Busy is as busy does!

My youngest son Jer, came to visit this weekend. He didn't have his other children so he and Mari came to see me. 

We spent the first part of his visit moving a deer stand and dismantling part of it. I wanted a view from the 'campground' in the forest that was only about 8 feet off the ground. On these cool mornings, the deer will come out in the meadow that is east of us. I like to sit there with my long lens and 'deer watch' in the hour before sunset and the hour after sunrise.

Over the years, I've gotten lucky and have been able to catch a few nice photos of deer. If I don't get the shots, it will still be a neat place to observe mornings and evenings.

Two years ago [not on a deer stand] but standing on the ground:

We finished that project and we went to Wild West Days in Viroqua. Years ago, they built an 'old' Western town across from the Fairgrounds. For 20 years on the second weekend in August they fill the buildings with vendors who dress up in period clothing. 

There are fake shoot outs and fun activities for kids.

On the other half of the WWD's grounds, they have rodeos and horse competitions. Barrels, poles, pig wrestling, cattle sorting, roping, and so forth.

The weekend event draws huge crowds and quite a few tourists to town. This past Saturday they had the Farmer's Market, Wild West Days, and live bands playing on a street that is closed off for people to gather and dance.

The grounds are also leased out for other events including a 'Christmas Town' with the western town all decked out in Christmas lights and vendors in all the shops.

There are also horse shows and competitions on the rodeo grounds at other times of the year.

Viroqua was a 'dying  town when I moved to the area. It is hoppin' now.

Mari got a ride on a mini donkey and a cart ride too. She was infatuated with the donkeys.

This couple with the donkeys were so patient and sweet with the children that came to see them. 

We talked about donkeys of course since I've raised them and have always admired them.

We came back home to chill out for a bit and eat an early supper. I had saved a little Lego project for when kids visited. Mari dove right in to it and actually did a great job at following the directions. She needed help once in a while. It kept her busy.

Towards evening, we headed out to the 'campground'. We used the 4 wheeler and cart to bring out the camp cot and sandwiches along with refreshments.

We enjoyed hanging out at the campfire and chatting about nothing and everything.

The camp cot proved very useful. Hannah slept with Mari and Charlie took his place on my lap.

 

We left the camp around midnight and tumbled into bed. Everyone but Hannah slept in. As soon as there is a hint of light outside, she lets me know that she'd like breakfast.

Sunday was another whirlwind of sorts.

Below is the view of the meadow/old pasture that is south of the house. I had contracted Patrick who did forest mulching for me this spring, to brush hog the pastures for me twice a year to keep weeds down.

He came on Sunday afternoon.

It makes a huge difference and it helps me keep down the burdock. These pastures 10 years ago were filled with donkeys, horses, and mules who kept everything grazed down. We fed hay almost all year long back then.

Now that I have just a couple of grazers, I have to do something different.

15 years ago, this area looked like this:

This section will be the winter pasture with rotation in the summer to the other two decent areas I have.

Remember the busted up garage? I have a time for demolition! Frank was supposed to get back to me and I'd called him weeks ago for an estimate. He never got back to me. Patrick does only this sort of work for a living.

I'm giving him the job. The other old pasture areas out front will be smoothed out and seeded down so that I can mow it with my mower. It adds work, but I feel that it also will add value to the place to have it looking tidy and not weedy.

Progress is slow, but things are shaping up. Remember this spot?

It looks much nicer now.

Progress is slow but coming along.

Last but not least. I decided to move this tractor tire to get ready to finish off this last bit of cleanup near the large machine shed.

We drug the tire with the 4 wheeler over to an old truck bed that is on the ground. I should have known, I should have looked more.
I lifted an old water tank and shoved it onto the old bed as my son said, "Mom, are you sure there are no evil critters under there?"

I gave the tank another shove and gave him a look. He hollered "Ground Bees!"

