Quiet Weekend

 

There is the Wild Man in the skid steer.

I mentioned that I wanted to pull some multiflora rose bushes with the 4 wheeler, or chop them down and maybe then pull them out afterwards.

Rich thought he'd just grub them out with the skid steer. Oh and boy he did. He made a mess and tore things up like mad. But I just smiled because he felt good enough to operate his skid steer for a bit. 
He wanted to get down into the trees and muck around, but his fuel ran low so...whew. He had to go park it.

I'm so glad we don't own a bulldozer.

Sunday morning, my temp thingy on my smarty pants phone said it was 47 degrees out. I grabbed a heavy sweatshirt and Charlie and we headed out to watch the sun come up over the Merry Meadow. Brrrr. How did I think PJ pants and a sweatshirt with chore boots were going to be warm?

But the colors in the sky were interesting so I walked back towards the meadow.

It was worth it...

I heard some thumping that was strange and a bit weird sounding. I couldn't think of anything in the woods that would cause that. And to my surprise I counted 6 Tom Turkeys beating the hell out of each other.

They were literally running at each other and bumping chests then grabbing for each other's throats.

And...they were not uttering a sound. No gobbles, nothing. Just running at each other and wham!

This is one of those times I wished I owned a seriously Big Assed Lens. You know one of those telephoto lens that could take me right up to the Tom Turkey's faces. Alas.
I'd love to own one but probably wouldn't carry it on just a morning walk. This was my 14mm-150mm Olympus lens. It did a fair job with the low light. I took about a dozen shots and this one was the better of them.

One Tom in the left side was strutting after his battle, two are locked in a death grip and a loser is ducking under the line fence.

The fence? It has been that way for 30 years, this portion belongs to my neighbor to maintain. Yeah, it will stay that way for another 30 years. There is a hot wire to keep my critters off it.

I spent Sunday afternoon sitting on the porch with Rich and Charlie. We enjoyed the warm temps, no bugs, and sunshine. 

The veggie garden is a mess and I have to start working on that. I need to plan out some flowers for the east side of the house. My mental list of To Do's is long. 

I registered with the Wisconsin Vaccination Site and already received an appointment. 

Here's to the mini happy dance.

This guy is on one of the trees over by my shady rock place. I'm hoping to transfer some fern plants when they come up along with some other natural plants that grow in the woods. 

At least for now, the tiny Buckthorn trees are gone and I have a quiet spot for some afternoon reading if I want to get a stone's throw from the house yet feel like I am in a private place.

Welcome April!

I've been a bit out of sorts lately. Let's go ahead and blame it on hours and hours of cutting down brush/Elderberry trees and piling brush. I even participated in a weak attack of a burdock patch. 

I don't know my limits sometimes. I think, just a bit more...just a bit more! Then there was the old tree that blew over on the line fence. Hand sawing and more fixing in the cold winds is hard on these gnarly old hands.

So I decided to NOT do any brush work for two days [it was too windy any way]. I read two books and did some hiking in the creek with Charlie. 

Our state just opened up vaccinations for all ages. That means I can sign up on Monday! There is an option for J&J locally here in town, I'm hoping to get it and be One and Done. 

I am all for still being socially distanced and using precautions. But with both of us vaccinated, I will feel a bit safer going to an open air gym this summer, hiking with more friends, and even visiting.  People who are not immediate family and don't get vaccinated or use any precautions will not stay with us in our house. 
I think I lost a friendship over that ruling. 

My thoughts on that? Well, they were the only folks that came and stayed anyway except for the occasional visit from my son. So not much will change.

I cannot impose my will on others. Oh wait, OF course I try to! That is human nature.

Found things yesterday.

Elfin cups:

Tree reflections at the fence line between my west neighbor and I.

Sleeping Dragon:

The dragon is in a spot I recently cleared. There is a small rock outcropping that I cleaned up last fall and pulled all the noxious weeds and buckthorn sprouts. I've seeded it to grass and plan on putting ferns and perhaps some wild ephemerals in the area. I'm going to try and make it my little 'get away' spot close to the house.

Cell phone shots of on top of the rocks and below the rocks. I used hay chaff to cover the grass seed.

The mules won't be able to get in here, I'm putting up a single hotwire to keep them out. 
This is very close to the house too. I'm going to get a few chunks of wood as stools so I can come out here and read in the summer. Well, that is the thought.

My deep shaded woodland experiment. 

Well there it is. Happy April 1st. 
I'm taking some long time friends who used to be neighbors on the Ma & Pa's hike today.

I am looking forward to it. I used to babysit her children. Now the oldest is taking driver's ED! 

Time flies.