Tent life [part one]

We decided to have a night out. You know, a wild Saturday night!

First came the tent building. For me, it is the most difficult thing to do.

I am a novice. I still struggle.

I'd found an old beat up metal camp cot in the shed. I cleaned it and repaired it for my supervisors. 

I added some blankets and 

they were content to watch while I worked.

Well. 

That was until it seemed like I needed help. Then Hannah came to assist.

I asked her for some advice. She promptly laid down on the tent and wagged furiously.

I thought I set up the trail cam with a photo every 3 minutes, but flubbed it.

I got things sorted out, and my buddies spent the evening watching the meadow while I doodled and wrote in my Pretty Painful Grief Book. 

A note. It is a book with some helpful pages. It also has many pages where the author asks you to write answers to questions about what you are going through.

Sometimes, I just draw circles or write whatever comes to mind 

We spotted a buck following a doe and her fawn. Hannah and Charlie sprang to chase. I used the vibrate mode on their collars and they stayed in camp.

Good dogs.

Maybe TV is more interesting, but I don't think so. I observed how the setting sun filtered light through the Hickory leaves highlighting the leaf edges.

Some of the Hickory trees are starting to turn colors. The box elders are yellowing quite quickly also.
Fall is lurking just around the corner.

The wind sighed through the branches above, an owl asked 'Who cooks for you?'

On the ridge to the south (about a half mile away), I could hear Olive's dogs barking. Further out Linda's cattle were calling out.

In the dusk, I listened to Robins chirping telling me all about the long journey they had started. A doe whistled not far away just outside of camp. We heard her (?) moving away through the brush.

No. The forest is not boring, something is always going on.

Here Charlie and I have a deep conversation about....... 

Well, about ear rubs and all the important things in a dog's life.

Getting dark. 

The daylengths in August shorten 70 minutes from the length of the days in July. 

Maybe that is why I feel such an urgency to spend more and more time outside in August...so I don't miss a thing.

As darkness fell, it became 'deer' time. The deer often cross this meadow right around sunset and right around sunrise or immediately thereafter.

I didn't have my 'long' lens ready but took this with my 200mm zoom lens. This is one of the reasons I picked this spot, it has a great view of our meadow and ....

Soon, the moon appeared...

[Waxing Gibbous Phase

August 22nd]

And we turned in. 

At first Hannah decided to take my cot.

She ended up snuggling in the blankets next to the cot.

Charlie snuggled right up against me on the cot. He is a great foot warmer. He sleeps under the blanket in his cave.
 

My intent was to get up at 1am and photograph some stars.  We did get up. I was not prepared for how chilly it felt so I tip toed back to the tent and climbed into the warm blankets. Hannah came up on the narrow cot too and lay against my side.

I was warm, but could barely move. The next few hours were restless.

But the morning was pretty darned glorious too.

Stay tuned...