Goats, Campfire, and Cotton Candy

Saturday morning Daryl and his youngest daughter got up early and headed out to bow hunt.

Rich was sleeping, and the rest of the house was quiet so I grabbed my Nikon and headed out the door. I did have to go pick up milk at the little local gas station before the rest of the house appeared.

And why not enjoy the morning sunrise at the same time?

The photo is looking east from the ridge top across the Kickapoo River valley. New cell towers seem to always be popping up. I think they sort of ruin the pictures. I can easily erase them. However, they they are.

We eventually all gathered for a quick breakfast of 'whatever you can find to eat' and headed out to go to the Vernon County Fair.

As usual the last county fair in Wisconsin was packed with locals and visitors. There was the usual fair food that delights yet causes intestinal distress later. I didn't participate in the photography show this year. The time to organize my photos just wasn't there and my heart wasn't quite in it.
I did enjoy looking at the fair displays though. My favorite displays were those of flower arrangements, potted arrangements, and crafts.

I mentioned that I'd wanted to have a campfire in the evening. We could sit on chunks of wood and watch the full moon come up along with a nice small campfire.

The dogs and Sven joined us. It was an experiment which worked out very well. Charlie stayed very close and kept trading laps. Scout decided he wanted to go back to the house when the coyotes started to sing.

Sven hung out after he inspected the flames and decided they were not Goat-Worthy of tasting. One of the kids had a bag of Cotton Candy and Sven sought that out, grabbed it and walked away.
It led to a lot of laughter and the kids got it back.

They asked if Sven could try a bite. Yes he could. And Charlie wanted in on the action.
Sven's reaction was hilarious. He loved it. Of course! Who wouldn't like pure spun sugar?
From that point on, he kept circling and begging for candy until it was gone.

Sunday morning we took the dogs and Sven for a hike to the creek. After all, my friends can't seem to spend a weekend without going to the creek to check it out.

Apparently, Sven thinks that Charlie is HIS personal pal and other dogs need to leave his little buddy alone.

And of course, everyone including Sven enjoyed the creek. See him next to the Grace watching Daryl? He is a curious and fun companion to have along.

Sven browses as he walks and then trots up to the next person to see what they are doing.
Amanda set her waist pack down on some rocks.
Sven calmly walked over and picked up the pack by its strap then began to walk off.

A shout of "Sven! No!" doesn't faze him at all. He just gives you the Goaty Eye and continues.
I think the souls of goats are lovable imps.

How are the ribs? Wow, they were still terribly sore all weekend. Laying down to sleep and get comfortable is a challenge.

However.
I need to get over it and back into the swing of things.

I think I need a bit of goat 'lovin' and another campfire....

[taken by Grace]

All sorts of news

Do you hear the presses running?
What a wild week I had.

Okay, it wasn't really wild, but it was a very productive week.
The rains have kept coming but on Thursday I did get out after 3/4 of an inch of rain and I found so many Morels.

Bonus!

We saw a Pulmonary Therapist on Friday. Rich hadn't wanted to go but we thought we'd follow through and see what he had to say.

The results of the Pulmonary Test that Rich had on Monday were available to the Therapist. He asked a lot of questions and then pulled up the test results. He asked Rich if he wanted to know his numbers. Rich sort of just looked at him.

Jim [the therapist] made a quick mental note and then said, "Do you really want to know? Hmm, maybe not."
Rich responded. "Look, I am dying anyway. I just want to be more comfortable. Numbers don't mean a thing."

Jim nodded. "Fair enough."
Next came some testing of physical abilities. Rich had to walk towards a wall and back. Then it was a two minute walk while carrying his pulse travel oxygen.
When he got back, he dropped into a chair and Jim took his 02 levels.

I'm going to skip the technical stuff and skip to the discussion that Jim had with Rich. He told Rich he was remarkably strong for 'his' condition and he thought that some Pulmonary Therapy would not only help his moods but help him to be able to get outside.
He was going to suggest a continuous airflow and not the pulse air for when/if he felt like going outside. He was straight forward. Rich was never going to get 'off' oxygen, but there might be things to make him feel a bit more alive.

Would he be open to Community based Pulmonary Therapy? It would help bring back his leg strength and help him feel more confident. Rich said he would but he didn't see where he'd be out ...doing things like he used to.

Jim chuckled and said he knew guys that had their continuous air flows 02 mounted on their Harley motorcycles.
His script for airflow may have to be upped.

So the good news is Rich will do PT locally if it gets approved. He will try it. I say it is helpful for him to get out of the house anyway. AND if he can enjoy anything at all outside that would be a bonus.

His good mood carried over through the weekend with our Kenosha Gang visitors. I took them to hunt Morels and we spent a good part of the day in the woods with our dogs. I loved the shouts of joy when they found those little beauties.

The rain held off early in the morning and then quit just about the time we were ready to hit the woods.

My last note.
I really don't know how to thank my good friends for all of their help with my 'to do' list.
The orange panels are moved. A pen was put up. The A/C is set for the season. The Jeep was aired up and started.
Old stakes were pulled up. Old Dog houses moved, log chunks were moved...the 4 Wheeler got an oil change....

These were all things I could have done myself over a period of time, however it was nice to have the extra hands.

Charlie however was totally wiped out from all the running around.
After all, supervising is such hard work...

Doin's

 

These photos were taken when my Gang visited. We enjoy access to this stream in a few places.

My very own Awesome Creek empties into this stream known as Black Bottom by those who have lived here for eons.
Readscreek by those who are new or have only been here for one generation.

