Wood ticks

I had started to write a long drawn out and disconnected sort of blog that well, frankly, would interest no one.

So I shut down the laptop and started my Subaru with the remote and said to heck with it.

I drove up to the ridge and kick started my Friday with this....

an amazing blood red sky

and my lovely warm Subaru in 32 degree weather. Don't you just love a heated seat?

Ever take Doxycycline? It sucks too. I picked up a wood tick while out mucking around on Monday and pulled it on Monday night. Guess what? I had to make a visit to the doctor who took one look at my calf and said, "No test needed. That is the Lyme Bullseye and Rash." 

I'm generally very good at changing into my other set of clothes when getting out of the woods. Yet for whatever reason, I didn't on Monday. I had other distracting disconnects going on.

Thankfully [knock on wood], I don't feel sick like the last time I was bitten by an infected tick. Little buggers! I had fevers, headaches, and chills that time. Nasty...just...yuck. Um, wait...I guess there is still time to feel rotten. 

Charlie and I did not hike through the woods and the brush. I thought he'd like a road walk and he did. He sought out all the proper places to pee on clumps of grass. I had to laugh about how serious he seemed to be while kicking up grass afterwards.

We then cut through the large hay field and corn strips to avoid the Naughty Dog House.

Charlie: Who you calling short stuff?

Come on lady!

Yes, I am an amazing little dog with a very mixed heritage.

And I like to ignore you.

The purpose of this walk was to see what the Hazelnut tree looked like along with the dogwood trees and the Bittersweet at this time of October.

This is a way that I study things. Take photos of trees or plants and compare them as time changes them. A lot of the shots, I toss because they are just for personal interest. But eventually if I put them together, I get a clearer 'picture' of how a plant or flower grows, changes, and dies off.

Last note. The doctor I saw said that the ticks with Lyme were awful this year for some reason and she had seen an 'up-tick' in cases. I hope we do have a cold enough winter to kill them off or to at least make them scarce.

Yes, I hate wood ticks but it won't keep me out of the woods. I just need to be much more observant and swap clothes when I get in.

Beautiful mornings....

 Just some beauty to ponder.

The shots are of the same general area on different days...

Let's just say that I enjoy morning walks most mornings.

Now that the weather is chillin' out, Charlie and I still often go for our walk to the ridge to see the sun come up.

But at least now, the corn has been harvested and we can walk out on the cropland.
The view to the southwest.

The view to the east..slightly out of focus!

The other morning... I just had to go out and enjoy the colors. This was about 45 minutes before sunrise as the stars are still visible.

Here you go.

Something pretty in this messy world.

Enjoy.

Proper Preparation

It dawned on me this week while I was checking the weather and looking for that special one day hike I normally do at KVR or one of our County Parks, that there would be a full moon setting during the sun rise on Friday.

With that, we were supposed to get our first frost advisory and temperatures in the low 30's.

It dawned on me. 
What an excellent opportunity to get back up to Black Hawk Rock and see the valley below with more fog in it and of course the moon setting over the hills to the west and the sun rising in the east!

The cold temperatures would guarantee valley fog and since the forecast said there would be no wind, it would be tolerable on top of the bluff. A full moon would brighten the forest trails so the hike wouldn't be in total darkness.

So what I planned on was taking the regular camera and the infrared camera with the IRChrome lens. With the morning light and fog, the light spectrum could be really interesting.

I'm such a dork. I sometimes do plan ahead. I woke up in the middle of the night and debated with myself over which camera bag to take. The sling one? The backpack one? Did I need warmer gloves? Would I need gloves?
How about a stocking cap?
Or my fuzzy winter cap?
Long johns or tights?
Coveralls? No, too heavy.
Did I have Bill's phone number in case I needed help? [Yes, my friend Bill knew I was going and offered help in case of something like a flat tire.] 
I'd let my neighbors know the plan also.
All bases covered.

