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.

Hannah and toilet paper...

 So I promised a strange story about Hannah and toilet paper. 

I feel restless in the Fall season. I used to feel that time was slipping away from me. Perhaps it is the loss of daylight that occurs.

Perhaps, it is the trees dropping their leaves and the landscape going through a dramatic change.

Perhaps it is an internal clock reminding me that life is finite. 

I started to check emails, blogs, and Flickr. When I felt something slipping away. I put my camera in a backpack and grabbed my keys. The dogs were not letting me get away with leaving them again. 

We loaded up and off we went. Me? To seek something. I didn't know quite what, but it would come to me.

The sun came up, a bright orange globe predicting an unusually warm October day. 

I forgot the beeper controls for the dog collars. I forgot breakfast. I did remember leashes and my camera. 

The drive was so amazing. On the ridge, the day was bright and warm.

Along the highway next to the river? 

Highway 131 is twisty and follows the Kickapoo River Valley. I think I once counted crossing the river 13 times just getting to a town 12 miles away.

I ended up stopping at Big Valley.  I parked and we piled out of the car in the early morning light.

I called my cohorts to follow me and they complied. Hannah was frantic with puppy energy and must have left her brain at home. My destination was the small bluffs overlooking Warner Creek. I thought the morning light and the view would be worth the little climb.

My goal was the pine tree in the center of the photo below.

We followed the designated equine trail and then went off trail towards the bluff. Charlie walked by my side and Hannah bounced ahead with springs in her legs.

These bluffs that have a stream running under them along with the pines, the soil, the moisture, and the little micro climate have made this an amazing place to find fungi. And we did!

The American Yellow Fly Agaric aka Amanita chrysoblema mushroom! There were hundreds of them!

The beautiful ones are always so poisonous!

There were so many of them on the bluff. 

I was horrified to see that someone had walked along part of the bluff and had been kicking over these beauties. What the He11 is wrong with people? 

I squatted down to start photographing them, when I noticed Hannah had something white in her mouth.

I do have to watch her carefully. She tends to try to 'taste' everything, though not as bad as she used to. I was afraid she'd picked up a piece of the Amanita.

I ran over to her and hollered 'Drop IT' 'Leave IT'. One of those commands should have worked but didn't. She pranced around me chewing. Finally I gave her the hand signal to sit and she obeyed.

One more stern look and a soft 'leave it' and Hannah dropped it. Ugh. Gross. Disgusting. Used toilet paper. I walked back to where I'd seen her pick it up and as I toured through the trees I found other places that sported TP. 

I was so angry that I wanted to spit. IF I have that urge while hiking or riding, I do carry bits of TP, but I also carry a plastic ziplock bag to put the used stuff in. Disgusting. First the offenders kick over beautiful fungi and then they do whatever and leave their TP.

I moved on to the bluff site where I wanted to get a photo of Warner Creek.

And as you can see, someone was as interested in it as I was.

I got the shots I sort of wanted. The first one is looking east and the other shot is looking west.

Some day, I'll do this creek justice in a photo.

As we walked a little further down the trail, gunfire erupted in a few areas. It sounded like shotguns so it could have been Turkey hunters, but I did a quick check and there was also gun hunt for deer for youth and disabled people.

I wasn't in a good hunting area, but the bellowing of the guns far off shook poor Charlie.

We headed back towards the car. Hannah was not fazed by the noise at all and wanted to play in the water.

We waved goodbye to the bluffs and headed home.

The Reserve allows hunting on its land and anyone can hunt there. I've met some really nice hunters [bow, pheasant, duck] while hiking in the fall. I always stay out of the area during the 9 day deer gun season. 

The dogs got their adventure time, I found cool fungi and played on the bluffs. Hannah learned to leave toilet paper alone [I think], and a good morning was had by all.

It was time to go home and get those list of to do's done. We did pretty well. We were back home before 10am.

I still had a 'date' with the Mississippi Valley Conservancy to go to Tunnelville Cliffs and do a star gazing walk.

Success

The De-construction project has been successful. I have one more project that needs to be done this fall and then I am finished with project work for at least a year. 

I'm pretty much worn out from all that I've gotten done the past 6 months.

This is the part of the ugliness I looked at for so many years. We do have a beautiful place in this hollow. Really, we do!

But when anyone pulled up to the house to visit or make a delivery, this is what they saw just north of our house.

