Well here we are on a Sunday. I was going to send in a grocery order and go pick it up in town when we got a phone call.
Rich's nurse is coming out at noonish today. He called while I was doing morning chores.
So instead of doing that, I am readjusting my schedule once more.
Before the Rich got sick, I did a nice long hike in the neighbor's valley. There is this very gnarly and twisted tree in the grassy part of the valley that always fascinated me. The tree has been dead for quite a few years and has a lot of interesting lichen on it.
I've always wanted to do a 'good' shot of this tree but never quite figured it out. So here is the tree. Once I decided to convert it to black and white, it seemed to stand out a bit better.
It is surrounded by a variety of plants and quite a bit of golden rod shown below. I'd read an article about shooting through a plant at another plant to give a bit of interest to the shot.
So I shot the tree from the other side with the lens close to the golden rod for a light blur effect. Below is the result. It only took me a gazillion years to get a shot of this twisted tree that I liked. And there it is.
During the big melt down on February 25th, I spent quite a bit walking around through the creek bottom. In my bag I had another Titan 13. This one is gold. I thought with the late afternoon sun he'd surely shine.
I had a bit of excitement when the Titan fell forward into the rush of water. I had to chase him downstream a bit to rescue him. The water wasn't deep at all. But I had to try another shot just for the heck of it.
I thought he'd look more regal and I wanted to shoot more up at him than this direction. I'll find another time and place to do that but without the water.
That run off on the 26th was really quite beautiful. I enjoyed taking it all in. The sound of the water was relaxing and invigorating at the same time.
Now I'm trying to figure out my new routine[s] and get used to another change in our lives.
Including creativity is going to be a new challenge to explore. I can think of it in a way as being pushed to change things up.
Charlie is really one heck of a champ. 3 inch front legs, with a low slung powerful chest and then he stretches out to be a long dog.
Yesterday we caught some time to run hike walk down to our valley. I could tell the snow melt was running off. I could hear it in the run off to the west of us on our west neighbor's land.
There is one thing I try very hard to go enjoy. Mini flash floods [I'm not a fool] and snow melts. The sound is music to my ears. Our creek used to have quite a bit of water in it. But for the last few years, we've had a bit of a drought.
I used to go down to the valley and sit on a rock or log and just listen to the water. It soothes me.
Last week this area was solid ice with water running slowly underneath the ice. The water from the ridge west of us drains down through their land and into the spot where the creek actually starts at a spring. It gathers water from the hillsides and two large south facing dry runs and heads down the valley and through us.
The brownish colored water is typical of run off. It is dirt, sand, clay, and debris that gets washed off the top of the soil on the ridge. Erosion. It is more fierce in the winter as the land underneath is frozen and cannot soak in.
It was sunny yesterday afternoon and nearly 60 degrees out. The water was icy cold with ice slush in it. That tough little dog made his way back and forth and over rocks to assist me in exploring.
In the shots below, the light color that looks yellowish under the water is ice that is still frozen.
The white streaks are foam that comes from oxygen in the snow, debris, and dissolving organic matter. It is complicated science but pretty cool stuff. I never understood why there was so many bubbles during a snow melt and run off.
Now I know a little more.
Foamy:
And photographed with a 3 second exposure. 👇
The foam does literally spin in circles in little eddies. I just love to 'catch' it in a longer exposure. It makes so many interesting patterns.
I tried something I hadn't ever done before. I took a very strong ND filter and stuck it on the lens. I literally faced towards the west and set this shot up for a very long exposure. I wanted to highlight the foam streaks.
Charlie and I sat on a log with the water running around us. He was patient with me while I fiddled with the camera and the exposures to try something different. In the shot above, there is a leaf, snow, and stick jam just in front of us.
I like it. It is weird enough to be different and highlight the foam.
I get geeked out over the foam in the water. Sorry, can't help it.
the log...today.... 👇 nice place to sit right?
The shot below is where I'd taken the video with Morris a few years ago. The water wasn't charging down through the boulders like in years past, but it made for some cute little water falls with bubbles!
This morning, the sunrise was spectacular, when I went out on the porch to watch it, I could hear the water running again on the neighbor's land.
After getting ol' hubby settled, fed and whatnot. I walked carefully down to the neighbor's valley and took this shot.
