Joe

The last we saw of Joe, he'd found Dog.

That was just before two big snow storms. So I wonder what exactly have they been up too lately? How have they been doing? 

Did they survive the deep freeze? What's going on?

~~~~~~~

Joe cooks up some vegetables and offers some to Dog. He feels something strange going on. He doesn't know why, but he CARES about Dog. At one point in his life he was determined not to care for anything.

Dog shares with Joe and helps him gather more sticks for the stove along with some nice warm moss to sit in.

Joe notices Dog is shivering even though he is close to the stove. 

Maybe this could help? 

Dog receives the gift and jumps up and down in the snow. 

Joe looks down at Dog and feels another strange thing happening aside from the warmth in his chest.
He feels like jumping up and down with Dog. What feeling could this be? 

Joe doesn't understand the smile on his face. He has never smiled, not that he can recall.

This world may be much better than the one he left. 

Perhaps this is not The End?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Homeless Joe is a concept created by Zhi Park. Joe has a back story that I wasn't even really aware of until I was sent a link to the creator's Instagram account. The story is vague but at the same time I felt everything that was written just by posing and using this figure. I found this after I wrote the above. 
Interesting.

Joe and Dog keep giving me endless places to go in their story. 

https://www.instagram.com/zhi.park/?hl=en

About Homeless Joe ：As for Joe, the world is covering in gray. Ever since aliens captured Joe’s family, he got away from the crowd to observe the sky and extinct volcanoes. No one knows exactly how long Joe was in the wilderness, he changed, became loving life, and looking forward to the end of the world, expecting an end to give himself an answer passively. He likes to sit in the tent and soliloquize oddly, listening to his shabby no-signal radio with the rustle sound current or just lying down in the tent floor scribbling.

I am a clean freak....

Nah....don't 

believe 

that!

I brought mud and leaves into the house Friday after hiking with Olive at the KVR. Can you believe it? I didn't take out my camera once! NOT once! We just did the girl thing, we talked and hiked. -- I know my son would NOT believe this at all -- but it is true.

Besides, it was a trail I'd just recently done. Charlie, Olive, and I got our feet properly muddy and enjoyed the fresh air. She left Aiden at home with her hubby and enjoyed a walk without her little one.

So Saturday arrived and I decided that it was going to be a 'business' day. That means I move all the things around in the house in the East Wing [it's a joke guys, my house is tiny!] and scrub the floors after sweeping and vacuuming.  I moved to the West Wing and did the same thing. Sweep, vacuum, and scrub on my hands and knees.

I was done by noon. See, my house is so tiny I can scrub floors and be done in an hour or two. I don't have big shelves, I have old crates that I stack up or take down. I can move them easily. Our living room has a love seat to sit on. That is it.

Generally I do a really great cleansing of the house when I am really irritated. I wasn't irritated other than with myself. When I'd gotten Charlie a new bright yellow squeak toy, it turned brown from him mopping the floor with it and doggy saliva. 

Here it is brand new. He adores squeak toys
but generally destroys them in a few minutes.
10 seconds

Anyway, I got the floors spic and span and then moved on to moving the old trunk. It takes up space but makes a good folding table when I am not using it for toys or decorations. I made quick work of folding the laundry. IN my opinion, laundry should fold itself and put itself away. This is one job I would forever put off and just have a revolving laundry basket. Take the clean stuff out of the basket and wear it, then put it in the wash....and repeat.

While making homemade chicken soup in the crockpot, I decided to mess around with the Lego people.

How could I create a neat backdrop for photography?

Hmmm. So I decided to use a bit of AI Art and create a forest scene with mushrooms.

Then I put Acorn Dude on a book and covered it with a scrap of black felt.

It sort of worked. A few more efforts got me this:

That was fun. But I'd have to think about how to create more scenes. 

So I decided to put everything away. Ooops.

Mistake. I stopped by the little A frame stick house I'd built two years ago. I'd meant to toss it, but it is kind of cute.

What happened if a Lego person wandered off his Lego land place and ended up somewhere he shouldn't? Lego land is such a nice happy place, right?

But what lurks outside of Lego land?

A fast thinking Elf thought of this. 

Cookie? Sit BuBu, SIT!

What to do when you meet an Alien?

Why simple! Serve cookies and coffee!

The photos didn't turn out great, but it was a nice distraction from the cold weather and all the chores I'd done.

I even washed his little toy. It is yellow again.

Just for fun instead

Enough of all that talk of doctors, medications, and whatnot. For right now, I'm putting it out of my mind and will focus on some fun things.

How about the twins I watched the other morning? We stood and watched each other for about 8 minutes. They obviously couldn't smell me or we have seen each other often enough that they are not wary of me.

I could be all wrong, but I think these possibly could be the very same twins I've seen off and on for two years. That said? They could be different. I'm just hoping and wishing they are.

Here is Sven our goat working on trimming around an old tractor tire that hubby insists stay where it is at. I have a notion to roll it somewhere and make it into a garden. It sure would keep hubby from mowing over it!
Sven take the dandelion blossoms first and then works on the weeds, and lastly trims the grass about 3 inches tall almost perfectly!

I have the place where I dug out the BS to clean up. It should be cleaned up with the skid steer, but I thought I could build a pen for Sven to eat all the nice grass and all strip the nettles. I wonder if one day I can dig that pile[s] up and put all that good dirt somewhere. [Gosh, thinking outload with my fingers on the keyboard!]

The pallet garden! 
I found a Lego storm trooper checking on my succulents. The 'car' he is in is an old brass ash tray! Another treasure found!
The planter is no planter, but an old pie tin I found buried in a junk pile in the woods.

When I watered the tomatoes before it rained....I found a shady character tending to the plant!

Seems I have a lot of helpers with the different tomato plants I have!

And for some more fun.

Hobby and Squatch continue to search for relatives in the woodlands and forests.

Hobby: I still think there is one out here! Haven't you heard of a Big Foot sighting?
Squatch: No.

Big Foot gathering mushrooms ~ no wonder he is so hard to spot!

Squatch went out to the rocks to take a shower after the recent rains.

Then he went looking for oyster mushrooms...

That's it! In spite of the things we face in the world, having a positive attitude can certainly help.

I'll just keep finding things that cause me small joys.
Small joys can add up to large Joys.

Squatch and Hobby

Squatch to Hobby.
Do you suppose I'll ever find another one like me?

Hobby:
Oh sure, we just need to keep looking.

Squatch:

I'm sure getting discouraged.

Hobby:
Let's not get discouraged. Let's be persistent. You never know when we could bump into a relative of yours!

 

Adventures in Squatch Land

There is something magical in watching the sun rise with good friends.

Being small has its advantages. One can get very close to the little things in the forest, like moss.

Misty mornings leave water droplets on the moss capsules.

~~So much beauty in

tiny things.~~

Squatch had an idea. Would Hobby like to come along?

It could be an exciting adventure. One fraught with danger and mystery. Well, perhaps that was exaggerated. 

They came over the hillside and stood by a towering Dutchman's Breeches plant coming out of the leaves.

Wow!

Caves could be great places for Squatches to hide out.

Perhaps they should start investigating caves to see if they could find a Squatch relative.

They waded through a small creek.

No other Squatch tracks. It was a disappointment. However Hobby had a feeling IF they just could get past this large body of water, they may just find something!

The search continues....

Stories from kids and whatnot

I didn't check my mail on Saturday afternoon. But Monday morning I found a stuffed envelope from Charlie's young friends in Missouri. The boys had drawn pictures for us and the 3rd grader who reads at 6th grade or above had written a story for us!
The story included Poop Rocks [I'll explain later], Charlie, magic crystals, and saving the world! 
Of course I read the story and took the challenge of trying to take photos to match the story. 

On top of the mailbox was a large box from my childhood friend. She'd said something about sending a care package on Friday, so of course I was not expecting it at all on Saturday.

Inside the package was two tubs of cookies [she is an excellent baker and cook!] and several small items wrapped in tissue paper. There were a couple of notes and a card.
Her note said: 

PS: My childhood zoo voted to go too. They want to meet Lil Bear and all of his buddies. I promise they won't eat much.
Hugs.

I immediately set aside the cookies and unwrapped the 'zoo'. You would have sworn that I was opening gifts at Christmas time. I felt like a child as I slowly unwound the tissue papers. Each toy gave me a squeak of glee and I marveled at the tiny wooden zoo animals. A Weiner dog, donkey, monkey, elephant, deer, and squirrel. 

I was out on Monday afternoon with a couple of the toys. Charlie and I took a walk to the mailbox and detoured past my favorite rock to set out toys.

And then we worked on photos for the story that was sent to us.

ValBarbie and RichKen make a return from the drawer
they were sitting in for the story!
Note the 'little' Charlie dog too!

The endangered Crystal and the Poop rock. 

These are actually iron concretions found in my creek bottom 

and the kids found some. 

They were fascinated by the forms of the rocks and 

dubbed the long bumpy ones as ... you guessed it, Poop Rocks.