As I felt the worst hot poker sting in my ankle. Literally, a sting by a ground bee feels like what I imagine getting shot and zapped at the same time. We ran. Thankfully, I was the only one that got nailed.

I grabbed an ice pack and sat on the kitchen floor. What an idiot! The pain was immense, it felt like I'd broken the ankle. [I didn't]

A neighbor brought me Benadryl later on.  The Benadryl knocked me out for the night by 8pm.

I went out at dawn and sprayed their nest. I won't mow in that area now for a few weeks either because the ground bees will be done. I'll let them be if they survive the spray. 

But dang, it was a fun weekend and so much got done!

The ankle is red, swollen, and horribly itchy this morning. Back to the ice packs! I may take another Benadryl and read a book this morning until the dew dries off the grasses.

One day at a time. One step at a time. I'm thinking that the bees just may have given me a part of the day off. 

It seems like a beautiful morning to have a cuppa coffee and read a book after I take the doggos for their morning walk.

Busy Day ~ Night Out

Another day with the scrappers, they filled the truck and the trailer from behind and in the little red shed.

The fella that sold this place didn't throw things away either. Imagine that. His old farm has old vehicles in the dry runs along with stoves, refrigerators, and various other things.👇

The scrappers felt they'd won the lottery. All those old mowers and mower decks... so many engines taken half way apart. 

All 'good' stuff. 

They actually dug down about 2 feet for some of the items. The sinks and toilets stayed.

 

Glen, the previous owner was a handy man that did remodel jobs as a business. 

Often the stuff he was to toss came home and landed behind the shed. I'm sure my husband did not collect over 40 mowers! Most of them were hidden in the dirt.

They found mowers, bed springs, couch springs, and buckets of big heavy bolts along with tranny covers and a few transmissions. Don was in heaven when he found a nice Pepsi sign and some 40 yr old truck plates. He will decorate his shed with them.

I worked around the house while they were mucking around in the old garage and the red shed. I did stuff that is boring but necessary to keep the house clean and clothes for me to wear.

The guys left around 12:30 and I decided to take the dogs out to stretch their legs. We hiked through our woods. 

We found that the wild geraniums were beginning to bloom.

I took these with my Lensbaby lens. I love the softness it produces.

Oddly enough, I did enjoy the little hike, but also didn't enjoy it. For years now, I've had low back pain on the left side. It is due to arthritic spurs on the spine. Normally I just get a bunch of twinges, but Wednesday it left me a bit breathless while standing up from bending over.

Hah.
I know better than to do that. I have to squat to avoid irritating that Uncle Arthur spot. Bending is not a good option ever for a back.

I hobbled home and got an ice pack out. The dogs and I sat on the porch bench and watched birds for a while.

I was surprised and please to see Siera following the red headed mules at her slow pace [she never really is in a hurry]. 

I called the Vet Clinic [this is a different one. Dr. Anderson had seen Siera years ago when she was not herself]. 

The receptionist said Dr. was pretty busy and I said it wasn't life or death, I just thought she should be looked at as she is not herself and either pulled or strained muscles and perhaps we'd need to give her some Bute if appropriate to help her move better.

Dr. Anderson saw Siera in 2014 when she 'tied up'. 

He is an excellent Vet. We had him out in 2009 when we nearly lost Cheyanne. He and his daughter treated her for dehydration with fluids until midnight. You can read about that here at: She's worth it. 

After all of that, we made out suppers. I wish I was like a dog who could just eat something simple like Kibble and get on with my day.

I made veggies with chicken and had ice cream for desert. Nothing fancy. Just eatable stuff.

I asked Charlie and Hannah if they wanted to go for a walk. They eyed me like...mayyyyy beeee....

I put their beeper collars on and we hiked out to where I am making my campsite.

We gathered sticks and made a little campfire. Charlie has been at a campfire before, but Hannah hasn't. 

This was a trial run to see how they liked hanging out with me in the forest.