The walls of the creek are steep. I took this shot so you could understand what it looks like. Getting in and out of that bottom can be tricky sometimes. I didn't go down at all this morning as the banks were all ice.
I did eventually find a safe way down a bit later and spent a little more time enjoying the sounds and sights of the creek.
I just can't stay away from water. Give me a river, a creek, or a lake to be near and you can color me happy.
I spent all of my free time at the creek today. Hubby napped, I 'creeked'...not creaked.
Side note. He says he is too sick to see a doctor. And again refused to go. I think that should be my Stress Test, not some machine, right?
Sunday morning I had to wear Yak Traks to walk up to get Saturday's mail.
The snow had melted all night and the fog misted down ... so the driveway was a combination of ice and water.
I had to run to the nearest gas station/convienience store before breakfast. I thought the Subaru could handle the driveway. Icy but not pure glare ice.
The gravel roads were somewhat of a nightmare, soft in some spots, icy in others, and in one spot a culvert was plugged and icy chunks of water was beginning to run over the road.
By the time I got home our township had rescued the day and had spread gravel on the worst spots and down the steepest part of our driveway. I parked the Subaru and did a short happy dance.
Since water was running I thought I'd do a quick hike down to the creek and see if any run off was occurring yet.
The fog was intense even down in the creek bottom. But the air temperature had changed so rapidly in 36 hours from -32 on Thursday morning to 42 degrees on Saturday and Sunday.
I figured that one of the dry runs could bring water off the ridge. So I walked the length of our creek starting from the west and heading towards the east. I could hear the run off before I saw it.
And as I climbed closer, I could hear the sound of the water change from above me in the dry run.
I quickly backed up.
Somewhere an ice jam had given way and released dirt, clay, and ice with water all at once.
I backed off to the other side of the creek and watched it roar.
It soon subsided yet the water still ran. I looked upstream and didn't see any of the tell tale white bubbles or discolored water heading my way.
So I set up to take a few shots before I had to get back home and check on Rich.
The top shot is looking upstream
and the bottom is looking
downstream from the same spot.
I wish I'd had time to stay for a while, but I grabbed some photos and headed home.
The weather calls for rain again today with ice jams and localized flooding in small streams.
This truly is my kind of weather.
Okay, it isn't pleasant, but it sure makes the creek very interesting.
Sunshine thought it would be fun to take a little jaunt. After all it has been December since we last got out for any time together.
On the ridge things looked pretty good. It was a bit muddy but we went before the ground got too soggy.
My clever little red headed mule wasn't fazed by the icy snow mobile trail. She moved alongside the trail where the ground was good and solid.
When we go to the normal creek crossing area we just sat a bit and watched the water roar on by. Sunshine was happy to just watch and then after a bit we returned home.
My day didn't end there. I had watering to take care, Dixie to play with ... and then I couldn't resist the urge to go back to our creek bottom.
I could hear the waters tumbling and crashing from the house.
I was already muddy. I gathered up my back pack and set off. Rich was sleeping and I had supper in the crock pot.
This is a shot of my neighbor's pasture. This water comes from the area west of us and runs down towards the creek. There is a Dixie head in the right side of the photo.
This is the nice quiet little pond that marks the end of my property and the fence-line that should mark my neighbor's land.
Further downstream I stopped for a quick look around and then headed back home. I was wet and very muddy.
I had to take my pants off on the porch and leave them to dry. My sweatshirt and vest had mud splatters on them also.
I think that meant I had an awesome day.
The venison roast tasted quite wonderful. I think it is one of the best ones I've made.
Note to self though. Plant more green beans, carrots, and corn in the garden next year.
I like snow melts or winter thaws. It makes my little heart sing and my husband shake his head.
He often wonders if I am just crazy. No, I think he knows I am crazy.
I am nuts about our little creek. Any time we have a huge rain or a snow melt event I am scurrying to go watch it and take photos.
On the 15th we had our second day of extremely warm temperatures. I was sure that we'd had a 'run-off' on the 14th, but I had to wait for a phone call from the clinic. I was really quite put out that I could have been missing an adventure in Awesome Creek.
This photo is from March 2014. We'd had a lot of snow then.
February 15th this year...
I do love the sound the water makes as it makes its way through these boulders. The water is a coffee color with streaks of foam from the melting snow and ice. I believe the water color is from erosion from the cropland above and a mix of the clay and soils that line this 'dry' run.
