Orange, Chairs, and Bears.

Waking up very early has its benefits.

I can use candles to light up my gourds and pumpkin display inside. The warm orange light is comforting as is the flickering from the candles.

 Then there is that advantage of getting out the door before the sun gets up.

It seemed that this day's theme was Orange. Orange and red sunrise, orange reflections on Bridge M, outside of Readstown, and orange reflections through the fog coming off from Blackbottom Creek at the bridge on Riley Road.

So on our morning walk we continued the theme.  In this shot there looks like a tiny dragon fly stuck in some sort of gossamer thread. You may have to click and enlarge the photo to see it.

Back inside I just had to take a shot of my Grumpy Planter. He never became a planter, I like his facial expression too much to stick a plant in him.

Perhaps in the future I will.

The only downside to waking up very early is on these shorter days, I feel like going to bed much earlier.

Evening hours are spent on my chair project. I like taking my time with it and enjoying the process.

Here is the chair and what it looked like after some sanding and cleaning.

So I started it. The colors were okay-ish but not quite what I wanted. I was using Chalk Paint as it is supposed to go on easier.

I checked into my acrylic paints and tried something different. I kind of liked the purple, but then I didn't.

I found my Brilliant Blue and tried it out on one of the rungs. I liked that.

The Linen White was much nicer and it looked cleaner.

I had some really fun colors in my acrylic collection so I added Lime Green to the lower legs. I liked it.  Fun and bright colors always make me happy.

I mixed two paints to come up with another color for the back legs. That utterly failed for the effect I wanted.

I wanted a warmish color for the back legs.  Hmmm. I wanted a more gold-ish tone, but this might have to do unless I can locate a soft gold color to layer over the yellow. 

Or...I'll keep the wild yellow just because it is unusual. 

It can be a reminder that days can be bright and full of light.

Here is Rich's ancient Teddy bear. I'd love to know exactly how old it was.

However his parents are gone and his sister in not in the picture.

The bear currently resides on the old Christmas Chair which may be my next paint victim. I might color it in a brilliant Christmas Theme.

I did use Google Lens on  photo of this Bear and it is a 1950's era Bear. 

I saw prices from $50 to $200 for this Bear. Not that I thought it was a beautiful bear, but it does let me know that my husband loved his childhood Teddy Bear enough to stick in his trunk of keepsakes for years.

 

He made mention that he thought he got it when he was about 6 yrs old.

That makes this bear around 70 years old?

This and... that...

A little bit of fun ...

with the Title borrowed from Sandra's blog. After all, it was a This and That sort of day.

I took my Mini-me and Mini-Charlie along with me on our hike on Thursday. I thought it would be fun to show us looking for Fall colors.

Well, Charlie loves to investigate what I am doing. This time he photo-bombed the shot. I didn't mind, he was just checking things out.

I finally did get the shot.

In between cleaning the pasture and other mundane chores, I stopped to do a Halloween photo with my creepy doll head and a Lego Pizza Zombie.

After all, I have to stop once in a while and have a bit of creative fun.

This morning I went to the Farmer's Market. It was the last one for the season. I'll have to wait for May now to get all the goodies I used to get.

I got to see Ruth, she is a Mennonite who has a bake shop in a town about an hour away. Rich used to send me each week for some of her cinnamon rolls and pie. He loved his pie. Her pies are not super sweet but are absolutely delicious. Last year I purchased enough of her fruit pies to get us through the winter so Rich could have his pie!

Ruth was so happy to see me and asked how I was and how Rich was. I hadn't been to the Market most of this year.

I told her that Rich was gone. She stopped packing up the Apple Pie I was going to purchase ... she came around her table with tears in her eyes.

I got one of the longest hugs in the world.

Her hug was real. By that I mean it was long and it felt more than a pat on the back. There was true emotion and feeling behind it. She has never met my husband, but knew what he loved from her bakery. It was all I could do not to start sobbing when she did that.

