Feeling Free

I finally got to toss my bicycle in the back of the 'Ru and head out on Sunday morning. It was another one of those blistering hot and humid days. 

Sometimes I just 'gotta' get off the farm and blow a bit of energy off. What better way than to get on a decent bicycle and make your own breezes?

I bought this bike in August of 2019. I've really enjoyed the adventures I've had with it. It is a quasi-mountain/road bike. It wasn't the color I wanted, it wasn't as cool as other bikes in the shop, but I wanted a good sturdy bike to get from point A to point B. [And that did not cost me an arm and a leg]

I wanted a bike that could handle gravel roads as well as paved roads and perhaps an easy bike dirt track.

It does get me around and sometimes I am lucky enough to get out early and catch some beautiful morning light. 

I love taking my Infrared converted camera while riding the nice paved trail at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. The ride I take is along the old original highway that runs between the small towns of LaFarge and Rockton.

The trail is not terribly difficult and there are two hills that do challenge the legs. The scenery varies as it goes through the valley. There are little ponds where I often go in the spring and fall to see what waterfowl is migrating. There are bridges that cross the Kickapoo and there are meadows and rock formations to see.

I packed my IR Camera along with my pocket camera. On a whim, I put the 550nm filter on my IR camera. I've never had good luck with that filter so I thought I'd give it another go. The best time to shoot IR is in the middle of the day in the summer. The different wavelengths of light are just so interesting.

Infrared Photography can be so interesting and challenging. In camera for this filter, the white balance setting is done on something neutral like concrete or a grey card.

I won't go into all that 'developing' the shots entail, however, as you can see, IR can give the photographer a wide array of Creative Fun.

The shot below is what the colors look like in the original shot. It was cool here with a slight breeze. The river was on the left and on the right was a small bluff with large cracks that allow cold air to come from below the ground to vent out.

I tossed a lot of shots as they just didn't work out well, but these were my favorite from the IR Experiment.

I normally stop at the ponds and spend some time, but the deerflies were absolutely vicious and unrelenting. 

I did stop long enough to grab a shot with my pocket camera of a Highbush Cranberry! These are starting to turn and were show stopping!

The yellow cone flowers in this Meadow was so stunning, it was worth the quick stop and a few shots of all the stunning flowers.

By 11AM, the heat and humidity was brutal and I was back at the Subaru. It was worth it. 

Yesterday I dropped my bicycle off at the bike shop in town. It desperately needs a tune up, new cables, and a new chain. I'm going to have them install a back rack also. I'd like to be able to add some 'stuff' to carry. Right now I use a fanny pack and a little pack on the front of the bike. I'm also looking to get a carrier for the 'Ru.

The guy at the shop said they had some on order and he'd walk me through setting it up and adjusting it for me. Once it is set up, it should be easy to take on and off. 

Currently I pick up the bike and sort of shove it in the long bed of the 'Ru for going places to ride. 

The shop guy also gave me some ideas on other trails at KVR that are nice for a beginner trail rider like me. 

In the 1980's my sister and I both owned 12 speed Raleigh's that weighed a ton. We took a sister sister trip on bikes together. We rode 70 miles on rural back roads to get from my dad's house to my Aunt's lake cottage for an overnighter and then ride back. We had no GPS, no cell phones in that era.

I'd driven most of the route with a map before we did our trip. I highlighted the back roads with a marker and that was our guide.

I still look on that two day adventure as the one of the coolest trips of all time.

We were young, we were free, and we were awesome.

[and we had two days off from being moms!]

Hot Hot

We've had a pretty decent summer so far. Cool mornings and nights even though we had a lot of rain and bugs.

Now? Yikes, I was not ready for a 79* dew point, with 79% humidity and 80* temps yesterday morning. Yuck. Yuck and double Yuck.

I did outdoor work and my errands early. I made cold Italian pasta  salad for supper and retreated to the indoors for most of the day.

I continued to mess around with my Lego bricks and lights to make that Space Challenge Scene that was on for last month. Even though I didn't come close to 'winning' I enjoyed the fun in making interesting scenes to celebrate Lego's Space Theme for the past month.

This really didn't work out as I imagined but I had a lot of fun building the Labratory. I created a space environment with an AI generator for the background.

I placed the works on top of a wooden block on my keboard...

and ended up with this....          👇

I am learning now to build and then set up a camera and see what view the camera can see and use that area for details. It is different building for fun and building a little 'set'.

Setting up the 'set', lighting, and characters is hard! It is so much easier to do a Lego shoot outdoors in my opinion.

Here I just took my Little Tourist Alien and set him on the porch with some rocks and one of my garden Gargoyles.

It was rather easy to deal with the lighting and scene.

Since I was avoiding the heat and humidity, I thought I'd build something fun and unique to use a new character with. It was to be Spacey and have Cool Lighting.

