Nights out Lights out.

This is the house as seen from the old garage in the moonlight.

 There is something about being able to make a bed on the porch and read with a book light.

We enjoyed the unusually warm fall evening.

And bright and early, the tree trimmers showed up and started work.

Patrick from Midwest Excavation & Electric and his Dozer showed up.

Chainsaws and bulldozers. What more could a lady want?

At the end of these two projects, I am all done for at least a year. Time to enjoy things for a while and admire the work done.

What a whirlwind. 

Pics when they are all finished.

Now, to supervise.

Happenings.....

Hannah was not impressed with her 'outfit' for Halloween. I picked it up when I ordered a reflective vest for Charlie.

The look says it all. 

Hannah:
I'm not fond of this! I will be a statue and not move and give mom the LOOK.

However, Charlie didn't seem to mind his new reflective vest. It fits him so much better than the one I've had for him in the past. What a difference a few years makes in the availability of sizes.

I think they will wear these outfits while Trick or Treating with the grandkids at the end of the month. Not a bad idea to have a reflective little black dog!

I'll have to put the dress on Hannah a few more times so she can get over the statue thing. However, I've found that a t-shirt or snug stretchy dog shirt seems to calm her down quite a bit. I wonder if that is the same theory behind Thundershirts for dogs.

I've always thought 'clothes' for dogs were kind of dumb, but I have to admit, I am having fun with these two.

Drum roll please.

This is what it looks like from just above the house on the lane through the woods. There is a pretty green yard that now surrounds the concrete pad instead of piles of junk and weeds!

I cannot believe how beautiful the place looks now! The trees in the left side of the photo will be trimmed down so as not to be a hazard to the shed. 

From this shot you can see that our house sits in a hollow with a long drive that goes to the ridge. I do wish Rich had lived to see how beautiful it would look without the busted garage and stuff laying around.

Oh yes, we still have the outhouse. I was going to take it down, but maybe I'll clean it up inside and use it for rakes and shovels.

Yesterday in the late afternoon,

the tree dudes showed up and parked their bucket truck.

Charlie who is a my Security Chief

went out and made and inspection. Once he peed on all the tires, he pronounced the place secure.

He'll stay in the house when the crew comes back and starts up with the chainsaws. He really gets nervous over loud noises. Chainsaws, gunshots, and lightening all cause him to cower and shake.

Onward!

Today ought to be interesting. If the noises are too much for Charlie, I may have to take them somewhere for a while.

Hiking Wildcat

Sunday morning we went hiking at Wildcat State Park. 

The State Parks have a rule about leashed dogs which I follow strictly. When I stop to take photos, along a trail, I generally step on the leashes and tell them to sit. Hannah is learning what it is like to be a 'photography' assistant. 

It has taken all of my dogs at least a year to understand that they have to be near me when I stop for photos. Charlie is an expert now and I expect Hannah will be in another year [I hope!]

Anyway.

I was pretty unhappy to have to scramble when a gent with two angry Corgis and one angry mixed breed dog came charging at us growling off leash. 

To his credit, the owner tackled them and struggled to hang on to them while they were snarling and growling.

He grabbed them by their vests in the brush and it was all he could do to hold them. 

I passed without saying a word. But you bet I had a few things I wanted to say.

Hannah is trying out a reflective vest that Charlie has worn for a few years. It fits her perfectly. It never fit Charlie very well but I did find a new vest for him which should arrive some time on Monday.

This is a cool little footbridge over a ravine.

I knew that we'd meet other hikers as this is a well visited trail. When we saw other hikers coming, I'd take my dogs off the trail and work with Hannah on her sit and reactions to other people walking by.

She did pretty good when the other hikers ignored her, she came undone and bouncy when people started to coo to her. 

The Old Settler's Trail at Wildcat is a no hunting/no trapping zone in the park which is why I decided to go there. 

Pheasant season opened this weekend and the Reserve is usually packed with hunters and their pheasant dogs. The hunters I've met there have always been polite and mostly in complete control of their hounds.

Thankfully, we had hiked the coolest part of the trail along the sandstone/limestone/karst bluffs before the trail got busy with other hikers.

I got this beautiful abstract of lichen growing on the side of the sandstone.

Below that was some of my favorite mosses to find.

Snakeskin Liverwort

It grows in high moisture areas along bluffs and near springs. This was evidence of a fairly wet year for our area.

The hike was pleasant, out of the winds, and very unhurried.  We did come across more dogs on our hike and these dogs were so well behaved it made me blush.

Reminder to myself though, on a perfect fall weekend day, don't chose the most popular hiking trail in the area to explore.

Crispy

It was 29 F or -1.6 C

Saturday morning before dawn.

The first frost had arrived and it was a killing frost.

