Canine Playing and Fighting

It is good the see the boys playing [i.e., fighting]. They have done this almost everyday for the last 1 1/2 years and have really honed their skills. For example, Nashoba will come up with a new trick: for example, when Leo was much faster than Nashoba, Leo being the fastest dog we’ve ever seen and a year older than Nashoba, on a full speed chase, with Leo right on Nahsoba’s tail, which now Nashoba has learned to keep tucked below his body or indeed Leo will grab hold of it), just before Leo catches him, Nashoba will drop to the ground and roll over with Leo going over him, and then Nashoba comes out of his roll and is at full speed now on the tail of Leo. But Leo will get wise – and then this trick can only be used at exactly the right time, and then at exactly the right time but first with a brand-new feint thrown in to distract Leo! Or, Nashoba learning the body slam – even when smaller than Leo, running at him full speed and them slamming him with his chest, throwing him over – and how Leo has adapted to that, such that now with Nashoba even bigger than Leo, he can only occasionally pull it off on Leo.


So, as much as Leo and Nashoba are “not wild” – they still both practice martial arts for several hours every day – and so, I have to believe that the coyote got himself into a little something more than he was expecting! These weren’t your average Labs. And, it may have been a real high for all of them – living – fighting – running – jumping – and doing it for REALLY big stakes! Like a soldier in battle – something done only a very small fraction of the time one serves as a soldier – but you are supposedly always training for it – well, my boys take their playing/training very seriously!

And it seems, one of the keys to martial arts is to have a wide range of expertly developed tools, that one can improvise with, and so do the truly expected move in an unexpected way with great finesse.

Beavers

BEAVERS

OK – I think it is time we dispel
a little myth about beavers ...
Out them I will!

Everyone says,
Busy as a Beaver
Like they have some
noble protestant work ethic
Well, I saw all sorts of unfinished beaver work ...

They’re slackers, they are!

They start work on one tree
Get bored, and then start on another
Hardly ever finishing what they start!

They make ME look good.
I documented this slackerness with my camera
to report to the DNR or the Beaver Bishop or Cardinal ...

And as I was documenting these slackers,
I noticed something ...

There is a method to their slackerness –
They always “girdle” only the side
of the tree facing away
from the lake.

The shore-side of the tree stops growing ...
The lake-side part of the tree grows ...
And the tree starts leaning
out over the lake
with bigger and
bigger limbs
pulling it
over.

Maybe my beavers discovered the secret
of working smarter,
not harder.

And, maybe, my beavers,
think further ahead,

and

are more patient
than
I.

Damn beavers!
I hate those guys!
Just enjoying swimming
around at nightfall like there’s nothing to do
except slap their tails at me when I imitate them!

I love beavers – they are one of my favorites!

Yes, while spending a whole bunch of effort completely cutting down a tree yields an almost [well, sometimes the trees fall the wrong way .. ] guaranteed result, girdling the shore side of a whole bunch of trees probably has a whole lot higher ROI [Return On Investment] but you have to plan ahead, invest, be patient and expect some variability in returns – sounds like a good investment strategy to me!

My next investment manager will be a beaver, it will.

Coyotes!

Walking with my Boys


I’m almost to the top of the ridge, maybe 20 - 50 feet from the top, when Leo comes full speed over ridge right at me with a coyote not 3 feet behind him – just before they hit us the coyote sees me and Nashoba and ricochets off at a sharp angle to my left and then Nashoba and Leo are after him, all going at full speed through the forest – before I can even call them back they are down the ridge, I call and they are up over the next, and gone from sight – at full speed last I saw them.

Shit!

I can call all I want – but I’m already 1/4 mile in the distance, over a ridge, and the coyote is right in front of them ... yeah, right. I had forgotten again the controllers for their radio collars, but I’m sure even those on the highest setting wouldn’t much compete with a coyote 10 feet ahead and full adrenalin.

