Chowder died. And summer left us, too.

I have hesitated writing about this here on the blog, since I'm in such deep grief and shock.

My sweet dog Chowder died unexpectedly three weeks ago.  There are no words.  I wrote about it here if you want to know more about my beloved little guy.

This post here is to commemorate the last weeks of summer, when he hiked with us and accompanied us to the river.  He was with me all the time, either on my lap or somewhere by my side.

I miss him terribly.

Life has been so busy and filled with grieving my little friend that I haven't showed you any pictures of the end of summer here on the blog.

Here are some photos from various hikes when Chowder was still with us. I wish I had taken more photos of him.

Below is an excursion to Diabolo Lake.

And here a hike to Blue Lake (by Mount Baker) with the dogs and Eva plus best friend.

Then a hike near Bellingham, and watching paragliders jump off the mountain (I did this 25 years ago at the same spot with a hanglider).

A couple of weeks after Chowder died, the whole family hiked up to Squire Pass out of Darrington.  It wasn't the same without him, and I cried the whole time.  Our big dog Raka misses him, too.  She seems a little lost right now.

The day after Chowder died, I had to teach our homesteading and wilderness retreat.  I couldn't cancel it because we had people travelling from out of state, and a part of me knew the distraction would be good for me.

It was a wonderful event, with great participants.  They were so gracious and let me cry whenever I needed to.

The end of summer has been filled with harvesting and preserving food.

We grew more potatoes this year than ever, and the picture below only shows you a tiny fraction of the harvest.

We are also super happy with our onion harvest.  And I won't even mention all the zucchinis and the zucchini muffins I am baking...

I canned figs because this year our tree was so prolific.

I also canned beets and pears - treasures in the dark of winter.

Sorry that I don't have much to say today.  I'm muddling my way through the sadness.

I will leave you with more images from summer.

PS: Remember to reserve your spot at our retreat in Germany next July. We already have FIVE people signed up, and we can only accept a couple more!