The first thing I noticed was that my most of my porch garden

flowers were frosted.

They would be brown and wilted by mid afternoon.

These were the Marigolds next to the porch. 

This was in the back pasture under a Hickory tree. I loved 
the pattern on the multiflora rose plant.

The dogs were anxious to get out and get moving, so off we went just after the sun broke over the ridgetop.

I took a lot of photos of all sorts of interesting plants covered in frost while the dogs followed me around the summer pasture running and sniffing.

 I wore my coveralls and a stocking cap. I wondered if  Hannah would get cold.

She has a lighter coat than Charlie who has a triple layered hound coat. She didn't seem chilled at all and was her normal bouncy self.

We walked towards the 'campground'. The Hickory trees had gone from green-yellow to brilliant in the past few days. With wicked winds  predicted for the weekend, I figured I'd better get one last shot of the trees before they turned barren.

After breakfast, we took a long hike on our land exploring the dry runs and the creek. Hannah was too busy tracking wild animals to bother Charlie very much. 

Charlie eventually found something quite interesting under a log and enjoyed digging and hunting [just like a dachshund would do]. I let him have at it since he enjoys it so much and never digs in the yard. 

He didn't find anything, but he sure enjoyed the digging and smelling. I assume a mouse or some such creature had burrowed under the log recently.

Most of the trees on our land had lost their leaves.

I did find Maidenhair ferns that were lit up by the sun as they started to turn brown. The colors were pretty delightful.

Finally at the very back end of our land I did find some maple trees that had not lost all of their leaves and was surprised to find a brilliant set of red leaves.

I took another walk much later in the afternoon to hunt up fungi and mushrooms. 

I'd spotted them in a section of our land while walking with the dogs, but it was too dark on the hillside to take any photos. I went back in the late afternoon and a tiny tripod to hold the camera still to take some shots.

I like fungi. I don't 

know what kinds these are

but they were fun to find and 

photograph.

This group was my favorite find of the day.
How lucky I was to find the sunlight

shining just right!

The rest of the day was busy cleaning the porch and putting gardening tools away.

Decorate

Thursday was a cold rainy pretty awful icky fall day which was bound to happen. So I am turned my thoughts to inside stuff.

First off after doing the outside stuff, I sat down and worked on my budget. You have no idea how absolutely droll that is. Well, you probably do know.

Then I went to the grocery store and gasped at prices like everyone else is doing these days. No meat in my cart and it was still $$$.

I came home to do some deep cleaning, organizing, putting summer stuff away and 👇

adding a few touches of fall here and there.

I went out in the rain and cut some flowers to put on the sideboard too. There is a Frost Advisory for areas around us. 

The afternoon got so gloomy that I decided to take my 'Ghost Train' set and try some photography with it.

The set is a 3 in 1 creation set. Last year I built the haunted mansion and enjoyed it. 

The set has 3 alternate builds. House, Ship, and Train.

During last winter, I took it apart and built the haunted ship. A few weeks ago, I took everything apart again and built the haunted train.

I didn't take a lot of photos of the Mansion or the Ship, but I figured to give the Train a good effort to see if I could come up with something interesting for Halloween photography.

To add the moon, I took an old photo from this spring and dropped it in the black above the train. I really didn't do a fantastic job at lighting everything properly, but it was a fun effort.

I need to learn some more tricks and tips at doing this sort of thing. 

Learning is the thing that keeps my brain functioning.

I re-arranged things again and took a snap with my cell phone. This was so much better! 

Table top photography is something I like to study on Fall/Winter evenings.

Lego sent me a gift when I purchased a new set a while ago. It is Halloween themed also.

A spooky tree the lights up when you push a button in the back of it. For the photo I taped the button on so I wouldn't have to hold it.

The 'fog' effect is from a Face Mister that spits out a light mist. I placed it behind the little light I used to light up the ghost from the left.

I got frustrated by not being able to light up the little witch on the right properly. 

Instead of figuring it all out, I just quit.

I needed to move on.

I took apart the Haunted Train and put it away. Next year in September I'll bring the bricks back out and rebuild the Haunted House and add the Spooky Tree to the set. 

Before all of my creative juices ran out for the gloomy day, I rearranged my favorite planter with some fake flowers and real pumpkins.

Once I get started arranging things, I often do more arranging. Besides, it was pouring down a hard rain outside.

Now the tree has something to smile about.

My other planter looks a bit more grumpy. Maybe it is because the twin sister witches were creating spells near him.

I'll have to go out and pick more flowers this afternoon, they just changed the Frost Advisory to a Freeze Warning.

It will warm up again next week so there is more outdoor fall to enjoy.

I can't believe it already the middle of October.

