I began posting to this blog just over two years ago. Most of my early impetus was to share photos and videos of pup-chaos with family and friends. Over time, as Cedar insisted on taking ME for far more walks than I ever would have taken myself, she helped kindle my growing love affair with the patch of land just behind the house, what I’ve come to call the Big Tree Trail. 

Ever since I read Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, I’ve imagined some day living in place long enough to have twelve separate journals… one for each month… to impel me to pay better attention to seasonal change in a home place. 

Two years into this experiment, I don’t think I’ve done much of value to posterity, but I have to say that I’m grateful to Cedar’s often annoyingly unquenchable dedication to getting out and reading/sniffing the “news” of our little forest neighborhood—occasional rambles which I have sort of organized by month. I may return to the “categories” of monthly observations (See, for example, October) as I move on to a new writing project of some kind, but for now, I’ve decided to give this project the break it’s been calling for. 

Thanks to those of you who have actually stopped by and given it a read or a view.

One great thing about having a dog is the companionship she provides. Even better, though, is the companionship she brings in the form of you, fellow dog people. 

When I first heard a woman shout “On by!” to her dog on the ski trail, I had to stop her to ask what she had just said. That’s musher for “Pass on by, or pass by the distraction.” Since then, Cedar has come to respond well to the command, most notably in one of our more intense bear meet-ups.

On this beautiful late October Juneau day, we’ll head “on by,” and leave you with a few parting shots of Cedar doing what she loves best: moving and exploring in our moody and challenging and beautiful home place. 

See you on the trail! 

Love, 

Tom and Cedar