Saturday, October 3, 2015

Friendly Feed Store

We celebrated Vashek's birthday on Friday night at, (guess where), Sol d' Acapulco which is just down the road from where we are camping. For a few years now this has been the place that we celebrate with our neighbor friends. They had been going here for years before we joined the gang - it is a second home of sorts, where we are comfortable and made to feel welcome.

It was dark and windy when we got back from dinner. The dogs dragged us around as they did what they had to do. It was ever so slightly miserable, in fact, I didn't even look up into the sky so don't know if it was cloudy or clear. The camper stayed a bit warmer overnight, perhaps helped by not having the vent over the bed wide open! It was a balmy 64F this morning, in contrast to yesterday's 56F :-0

After a quick walk for the dogs and a guzzled cup of coffee for me, we decided to go for a drive. The dogs went to the bedroom where they enjoyed music and we put on our coats and drove to the golf course for breakfast. After hemming and hawing over a few destinations we decided on Iroquois to pick up the bag of dog food I ordered. First we'd pick up the dogs and go for a walk by the locks.


The wind nearly knocked us off our feet at the locks. The parking lot is high and the wind was funneling straight down the river. That didn't stop the dogs from taking us on a fast paced walk along the lock area and around the block, past the old cemetery, down a muddy road, and finally back to the truck. Whew - not sure if my legs would have moved any faster.


After the walk we went to Rooney's Feed to pick up our food. The owner, Spencer, gave a hearty greeting and we launched into a long talk about raw feeding. It turns out that Holly, our neighbor, worked for him ages ago so we had a common ground. As he showed us around his shop he grabbed a bottle of some potion and asked if we had any arthritis. "no, but my Dad does.". He shoved the bottle into my hand as a gift, asking only that we come back next summer to let him know if it helped. We saw a stainless steel pig waterer that screws onto a hose bib - he uses one for his dogs, and other strange and wonderful things.  

Eventually a rack of dog beds dominated the aisle. "Thirty percent off today" he offered in his deep, gravelly voice. Of course we can't pass up a good deal and came home with a giant one (which isn't actually giant enough - we'll have to make a trade for two smaller ones to make the length we need). I saw some antlers packaged up and asked if there was a deal on those too. "$10.00". I'll take two. We talked some more and he shoved another bottle into my hand. "Here, take this. It will be good if one of your dogs gets an injury." Our arms were stacked with goods when we left. Oh, we had the dog food too... and smiles on our faces.

"That had always been the beauty of the wind. It could only be seen through its actions, its effect on others. A gentle reminder that reality does not only exist in the seeable, the palpable, the understandable, but also in the figments and daydreams, the steadfast beliefs and unexplainable uncertainties. Reality is seen and yet unseen. Wholly and absolutely relative. The wind had taught him that.”  ~Kelseyleigh Reber

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