Fall, November

On October 17th, we had a killing frost and I spent most of the morning outside taking 'frosty' photos. I'm going to put a couple of them here because with the past 4 days of rain and fog, I haven't been out really to get shots.

 

This next shot was an experiment with in camera double exposure. 

I held a leaf up to the sky and took a shot of a oak leaf then moved the camera towards the Hickory Trees and shot the second shot. It turned out kind of cool. I tried other double exposures and failed miserably. But this one is a keeper.

November can be a downer in a way. But another photographer--and blogger-- Aurora has told me to look for different colors in November. Granted, in the Midwest, November can be rather dull.

So, I keep looking. 

The first 5 days of November have been quite dull with endless drizzle and fog. I decided to get out and explore the forest in the light drizzle.

Oh the surprises you can find in a foggy drizzly forest.

Slime Molds! Pretty little tiny orange clusters of them on a damp log.

Red Raspberry Slime Mold!

The above shot was taken with my cell phone. Below are two shots of this same slime mold I found in the summer of  2022.

They grow slightly larger and 

then turn brown within a day.

The slime molds are quite small and usually I can't find them unless they are in the colorful stage.

Below is probably Dead Man's Fingers which grows on or near dead oak logs. I've never found these items before in November.

Not ever.

Perhaps it is because of the extended long fall warmth we've had with the moist air we've had between rains and heavy fall dew.

Sorry it isn't larger, I'll have to return with the macro lens and see if I can get some good shots on Friday. 

Little Miss Mary decided she wanted in on the fall action so here she is collecting leaves on a deer trail.

She looks quite happy doesn't she? 

She also pointed out some young Turkey Tail Fans to me on another log....although....

um, I guess we were being followed!

All worked out in the end, I found some incredible November surprises and Little Miss Mary and I collected some pretty leaves to put on my countertop.

I am hoping to get out tomorrow afternoon with my macro lens to check out the slime molds. As I said, I don't ever recall seeing them ever except in the summer with high heat and humidity.

Happy November. 

I guess maybe it won't be so dull after all. 

Even my co-explorers had a good time in the foggy drizzle.

[Yum, deer bone!]

Orange, Red, Sky, Rock, Toys & Tuesday

Random catch up

Below is the sunrise when I left Friday for a trip to Wausau to see my younger son's family.

We did a lot of things where I didn't bring my camera along other than the cell phone. The dogs learned quite a bit about city life and I was worried that they would bark at everything being country dogs.

They did not! They didn't bark at other dogs barking on the other side of the yard fence. They didn't act like idiots when they saw people walking on the sidewalk.

At the Trick or Treat event they were surrounded by 100's of people and kids. They minded their manners and Hannah did pull on her leash but never acted reactive. Both dogs were polite and stood still when people asked to pet them.

I feel like my work with Hannah is paying off. 

Halloween morning we went hiking at Rib Mountain State Park, it has been ages since I was there.

Below is the view from near one of the ski lifts. I shot this through a sumac branch that caught my eye. I still haven't figured out how to get around to all the neat places in Wausau. I need someone who is native to the area to help me out!

 

Who can resist these bright colors?

Rib Mountain is known for cool rocks and it is also one of the oldest geological formations on earth estimated at a  billion years old.

We hiked with the kids and dogs and then of course, it started to drizzle.

Sterling, my grandson brought his Teenage Ninja Turtles. These are definitely collector toys.

We did a little toy photography while hoping the rain would go away.

The rain got harder and harder so we raced back to the car to keep from getting soaked.

Sterling and I spent some time playing with photography at his house also. He brought me some characters from Five Nights at Freddie's and we had a little photo shoot in his stepmom's plants. It was all about kids, characters, and cool Halloween decorations.

He made up the story and we went with it. 

He wanted to do stop action shots and I did try setting something up. I only got a few shots in before we were overrun by sisters, cats, and dogs.

But it was worth the effort anyway. 

We never got to finish it.

You can probably guess that it was going to be one character rolling the ball to the second character.

Election day?

Well, it was warm and raining. It was a great day to do errands along with making sure my vote counts. 

WI had some surprising results! 

We have a new Governor and a bit of a blue wave in our state which I wasn't sure would happen.

A bit of chaos and lots of fun

I took off on Friday morning and headed to Wausau Wisconsin with both dogs in the back seat. It promised to be an adventure.

My youngest son and his family live in Wausau. Lily was his first child. 

