Ahhhhh!

It would be a good weekend to play the music from Frozen!

Let's talk weather for one second!

Or pretend it doesn't exist. Maybe I'll put up summer photos on my computer and have them scroll through so I can pretend it is summer.

Huh.

Saturday:

Sunday:

The weather icon says it it 'Fair' outside. I think they mean that it is mostly clear. I'm not even going to talk wind chill.

The truth be told though, winter is partially my favorite season. 

No bugs. 

No lawn mowing. 

No weeds to contend with. 

No humidity.

Can't get naked to cool off on a hot day.
The wild animals might see me and die of fright.

But I do like all seasons...just mainly not bugs and humidity.

Chores went well on Saturday morning despite the temperatures. 

Charlie had another opinion. He'd gone out did his thing quickly and then settled in on the couch blankets with some of my gear.

But at -20F [-29C]? I'll wait until it comes up to zero to go out and enjoy hiking.

I find it interesting that Fahrenheit and Celsius get closer and closer as it gets colder. But that is not true either!

Absolute zero is weird too. 0 Kelvin, -273.15 C, and -459.67 F.  Supposedly that is zero point energy. 

I looked that stuff up because I was curious about cold and how cold could it ever be? Zero point energy would mean, I guess that nothing would be alive.

Yikes!

So in thinking about cold weather, I got out my Ice Planet Minifig and decided to do a portrait of her. Yes, it is a she! I love that Lego has both genders doing tough jobs. I'm going to call her Shelly. 

Apparently, she doesn't mind icy places as she lives [according to Lego] on a planet of ice and snow.

Looks like she has a Robot Penguin. I guess it will need a name also.

Lastly. I did do some experimental photography yesterday with my Lensbaby Sweet 50.

I was in the mood for pink. Well, that was the one color of dried flowers I had.

In the evening, I tried watching some mysteries on the Boob Tube. Nothing held my attention. Instead I turned on some music via YouTube and let it keep me company.

So I created my own murder mystery with the Film Noir Detective from Lego. I processed it as 'Film Noir' also because it just seemed fitting.

Now I have to garb up and go water my little pony. The gals are still eating the huge pile of hay I put out last evening.

We are already up to -10!

A bit of fun

Just goofing around.

When the temps get way below zero and the winds are blowing, I do stay inside and mess around with photography experiments and make a mess.

I check in on a photographer who does 'macro' work indoors when the weather is nasty. He has some extremely creative ideas and he explores them.

He used a piece of cotton [like thick cotton balls] glued to a popsicle frame he made. He put a small hole in the middle of it and shot his flower shots through the cotton.

I thought this was interesting so I grabbed an old picture frame and did something similar with felt and bubble wrap.

I set things up on the table and then used a colored light to bounce of my background made out of tin foil.

Of course there were quite a few shots that didn't turn out as I would have liked, but then I kept experimenting. These were tiny dried flowers for crafting.

Finally I got one I could live with. 

I didn't have to do any editing for this shot as 'shooting' through the torn cotton gave the edges a soft hazy look. I thought I'd try it again and do a Lego Minifigure portrait.

Here are two samples. In the first you can see the foil background that creates a cool pattern behind this Dnd minifig. Her name is Lady of Pain. 

This second shot is with more of the cotton in the way and the lens slight pulled back. I also stood her on a Lego brick that lights up red to highlight her from inside. This shot almost looks as if she has cold air circulating around her or a mist of some sort.

What the set up looked like. 

What my table looked like on our first subzero day:

I had three sets of scenes built. My $1 dinosaur fit into a storyline I'd was creating for a series on Flickr.

The Queen of Pain sent her Zombie Emissary to the Minibots and spoke to Iggy [the minibot with one eye]. She wished to have a custom Ferrari built for her.

Iggy can usually get anything or steal it so he agreed to get a red Ferrari for her.

They got parts but had no idea how to put things together. Todd, the maintenance guy offered to help.

Since Iggy and his Minibots were taking too much time to do this. The Lady of Pain sent her messenger to Iggy to tell him to hurry up. Pretty nasty threat, I'd say!

[Don't worry, no toys were actually harmed in this photoshoot]

I guess all they had to do was ask Todd the Zombie Maintenance guy to help out.

It seemed Todd took it upon himself to help out the Minibots. He called in a couple of Zombie friends....they worked all through the night sorting and building.

I guess if you want a job done quickly and correctly, you hire Zombies. After all, they don't sleep and apparently their work ethic is fantastic.

Hopefully the Lady of Pain will enjoy her new ride.

Yippee! It is the Polar Plunge!

