Wednesday, July 11/2012

Saw three deer today during our travels - this one,  running
through  a corn field

Another one!!    Neither were interested in sticking around

beautiful yellow mustard field

The old Timberland one room school house

today's trail

awesome little trail

Hogan, enjoying a run on the trail

Indian Paintbrush

Hogan and the cows - he could not get out of the field fast enough!!
Mean, Scary Cows!!

Mom is not putting up with Hogan

Staring him down

Thistle in full bloom

Blue Bells

the sun is orange (lots of smoke in the air)

Well, it just wouldn't be right if I did not have to get out and hook
up the winch at least once on a trip

Old Massey combine standing alone in the field

sentinels of the trail - reminded me of " The Birds" movie

Awesome orange sun with the cloud coverage and the smoke in the air

Heading home, the smoky haze is real prevalent in this pic

Well the sun is shining again this morning but there is also a nice little breeze with it so it does not seem as hot as yesterday.  For that, I will thank my lucky stars!!
It will be another good day to sit and read.  With that thought in mind, I catch up on all the news on Facebook them finish up the blog for yesterday.
It is quiet in town today and seems like everyone is staying inside out of the heat.
I cooked some potatoes and some eggs this morning and will make potato salad for supper tonight.
John decided to cut the grass today so got on the riding mower and did a few spins around the yard.  It sure looks nice when it is cut.
While he was cutting, I took "Old Blue" back over to the garage for some fine tuning on the brand new clutch they just  put in.   I then stopped at the store and picked up a picnic ham to use as cold meat for the next few days.  It is just too hot to cook and will go well with the potato salad.
Once John was finished with the grass, we went for a drive.  It will be nice to feel some cool breeze in our faces!!  With Hogan in the back and the cooler with a few cold beer at my feet, we headed out.
We went down towards the rodeo grounds and saw three deer on the way there.  One was standing in  a field of yellow mustard seed flowers with just it's head showing and looked so cute.  Unfortunately,  I was not quick enough with the camera (no surprise there!!).  It truly would have been one of the best pics of the trip and definitely a "Kodak Moment".
We accessed a trail that John had not been of for many years (since the kids were small) and headed down it.  We came to a gate with an warning on it saying that it was an electric fence.  "No problem", John assures me,  "Just hold the orange handle".  Well, I did that but also grabbed the other wire in my other hand and got a jolt I was not expecting!!  It is a good thing these electric fences do not carry a lot of current.  Anyway, I was not too happy and expressed my dismay in the usual cursing manner!!  Not very lady like I must say!!  John had a hard time wiping the grin off his face - the jerk!!  I was much smarter when I closed the damn gate.  I just held the orate handle and all was well.
As we travelled down the trail, I truly expected to see some wildlife.  It was a rather remote trail and ideal for all the forest creatures.  The only thing we saw was a tree with four crows (could have been ravens) roosting in it.  It reminded me of the movie "The Birds".  Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror flick.  I do believe it started out with just a few crows!!
As we continued, we came across a field of cows.  Many of them had babies and were in no mood for Hogan.  Although he was running along side the jeep at this point, and not really bothering them, they quickly gathered around and many of them actually started walking towards him bawling like crazy.  This totally freaked Hogan out and he could not get out of that field fast enough!!
As usual, we had to stop and get a few pics of the flowers along the way.  Today, there was all kinds of  Indian Paintbrush and Bluebells and at one stop, I say a Purple Thistle.  All of them were lovely and pictures were required!!
As we crossed several of the fields, we noticed a smokey haze in the area an knew that this must be a result of some forest fire.  Although we have not heard of any fires around here, this must be coming from further North.  I will have to "google" that when we get home.
Of course it just wouldn't be right if I did not have to get out and hook up the winch at least once on one of these trips and today was no exception.  We came across a real mucky area and before long, we were stuck.  Ask me if I wore my proper foot wear!!  Flip Flops just do not work well in the mud so needless to say, I was picking my path rather carefully.  With the winch cable hooked up we were soon unstuck and on our way.
The smoke and haze made the sun glow an incredible orange colour.  It was awesome and although I took several pics, I hoped they would actually capture the intense colour.  They actually turned out pretty good although the colour did not come through as I had hoped.
We eventually came to the Debden Grid and headed home.  We were blessed to see one more deer crossing the road in front of us - a little buck with his little antlers growing majestically out of his head.
He was obviously not interested in sticking around for pictures and was gone in a flash.
We made it home with the smoky haze following us.  The whole town is now shrouded in it.  John started a fire (might just as well add to the smoke) and I started supper.  Gary came over for a while and sat around the fire with John while I watched So You Think You Can Dance on TV.
All in all, it was another good day.