Visit

My youngest son and his fiancé came for a visit this weekend. I don't know if 'youngest' is really appropriate for someone in his mid 40's, but there you are.

They didn't bring the kids so it was a much more different experience than I've had before with them. I got to sit down and actually converse rather than have them dealing with all the kids.

I finally found out how they met, why they met, and how Jer's life has changed since they met. Jer is the kid that wore his heart on his sleeve. 

An Angelic child? Nope. Funny? Sometimes. A Pain? Yes. Hyper? Yes. 
Obnoxious? Sometimes. Big Heart? Mostly. Organized? Nope. Impulsive? OHHHH yes.

I could add more regarding my 'kid'. But I've settled on not trying to tell him on how I think HE should live his life. 

I'm the parent and I always want to see my sons do their absolute best.

Jer's relationship with Em seems to have pointed him in a different direction. He told me he was no longer going to be mad at the world. [Truly, I don't know what for.]

Sunday morning I took them to breakfast [they'd taken me to supper!]. Then I asked him if he'd like to visit Readstown's indoor Flea Markets. They were game.

Crazy Frank's has two stores in this small town. Two stores that are basically huge Garage Sales by Vendors. You can find baby shoes to antique glassware, toys, clothes, and absolute junk in both locations.

While we were in the first one, Jer said we should play a game next time he visits. The game would involve going into to these Crazy stores and purchasing an outfit from head to toe from the items we could find.

He put this hat on and modeled it for us. 

The crazy thing was, we walked around and found the most ridiculous clothes we could find. Future planning for the 'contest'. 

Jer had his eye on white and rainbow white jumpsuit. I started looking at some of the odd and crazy weird hats. Em picked up a pair of rubber cowboy boots that had daisies on them. We laughed and giggled as we went through all the booths and items.

I did find a 'monster toy' for a $1 along with a nice bud vase to add to my collection for $3, and a $1 old metal tractor.

We actually spent hours in both stores, enjoying wondering about who collected these things and how junky some stuff was and how nice other pieces were. I found a rocking chair that I fell in love with. Dangit! Sold!

The weather outside was rather horrid. The temps were below zero and the windchills pretty nasty. Plus it started snowing again while we were in the stores.

But we had a blast. 

The stores got seriously busy while we were there. It seems to be a place that anyone can go on a crappy day to browse through other folk's stuff on a subzero snowy day.

Thing is, my weekend would have been a bit lonely. I do get lonely once in a while so there is that.

So my weekend was full of laughter and chit chat catching up with one son who had been so distant for so long. [actually it was a mutual distance thing, I hadn't liked his attitude or what he was doing and he didn't care if I cared or not]

Weekend recap

Early morning hunt for eatable's in the forest with Olive.

Olive took a shot of me takin a shot
of the twisted trees...

Olive. Just as nutty as me!

Sunday morning's fog and morning walk...

Infrared IRChrome shot.
IR picks up more light and works

well on foggy scenes. IRChrome sees green

as red.

Cherry blossoms in the fog

Dandy-lions...

Multiflora Rose

Virginia Pinks

Wild Strawberries

Pheasantback mushrooms starting... I wasn't the only one interested in them!

It was warm and humid Sunday with occasional showers but I got a lot of gardening done. I hauled buckets of dirt from the old manure pile to patch up holes in the yard. I cleaned the gardens around the house and added dirt from that old manure pile to enrich the soil.

I dumped the old dirt out of my 3 containers I have for geraniums and refreshed them with new dirt. 

The mules all walked up for a grooming and I had an assembly line going. Each one walked up to me, got curried and then I tapped them on the rear end to move them along for the next in line. 

Last but not least. The first hummingbird showed up as well as the first Oriole. 

Tweet Tweet....

As it happened....

This is my favorite view in the whole wide world.
The view between a mule's ears.

Of course this is Sunshine's ears and her mane is wild and wooly just like everyone else's on the farm this time of year. I don't roach the manes towards fall as the mules need that extra insulation on the top of their heads.
Well, at least that is what I think.

Molly texted that she was coming for a visit and bringing two friends. I was properly surprised to find that one of her friends was a guy. Nope, he wasn't a boyfriend of Molly or the other gal, but they are all pals at school.

More interesting was the fact that as we talked a bit Friday night I noticed his t-shirt and asked him if Glenbrook North Highschool was indeed the one in Northbrook. He said it was. I was stunned. And then I laughed.

"I graduated from Glenbrook North 45 years ago!" We spent a few minutes discussing a few streets and I told him what Northbrook was like when we had moved there when I was a kid.
And...we both went to the very same grade school.

I had one more intramural CrossFit 'game' 20.5 to do Saturday morning and I told the 'kids' that they could clean out burrs from the mules' tails and manes if they wanted to do some bareback riding when I got back.

All the mules had been cleaned up of burrs and brushed, well, all except Fred who was his usual anti social self.

Everyone was eager to try bareback riding. Only Will hadn't done it before. I decided to just stay in the adjoining pastures. Everyone would get some more experience on the two young mules with nice round backs...and some experience riding the bony backs of Mica and Fred.

I allowed them to switch mounts to see how different each animal was. Siera behaved as expected. After a while of riding in her pasture she decided to test her riders by putting up a little mule protest.

Mules generally don't like doing the same thing over and over so it was no surprise. Plus Siera felt she could get away with refusals.

I explained to Will and Sonya that these were not 'lesson' animals like they had at their school. These mules were more into trails and doing difficult things, not an open pasture where walking was boring to them.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and I imagine there may be some sore butts and legs this morning.

I brought out their cell phones after the ride was over so they could all get photos of themselves on mules to share.

I'd requested the phones be left in the house before riding. You should have seen their faces when I said that! Shock! [Well Molly wasn't shocked]

All in all we had a fun time and Molly's friends got introduced to mules.

Dirt roads

...and out of the way places....

Getting there in the morning is easier now with my new stealth vehicle.

Fog can be seen over the Kickapoo River Valley and building in the dips and tiny valleys in between as the ridge starts to come alive with birdsong.

And then I waited and watched.  Zeke's cabin was quiet. He never gets up early anyway.
On days like this, I envy his view, however during blizzards and cold gusting winds...I
don't.

I turned around like I did yesterday and worked the gears and cruised towards the next high point across the ridge. Those folks that say you don't forget how to ride a bike? They are right. But the near gearing is pretty neat and allows me to get up all but the steepest of the hills.

I was sweating, but I got there in plenty of time to watch the fog start to roll across the ridge top.
According to my clock, the sun had been up for about 5 minutes, however it was hidden behind clouds.

I can't resist a good *purplie* morning. Not when there is fog involved. And from now until November, we should have morning fog off and on.

Someone said I should get a basket put on the bike for Charlie. Even if he doesn't/won't ride in it, it would be handy to carry my tripod and a few other things. I'll have to inquire at the bike shop or look around. I wouldn't mind a rack in back either.
Time will tell.

I think I'll hit some trails tomorrow, my day off from appointments. I'll just make a lunch and pack a back pack.

I'm diggin' the new Stealth Rider.