I am learning to see things in a new way around here. Ever since this pup came into our lives, I have been in “school” 24/7 — learning all about dogs, how best to care for, raise, feed, enrich and love them. As someone who did not grow up with dogs (used to be afraid of them in fact), this has been a massive learning curve for me. Some people are just naturally dog or pet people at heart. For me, it has been more of a gravitational pull in this direction. I love little Spruce so much, but there have been growing pains for all of us. We have gotten over some of the training humps, and we are understanding each other better as the days go by.

There are new perspectives daily, and today I realized that we are trusting each other more. Lately we have let Spruce run off leash at home for short periods of time while we are with him, and he is showing us that we can trust him not to run off. As long as he knows he can get a treat when he comes back, he is doing what he loves – running with glee and then circling back to us for a quick treat before running off again. He never runs far or out of sight – quite honestly he loves to run in circles, doing laps. We are learning this about him, and he is showing us that we can trust him to do what he loves. It’s pretty cool. And it is important, as we have a lot going on here and we need to be able to figure out ways to communicate and trust each other even more during the busy spring planting season.

Daily life has picked up around here and Spruce has surely noticed. After dark nights of mostly huddling around the fire, there are now chores after dinner, extra time to play outside, and even the occasional sunset walk. We are gearing up for a few weeks of intense planting — the first few 2022 apples trees are in the ground already, with a bunch more on the way, as well as other various fruit and nut trees. It’s fun to watch Spruce’s eyes come alive with curiosity as he sees us doing this and that and generally just moving around a lot more than we did all winter long. Not only am I excited for what’s in store this spring with the tree and shrub plantings, but I’m looking forward to seeing it through the eyes and tail wags of this sweet pup. We have some hurdles and challenges ahead to get all of these plants in the ground, but hopefully by next month’s update we will have our own little orchard taking root.