Trail Ride

 We finally went for a ride in Ranger Blue.  I have not been for a ride since June 9th.  My time waiting is up ...four months post Laminectomy Surgery!  Yeah me!  I can get in and out of the higher vehicle with no problem.  I thought I might need a step stool but I didn't.  Physical Therapy is going well he says he sees improvement every visit.  So there ya go.  Pain wise...I still have some.   My Doctor says it all takes time. 

This was a smoother trail...then we did one a bit rougher for the views. 

The Fall color is mostly over. Warmer overnight temperatures in September was not good for beautiful color in my opinion.  

We did some woodcarving on the Christmas ornaments and had a nap.  I did odds and ends...stuff that never shows.  For supper we had soft tacos and Far Guy's famous Chili Cheese Dip that I found in the bottom of the deep freeze. 

Minnesota Weather: High was 65F or 18C Low was 52F or 11C eh. 

The Hills

 Now that Deer Hunting is over we ventured back into the Smoky Hills. 

There was ice on the beaver pond.

Proof of beaver life...the shrub on the front right of the photo has been trimmed recently.  It was a really nice Ranger Blue ride.

The road through the hills is in great shape.  We did see two hunters.  Not sure what they were hunting. 

Far Side

Into the Hills

 Sunday was a decent day...it wasn't snowing but it had snowed...and it snowed yesterday too and it seems to be the word for the whole week. 

Anyway we went to recycle and then went for a trail ride into the nearby hills.  Ranger Blue has a great heater and as long as you wear warm boots you could spend all day trail riding!   Ranger Blue will do fine in some snow but when the drifts get too deep it is time to stay on well traveled township roads.   My baby brother has tracks for his Ranger so he can go anywhere he wants all winter! 

We checked out the road to the tower and then we went over to the beaver  area.

Monday I spent 20 minutes in the Post Office mailing Christmas Ornaments so they are on the way.   The roads were slippery.  We got a couple of inches of new white stuff...I do believe that Winter is here. 

Far Side

Busy as a Beaver

 We finished painting the sauna, the paint held out and the rain held off until I was on the front side where there is a huge overhang. We took turns being on the ladder and no one fell!  

After a late lunch we went for a Ranger Blue ride to the hills.

View from the road to the tower. 

Far Side

Appointment for Tilly

 The new old car Tilly had an appointment about 45 miles from home.   It was her last look at before we drop her off in December for her body work and new paint...she will return mid summer.   Far Guy thinks that is a long time...he would like to have her home for the entire summer.  

Tilly was stubborn in the morning...so we went in the afternoon...her battery was dead as a doornail.  Not sure why... Far Guy thinks it is one of two things...we will see.  After her battery got charged up she purred along.  

It was an uneventful trip.

There is still some color.  Some trees are really confused and still have green leaves. 

The Smoky Hills show that the wildfire smoke is back. 

Once back home I mulched leaves again...I am at 5 1/2 out of 10 now.   We still have about 50 % of the leaves in the trees. 

In the morning whilst waiting Far Guy wood carved and I worked on a project in the garage.  Just before supper we went for a ride down to the river. 

Far Side

Into the hills

 My baby brother dropped off his Ranger ATV for us to use for the afternoon so we headed for the hills. 

It was quite a view from the top of the hill.  A view I have never seen before because this area was all mature trees. 

 

There is a Fire Tower at the top of the hill.  When I was a young bike riding gal we would walk our bikes uphill and then see how far we could get coasting down...a perfect rendition of a thrill ride for country kids. 

I have not been to the base of the tower for many years.  My baby brother reports that the first 20 feet of the ladder have been removed. 

  I climbed to the top only once in my lifetime and that was once too many for me.  My baby brother and Danny coaxed me down...knowing if I didn't come back down they were going to be in big trouble.   That was the first and last time they talked me into climbing the tower...after that I was always the third person to go up...I would reach the treetops and then go back down. 

A few Maple leaves are turning.

Far Side

Shell Lake and River

When we went for a drive on Monday we found ourselves over on Shell Lake always a favorite spot of mine.   Luckily there are no huge changes happening to the lake or the river.

Shell Lake where the melt has started. This is looking west..  The Shell River leaves Shell Lake at this point and travels under the road...and heads for the Smoky Hills.

Shell River looking East.

You can see the Smoky Hills in the distance. And yes they were truly smoky that day.

We haven't been out since Monday.  We should be crossing off "stuff" on our lists left and right...but I crochet and watch TV and Far Guy woodcarves and plays computer games.  I knit on my socks for a short time yesterday just to change things up then I had a nap.

Anyone else out there feel like they are stuck in limbo...waiting for the axe to fall?
We are supposed to get warmer weather soon....perhaps that will help

Far Side

The Hills

The Smoky Hills were showing off one day last week.

The Aspen or Popple is golden.  Aspen is a fancy word…for Popple.  It is a worthless tree, it has few uses…some v groove paneling is made from it and firewood that oozes a dark brown bubbly substance that has reminded me of our favorite name for it…Piss Popple.

They die from the top down, we have several out in our woods that are in the process of dying…they make fine woodpecker playgrounds.  Eventually only the main trunk is left and it finally topples over.  Many times they grow from a common root and just branch out just like in the photo. In the spring you can see two different types of Populus species in the hills…one leafs out before the other.

