A Little Known Fact

We have a piece of land (about 8+ acres) that is accessible only to the truly adventurous.  You either have to wade, swim, or wait for a good hard freeze to get to it.
I have only set foot on it once.  Boyd happened to wander over there one day when the water was hard and the getting there was easier.

 The fence post is sucking water out of the ground, what is left is salt on the post.

 The fence line of the property looking west.

 Looking east.

 The reason why it is hard to access.

 The view of the land from the canal road.  Check out the mess you have to cross to get there.

 It is basically triangular shaped.  The property ends at the big bunch of trees on the right of the photo.

 This was my view when I decided that I didn't want to get across bad enough.

 And, the off road vehicle that got us that far.

Off the iPhone

Both Boyd's and mine.  Actually, the only photos I took are of the animals, the rest are credited to Boyd.

 Even Boyd takes the occasional sunset shot.

 Smart cat... warming in the sun.

Groundhog's Day Round 2

 Still muddy!  But we have at least two colors of mud here on the DLALLCO.  The lighter more alkali soil found in the dog park and then your normal, run of the mill mud from the road. And, in case anyone cares, I still LOVE my Bogs.  Best boots I have ever owned. My feet are no longer cold and they used to be cold all the time.

 Frog pond minus the usual overabundance of cattails and other marshy weeds.

 Mud and all, the dogs and I ventured out for a walk.  We traipsed through the dog park, then headed down the road.  I haven't been on  a walk in a long time due to darkness and weather conditions.  We made it to the culvert and then hit this.  I decided not to wade through it.

 Instead I looked up and found this.

 Then I looked down and saw this.

 Of course, what would a post be lately without these?

Just so you can experience the noise, a shaky video.

 Still coming!

 More and more.

 Then just as suddenly, they all took off! I wondered if they had finally noticed the large woman in the black hoodie holding the camera.  Maybe it was her troublesome dogs.  Nope, it turns out, the air brakes on a semi will send a whole flock a flying.
And on a side note: My Jasmin whose sole purpose in life seems to be chasing things, especially birds, doesn't give the geese a second look.  She goes crazy after crows, magpies and turkeys, but not the geese.

 What's this rotten fence post got to do with anything you ask?  Well, it was my lifeline people!  You don't know the sacrifice and effort I endured to get the shots of the geese.   I had to lumber up the side of the steep railroad grade and shoot between the rows of barbed wire.   (I just noticed I called you all "people".  That is what I used to call my students, man, I do miss it.)
And I must really miss the classroom, because I was creating a story problem out of the situation of getting the shot in focus.  I had my 1:3.6 lens on the camera, which means to focus I had to be more than three feet away from the object.  I tried leaning back and started to wonder what angle I was at, that got me thinking about triangles, then I wondered how far back a pole (insert really tall girl)  could get from the fence post and get the shot in focus before she fell down the hill and broke something important.   These are the kinds of things I would present to my class to solve.  I remember during the era of remodeling the Willard house, I would always present problems of figuring  how much tile, fencing, baseboard, paint I needed to buy at Home Depot to my students.   One day this boy raised his hand and said, "You know Miss Wilkins, if you would just get married you wouldn't have to solve these problems any more." That kid missed the point on so many levels.

Not that you can tell from the photo, but it is a rather steep railroad grade.  It was hard enough going up, but going down was even worse. I kind of did a half standing knee slide.  Having a dog nose nudging me down the hill didn't help any.  Thanks Jasmin!

Groundhog's Day

My life is like that Groundhog's Day movie in that it seems to repeat itself every day with the same routine.  I haven't actually seen that movie.  Mostly because that main actor, I've forgotten his name, is HIGHLY annoying.   

Nonetheless, my daily life is so redundant.  I must like it that way or I would change it.  I get up, wish that I would have ironed my clothes the night before, get ready, feed the dogs and goats, walk for the paper, bring the dogs in to give Buddy his pill and Jasmin a chance to jump on Boyd with her snowy/muddy/wet paws.  Drive to work,  work, work, work, drive home. Boyd has walked the dogs for me and has them in the house.  Say hi to everyone, go outside and feed the goats and let the dogs run until it gets cold or dark or both.  Come in the house, pet the dogs, read the paper, check my blogs and Facebook, pet the dogs, try to pay attention when Boyd rambles about another piece of equipment he wants to buy (love you hon'), feed and lock up the dogs, let the cat in who has been lurking in a tree or some other secret location watching for me to put the dogs away so he knows it is his turn.  Pet the cat, try to keep him from sticking his bum in my face as he crawls along my head, hope he takes his slobbery face over to Boyd for a turn.  Eat something and apologize to my husband for being too lazy to do the dishes, go downstairs, get in bed and watch some TV show that I don't even care about on the computer while trying to fall asleep.  Then I wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

My blog posts seem to follow the same pattern.  News about nothing and inane updates about the dogs, goats and farm life.  

It sounds like I am complaining, but really I like it. Like I said, if I didn't, I would change it. So, without further ado...

A post about goats and geese.

 Boyd attached this board in front of the hay in the hopes that those nuisance goats couldn't reach over it and pull all the hay down.  It works great so far.  I say so far because I am sure they spend their day contemplating a way to reach all that deliciousness.

Make sure to notice the geese in the trees approaching the landing.

 The geese must like routine also.  Every night since the hunt ended they come in by the hundreds.  Droves and flocks and endless streams of geese fly in from all directions.  They circle around and land in the neighbor's corn field.

 And are they EVER loud!  Unreal the noise they can make.

 Same shot of the same mountain that I always take a picture of.

 Little black specks of geese.

 Another gorgeous sunset.

Stay tuned for the next post about dogs, goats, geese or that lovely farm-boy I married.