Musings

So, the agriculture in the high plains revolves around cattle farming, seems to me…usually black angus or these herefords—both mostly polled (a genetic mutation that renders them hornless).

Along with the natural grazing, there’s plenty of hay growing and baling, and a demand for grain, mostly grown where there’s irrigation. Some irrigation is from creeks/rivers, but mostly the water seems to be pumped up from the aquifer below (essentially non-renewable). Here’s a cattle loading chute and an elevator (grain storage).

To make the plants grow, these tanks supply fertilizer or herbicides…I’m guessing mostly fertilizer. Go ammonium nitrate!

We continued to climb westward toward the Rockies, crossing the North Platte again and again before we diverged from it above Casper. Yes, ice—not thick, but it’s pretty cold and the sun, which seems strong in the car, is rather weak out in the wind.

We’ve been looking for these four-foots, and finally found some, often gathered in fairly larger herds, some browsing and some resting. We also saw what we are pretty sure were mule deer; these were loners or up to a trio—not the large groups that the antelope have formed.

I read about a canyon in a Craig Johnson/Longmire book, and we checked it out…just an up-and-back side trip. The railroad was on the other side, and we saw a few fisherman. A sign indicated we should watch out for mountain sheep, but we saw zero. Here’s a side canyon opposite us.

It was cold enough that the tunnels had interior icicles (that word is difficult to spell if you don’t do it very often). The train’s tunnels were only as large as they needed to be. I suppose that’s true for the highway (engineers are parsimonious in design, no?), but they didn’t seem so rigidly rectangular as the railroad ones.

Now, we’re up against the Winds, and it is windy, and as we approached town we could see that it was snowing in the higher altitudes…that’s snow making that grey-blue obscurity above the sign. (Is that our motel?) We hear we may get a bit of S tonight, but not much accumulation. We bought new -30°F windshield wiper fluid and topped off our reservoir, so hopefully it’ll tolerate the low temps—ATL fluid is limited to +32°F (save the environment!).

I noticed these photos tend to be very horizontal—that’s the way it is out on the plains. Now that we’re approaching the mountains, the vertical has rejoined us.

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Plains to mountains

The morning’s big news: rain rain rain! Since about midnight. Slow enough maybe it’ll seep in a bit. Other places not far away got more rainfall than we did; let’s hope for more.

This evening’s milestone: the last of the turkey dinner became soup, and we consumed it with gusto!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Done and done (kinda)

WF@WF. Yes, whole fishies at WhoolFoods (in the newly revealed remodeled WF in ATL Midtown…). Something like that.

That, and after eight out of the last nine days have had record-breaking highs. Sigh. Let’s move on. (I could have cranked the contrast, etc., but this is more similar to my eyes’ take on this ray of sunshine….)

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on Eyeballing…

Tonight we dined on fresh applesauce, delivered still warm by chef Cousin M.

While she was here, we chatted for a bit on the front porch, nicely sun-warmed to the low 70s after a low this morning in the upper 30s (brr). I thought at first there had been no frost, but I did spot some on the roofs—but the field seemed untouched.

Posted at 7:11 PM | 1 Comment »

I made a grocery run, very local. Bread and milk. I know that’s a standard joke, but true today. Over off the northeast side of the lake, the leaves are well within the golden orange/brown bronze continuum, with considerable green remaining, and bits of red. This is our road, same latitude, but far more green—and many of these are maples. A Ma-Nachur mystery.

This maple, right next to the cottage, has far more colorful leaves, and many are already falling. This tree runs ahead of its neighbors every autumn, in my observation.

Down at the beach, the water was quiet, revealing a narrow sand strip. I think these are raccoon tracks.

And this rowboat…it showed up early in my childhood, making it about a half-century old. If I remember correctly. The moss and lichen are creatively obscuring the STAGECRAFT logo….

Here’s another “track” (broadly defined)…about a half-mile north of us is a swamp, maybe a quarter-mile along the road. The road bumps along only about a foot above typical water level. Sometimes, there’s a weather change at the swamp; this may sound unlikely, but I’ve noted it over and over. It happened today. As I passed north, headed for my shopping, the asphalt was wet, just damp, in the swamp, and beyond. At our end of the road, nope, dry—the air was humid, but no rain. It is expected broadly across the area before dark, however.

Posted at 5:21 PM | Comments Off on Tracks

Mostly quiet rain today; not a bit of sun. Welcome to autumn.

And a visual mushroom sample, of the colorful ones, not the less flashy boletes.

I don’t know if this is a red one like yesterday, only older, and transitioned to orange/yellow. In any case, it’s also a small one, and embedded in sphagnum moss, unlike yesterday’s.

Posted at 5:54 PM | Comments Off on Rainy-day report

Another thunderstorm is rumbling above, although no rain yet in this spot. Oooops; lightning flash!

So, not only do we have weather, I can report that the crepe myrtles are amidst their blooming phase. Here’s a glorious pink specimen.

Posted at 5:58 PM | Comments Off on Clocking time

Three high rollers, no?

Ice-cream-cone trailer, with sprinkles.

And, as we finally deviated from the Interstate, we drove into a gullywasher, with knee-deep water gushing across the city streets in some places. Didn’t last long, though—whew!

Posted at 9:42 PM | Comments Off on Highway views

This morning’s fog kept the sun from punching through until sometimes shortly after, maybe?, nine? Loved that it obscured the woods….

Foraged in the long grass for chives. I’ve been using them frequently…local farm-to-table produce, I guess….

Posted at 10:00 PM | 2 Comments »

I was out early this morning—another day predicted to get into the 90s (which became a fact). Not a good situation—this heat plus high humidity—for exercising…. So this is the morning sun getting ready to make air conditioners busy.

Posted at 10:01 PM | 3 Comments »