Late September 2012 Trip

Even though the daytime highs were only in the 40s, and showers were around periodically, it was a nice quiet time at the lake. We went up Thursday late and left for Madison on Monday the 24th.

Lots of fall colors. At the time we were here the colors were not at their peak, but close. This picture looks like it could be on a Christmas card. The second picture below is just a nice fall-colors shot of the big hill on the driveway.

I got out and rescued six trees along the shoulder of Board Bridge Road: three red pines, three white pines and one white spruce. I planted them along the driveway heading up to the shed.

Mary and I collected rocks for the rock wall I’ve been building the last two years. We drive forest back roads looking for rocks along the road that are turned up from periodic road grader grooming of the road.

The rock wall in-progress and pictured is along the circle driveway that we built in 2010. Building a rock wall is a neat thing and I find some joy and simple pleasures in the task. I got started building rock walls with my parents at our home in rural Belvidere. As a kid I don’t imagine I found it a joy or simple pleasure. But now I do.

It’s a somewhat simple task. Big rocks go on the bottom, smaller ones at the top. You nest them together carefully, aligning their various angles, cuts and shapes. At 64, I can still safely lift a rock about the size of two basketballs. Found a rock this past trip that was about 3 basketballs and I could not lift it. Mary said it’s a boulder not a rock. I think I can get it if I go out with my trailer that tilts; that way I can roll the rock up on the trailer and don’t have to lift it.

The rocks you see grouped at the top of the wall are the 50 or so we collected, and I’ll get them placed in the wall next time at the cabin.

On Sunday, at dusk I quietly walked the nature trail. Sat down for a while on the Leopold bench on the north trail. While sitting and listening, a coyote suddenly started to howl from a close distance. I pegged it as being on Black Bear Lane about 50 yards from where I was sitting. So, I started making a bunch of human-like noises and headed back to the cabin.