I call and call and call – and they are just GONE! I can’t hear a thing. I hate it when the boys are out there someplace – and I have no idea where. Gets me REALLY uptight – I worry – certainly not enjoying the walk anymore! What can I do? I have learned to just not get all worked up – things usually work out. I just start heading back to the car, about 1 mile as the crow flies. I take a wrong turn, and then get back on the path. But then, I think I almost hear something – yelping, crying – is it in my mind or am I really hearing it? Is one of my boys hurt and crying for help? His front leg crunched and trying to fend off a coyote? I try to ignore it – I mean, what I am going to do? Try to run down a bunch of in-shape canines going full throttle off-trail in a forest? And in what direction? Yeah right. So I go on – the path to the car leading away from their last-seen trajectory. And, rounding a curve, again I think I hear crying and yelping – I cup my ears [that really does help] and, no, it is not in my mind – it is real – I have a heading and take off running now envisioning entrails spread across the ground. The heading takes me back to where I had made the wrong turn off the path.

I worry – my boys play and wrestle and chase each other – but never hurt each other or draw blood. But what about the coyote – he may not be playing, and maybe fights dirty!

Running down the spine of a ridge, the noise gets louder – I can hear it without cupping my ears, and I call and soon my two boys are in sight – and surprisingly, they’re coming towards me, Leo on my right and Nashoba on my left. The coyote is about 100 - 200 feet behind them hidden by brush – he the one who has been yelping (relief), and he keeps moving back and forth quickly but keeping its distance. He was moving OK and neither of my boys had blood on them – I tried to get a closer look at him – when I first saw it at the top of the ridge I thought, “Wow, what a beautiful creature!”. It was long-haired, multi-colored golden in color! First time I’ve seen one – I’ve always heard that they are small [about 40 pounds] and scraggly mangy scurvy looking things – not this guy! He looked like a small golden wolf from heaven, perhaps 70 pounds if not more! I try to get closer to it for a look – and I know this is stupid – my boys are just barely being held back by my commands, and instead of turning, as I know I should, I keep moving towards the animal while also trying to keep my boys with and behind me, Leo on my right, Nashoba on my left – but the coyote won’t show himself – he stays maybe 150 feet away, moving rapidly back and forth – I just get glimpses of him through the brush in the fading light. OK – better leave before I lose my boys again!

We walk together up the spine of the ridge towards the trail, the boys staying close – we rejoin the trail and start for the car – it is dusk – the sun will be setting as we get back now. And then Nashoba goes off the side of the trail and throws up ... and again ... and then walks slowly behind me – after awhile, Leo in front by about 20 feet, I don’t sense Nashoba – and look back and see him lying in the trail. I go back to him, and try to get him up, but he won’t budge. Now I’m worried. So I just sit with him, try to give him some water but he refuses. I take a small sip from my hipflask, and thinking twice, put it away before taking another. And then I hear the yelps, yips, barks and howls of a pack of coyotes – it’s not just one – it is many. I need to get Nashoba going ... he is too heavy to carry ... I lift him just to get him on his feet and he remains standing, and then slowly begins to walk slowly behind me. Not too long after he again drops to the ground. And not lying on his stomach, but on his side, with dry dead leaves in his mouth ... and he won’t budge. And night is falling, and the coyotes, now many, are again making a racket. I’m worried. I’m scared. I don’t want to think about losing Nashoba as I lost Wolfie two years ago. Still on top of the ridge I should have a spotty cell phone signal and try calling the vet. I get the answering service and 3 times she tries to call back but reception is so poor the phone never rings and I only later get voice-mail alerts. Leo’s about 20 feet down the trail, sometimes sitting, sometimes pacing – OK – I got to get him moving – he is just too heavy to carry.

I pick him up from around his muddy belly and again put him on his feet; he stands, and he starts walking. This time I stay right behind him, encouraging him – he’s walking like a drunk – at least it’s all relatively level and then downhill back to the car ... I try the vet again and this time get through – he’s looking better – Leo ahead senses something and Nashoba puts up the fur on his back, points his ears forward, and raises his tail – OK - he’s coming alive! ... he keeps walking ahead of me ... and I’m walking slowly ... he stops to drink from a mud puddle … the sun has gone down ahead of us, the horizon is a beautiful red, and the coyotes have started their calls again. And now he’s walking more steady ... we are going down hill, at the bottom is the car ... at times, maybe because the trail is steep, he trots a bit, but still not getting more than a few feet ahead of me and I’m not walking fast ... but I’m feeling better ... thinking I wish I had a gun ... not that I’d be able to shoot a coyote, but maybe scare them off and shut them up – feel like I could do something. The boys stay right with me down to the car – I’m wondering if Nashoba will be able to jump up into the back of the Subaru – or if I’m going to have to try to pick him up. He hesitates, puts his front paws half way up/in, and then jumps. And then he gets between the seats, so he can look out the windshield with his head next to mine as he likes to. Now I’m feeling better.

