Staging? Staging what?

There's something I haven't mentioned and I may have misled you into thinking we live this quiet pastoral life.  I'm guilty by reason of omittance. I have neglected to tell you that the power company had  set up a staging area at my neighbors to the west about 2 miles away.

Yes, one of the neighbor's sons decided to rent a piece of their farm land to the power company for this purpose.  First, I noticed a new dirt road being built next to their house and thought it was rather strange/ perhaps they were building a new home although I certainly didn't think there was anything wrong with the nice house that was there.  The raised dirt drive seemed very overkill considering it led to the field. Then after asking around I was told that the power company had approached the owners since they needed a locale with access to the county highways. All I can say is they must have offered them a pretty penny because trailers and power company vehicles started filling up the once corn field and additions were made of tall security light poles and a huge gate roadside...

For months the trucks have been rolling out in the early ams from this area next to their house  and rolling back in at all hours until the early evening. The crews are busy replacing telephone poles and power lines all over the coulee.

Think of the amount of traffic this generates. All of the workers driving back and forth to work in their own vehicles and then getting in a company vehicle and riding back and forth to their job sites.  I used to have the road to myself coming and going in 'to town' .  There used to be the occasional Amish buggy to slow down for but now there's always utility trucks and equipment traffic.

This small county highway has really taken a beating with all this constant wear and tear. You can't even tell that it had been resurfaced a couple of years ago. It has also added to the noise pollution. I can't imagine living right next to it.

Anyhow, the news is the power company said that they are supposed to be done in a month and we hope to return the peace and quiet of the rural highway and living.  Good riddins' is all I can say. One gets really spoiled living in the country and the End of the Rainbow Valley.

Tis the Season...

Our beautiful  late afternoon spring walk came after planting our cool weather crops and flower seeds.  We decided to go visit the  Chaseburg Nature Walk along Coon Creek where we discovered work has been going on to the save the shoreline since our last visit. Those huge piles of rocks we saw last month have now been placed to stabilize the banks so that  the water won't continue eating that shoreline away.                                                                                                                                                     

The past year had brought  a lot of storms and snow our way that continued to wreak havoc on the surrounding woodlands.  Many of those trees made their way into the creek diverting its waters. 

Now hundreds of those downed trees are being cleared and removed from the shorelines and water.  It wasn't 'Mike' the Steam Shovel 's noise we heard ferociously working as we headed down the path.  When we came upon him it was obviously who was making all that noise. 

HOW in the world did the weight of the debris not tip him into the waters he was clearing. The bucket would lift entire trees with gallons of water from the creek. 

Coon Creek wants to keep its reputation as the one of the best trout streams in the state and it appears that we will have some really nice fishin' holes... From the looks of the footprints in the muddy shorelines it doesn't look like those fishermen are going to wait for the earth to dry to find out just where those are either.

Happy Fishing!

Spring Candy

Sunday I succumbed to my first of the season plant purchases.   I didn't even make it in the front door  to pick up my Chicken-Q dinners at Mayfair, a craft show fundraiser for the Heider Center. This show helps earn  monies for the theater program. There in front of the entrance were annuals  high school students had grown. I brought home a flat of pansies along with a couple of running wave petunias so that when the pansies give way to the heat the petunias will be going strong.  Aren't those yummy colors?

Once inside the door there was my favorite garden sculpture artists and I had to pick out a new rebar flower for the garden . I swear it's the best type of plant because it doesn't need watering and it can't die from neglect/ too much water.

Newest  6 ft addition to the sculpture collection 

As you can see I returned to the End of the Rainbow Valley with much more than the chicken dinners to fill our stomachs...  Ah yes, spring has arrived.

It's That Time Again...

It's difficult to believe but it's that time again when the outside world revisits our lane, the hard top road where our mailbox sits.

Can you guess why that is?

If I tell you that those guardrails are over Coon Creek would that be a good hint?

If you guessed that it's the beginning of 'Trout Season' you would be correctamundo.

Most of us say the water's too high from all this rain for fish to bite but OBVIOUSLY it didn't deter these die hard fishermen.  Some arrived all decked out with their new gear and fishing jackets. If nothing else they looked the part even if they got skunked.  Something tells me the fish don't care what they are wearing.

 I 'll be sure to let you know when they start biting, OK?

That Bad, HUH?

Some took it hard that snow was predicted... if he had only waited as we only got rain, lots of it.  Hari Kari wouldn't have been necessary.  By noon though 60 miles away over a foot of snow had fallen in Rochester.  And we lucked out... no snow Mr. Snake, just nasty cold wind, rain and a bit of sleet.

Seriously we don't know if a hawk/ eagle/owl/? dropped this snake. It was gone by the next time we walked down our road.

C'est la vie.  In the End of the Rainbow Valley, here today, gone tomorrow.

The INFAMOUS Question...

Everybody was out yesterday in the End of the Rainbow Valley and of course it had to do with the weather and what was blowing in...


I finished my school paperwork as quickly as I could so I could get out to use my new garden gloves. It was time to plant the dahlia bulbs I had purchased last weekend. They were the first of my many plant purchases yet to come. Wink, wink. Natureman had been busy with the rototiller as he was making a new raspberry patch area and had even had roto - tilled the little area in front of the chicken coop where I wanted to plant the dahlias.  I wanted to get those bulbs in the ground before that predicted snow.

Dark shadows flew by and I was afraid they were vultures at first coming to pick off a chicken. But thank goodness it was just a pair of turkeys. I had heard their flock earlier on the other side of the valley and I guess these two decided to join the chickens grazing on the hillside.

As I was enjoying being outside playing in the dirt, others were enjoying the beautiful day too. In the  pasture all the goats were grazing on the new green emerging and Fluffy the barn goat cat was hanging out with them.

 It looked so inviting that I joined them and then Naturman joined us too sitting in the pasture, taking time to enjoy the spring day.

I said Natureman's line before he could get to it,  "What could be better than this?" and Natureman smiled knowingly back at me and replied, " Nothing."
And you what?  I know he's right...

COLORTIME...

A couple days of warm weather and the front flower garden is coming alive with some color... our first daffodils bloom with the hyacinth not far behind....the bluebirds finally started working on their nest.

The first garden blooms

Hyacinth smell will soon be wafting in the air...

 80 degree weather tends to hurry things along.

Mr and Mrs Bluebird are back working on their nest...

                     Ha... Wouldn't you know snow is predicted tonight?