One of the surprisingly fun things in winter is the task of snowshoeing dog paths. Dee started it when we got PB; even though he was little and light and mostly ran on top of the snow, it was still too much for him if he fell in, so he wouldn’t leave the dog door area to pee or poo. Also, he wanted to follow the big dogs as they were both tall enough to go anywhere on the property, although they were so heavy only the hardest ice would keep them from going in up to their shoulders.
Fast forward to winter 2018-19…hard snow since November, we already have 86″ of snow here on Feb 21. I have gotten he dog path duty now, since Dee digs out the generator. Turns out I kind of like it. My snowshoe bindings are the best in history…two seconds to put on and take off. They’re lightweight and yet big enough to carry my weight easily. They do have an annoying tendency to flip puffy snow onto my calves, but I can live with this.
Typically, I wait until the snow is all over, then start to make paths. It’s a bit like the Brandenburg bridge problem…there’s no way to optimally cover all the paths as well as the fact that you have to go over them 2 or 3 times to really tamp down the snow. So, I usually start out the porch door, go right towards the generator, then around the house, over the septic, and over to the front porch gate. Then I turn left and go out to my weather station, over to the satellite dish, and back towards the big garden. I then go around the garden out to the apple trees, and come back along the edge of the lawn, which is the path Louisa makes by herself all the time.
Then the fun starts, as I have to make connecting paths to all of these other ones so that Appa can chase Louisa effectively. Cause Louisa cheats…if Appa gets close, Louisa just jumps off the path into the deep snow to get to another path. The connectors allow Appa to catch up to Louisa pretty easily.
As I said, I have to walk this spider web of paths 2-3 times to get it right for Appa. This takes about 30 minutes, and the work needed is way out of proportion to the number of steps…it’s hard in deep snow. But it’s really worth it, the dogs both have a lot more freedom and fun — Appa to run around a little, and Louisa to have a place where I can toss a frisbee and she can see it. Unless the weather is really windy, I enjoy the work and enjoy seeing it from the upstairs bathroom window, at least until the next snow comes.
Tom's Walks 