Driving home in the deepening dusk, we see the shapes of about 8 deer in our neighbor's pasture. The boys see them too – their heads out the windows, and don’t even make a sound or show excitement. I stop to take a picture. When up the hill and home, Nashoba took water, and both the boys ate. It’s already late, I would show up at the end of the Bluegrass Jam in Ottis’s garage, but I’m just going to stay home tonight and watch Nashoba, rouse him every half hour or so, and re-assure myself that he is OK. After he ate, he laid down and hasn’t moved ... while I wrote this ... I’m going to rouse him now.

The Prius, wolves, and the Indians ...

Some just get a bad rep –
and sometimes it’s deliberate.

The Native Americans –
All dirty vicious murdering savages, they were,
So we murdered and massacred them –
Ethnic cleaning, genocide,
and even primitive biological weapons.

Manifest Destiny it was!
God was the wind at our backs filling our sails,
the black powder in our muzzles propelling out bullets.

At least we had the compassion to save a few of their souls by first converting them from their heathen beliefs to those of loving God who sends people to Hell for eternity.

The wolf the same –
Living in its own civilization and culture,
a beautiful, shy, gentle and intelligent being –
[when living in our civilization, better known as a dog]
no documented case of ever killing a human in the wild
[The recently-reported incident in Alaska the first???]
being noted for their viciousness
– from Red Riding Hood to the 3 Pigs.
So we pretty much exterminated them too.
For good reason! Our children!

[Which reminds me –
  Q: What does an agnostic dyslectic with insomnia do?
  A: Stay up all night wondering whether there is a doG.]

And now, the Prius.
According to data I’ve seen from
the National Highway Safety Board,
it has half the fatality rate as the average car
and is still rated the top Green buy by Consumer Reports.
But, the mainstream media [MSM] propaganda machine
is sure out to exterminate the Prius!

The California incident of the run-away Prius is obviously a “false flag” event.

Yes, remember, never let data get in the way of a good story!

In fact, don’t even worry about the data –
Even better, don’t even look at the data –
Really, the data will just confuse you.
Worse, perhaps, cause some angst and
cognitive dissonance which may upset you.

As the priests interpreted the Bible for us,
so too must the MSM interpret the world for us.

Otherwise, the whole damn Zeitgeist just might fall apart!

Impeccable Green Credentials

While I may be an anthropogenic global warming [AGW] skeptic, (for good reason)
I still maintain that my green credentials are notwithstanding nearly impeccable.

Yep, me and Al Gore.

And I’m not just any Johny-come-lately to this movement either!
I’ve long been recognized as a “Tree Hugger”.

I’ve planted the trees,
Walked the hikes,
Got the pictures,
Usually say the right things in polite green company,
and my accountant even has tax records proving that I give to the proper charities.

In the picture behind me is one of the largest remaining Sequoia trees in Yosemite.
While there is professional photography
that perhaps better captures
the beauty and majestic grandeur of trees,
No picture can elicit
the pleasure,
the thrill,
the ecstacy!
of actually standing beneath a real tree,
feeling its bark,
breathing its scent,
and, noticing its slight tilt,
felling it with three well-placed cuts
of your Stihl chainsaw.

(Hey kids,
If you want to try this at home,
be sure to wear the orange, not green,
chaps, helmet, face mask and ear goggles.
Also boots and leather gloves are recommended --
I'm sure you could borrow your Dad's -- he won't care.
Just remember to be honest and say, "Yes Dad, I chopped down your cherry tree").

But I will also admit to not always needing this high ...
When my 15 year old Stihl’s carburetor needed rebuilding,
sometimes just its firing up was thrill enough.

Ever since, I’ve been insecure –

During the winter the Stihl now sits inside by the front door ...
Close, but not too close, to the woodstove.
I often start it up,
just to have the pleasure,
and reassurance,
that it starts.

It’s almost spring – perhaps time
to move the Stihl from the front entrance
back into the workshop.

Our walkage today

Today the boys and I took one of favorite short walks --
The section of the Techumseh Trail from Crooked Creek,
up on to Miller's Ridge,
and down to Panther Branch,
where the boys play in the pools.