I, of course nagged my husband for years to get the place cleaned up. However, he was never well enough to tackle this overwhelming job.

I hired Patrick from Midwest Excavating to get the job done. This is a shot from my 'security camera' that I captured when Patrick was working. You can see the proximity of the mess to my back door.

I had to look at that mess for 14 years. You've seen this shot before.

The view from my back door became this:

Now 3 weeks later? The grass has filled in around the concrete pad and it looks so much different. Another shot from the top of the machine shed.

I put items in the gravel there for two reasons. The ground under parts of it were still a bit soft and I don't want UPS or any other heavy vehicle leaving ruts. I also need to go over the gravel area a few more times with a magnet to pick up any nails or chunks of metal. 

I worked on revamping the east side garden yesterday. I'm making a mess, but I am moving some of the bulbs that are next to the house to another spot. 

This summer:

After two days of cleaning up the weeds and the dead stuff:

Hey! No messy dilapidated garage in the background!

I pulled out all the border rocks and had to dig out two trees that wanted to grow next to the foundation. I dug out the grasses and cleaned out the flowers. I normally leave all it winter for insects and birds. This year it really needed a clean up. I didn't want to wait for Spring.

I transplanted 20 or so tulip bulbs to another area as they were getting so crowded. I moved 2 Blazing Star bulbs out away from the house. The birds love the seeds from that plant.

I took out Iris plants by the score and still have more to move around. In 10 years they have multiplied like crazy so I'm going to find some a new home. I also trimmed back the spreading phlox and replanted [hopefully] them by an area that is too difficult to mow.

The flowers around the porch are still going like crazy. Zinnias, Cosmos, Borage that has re-grown and re-flowered, and the Nasturtium flowers...wow.

I should just plant those flowers. They are so much fun. They have tried to take over the porch but I cut them and the morning glories back. They are now shining along with the marigolds in this fall weather in yellows and oranges. They are still attracting bees and showing off along with the orange cosmos which are very bold and beautiful too.

By late afternoon, the dogs and I decided to go out to the 'camp' and hang out in the hammock. As the afternoon cooled off, both dogs piled on me and we kept cozy enough to take a nap together.

The view above wasn't too bad either.

When we headed home for supper, these two insisted on riding the 4 Wheeler with me.

I do wish they would be the ones to open up the gates for us to pass through. Oh well, they are cheap help!

I worked hard all day while my little co-workers supervisors looked on.

Sunday.
It looks like a day of rest and relaxation for us. 

Goofy Hannah

This pup. This dog.

I wanted a terrier or part terrier because I knew they could be rambunctious and idiotic. I knew that they loved to play and had endless energy.

Morris was a pure Jack Russell. This one? Her mom was a Rat Terrier, a best guess was that her daddy was a doxie because of her long body. But...

Morris [my very first terrier] was never quite this exuberant!

I just had to stop and video this crazy little dog. 

This rainy-ish day hike took a long time, but we were not in any hurry. I wanted to just get out and stretch my legs and the dogs were eager to enjoy hiking in the cooler temperatures.

Since we'd had over 6 inches of rain over the past weekend, we stuck to the paved bike/walk/ride trail. We went very early while it was still quite cool and enjoyed a peaceful hike only meeting one other person taking a short walk with her elderly dog.

The sky was overcast and we had a 12 mph ENE wind which kept things nice and cool. Even Charlie, who has lagged along all summer was setting the pace. 

That made me smile even more. He will be 9 when Hannah turns 1. I like that he still likes to go go go. Although, he is not silly like Hannah. He is all business and very stoic about everything. What a combination I have to enjoy.

The best decision I made was to walk to the far end of the trail 3 miles away. We were lucky enough to see a pair of swans and their ...swan-lets? I didn't have a long lens, but I got this anyway. 

That was Monday's hike at the Reserve.

I'm conserving my expenditures in gasoline so we decided to go local on Wednesday.

The land next to me is unoccupied and I've talked about how they have 'ruined' the land by aggressive logging.

Much of the beauty of the land has changed. However, the dogs and I picked another cool and wet morning to go and explore what the logging has done to the land.

Yep, the Family Trust may have gotten a lot of money from the logging, but the land has [in my head] been desecrated and devalued by the loggers. I really don't feel anyone cares about anything but a very simple thing.

Money.

Money.

