Finally.

Monday night was particularly stressful with my duties as a Caregiver. My 'patient' woke up at 1AM and I was able to get him back to bed around 3:30. I never got back to sleep. Around 4 I gave up trying to sleep and made a decision.

For my mental attitude [which would be rotten and evil without a good night's sleep], I ditched the plan of running errands. When Respite turned up, I left with my backpack and bug spray. I was going to take some serious quiet time.

Last year I hike 1,000 + miles at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve and other County Parks nearby. Imagine the change I've adjusted to. I haven't gone on a real hike since May 15th. Imagine my withdrawals from Hiking. It was as bad as I would imagine a withdrawal from a drug!

Our area has received a lot of rain. Monday, some areas received over 2 inches or more and the Kickapoo River was rising. Not much of a flood, but the river had seeped into quite a few hay fields and pastures.

I decided to take my feet to the Wintergreen Trail. It is interesting enough and short enough so I can casually hike and look around.

I always make a stop at the 'lookout' and peer down at the river below. It is easy access and only a few minutes from the Visitor Center. 

On nice weekends, this is a busy trail. I choose not to go during those times for obvious reasons.

The trails were reported as muddy and buggy, so I didn't think I'd find anyone else along the way. I was right. I had the place to myself.
And one mosquito found me in a very wet area where the trail goes through weeds and flowers that where waist high.

The shot below is near the end of the trail which stops on the top of a bluff. There is no magical view of the river, but you can watch it and listen to it between the Pines and Hemlocks.

This may be one of my favorite places to stop and just sit for a while. 

I hiked the whole trail to the dead end quickly so I could see if I could find cool and interesting fungi. Then, I took my time returning to the car, walking slowly to peer at every mushroom, interesting tree, and view of the river.

This is another shot I take every single time I hike this trail. I look for this tree that seems to point the way. 

Of course, I did take the Minime and Charlie along as well as a couple other characters. 

Here we found tiny seedlings of pines growing on an obscure part of the bluff. This is off trail so hopefully no careless hiker will trample them.

[Don't look too closely at the minifigs face...how in the heck did a real Charlie hair get stuck on the minifig's face?]

The spot we found the seedlings is right next to the rocks that are evident in the photo.

I'm going to save the cool fungi and other photos not from my cellphone on another post. This morning I am running out of time between chores and our 'date' with Steve for an adventure. 

With all the rain we've had and areas of muddy water, the fishing won't be great so we may just do a drive and a lunch day. 

Rich looks forward to these weekly outings more than anything else right now. 

A little bit of snow...

Before our light snow+++

A look at the old trail that heads down towards our creek and valley. Dusty and brown.

Out on the edge of a field, I found a lone milkweed pod that still had some seeds on it. This plant was about 3 feet from the forest and probably protected from the winter winds.
 

We got snow. Not much. Not even enough to have the town plows hit the gravel roads. But still, it is moisture and hopefully it will eventually melt into the ground.

A little bit of snow does change the looks of things and these barberries stood out with their bright red berries in the forest. I stayed as much as possible in the forest because getting out where the wind was blowing was very cold.

This next shot is probably only interesting to me. It is of an old oak stump cut down when this area was logged 28 years ago. Probably not interesting to others though. It's texture with snow on it created something interesting to my eye. Too bad we couldn't see it in 3D.

It snowed a bit on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening so I went out this morning to the summer pasture to get to some shots of the sparkly snow and some shadows. We only received perhaps an inch and a half in total, but it was a nice change from the browns of the day before.

The trail at the top of the hill was much prettier. Plus there were no tracks yet from the critters other than a lone coyote.

The summer pasture did have some pretty spots. I tried so hard to get the snow 'diamonds'. Dad used to call the snow sparkles 'diamonds'. They were there, but so tiny!

The sun was SO bright it hurt my eyes! I had to squint. The temperature was 3 F [-16C]. The sun was shining and I was out of the wind so I did feel just fine.

I think the hardest thing to do with such bright white snow is try to get the exposure spot on. But this was just a little wander around the summer pasture and how it looked with a little bit of fresh snow on it.

In places where the wind had blown, the grasses showed through the snow quiet well.

The shadows of the plants and the textures of the snow were so fascinating.

Of course, Mini Me and Charlie had to check it out too.

According to NOAA [which I hope is not de-funded], we are to get up to 5 inches of snow Friday afternoon and night!

Temperatures will be super frigid come Sunday night.

...oh... parting shot through a window with a screen on it...

The Redheaded Sisters snoozing this morning with their snow blankets on.

Plans for Valentine's Day? None here. Every day is full of ❤️ in our house.

Making fake snow?

 

I wanted some snow in my North Pole photos, so I read up on purchasing fake snow. It is plastic bits which I didn't think too highly of. It would be like glitter... all over the place and hard to clean up. I'd find bits of plastic snow for the rest of my life in this house.

So I clicked on a link that said DIY your own snow with 2 ingredients.

Shaving cream and Baking Soda!

Since I just purchased a box of Baking Soda I thought I'd try it. [Hah, and you thought I bought it for baking!]

