking! I love fall! I have to say it's my favorite season. It brings out all kinds of wildlife (a big old owl has perched outside of our house lately, hooting away at night), smells, sounds, and of course the beautiful colors--that is most times. I hope the leaves actually change on the trees this year before hitting the ground. Well, that's it for now...but what post of ours would be complete without pictures of our flea circus? :-)

Clockwise from top: Oscar, Maggie, Daisy, Romeo

Busy Weekend

Here we are again...post # 3, wow, we're making a habit of this. Anyhow, we were pretty busy last weekend. Let's start with: Fun With Flooring. The title says it all:

So we've had this flooring since the end of July. We're slow, but still working on it. My guess is that we MIGHT have the hall and small bedroom finished by Christmas (ugh). No, really we're working hard to get it finished by the time Matt gets out here for Adam's boot camp graduation...it would be nice to have somewhere for him to sleep (and I'm sure he'd appreciate it too).

It's going much better than we could have imagined. As long as you take your time with the measurements and make sure that your first row is straight, you're good to go! This is what we've finished so far:

Not too bad for a couple of handyman-impaired home owners :-)

In between flooring sessions we took the dogs to a Beagle Day outing. They had a great time meeting other beagles and owners. Ok, let me clarify, Oscar loved meeting the other beagles, Daisy loved meeting the owners. They were in total sensory overload. Toys, other dogs, people, lots of stuff to experience--they just didn't know where to start.

Here is Daisy, in heaven, with a little girl she met.

And here is Oscar with a friend he made (Oscar is on the left).

Needless to say they were very happy and very tired by the time we left...what a nice, quiet ride home.

Yes, that's Daisy walking over and getting attention from someone who was petting another dog... just butts her way in...