Joe Dirt

It has been brutally hot here for the last few days - so hot that taking the dogs out is iffy because they can over heat so quickly. I prefer to take them to the water when it's like this but that's a double edged sword since the beach has fewer bugs but is very hot and the dogs won't go in the water. If we go to the school field the grass is cool but the bugs are relentless.



I often head out to a place called Central Caribou. It's never been really clear to me exactly when you are in Central Caribou but I know eventually it turns into what is known as Caribou Island. On the Northumberland Strait side of the 'island' are the long crescent beaches of soft sand and surf - great for running the dogs but they don't offer much in the way of grass and bushes to sniff.


I've been driving past this little spit of land most times I go out and I never stopped for whatever reason. I think it was because I thought someone owned it. There is a path that leads onto it that people obviously use to get to the end of the spit where they launch small boats because it's a shallow entry and you can drive a vehicle right up to the water's edge when the tide is in without fear of sinking into the mire. I don't think anyone does actually own it since it's unusable land that juts out into the bay on the other side of Caribou Island. The spit is about 100 feet wide when the tide is in and extends about 500 metres into the bay. The water is brackish and when the tide is out it smells strongly of sea water, mud and organics. The dogs love it.
Here is a small sampling of what I must deal with to satiate the dog's desire for fun and frolic in the sands of Nova Scotia. If you're thinking "Oh my gawd her truck must be filthy and stink of swamp muck" you would be right.

Remember Leeloo's cute white feet? A distant memory in the face of this kind of fun. I had to stay an extra half hour past my intended departure to let the sand and mud dry so it would fall off on it's own. It really does do that but you have to give it a chance. The white feet reappeared in good time.

How did the dogs get this way? That is a dish best simmered over a few days to absorb the absolute horror I felt upon witnessing the gleeful abandon with which Raimi and his fellows galloped through the low tide sludge. Halo of course stayed relatively pristine and spent most of her time at the edge of the water watching the antics of her kids and half niece (or whatever Leeloo is to her - she is the daughter of Halo's half sister's son) or following her nose through the grass and staying wonderfully clean and dry.