Dreaming about

I am....
Dreaming of my vacation place.

It is among trees,

far from any roads,

far from any lights,

and far from the internet

and cell service.

Imagine a spot with so much beauty.
A place where Fireflies dance the 
night away.

A place with
glorious sunrises.

Steps away from this dream vacation spot are 

morning views that would make one 

sigh.

The night sky is more amazing than any television show
and it feels like the stars are performing just for you.

My goal for this summer was to do some travelling and camping at various State Parks.

I wanted to go to places I've never visited, the waterfalls of northern WI. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. State Parks in Iowa that have interesting rock formations.

I wanted to take the dogs camping with me in a tent and see how we got along. 

But then this economical thing happened. With a fairly strict budget, with the thought of the cost of gas cutting into my budget for a long drive is becoming less and less appealing.

I'm going to still try and do some day trips to some other areas. But the thought of driving far distances with the pups and I to camp? Hmmm.

I want peace. I want quiet. I want no one else to listen to while in my camping spot. I want clear views of the night skies and the morning sunrises.

I want the dogs to feel free to run out of the tent with me in the morning and pee where ever they wish. 

Maybe I'll have a spot to cook a simple supper or have a little campfire.

And after all of those points I wish to have. 

BAM

I realized I have it right here without leaving home.

Well, for at least now. I will learn how to camp with my dogs and figure out what I need for that time I DO take a long trip and explore other places.

Hannah is standing in the area where I will be putting down some stall mats so that the vacation spot will have a 'floor' for a table and a couple of old chairs.

A fire ring of native rocks will grace the site along with a spot for a tent.

Facing the other way I can see an open meadow just footsteps away. A place I can watch the night sky and see the stars and the Milky Way.

Soon, the fireflies will begin to appear here and there across the meadow and in the forest. Night life will be amazing. 

So for now,

why dream about the perfect place to camp, when it is on my own land.

Exploring may have to wait. But I am patient.

Colorful

The past few days have given us some spectacular morning and evening colors. The ones above were from a morning walk. The magic all happened as I walked back towards home. I'd hiked out to an area where I could see across the top of the ridge but the view was rather...um. Bleh.

When I got to the mailbox the skies lit up with those great crepuscular rays of morning light over the cornfield.

Another stunning evening sky gave us some amazing colors. 
Home sweet home ... colors in the sky above us.

The trees are rapidly changing colors. Getting a scenic shot is really quite hard in these woods and hills without travelling to the river or a bluff.

Green and Gold Hickory leaves:

Maple leaves along the driveway:

I'm hoping to get out to one of the county parks this afternoon.

Below is a photo of Jersey Valley which had an earthen dam to provide flood control and a man made lake which provided us with hiking, fishing, and kayaking, picnics, and swimming. The dam was destroyed in 2018 and apparently they will not replace it once again as it is too costly.

The County is working on rebuilding the trails that were also destroyed.

I do recall in years past that this was my go to spot at sunrise or late in the day. This is a photo from 2014 when the lake still had water.

I'm aching to get out and enjoy some fall beauty if it comes around. However. I'm okay with what Mother Nature will provide for us.

Pretty skies

  This year has been fairly plain when looking at sunrises and sunsets. Or perhaps I just didn't get my butt out there to watch them. Most of the summer was dealt with smokey or cloudless skies with no moisture as we went through a summer of drought and Canadian fires.

Thank goodness right now that has changed. The mornings and evening have been presenting us with a few glorious skies.

The 4 second video below is a time lapse of a sunset a couple of nights ago. I set up the camera on the porch while I filled the big stock tank and let the camera do it thing.

I had taken a still shot too.

Friday night wasn't brilliant but it was still worth seeing.

Another 4 seconds of the sunset. It is something that I am

fooling around with. It isn't brilliant, but

this way I can see if I am getting any progress

at all.

Hobby, my minifigure 'self' likes going out and watching the skies with me. Poor thing, she is getting quite worn from bouncing about in my pockets.

Sunrises!

I'm so happy for brilliant mornings and spectacular evenings. In the winter, I can watch both the sunrise and sunset from our porch. In the summer I have to walk out to the pastures to the north.

Sundance after our last snowfall. She'd just taken a snow bath and was watching deer while eating at the hay feeder.

Hopefully we get clear skies and I can actually get out on one of these nights to view the Geminids shower this week.

Skies from the porch

Sunday night this sunset presented itself after so many cloudy yucky days.

Actually this was the last 'gasp' of light. For 20 minutes or so the sky was lit up with bright oranges and reds, but I liked this last ... blast best with the dead tree in the photo on the right and the yellow in the middle highlighting the clouds.

