Spiders, Snakes, Mud, and Mold - Oh My!

Time to retrieve spaghetti squash from the scary root cellar, Rain.  But what about spider webs?!  I could walk right through a giant spider web and get a spider in my hair!  Ack!  Don't be a ninny, Rain, you've walked through spider webs before and it didn't kill you. Do it!

Okay, I'm down the steps.  But what about snakes?!  The last time I was in here there was a snake on the stairs!  And what is that on that box over there!?  A snake skin!? It's huge! Oh nooo!!!!  Wait a minute - you are not afraid of black snakes, Rain.  They don't even have legs. Are you going to run from something without legs.  You might as well be afraid of worms.  Rain, are you afraid of worms?   

No, you're right, Rain. I'm going in. Oh my gosh, look at all that mud!  Why is the floor so muddy?  Its that horrible orange clay mud, too, that stains shoes forever.  The squash are way over there.  My shoes will be ruined!  Rain, it's just mud.  Jeeze.

Fine, I'm doing it.  Eeek!  That creepy lady sculpture is freaking me out!  What if the door blows shut, and I'm trapped down here in the dark with her FOREVER?!?  Really, Rain?  Just calm down and grab the squash, okay? Okay. 

 

Eewww, that squash is all moldy and leaking brown juice on everything.  If I disturb the mold, I'll be inhaling mold spores, mixed with dead spider spores, and snake skin spores and mud and ...is there even any air in here... I CAN'T BREATH!!!  RUN!!    

Happy Halloween Rain, you scared yourself silly.  

Orange Puppy

 

We got a new puppy!!  While I was away on Saturday, with Jamie, helping Farmer Joe butcher ducks and geese, Brandon found a listing for a female Great Pyrenees puppy for sale.  By the time I got home, Brandon had already been in conversation with the farmer, who wanted reassurance that we had land and livestock.  Out of a litter of eleven puppies, she felt this one in particular had the right livestock guardian temperament, and didn't want to sell her as a house pet.  

On Sunday, Brandon and I drove all the way over the Ohio River and into Indiana farm country, to arrive at a tidy llama farm.  The farmer's kids also raised show rabbits and goats for 4-H projects.  She said she had been raising llamas since she was fourteen and in 4-H herself.  From the detailed records she provided for our new puppy, I could tell she has honed her 4-H record keeping skills.   

Unlike when Brandon picked up Wendigo from the mountains in eastern Kentucky, where she was crawling in a ditch, un-weened, and covered in fleas, we felt we were on an interview to see if we were allowed to have this clean and well groomed three month old.  

The farmer referred to her as Orange, because she was assigned that color collar at birth.  We've changed her name to Sienna, since raw sienna is Brandon's favorite orange paint color.  Sienna is so much like having another Wendigo puppy that I keep slipping up and calling her Wendi! 

Wendigo is not sure how she feels about Sienna.  Ever since we brought Sienna home, Wendigo has had a worried look on her face.  Sorry, Wendi, she's here to stay! 

We've decided that Sienna has to stay in the kennel at night and when we aren't home, at least for a little while as she gets used to her new home.  The first night she howled and barked all night long.  Wendigo joined her, and I got no sleep.  I was complaining about it to a friend, and he said that's how all of his dogs have ended up sleeping in the bed with him - he just can't stand to let them cry!  

We've been taking leashed walks around the farm so she knows our boundaries, and she's met all the other animals.  

She's irresistibly sweet and her fuzzy coat is as soft as cotton.  It's all we can do to make ourselves go to work.  Who wants to leave home when there's a new puppy (and an old puppy!) to play with!  

Palisades Hike Near The Blue Bus

 

Brandon and I hiked the Palisades Trail on Saturday, which is along the Kentucky River, not far from where our blue bus lives.  The online trail guide said this was a heavily trafficked trail, so we were glad for the rainy weather as we knew it would keep sensible folks at home.  We didn't see a single other hiker until the end of the hike and we were back to the parking lot.    

The fall color was just beginning to show, and the trail was nice and wide and clearly marked.  All this hiking we've been doing is making me a trail connoisseur.  This trail had some steep climbs, and because of the rain the rocks were slick, so we were glad we had our hiking sticks.  

Say cheese! 

One of the neatest things about this trail was all the sinkholes.  In places the earth would just gap open, and we could see the exposed rock. 

The upper trail goes very near the top of the rock cliffs near the river.  We could see the forested slopes, the interstate bridge, the old road bridge, and the campground near the base of the cliffs.  

Purple asters were blooming and feeding the bees.  We saw thousands of little paw paw trees growing in the forest under the tall trees.  Someone is working hard to eradicate the bush honeysuckle from this forest, so the understory was open and we could really see the topography, unlike most forests in this part of the world where the honeysuckle clogs the forest so densely you can't see into it very far.  

The lower trail goes right down to the waters edge, so we could enjoy the cliff lines on the opposite bank, which are full of caves and holes.  It would take some serious rock climbing to explore those cliffs.  

The lower trail near the river goes right through a thick stand of stinging nettle.  Cool. 

After hiking over four miles, we were ready to leave the Palisades Trail and visit our bus property for a picnic lunch.  We don't visit as often as we used to, so our gate and footpath to the bus is overgrown.  I like that it isn't likely to attract visitors.  We found the bus just as we left it - shut up tight and no evidence of guest campers.  

