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We had a spectacular Columbus Day weekend, with mild weather, colorful trees, and a happy puppy.

On Saturday, Jen, Daisy and I climbed Burger Hill while Sarah was on a playdate with her friend Anna.

On Sunday, Daisy graduated from obedience school.  Here she is enjoying a cheese stick.

This turkey, a survivor of last weekend’s Neighbors’ Gun Club turkey shoot, surveyed the overgrown field in front of our house.

While this particular bird is safe, we are already preparing for Thanksgiving — we’ve been gathering hickory nuts for pie and brittle.

On Sunday, cutting vines in the hedgerow, I found an old apple tree, a vestige of the farm’s orchard.  This apple wasn’t much to look at, but it was quite tasty — firm and tart.  Maybe next year we’ll get some more, now that the vines are gone.

Today we hosted the Landsman Kill Trail Association’s Fall Trail Ride.  Sarah was in heaven, with horses all about.

Rich Contini, past president of the LKTA, offered Sarah a short ride.  Daisy was extremely unhappy to see such a large animal on the lawn.

Here she is looking luminous in the Saturday evening light.

Halloween is around the corner.  Jen and Sarah took a trip to Kingston this afternoon to start organizing Sarah’s costume.

On Saturday we went apple picking at Cedar Heights Orchard in Rhinebeck.  We got about 20 pounds of apples.

Daisy came with us, but she seemed a bit wistful — hangdog, you might say — and, surprisingly, she did not eat any apples.

Then we started cooking.  Sarah made an apple pie.

I made a childhood favorite — apple butter, and, along the way, applesauce.

We had our first obedience lesson with Daisy at Doc’s K-9 Center in Red Hook.  Actually, it was the second lesson for each of us: Daisy had a private lesson with Dr. Karen (at right) during our summer vacation, and the first Puppy Kindergarten lesson, last weekend, was a people-only affair.  Daisy was a star performer, and served as Dr. Karen’s go-to demonstration dog.  At far right you can see the father of Sarah’s friend Sophie with his dog Willie, whom he improvidently adopted during a weekend at the Kennedy compound at Hyannisport.  Willie is a handful.

The tomatoes are starting to produce.  Here is a Kellogg Breakfast, tipping the scales at just over a pound.

The roses are enjoying an early fall resurgence.

Here’s Daisy, in her customary happy and excited state, at Bash Bish Falls.  Sarah had a ladies’ camping trip at Taconic State Park Saturday night; Daisy and I visited for the hike to the falls, which are just over the Massachusetts border.

We managed to stretch Labor Day into a four day weekend.   We had a decent excuse: we had to be there on Friday morning to superintend the installation of an an invisible fence, so that Daisy will be able to roam freely.  I’m sure she will be disappointed that the pond isn’t within her range.  That morning, we went down to the barn and found that the swallows had departed.  That’s how we know when summer is over.

The Landsman Kill Trail Club (or, more precisely, Del Wolcott) very kindly built us this new bridge over the stream in the woods.  It made a fine resting spot for Sarah and Marin and Graham Diz, who visited on Friday and Saturday.

Maybe summer isn’t completely over.  Yesterday Sarah found this Monarch, just emerging from its chrysalis.

We made two visits to the Dutchess County Fair this year, on Friday (just the three of us) and Saturday (with the whole Regner clan in town for first and last running of The Jim Regner at Saratoga Race Course).    Sarah wanted to go on the high swing both times, and Jen also seemed to enjoy it pretty well.

We spent plenty of time on Livestock Hill.  Here, Sarah is looking in on the newly hatched chicks.

These are the Hans and Franz of the ovine set.

We couldn’t wait to see how our entries fared.  Jen won an honorable mention for her blackberry jam!

My pickles, on the other hand, while praised for their look and smell, went unjudged because of insufficient liquid.  All of the sweet pickles this year met that fate.  We had some, though, and I can confirm that they are delicious.

My hay also failed to place.

My father tried to talk me into getting a bigger tractor.

Sarah spent lots of time on the rides during both visits.  She particularly enjoyed the bumper cars, the hamster dance, the high swings, and the house of mirrors.  Here we are on the roller coaster.

She also visited the bungie jump, and even did a couple of back flips.

On Sunday we headed to Saratoga for The Jim Regner.  Happy 75th birthday, Dad!

Daisy met, and barked at, this Red-Eared Slider on the driveway Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday I dropped off a third of a bale of hay at the Dutchess County Fair.  I have also entered bread and butter pickles; Jen has entered two kinds of jam (blackberry and black raspberry); and Sarah has entered two pictures.  Check back next week to see if we won any blue ribbons.

Sarah returned to the hammock this weekend, this time with her pup.   Daisy had a rough week, having been bitten on the nose by an evil border collie in Central Park.

She is a water dog through and through.  It’s very hard to keep her out of the pond.

Jen has been teaching Daisy to return socks to the laundry basket from which they were filched.  It’s the oppposite of fetching.

In other news, our peaches should be ripe next weekend.