Sniffing and digging seemed to be the most fun for them. The found spots nearby and dug. Hannah collected sticks to chew on. 

After that, they both wanted to sit in my lap.

Well. I will need a bench or a much larger chair. I think there is a folding camp chair in the trailer, so I'll grab that next time.

After much sniffing around and checking things out, they both wanted to sit in my lap.

My lap doesn't have much room for them.

But they were pretty content to listen to the birdsong, coyotes songs, owl calls, and hang out with me.

Smelling the forest in the evening is much better when you are on your master's lap apparently.

I intended to stay out after dark, but released that I had two black dogs that would be invisible on the walk back to the house.
Next time, I'll bring their collar lights.

This was probably the nicest evening I've had in such a long time.

The video is about 10 seconds long and includes the Eastern Towhee

singing its evening songs.

I ordered this for our next excursion into the woods to watch the sun fade and nightfall. 

This way, I can just use this pop up shelter to sit in with the pups. It is really for a beach or sitting outside out of the sun, but it is a pop up shelter. 

I think this will be easy to put up and take down. I even have a spot I can hang it from a tree limb so animals won't mess with it.

I am so incredibly happy that I had this Forest Mulching done. I plan to maintain the area. The mules can get to the pasture when the dogs and I aren't there. 

Here we are enjoying the evening. I set my little camera up with a self timer for this.

We are enjoying a bit of heaven in this world's chaos.

And yes, if you look, my hair is colored wild, just like me. I felt like doing something weird and unusual, so I did it.

We all fell sound asleep by 9:30. Hannah snuck onto my old jacket I'd dropped onto the bedroom floor. I let her sleep there. She surely is coming along nicely. I'm so very lucky to have these two friends to keep me company.

I know a Guy

The internet isn't all it is cracked up to be. The old "I know a guy" word of mouth is so much faster and interesting.

I don't know how to explain it.

Frank, the plow guy said, "I know some guys." 

This was when I was exploring a way to get rid of my MIL's old Buick LeSabre [2005] that had been parked in my yard since 2018. We took it from her when she was told that she could no longer drive. She had dementia and other health issues. So we parked it in our yard so she wouldn't kill someone on the road. We paid a heavy price of anger for that, but she soon forgot she had a car.

My husband wouldn't let go of the vehicle so it sat there in the weeds being a home to mice and other varmints since March of 2018. It became a fixture like you find in  many rural farms. 

Hubby often said he wanted to make sure that nothing of value was left in the car. He never went out to check. 

There might be some Romance Novels and many mouse nests, but nothing of real value. We argued about it often. But I relented as it was something he couldn't let go of even after her death in 2020.

Some young guys showed up today and said that Frank [the plow guy] had alerted them to a car they might be interested in. They wanted to buy it for a Demo Derby car.  

I told them that this would be a fantastic legacy for my MIL who was a speed demon and daredevil driver even in her 80's. She had a lead foot and a penchant for reckless driving. The gents explained how they would modify the vehicle for a Demolition Derby. They didn't even need a title or keys. 

I sold it for a paltry $100. It will be out of our 'junk' yard in the next two weeks.

Frank had asked me earlier in the winter about Rich's truck. It had been sitting in another part of the yard since 2018 also. I said I'd trade it for some plowing. 

In our area a barter deal is a good deal. Frank is dependable and honest.

Frank is going to use parts of this truck to rejuvenate one of his trucks which apparently is the same model and make.

I think I've gotten my money's worth this winter out of that truck. We've had a lot of storms and Frank has cleaned our place up.

Pat came out just before the blizzard and gave me an estimate for some work I was looking to have done. 

I hired Pat a few years ago to fix some electrical issues we were having. He has done work for us a few times. He is dependable, reasonable, and does not talk down to females. 

Pat expanded his business to include Excavating, Brush Hogging, and Forest Mulching. 

When we walked back from the summer pasture, he looked around and  asked if I was looking to clean up and get rid of the scrap from my sheds and busted garage. 

