Sunday Stuff

I thought I had my day planned.
Sunrise with Charlie. That went well, we drove to our sunrise 'spot' and watched the sun come up. Yes, I DO use my Subaru to go find beautiful places to photograph! Indeed I do!

To fans of 'Ru's...
How do you Subaru?

Charlie did not get sick or drool!
I consider this a huge improvement. But I made it so he could watch out the window and get fresh air. Perhaps he is maturing or maybe I was lucky. Either way, he enjoyed his morning sunrise jaunt with me.

After chores were done, I drove to Genoa to drop off some photos to some friends. I'd taken photos last weekend of their daughter in the softball playoffs and thought they'd like them.

I had a few errands to run in town so it worked out nicely.

The road on the ridge is curved, the telephone poles are in a straight line.

The sky was amazing, one of those days where the clouds made you want to stop what you were doing and just sky watch.

After lunch it was time to see if the mules would like browsing in the forest section.

It was rather ho hum. They stayed on the ridge road first and then wandered down the trail to browse.

I decided to take some time for myself. Weed eating was on my list as was picking green beans and other garden items, but I decided to walk to the creek and get some quiet time in.

Our neighbor came down and started to cut up and brush out the two trees that Jeff, the bulldozer man knocked down.
Rich was in bed.

I couldn't resist taking some Bears along.
These two cooled off in the creek.

Rabbit and Bear.
Doing their thing.

An isolated thunderstorm moved in and my day was done.

Today is Monday.
The green beans are calling my name and as soon as the dew is off the plants, I'll be picking.

There are phone calls to make and phone calls to take.
Appointments to get ready for and ... it looks like my day of rest is over.

The Moldy Graveyard???

A friend sent me a link in a text message about a place to go visit that was extraordinarily odd and different.

The Mold Graveyard. F.A.S.T. Corporation in Sparta. You can find more information at Atlas Obscura. An interesting site that can lead you to strange and interesting places to visit. This is one of those and I had no idea it was only about an hour away.

My friends from the Kenosha area were visiting and we decided go check out the Mold Graveyard ourselves. We had planned on going to LaCrosse and seeing the Riverside Gardens, but with Riverfest going on, we decided not to fight crowds and changed our plans.

Wait...
Did I fail to mention the morning trip to town where we stopped at the Thrift Store and got silly?
Yes, I did.

...um, well...
more on that in another post...

We arrived at our destination and got out.

What an interesting place.

The sign for visitors said we were welcome to walk around and look at the molds stored in the large yard and take photos.

We got a bit creative and yes a bit goofy with our fun Thrift Store toys.
Here Amanda places her pink rubber ducky on a Duck mold.

My favorite find of the day was Big Boy. Do you recall the Big Boy restaurant chain? I do!

I found him, actually I found two sizes of him. His burger was on the ground behind him next to a 10 foot ice cream cone.

Here are a few shots from the 'Mold Graveyard'.

If I said I only took a few photos of the different molds, I'd be lying.

And I found this poor ice cream cone just sitting in the hot sun...

I think it was melting.

I do think this would be a fun photo trip in the winter or early spring when the weather is bleak and dreary.

And I think I found my retirement home.

You know. The Little Old Lady who lived in a Shoe?

It isn't a Moldy Graveyard. It is a place where old fiberglass molds come to rest and sometimes be reused. I loved it.

We sought out more odd places while the Kenosha Gang was here.
Stay tuned.

Grocery Shopping. Ewww.

I can say with sincere authority that I dislike greatly...no, dislike immensely, Grocery Shopping.

I think the food I want should just automatically just be dropped into my cabinets when I need it.  

I hate making a list, I always forget it at home.  On those times I don't forget my list, I forget to write something down anyway.  Or I come home and discover that I got all the ingredients for something like chili except one ...

We have two stores in town that we can get groceries. One is called Jubilee Foods and the other is a SuperCenter Walmart.
If I want to drive 45 miles one way, I could have more choices, but I prefer to get what I can in town.

The only saving grace for getting groceries is that sometimes I can take the backroads back home and find something interesting to shoot with a camera.

So off I go to Walmart, the bank, and Jubilee Foods. Another exciting day at the farm.

Oh, reminder for self.  Stop and talk to the new neighbors and let them know that male coyotes have been running up through their woods so that they should keep a close eye on their little dog, Dexter.
Call old neighbors and see if we can get together for a catch up visit.

Okay, enough with lists.  I'm terrible at sticking to them anyway.

I like detours..

Normally I am not one that likes to have routine broken and changed.

But I can't control when there is construction on my route to work.
The highway I normally take to work is now closed about 8 miles from my destination.  The bridge across the Bad Axe River is closed and well, gone right now until it is reconstructed.

At first I took the 'other' route to work, which doesn't involve back roads.  It really wasn't a bad route at all, but I just don't like the highway, it seems narrow and rough.

