Jean's Hobbies

Day one of the Lakeshore Art Fair is complete. As I often do for this event, I'm spending the night with author friend Jean.

See link below if you don't remember Jean. She often takes a chicken to events. She mainly writes Sci-Fi, but she now has three children's books about chickens.

She has quite a menagerie at her house. This is Jack the India Runner Duck. If you are friends with Jean, you might remember when handsome Jack was just a fluffy duckling.

Jack is friends with Lucy Goose.

The big excitement of the day is that her chicken Laya, who often goes to shows, has been sitting on eggs. Two of them hatched this morning. This one may be an "ordinary" chicken.

This one will be a Silkie, with the naked neck and a sort of pom-pom hairdo.

Jean also has a flower bed she is trying to reclaim. These huge hostas got weeded, and they gained a woven fence since a tree came down earlier this year thanks to the wind.

And this border looks good. It's a huge job to reclaim a garden on a hill that hasn't been cleaned in a while. I know!

Tomorrow we go sell books again. I thought you'd rather see this than more pictures of vendor tents. I certainly don't find those very exciting any more.

See Bring Your Chicken to Work Day

In Search of Another Road Loop

  I had to go to the store today, so I checked out a different road loop for a walk. It was a poor choice, actually. Flat, too much traffic, and not a lot of high-interest things to see. I won't choose that one again. However, I managed to snap a few things in five miles.

This is the one water feature on the loop. It's a tributary of the Lincoln River, apparently unnamed. It flows north. In this picture the water is moving toward the camera.

This bird was standing in the road. All his yard-mates were staying in their own driveway. It was quite a collection. I did chase him out of the road. What is it? It's a muscovy duck, native to Mexico and South America, but they have adapted well to colder climates and are now often domesticated in the north. The red face is distinctive. They aren't always white, sometimes dark or piebald. I think the feet are really interesting. Look at all the spots!

And this antique hay rake looks really nice against the snow! It was horse drawn when it was used. How do I know? Because there is a seat on the rake itself where the driver would sit.

In other news: I did all that grocery shopping. I did some editing. Doesn't sound like much.

See Five Flat Farm Miles See Lincoln River Continued

14.9 Miles and a Stong Opinion

 
Day three did not feel very good, but I got 'er done! My legs were very tired in the morning, and one stretch in the middle did not help. More about that in a minute.

The day was mostly overcast, but a little warmer than yesterday. Still mostly through farm country. Largely soybeans and corn. The soybeans are being harvested. In fact, as I write this a huge combine is clearing the field right in back of the campground. Hope he finishes before we want to go to bed!

But I did pass a few typical farm animals. Good old Holsteins... the standard cow of my childhood.



And some quakers are always good for a chuckle or two.



The day gave yet another bonsai offering.

And my faithful support crew decided to come meet me one stop before the end, so I slack packed the last mile and a quarter with only my camera and belt pack. Pretty cushy!



That last mile was one of the nicest of the day. It went through Spencer Lake Wildlife Area. The color is just beginning on the shores of the lake, and it was very pretty.



I thought there wasn't going to be a house of the day, and it isn't actually on the trail. But as we were driving back to camp this beauty appeared on a corner. It's even for sale. I'd like to buy every wonderful old house in the world like this and fix them up. I know... totally unrealistic, but I love old houses. Please notice I accidentally captured myself taking the picture not once but twice in the lower left.



Now for the middle of the day. It was only two miles (plus a detour), but it wasn't much fun. That's not something I'd usually say about off-road trail. It was through Findley State Park. I've talked myself into giving them 4 points out of 10, but until I got almost all the way through it was only going to be 1 point.

That first point is for allowing the Buckeye Trail to come through and be off road. That's good.

The trail from the road into the park was terrible. It had been slash logged and the debris just run down with a bulldozer and left. That makes terrible footing... all you can do is stumble through. Then I got to the first parking area. Nicely marked, good signage and blazing. That's the picture I put on Facebook earlier today. Wrong. You follow that trail to the right (as it says), and it leads you to a valley where there is no blaze anywhere. So the map said the trail goes south. There was a trail going south, so I took it. After two disc golf cages and one tee, without a single blaze, I pulled out my phone and got my location on Google. Sure didn't look like I was on the trail I was supposed to be on. I considered bushwhacking east to the trail I wanted, but I'd already been in knee-deep poison ivy and the terrain looked like there was another valley between me and where I wanted to be. Could have been a swamp in the bottom of that. So I backtracked. Hunted the area where the blazes ended even harder, but there was no other blaze.

