Happy Halloween!

I didn't do any decorating this year for Halloween as generally no one comes to our place. The Gargoyle was a new photo I did yesterday when the storms moved in. 

The rest below are from years past.

When I decorated the woods out back with creepy ghosts and Twana Stick figures...

Happy Halloween if you celebrate it. 

The Meadow

There is a chill in the meadow that echoes my thoughts.

The frost lays heavy and hard across the land.

I wait while leaning against an old oak.

Watching.

A murder of crows breaks the morning quiet.

I wonder what set them off.

They circle in the east and fly off over the silver meadow.

I wait.

Eventually they come one by one out of the forest.

Searching silently.

Morning breaks and they disappear back into the brush.

The day begins.

Dreams...

Dreams...

The air grows crisp and the trees

release their leaves...

in colors of red and gold.

Barberries' sharp thorns

catch leaves like lost dreams.

~~Val 

 

Weekend Wrap up....

The past few weeks have been insane...right? Or do I just get too excited over stuff???

Maybe I need to go sit in the forest for a day and just not think or do....

Sometimes things happen in succession and drive a person up the Crazy Wall.
When I got home from CrossFit Friday morning I parked the 'Ru, then walked out late in the afternoon to see this....
By the time I had the 'fake tire' on, Ariel arrived. 

Ariel cooked Grandpa his absolute favorite meal on Friday night. Liver and Onions. She pretty much knew how to make it and I assisted. 

What a cool young lady. She wanted to celebrate her birthday weekend by cooking a meal she knew Grandpa would love.

Very thoughtful.

Saturday was to be a shopping spree for books that Ariel had in mind to add to her collection. She is a bibliophile. She had spent 3 months working overtime and extra hours to save up for some specific books she had in mind.

With a flat tire and no repair shops open over the weekend, I let her do the driving while I navigated to the stores she wanted to go to.

We wandered Barnes & Noble for hours.

We found a series of books that we both thought would be fun to read--- The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly! 

Next she took me to Chick fil A for a late lunch. 

We sure had a laugh over this sign-->

We made another stop at Michaels to browse yarn and crafty stuff.

When we turned into the last isle we found Dragons! We both think dragons are cool mythical creatures and Safari makes some really fantastic dragons. Ariel admired one in particular. I picked up one myself and told her to pick 2 as an addition to her birthday gift. I got the white snow dragon...

Having a driver was so nice. I didn't have to do much other than help Ariel get around unfamiliar territory. 

Monday was all about getting the car fixed [again], calling in medications, talking to the Palliative Care Nurse, talking to the LP company, and fixing the land line phone issue. 

Some days I miss my previous life where I was busy with work and other interests.

These past couple of weeks were wonderful. I had so many things to look forward to.

...

Meanwhile... a hike with Aurora!

 There it was, our annual date for our fall walk at KVR! Last year we did our fall hike at Wildcat Mtn State Park. 

Last year, our hike was in mid November. 

This year we were back at the Reserve. I was hoping to find brilliant and beautiful fall scenery, but depending on the type of trees, the colors were mostly gone. However that doesn't take away from the beauty of hiking with a friend and just having a nice conversation as we went.

A few shots of the trail on Big Valley. 

A section of Maples....

Poplars and birch, I think. 

Looking down on Big Valley from a high point
on the trail. The colors are muted but
still there.

Looking back through the trees...
I used an Orton Effect on this shot.
In my head I wanted this to have a warm fuzzy Autumn
feeling...

And...of course, I had to play a bit on the trail...

Mini-me and Charlie spot Big Foot!!!! How exciting!

After we finished off Big Valley, we headed over to the 9-10 trail which runs along the Kickapoo River. I wished that the trail to the little out of the way lookout had an easier access, I wanted to get Aurora up on the bluff by the pine tree I like so much.

But the thorny Prickly Ash barred the way. If you don't know Prickly Ash, it will tear at clothes if you are not wearing tough clothing like Carhartt.

I get to this spot each spring if possible because of all the bluebell flowers along with the hepatica...not to mention the skunk cabbage and rock formations. [ 9-10 trail in the spring ]

Last spring the same view...sort of... the spot I go to is on top of that bluff pictured there. The view down on the river is beyond stunning. Alas...not this day!

I sure had a whirlwind-ish week. 

But our hike was such so fun!

Oh Oh...Rant ~

I am so proud of us for taking all of the steps over the past few years to reduce our use of independence on LP gas and electricity.

