Rainy Thursday and Funny Friday

Last year I signed up for the Master Naturalist Course which got cancelled. This year it isn't being held anywhere local. I'd have to drive one way for two hours to take and evening class. Um, that won't work in my situation. So. What else can I learn?

With a rainy cold day in store for us, I did a super duper [is duper a word?] closet clean out. Out with the old worn out beat up back pack[s] I had. Clothes that I wouldn't wear any more. A pair of old dress shoes, some outdated shirts. I could have saved the material for 'something' but decided to chuck it and not waste time. Frustration cleansing! 

I had a big enough load to nearly fill the back of the Outback. 

I had to wait for the electrician to show and the UPS delivery because the other half won't go outside to pick up the package or talk with the electrician. Buggers!

I decided to pull up some tutorials by Gavin Hoey a British photographer that I really enjoy watching. He is a portrait photographer by nature, but has some of the most fun and interesting tutorials. He is an Olympus Ambassador but his Live Tech stuff really applies to all types of photography. 
His videos in lock down were pretty funny. His wife kept making comments about how clumsy he was. Some of his very simple ideas were very fun. I watched High Key Still Life. Every time I watch a still life tech video, I want to buy soft box lights and a whole set up. But I don't. I just muck along with what I have. After all, I am not making money with my hobby.

Nothing inspiring here...but I had fun with it and added textures which is not very popular except with certain crowds. Just junk I had and tea towels for the white backround. 

Another inspiration. Actually this was what I was reading the other night with my head lamp.

Of course I had to have the forest dragons with me.

I used black material and felt from old sewing projects and just set things up on the table.

I watched a video regarding macro work and learned quite a bit. Now to see if I can take what I learned into the field. Some of the stuff I knew, but some of the tips were pretty good and very appropriate for using my EM-1 Mark iii. As always, I can revert to my pocket camera with the microscopic feature!

Friday was a Hang the No Trespass signs. The dude in back took down his trail camera. I plugged the purple penis with my .22 just for fun. Just as I predicted, squirrels were chewing on it.

Um. Yeah.

About the doll parts.

Why not?

This certainly would creep me out if I saw it in the woods.

Evil Grin.

I'm going to take the post pounder back there and put the fence back up. HIS trees fell on it. 

But I am a master at cobbling things back together. 

Mushy Mushy & funny signs

With temps rising into the 40's I knew that the snowshoes would collect snow pack as I walked. Lucky me, however as the guys with the 4 wheelers had been out tearing things up on the neighbor's land. See the oldest brother says it is trespassing and gets upset. The oldest brother lives 4 hours away. The younger brother that lives there lets his work pals [some who are of dubious character] take their UTV's and 4 wheelers out and rip up trails.

The local law says if one brother says they can be there, it is not trespassing. I've talked with the UTV dudes and they know I am out there most of the time. We've run into each other a few times. [Only because I allow them to see me.] 

We talked on Sunday while I was out walking Charlie. I was happy they worked up the trails in the woods. Charlie and I could walk in packed down snow.

Charlie was ecstatic. He ran like the dickens up and down the slippery mushy trail. We hadn't been on a long hike since the cold spell. I walked along trying to ID trees and just watching out for coyotes. 

When we finally got down to the creek and valley, Charlie took off like a bullet and charged through the creek and scrambled up the opposite bank. He was chasing a turkey. 

Tiny dog on top of the stream bank. One of the places where the 4 wheelers have damaged the soft bank of the stream. I'm the shadow. Charlie spent a long time watching the turkey as it flew across the valley.

We headed upstream back to our land. The going was easy along the creek and got harder once we headed up my old snowshoe trail which was pure mush now. 
Step, slide, step, stumble, 
it was like an incredible work out. CrossFit had nothing on deep mushy snow! Balance and leg strength!

I thought we'd have it easy peasy when I reached the summer meadow. Alas. Not so.

Poor Charlie. Being a Low Rider presents issues in deep snow. But he went snow swimming.

He was still hunting turkeys. He'd pause every once in a while and scan the trees. Or perhaps it was squirrels he was watching for.

He was dragging butt by the time we got home. And I was tired of walking like a drunken sailor. 

I'd taken my little red pocket camera and for some reason I'd bumped the tiny switch on it to log my gps coordinates. I never do that . However, it was interesting to find out that the elevation change from the creek at the muddy bank to the house was 323 feet in elevation change. 

Lastly. I got bored and decided to order a couple of signs of my own.  Back by our fence line where the not so nice absentee landowner put up his signs. He also has a deer stand setup to shoot on my property. I will re-string the barbed wire and have a few more tricks up my sleeve to make deer hunting awful that little section.

One should not piss off an 'old' lady who has nothing better to do than think of creative ways to subtly get back.

And yes, I do carry a pistol.
And no, I never intend to hurt anyone. This person invites friends to hunt and they set up their stands to shoot on other's land. The whole group is disliked intensely by our ridge community as they 'think' they can do what they want. This land is really quite remote so I bet they think I wouldn't notice their stand OR their arrows on my land.

Today? I'm going hunting some ice caves on KVR. 

Fence War ~ I guess it's a feud.

My 5 little hanging ghosts I'd put out in the forest on Friday afternoon got a HUGE reaction! 

You know little Halloween decorations.

I went back Sunday with some Gnomes to take some Still Life photos and walk with Charlie.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the person bought 20 brand new yellow Do Not Trespass signs ~ and literally nailed one to nearly every tree around his stand for about 20 yards in either direction.

He also put up a camera on our/his fence line. 