I began with a plan. I wanted a blue eerie lit background. That meant making a part of a wall with see through blue bricks. I put it on a white baseplate and used irregular Lego 'rock' bricks to make the back wall for a cave or alien planet texture.

[The brick texture didn't show up because of the lighting!]

So the idea was to have a space creature walking down the path of blue crystals with cool lights. I noted that the back wall didn't really show up and how was I going to include that in the photo?

As always, I never take the easiest route when trying this out. 

I first tried it with two little blue balloon lights and a white light. I laid the face mister on its side and turned it on to add some glow to the light.

It was sort of cool but it was hard to tell what was going on.

So I went with more color. Of course. When in doubt, make it harder.

I like this version just because of how the red lit up the bricks around the Glaciator Power Miner Minifig and set a menacing tone. Apparently this Power Miner was the supposed to have the power to turn things into ice and explode them. There was a game based on these characters and sets that saw popularity from 2009-2010.
I just saw this guy at a garage sale and picked him up for $1. 

He is also partially made out of transparent plastic.

After all of that what did I learn? I learned that I made something fun and cool. However, the picture doesn't tell any story at all. Nothing. It is just a cool lit up minifigure. I learned that indoor photography with added lights takes a lot of experimentation and adjustments.

I kept this build so I can try again to re-shoot it to tell some sort of visual story. I realize that I should have had a little bit of light coming from directly above the 'set'. That might make a difference.

I was frustrated and pleased with the experiment.

So early this morning I went out with my pal Glenda and created an easy story on the porch.

Glenda rarely needs any explanation for what she does. 

She just does her thing and I follow her around....

It promises to be another extremely hot and humid day.

PS~
Welcome August.

Yuck

 88 degrees at 9:30PM with 60 % humidity. 

I am happy that I am not sleeping in a tent. I am grateful that we have a cool and dry house.

Wow, I have no idea how anyone could rest in this heat and humidity. It just boggles my mind. I know hubby wouldn't survive long in this weather so again, I am grateful for our decision to install the mini split this spring.

That said at 7AM this morning it was beastly out also. I took out my waterproof camera in a camera bag and set it on the porch to slowly acclimate to the weather. 

The mules have a heavily shaded area that I save for just this kind of situation. I use this little section sparingly. 

The grass has come back nicely after the last rain we had a week ago. There is day time shade and when there is a breeze, they can stand under the box elders and languish in the cool air.

They have small 25 gallon tank so they can get drinks of fresh water and I can easily dump it and fill it again with a hose.

Gosh, us Northern Folk don't do so well with lots of heat!

But at least we can grin and think about those days that are coming where we have to wear Fudd Hats and snow suits!

We are setting records for overnight high temperatures and I think some records were broken today for our part of the state. But so far so good.

After all, I could just fill up a spare stock tank and go sit in it!

We did get over 100F by 4PM when I went out to refresh critter water. I did chores at that time because the breezes were supposed to quit when by sunset.

However, we are not enduring the heat as long as others in our country are having to do. Can you imagine being in places that have not seen a let up of intense heat for over a month?

Yikes.

Stay well.

Hot and Humid

Hot 
Humid
Wet
Holiday Weekend

That is the weather this week which is good for the crops and not so good for mowing or enjoying the outdoors. 

I did spend a whole day though cleaning up the upstairs of the house. Both the East Wing and the West Wing [ ~~ tiny little rooms in our story and a half cottage ~~] got deep cleaning. 
I did some purging while I was at it.

My walks have been short and after Charlie nagged me one morning, I decided to take him along with my long lens on a walk to the mailbox. 

This wren kept chattering at us so I stood still and waited for her to land on something. I was pleased that she was singing her morning songs. 

We got to the ridge and I grabbed the mail which was just junk mail. It was a flier advertising a Huge Sale! All mattresses must GO! Store Closing!

That store has been closing for about a year now. 

I tucked the ad under my arm and decided to look at the weeds along the ditch to search for insects.

I was so pleased to find this beauty. I think it is a Spotted Skipper, however I am not sure as the wings in this light almost appear blue tinted.

This one could be some sort of Spotted Fritillary. I call it 'little brownish spotted butterfly'.

However, my buddy didn't think too much of our little side trip.

I wanted to just walk down a ways and look a tiny bit more... and so I called Charlie...and got this...

I agreed with him and turned around to take him home. Once he got in view of the house, he trotted the rest of the way to the porch door and stood looking at me. Little dogs get the heat from the ground and his short nose doesn't allow him to cool off very well. 

My morning walks are the highlight of my day right now. I do it early as the weather is hot and mugg--ly.

This is from my morning foraging walk. Oops! I should have left my camera sitting in a bag on the porch for a while before taking it out in the extremely hot and humid climate.

[This was one of those days where the dew point and temperature were just about the same degree!]

Stupid me. But there it is:

I'd stopped here to photograph a fawn laying down in one of the mule trails but got a fogged lens instead.

I did see this fawn on the way back though!

My morning foraging looked very promising.

