Tryon Creek

Daddy had to work today, so the rest of us went hiking. Daddy sells the hiking equipment, we get to use it. Poor daddy. We went to Tryon Creek . It's real close and a really great hiking spot for kids. The trails are mostly root and rock free, with a few small hills. Halen was running for most of the hike. It was great for me because I actually got to elevate my heart rate a bit. Just a little, but it happened. I've been craving a good hard workout lately. I can't remember the last time I had sweat roll down my face. I have always loved the feel of a good muscle burn. Being pregnant and then nursing and staying up much of the night, you lose the opportunity to do such things. I really want to go biking, but we have nowhere to put Liam. We may get a double trailer from Dan's work. We can't afford much of anything these days and chez Riverbend just raised the rent on our itty bitty out of the way plot of land. More than ever, we want to buy a house. They're also tacking on some other utilities that used to be provided for. At this point, we could pay close to the same thing on a mortgage payment that we're paying on rent here. Ugghhh. Qualifying for a loan at this point in our lives is highly unlikely. Maybe there's a house for rent somewhere. Anyway, back to Tryon Creek, Bruce had his first kill. We usually let Bruce run around off the leash because he stays close and the trails were pretty empty. He's also very slow, in comparison to other 4 legged creatures. He has always looked really ridiculous and kinda stupid when chasing birds or squirrels. You can tell he's a domesticated animal for sure. But today, he caught an unsuspecting squirrel and instantly snapped it's neck. Eek. He then proceeded to nose at it like he wanted to play with it. As soon as I called him and told him to leave it, he did. Poor squirrel. I felt awful. Luckily, Halen didn't see it. Bruce went back on the leash after that. I feel kinda terrible about it. I've come to terms with animals eating animals on animal planet, but they are actually eating them. Bruce just killed it out of instinct, but then left it there. I was glad that he did kill it right away. I wouldn't have been able to do a mercy killin', but also wouldn't have been able to watch it jump around in pain. I wish it just hadn't happened, but oh well, Bruce is proud of himself and that's that.