So some co-workers told me how to 'get around' the construction.  It involves a little known detour that takes a few extra minutes, but I love the drive.  It is extremely scenic and the road is so twisted you can't drive...or shouldn't drive very fast at all.

This road just asks to be photographed.

The other morning, I left home early so I could take my time on this road and get some photos.

I was not disappointed at all.

Moving from the sunlit ridge I headed into the valley and dipped swiftly into the Bad Axe Valley... and fog.

The hill is steep and the road unblemished by pavement markings.  When I dropped to the valley floor, I was in fog.  I expected it as I've driven through Romance Valley for years now.

I was able to catch sight of the cattle grazing in the morning with the cranes on the bridge construction site silently waiting for the weekend to be over so they could continue work.

The next day the fog on the ridges were terrible.  It was hard to see 1/4 of a mile or more.

This was at the beginning of the drive.

Most of this drive was rather unremarkable until I headed down into the valley. This time the valley was clear of fog and exact opposite of the day before.

I'm going to look into a route that goes around the construction on the opposite side of the valley.  Who knows what other treasures I may find?

I guess I will find out soon!

Wild Flowers, roads, Lyme Disease

 Kolstad Road

I made my return to work this past week.  In truth I did actually miss going to work.  I like interacting with my co-workers and although our group is quite small and can be 'interesting' sometimes...I found that I missed them.

I was supposed to start back on the 4th of July but as nothing is ever written in stone, I responded to two call offs on the 2nd and the 3rd.  Easing back into the job with 40 hours in 4 days.

Hubby was feeling as though he could get through the day just fine as long as I made sure he had something to eat and helped arrange his meds.

I muddled through chores the first two shifts and then came home announcing that I probably had contracted a Lyme Diseased tick bite on my hike a couple of weeks ago.  I recall pulling a tick off me at late at night but never gave it a second thought.

Friday about 4am at work I got a horrid headache along with a stiff neck that quickly transpired into body aches and a fever.  My supervisor and told me to get some rest and he'd see me tomorrow as I was switching from night shifts to days shifts.

My night was horrible.  I woke up soaked in sweat and at 4am I had a fever of 102.1.  I got up drank a lot of water, took 2 Tylenol and took an Ice Pack back to bed.  I pushed the ice pack onto my face.  Finally after about 20 minutes I didn't think my face and eyeballs were going to explode.
In an hour my fever had dropped to 99.5 and the headache was gone, but I still felt like I had been kicked by a pro athlete.
I got up by then and decided to stay up.  I wanted in the worst way to call off as 'sick', but knew work would be hard pressed to cover my shift that close to start time on the 4th of July.

When I got back to work, the night shift super looked at me and raised his brows in question?  I shook my head.  He asked if I'd had a bug bite recently.  Then it hit me.  That tick, two weeks ago!
I went into the bathroom and took a quick look.  Yes there it was, the tell tale 'rash' or 'bulls-eye' red mark.

Monday I went to the clinic and was told I had classic Lyme's Disease symptoms and was given Doxycycline to take for 14 days.

My work route is currently under construction, the Romance bridge is completely gone and is being replaced.  For two nights I took and alternate route to work.  It is the same distance and about the same amount of travel time, but I dislike the twisted uneven narrow road. Some co-workers told me how to get around the construction and I immediately fell in love with the drive on this twisted road with breath taking views.

 Northridge Road

While at work I found some extremely beautiful wild flowers that grow naturally in our prairie areas.

I found these plants growing together and after doing some research with one of my co-workers we discovered that it was called Silk Prairie Clover or Dalea villosa.

 Silk Prairie Clover White

Silk Prairie Clover Purple

The purple clover would be easy for the casual eye to mistaken as Vervain which is another one of my favorite prairie flowers that have a beautiful blue/purple hue.

 Vervain

Another favorite, especially if you can catch it just beginning to open is Queen Anne's Lace.

 Queen Anne's Lace

Daucus carota

Wild Carrot

Actually, I've dug these up on wet days and found roots big enough to munch on.  They do have a very strong carrot flavor.  But the blossoms when they are just opening tend to have a purple hue to them.  This was also taken just after the sun was beginning to hit the valley and that may have helped the hue.

Well, between work and not feeling well at all I still managed to take some photos worth mentioning.

Of course there is a mystery plant that neither my co-worker or I can identify.  Neither one has seen this plant blossom so we don't know the color it might have been.  It is so unique that we are quite taken with it.

Edit and update:  This plant is called the Indigo Plant! The flowers are a beautiful blue.  My neighbor was able to ID it for me.

 Isn't this something else?

Anyway, that should catch everyone up my life in the slow lane.

I am having my first day where I actually feel quite normal and not as if I've been tackled or tossed around.  First day without a fever and a headache.

I am on the mend.