I pulled out my wallet to pay when she finished putting the pie in a bag. She waved my money away and said it was a gift. She understands loss as one of her sons passed away last summer. She sighed and handed me the pie. I will treasure each bite.

Another vendor is a woman I used to work with as a Security Officer. We've known each other for many years. I purchased some of her wild looking gourds. We've had a booming year for squash, gourds, pumpkins, and anything from that veggie family. She bagged my gourds and then proceeded to add some more to my bag with a wink.

Things that are different now that I no longer feed the Meat and Potato man. My supper consisted of fresh squash along with beautiful yellow cauliflower, red onion, pea pods, kale, little turnips, and other veggies tossed in. I just have a taste for all the vegetables these days. Toss the veggies in a pan and sauté everything then put it over something else. Tomorrow I'll add some bacon to the mix to get my protein. 

The rest of my day included picking up logs and piling them to burn along with cleaning up more garden debris. 

The mules sorted through the garden debris and ate what they wanted from it. They are my garden recyclers.

Tomorrow looks like a nicer day than today. Charlie says he wants to go hiking. I guess we will take care of that. 

Here are a couple pictures of the really cute and gnarly gourds.

They are so pretty and interesting.

Tomorrow morning I may try and take a few shots of them lit up with candle light.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with some of the ornaments Ariel and I did last weekend. I finally got some acrylic glossy spray for them and ... Viola!

They are so pretty!

 

Lots of Orange and chasing Fall

Can't sleep? 

3AM and the house is silent. Too quiet.

Since nothing else worked, I got up. 

I lit up two candles and then noticed the nice light that shone on the fall decorations. I couldn't help myself but to set up the camera and see if I could capture the orange light tossed off by the candles.

By the time the sun rose, I was ready for something else to do. Charlie and I decided to take a very early morning walk. This is where our driveway meets the ridgetop.

I spent the rest of the morning clearing burdock and making brush piles in the mule's winter pasture. I cannot believe how many burdock plants there are! 

This area can't be mowed as it is full of rocks and logs.

We decided to take a break and hike the Rockton Trail on the Reserve. Bright orange and yellow were the colors of the day. There are some bow hunters in parts of the Reserve, but they are usually not near any well used trails.

However, bright colors are best thing for hiking at this time of the year. 

I parked at the Rockton canoe landing and headed down the Old 131 trail which is paved. Actually, it should be called the Old County P trail. The northern part of the Old 131 trail [as it is named now], was actually a county road that met up with the old highway.

Any time there was a heavy rain the County Road was closed due to it being right next to the Kickapoo.

You can see that the trail had river water on it from Tuesday's rain.

The river. 

I was standing on the paved trail when I took this shot.

One thing most people miss while biking, hiking, or riding horses on this trail are the cold rock vents. These little bluffs have cracks and vents in them. On a warm day you can stand on the trail and feel the cold damp air coming from the rock face. I've walked up to the rocks and cooled off on hot days.

The loop I did stayed mostly on the Ho Chunk land which is open for public use. This covered bridge replaced the county road bridge over a small stream.

After the bridge, I followed the Indian Creek Trail to the second Ho Chunk bridge. This trail leaves the Old 131 Trail and used to be a secondary road also.

Charlie perked up once we got into the woods again.  This section was rather muddy and the little dog really got his little jacket full of mud splatters.

When I got back out on top of the ridge I came across a gent who just loaded up his Spring Spaniel. We talked about Pheasant Hunting, Quail, Deer, and dogs. He was also a Forester who helped people decided what trees should be taken and how to keep a forest producing. He had a lot to say about clear cutting and poor forest practices.

We probably talked for a half hour. 

When we finally got back to the Blue Beast, there was a mom and two grandma's loading kids into strollers for a walk on the paved trail.

I was done chasing colors and leaf peeping for the day. Brush piles waited for me at home as well as a Charlie bath.