"I know a guy," he told me. Of course. Everyone knows a guy....it seems.

That guy -- Don, called me the following week. He and his brother came out to our place and had a 'looksee' around.

Scrappers. They collect metal and take it to the scrap yard for $$. 

Don and his brother took the free farm tour with me. 

They are two elderly guys who do this as a supplement to their retirement. They often go in after an auction and clean up the 'junk' left behind. The auction companies hire them for clean up.

My husband collected 'stuff'. He had piles of stuff to take for scrap. He had piles of stuff for fabricating items for tractors and skid steers. He was a welder who could fix most anything. 

He was a creative welder. I never knew him when he had a welding shop, but apparently he was legendary. 

Outside the machine shed is one of his piles of 'stuff' and leftovers from projects.

He knew every piece of metal and its location. IF I moved anything, he could tell.

I couldn't ever approach him with the idea of having someone come in to clean things up. Pictured below is the crushed garage [full of stuff] and the scrap pile around it. 

He used old hay racks to make attachments for his skid steer. Other long pieces of metal were used to cut and create other things. He was the guy who could take an Oliver loader arm and bucket and modify it to fit an Allis Chalmer tractor. 

Below is the entrance to our huge shed. We built it for an indoor arena and round pen for my mule training. He was able to fill it with a lot of 'stuff'. I'm sort of embarrassed to show this photo. 

However Don the scrap dude was impressed. He was amazed at the amount of 'stuff' that was in the shed, the garage, and in the little red shed.

The next shot is also just outside our large machine shed. He complimented me on the amount of stuff Rich had collected. Don was also happy that it was somewhat organized [to his eyes????] and not in one big pile.

In the shed there is a 1980's vintage Toyota 4X4 pick up. The scrap guys said ... You guessed it: I know a guy.

The guy would take the old truck and give me some $$ for it. I wonder ... if he knows a guy.

Honestly. There is no way in heck that I am going through all of the buildings and scrapping stuff out on my own. It is dirty, and it would take me years to haul and sort the stuff. I would even have to purchase a running truck and a trailer. --> that is not going to happen!

It will be more efficient for me to have the scrappers pay me a fee and for them to do the work. I could hire a company to come in and clean things up. That would cost me over $2,500. 

Don and his brother will pay me a fee I set which should pay for my next winter's LP for heat [unless of course the war -- not war leaves our country without heating fuel].

I like the "I know a guy" network. It surely is better than going on FB marketplace and getting all sorts of crazy yahoos coming to our remote farm. 

Word of mouth is still valuable even in this age of the internet. 

I love the

Good ol' Boy Network

Using Junk for fun

Junk diorama.

I've enjoyed the challenges of making something out of nothing. I've watched some great videos about how to make dioramas out of junk. Below are pieces of stuff I was going to throw out. Medicine vials, parts of a defunct humidifiers, CPAP hoses, Toilet Paper rolls, soda caps, and miscellaneous card board boxes and pieces.

That is what the 'creative' table looked like before photographing the characters.

Below is what the photo ended up looking like.

The minibots are actually cheap cake toppers from the dollar store a few years ago. Except for the Lego Droids that I picked up at a yard sale, the cost of this whole set up was $1. Of course I got out my old paints and enjoyed giving everything a look of rustic old pieces of junk.

I keep these pieces in a box with fake rocks I made out of Styrofoam board I found in another junk pile in the shed. I keep thinking I should toss it out...but.....

The fake rocks were used to make this scene of an Ogre and Orcs meeting in a cave. The 'fog' was made with a long exposure of mist from a face mister.

When I get stuck inside all day, I busy myself while my hubby naps. This is something I can do with headphones on. I listen to music and rearrange my junk so I can make a new scene.

This included some of the previous junk stuff. The figures are cheap Hasbro Droid figures from the Star Wars series. I like robots and droids, they are cool. The light in the back is simply a medicine vial that I sparsely painted and set over a balloon light.