We remodeled with new windows, insulation, and yadda, yadda. Here's a photo grab collage from the blog I kept track of when remodeling. The little house had to have plastic over the windows, and doors. We also would get frost on the inside of the north door pictured in the before shot.

We added a high tech cabin wall heater and two years ago we added a mini split to reduce our cost of heating and cooling.

Viola! We did!

Indeed we did!

I got my fall LP fill of 29 gallons yesterday and the driver left the billing. I was billed 54.00 for the fuel. The next line stunned me. $318.69 was due on the account. Which included 54.00 for the current fill.

Gobsmacked! WHAT?

I called the local office. Guess what?

I only used 184 gallons of LP last year. According to the LP company, that is not enough fuel for them to rent me the tank for the year. [They just started rent charges a year ago]

Imagine...you are on a very fixed budget and you get a $300 fill AND a rental bill for a couple of hundred dollars...OUCH! OUCH!

Sooooo, to encourage me to use MORE LP or get a smaller tank, they up the rent to nearly $300 for the year. I blew a head gasket politely on the guy that answered the phone. Normally we are sent a letter in the summer giving us an opportunity to order an earlier LP delivery at a lower cost. Plus a letter regarding the policy of tank rental.

I said that it was rude and unprofessional of the company to spring a surprise like this without prior notification. He agreed.

Then he explained that IF I wanted to switch to a smaller tank like a 250 gallon tank, he'd reverse the charges and they would replace the 500 gallon tank. See, the excuse is, they need the larger tank somewhere else. [Insert snarky thoughts here. I drive by their place and they have 100's of large tanks in their yards...hmmmm].

I said so if I ask for a smaller tank how do you handle it now? I have 400+ gallons. Do you give me money back for all that LP and deliver a new tank? 

Nope. 

Come spring they will come out and swap out tanks. BUT, the tank has to be at 30% or less for them to safely do that.

SO. I have to use all that propane before May. 

I'll have the last laugh. I agreed to the swap. Well. Sort of. He reversed the charges on the account [we will see].

I will call around to all the other hungry LP dealers and make my own deal for the spring. 

The worst part of all of this? My husband helped the original owner of this LP company years ago. He helped repair vehicles, tanks, and whatnot. Hubby would call around to get competitive costs and report back to the owner what other companies charged.

We got huge discounts on our fills for all of that. 

Times change, I get that. 

But. Seriously? We worked so hard to make a more efficient home to use less energy and then get penalized for it. Huh?

So now I have to use the LP heater more this winter. Otherwise how will they pick up the tank if I only use less than half of the tank for a winter????

Rant over. But at least I've paid for all that LP already so I won't get billed again this year.

Happiness is a well insulated house for winter. Fingers crossed.

Rest is nice....

 Almost a full moon!

And love is in the air!!!!

In fact, love is in the air so much, that he jumped the hot wire after the doe did and....he ended up chasing her through our front pasture and beyond the forest to the west.

Cold frosty mornings bring out the Rut Season and the bucks become mate happy. They can't help it. But it sure is fun to watch.

I stood behind a tree [wearing insulated coveralls, little gloves, hat, and insulated boots for about 40 minutes in the dark waiting for the first light.

I was rewarded with the following views.

I do this right up to the start of gun season in the early mornings and late afternoons. It is my quiet time, where I can sit or stand still and just be...

and watch wildlife....

Coyote visitor to our side/front yard while I was up at the neighbor's shooting the Northern Lights.

Back again...I wonder what attracts them?

However, it seems they don't go into the pasture as the mules would not tolerate their presence.

And then off again a couple of nights later. I changed the location of the camera and set it to a 10 second video along with 3 shots.

We'll see what the coyote is up to perhaps from a different angle. In truth, our land is 1/4 mile long but it is 500 deep wide. 