~~~~

My friend called me Monday afternoon and we talked about my love of toys combined with photography. I told her maybe I was just a silly old fool. And she replied that she loved that I still was able to exercise my 12 year old mind.

After all, it has been going on a long time. I can't help myself. 

I was always considered the odd one.... Points Down.....

Time Out

 

After hours of freezing, drying, and cooking, I thought a day 'off' would be in order.

Charlie and I headed to KVR to check out how long it would take me to get to the ponds if I parked at Star Valley or Willow Camp.

Star Valley used to be a road that joined Old 131. It is a maintenance road now and allows the KVR people to access different areas with equipment needed to mow and clear trails.

I had an idea that this next month or so that I am going to hike down to the ponds to take some photographs of a sunrise over the water.

I took the following shots with my little Infrared pocket camera.

The walk through the trees was wonderful for the light and shadows.

However, once we got on the main trail. IT was hot! 

I stopped more than once in some scarce shade to give Charlie a break from the sun and some water too.

We made it to the ponds after I had a brain fart and turned left instead of right. Well, it pays to do these things in the daylight if you plan to do the hike at predawn I suppose.

We made the ponds and I took shots with my little pocket camera in Infrared of course.

These were taken with a pocket camera. A Canon ELPH 180 that I ordered from Kolari Vision. I did have my Olympus OMD EM 5 [old and abused camera converted after I had fun with this pocket camera]...but the Oly is having major issues now. I can still get a decent photo out of it, but the LCD is green and dullish.

I take the Canon pocket camera on hikes when I don't feel like dragging along extra weight. I also use the little red pocket camera on hikes. Less equipment = less weight.

I am doing this for fun and creative distractions.

Call it art if you wish.

But it sure takes my mind off from all the world troubles.

So here I am...another photo...a self shot of me having fun with CrossFit later that day. I was following my coach's suggestion of using Charlie as an awkward item to lift.

Note the messy hair!

Here is the funny video I made for my CrossFit coach and friends....

Naughty Charlie was digging in the yard.

He has discovered voles!

Enjoy if you want and laugh aLOT. The mules did!

Last note.

I started getting the photos for the Nonnicorn and Buddysaurus Book of Adventures ready. I even did an outline for the little fun book. 

I needed a project to do while this world is raging with so much angst and upheaval.

Be well, be safe.

Enjoy life as you can.