This is one of the nicest parts of the Trail I've been on --
Much of the Techumseh Trail is along what I call the "Logging Super Highway Trails".
Some logging trails come and then disappear -- only to re-appear after the trees have re-grown.  The Logging Super Highway Trails never disappear.

This section of the Trail stays off the Highways.

You can walk only a few miles and go up and down 10 ridges --
Or, you can follow a snaking ridge the whole way --
And if so, it will probably be on one of the Highways.

The mobile phone works on top the Ridge so I stop and talk to people!

Here are some pictures from today's walkage:

Nashoba on Miller's Ridge

Daffodils ready to bloom on Millers Ridge

Mystery Solved

A Mystery solved?


At the almost back of the barn --
(Now getting down to the last things in the Barn Cleanage Operation of the Century)
I have three irregular polygon windows --

— high quality triple-glazed special-ordered windows from Canada.
When delivered, I measured them with a heat lamp from the hardware store
and found the company had shipped windows with the wrong Low-E coating
[A selective Low-E coating rather than a non-selective Low-E coating].

So, the company, Loewen, sent their boys to deliver replacements, at no charge,
and changed out the glass in the sliding doors as well.  They left the odd-shaped polygon windows.

And they did this in the middle of a very cold December!  Before the home had insulation!

So, we moved these windows from the Pyramid to the Pentagon's barn ...
(Smart)
... to be used sometime for something ...
And now the something I’ve decided, is back at the Pyramid!
(Well, maybe not so smart).

But I wondered ...

Why was some of the inside wood frame extensions all destroyed –
it looks like a wood pecker, a big one, had been busy on them!
But why would a woodpecker go after some nice clear fir?

And today I noticed the the mud-dobber nests on the window frames ...
Hmm, I guess, perhaps, maybe? woodpeckers like mud-dobbers!

Motorcycles

Motorcycles –


And now, in Cleaning the Barn,
[Note how this holy Mission has now become Capitalized!]

appears the 1983 Honda Shadow motorcycle,
with water cooling, and drive-shaft,
but, unfortunately, no kick start!
[my previous generation – a very old vintage 60's 1-cyclinder Harley – had both].

The motorcycle has been sitting there,
in the dark with a bent fork,
for about 15 - 20 years,
since I drove it home after
going off the road at very high speed
landing over a hundred feet off into the forest.

Didn't see that sharp curve comming!

I remember sitting there, with the somewhat mangled bike,
looking, and looking, and looking,
and then standing, moving around, and looking and looking,
trying to find a straight shot from where I stood to the road.

And there was none –

At least 4 trees had to have jumped out of the way for me.

And I didn’t even have a sore knee this time ...

Which reminds of going flying off the old Harley –

I had ridden it up from Florida so had a pretty good feel for it.

The back drum brake worked pretty hard, so I was in the habit of moving
my heel to the break pedal and stomping a bit hard.

So that night, cruising at 50 mph in the left hand lane of a boulevard
[i.e., no left turns with, no lights and no stop signs]
on the edges of Cleveland's suburbia,
Enjoying the night and adjusting my left-side rear-view mirror to be extra safe,
I was surprised to look up and see a car stopped dead in front of me.
I had time only, before impact, to stomp with my right heel on the break.

And STOMP I must have!

For I flew off the bike,
flew over the car [just hitting the antennae]
and
flying to the left,
landing perfectly with a nice roll
on the grass meridian.

The person I hit had a car radio phone and called the police
telling them he had just killed a motorcycle rider.

Imagine my embarrassment when,
with all the cars and trucks with flashing lights,
all the ambulances and emergency personnel, and police,
I could only complain that my right knee was
the tiny bit sore.

The bike wasn’t so lucky ...

(By the way – I have a perfect driving record!).

I wonder if it will run again? [the ‘83 Shadow?].

I bought it when young and crazy –
Quit my job at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
where I had been working as an Engineer/Physicist,
leading an R&D project,
bringing my dog to work with me everyday,
and after a hassle from the Fermi Site Patrol about my dog,
which had 4 years squatting rights there by then,
I interviewed at I.U.,
along with my dog,
who wasn’t hassled,

and so quit my Job at Fermi,
and bought a new motorcycle on credit,
to drive down to Florida.

[Was that better than spending a week at the
Trappist Monastery when leaving I.U.?