Oddly enough to the east there was a beautiful rainbow that lasted as long as the sunset did.

After the yellow flare of light some more clouds moved in and so did dusk.

The sky really became interesting then...

...and that is why I love our porch!

Well that is pretty dull. November is sort of dull in a way though.

I'm hoping for a nice snow fall to cover up the mud and it sounds like it just may happen starting Tuesday afternoon.

Time to get some diesel fuel for the skid steer!

The 4th

Sunrise found a group of us on the ridge watching the sun arrive for the day.

The day was going to be hot, hot, hot with heat indexes in or around 100.

What an incredible morning. The photos can speak for themselves.

We spent a good part of the afternoon on the porch in front of the fan.
Charlie had the proper idea...

The dogs played some but the heat wore them out...

After the storms moved through and we ate...the fun began on the ridge.

Sparklers have a new name. In Logan-ese, they are aptly called Sprinklers!

Fearless Daryl lit things off...

And the kids enjoyed the glow sticks....

The fireworks commenced and later on we stargazed.

And life was good...

HOT times a comin'

Last night's view from the ridge top. Temperatures and heat indexes are supposed to rise dramatically today. So I already moved all the animals to fresh shady spots with fresh water.

Well the morning started out not so great. The good ol' Truck had a dead battery. Not surprising, I'd been asking to get it in for a tune up and some other work for a while.
Now I have permission to make the appointment...next month.

Relatives. Well there is going to be a lot of that this weekend. Miss Ariel and her dog Angel will spend Sunday and Monday here I guess. Angel will have to be kenneled and take turns with Charlie being tied out to potty. Charlie isn't allowed to rough house or get too excited.
He had surgery on Tuesday and was neutered.

He seems fine now but the vet said the inside needs to heal. So be it. Charlie is under restrictions.

Heat. HOT.
Dangerous heat today. I did get a load of small bales home and I think I'll just park it in the shed and use off from the back of it while the Excessive heat warnings are in effect.

Meeting with a psychiatrist today. He will be doing an independent evaluation of my MIL. The VA called yesterday, Rich will be doing several evaluations in the next few weeks also. His will involve driving, finances, and ADL's. All to establish a baseline to work from.

I knew the next few days would be a bit of a cluster, so last night I drove to the ridge and watched the sun go down.

I should have stayed longer. But felt I needed to be near the house.

This afternoon, I'm thinking of setting up the hammock that the Kenosha Gang gave me.
It may be a perfect day to lay under the trees and read.

And that is...it...

I have water in my Outhouse Basement!

Well...
I do.

July 19th started out innocent enough with a beautiful incredible sunrise. I went to the ridge and enjoyed a brief flash of colors.

I drove to Black Bottom Creek and the clouds rolled in darkening the morning light.
So I should have heeded the old saying.
Red sky at Dawn
Sailors take Warning...

The sky had turned an incredible red before I got to the ridge.

And the saying proved very true.

This was after the hard winds of perhaps 70 miles an hour raged through with 1.5" of rain in less than an hour.
However the sunset was stunning.

I received a warning on the Smarty Phone saying that more severe storms were on their way.

So I made a quick check of the fences and animals. The mules had gone down into the hollow and were fine. No trees were across the fences and the animals were quiet.

Then the next round came. And the NOAA noted that it would be a long night of heavy storms with heavy rain and lots of lightening.
They were not kidding.

The hail hit at about 3:30 in the morning. I'd given up sleep by then. I worried about the animals and wondered if the heavy rains would wash out the creek again.

I started to chore and noticed there were some limbs down and it appeared that a tree was over on the fence.
We had sort of expected something like that.
So I went to the outhouse which also serves as my storage for my nippers and machete.
I grabbed the nippers then glanced down into the hole.
It was filled with water.
The rain had come so hard and so fast that it ran down the hill from above and had come into the outhouse hole.
I shrugged.

This looked like a job for a chainsaw.

I did chores and checked quickly on the rest of the animals. They were all just fine.

The garden looked like a mess but as of this morning the corn seems to be recovering and didn't suffer too much damage from the hail.

We were lucky. In McGregor Iowa a tornado had come through with the first storm and tore up that little historic town. The storm raged across the river and winds tore up Prairie Du Chein. So we were lucky.

The total rain fall for our place in 24 hours was 6.10 inches.

We finished up the day and have started to make preparations for the next round of storms.
Heavy rains, flash flooding, hail, and high winds.

Yeah. And there is still water in my outhouse 'basement'.