On Freeman Pond

We love our backyard. For the average person to look at it, it probably doesn’t seem like much and is certainly not landscaped according to what you would see on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (is that still on TV?).

For running, we are fortunate to have a grass 500m track, combined with a 1km loop that meanders around the edges of our property line. This is great for barefoot running, or simply just collecting a few extra miles at the end of a run with the dogs.

It is also home to some of the other fun stuff we enjoy doing including snowshoe running, dogsledding, skating, xc skiing, mountain biking, unicycling, campfires, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, volleyball, badminton, frisbee, golf, star gazing, napping, dog park, swimming and kayaking.

The last two activities may surprise those who have visited in the summer as there is no body of water on our property. Each fall and winter however, our beloved backyard floods, possibly due to an underground spring (?), and we are left with a new and exciting playground. We have awesome skating in the winter, then a large pond in the spring. A few years ago, Brennan and Heather actually took advantage of this watering hole on a particularly warm day in early May to go swimming (brrrr).

This past weekend, was another opportunity to try something else in our backyard. With all the rain we’ve been having lately, our pond was the biggest and deepest that we’ve seen it and a perfect chance to add kayaking to our list of activities at home.

A quick trip to our friendly neighborhood kayak rental place and we were soon out on the water and seeing our property in a completely different way. Brennan and Heather had a blast spending the weekend kayaking through the trees, and at times during heavy snowfall. The dogs were somewhat intrigued by this new activity, but enjoyed following along just the same.