Or riding my bicycle across the country
before joining Fermilab?]

All good transisitons, if I say so myself ... 
But, perhaps I need to work on my Transitions a bit  –

When I quit my last job in Michigan,
I was going to walk the Appalachian Trail with my wolf,
but then he got hit by a car
and I think I got depressed ...

I think it should start ...
– while it has an electric start,
it doesn’t have a computer –

So, add gas and run should be the story!

The electric start is optional –

I remember as a young kid riding the cycles of my older siblings’ freinds.

One was a new racing bike.
And I was too small to kick start it.
So I would run down the street with it,
get is going as fast as I could,
them jump on and pop the clutch.

I had never been before on such a powerful machine.
I got to the end of the street,
and turning left,
gave a good twist to the throttle,
and went straight ACROSS the street and up a hill
nicely missing the trees [my first practice at this missing-tree operation].

And I remember, later, stopping at a stop sign,
a police officer there crossing children from school,
and it stalls ...

And getting off, running, jumping on,
popping the clutch,
and getting back home before anyone caught me!

Yes, so keep the bike –

I’ve had a lot of fun with it!
Cruising the country roads at full throttle –
trying to find its absolute top speed –
Was it at high rev’s in 4th or 5th
rather than in over-drive?
Did it depend whether I was going into the wind?

I don’t even remember how many gears it has!

But I found the key in the bedroom!

Another project!

Breakers

Breakers –


I’ve had two bad electrical breakers recently – one for my hot water heater, and one in the workshop/barn.

The breakers trip when you try to reset them even though there is no over-current in the circuit.

Of course, first I immediately suspected the 35 year old water heater – just think of all the deposits and sediment and corrosion on the heating elements!

Nope, it was the breaker.

Some people still have old-fashioned fuses in their homes –
They have to go into the basement with a flashlight when one blows,
and you have to replace them –
You never have to do this with a breaker – you merely reset it.

And so it has been for many, perhaps 35, years ...

But fuses don’t break. Fuses don’t wear out.
Breakers do!

Hmm, should I get real crazy and use fuses, rather than breakers, for my PV system?
I don’t want a problem 30 years from now ...
Of course, maybe the breakers are made better today,
or worse,
I don’t know ... haven’t researched this ...
but I do know about fuses.

I could be getting old fashioned, and out of date ...
I can remember the story of when Bob Wilson signed on as
the first Laboratory Director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
(He had been in Italy painting).

He envisioned a control-room with hundreds of big variacs and potentiometers on the wall, with pencil marks showing where to set them ...

And the young engineers wanted to try CAMAC – [Computer Automated Monitoring And Cotrol] where they instead used D/A and A/D converters to control the entire complex by computer.

Of course, the engineers were right, and that is how the machine was built!
This is perhaps one of the examples why Bob Wilson was such an esteemed leader!
He listened!
A leader who successfully brought the project in, above the design energy, early and under the budget – actually giving money back to Congress.

But getting back to breakers –

All the poor old-fashioned people with fuses usually have dozens of them, with different amperage ratings sitting around their electrical boxes.

People with breakers don’t always have, sitting around, dozens of SPST or SPDT breakers of various amperage ratings.

On the other hand, I’ve discovered today a way to safely "kludge" such breakers – and perhaps, this puts me ahead of the Fuse People – having a working breaker is a bit more safe than putting in a penny – and when is that last time someone actually tried using a penny in their fuse box?

– pennies used to be copper; they are now copper-coated zinc.

So, I ended up cleaning out the mouse-nests from the electrical box,
which was good,
because it required moving the shop vac FROM THE BARN to
the workshop!

So, if anyone asks me what I did today,
I shall just say,

“Oh, cleaned the barn!”.

And they may think to themselves,
My, you poor fellow, such a trivial and meaningless existence you suffer,
and then ask me, “Why clean the barn?”.

Oh, because I need to clean the barn in order to clean the workshop!

And they ask, “And why clean the workshop?”.

Because the bluebirds told me they need more bluebird boxes.

Is that such a trivial meaningless existence?

Procrastination

Last year I spent some time repairing a neighbor’s
radio-controlled dog zapper collar
I call these things the robo-dog-controllers.
(I have two!).