 

 

Take a hike

~~~

After a few days of staying indoors except for chores ---> which I did with my wonderful get up of goggles, mask, insulated coveralls, and insulted boots...and pasture checks in said sub freezing temps....

I decided that 18 F [-7.77 in C] was a really warm day and a good one to go exploring. Even Charlie wasn't going to let me outside without his permission.

He does have the bossy characteristics of a Dachshund when he really wants something.

Off we went. As soon as we hit the road, it started snowing. Well, I do have a Subaru and it is meant to deal with my steep driveway and poor weather, so we just continued on. 

We had ice to explore [the good kind that Mother Nature makes].

We went looking for some familiar ice formations.

I took my Infrared Camera so that I could photo the ice and it would show up better against the snowy background.

For anyone interested, this was shot in IR Chrome. Chrome was used during WWII to differentiate between camouflage and real foliage. The filter was developed to make anything with chlorophyll to show up as red or hot pink. Any 'fake' camo would show up easily.

The Infrared filters are for more creative photography. I like to use it in the winter to separate the ice formations from the snow surrounding them.

Here is the view on the last part of the trail through Hemlock trees.

Below is a glimpse of the Kickapoo River which still has a bit of open water showing. I imagine by Saturday or Sunday that will be all ice. However, the river still flows underneath. 

I've walked this trail more times than I can count. Each time I go, I seem to discover something different.

What I discovered this time is that the 'pines' I was walking through are actually Hemlocks. Frankly, I never thought of what kind of pine tree it might be until I was fascinated by the snow falling on the little needles and then the tiny pine cones that reminded me of Tamarack trees.

Chippy accompanied us, however, Charlie wouldn't sit with him at the end of the trail. He was more interested in the coyote tracks in the snow.

Still, the scene was quite beautiful with the falling snow making everything look soft.

The roads were snow covered by the time I drove home. 

Weather Report ---> Kinda Cool

Well. We are doing a Polar Vortex thing here in our area, again. Last week the weather was mild and rather comfortable.

We are now celebrating when the temps rise above 0 F. This morning, I didn't do chores until it was -10 F, and yes, I stayed quite comfortable outside. It may look goofy, but there is something nice about not being cold while out in the cold.

 We are in a Cold Watch which will become a Extreme Cold Watch Thursday late through Saturday. My girls seem to have everything under control with their lovely thick winter coats.

More snow is supposed to happen tonight and Wednesday. -20 to -40 windchills are forecast to go along with that. Looks like a good time for a nice big pot of homemade soup.

Regular temps are predicted to look like this  👇

Brrrrr.

Thursday during the day looks decent enough that I might get out and do a bit of hiking with Charlie, but I doubt I'll be out and about Friday other than chores.

The shots below are from a bit of wandering around our forest today.

I just don't mess with extremely cold temps. I had enough of that when I was working night shifts at a place 30+ miles from home. Driving home in -19 temps in the middle of the night was concerning. 

Things break in the cold. 

Thank goodness, my old beater didn't mind cold weather.

The summer pasture wasn't full of tracks but the forest had many tracks. Deer had been browsing and making beds inside the woods.

Charlie didn't want to go with me for some reason, so I took Chippy.

Chippy rather enjoyed the adventure.

He always looks happy!

Well, there you go. There is the WI weather report for SW WI.

It's gonna be kinda cool.

Visit

My youngest son and his fiancé came for a visit this weekend. I don't know if 'youngest' is really appropriate for someone in his mid 40's, but there you are.

They didn't bring the kids so it was a much more different experience than I've had before with them. I got to sit down and actually converse rather than have them dealing with all the kids.

I finally found out how they met, why they met, and how Jer's life has changed since they met. Jer is the kid that wore his heart on his sleeve. 

An Angelic child? Nope. Funny? Sometimes. A Pain? Yes. Hyper? Yes. 
Obnoxious? Sometimes. Big Heart? Mostly. Organized? Nope. Impulsive? OHHHH yes.

I could add more regarding my 'kid'. But I've settled on not trying to tell him on how I think HE should live his life. 

I'm the parent and I always want to see my sons do their absolute best.

Jer's relationship with Em seems to have pointed him in a different direction. He told me he was no longer going to be mad at the world. [Truly, I don't know what for.]

Sunday morning I took them to breakfast [they'd taken me to supper!]. Then I asked him if he'd like to visit Readstown's indoor Flea Markets. They were game.

Crazy Frank's has two stores in this small town. Two stores that are basically huge Garage Sales by Vendors. You can find baby shoes to antique glassware, toys, clothes, and absolute junk in both locations.

While we were in the first one, Jer said we should play a game next time he visits. The game would involve going into to these Crazy stores and purchasing an outfit from head to toe from the items we could find.

He put this hat on and modeled it for us. 

The crazy thing was, we walked around and found the most ridiculous clothes we could find. Future planning for the 'contest'. 

Jer had his eye on white and rainbow white jumpsuit. I started looking at some of the odd and crazy weird hats. Em picked up a pair of rubber cowboy boots that had daisies on them. We laughed and giggled as we went through all the booths and items.

I did find a 'monster toy' for a $1 along with a nice bud vase to add to my collection for $3, and a $1 old metal tractor.

