Musings

Before the day’s Main Event, we took a wander to see the most prominent local topographic situation—the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Here on the south/west bank, there are few driving access points because it’s a gigantic floodplain, very flat and marshy until it was drained. Here’s the Mississippi just below the confluence.

And here’s the Missouri just above the confluence. We had (and you have) to imagine the roily meeting of the flows from the two huge drainages.

Here’s the focal point for the Main Event religious rites. We all enjoyed the tone the Lady Rabbi took combining the necessary Hebrew with English explanations. Lovely and moving. One point she made was that we change and marriages change and we find ways to do that changing together—I thought that was wise and rarely mentioned.

After the ceremony we adjourned upstairs for cocktails and tasty appetizers, and the sunset gave us all a lovely glow. Soon, we went downstairs for a fabulous sit-down dinner. Then the third band, the dance band, got going, and so did the crowd. The most unusual and best thought-out-gift was, tadah, flip-flops for those who wanted to shed their fancy shoes and really dance. Boy, did we dance. I think the Proud Mary lasted almost fifteen glorious minutes. Woohoo!

Fun wedding, great couple, lovely sentiments, and and and.

Posted at 11:36 PM | Comments Off on Main and other events

We arose to dense fog. By the time we came across these wind turbines, just the up-tips were obscured.

Part of our route was along the present interstate incarnation of Route 66, and we found lovely displays in a rest area that included many metal logos.

The crowning event was socializing with a bride and groom and their loved ones at a pre-wedding barbecue at a brewery. Great combination! The B&G are both scientists, geneticists in fact. Perfect cupcake decoration, ¿no?

These three images are just a sample of the variety in our interesting experiences this day.

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments Off on Variety all day

On the road recharging—watch, phone, us (fabulous garden carrot amuse-bouche; “bar” entrée).

Posted at 7:18 PM | Comments Off on Assorted recharging

The day began with bright promise. The sun crested the trees and I photoed and smiled.

After coffee and a sort-it-out pause, I fired up The Beast one last time, and slew grass here and there until the 2023 fuel was gone and gone. Then I stashed it in the garage for the winter.

Right at six we met up on the famous deck, across the road, for potluck. The sun was cloud-obscured and the wind kicked up. But we had stellar apps, shown, and later a lovely meal. Goodbye looms. Fall is more than merely in the air.

Posted at 8:42 PM | Comments Off on Apps can mean appetizers

Here’s my second photo with the Guru’s new phone. The wide framing is better than the first one’s zoomier perspective. That’s the moon, BTW. I will study the documentation to see if I could adjust this or that and get it to capture the shape of the bright moon properly.

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Hello, moon

Strange flash shot of the fern bed by the back door, with the fronds mostly removed (my late afternoon chore), and the not-fronds mostly left to stand tall. I didn’t snip them because I think they are interesting and rather otherworldly.

Posted at 8:33 PM | Comments Off on Preternatural plant parts

Uncle Dave’s maple is getting plenty of compliments, and deservedly so! I call it Uncle Dave’s maple because it’s a maple and he planted it.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Glowing maple

Autumnal subsistance agriculture activity day…we made cider, which is unfermented, fresh apple juice. We all agreed that this was the most cider we had made at one time, at almost nineteen gallons.

We used this machine. Here’s where the apples are loaded. Not shown is prior apple collecting and washing. Also not shown is cleaning all the containers, and this mill.

Cranking the handle chips the apples. Gravity is crucial to depositing the chips in the bin inside a heavy-duty filter cloth.

Then, more cranking to squeeze the juice out of the chipped apples.

We created several wheelbarrow loads of compressed, dry apple chips.

The last major step is filtering the cider. This involves multiple washings of the filter cloth, as it gets clogged.

* Note that this is very different than yesterday’s Apple processing.

Posted at 7:01 PM | Comments Off on Apple processing*

Waiting for the sun to rise. Note fallen apple limb; smells like cider out there. Didn’t go down to the lake to see how spectacular the sunrise was; I could see orange through the trees, so I think it was rather sensational.

Waiting for the UPS guy to bring the Guru his new phone…and watching the moon. He arrived about ten minutes after I took this; we were not quite in despair. Yay!

Posted at 8:37 PM | Comments Off on Waiting day

The fog today was dense and lingered, and seemed like it must extend to the oceans, east and west.

I heard droplets falling from the trees for hours, and saw them festooning spiderwebs and asparagus fronds. Aesthetic.

By afternoon, the sunny, clear, and warm conditions made it seem impossible that the morning had been fog-shrouded. It became so dry that I raked leaves under the maple, and now the compost pile is so large that I have too little “green” to temper that amount of “brown.” First world problem.

Posted at 7:56 PM | Comments Off on Just wait