The End of Summer

The maple leaves have turned a golden color and are rapidly falling from the three trees in the front yard. The gale force wind of the weekend and the less forceful, but still assertive westerly winds of the past few days, have begun to strip the trees. There is a hard freeze warning posted for tonight, so I am thinking this will be the end of the beautiful colors in the flowerbed.

 I posted very few photos of my flowers this year. It seemed like every time I would think of it, there were more weeds than flowers. I finally got the weeds under control. We have had no moisture to speak of since early August, so it is surprising to me that the flowers look as good as they have. When we got home from Omaha earlier this month, the colors were at their peak. This photo is from that time. Earlier this week, I cut some and brought them inside. We have enjoyed the added color on the kitchen table at each meal.

Now it is time to think about planting bulbs for next spring. Come on, rain!

In the Countryside

We spent Tuesday afternoon with friends at their farm.

I missed the deer as it ran across the road in front of us, but got a couple of photos as it stood patiently and safely in the trees.

Not a lot of waterfowl activity on the area sloughs and marshes. We are not seeing any migrating birds in this part of the country. I hope that means cold weather is a long ways away, as is any forecast of snow.

A big ol' hawk was sitting so nicely on a fence post, but as we stopped so I could take its photo, of course, it flew away. It was kind enough to resettle on the farm equipment. Bill said it was a red tail hawk. 

Thanks guys for a fun afternoon!

Elsa Has Hip Replacement Surgery

Remember Elsa? The doll Miss W chose for her birthday doll?

Elsa broke her hip when a little someone accidentally stepped on Elsa lying on the floor. It was a clean break at the hip socket. This happened earlier this summer when we could not take Elsa home with us, so Elsa and her broken leg moved to the new house. Yesterday during our visit, Miss W brought Elsa to G'pa and asked if he could/would fix her? She came home with us as G'pa had a plan.

Elsa is now like G'pa. She has a new hip. She can still stand and walk.

She can sit, just like she did before her broken leg.

 Elsa will return to her owner next week, good as new.

Geocaching in Nebraska

For those of you who are faithful followers and are wondering what is going on with the two of us...we just have been very busy. No health issues, just busy. So this is what we are currently doing this week.

Drove to Nebraska on Sunday to meet AZ friends

for some geocaching adventures

Where's Annette?

Where's Curt?

Using a stick and rubber boots on the wet grass

This area has had several inches of rain recently

The final cache of the star

the Nebraska State Star series of caches

looks just like the South Dakota star we completed

earlier this summer

Wednesday we cached the GCF series

Feels good to have completed two of the four

Nebraska geo arts

Wednesday's accomplishment

Loved the colors

If wireless service allows, I will post more from this week.

A Wyoming Sunset

Monday evening was Sheridan WY. We sat outside, visited with the neighbors who were staying in a 'tear-drop' type unit. I looked up at the sky and saw the most awesome colors. The forest fires, like the Phoenix smog, added something awesome to the sky as the sun made its nightly journey.

We are now in South Dakota, the Black Hills, enjoying the camping resort we did not get to spend much time at this summer. Its our R&R before we get home and hit the ground with both feet running. No alarm tomorrow. No hooking up and hitting the road. No geocaching. Coffee outside on the patio. No plans. No agenda.