Busy Weekend

I am enjoying this Labor weekend. It is always nice to have a Monday off from thinking about going to the office.  It's nice to have a day to get a bunch of things done at home without having responsibilities and places to go. 

We started the weekend with my yearly visit to the retina specialist on Friday. and it threw the days plans into disarray. I had planned to go to the bank, the courthouse, and the post office and then I remembered that appointment. I took all those things along so Jim could do the driving and those things get done anyway.  I don't mind driving from a Kearney eye appointment, but my doctor (based in Hasting, with an office in Grand Island and borrows a Kearney office once a week) has decided that non-emergency cases don't have priority to a "home" office.  I'm glad I'm not "serious" anymore, but it is a pain to have to drive somewhere besides here. 

Before the weekend, Aaron and the boys (enthusiastic helpers) cut 6. SIX, mind you, Walmart bags stuffed with elderberry heads.  After reading that the stems and leaves are toxic, I painstakingly stripped the berries off to get 12 cups of the tiny berries to make jelly.  I got syrup the first time because the recipe called from sure-jell (powdered pectin) not certo (liquid-pectin) which Jim has been eating enthusiastically on toast. So, I did it all again, 3 hours of picking over (no help from Jim this time) and using sure-jell, I made beautiful jelly. I wish I could taste it. My mother has been unenthusiastic from the start saying she had elderberry jelly when a girl and it was awful. I wonder if it was really elderberry jelly or had less sugar or as Mom said, she was a girl, not grown up. 

The evening of the successful jelly day, we went to Zane's cross-country meet. It was an invitational with 10 or so schools there. It's our first meet so we were unprepared for what to expect.  Meets take place at golf courses and there is no parking for the myriad of parents and grandparents that come who all must take separate cars. We got there just before 7:30, the starting time and parking down hill on what seem like a half mile away and was likely a quarter-mile.  The Jr. high kids only run a mile, which the high schoolers run three and it is a brutal course with steep hills. One high school boy collapsed just at the finish line and couldn't go any farther. I didn't see what happened to him because we had to be somewhere else, but on the way home and an ambulance was coming back, so I wondered if it had transported than boy. We watched Zane start and finish. There must have been about 30 runners with him. Last week he ran in Burwell and got 7th. It wasn't such a hard course as this one. It was hard on everyone. Jim and I went home driving into the setting sun. I dropped Jim off at Underground Construction and went on home. Driving into the sun was absolutely blinding. I'm too short for visors to do any good, and turning from a side road onto the bypass was terrifying.  I could see nothing.  I blocked the sun with my arm and hoped for the best. 

As you can read, I made it home alright.

Zane is second from the left, making a start. I didn't get any at the finish.

After that Thursday and our uneventful Friday, we spent Saturday at the Zoo. We've been wanting to go by ourselves for several years and as the weather was mild (82), we made our plans and went. We saw nearly everything we wanted to, including the baby elephants and by the end of the day after watching the sea lions being fed, we were exhausted and glad to get on the road for home.  We stopped in Lincoln and had a lovely early supper at Cracker Barrel and went to bed early. 

On Sunday we had a little respite from the hot weather and we took our bikes out to ride.  We rode from the interstate to Fort Kearny State Park, which is Jim's favorite.  We rode all around the park because we haven't done that before and Jim wanted to look at the progress of a job he did out there that he was supposed to finish.  It was obviously finished without him and the leftover materials are with them, not us. It was still nice out so we had a fire in the fire pit and Jim made s'mores with fudge stripe cookies, which I can't eat.  Not having any supper, we were casting our minds around what else we could cook out there. I didn't think I was hungry until Jim was making fried egg and cheese sandwiches in our cast iron skillet and roasting one potato in the fire, which we halved.  I buried the potato in the coals

wrapped in foil for barely a half an hour. It was yummy.

We stayed by the fire listening to the frogs by the pond sing until it was dark and then we went to bed. 

We spent Labor Day, laboring.  Jim helped me with tomatoes, we got 10 dozen quarts of juice. I finished knitting a pair of baby booties, paid my bills, reconciled my accounts and found that my bank is now charging me $35 a month, bye, bye, bank. I also tidied up some little jobs and washed three loads of laundry. Jim spent the part of the day that wasn't tomatoes by working on enlarging the chicken run and the chicken waterer. I enjoy a good working day. There is a satisfaction in accomplishment. 

Oh by the way, my retinas are just fine have been staying that way for awhile.

 

John Deere Travel

On our way to Indiana this summer we stopped on the way in the Davenport, Iowa/Moline, Illinois area at the John Deere Pavilion. 

Since Jim is interested in all thing John Deere we wanted to see what they had to show. There were some old things to see and also some very new ones. There was the very newest combine there which has to be one of the hugest things I've ever seen.  I don't know why they have to be so big. It was more than twice as tall as Jim. A picture on my camera can't show the size. 

I probably enjoyed browsing the gift shop the most. We bought some new t-shirts for us and something for the new baby girl on the way.  This auger set up reminds me of the auger my brothers had.  We didn't have a grain bin, but we spent lots of time auger-ing up popcorn into some sort of wagon.