May 5 2016

Populus tremuloides.  That is the scientific name.  It is a prairie tree.  The cotton that fills the air every June has been said to drive some women mad…those fluffy seeds are everywhere.  Given half a chance the seeds germinate where they land.
 

July 2016

Fun to see the hills change with the seasons.

Small Changes

The other day I was concentrating on the changes happening around here. 

Today I will show you that some things are still pretty much the same as when I was little…with a few small changes.

This is the farmstead where I grew up…I came here before I was one year old and I left when I got married when I was 18.  The big silo was not there back then…there was a silo next to the barn, and that building behind the barn was not there and the hay/straw bales are much larger…we had the little square bales which was a great improvement from loose hay piled onto wagons or in haystacks.

The Smoky Hills Fire/Lookout Tower is still there…the communications tower was not there in earlier days.  I climbed to the top of the tower ONLY once and that was under great duress ( My brother and Danny were behind me.)  Inside the tower I had a meltdown and bawled my eyes out and said “I am stuck up here forever because I am too scared to go down!” ( I was going to be in BIG trouble too!)  I guess the boys finally figured that they were going to be in big trouble with me so they talked me into going down, one in front of me and one behind me…it was one of the scariest moments of my life.  I am afraid of heights.  I had attempted the climb before but was always the last person up the ladder and once I got to the tree tops I would chicken out and go back down.

The best part of a trip to the Tower was flying down the hill on your bicycle…it truly was like flying.

I have had adventures that my children and grandchildren will never have.  I wonder how many of them will retire just two miles from their childhood home? 

Chance: I Saw

Finally …MY TURN!

I saw;

A Coyote running  lickety - split across the highway and into the field.

Far Guy said “Well he looks healthy.”

The Wild Turkeys are bunching up.  There is safety in numbers.

The old injured turkey keeps on hobbling along on one good leg, his other leg just flops around…but he can fly.  Sometimes you have to make do with what you have.

The Smoky Hills are at peak color.  What is green is either Evergreen or Larch ( Tamarack)…which is turning color fast.

We are all doing fine for elderly people/dogs. 

Mustard and Monarchs

Yesterday my other baby brother said I should take a photo of the Mustard field with the Smoky Hills in the background…good suggestion…yesterday was cloudy and the light wasn’t too bad…the other alternative would have me getting up at some hour way too early for me.

You can see the Aspens (Piss Popple) are turning golden in the Smoky Hills. 

We noticed a number of butterflies in the Mustard Field.

They seemed to be having a good time feeding.

We watched the butterflies for quite some time.  There were some mucky mucks having a meeting out in the field…rumors abound about this field…good, bad and ugly.

I hope the mustard doesn’t show up in all the other fields…or our lawns for the next how many years.  Time will tell. 

Warm

It was warm yesterday 86 F or 30 C .  And humid.  We were invited to the neighbors for supper.  Another night of no cooking. Yay!  Pork burgers and potato salad yum!! 

The Smoky Hills were real smoky..when humidity hangs in the air they take on a smoky appearance. 

We saw a deer.  If she had a fawn it was well hidden.

We heard from a fellow woodcarver today that she had a double Lady’s Slipper near the end of her drive.

I took some photos of it as a reference just incase we want to carve a double.  Far Guy is still carving single Lady’s Slippers, he carves them to donate to silent auctions at local benefits.

What I look for is how the one stem splits off to make two smaller leaves and then two flower buds.  It might not seem like a big deal but woodcarvers are a meticulous bunch. As you can see the flowers are coming to an end in the warm weather.

I managed to find an almost perfect single.   This one might be notecard worthy:)

The Tower

The Smoky Hills, these hills have been a constant companion in my life. Most days they look smoky and hazy.
Then you get up close to them and they lose their smoky haze.

I grew up near this fire tower, during the spring and fall it was manned by a person called a fire spotter. They were armed with binoculars and a radio, at the first sign of smoke they would call with the location of the fire. During the summer the tower was unmanned. There were three of us, my brother Carey, our neighbor Danny and me. The boys had no problems scampering up the ladder, I on the other hand struggled. When I was just above the tree tops my knees would begin to knock together and my heart would be in my throat. I would end up backing down without reaching the tower platform. The boys would usually go first, on the few occasions that I went first, I would have to dangle from the edge of the ladder to let them pass me, and then I would go down. It was on those occasions that they would call me a chicken and flap their arms and make chicken sounds. True friends.

One fine summer day, they decided that I was going to conquer my fear and I was going to make it to the top. Once I was on the ladder they said that they were not going to allow me to chicken out and if they had to push me up the ladder they would. There was lots of cheering and shouts of "Don't look down." "You are doing great" I made it past the treetops and there was no wind. Maybe I could do it? I scampered to the top, opened the trap door and collapsed on the floor, totally exhausted. The boys were right behind me, they hollered over the treetops "She did it!" Then they wanted me to stand up and look over the edge. I did but only while holding on. Then it hit me, how in the world am I ever going to get back down? I announced "I can't go down, you will have to leave me here." Much discussion followed, they were blaming me for the whoopings that they were going to get. They said I was going to be in "big trouble." Finally after much talking, and their swearing on a stack of Holy Bibles that they would never call me a chicken again, Carey started down, then me, followed by Danny. My knees shook, I cried, they ignored my fearful sobs and counted the downward rungs for me, one at a time. They talked me through it. They avoided a whooping, they never asked me to climb that tower again, but they never called me a chicken anymore either, it was the first and last time I climbed that tower..once was plenty for me:)