So they could just be going from the woods to the east to the woods to the west. Rarely do they track through the area where the girls are. The mules chase them and if they caught them, they could very well kill them.

~~~~~~

We've had 3 nights with temps below freezing so the hard frosts are here to stay at least until tomorrow. But the flowers are done, the leaves are dull, and the winds are picking up to blow them away.

Oh Fall Beauty, you were so fleeting but enjoyable!

There and back again...

How do you top a night with a once in a lifetime Aurora Borealis show? 

Go on a mini trip.

So with a little bit of sleep under my belt, I drove to Kenosha to visit my eldest son, wife, and of course Aurora...Rory!
They told me that we were going to go hiking on Saturday and use the drive to the Kettle Moraine State Park as Rory's nap time. 

First I had to get through a night at the hotel. I awoke very early since I dropped into bed very early. But I've always wanted to see the Harbor area along the Kenosha Lakefront early in the morning. I know I posted a quick cell shot on the last blog. 

But here was my efforts with a long exposure in blustery winds.

I've never done cityscapes before but thought it would be fun to get a shot of the Kenosha water plant and part of the harbor behind the hotel.

My intention was to walk along the Art Promenade and take shot from the end of it. But I didn't. The sun was changing the sky quickly and I was afraid that I'd miss the sky shot I wanted by walking to the end. I settled for a slightly different angle.

Next time I'll take the boardwalk to the light house that's in the distance also. So many opportunities! So little time!

Here is where I biffed the shot. I started a 13 second exposure and by accident moved the camera. The cause was a huge windgust. Why not? It ended up being a wildly crazy exposure.

On the way to Kettle Moraine, I got to sit in the back seat with Rory who played peek a boo with me in her car seat. She didn't do the normal peek a boo, but hid her eyes by turning her head and then popping back to look at me an laugh.

And it filled me up with so many wonderful feelings.

With the hike over, we headed back home. I should have napped with Rory in the back seat. I didn't.

I actually slept 'in' on Sunday morning until 5! I made some hotel coffee and packed up. I wanted to go to a more open spot on the lakefront. I went to Pennoyer Park and was surprised to see quite a few fisher people. The salmon run was on and the fisher folks were at the headwaters of the Pike River where the salmon were coming in.

Just as things were brightening up a father and young boy walked past me in the predawn and I could not resist the shot...

My weather app said that the lakefront had high waves and gale force winds predicted for the late afternoon. I regretted having to leave the lake. The wild winds and waves from Lake Michigan are something to see and appreciate.

I was cold, so I wrapped up with another shot or two and headed over to see the 'kids'.

Did I say how much I loved the Lakefront? Yes, I do!

We headed over to Petrified Spring Park, fondly known locally as Pets and took a nice long walk/hike.

The trees were absolutely at high color and gorgeous. River was was up from the storm we had on Saturday night but the skies were blue and it was a picture perfect day with many people out walking and others taking photographs.

There were salmon fisherfolk in the river and others watching on some of the bridges. The atmosphere of the park felt very festive.

We said our goodbyes in the parking lot and I headed west. I was happy to be heading home and sad to be heading home.

I'll miss these guys...

What a great mini trip this was. 

Mini - vacation

Me, before coffee, even if it is decaf. Yep, I feel very ogre-ish.

However, I slept well for being in a hotel and in a downtown location.

I was in bed by 8:30. No night life for me! 🤣, I did take a walk along the back side of the hotel. So many people were out either at parties on the Marina or fishing quietly along the rocky shoreline.

I was really tempted to grab my camera and take some pictures from the promenade by Harbor Park.

I decided that sleep was more tempting.

I struck gold at the BAM-- bricks and Minifigures store by scoring the purchase of a hard to find Ogre and some other minifigs.

The Ogre was the one next to the brewing coffee....

I even built a custom minifig. She is the blonde with the sword.

I got to have supper with Rory and Mom and Dad. 

No pics of Rory, we don't post them. However, I can say that she is as cute as a button and full of smiles. A...dor...able as all get out!

Saturday greeted me wayyyy too early. I woke at 3:30 and tried like heck to get back to sleep. Which never happened. However, I did get brave and walk out part of the way to the Art Promenade near Harbor Park.

The winds were fierce coming off the lake but I decided to try a 'long' exposure of the morning light anyway. This is a cell phone shot which didn't do the dawn sky any justice at all. The promenade is on the right and I was still on the street with this shot. 

I haven't taken anything off from my good camera yet because...well...

because I have been too busy! No time for anything but fun with Aurora...Rory, and mom and dad!

I mean, who can pass up the chance to have meals, play time, drive time, hike time, and more play time ....with this little charmer????

LOL...don't you just love faces hidden? That is okay. I don't mind. Mom and Dad have made the choice to not post her face and I totally get it. Too much media these days!

So there she is! Crawling and do all those great things little ones do!

This is just a quick synopsis of me on my mini vacation!

Hubby's supper delivered to him last night by Olive!!!
Morel mushrooms and Pepperoni Pizza.

What a great time I am having being ON my Own... on a mini vacation...

and enjoying such a great time with my wonderful son and his wife...

and even more fun enjoying Rory!

Best

Time

Ever

[yeah...and I even sort of learned a new game which I was too tired to comprehend last night]

I'll be back home tonight but don't hold your breath. I may have to recover from all of this fun!