Air BnB um, not...

Another Friday night out.

I set up camp even though it was hot. The 'Hickory Grove' always seems to have a faint breeze and the shade is delightful. 

Some thoughtful pup placed a bone on our bed just in case I might feel the need to chew in the middle of the night. Or perhaps she thought it would clean my teeth and brush my gums.

Of course we had a tiny little fire. That was how we had to camp, right?

The old 4 wheeler and the garden cart goes with us, it carries all of the stuff we need including the dogs. I could carry it all back to the grove, but this saves me trips.

As soon as darkness started to fall, I failed all the things I was going to do. Like read, contemplate nature, and the meaning of life. I had a little book light, I brought my tripod so I could 'shoot' the Milky Way and lightening bugs...however...
 

I didn't even make it to full dark. I'd had a full day of doing yard work and a great workout at the gym. 

In short, I zonked out as the evening slipped by.

I woke up much later when I heard a deer whistling at something close by. Then a Barn Owl called in the distance. That is a call that will raise the hair on the back of your neck. It sounds like a murderous screech.

Sometime later and much closer, 'Who Cooks for You' became the song from a Barred Owl. Two of them sang for a little while and as their songs faded, the coyotes began their hunt and night music.

Charlie and Hannah sighed and snuggled a bit closer. I listened to the night sounds and smiled inside. I wasn't getting a great night's sleep, but I was listening to the living forest around us. The dogs perked up when a tiny hickory nut plunked on the tent top. 

Eventually I fell back asleep to awaken to Hannah slowly doing the otter crawl up towards my face. I opened my eyes to dim light and her nose. Her eyes stared into mine. She tilted her head one way and another as if to see if I were alive ... or maybe she was just being adorable.

I pulled back the door flap and was surprised by faint light and a meadow of thick fog. I pulled on my pants and turned the collar light on Hannah. When I pulled back the flap two little black dogs jetted outside. --- oh, well maybe they just had to go pee!

I think they like camping as much as I do. 

Everything was soaking wet. I walked out to the meadow with the pups and trotted back into the tent for the camera.

Layers of color, layers of fog. Blue hour? Fog hour? 

I took a few exposures with my supervisors watching me. Hannah still had her collar light on. Soon, the pair was watching for rabbits and giving chase. It's what dogs do and I let them go for it.

The rabbits were never in danger. 

The photo above is part of the revamped Meadow that my Grand daughter dubbed the Merry Meadow. The name has stuck. I've been mowing it every other week so we can take multiple daily walks without the grasses and weeds being above the dog's heads. 

Yes, the gals get in there when we are not using the Meadow. They seem to like the forested area much better.

Go figure.

Waning Crescent Moon over the neighbor's meadow.

I was torn between just looking and figuring out how to photograph the scene. My two canine cohorts were busy with exploring the grass and doing their business. 

Good pups.

Below is the scene from the tent. 
Of course it was humid. I mean hu--mid! So damp that icky slugs had climbed the outer walls of the tent to get to dryer ground. 

[gross!!!!!!] 
Hannah tried tasting one and immediately shook her head and spat it out.

😝😧---> Pups!

I was in coffee deficit so we packed up the 4 wheeler and headed back to the house. Hannah ran alongside the 4 wheeler. Charlie insisted on riding shotgun in my lap.

Below: our tent and 'camp' is in that grove of trees that is fogged in.

My home away from home.

I love this place. I am at peace here.

The decision to have this area cleared with a Forest Mulcher may have been the best decision I've ever made this year.

Riding Sunshine and loving it.

We had an early ride to beat some of the heat.

Kristi lives on a ridge top so there is usually a breeze occurring at her place. We met up for a cup of coffee in her husband's shop before we saddled up. Off we went!

I had no idea that Kristi was taking shots while we were riding. I use my little pocket camera to take any photos while riding, I'd fumble my cell phone and drop it for sure.

A video of me from behind. I'm sure I was chatting up a storm while we rode. I do that sometimes. Don't turn on the sound, you may hear me trying to blab and a lot of saddle leather creaking.