This is my creek or was the creek until the drought hit. For the first few years I lived here, it was like this. Then we had some flash floods and for many years water always flowed over the rocks but no more than a few inches deep.

It is almost moist and cooler in this bottom. Beware though, the rocks are like walking on marbled ice.

Yep, marbled ice is a good description. The bruises on my gluteus maximuses will be a good judge of that. 

However, I was more interested in getting some delicious oyster mushrooms for supper and some to dehydrate.

On the way back home with my goodies, I found some chicken of the woods...I think. These did not look appetizing at all with the amount of icky looking gnats and bugs on them. 

But the blaze orange color is hard to miss.

And then more cool bugs. A Hover Fly and an inch worm on the head of a yarrow blossom.

So what is this hot and humid weather good for?

Well.

It is good for short excursions into the woods to find neat insects, wild flowers, and wicked cool fungi and slime molds while picking black raspberries!

Bored but busy

What on earth can I do when it is screaming hot out and it is raining every day? Monsoon time! 

Dog Days of August. 

Monster Skeeters. 

And very scary storm cells...

This one actually just had wind in it and blew right through. The temperatures dropped for a bit and then the sun came out and the heat went back up to miserable.

I did go out for a walk up through the woods to drop off some mail after the storm passed with Charlie. In a few spots, the bugs weren't too awful, but in others?

.......OHHHH my!

You may be able to see the swarm of very hungry skeeters attacking the netting. My father in law gave me this head net so it is pretty old, but very useful. I have about 4 others too, as I've tried different kinds, but this one works the absolute best.

I did find some cool fungi, but I'll get to that later.

I needed to 'do' something. 
The other half was watching boxing on Showtime at Full Volume.  I couldn't deal with the constant noise. 

Mowing was out, his mower still needed to have more hydrostatic oil stuff in it and the ground was still mushy. 
I needed some 'porch' time and some peace and quiet. 

I am so pleased that we had outlets put in on the porch. Charlie and I can sit on the porch and enjoy a nice breeze from a large fan. He can sleep and I can read or do something else.

I wanted to 'find' a small chair appropriate for my larger Teddy Bear. Something I could carry into the woods for doing 'stuff'. 

I checked out some online shopping sites and was horrified at the ugly stuff they had for sale. The choices were cheap looking plastic chairs that were pink, ugly, and overpriced.

I gathered down branches from the last storm and some bark.
I whittled the bark off from the sticks and instead started to figure out how to build a tiny table for the tiny bears. 

I am not a woodworker nor am I much of a carver. But I can peel sticks and use imagination. I wanted to concentrate on something other than running amok in the woods with the heat and bugs.

With a glue gun, I was able to make the 'table' just high enough for Lil Bear to sit on a bark chair.

I'd made a stick chair once before and it fell apart. 

I have watched videos on line and have decided that I am not talented enough to use all sorts of the woodworking tools hubby has. I'd cut my fingers off for sure.

These little bears can be found in the kid section of most toy places.
I think they are called...Calico Critters. I am lucky to get hand me down toys. 

I looked up little houses for them out of curiosity and was not pleased with the plastic cheap houses.

I am forming a plan to make my own little bear house. Every fun idea starts with a notion.

After all, I started on the primitive furniture and it isn't turning out so badly.

I even encased some flea bane flowers and chicory in the table top to imitate an epoxy topped table.

Oh wait, why on earth would a person like me put an effort into toys? Well, I think of how we played as kids. We made 'scenes' with our toys. We called them Set Ups.

I mean I could pick up a hobby that was meaningful. Like sewing or perhaps doing something practical like putting an effort into baking or ... some such thing. Maybe I never lost my love for creating and playing, right? [Generally, August is my month of putting up produce, but this year we only grew sweet corn, and that is coming on late..]

I figured if the Bears had a table to eat at, they might want to invite friends over for a meal.

I took out the leftover Model Magic I had tightly sealed in a ziplock bag. I dabbed some drops of paint on my fingers and made some tiny bowls with a couple of dragons watching over my work. 

Sorry, crappy picture...pointing below....

I did get a couple of great books, I'm reading one right now about the disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail. Geraldine was a woman after my own heart who met a tragic end when she got lost. 

One of my dreams is to take on a long hike. Not the AT but perhaps parts of the Ice Age trail here in WI.

Duck Egg

Color shots from Duck Egg County Park. This park is open to Equine and Hikers and in the winter time it is a great snow shoeing destination for those hikers that want to challenge themselves with the hills and the Bad Axe River.
We rode here more than once with our mules and I used a GPS device and we clocked out 9 miles of trails

This was just part of the main trail of lower Duck Egg. The Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River runs through it.

Charlie made friends with some trout fisherman. I doubt Charlie could ever 'not' make friends.

I took a few Infrared shots too. But I'll look at them later.

I had a busy weekend. College girls dropped in...not even kids from my own family...
more about that later!