Catch up

The look of innocence.
Charlie says: What? Whaddya yelling for? I parfumed myself with Ode Raccoon Poo!

 Oh such is life on the farm and in the woods.

   

Charlie and I took some time Wednesday afternoon to just walk slowly through the forest and look for interesting things. He did the smelling and the rolling in icky stuff. I enjoyed the colors and the light.

That was before the killing frost and the 2.5 inches of rain. Those things kept me indoors which is fine because it was time to sort out the old mittens, gloves, and hats. Time to wash things up and change things out in the tiny little coat closet under the stairs.

I'm working on more projects that include sorting through stuff that hasn't been used in a while. There is a lot of it. There are tons of hunting clothes that are no longer used since hubby doesn't hunt any more. His blaze orange is rather old and torn up. It really needs to go in the trash pile.

But...he sort of wants to hang on to it. Oh the conundrum.

Pet sitting has gone well. See? Hissy Kitty lets me pet him. He even rubs up against my leg when I come into the house now.

It's been a bit of a juggling act to do everything [my chores & pet sitting chores] twice a day as the pet chores are about the same time as my regular chores. 

Plus I want to give the pets enough time and attention so they aren't feeling alone.

I took this on my morning walk with Tijo and Rupert. I must say, they have really do have great recall! [A baggy of tiny treats in my pocket insures they come when called]

We all got soaking wet the past few days when the rains poured down.

Though the rain was quite welcome after the long dry year we've had.

Saturday was a work around the flower garden day. I pulled out all the frost bitten flowers and carted them off to pile them in the woods. I had 5 little cartloads full! The wildflower garden in the side yard will not get pulled out. I'm leaving that for the birds to rummage through for the winter.

The coming week will be busy again. I have three days of appointments in a row and then I am taking my MIL's cousin out to lunch on Thursday. She's up there in age and we always try and to a lunch together to catch up a few times a year.

Looks like I need to use today to rest up for my busy week!

Dog Watcher/Walker and Cat

My neighbors went to Oregon to visit relatives and asked if I was able to care for their pets while they were gone. I've done it once before and found their pets to be lovable and very pleasant so I said yes!!

Rupert is the black dog and he is just a huge goof ball. He is permanently happy.

Tio was adopted in Africa and brought home to the US. He is reserved and once you become buddies with him, he is your best friend. I've never heard him bark and he moves with such incredible grace.

He doesn't care much for the cold either.

The photo below is of my house across the hollow. I'm on my neighbor's acreage north of their house.

Cat:
I guess this is a rare or pricey special breed of cat. He has a name but I don't recall what it is. He was given to our neighbors years ago by someone who couldn't keep him. Cat hisses at me a lot and then I pet him when he is eating.
This summer they left him alone in the house while they went camping and took the dogs. Apparently the cat got sick from anxiety and lack of company. So I am making sure Cat has human time at least 3 times a day while they are gone.

My walk in the woods with Charlie was pleasant and I was surprised by how much green there is out there yet. With the coming frost it should change quickly.

I guess I'm getting a lot of extra walks in this week. This is fine, I'm really enjoying the time with the neighbor's pets.

I'd like to ...

Go hiking with you sometime she said...

Generally coordinating schedules for my hiking is nearly impossible as I often just take off on a whim and don't 'schedule' a hike.

I thought I'd give it a try. Deb is recently retired and we've talked a lot at the gym all summer long. She is about my age and is a very active person. 

We settled on a date and a spot to meet. I chose the Blackhawk Rock trail as it is a good first hike to see the multitude of wonderful things at the Reserve.

We found interesting things alongside and in the trails we took. At one point we were confronted with a long part of the trail that was covered in about 4 inches of water. I assume that the creek that flowed nearby had made its way over the trail. I offered Deb the choice of going on through and getting our feet wet or turning around.

It was a warm day and she said she didn't care. I led the way splashing like a kid through 30 feet of ankle deep water. I was loving it. 

We made it to the bluff top after very careful trekking on the trail that led up to it. The dry ground that was covered in leaves made it slippery. Not to mention the tree roots and rocks that hid under the leaves.