Plan plan plan. Our boss used to tell us Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

I walked out the door with a cup of coffee in a thermal cup and my gear. The drive was awful. I hit dense fog. I figured I would as the way to Black Hawk Rock was along the Kickapoo River. Any drastic change in the air temperature above the river produced valley fog.

And the fog was thick.

I climbed the trail and walked out on to the bluff. I'd never seen such dense valley fog from that height before.

The clouds and fog were dense to the east, and to the west the moon shone brightly.

The shot below is looking over the edge of the rock. I climbed out of that fog from the valley below.

There is a significant drop here and I rarely go stand at the very edge. I stay well back.

This photo below was the only glance of the sunrise that I got before the clouds and fog covered it.

One of the things I really like about the newer Olympus camera I got last year is the ability to take shots in low light without a tripod. I can do nearly a full second exposure hand held. And this was not the 'best' or pro camera. It is an extremely simple camera to use.

And then in moments, the bluff across the valley disappeared. The fog crept up over the rock at my feet.

I gathered my things and headed down the trail.

The fog was rather neat and lent a mystical look to the forest. 

It was so hard to capture in a proper photo, but I gave it a good try with my fast lens, the 1.8 Oly version of the nifty 50mm.

This is where the prep came in. I know that the IRChrome filter picks up the color variation in the leaves and generally picks up fog exceptionally well.

This first IR shot is in approximately the same spot I used the regular camera for.

Note the pine tree, it is the same one in the photo above and below.

And as I got down to the valley floor, there were places where the fog had lifted up.

My parking spot.

I felt good on the drive home.

Everything went well and I felt like I'd planned well.

I still have a lot to learn in how to deal with the light bouncing off from the fog, the moon, and the sunlight coming from another direction.

But it felt good.

Next full moon?

October 31st.

Hmmm.

Until then I'm going back to looking at cool things on the forest floor and the fall colors while they last.

I have a new trail to explore this week at Duck Egg. I'm hoping Charlie and I can do it Monday.

Right now my hikes will be solo.

As you may or may not have read, our state is now an Epicenter for Covid. This is my way of dealing with it and it's Isolation.

I loved the chill

Yesterday morning started out cold. It wasn't a killing frost, but anything that wasn't under a tree or the porch got nipped.

I used the remote for the Subaru for the second time since we bought it as I warmed up a cup of coffee and gathered a few items just before sunrise. September sunrises can be extremely colorful with all the moisture in the air. I had missed some spectacular colors this past week, but decided to go out and brave the first Frosty Morning.
The Subie was nice and warm when I hopped in and the windshield was defrosted.

I drove up to my morning spot and sat while the sky did it's thing.

Before the sun arrived, I headed back towards home but stopped to take a shot that is similar to the one I did with the IR filter a few days ago. At least there was a lot of color and you can see the frost on the fields.
Now if only they would stop putting up cell towers!

By chore time the winds had picked up and the clouds moved in. I wanted to go move the trail camera and gather up the temporary electric fence in the woods.
So after breakfast I headed out.

And...one thing led to another. For many years we had use of the neighbor's meadow that adjoins us. We used it all summer to graze our equine and hubby kept it clipped with his tractor and brush hog. After his stroke, we reduced the herd and I couldn't keep the Meadow up. Multi flora rose, burdock, and other weeds grew over the lines. I gave up and last fall started to take down the posts and fencing. I only got part of the way done by the time winter set in.

Yesterday was chilly enough for me to work in my old coveralls and a stocking cap. So I pulled out the 4 wheeler and buckled down to work.

Thick gloves and coveralls were a good thing. Pulling fence wire and posts in the above mess is not exactly fun. I brought nipper and clippers and in some places had to actually cut my way around a t-post in order to pull it.

I'd brought the 'fence puller' that hubby had made, but put it in the cart as the ground is still supple from all of the rain.

I filled the cart as full as it could get and headed back to the house with my load. I was thirsty, warm, and wanted something to eat.

I considered not going back out, but there was one last section to do. The dividing line we used to rotate pastures. The wire in this section was new so I'd save it.