We rode some of the forest trails that she has. Her husband mows these trails so that we can use them and guests can take walks through the forests and valleys.

Years ago Kristi's mom and dad would have trail rides for the campers from the Bible Camp they had.

Saddle view....Sunshine.👇

Kristi and her gelding before 'Cash' decided he wanted to be in the lead for the rest of the ride. 

He is a super sweet horse. That fly mask certainly helped with 
the flies which are pretty nasty right now.

End of the ride...Kristi's hubby took a shot of us together.

We finished up the ride and put our equine back out in the pasture. I enjoyed the photo above as I don't think anyone has ever taken a shot of me on Sunshine. She may look little next to a 15.1 hand horse, but she is a little powerhouse. She is also easy on and easy off.

We were chatting after our ride about how relaxing it was to have two rather calm equine to ride and how July is hot, humid, and buggy. We talked about the trail to the valley, we talked about kids [mine are grown up], family, life, and everything else. 

This week has been quite busy and really sweet. My youngest on Monday, a full day of mini horses and kids with my girlfriend Pat on Tuesday, riding on Wednesday...Thursday?

I need to clean house, play with pups, mow if it dries out, laundry, groceries, gardening, weeding, and perhaps exploring to look for fungi, slime molds, and mushrooms.

I'm also working on a mini get away to the upper peninsula of Michigan. If nothing else, I want to commit to one more promise I made to myself this past winter. I'm ticking away at my wish list. I want to take a trip back to the UP and enjoy some one on one time with my camera.

So far, I think I am doing well. I'm back to riding my mules almost every day or every other day. [Siera seems to be doing just fine -- I am riding her on grass and keeping her exercised.] I'm working out at the gym and spending time with girlfriends.

This weekend, the dogs and I are going camping to our place in the Hickory Grove. I'm going to call it that from now on. 

 

I can be so stupid!

It started out like any other day. 

 I did a bunch of 'stuff' after chores and then decided to take Charlie for a nice little walk down to the creek to see what the warmer temps did to spots in the creek bottom.

I took along a Lego build in a plastic container. I had some ideas that jumped into my head but hadn't figured out what I was going to do yet.

I'd just built a Mythical Creature called Qilin that is a so beautiful in its colors that I felt I needed to have it and display it. It is from a Lego kids' animated series called Monkey Kid. I did look up the series and made it through one 30 minute show. I wanted to see what it was about. Very easy. Good vs. Bad. Good always wins in the end.

Hmmm. I would like to say...why doesn't that happen in real life?

Only in Fantasy?

Anyway, I digress. I took my Mythical Creature [I like its name Qilin, I won't change that] down  to our icy creek. 

In my head the brilliant colors vs the ice would be beautiful.
It was.

I love my Lego creatures. I like dragons and mythical creatures, always have. 

I also had a Wizard and a Tetradactyl in my tote. The wizard will enter into the Princess Sara stories somehow, I just haven't thought of it yet.

I came up with this. The magic here is that the Tetradactyl has a wire attached to it which I stuck in the tree so it looks as if it is flying.

I would hesitate with that beast flying towards me, but the wizard must have it under control. I believe he is going to ride it!

Charlie and I did our rounds of the creek and stopped by the ice wall before heading up over the hill to the ridge and back home. I gave Charlie a lot of dog time to sniff and explore.

A happy dog is a dog whose owner takes time for them to enjoy themselves also.

The ice wall over the past week it has expanded quite a bit with the melting during the day from above and the freezing at night and cooler temps on a shaded hill over the cold stream.

That was the end of our morning walk, we crossed the field on the ridge and went home.

I had things to do like fold laundry, change the sheets, do some book work, and make some calls. I fixed a 'well' balanced lunch of eggs, bacon, strawberries, and oranges. 

Charlie was enjoying the warm weather on our south facing porch when I decided to make a 'walk' out of getting the mail on the ridge. 

I put on my light weight coveralls and grabbed my little backpack. I put my cell phone in a sleeve at the backpack and immediately thought. 

That is a stupid place to put it. 