I do not trespass period.
He has owned that land for 15 yrs and made it clear to all of the folks in our area that he would not allow anyone ever on his land.
I have no reason to go there, it is a large corn field and rather boring.

I would call his reaction to my little ghosts a bit over the top...I'll explain in a minute.

I have a trail cam set up next to one of the Halloween decorations. There is a nice photo of a small buck grazing not far from it. So yeah, it didn't bother the wild life at all. 

It was the Huge Purple/Pink Dildo that he strapped to one of the trees that I thought was in poor taste. I almost was offended, but then decided it was probably one of the funniest grossest things I'd ever seen. The guy's trail cam is aimed at the huge dildo strapped to the tree. I suppose he thinks I'd find it so offensive he'd catch me on camera stepping through the fence and removing it.

Tempted to make a sign and put on my side of the fence.

"Is your wife missing this?"

But then I'd stoop to his level. 

I didn't get up close to look at it, but if it is plastic or rubber, the raccoon will have a field day with it. I know, they've chewed up my dolls I had back there for Halloween past decorations.

Odd things happen to items left out in the woods....remember the Teddy Bears at the creek?

So just to be clear, I've decorated that area of my woods before with zombie dolls and skeletons so the neighbor kids could take a long walk and do a Treasure Hunt in that section of woods. 

Well obviously I won't have any Treasure Hunts back there for a long while now. At least until the forest creatures chew up the purple/pink thing.

Also...something I thought very funny. This fellow had to actually make a huge effort to go out and purchase the signs ... then spend a fair amount of time nailing them up.
He had to use a step stool or something as the signs are about 6 ft up...and god knows where he got that offensive huge Purple/Pink Dildo, but he spent a good amount of time NOT hunting.

Here is a view and I smudged the offensive Purply Thing. The flowers are on my side of the fence. 

I'm thinking of my next move.

This is starting to be really quite funny. However, I think my point was taken. 

Don't Shoot on my Land. Recovery yes. 

I am totally bored with this Isolation/Staying at Home situation. So I can have a bit more fun with this. 

Think Blair Witch Project? 

I am very creative. But I won't stoop to offensive behavior. 

Oh...

Here is the Gnome project I was doing!

That is all I have for today!

Have a great day. I'm going to be busy again!

Morning Jaunt

I went to Wildcat Mountain State Park earlier this summer in the middle of the week and found the place crowded with campers.

Fortunately not a lot of hearty souls were out on the the furthest part of the trails. I took side trails to keep from running into the mini hoards of people. This time was different.

There was one other vehicle there with a motorhome. They were bow hunters taking advantage of the open section of the park. The hiking trails are closed to trapping and hunting which is part of the reason I chose to take Charlie and enjoy a nice long walk in nature on nice trails.

My goal was to figure out how to hike to all the lookouts. I parked near the Ampitheatre area and took the shortcut to Taylor Hollow Lookout. From there I decided I'd just hike the Old Settler's Trail.

I brought along my little pocket camera that shoots infrared, this 'brown' season is great for black and white. Charlie and I are at the trailhead to Taylor Hollow Lookout.

Below, view of the stairs that lead down and around the rock. I am standing on top of the rock. Charlie is peering over the edge and surveying the landscape.

Next shot...See Charlie leading the way down the 'stairs'?

He loves trails, he loves hiking and like most dogs, he loves to be in the lead.

And there is always a rock to explore and pee on.

We hiked the first half of the trail down through the old pine plantation. We didn't run across anyone but saw a lot of tracks from weekend hikers. It was cold and breezy so I didn't expect to find many people out.

Charlie is wearing his long piece of rope which I can step on when I want him to stop or I use it as a leash when we see other people.

We did run across some Foresters working on some trees. There was a sign on the trail to 'forgive the mess' as the foresters cleaned out the diseased trees. 

There were six guys with chainsaws. We had to walk right past them so of course I had hold of Charlie and we stopped to say hello.

The Foreman asked if they could pet Charlie. Of course. 

I let him go so we could keep our distance and Charlie was surrounded by big burly guys in hard hats and chainsaws who all knelt on the ground to pet him. Oh Charlie was in heaven! His whole body vibrated with happiness and the tail circled and slapped overtime.

They thanked me and we were on our way again.

I had a notion as we went around a rocky formation that if I climbed up to the top I could shortcut or see out over the forest at least. 

The trail is built to do a serpentine through a valley and around a rocky ridge top.

We scrambled to the top and I was surprised to find that the parking lot to the other trailhead to Old Settler's Trail was right in front of us.

We could scramble back down to the trail we just left...or....

Explore.

My Trail Boss voted for Explore.

By some wicked chance, we found the Hiking/Cross Country Ski trail. I'd skied it in the winter, but it wasn't really on the hiking trail map. The confusion is this...the trail is for hiking and skiing but is only shown on the winter ski ridge map. 

I'm one of those people who like to walk/hike a trail and study the topo map to figure out exactly where I am and where I want to go.

IF I'd paid attention to the signs where I had parked, I would have had a clearer picture of how to 'find' the ski trail. 

Start. Hmmm. I'm not exactly sure what the red and white sign is on top of the post.

But I do recall that every year they have a cross country ski challenge on this section of Wildcat and this must be the start!

Well. Let's just say I figured out exactly where I will park next time and enjoy the 6 mile jaunt to the lookouts. 

Charlie and I ended our outing with a picnic in the back of the Subaru, out of the wind and in the warm sun. Dog cookies, PB&J, water, and an apple.