I followed the directions and made some 'snow' that feels cool to the touch. 

It was a bit messy on the hands, but rinsed off easily and smelled good. When done with it, I brushed it back into a container and wiped up the residue. I rinsed off the Legos and we were good to go again.

Below is my first try at playing with the snow.

Not a snow photo. But I can tell that Santa is checking the list and they have upgraded their system to include computers!

Since I do get out for some fresh air each day, I take Mini-me and Mini-Charlie in my pocket. Mini-me had to change clothes so she'd be prepared for the cold weather.

Charlie and I often see wildlife while out on our adventures. These nice striped fellows are ones we leave alone!

With the temps changing from deep freeze to warm and back again, we are careful at the creek.

Thin ice!

In the evenings while hubby takes his after supper nap to digest and get ready to watch something on the stupid smart TV, I take time to play a bit. 

More fake snow. Batman doesn't look so happy at the Christmas Lodge. Is it the snow that fell on his shoulder and head?

He is looking down in the street below at the activity in the Town Square. 

And down on the street there seems to be some things going on. I mean, snowmen are harmless, right?

The fake snow [shaving cream and baking soda] looks pretty good!

We are going into a very cold spell on Thursday with wicked wind chills. 

Time to break out the face covering and goggles.

Quiet Time

Time for some chillin' off the farm.

I could have stayed home as the temps were supposed to be in the 80's again, but I thought I'd make my own breezes again. This time I promised myself to just pedal until I found something interesting and then stop and look at it. 

This was not a work out, it was a pleasure out. I took my ancient camera that I had converted to Infrared. I put on the hot filter to shoot in normal colors and traded off with some infrared filters of 665nm and 850nm. The 850nm presents in black and white with the greens becoming white and blues are dark.

One of the places I really enjoy stopping at is the pond that is near a place called Star Valley. Okay, it was a place called Star Valley. A community lived here from 1901 to 1962. In the 60's, the government started a flood control project called the LaFarge Dam Project. People's homes/farms were purchased and those who refused had their land appropriated.

There still is a lot of resentment over those actions as the project was abandoned in the 1970's.  I've referred to the project over the years. You can check out one of those posts here: Dam Hike & Forest Wandering.

By the time I got to the Star Valley Memorial after riding about 5 miles, I was so chilled out that I could have laid on the bench and napped. Instead, I sat and just let my mind wander while I ate an apple. Funny thing is, I never thought a bit about my schedules for the next week. 

I knew then, that this was exactly what I needed.

Here is the pond in color, then in IR Black and White, and lastly in 665nm.

The presentation of the foliage and the pond reflections are startling in IR. I guess that is what the biggest appeal to me is. The wild colors are pretty much up to the person who processes IR. I happen to like a pink tint to the 665nm foliage. Sometimes the Black and White is more appealing. I love how the clouds and the reflections stand out.

I couldn't resist bringing my mini-me and Charlie along. In real life, I couldn't do this!

The colors were starting to turn in various places but nothing spectacular quite yet. The sumac offered some beautiful reds.

Bridge 16 is in the background of this shot.

Here is some different colors and a different variety of Highbush Cranberry.

Fully mature Nanny Berries! They turn black ... 

Last but not least was some curious vines I'd seen before but never stopped to investigate.

I've seen it flowering in the spring but had no idea that it is a type of wild clematis, with a common name called Old Man's Beard.

It was a pleasure to have some solo time. It was a beautiful afternoon and oddly enough, I never saw another person on the trail. There was no sign of hikers, bikers, or equestrians. 

Fall is coming. It will be here eventually....

September

Here it is nearly the middle of September. 

At least we've had a few beautiful sunrises this past week! Here is another one. The old pine tree is gone now giving me a clear view of the ancient oak on the fence line to the east.
 

This was this morning over the east meadow where the spider webs were. The Orb Weavers were not out anywhere this morning.

Here is a damaged maple up the mailbox when I went to collect our mail from yesterday.

I thought I'd find more bees in the morning on the Golden Rod, but I only found this solitary one. 

However, I did find quite a few when I went into the volunteer patch of odd pumpkins in the mule pasture.

Here is my latest haul from the volunteer patch.

I need to send a text to the moms of a couple of young kids up the road so I can let the kids come down and pick out a few to take home. The colored and odd pumpkins always go for a higher price when you go out to purchase them. 

I tossed old ones out in the pasture last fall and the mules ate some and must have stomped the seeds into the dirt. Viola! Volunteer pumpkins!

I've always loved the crazy bumpy/warty pumpkins and cool gourds. 

Hubby commented on how hard I worked on that patch.

Wink wink. 

You planted with care and then weeded and nurtured those plants!

Manure and mud. That's my secret recipe.

I'm still struggling with a few little digestive issues, but I think I am coming along. I fixed the fence, put the skid steer back on the battery maintainer, and started filling holes in the yard [from tree cutting].

Most afternoons, I still chill out with the weather being pretty warm. 

I ordered a minifig Doxxie to assist mini-me [aka sigfig] in all things fun. Isn't he adorable?

This way I can still have adventures!

Life is good.

I am on this side of the ground!