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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Fall panic

It has been busy on the farm as it always is this time of year. We try and have some fun in between critical chores which makes for some pretty hectic schedules. We went to get the Cooker some new glasses last month and found out she needed cataract surgery. It's done and she no longer needs bifocals. I told them I would like that surgery, also, but only if I could get zoom lenses. I was being facetious, but they said research is getting to the point where that may be possible someday. Whodda thunk it?

The seasons are rapidly changing. I grew up (assuming I finished the process) in Delaware, where autumn and spring linger for quite sometime. Here in Northern Minnesota the change is rather abrupt. There are the usual signs like colored leaves and migrating birds.
The geese were wondering why that jackass with the camera is chasing them.

The Cooker and Stitch went to an ACTHA (American Competitive Trail Horse Association) ride down by Duluth yesterday. Stitch used my horse and came in second in her division. Pretty good present for a first timer and birthday girl. She is leaving the Cooker down there because the Cooker needs foot surgery tomorrow morning. Stitch will bring the horses home and I will go to Duluth to be with the Cooker. We should be home tomorrow evening and Stitch will have left for a work related trip for the week. That means I get to do everyone's chores and play nurse to the Cooker. Well, it's a good excuse to take some time off of work. The Cooker has to stay completely off her foot for two weeks which will make it a challenge for her nurse (me) as she tends to be a non-compliant patient. A good thing I kept those ropes and handcuffs from our younger days! Just kidding! Really!

Some of the weather changes bring some gloomy mornings.
And then we get some windy days to get rid of those pesky leaves. If I were the type of person to rake leaves I would feel useless up here. Nature takes care of that.
These are not "Edmund Fitzgerald" storms, but we may get a couple of those in the coming weeks. It is just part of the moodiness of the big lake. Some days I wonder how the breakwalls survive the pounding, even in the fairly light winds. (Click on the picture to see the outer wall of the harbor a bit larger).
Other days it can be the most serene place imaginable like it was yesterday morning.
This morning I finally got around to replacing a leaking valve that controls my outside spigots. I thought I just finished building this place and now I am having to do maintenance.  Time really goes by fast. The Cooker was just a young chick when I met her and now she needs a little maintenance, too. Time used to flow like a river. Now it seems more to flow more like a bucket. Events seem to have a place in time of their own, but I can't tell if it was a few weeks ago or a few decades ago. Should I be lucky enough to live a couple more decades I wonder what time will seem like then?


    

12 comments:

  1. Poor Cooker!
    Everything is so windy and wet here that there's no point even trying to make outside look nice...

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  2. Wow, first cataract surgery, then foot surgery. It does make one feel as though we are falling apart. At least those two surgeries were a few years apart for me. Good luck to both of you....and did Stitch get to plan to be gone over this time? Hopefully you won't be snowed in over the next two weeks.
    Best wishes to you both.

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  3. I used to live near Lake Erie, and I remember those breaker waves! I've got the Gordon Lightfoot song playing in my head now.

    Hope all goes well with the foot surgery and speedy healing to The Cooker!

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  4. Long rides followed by foot surgery?! Man, that's a tough lady you've got there. God bedering to Cooker!

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  5. I hope all goes well with the Cooker's surgeries. That would indeed be rough to stay off your feet for two weeks. It is so beautiful where you love - I've never been up that way. Too cold for me I'm afraid.

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  6. What a gorgeous location you and Cooker live in, Jon. And I know what you mean about time once flowing like a river ... a slow one. Whatever happened to that river?

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  7. What is this whole thing about maintenance? Doesn't it seem like once you build something it should last forever? But, I guess when we look at ourselves and the maintenance we need even God couldn't do that.

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  8. irbiI, Iceland's winds make everything else seem like a chicken fart.
    chlost, your recovery going well, I hope? Congrats on the new embryos!
    PP, sorry for the earworm (I get them all the time)
    Corrinne, Mange takk og gratulere på jobben!
    RJ, Don't forget we humans are pretty adaptable!
    CD, the river flows to the sea and mixes with all the other water.
    Mr.C, and what about warranty issues?

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  9. "This morning I finally got around to replacing a leaking valve that controls my outside spigots"
    I dont know why, but this phrase DID make me laugh

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  10. JG, As I had prostate surgery last year, this was even more witty and brilliant than I could know. Once you pointed it out I had to laugh, too!

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  11. WHat beautiful lake photos!!

    WE are trying to get everything cleaned up and put away before the snow. More than one, I have planted garlic with snowflakes falling down around me!

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  12. You are just surrounded by some amazing sites!!! All your pics are just awesome!

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