Odd how things are known to locals by one name and to older locals by another.

Saturday was HOT.
So Lil' Richard got a bath and I'd bought some temporary hair color at some point...yeah...

The result was a 'painted pony' that smelled like blueberries. After a few mornings of dew, the blue faded away. That is a shame, it was pretty neat.


I'd purchased some squirt guns at Wally World for a couple of dollars before the Gang came. Since it was so hot last Saturday, we made the trip to the creek. After all any visitor needs to check out Awesome Creek and the 'Beach'. The Beach is a new name for the area that was reformed by the bulldozer.

I'd done an experiment by placing two large Thrift Store Teddy Bears on a Beach Chair. I placed a Trail Cam facing the Teddy Bears.

These coyotes tipped the chair over and that night a raccoon moved the brown colored Teddy.

We went to 'The Beach' and the kids grabbed the squirt guns and the adults sat on rocks and chilled out. We watched the kids and the dogs play.

And the battle between sisters was on...

Sunday morning promised to be another scorcher...it was. We'd gone early to the Double J Bridge and enjoyed the cold water and the views.

And ... that is the rest of the Kenosha Gang weekend.

Make an Adventure

To say that I have a 'normal' life would be somewhat of an exaggeration. What is normal?

In my mind's eye a normal person of my age and stature putters around in the morning and then has some coffee while reading the news.
Then she should prepare breakfast for her guests and set the table.

Later on, this nice little hostess would get a proper noon meal planned and sit on the porch and visit with her guests and husband.

The day would drag on to supper, chores would be done. The nice hostess would whip up an exotic supper and present it to the guests. Some nice conversation would occur around the table with cups of coffee.

Later everyone would go to bed and slumber.

Not
how it
happens
here!

I get up pre dawn and make coffee, let Charlie out and pretty soon my company starts to drift down the stairs. First comes Daryl and Scout, followed by his youngest daughter and Amanda. The dogs start to wrestle and play in the living room, so they are taken outside for a potty break.
Coffee is passed around along with some Kringle that was brought from the Racine Bakery.
We all look out the window and decide to go for a walk to look for spiders and dewy webs in the meadow.

Rubber chore boots go on over PJ pants for some...no need to dress fancy. The dogs chase each other around and around in the yard with dew drops spraying up from their legs.

We go walking in the tall weeds and grasses of the meadow and begin to spread out each person looking for webs and we begin to find many of them.

It is a bit of a fuzzy shot but then again...HOW close do I want to get to these guys or girls??? Not close!
We wander the meadow brushing up against weeds, and keeping an eye out for Charlie who is so small that he seems to disappear in the wet grasses.

Daryl gets close up and personal with the Spiders and we find dozens of small or 'baby' spiders.

We are like excited children, calling out to each other each time we find an incredible specimen.

Finally, soaked with dew, we all head back to the house for more coffee and to visit with Rich.

The kids do the chores and drag out Mt. Tank and fill it. The dogs are toweled off and we visit with Rich and have coffee and conversation. We discuss the meteor showers and decide we'll go on the ridge to try and watch them around midnight.

And that is just the start of our morning.

To be continued....

The Sunrise Club

Thank goodness the sun rises later in September. It makes it slightly easier to get up and out to certain places for a 'sunrise' adventure.

Our friends arrived late Friday night from the east side of the state. I love their visits. It means there will be a crazy fast and furious weekend of trying to do a million things.
I think they have fallen in love with this portion of Wisconsin. I must admit when I did the very same thing about 20 some years ago. I did the crazy thing of driving to visit Rich on Friday nights after work and spent until late Sunday afternoon enjoying his company and this area.
Until I realized that I would just move here and it would solve a lot of my traveling and driving issues.

I never looked back. And I am happy I did.

Anyway we were up early. Daryl came quietly down the stairs. The coffee was brewing and I was thumbing through my Smarty Pants Phone checking the Nautical Dawn, Civilian Dawn times and the actual sunrise times for one of the county parks I like to visit through an app called Sun Locator Lite.
Amanda came down the stairs, then Evelyn was next and finally Grace came down the stairs.

Ready? Ready.
We piled into the Subaru and headed out.

When we came down the steep road into the valley and made the bend everyone in the car said, "Wow!" in some sort of form. There is a curve that allows you to peak at the man made lake just before it reveals itself.
Yeah, it is breath taking every time I see it. And I have not become immune to it.

We parked and everyone stepped out at once, scattering quickly to get the 'best' view. The Sunrise Club had arrived. Only this time we weren't in PJ's!

I wanted to be everywhere at once but couldn't. I stood next to the car and admired the colors as the daylight began to make the area glow with light.

Having the place essentially to yourself is another bonus.
Look!
No parking issues!

We eventually migrated to the floating fishing dock and watched the skies change.

Time for a bit of goofing around.

Even the girls found interesting things to do.

And I discovered my 'best' shot of the weekend because of that. Nope, it wasn't the spectacular scenery or the incredible colors. No, it wasn't something like that at all.
It was one of Daryl's daughters playing with some wild flowers she picked.

This shot made the morning for me. I photographed it in color, but the but in my mind saw it as black and white.

Once I took a series of her picking up the flowers and setting them back on the lake's calm surface, I sat back.

My morning couldn't have been any better. I got the shot of the day. I was satisfied. This image struck me as a powerful one.

I wanted to jump up and down and shout out, "I got it!"
But I didn't. Although my friends would have totally understood it if I had.

The clouds moved in and the sun disappeared.

Time to end our morning adventure and head back to the farm.