OHHH, I'll be so careful!

Famous last words.

I picked up my mail and a book I ordered. 

More about this book after I do some work in it. I can see that it will be helpful to me.

Soooo. As I stuck the package into my backpack, once again I thought, that is a very stupid place to put that phone. Surely though, I can be careful, it is just a walk down the gravel road.

I walked about 50 feet from the mailbox and spotted an empty can of beer on the edge of the woods. An idea popped into my head and I decided to push my way through the brambles and pick it up.

I grabbed it and walked along the opposite edge of the road and set my idea up. 

[I use these two characters in a series of toy photos. They collect metals they find.]

Balancing the little guy was quite a feat. However after a few trials and errors, I got what I wanted. These guys are always in a grubby type setting and the dirty snow was absolutely perfect.

We walked on.

Charlie chased a 'possum which ran over to a pile of wood where it flopped to the ground. Charlie poked it with his nose and the 'possum never moved. I went to grab my cellphone to take a photo.

Um.

It was gone. IT. WAS. GONE!!!!

So I retraced all of my steps over and over and over again. For a 1/2 mile walk, I managed to do 2.5 miles to the search. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find it. The phone was still recording my steps so it was somewhere nearby. 

I went home and charged up my old phone and then Googled *Find my phone* Google showed me where it was located on a map. I went up and looked. 

NOPE.

Then I went back home and clicked on *ring the phone* or some such thing. I jumped in the car and drove to the general area and turned the car off.

I could hear my phone! I have a chicken ring which is loud and obnoxious. It lead me right to my phone which was exactly where I missed it in the briars just past where I picked up the beer can.

What lesson did I learn? Put the phone in a secure place! 

What an idiot.

Nature is curious

Bat: Found under my car a few days ago. I picked it up with cardboard and moved it into shade and foliage on the north side of the house.
 

Our fungi hunts were very successful, both Olive and I bagged full canvas bags of both Golden Oysters and Chicken of the woods the day after we got 2/10ths of an inch of rain. [That was last Sunday]

However, when I went to our forest the next day all I found were nasty slugs climbing all over the oysters. Even though that is gross, I thought it was interesting. The slugs love moisture and it makes sense that they would gather just above the lowest part of our narrow valley and steep hillsides to enjoy the moisture.

For your entertainment....

Classica slug dance -> video is 15 seconds long.

We have misty humid mornings 

and 35% humidity by early afternoon with brown/blue skies.

The colors of the morning sunrise are orange.

The evenings just fade away...

With poor air quality and intense heat, not much is going on around here. My days consist of getting things done outdoors before noon.

Happy Summer to everyone. This summer is sure and odd one.

I love luv fungi hunts dislike tests

In pursuit of cool Fungi in September. 

Coral Fungi.

In my dreams the fungi hunts look more like this:

If only they were so easy to find! Plus they don't look like that. 

Generally they are less enticing than those 'dream' works.

No, I do not know what these are. I suspected Shrimp of the Woods perhaps? But they really didn't seem like them.

Close up of the odd little fungi.

It smelled like a mushroom, and felt like one too. They grew away from the dead tree on where the roots had been close to the surface of the earth.

They looked nothing like the Shrimp of the Woods that Olive and I found.

The ones below were on a what appeared to be a stump. I have no idea what they were and they dried up fairly quickly with the dry weather we are having.

Are these honey mushrooms in a couple of different stages? Or are they something completely different?

I don't know, however I really enjoyed finding them and searching the woods.

We found tiny puff balls resting on damp wood.

And Wolf's Milk hiding in little crevices of other damp pieces of wood.

That's about it. I have no symptoms. And the test has come back negative two days in a row.

I figure now that my headache and stomach upset yesterday was A. From worrying or B. From the Booster.

I dodged it one more time.

Let's say yah to outdoor friendships and travelling with the windows down!

We both will mask next time we are in a car together.

I do dislike those tests, but the home one wasn't so bad!

[created this in Wombo AI art program just for

this blog. I guess there is a use

for it!]

Have a good weekend.

I know we will!