The possibilities are endless at my little creative table. The fun part is that  I can set things up and tear things down constantly. 

This next shot is a set up for a Dragon and Rock Monster portrait.

I do say that I make a lot of adjustments and mistakes before I get one shot that I keep.

Many years ago, I swore I'd never 'shoot' anything involving still life. But I took an online class specifically for that just to challenge myself. I enjoyed the class much to my surprise. Still Life can be very technical or very simple.

Since delving into the fun world of toy photography, I've decided that this is so enjoyable and presents with so many creative aspects. I'll keep on keeping on!

I'll never stop enjoying nature photography, but this is a great way to practice the art of photography when I cannot get out in nature.

Amazing Junk? Car Buff Fun!

Old farms in our area often have old vehicles dumped into the 'dry runs'. I imagine that it served a two fold purpose. Get rid of the old car and slow down the rush of water to slow erosion. 

I don't see that it was especially effective, however I decided to see what I could find. 

This dry run is part of our original farm before it was split up in the 1980's. I'd have to check my papers, but the previous owners to the 1980's had a large tract of farm land and woods. The ownership on this farm goes all the way back to just after the Civil War. I believe that I read that the farm was part of a grant of some sort.

With that history out of the way, I decided to explore the dry runs that feed into my creek. I do have permission from my western neighbors to explore their land, but I've never explored this section.

To my huge surprise I found the perfect junk yard.

This dry run held 3 vehicles and parts of a stove of some sort and unidentifiable things.

Here is the hood to this car. A Chevrolet!

The interior

I imagine when this vehicle had seen its last days, they pulled out the engine and dragged it to the edge of the dry run and pushed it down. I walked around it and found this tag attached to the body.

I did 'google' these numbers and the one thing I know for sure is that the paint # is for black. I found a lot of images of what this might look like. The following one is probably more closer than some of the ones I found on Antique car sights. Of course I did not find or see a hood ornament like this one. It may be buried under 70 or so years of dirt and debris.

However, I think it was broken off.

There were two more vehicles in this ditch.

I have no clue what this may even be! But I will have to go back and explore some more. It looked as if the roof of the car had been cut off and it had a rubber seal around it.

It was definitely a two door and a search of a body number related to Briggs Mfg. Co. brought up nothing. Well, nothing that I could decipher. There was a discussion of sales for these tags though!

Who knew? My neighbor may have some gold buried in his dry runs!

I'd like to go back on a better day and get some photos of the dashboard.

Anyway, on to mystery car number 3. 

At first I was sure these had to be Model A's. When I got home I put the numbers in a search engine. The first few numbers indicated a Buick of some kind. PJ 113110 the letters BCD just confused the search engine.

It was fun to try though.

Under one of the vehicles there were stove parts. Did they all get chucked in the ditch at the same time or what? I won't ever know.

I left this dry run and started around the ridge to the next one. I found this prize but didn't stop to check it out. Did this farm really have this many vehicles???

This last photo is of a dry run just on the other side of our fence line to the west.

I've photographed this vehicle a lot over the years as it is 30 seconds from my porch. As you can see, it may or may not slow down the water when it runs!

It has a partner vehicle just 20 or so feet from it. Right now it is covered in brush and bulldozed trees. Here is what it looked like a few years ago.

So far I've counted 6 old vehicles in ditches within short walks from my house. 

I think I do need to walk to another spot where in the past I did note model T's or model A's era vehicles on my east neighbor's land. 

What treasures!

I don't have much knowledge about old cars, but this is really quite interesting. Apparently, I just need to explore the dry runs near old farmsteads just below the ridge tops.

I've found more than one Homestead junk yard while hiking the Reserve. Of course one has to know where to look and after exploring our surrounding forest here, I've got a pretty good idea of how to find the cool Junk.

Imagine if these items could tell their stories. Wouldn't that be amazing?