I had something to eat. Rich said he wasn't hungry. He watched Netflix most of the day. I asked him to come help and he said he couldn't. Or well, maybe after he'd watched another episode of whatever he was watching.

When I sat on the bench to put my work boots back on. A Junco appeared and landed on the chair just across from me. It stared at me and tipped its head.
"Well hello!" I said.

My grandmother used to say that snow would arrive within 30 days or less after a Junco appeared.

I went out and pulled the rest of the posts and as I was coming back through the gate there he was! He'd come out to see what I was doing. He then did his 'walking' exercise. He only did the driveway twice but I considered that better than nothing.
He then volunteered to feed Dixie and the donkeys while I did the mules.

I consider that a win.

The cold air felt great on my face. I do like the cooler weather.
I know, I am odd.

But I do like the chill.
Winter is coming.

Good Morning.

With all the horrid news that we are seeing today and this past week, I thought I'd offer something a bit more positive.

Farm Life is pretty quiet and peaceful.

Sunday morning I drove to Jersey Valley to watch the sunrise. I really thought I'd messed up because the sky was absolutely brilliant with unimaginable reds as I drove to one of my favorite spots to watch a sunrise.

I kicked myself a few times thinking I should have stayed at home and simply watched it from the ridge.

However.
Somehow, Jersey Valley didn't really disappoint.

While there I heard an strange noise, it sounded as if a truck was rolling down the steep hill dropping gravel.

However it was a flock of black birds that swirled above the lake and landed somewhere on the north side.

~~~

Morris is doing pretty well. He absolutely adores the Kidney Diet food he is getting and seems ravenous. He still has very slow mornings, but is lively and annoying for most of the afternoon and evening. He is eating better and feeling better. He is staying stable at this time.

Most mornings he just mopes around and doesn't do much or seem to have interest in things. However he still likes to go for walks and enjoyed seeing the kids at the bus stop last Friday. He did tire, but I did give him a lift too.

He has become somewhat of a 'lap' dog with a cling-on attitude. I am okay with that also.

~~
Rich is doing better also. Last week we got the okay from the neurologist. Rich can start driving with limitations. He is really good about being a compliant patient.
Yesterday he drove to the river and went fishing. He handed me the keys later and said he was tired. Could I drive?
We still are doing things as a team. Need to run to the hardware store? We go together.

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.

35mm Prime Nikon Lens

I went ahead and did it.  I ordered a new Prime lens for my Nikon cameras.
I received it yesterday, a 35mm lens.

I ran a quick test on it when I got home, shooting in very low light in the house.

Here is my test subject wrapped in camouflage.  I couldn't get a good shot in anything other than an f stop of 1.8 but the hairs on his nose came out crystal clear and I was rather close to him.

Morris really wasn't too excited about having a camera lens shoved in his face.  But he allowed me to wrap him up in the sheet for the photo.
Good dog.

So this morning I decided to take the lens for a test run on my Nikon D3200.  

I was not disappointed.
However since I didn't check the status of the camera's battery before I left, I had to pick and choose my shots very carefully.
Reminder to self.  Check your battery!  I thought two bars was good enough but very quickly it became one bar.

Here is a shot that is cropped shot at f4, 320, ISO 100. The colors came out wonderfully accurate and very little noise for shooting predawn.

With a slight edit, I was able to pull out some more detail.

So I did a few more shots.  These are cropped a bit specifically to take out a bit of the foreground.
I did purchase the lens for both portraits and landscapes.

[The horizon is not crooked this is a hilly area!]

I'm perfectly happy with this lens.  For landscapes it gives me a broader view.  This of course leaves me in a quandary.  
I have a harder time deciding which lens to put on the camera for taking a hike.

Thank goodness for my new little sling backpack, I can pack two lenses along with the camera and change them easily.

The colors are beginning to look bright in the trees so I guess you can figure out what I am going to try and do today.

Yep, laundry, house cleaning, and ... a field trip to look for cool fall things.