In Transition
So much to do, so little time in which to do it. I had hoped to do a quick post this morning, before we head out on a big adventure today, but the task turned out to be not so quick. The topic I picked deserves time for more thought than I have right now, so I will save it for another day. In its place, you get, …what else? A picture to view! A leaf, in transition. Like our lives right now.
Enjoy the day!
Embracing Mystery
I am comfortable embracing mysteries of the universe. In my view, it is not my purpose in this life to solve them.
What makes me uncomfortable, is trying to imagine how we could possibly get our new place ready fast enough to accept all the horses being offered to us as gifts. We are already up to 7. Yep. Count ’em. Seven. That is not including the one that begged Cyndie to take him home with her from the barn where she has been taking dressage lessons. He had a price tag that disqualifies him from the list of gift offers.
I can honestly say that a year ago, in my wildest dreams, I did not imagine the universe presenting the scenario that I find myself living today.
I kinda like not understanding it all.
Self Portrait
While enjoying the scenery up at the lake last Saturday, I captured this image of some guy looking at me through his camera lens:
I like the way it turned out. A little bit mysterious. It takes a second to figure out what is going on.
And, since I am posting photos, here is an outtake from the session on the water. I really like the coloring of lake and sky, and find myself wanting to gaze upon images from this series, again and again. This one falls just short of my goal, because of the slant of the horizon. It bugs me, but the color is still appealing:
I was attempting to capture the ripples created by boat traffic. That feature also failed to come through as I had hoped. The leaf that floated into the foreground grabs attention, but it doesn’t present enough of a classic leaf outline to be a rewarding distraction. It just leaves an impression of, “what is it doing there?”
If you find yourself asking, the answer is: floating.
If the leaf could have taken a self-portrait, it probably would have, but since it wasn’t able, I took the picture.
I can’t get over the feeling that all the water is going to run out the right edge of that image, following the slant. Yet, I still discover my gaze enjoying the view. Maybe that is because I am usually seeing it at thumbnail size. The gradient of colors seems more dramatic as the image is reduced.
Don’t you agree?
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Masterful Planning
We are eking out progress, one day at a time. When our buyers make one more request of us, to appease their insurance company’s needs for in-depth documentation, we scour our files and produce the goods, from 16-years ago! Full speed ahead.
When I come home from the day-job, it is a relief for me to hear Cyndie report the variety of places in our house that she has vanquished. Closets packed, basement storage, down to the last few things. I am making progress, vicariously through Cyndie.
Our lovely children have both checked in, preparing to navigate the final days, and stop over to pick up the last of their stuff. We have received clearance from Cyndie’s parents to store some of our delicate and valuable items at their house during the transition.
We still haven’t found a home for the extra refrigerator in the basement, but what’s the worst that could happen? We take it with us. I’m not too worried.
We didn’t have a master plan when we moved into our house in Eden Prairie 25 years ago. Over the span of time that we have lived here, we shaped it into the home we wanted. I have every confidence we will be able to accomplish the same thing at our new home. The secret ingredient is time.
We don’t need to have it perfectly (whatever that is) figured out in time to tell the movers where to put everything. Get our stuff from here to there, place it somewhere safe and dry, and we’ll eventually figure out what will work best for us.
Seriously. That’s not just my struggles with planning talking. That’s my knowledge that we’ve done it before, and we will be able to do it again, and more!
Wooded Wonderings
It is now October and our closing date is just over 2-weeks away. Something tells me the days will pass very quickly. Yikes!
And, yahoo!
We stopped by the property twice over the weekend, on our way to, and from, the lake. That really revved up our excitement another notch, if that is even possible. Sunday, we met my sister, Judy, and her husband, Scott, in Ellsworth, to give them an opportunity to visit our land before they head back to Arizona for the winter.
Each time I walk the property, something new is revealed. It became obvious that we will need to do some serious exterminating. There are a lot of mounds of dirt piled up from gophers. On the bright side, I probably don’t need to worry about aerating my lawn.
I did discover a bit of the invasive species, Common Buckthorn, growing in our woods. Looks like a small enough percentage that I can handily dispatch and control it myself.
There are plenty of trees to be found with cross-branch rubbing, and a few broken limbs that haven’t fully detached. I will have no shortage of chances to play lumberjack in my new woods.
We came upon a significant pile of branches and other natural rubbish, and even some inorganic trash, tucked away in the woods. Maybe I can make that into a bonfire in the middle of winter. I don’t even want to whisper the word, ‘fire’ right now, with the extremely dry conditions we are experiencing.
One drawback of our dream property is the lack of any surface water in the vicinity. No lakes or significant rivers, on or near our borders. There are a fair number of small rivers and streams in the county, but I’m not clear yet, about what the closest river is, with enough water to flow year-round.
Back on the subject of the woods, of the many utilitarian devices we will be needing to purchase, a light and reliable chainsaw is very high on my list. On my old corner suburban lot, I got by using hand-saws for the moderate chores, and hired a tree company (which provided my very own certified arborist) to prune or take down the few large trees that needed attention. I suppose I could check and see if they do any work that far out of the metro area, but I expect the expense would be rather extreme.
I sure would love to have my arborist give an analysis of my new woods. I cherished the map they provided of my suburban lot, showing the location of all the primary trees, each one numbered and identified by species. I can’t imagine how such a thing would be accomplished on our new property, although, I’m sure there is a way to do it. Certainly lumber companies know the inventory of what is growing on their acreage.
The new property starts with a few cottonwoods down by the road, then a variety of evergreens that the current owners have planted in the 11-years they’ve been there. There are a couple of fair-sized willows, a good number of poplars, some big oaks and maples. I’m not so quick on identifying elms or ash, but I wouldn’t be surprised to discover those, as well. Those two have been hit pretty hard by disease or pests in the region, so might be scarce.
I may be inclined to add some cedar, and will look into whether birch will work or not. I can dream. It will be a trick to manage it all while needing to commute to the day-job, so tending to the forest will likely be a weekend hobby for quite some time.
Here’s hoping the current drought goes gentle on our little forest, so I have something worth managing in the years to come.
Lake Views
We are up at the lake, after all. Yes the trees are peaking in their autumn splendor, but the clear, blue, sunny skies, and summer-like temperatures have the lake looking very inviting. Dip your toes into these images…
Scenic Detour
This weekend, we are taking a short break from packing, and visiting our lake paradise with Cyndie’s parents. On the way up, Cyndie and I took a little detour, by way of the property we will be purchasing. I tried to capture some photos of the drive.
Here is one of the views from the lovely back road route we favor, shortly after crossing into Wisconsin:
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This is a view of the street the driveway is on, looking from the north:
To the south, our street intersects with County Highway N.
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This is a view up the driveway. Welcome home, John and Cyndie! (Soon!)
In Case
In case you were wondering what it might look like when Cyndie and I look out at the autumn woods beyond the deck at our new house, here are a couple of photos Cyndie captured during a recent visit, to give you an idea what we are in for…
Simply Vote
I am an unabashed apolitical person, (although not void of opinions), who values being able to vote. Last night we did a little research into how our move will complicate our methods of voting.
On the surface, it seems simple. We need to live in Wisconsin for 28 days to be eligible to vote there. Not gonna make that.
The State of Wisconsin Election Office web site suggests you simply vote from your former address, if you moved less than 28 days before the election. As if it was that easy.
According to the State of Minnesota Election office web site,” it is illegal to vote from an address at which you no longer reside.” So much for using our former address!
It is back to Wisconsin for us, where we will be eligible to vote a Presidential only ballot.
It’s better than nothing, but I will be really sad if any of the candidates or issues I support end up failing by 1 vote.