It is fun meeting new people and taking a walk/hike with them. It is a great way to learn about their stories and their lives. 

By the time we got back to my loaner car [mine was in the shop having the concrete debacle fixed!] Deb was all smiles and said that this had made her day.

Looks like there'll be some more hiking with her in the future.

When I got to the gym and worked out the next day, my little friend Gracie asked when she could go with me! She just turned 10. Well, why not? Company is generally good and fun.

Though often, on some hikes, I prefer to go alone so I can stop and wonder at things and not have to explain anything. Just me...and the forest.

Maybe one day I'll grow up to be a Wood Elf?

[Apparently, my nick name that others call me at the gym is The Elf, how fun is that?]

[All photos taken with my cell phone. Deb said that was her goal, to hike and take beautiful photos with her cell phone and so I decided to try it myself!]

Odd things

It was a busy week filled with activities and goings on. We mowed finally and the yard looks decent for the first time this year.

I picked more grapes but didn't get quite enough of the wild ones to make a full batch so I'm going to mix the juice up with blackberries I picked and froze this summer. Grape-blackberry jelly! Yum.

I started to pull out my Fall/Halloween Stuff and mess around with it. After all, it is that time of the year to play with those things, errrr, well... you know, decorate a little. We don't dress up or really do anything for Halloween as we are so isolated and far from town. But I like to have my fun.

The wind up toys came in the mail one day a few years ago from a Flickr friend who thought I'd like them. Of course I do as I'd never would have thought to purchase them myself.

Who can resist a frog skeleton?

It is also the time of the year

for my Lego Skeletons 

to shine!

Poor Harriet, 

always in trouble!

Apparently the skeletons and the zombie

decided to have a 

dance party...

It seems someone likes to

make a grand entrance!

More fun with the froggy

and friends.

I have more small decorations that I have put up but haven't really done any photographing of it yet. Nothing will go up outside. I just have little things that are easy to move around and rearrange to my liking. I'm constantly moving stuff around.

The black and white shots were taken on black painted cardboard with a black painted cardboard back. I used my cell phone flashlight to highlight the scene. It is fun to experiment like this. Decorations are such a great challenge.

I went hiking with a 'new' friend this week. More about that later.

Our daughter [step] and her hubby came for a visit on Thursday which was a huge surprise.

That night Charlie was really sick with tossing up clear stuff. He was so miserable and awful that he wouldn't eat, drink, or even go outside. By mid morning I was ready to cart him off to the vet.

When Rich's daughter showed up Friday morning he went nuts.  He went out for her and did his business, then came in and ate his breakfast and acted as if nothing had bothered him at all!

Can dogs get depressed because they may be missing his pal Twila and then company? I don't know! 

Friday I hit all the Apple Orchards with Steph and Steve and purchased apple fritters, apple donuts, and some cherry cider. 

I found one of the gnarliest bumpy pumpkin ever! 

I expect with this dip in temperatures, I'll be busy with my fall jobs that prep for winter along with making some jelly and having some fun with Halloween 'Decorates' as my kids called it.

....And I need to get out and enjoy those last lovely displays of fall leaves!

Meanwhile

Twila went home and I think Charlie was either bummed out or just very tired. He took his spot on the couch and napped most of Sunday and Monday. I think it was a little of both. 

He does like other canines and enjoys the company. He also likes his laziness.

By Monday evening he returned to his normal self and enjoyed being the ruler of the house again. Such is a dog's life.

Honeysuckle
[invasive but pretty]

Suddenly, it is October and I am wondering where the year went and what the rest of the year will bring. 

This fall hasn't affected me like other years for some reason. I have always felt anxious and strange when the days got shorter and the trees started to turn. Maybe it is because of the unusual heat we've had these first days of October.

The cosmos I planted are loving it though. They are producing like crazy. I'm gathering seeds from all the varieties. The plants did produce flowers as early as late June, but now they are tall and well....

intense!

These are from two different spots in our yard. The third area I have with cosmos is out further with the morning glories that are also producing like mad.