Trees

I noticed my neighbor on the ridge had someone cleaning up her dying trees at the edge of her yard. She has had these guys out there before doing work for her. I drove by slowly to see what they were doing.

One of the big guys gave a regular country wave as I started to go by. Now, by nature, I'm not the sort of person who just stops and talks to strangers. But. 

I'd been having trouble getting any recommendations for people that cut down trees. There are so many services that have sprung up in the past few years, it makes your head spin. I've called and had no luck. I've had others search for me with no luck.

So I stopped. I figured, no time like the now.

I'm little, this guy was HUGE as in very tall and very imposing. However, he smiled and walked towards me.

I stuck out my hand to meet his big meaty paw and said:

"Hi, I see you are dealing with Linda's trees. I was curious if I could ask you to stop by my place and look at two trees I have that need some work so they don't fall down on my pole shed."

"Oh sure we can! We have to finish up this job and do another job over at the church," he pointed across the ridge. "But we can come down and take a look at what you need this afternoon. I'm Don Stussy, and he pointed to another fella and that's my brother. We do trees."

I looked over and saw the Stussy Tree Service truck with a boom on it. Perfect. These guys were local and have been around for at least 30 years. 

"We did Linda's fencing back a while ago too." He offered.

"I recall that! You did a great job."

I gave him directions to my house and then waited for them to show up.

The guys showed up later and walked around the two locust trees I've wanted trimmed or cut down for years.

One of them walked around one of the trees and said, "Well dang look here, you can almost see through this tree." He pointed out where holes were in the upper trunk.

"Ma'am, these will come down, don't know why they haven't. I see what you mean, be a shame to ruin your nice pole shed."

The guys walked around and sized things up and we chatted.

"We'll be here next week after we get the church done," Don said. The others nodded. "We'll cut them down and you can use what we leave as posts. $800 bucks a tree, how's that sound?"

"Deal." We shook hands and I'll see these guys next week.

I've only been trying to find someone to do this job for 5 years. Granted, with the garage mess no longer there, the job will be much easier to do. 

No wonder I've never found these guys on the internet, they don't do internet. They are good ol' boys with cell phones and no time for social media. However, word of mouth is how they get referrals. 

Don handed me a card that was made out of card stock and home printed and laminated. I wrote down my cell number on the back of another and gave it to him.

Looks like I'll have a huge brush pile when all is done. Bonfire this winter anyone?

Not only that, I'll be able to look up at the NE sky in the future too!

Challenges

 Monday morning---> I hiked 8.77 miles with Hannah [or that is what Garmin told me!]

My Average Moving Speed was 3.5 miles/hr with Hannah along [or the average of 17 1/2 minutes per mile]. 

I was going for speed just to see what it felt like since most of my hikes are stop, walk, slow down, give Charlie a rest, have snacks and take photos.

I did this same route in 2021 for a work out when I was just starting to really get into hiking distances. It was the same distance. I felt I had hiked the route with speed and agility for 8.61 miles. [Mapmywalk was the program I used then]

My average speed was 25:31 minutes per mile which is 2.4 miles per hour.

November 2nd 2024 I did my second longer distance hike that was solo. No dogs, no friends, just me, snacks and water.

I recall hiking hard and only stopping to pee and drink water. The distance was 11.46 miles and my rate per mile was an average of 18 minutes a mile or 3 1/3 mph. That was a tough one and I recall the feeling of accomplishing something so amazing when I got to the car. 

This spring I hiked with a group and we averaged the normal speed of just walking and not hiking hard and fast. That hike was approximately 25 minutes per mile or 2.4 miles per hour. That hike was 7 hours long with the distance of 18 miles. That included 2 hours of rest time for others in our group. 

Hmmm. Why do I bring all that up?

Well, I plan on doing the 18 miler again in November pre gun season or the 11 miler. 

This time it is just me and my own pace. I'm not looking to keep up a 17 minute pace per mile for that length of time. I'm just looking to complete the course again but on my own. 

Maybe I'm an endurance junky. I like the runner's high of euphoria after completing a difficult work out or distance hike. Forget the tired achy feet. It is the feeling of achievement that gets me.

Now for a good laugh.

How in the heck did Hannah realize that we came to the stump on Little Canada Trail that I always put her and Charlie on for photos? I set them up there and give them a treat.

So here we are marching down the trail and Hannah leaps onto the stump without a prompt and does this:

She earned her treat!

For those who might be concerned, she romped and bounced on the whole hike. She was an excellent pace setter.

Today's pace was a huge surprise to me. I was extremely surprised when I looked up the details. In fact, I was floored.

Apparently there is a sport called Speed Hiking.

We saw some beautiful scenery. I definitely have to go back this week to this trail and enjoy a quiet easy hike so we can all enjoy the sights and fall colors.