Below is a shot of one of the 'logging' trails they made on a steep hillside. What you can't see is the the geology of this hillside. It is rock, sandstone, limestone, and clay with about a foot of topsoil that was scrapped away.

Just to the left of Charlie is a deep wash out from last week's rain.

I walked most of the parameter of the land that belongs to the Peterson Trust. I followed new trails and old trails.

To me there was absolutely no consideration for conservation of the land. The trails were made by bulldozers and skidders to remove logs. There are no roads other than the very old logging roads from years ago. 

So they created new ones without much thought as to what would happen with the run off of rain and snow.

However.

I can go hike the land as long as it isn't deer season and explore the trails. The old and the new rather poorly designed ones.

This trail is still there, see the bent over piece of tree?

The photo below is from 8 years ago when I used to hike and ride this trail a few times a week. They have taken and destroyed so many trees that it is almost impossible to recognize this same spot now.

I do know it. I've walked it and rode it for 30 years.

The guy in charge of the logging does understand the lay of the land. I've known him since 1996. However money is the driver. Profit is the thing.

I was amazed that a dozer cut through this area with the steep hillside. Of course they did. Lumber was just there waiting to be plucked. The shot below is how the trail held up. There are places where it is washed out to the depth of 10 feet or more. This hillside is ...

sandstone and lime.

With another few heavy rainfalls, this area will only be passable to deer or by foot. I know the owners of the 'trust' wanted ATV/UTV trails for the 9 day deer gun season. No vehicle will make it up or down this trail.

Ahhh. Here is an area that they didn't touch. It was logged in 1997. You can see the stumps left over in this heavily wooded area that is mainly Maple trees. I was pleased to see it still there with familiar old deer trails.

What can I say. I still love this land and appreciate it. I do not like what they have done to most of the other 400 acres. Thank goodness, they left this area alone. Perhaps because none of the trees were worth taking.

PeeWee Peterson controlled the logging with his nephew in the 1990's. The logging was careful. The logging was supervised. They only took what $$$ they needed to keep the farm going.

Now?

The Other Nephew in charge of the trust wants money [He is in his late 70's]. 

Simply that. 

Nothing more. 

He rents the farmland and leases the forest for hunting. 

Sometimes I wonder about greed.

I'll still find something to appreciate. They pretty much destroyed all the forest near where I live but at least it is on the other side of the fence.

Sadly, this was one of the most unique properties in the whole county. Over a square mile of pristine forest with two valleys and streams with unique properties.

I have been lucky to live next to this place for 30 years. 

After our exploration of today I do know I can still find extremely beautiful untouched areas that others haven't touched.

I still have this.

A beautiful spot to watch the moon arrive....

and a wonderful spot to sit with the dogs on a fall evening and have a little campfire.

I know I am lucky. 

Again, I wander

This is the new header👇

 It is the top of a rock that I took my friend Pat to Friday morning.

Here it the bottom of the rock....👇

I go here a few times a year. The path to this place is not for the light hearted. The narrow footpath travels through dense woods.

In August and September the forest on each side sports amazing fungi. [Of course! I love mushrooms!]

Beware though. The trail is lined with Poison Ivy on both sides. The narrow trail is rough but well worth it.

I took Pat through and cautioned her not to put her hands down in the brush on either side of her until we got to a clear area.

Photo of Pat looking back at the trail that winds up to the top of the rock.

The first view as we emerge from the forest on top of the ridge.

A walk out to the edge.

Me taking the first photo and the new header for the blog.

For this hike I only used my cellphone camera, it was quick and easy. That is Charlie's rear end next to me.

Both hounds came with us of course.

My friend may be as crazy as I am. I invited her to do a pre sunrise hike to the Rock Top where we could sit and have some coffee and watch the valley come alive.

She nodded and said she wouldn't mind doing that. 

About 4 years ago I convinced another hiking friend to do just that. It was the blue hour when we hiked to the top. It was his first and only time experiencing this amazing place.

He was speechless.

I will be going again soon. My last visit there for a breakfast granola bar and coffee was two years ago with Charlie.

We hiked up in the dark. We waited, listened, and watched the world awaken.

I cannot even describe immense emotional feeling of watching the sun rise and listening to the forest below wake up.

My heart slows, my eyes widen, 

my breath is deep,

 and my mind goes quiet and lives purely in the moment.

It feels magical and I don't want to leave.