I'm washing up the siding and getting things ready for the cold weather that we will eventually get. It could be as soon as this weekend when we get our first frost.

For now? I'm going to enjoy the weather and the rest of October. 

I 'yam Twila-wila!

I 'yam going to start at the end and go backwards. I mean why not? Or maybe sort of in the middle.

Sometimes I lose my train of thoughts and they get jumbled around.

Chuck, can I call him Chuck? He prefers Char--lie. Any way, my little pal and I rode in the car together and it worked! I sat on my bed in back and he sat in his car seat up front. 

We went back to the Big Reserve.

Oh wait. I forgot about our day of rest and hunting fungi and slime mold. I wasn't interested in it at all but the Grandma showed me how to sit patiently while she fiddled with her camera thing and explored itty bitty things.

I gotta admit. She's weird. Some of the stuff she looked at was boring. I thought the mule poop next to it was delicious but she only let me have a quick bite.

Anyyy wayz.

We went on a trail called Hay Valley. I don't know what that was but there were a lot of deer smells. A crazy man on a mountain bike came down and around a sharp hill turn and almost ran us over. The Grandma grabbed me and Charlie ran in circles. The man apologized and said he was going too fast. His fault.

Whatever. I got scared.

The rest of the hike/walk/sniff fest was pretty nice except when it seemed to get really hot for Charlie. We had plenty of water breaks and rests. I learned to drink out of a large lid that the Grandma put water in for us. I even shared with Charlie!

Charlie gave the Grandma a signal that he was tired so she picked him up and carried him for a while, especially when we had to go through longer grass. Charlie's legs are very short. But since he is so little, he climbs under logs while I have to jump over.

But I like jumping. The Grandma says I have jumping beans in me. I don't what that means either.

We were so lazy when we got home, we just laid around.

This morning the Grandma said we needed to go for a sunrise walk to take some pretty pictures.

I guess my Mom and Dad really miss me, so I am going to go back home. I hope Charlie lets me come again and visit so I can eat his food, push him around, and lick his ears. Mostly I liked hiking with him. He is so brave and unascared. 

Dad called me Twila-wila in a post so maybe I 'yam 

Twila-wila
the adventurer-er.

I 'yam a tired hiker!

So The Grandma said that Charlie needed a rest and that she wanted to take me to something called the Reserve to hike trails.
I don't know what a Reserve is, I do know trails though.

She said it was a good day to go because it had rained and the trails were closed to horses and bikes where we were going and that meant I didn't have to deal with MONSTERS!

 I was so alert and so full of it that The Grandma put on a long line and my chain leash. I was pulling and charging a lot because every time an acorn dropped I was sure it was a squirrel. I kept staring up into the trees and watching for other Wild-ed Animals. 

The Grandma was afraid I'd bolt and get away on the little leash so she had her long cord on me too. I never did bolt, but I sure did a lot of pulling in certain parts of the trail. I even tracked deer, coyote, and raccoon tracks!

The Grandma said she I gave her arms a good workout with my pulling.

I didn't care, I was having a good time. She also said that I was useful going up steep hills and if I stayed with her in the winter I could be her sled dog. 
Neat. What is a sled dog? Charlie wasn't around to ask.

The trails went on and on and on! The Grandma said she knew where we were going even though I was the one leading. Several times I would have just gone off through the woods because I smelled very interesting things in the distance.

On one section of the trail the Grandma kept stopping because there were so many interesting tiny things.

I was really good about that. I sat next to her or tried to stand on top of her to see what she was looking at.

She had strange names for these things. 

Bear's Head Tooth Fungi

Gem Studded Puffball

Oh oh oh! And there was so much more! But these little things really didn't interest me at all. I liked smelling much more. I took the time to watch the trees for squirrels.

I figured since the Grandma and I were out all by ourselves, I would need to protect her from the squirrels in case they attacked. 

She probably needs protection from all the forest things! Which made me think which I can sometimes do...... 

How does Charlie protect her? 

We finally made it back to the car.

...and before we left the parking area....

I hiked with the Grandma and survived the big scary wonderful woods! 

I 'yam a Hiker too!