Harvest Time

It is the time of year that dust from the harvest drifts through the air.

 The crops are harvested at breakneck speed.

Combines, tractors & grain trucks lumber down the roads.

As the ears of corn dry on the stalks.

Yielding rewards for hard work in big ways,

And small.

Rocky Recovers

Rocky has recovered enough from his injury to be ridden.

Today, 8 weeks later, we took a trail ride.

He's gone from this....

 with stitches too numerous to count,

 To stitches out, but still lots of healing to go,

 To this today.

 He's doing fine and now is officially done with his vacation!

Distemper Plague continues

I've lost count of the number of dead raccoons that I've seen in the woods.

Distemper is raging through the population.

This guy was acting strange and didn't climb a tree immediately as expected.

Its sad to see them sick and acting unnatural.

 And last week this little guy was in one of the stalls in the morning.  

I directed him outside with a broom, but he was pretty wobbly on his feet.

Later I saw the buzzards circling, so he probably died. 

 Sometimes nature is tough.

Only the strong survive.

Putnam County Covered Bridges

Indiana has 91 covered bridges.

We visited 3 bridges in Putnam County

 First we visited the Pine Bluff covered bridge built in 1915.

It is 211 feet spanning the Big Walnut Creek.

 A view inside the Pine Bluff bridge

 Just a few miles away is the Rolling Stone Bridge.

It spans 103 feet and was also built in 1915 by the same builder, 

Joseph A. Britton.

The bridge was named for a large nearby boulder in the creek that rolled in the action of the water.

It was deemed a hazard to the bridge and dynamited.

 On our way to the next bridge, we encountered this fellow on the road.

 He checked out our vehicle and then let us pass.

 The last bridge was the Bakers Camp Bridge, built in 1901.

 It spans the Big Walnut Creek at 128 feet and was built by J.J. Daniels.

                    The bridges were covered to protect them from decay.                    

I'm glad they're still here.

A visit to Big Walnut Nature Preserve

We visited the Big Walnut Nature Preserve in west central Indiana.

The preserve totals 3500 acres in various parcels throughout Putnam County.

Our first hike was on the Tall Timbers Trail

in this donated 120 acre tract.

 The inviting beginning of the Tall Timbers Trail.

 Lots of old growth trees such as this beech tree.

 Christmas fern & wild ginger

 Lovely wooded ravines

 The trail as it climbs out out the creekbed.

 Face in a tree, carved by woodpeckers.


Next, we drove to Hall Woods in the Nature Preserve.

 We hiked a short trail where we found this cabin.

 The trail goes down to the scenic Big Walnut Creek.

 Where we saw schools of these large fish.

It was a beautiful site to visit and we had the place to ourselves.

Diverse Discoveries

Off the beaten path

Here's a few things I saw walking some different areas.

This giant walking stick (bug) was on my neighbor's fence as we rode in the arena.

Another neighbor's beehives

 Busy bees

Hedge apples are falling.

These are the fruit of the Osage Orange tree.

Mushroom on a mossy log

Velvet leaf which has velvety leaves.

It is also called butter print or pie maker since the seed pods resemble the print

block used on butter pats or pie crusts. 

Deer bones

And a cat on a fence!

Autumnal Equinox

The autumnal equinox occurred this year on September 23rd

The equinox occurs when the sun sets due west & rises due east.

The equinox also shared billing with the full harvest moon.

And Jupiter is brighter than usual in the night sky due to its closeness to the earth now.

l
It all adds up to some interesting sky watching. 

What the Heck is a Bladdernut?

When I first saw these....


I had no idea what they were.

So, after a little sleuthing, I discovered they were bladdernuts.

The American Bladdernut is a large shrub or small tree with leaves in clusters of three.

The seed capsules are papery, three sided airfilled pods.

They remind me of chinese lanterns.

Small seed are inside the pods.