The sugar maple trees were starting to glow gold in the sunlight.  We have a lot of bush honeysuckle in our forest.  I like the privacy screen it creates near the road, but it would be nice to cut the bushes around the bus and open up the view a bit.  We talked about tackling that project next fall, but not this year.  

We couldn't go inside the bus because we forgot the key, and we couldn't start a fire in the fire pit because of the rain and wet firewood.  Instead we used our camp stove to heat our lunch, and rested on the bench by the bus and admired our trees and the peaceful sounds of the forest and river.  How cool is it that there's a good hiking trail so close to our bus?!

Sassafras Red

 

I roamed the little farm in the drizzle yesterday admiring the color of the tree leaves.  I think the predictions of brilliant fall foliage are coming true!  

The paw paw trees near the fire pit have never been so yellow.  

They make a nice backdrop when we sit by the fire and face time with Brandon's mom.  

The most beautiful tree is the red sassafras that grows in the eastern tree line.  Normally this little tree blends in with it's neighbors, but right now it is a vibrant red.

I had fun composing photos with the red tree in the background, even though the weather has been drizzly.  I hope we get a sunny day before the leaves fall. 

The asters in the wildflower garden are finally blooming.  They were covered in buds this year, but were taking so long to open I was worried I wouldn't get to see them open before the frost.  

These are New England aster, which is supposed to be purple.  In my old butterfly garden I had mostly purple ones and a single white one.  Somehow when I transplanted flowers to the farm I ended up with only the white.  The white flowers look very beautiful in a snowy cluster.   

The sassafras tree is so pretty this fall that it makes me want to plant one closer to the house.  I noticed a few seedlings growing near this one - I just have to decide where to move them to.  Maybe near the yellow paw paw.  The red and yellow side by side would be very nice.  

Up close I can see that the leaves aren't really red at all, but are dusky orange and green.  

There are bees feasting on the asters and on the hyacinth bean vine growing in the garden.  I noticed they have dense collections of pollen on their legs.  I'm glad to know there are plenty of foods for the bees, even in October.  

The chickens are still laying plenty of eggs too.  It's not winter yet!  

Overnight on The Trace

We have been enjoying our explorations of the Sheltowee Trace trail.  I'm a fan of geology, and this trail does not disappoint!  

According to the interweb, Sheltowee is pronounced shel-toe-ee.  I always say it wrong, but I've noticed that the folks most familiar to the trail just say "the trace."  The symbol for the trace is a turtle, and the turtle is stenciled on roadways and on little signs nailed to trees all along the trail.  

The trace is mostly in the Daniel Boone National Forest, but parts of it are on private land or on local roadways.  The trail is over three hundred miles long, and we've challenged ourselves to hike the whole thing! 

Not all at one time, which would probably take a month of daily hiking, but doing as much as we can each month until we've hiked it all.  Some folks make it a challenge to hike the whole thing in one calendar year, going on overnight hikes one weekend a month.  This means they have to hike nearly twenty miles a day sometimes!  I don't think we are going to give ourselves a hard deadline, so hopefully we can keep the per day mileage to something more reasonable.  

After all, it's nice to be able to stop and admire the fungi or linger in a pretty spot without worrying that we won't get to camp before dark.   

We've been practicing long hikes for several months now, and this weekend Brandon and I were ready to try our first two-day hike with an over night camp.  We hiked for twelve miles on Saturday, carried everything we needed, slept in a tent on the ground, and hiked for ten miles on Sunday.  And we survived!  My bag weighed twenty-four pounds, and I would feel weightless for the first few steps after taking it off.   

The weather was perfect for hiking, and the forest was vibrant green with splashes of color that promise beautiful fall colors in the days to come.  

Most of the hike was under the forest canopy, but we got one good view of the lake under the fluffy clouds with a picturesque sailboat on the water.  

We saw some cool snakes and so many colorful fungi.  This one is called chicken of the woods, and I'm told it tastes as good a chicken when it's cooked.  

We made it to our chosen campsite with enough daylight to put up our tents and build a fire.  Brandon and I had a brand new tent right out of the package, and had never set it up before, so we were glad not to have to figure it out in the dark.  We sat around the camp fire with our friends and enjoyed some wine and our trail food.  Everything tastes better after a twelve mile hike through the forest.  

We had several groups on horses pass right by our camp site!  Just imagine how many of the comforts of home we could bring hiking if we brought our donkeys to carry our gear.  Why doesn't anyone else think that it is a good idea to bring Rufus?  

Our new tent is very lightweight as it's made mostly of a fine mesh.  The rain fly covers the whole thing and kept us dry during a light rain.  I tossed and turned and ached from all that hiking with a heavy bag.  My butt fat was chilled from sitting on the ground by the fire and I felt the cold radiate from my backside for what felt like hours before I warmed up. My arms would get cold if they were out of the sleeping bag, but when I had them tucked inside I felt wrapped like a mummy!  I really missed my pillows.  Muscle cramps while trapped in a sleeping bag in a small tent are fun too.  I was sure I hadn't slept a wink, but when Brandon told me it was time to get up I couldn't believe the night was over.  Thank goodness.  After a some hot tea and oatmeal, we were packed up and hiking off the soreness.  I was surprised to find that my feet actually felt better on the second day.  

The hike was a wonderful break from real life, and we were so happy to get home to a shower and a long soak in the hot tub.  I'm already looking forward to the next camping adventure.