Charlie did not like his bath.

Another beautiful fall day completed.

Tainter Hollow and other places

 These were the views traveling along part of the Tainter Hollow roads I've never gone on before. There is Tainter Rd, Tainter Hollow Rd, Tainter East, and Tainter West. If that doesn't confuse you, you are not alone.

However, the drive isvery scenic on gravel back roads that go up and down and twist all around the valleys and hills.

Then I found this truck sitting in a field. 

When I was 22 and pregnant with my first son

I worked on a Potato Farm. 

My job was to sort potatoes as they came up the belt on the harvester I rode on. The ugly misshapen potatoes went into a large bin and the pretty ones continued on the belt to be dumped into the truck like this one below. When that truck was full, the gent driving would drive back to the farm and dump his load.

I often rode with that old fella back and forth to the fields we were working on. He was a hoot. He had a country boy's explanation for everything in the world. 

One of his funniest quips was. "I didn't get much of an education, my parents sent me to school on the second Tuesday of the third week of each month."

He was quiet while I thought about that one and burst out laughing. 

I was paid $1.90 per hour. My work hours started predawn and stayed until midnight if there was going to be a frost. If the weather was good, we'd put in about 12 hours and be done for the day.

The farm owners brought out a snack for us in the field at 10am and at 3pm. We made our own lunches and ate out in the fields also.

I actually enjoyed the job even though it was hard. The family who ran the farm were very good to us. 

When the season was done, I got 100lbs of the ugly potatoes. What can I say? We ate potatoes with all our evening meals. 

We eventually made it to the Mississippi River and admired the river bluffs.

Now that a lot of leaves have fallen and been blown down, I was able to see some of the homes on the bluffs.

Yikes. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be perched on that bluff, though the view has to be amazing.

Charlie can see out of this car much better than the Outback so he seems more comfortable. It was a good day even if it was overcast and drizzly.

A funny thing happened

-----while at the dealership last week.

Charlie chose a Crosstrek.

Seriously. He did. 

I've had one before but had to go back to the Outback for more room for wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, and equipment to transport both MIL and hubby. 

Now it is just myself and Charlie. A little me and a little dog.

We went back to the Crosstrek because of fuel efficiency and the huge upgrades in safety and reliability. I know there is a lot of argument for never buying brand new, but my reasoning was the excellent warranty I could get with it. Plus they negotiated a trailer hitch installation for a bike rack I wanted.

I argued with myself for a long time over it. Was I wasting money? Was I being foolish? In the end, I decided that since I no longer had the other half with me ... the dude who could fix everything ---- >
I'd go ahead and check it out.

So I asked the salesperson to open up the back of an Outback and the back of the Crosstrek that were on the show floor. We put down the seats and I crawled into the back end of the Crosstrek with Charlie to act as if we were sleeping.

I jumped out and said, "I'll take a Crosstrek." 