Anyway, the batteries in one of my DVMs [Digital Volt Meters] 
(in college they were called VTDVM [Vacuum Tube Digital Voltmeters – sometimes I still slip and say VTDVM instead of DVM and people look at me funny).
So, I made a note to get replacement batteries,
and later set these replacements by the front door
to bring on my next trip out to the workshop.
Well, anyway,
today,
The main goal is cleaning out the barn ...
something I have been procrastinating about ...
Which led to moving some items to the loft ...
Which led to, “the light bulb is out”.
Which led to another light bulb
and then suspicions about the breaker,
to a look inside the breaker box,
to the question, “How in the hell did these guys wire this place”,
to grabbing the little DVM,
which led to,

“Oh yeah, those batteries by the door!”

which led to:

Today I stopped procrastinating!???

The plot thickens ...
It wasn’t the batteries ...
It was one of those early “DVM-on-a-chip” super-mini DVMs.
Yep, and, while it lasted is was probably ten-times more accurate than an old Simpson Meter.
And, yep, when it comes to the barn,
you can throw away all those cheap electronics,
and get your hands on a 30 - 40 year old analog Simpson Meter.

Of course, if you want to measure the momentum spread of a low intensity coasting beam in a storage ring by measuring the frequency spread of the beam's random Schottky noise just above the 0.5 nV per root Hertz thermal noise, I'd recommend the $40,000 Hewlett Packard Spectrum Analyzer.

I love playing with those things!

Time Change

Last Sunday the time changed ...

Didn't even know it ... until I got onto the computer.

And nothing in my life changed -- except for my 9:30 phone call to Trish.

The time hardly matters to me anymore!

Waking when it gets light --
And trying to be back from my forest-walks by dusk ...

Didn't seem as though the canine species noticed the time change either!

We now live on sun-time, not clock-time!

Cleaning the Barn

Cleaning out the barn –
A barn with 25 years of accumulated stuff!

Where to start?
Hercules had it easy cleaning out the stalls!
It was all horseshit!
What to keep? What to store in the loft? What to discard?
I keep things of lasting value –
Things made of good metal.
Things I will or could use; tools, all tools!

It is a big project – and connects with other projects!
I tell myself, just remember, the task is large, but not infinite!
As long as the task is not infinite, the little things do indeed add up!

Bluebirds

the bluebirds have been clattering at my windows
what are they telling me?

Build us some more bluebird boxes of course!

The daffodils are looking almost ready ...

Every day something new

Today

Today I first notice that my crocuses have bloomed.

I scattered new geodes around the porch.

Going to Bluegrass

On Thursdays
There is Music in Ottis's Garage.

I was late, speaking on the phone to a friend.

The canine companions had to stay at home.

Driving there a deer and a rabbit
passed no more than 10 to 20 feet in front of the car
in the mist.

Driving back, another deer.

Walking in the rain

Yesterday it was sunny ... today it is coudy and raining.

One thing I must do every day is walk with the canine companions in the woods.

Where to go today?
It is wet and raining!
So, lets take the walk down the river ...
If it's wet, let's enjoy getting wet!

The dogs frolicked in the pools of the river ...
I picked up geodes.

And walking in the rain I feel some sort of nostalgia,
or Deja Vu.
I ask myself, what should I compare this walk to?
How do I judge it?

I Miss the Snow

I miss the snow ...

At night, it used to be bright – it is now dark –

Dogs loved the snow, rolling in it ...
they used to come back wet with fresh snow;
they now come back wet with fresh mud.

At night I could see the dogs running in the distance ...
they now walk off a few feet and disappear into the darkness.

I used to be able to see the hills and the terrain – I now just see darkness.

I miss the snow.

But, as spring and summer comes, there will be more light; the nights won’t be as dark.

It felt wierd ...

It felt wierd ...

... standing barefoot and bare-chested,
the sunrays warming my back,
unloading the boots and parka from my car,
after driving from MI to Nashville (southern) Indiana.

It felt weird ...
... Taking the dogs on Patrol
[that's where we walk the path around the property,
reminding them of their boundaries]
barefoot and bare-chested ...

It felt weird ...
... feeling the mud squish between my toes

It felt wierd ...
... Walking barefoot through the pine grove,
with cones every few inches,
and noticing, without conscious thought,
my bare feet always finding a place between the cones ...

The day lilies are already sprouting their stems from the ground.

Ah, a taste of spring to come!
Time to get serious with the garden!!!


TimE.