I'd worn knee high waterproof boots for this.
After so many years of running down to the melt off, you'd think it would be boring or ho hum.
It isn't.
Each time it is different.
The path of the creek changes ever so slightly with each 'event'. Sometimes it changes drastically.
During such melt downs or heavy rains, I'd like to be everywhere at once along the creek. But that isn't possible.
This is the run off from the heavy rains we had on January 26th.
This is from the snow melt of February 14th and 15th.
boots...
Try as I might, I never do seem to get in the same exact place for these shots.
I gave up trying to be exact a long time ago.
But that is the charm of snow melts and heavy rains. I get to set up and practice some long exposure shots of the water.
Time was a factor also. I rush down to shoot the creek and explore as the daylight is beginning to fade.
I hurry instead of taking my time.
There are chores waiting for me at home. And a hungry husband.
I put the Olympus camera in my mini back pack and grabbed the tripod. I walked upstream to take the easier way out of the creek.
As I got above the water, I could hear a roaring coming from my neighbor's dry run.
I stepped through the barbed wire and walked over to where I could look. The water had started coming down here too. I couldn't help myself. I had to take a shot of the run off winding its way through the boulders and rocks.
I think I am going to find an old plastic chair to drag down to Awesome Creek and put it in a place so I can just sit and watch.
Morris doesn't come along with me any more. His eyesight is not very good any more and his hearing is pretty questionable.
I do miss his company and the looks that questioned my sanity....
Morris in 2014 giving me the look:
Weather alert.
Melting today.
Rain and ice event from tonight through Tuesday night.
It was nearly 4 pm when I got back from the MIL's apartment. I'd been cleaning her place most of the afternoon. I helped her pack up her Christmas Decorations and had taken her trees and about 5 plastic tubs of florals down to her storage room.
I kept looking out her balcony window. The temperatures outside had risen to almost 50 degrees. Unheard of in January. I knew the waters would be running off the ridges.
When I got home, I told Rich that I was running off to the creek. The Big Melt was occurring. I had to be there.
And off I went with knee high water proof boots.
However.
Even though the temperature had reached 50 degrees, those areas that had been rained on .. and were on hillsides or deep in the valley had now become pure ice with water on them. I hurried down from the house towards Awesome Creek. I could hear the water pounding the rocks below. It was the January Run Off.
After so many years of observing the creek and the weather, I knew that I'd find brown water and foam in the creek.
Though the creek wouldn't be rising this year as it had in the past. Our snow and moisture level had been low this winter.
Trying to find good spots to take photos got to be tricky. Our cold spells had frozen the creek in some spots. The water was running over ice in those places.
This is a spot where it ran over the ice and back into waters. It looked like a huge foam brill cream type of thing??
I negotiated my way downstream and just had to be amazed.
In some places it wasn't deep, in others, it was too deep to cross.
This area was unique as the water ran over the ice. I had to cross it more than once and I wished I'd stopped to put my Yak Tracks on. Ice Cleats.
In other spots I had to negotiate water and depth. But since I know this creek fairly well, I grabbed a long stick and checked water depth before attempting a crossing.
It took some time, but I was able to find a spot that I could shoot from. I didn't use any filters as evening was coming on and I used the diminishing light as a filter.
For those interested, I used a tripod. ISO of 100, and a 2 second exposure. It caught the water coming downstream as well as the waters coming down the dry run [right hand side of the photo]. The top left is an active part of the creek. Normally the water runs through those rocks and creates a very small waterfall. However it was frozen so the water bypassed it.
As the light was fading from the day, I kept working my way downstream.
This is the 'dry' run. It only gets wet when there are hard rains or run off's like this. It is a gully filled with mossy boulders and challenging climbs all the way to the top of the ridge. The ridge is about 200 ft above this. When the rains or melts get too much for the land to absorb, the water flows into this 'run' and empties into the creek.
The creek flows down through the valley with more dry runs that increase the flow until the creek hits Black Bottom and heads towards the Kickapoo River.
I only had enough daylight left to go to our fence line and take a few last shots before packing up and heading home to make supper.
I really wished...that I'd had more time.
I had the knee high boots and...well.
It was so intriguing.
And there it was.
Taking a walk on the wild side.
Crossing icy boulders and a stream.
Listening to the thunder.
My heart pounding.
Wishing I could sit here and just take all that wildness in.