We did the figures on my Outback and I got a good trade. Well, let's say it was close to what I wanted out of it. That doesn't happen often. Then I was shown a white one with the features I wanted. Nothing against white cars, but white is not my color. 

~~~~~~~~

In 2015 we had to trade in our ancient used Outback [2002] as it had over 160k miles on it and we were embarking on a cancer journey that required me to drive 180 miles a day for cancer treatment for hubby. We had 6 to 8 weeks of daily treatments of one sort or another. The aging 'Ru was beat up and had an engine issue we couldn't fix. 

Alex, the salesperson showed me a grey one and then... I saw this outside and said..."NO, the red one!"

Rich agreed and we had our first new 'Ru which gave me so many darn adventures!

It is a smaller Subaru and it was in its first year of production. We fell in love with it. Or more like...I 
fell head over heels with it. Rich was well enough for me to go on a lot of trips for those two years. I put a ton of miles on our little red car between the VA, work, and weekend trips.

That worked well until I had to start carting my MIL along with her wheelchair and walker [and groceries] around to appointments. Then Rich had his stroke, and now I had two people to deliver to appointments along with all the elderly equipment.

This was Morris's Car. He loved it. All I had to do was rattle the keys he'd beat me to the car and was ready to be the navigator.

We decided that with the extra traveling with wheelchairs and other things [with more appointments to learn how to speak and properly swallow after his stroke], we'd opt for more cargo space.

Thus, Rich chose the car. Twilight Blue. I liked it well enough. It was a super nice vehicle. But I didn't adore it. 

So today I went to pick up the new Crosstrek. When I walked into the dealership, I was questioned by EVERYone.

"Where's Charlie????"

I won't make that mistake again. Charlie will go with me next week when I go back to sit with the Tech guy who will go over all of the features with me in depth. 

Subaru does that. They have a person sit with you in your car and go through all the features and how to use them. 

New cars have a lot of electronics and computers to make driving easier and safer. There was a time when I said I didn't want any of that, but now, I'm really pleased with those features. 

For example, I can locate my vehicle with my cell phone. I can remotely start it with my phone and set the temperature control with it also. It has blind spot detection which is exceptionally handy when driving in heavier traffic. The headlights actually follow the direction you are turning in.

That is the feature I love best. After all, I do drive often pre-dawn to get to special places to catch sunrises. Having that feature would make driving our twisted roads a bit less tense.

So as I left today, the secretary and two salespeople asked me to bring Charlie next week. They'd love to dog sit him while I get oriented on the new features of this really cool auto.

As I said, I didn't adore the Outback, I liked it. But I only have 3 photos on file of it.

However.

I already have several of my new blue Su-ba-ru.

Dang it is gorgeous.

I may even give it a name.

Hmmm.

Charlie Mobile.

or
Blue.

All I know, is that I can't wait to do some road trips with Charlie.

Yeah. A funny thing happened when I went to the dealer's last week. And yes. They are still talking about the lady and her little dog that decided to buy a vehicle by simply jumping in the back of it and pretending to take a nap.

PS.
Alex sold us our first 'Ru in 2015. Today, we shook hands on his 3rd 'Ru and 10 years of being Subaru pals. 

A bit of painting fun

Ariel didn't find the yarn she was looking for but we did find some 'pouring' paints that were on discount. We decided to try our hands at pouring colors together over some plastic ornaments.

It wasn't as messy as we thought it would be and we just used an old plastic cup that we could wash the paint out of.

Ariel layered the first colors and did the pour.

She wasn't quite happy with the colors, so she added some more deep dark purple and a little bit of turquoise along with light purple.

We both loved this look which are a combination of her favorite colors.
 

Ariel did this mix also. I held the ornament on a butter knife horizontally, while she poured. I turned it as she poured and we got this. We experimented using regular acrylic paint with the pour paint and it rally worked out beautifully.

This was my attempt. I added red drops after the pour to get more 'red' on the ornament. I used regular acrylic paints as they are far cheaper than the pour ready ones. 

They actually dried a bit dull so I will have to add a gloss spray or paint  after they are fully dried.

 

Instead of using a ton of paint we decided to put the paint inside the ornaments and then shake it up and see what happened.

They turned out very different but also pretty and subtle. We used some yellow, pinks, and reds for a different type of look.

The paint usage was much much less as were the results.

The ornaments will probably sit for about 3 days to make sure they are all super dry before I finish them with a spray gloss or clear coat.

It was a nice quiet activity to do while we listened to Ariel's picks of music and had conversation.

She had made supper in the crock pot and we had turkey and gravy over stuffing. 

What a great day. 

Warning. This painting fun was very addictive and I could have gone on and on! I have some old glass ornaments that could use a face lift so I may try this pour method on one or two later.  

We'd also hit up Barnes and Noble to look at books. I found a Hiking Guide Book for Wisconsin that seemed pretty complete with directions and reviews of State Parks, and interesting hiking trails.