The last time I'd gone to Wausau for Halloween was in 2015  Lily and I went hiking at Rib Mountain on a rainy day.

[This was really one of the last times I was able to travel away from home, Rich had just gone through a summer of cancer treatments and was holding his own.]

Lily, pictured below was 10. She is now a grown woman and works night shifts at a nursing home.

Saturday morning, we jumped in the car and headed over to Rib Mountain on Saturday morning with the dogs. The dogs were the big attraction and the kids had to share time with Charlie's leash.

It started to drizzle and we stuck it out as long as we could without everyone getting soaked.

Guess who found a stump!

Sterling brought his very cool action figures along and we had fun taking some photos of them.

And...the rains came, but it did not deter the Trick or Treaters in this area. Apparently this nice neighborhood really gets into Halloween with decorations and experiences for those who come.

The Police and Sheriff's Department do traffic control and public service during the Trick or Treat hours.

Below is a shot of the dogs and I in the rain.

I never went up the driveways to the houses, but a couple of times someone came out to give me mini-treat bags [dog cookies] for Charlie and Hannah.

It was dark by the time we headed back to the parked vehicle. We walked past one of the big attractions in the neighborhood. A few homes made haunted houses in the driveway or open haunted attractions in their yards.

The lines to visit these were up to 100 people long!

It was free to the public and everyone was enjoying it.

Well, everyone was tired after Trick or Treating.

 

Sunday morning was spent doing fun things with the kids.

The day turned out absolutely beautiful and we eventually took a nice long walk while the kids rode their bikes. We found puddles, we found warm temperatures and blue skies. We played Legos.

And I got us home before dark. 

Some little dogs snuggled in tight and caught up on their sleep.

The End.

😁👻

Fall and some work

I'm hoping that I am done for the year with projects and clean ups.

Tuesday afternoon after doing a rather tough workout at the gym, I refenced the area that Patrick worked up.

The one area will be mowed and kept tidy. Once in a while, I'll rotate the mules in the groomed area to chomp things down. I was going to leave the fence down, but decided to replace it. 

I'll have to wait to see if the seeds take. [Hoping it does!]
 

Pounding 15 t-posts into hard ground was quite another workout. I really felt it the next morning when I woke up.

I'm happy with the work done and the fact that I'll have a section of yard back that we haven't had for 28 years.

I took the next day off and just did simple things. A few quiet walks with the dogs along with catching up on housekeeping and some reading.

See what happens when Hannah does a photo bomb? 

She no longer knocks the toys over when I set them up to photograph them.

We spent the evening on my 'fancy' porch. I still enjoy a little fire to sit by in the evenings to watch the sun go down and for twilight to arrive.

Halloween is tomorrow, so I will leave you with a couple of my 'scary' photos.

Happy Halloween if you celebrate it.

Stump Dawg

Monday I decided to do a Long Hike with Hannah. We'd hiked on Sunday with Charlie and I figured I'd give his little old legs a day off.

The dog is smart.

I usually make her stop at one particular stump with Charlie [on a particular trail] and they take turns sitting on the stump and getting a treat while I take their photo.

Here are some shots of Charlie on stumps over the years. 

[I have to lift him onto the stumps, he can't jump up on them.] 

He really could care less about sitting for a picture on a Stump.

Hannah and I started down the trail and once we got through the meadow and into the forest trail, Hannah started to jump on any stump next to the trail. 

She sat and stared at me.

Funny dog, she relates stumps to treats.

Smart.

She even thought a few logs would be worthy places to get a kibble.

What a charming goofball!

Most of the trees are leafless but in the understory there were some remarkable colors that we found. It was raining lightly and these red maple leaves seemed to glow.

By the time we hit 4 miles, the sun came out.

By the time we got back to the car the clouds had moved in again. 

Hannah and I had an incredibly fun long hike. I like to do those at least once a week. 

Charlie stayed home to rest up his legs after Sunday's hike.

I do know that dogs have to be in good physical condition to do long hikes. They cannot be couch potatoes and just like us, they have to work up to distances. I'm pretty sure Hannah does at least double the distance than I do as she likes to run forward and then run back to me.

Her motor is always supercharged. In case you are wondering, I do take special care with her by monitoring her condition, her feet, her attitude and physical well being.

With only her along, it is a fast paced hike except for logs and stumps. 

With Charlie involved also, it is a very laid back slow moving hike with many stops for examining everything around us.

This is the way....