Went right back to the sign where the blazes said turn right. But now I knew that the trail I wanted was to the left. So I turned left and found that in just 10 feet or so. Not marked as Buckeye Trail, but it matched where I should be on my map. I took it.

It is also the park's mountain bike trail. OK. In the first place, mountain bikers aren't crazy about having to watch out for hikers. Hikers aren't crazy about having to watch out for bikers. It was a great trail for the bikes. Lots of steep hills, curves, roots and bumps. Not so nice walking. I suspect it was the bike trail first. The BT should be given a different route.

Next issue. The park had nice new trail maps at every junction with your location labeled, etc. But they don't match the map on the Buckeye Trail maps. And, the park has named two trails "Buckeye something else" that aren't the Buckeye Trail. If you took those, you'd end up somewhere completely wrong. Finally made it to the crossing of the creek that drains the lake. Here's where they started to pick up the extra 3 points I'll give them.

Point #2 was for two good bridges. One across the creek and one across a swampy area.

Point #3 was for getting the Buckeye Trail off the bike trail and having it pretty well marked on the east side of the park.

Point #4 was for having the turn to leave the park well marked.

Anyway, by the time I got through that little section it was past my lunch time and I still wasn't halfway for the day. This does not make me a happy hiker. So I had a snack, walked another hour and then had my lunch. Ester and Jade drove by, and cheered me up. Then I walked the last five miles of the day.

Oh yes, and had to plastic bag the clothes I was wearing and wash up really well when we got back to camp. Ivy is pretty dried up for the season, but I don't dare chance ignoring it.

So, there you have today's long saga. Only one more day for this trip. That always makes me sad.

	See Day Two
if you like this blog, click the +1   or

More Farm Fun

 
These were not all taken on the same day, and they are from several locations, but I've created a collection to keep Old McDonald happy.

First we have the friendly pony.



Followed by the longhorn steer. I took this one from a distance, not wanting to find out how friendly the beast attached to the horns is. But he sure has pretty markings.



This little girl was clearly a pet. She maaaaed enough to make Priscilla happy, and thought I should have had food in my pockets.



What is there to say about chickens? They are funny, that's for sure. One of them kept barking, making me think there was a little dog nearby. Figure that one out.



Next we have a black "runner" duck. Ducks like this are more often seen in Europe (so I read), and they don't fly.



Two of these critters get a second shot. The goat was clearly peeved that no treats were forthcoming.



And the black duck. I really like these upright ducks. I used the picture above to show its usual posture in the best way. But I think this is a nicer picture of the two ducks, who are clearly friends.



I wouldn't mind having a few farm animals. The problem is, I'd have to stay home. My terminal wanderlust and animals are not compatible.

	See Farm Fun
if you like this blog, click the +1   or

I Had a Following

This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to use it in a post. Sorting pictures today reminded me and it is still good for a big smile. At one place where I wasn't taking pictures (hoping to get directions to a place I couldn't find- it turned out they gave me the wrong address), no one was home. Well, no human was home. I walked into the yard (had parked a fair distance away through the woods on a driveway that looked promising, but wasn't). I was greeted immediately.


These mixed friends are clearly well-loved, hand fed, and expect all humans to deliver. I was quickly surrounded. Multiple goats and chickens, but only the one duck.


Interestingly, the duck is one of those European kinds that walks very upright. It was quite adorable.

They followed me down the driveway. I was getting a little worried- not wanting to lead them into mischief in the road. They followed me through the woods all the way to my car! Not good. I finally started throwing sticks at them to encourage them to go back to their own yard. I hate doing stuff like that, but talking to them in a friendly way only made them come closer. I would have been happy to be nice and make their acquaintance, but they needed to go home!

They seemed a bit like the musicians of Bremen.

My animal encounter today wasn't so good. I got nabbed by a little Jack Russell terrier. Ruined shirt and pants and a blood blister that smarts, but he didn't break the skin.

if you like this blog, click the +1   or