Bad Bad Air

I'm getting tired of orange/brown skies. 

Sunrises like this one from yesterday are not beautiful or enchanting any more.

The meadow to the east shows a grey nasty sky of smoke and haze.

The girls were totally unenthused about returning to our meadow.

They can head to the woods and find grasses and browsing, but would rather that I bring them some hay. Which I did.

The grey mule has breathing issues and I cannot imagine that this smokey haze is any better for her lungs than it would be for my hubby.

By noon, it was just this... this shot taken from our porch. I could smell wood smoke from the Canadian Wildfires. My thoughts were this: If it is so dry here in the Midwest, how long before our states experience wildfires too? 

I can't even imagine.

With all the chores done early, I just popped out later to add water to the feed pan that the birds were using as a birdbath and source of water.

My Lego friends and Squatch were on the porch. Apparently they were better prepared than I was for the smoke.

I decided to stay in and run the air purifier and the dehumidifier on the Mini Split. 

That led to doing things indoors that I'd put off. It felt odd to be stuck indoors. Even Charlie decided that being on the porch wasn't something he wanted to do. He did his business and never went to his spot and laid down like he normally does. 

Maybe the dog is smarter than I am. [Hey, no comments!]

This was supposed to be the sunrise today 15 seconds:

At noon today I drove out to get the mail and drop off some egg cartons at Olive's house. This was the ridge views.

I stuck close to the house again and for a little while messed around taking photos in my wildflower gardens.

I think I may have caught two insects mating? 

Well. Even if the smoke is heavy? Love is in the air?

--I skipped the workout at the gym for the past two days. The air is nasty and I'm not thrilled about breathing it in when I can smell wood and chemicals.

We are still at 'unhealthy' status of the 150 - 200 index. Hopefully by noon tomorrow it will fall back into just a 'yuck' status.

Wandering

So I just wandered the other day. Well, I didn't wander OFF. But I just took random deer trails through the forest with no destination in mind. I would walk a bit and then stand still. 

Listening, looking and observing. 

I wonder if a daddy long legs is considered wildlife.

I stood above the creek and just listened for a while. The water was barely moving from the west side of the fence. It pooled below me and then disappeared into the grass and jewel weed that grew in the creek bed.

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the green leaves and I just stood there thinking how beautiful the light and various shades of green were. So calming.

I think I may even put this photo on a large mounted board. I usually print a favorite shot each year and put it up. I think during the cold winter months, this photo may just bring me back to that very peaceful 'green' spot.

In an unexpected place in the back pasture I found a Monarch caterpillar. 

There were the hideously ugly looking brown prickly looking caterpillars too. They were interesting. I'd seen them over the years but had never bothered to figure out what there were.

Until this year.

[Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillars]

The reddish insect is an asparagus beetle. It probably has a long scientific name, but I like it fine as the red insect with black polka dots.

Monday morning found me out wandering the pastures again. The morning light was really quite bizarre.

I'm pretty sure these types of photos are flooding the social media because of the wildfires and the smoke in the air.

[I don't think the air quality is good for Rich to be outside doing work right now. So maybe the broken lawn mower is a good thing. I spoke with Mark and he'll pick it up and fix it along with a nice overall maintenance job on it.]

My thought was the sunrise seemed sort of like a Hollywood scene from some sort of Armageddon type movie.

It just felt creepy as all get out.

Most of the day was odd too. The sky wasn't blue, but more of a pale washed out color. 

I went out to move the pony and put the goat in his pen after supper. The clouds had left and there was this orange washed out odd color to the sky again.

Skies like this give me an uneasy feeling.

On a happy note....I chased a Monarch yesterday for a while. It was so shy! 

It played hide n' go seek!

Tuesday promises to be a busy day.

Patchy Smoke and then Patchy Fog

For real, that is what the LaCrosse NOAA service sight said last night.

I was wondering what Patchy Smoke would look like. Last weekend there was Canadian Wildfire smoke obscuring the night horizon while we were watching for the Perseid Meteor showers.

Just before I went to sleep last night, I went out with Charlie and noticed the crescent moon was a deep orange.
Ahhh. Smoke.

Charlie woke me up right at 5 am. I looked out the window and had my first surprise of the day. Little Richard was outside my bedroom window grazing. He was loose.
I walked out in bare feet and a t-shirt and walked him to the 3 electric line pen. He went like a Prince.
I'd been asked if I'd sell him recently and I said no. He could be a pain in the butt, but he does a good job at grazing areas I have a hard time mowing by hand.

There was a faint light in the sky while I watched Charlie do his business and we wandered back to the house to have coffee.

The sky was very dull and at first I attributed it to the fog. I gathered my camera bag stuff and keys. Charlie wasn't letting me out the door without him.
He even tried to help me with my socks and boots...

I plopped him into the 'car seat' and we set off to the ridge. The sky and fog had an unusual dullness to it.

Generally if it is foggy and the sun has risen, the fog has a brilliant color...this morning?

It was as if someone had wiped all the colors from the sky.

Yet the sun was already up....

So this must be what partly smokey and partly foggy means.

I felt the sun looked rather strange, almost like a red full moon rising.
Except I knew that it was the sun.