We actually spent hours in both stores, enjoying wondering about who collected these things and how junky some stuff was and how nice other pieces were. I found a rocking chair that I fell in love with. Dangit! Sold!

The weather outside was rather horrid. The temps were below zero and the windchills pretty nasty. Plus it started snowing again while we were in the stores.

But we had a blast. 

The stores got seriously busy while we were there. It seems to be a place that anyone can go on a crappy day to browse through other folk's stuff on a subzero snowy day.

Thing is, my weekend would have been a bit lonely. I do get lonely once in a while so there is that.

So my weekend was full of laughter and chit chat catching up with one son who had been so distant for so long. [actually it was a mutual distance thing, I hadn't liked his attitude or what he was doing and he didn't care if I cared or not]

Let's make deals

 You all might recall the guy who is a neighbor, a farmer, and runs an excavation and gravel business.  He redid our steep driveway a couple of years ago. 

He has remained a solid guy for snowplowing at $50 per plow. He also checks in on me when he does plowing. I call that pretty neighborly. He knows I'm here on my own.

A week ago Frank came while I was feeding critters. I didn't have my car moved out of his way, he said he would plow around it.

Then the conversation.

"Say....whaddyagoing to do with that Chevy Truck over there?"

Junk it.

"Can I buy it for parts?"

Can I trade you for plowing?

"That's a lot of plowing."

That's less $ out of my pocket.

"That's true. I can do that."

Good Trade then, if you can use it?

"Good Trade."

I reached in through the window of his truck and we shook hands.

Deal--- Done.

There are still places in the US where a handshake is the real thing. The art of trading in a rural area is better than money or contracts.

Today Frank stopped by again. He asked if he could look at the skid steer I had. I'd previously asked him if he knew of anyone who would be interested in it. 

I am not qualified to use it or care for it. I don't get along with machinery. It is a nice piece of equipment and shouldn't just sit in a shed and get dusty and eaten by mice.

I helped him start up the skid steer and left him to it in the shed. He ran it through its paces while I tended to the mules.

When he turned it off, I walked in. 

"How much for it?" he asked.

I told him. I priced it on what we'd paid for it. I know could get more if I advertised on Market Place but I didn't want to deal with strangers calling and asking questions I couldn't answer. OR strange men coming to my place.

Then I took him out to where the hay fork and plow were sitting on the old hay hauler. I told him that the implements went with it.

We stood while the snow fell all around us. Frank seemed to be thinking.

"The implements too?" 

Yup, they go with that particular skid steer.

I asked Frank if he would consider some Dozer and Excavation work for me. I explained my project ideas while we walked back to the house. 

Frank stopped and looked at the fallen down garage.

"I can take care of that for you too," he said. "We can do this and things will look great for when you are ready to have your auctions. I'll be happy to help out."

I was surprised and pleased. I said I wanted to bring this place back to its glory days.

When I sell this place, I want people to see this incredibly beautiful place we have without all the piles of junk laying around.

Frank nodded. "It is a beautiful place you have here. Cleaning it up will really make it shine."

Another handshake. He was giving our old truck new life as a 'parts donor'.  

He was giving the skid steer a good home too. Plus with our trade deals, we'd both come out on top.

Funny how that is. The things that were so precious to Rich will be going just a couple miles away and put to good use.

Let's make a deal.

Wyalusing ice and Chippy

Mr. McCool and I went adventuring again today. It seems that I feel quite driven this winter to keep busy and keep at it. [I added the cool sunglasses with AI.]

I am thinking of how I can get out each day and plan an adventurous hike. I feel driven to go find ice formations. The house is too quiet. The logged forest that used to bring me peace and solitude has been destroyed [my words].

Thursday morning broke with sunny skies and temps that were to get up to 20 F. The WNW winds were to be light.

Perfect.

I put my sidekick in his car seat and we headed out. 

I wanted to check out Wyalusing's ice caves. I knew they wouldn't be spectacular after all the rain and warm temps we had, but I don't like to compete with the crowds that would come on the weekends. Week days seem perfect for exploring State Park trails.

This formation is called the painted cave because of all the colors in the rocks. I couldn't believe how brilliant the pink and the yellowish orange colors were on this visit.

We did go down inside of it. The size of this formation is tremendous, larger than any rock shelter I've ever been in before. It looked like someone had dumped blue food coloring on the ice formation itself. 

[Vandals!!!!]

We took the well traveled trail to the second cave. I could hear the water running even before I got there.

This photo doesn't give the viewer any idea just how large this formation is. 

Since getting in close felt a bit iffy, I decided to stay in the 'safe' zone and shoot what I could.

I was entranced by the portions of ice that had dropped to the bottom of the rock formation and had new and interesting patterns of ice forming from the melting ice above along with the spring water that flowed down and froze.

For perspective, these ice formations on the ground are taller than I am.

It never ceases to amaze me, what art Mother Nature creates.

I could have spent hours here, but decided to move on. After all, Charlie is quite the task master when he believes we should move on.

For this trip, we brought a mascot.

Chippy. He is quiet. He travels well in a backpack and requires very little food.

Plus....

Charlie didn't try to tear him apart. 

We have some more ice formations to check out on Friday if everything goes to plan. 

Life in the .... frozen lane?