We had our supper at a cute little place just across the street...

...then walked by the Mississippi and took a Channel Cat ride down the river.

The next day we went on to our final destination, to see Lynette and Anthony.

 

Home Through The Badlands

Going Home

We planned to take in the Badlands on the way home. It is an impressive sight of miles and miles of rugged terrain.  I don't remember paying any fees when my family went in 1977, but that isn't a thing a 13 year old would remember.  I don't remember paying any fees when Jim and I took our kids up there in 2006 but since it is a National Park we must have.  I found a pamphlet on line that gave the fees for the 2007 season so I presume the $15 charged in 2007 was probably what was charged in 2006.  This year it was $30 for a car to go through.  That seems like a lot of money. Today with google you can get information on all kinds of things and the price was raised to $25 in 2018 and $30 in 2020 for private vehicles. So, we paid our fee and spent a lot of time looking and taking pictures. There are a lot here in this post.  I have to get my money's worth. They are in order, too.

Some kind of goat.  I looked in the Badlands website for a clue.  

They have a picture, but no name.

What I find most interesting about these massive rock formations is the depth.  A photograph isn't the best way to see that.  In these two photos there is a close ridge and then farther away, the rim.

Smoky Horizon

Colorful Layers

Vastness

Beauty in Nature

Jim is trying out his new hat with his pitiful old binoculars.  You can't remember everything when going on a trip, but it's too bad we didn't bring the better pair.

These are called "rainbow something or others".  I'm not terribly interested in the geology and make up of the rocks.  For those who are, google we shall always have with us.

Going farther south there are broad spaces between the high rock formations, where grass grows.

Finally, the sun came out and we get some blue sky!

Big Horn Sheep

There are a lot of photos here, I like them all.  Nature is amazing and I love to revisit it.

 

Mount Rushmore

Thursday

We went to the Mt. Rushmore Memorial today.  The weather prediction was cool and cloudy with rain in the forecast. Fortunately, we were forehanded enough to bring jackets and a few clothes suited to this weather than the 90+ degree days we had before this.  It started sprinkling on the way there and we got our first glimpse of the faces as we passed a historical turnout.  By the time we got to the Memorial fog had settled in and we walked the Avenue of Flags through a heavy mist.  We spent most of our time on the lower level with the exhibits that show the creating of the sculpture, went back to the upper level to peruse the gift shops and get some lunch which seemed fearfully expensive to us.  The fog remained the rest of the morning, as it continued to rain more heavily.  As we were leaving the rain let up, the clouds rolled away and we saw the faces wet with rain and we went on our way, noting the clouds hugging the tops of the hills.

Jim has never seen the faces at night so we planned to go if the weather was nice, i.e. not raining.  By the time we got back to our hotel after visiting Rushmore Cave,

Stalactites

the clouds were rolling away, the sun was out, and in the stillness we were the warmest we'd been all day.  As we drove up, up again, the fog again made it’s presence known and as we walked from the parking lot to the amphitheater, the program was beginning and that Avenue of Flags seemed interminable as we hurried along. The faces were obscured again with fog and we wondered if we would see the faces lit up in the dark at all. It is an inspiring program, telling the story of the visions of the four presidents represented there and their role in the creating and building of this country.  It is a story that reminds of us of why we should be proud of our country and the role it plays in the world. Yes, it’s a story that touches only the highlights, good and bad of this country’s history.  Yes, there were things done in the history of this country that we look on with regret.  But, do any other nations have a people where the majority of this look with great pride on the country they call their own?  These men, and others mentioned in the tribute to the United States of America had a vision of what America could be, and it was up to the people to make it so.  These men wanted this country to be “for the people, of the people, by the people…." Abraham Lincoln.  As JFK said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”  That program made me proud to be an American, and the tribute to those who give their lives to defend this country is a reminder, that if we want to have the freedom our forefathers envisioned, we will need to remember JFK’s words.

Just as the speaker finished his words about the presidents roles in our history and presented the faces to us by lights in the darkness, the fog rolled away and the faces were lit up for the rest of the program. It was an awe-inspiring sight. 

 

Bear Country

Thursday

Bear Country isn't just about bears.  There are other animals to see, too.  I think the majority of us like to see some of these animals up close that we'll never have a chance to see in the wild. It can be dangerous to be close to some of these in the wild.  

Elk rubbing the velvet off his antlers.

Serenade by arctic wolves.

This gray wolf was the only one who didn't insist on blocking the road.

A little zooming gets a close shot.

Magpies like hanging out with big animals for the bugs.

A female pronghorn.

Peccary

I didn't know porcupines were so cute.  Look at his little snub snout.

Bobcat

The lower two cubs spent their time fighting or playing still in the tree.

Obviously they are better than I would be about not falling out.

I can't remember what this cute little thing is.

I always enjoy watching otters play.  It was feeding time when we were there and after eating this big feast of fish, they took a nap in their log.

After several hot days, this one wasn't.  It was cloudy and cool enough we were glad for jackets, and I was especially glad I brought a long skirt and socks!