June 28, 2017 Another month flew by.......

I will say it ~ we've had some pretty days.   I sure have enjoyed them when I had them.  But, in between a few of the nice days ~ we sure have had more than our share of rain.   Honestly, I can't even keep up on the mowing with all the rain we are having.  It's all wet and so saturated, all I do is make a mess and make mud.  On the other hand, we don't have to spend much time watering the garden.

Then, there are all the days like this.  So foggy plus the rain coming down.   Got lots of healthy weeds and wild flowers this year, that is for sure.  I am hoping all the baby ruffled grouse don't drown in their nests this year.  I have seen a few babies; but, not too many yet.

On the other hand, all the rain makes this kind of a photo possible.   There sure have been some pretty  puddle reflections the last few days.    This is on top of a hill besides.   Lots of water out there.  Of course, the creeks are pretty full and really roaring these days too.  Someone, on one of my Facebook posts, made comment about how pretty this was upside down.   I went back into photos and flipped it ~ you know, it really was.  Sure was a different look.

Here is one of the local rivers after all the weekend rain.   It's moving.
Anyway, it's almost July and we are getting ready for the big Hovland Arts Festival.  Our 12th year.   We have a new pavilion to stage the music in now ~ which they just finished wiring.  No more extension cords running all over the place.   We bought a bunch of big tarps to side it and hopefully keep the musicians dry.  After years of steep tent rental for them ~ we are trying this.  We have the tarps.   Cost about the same to buy all the stuff as to rent the tent.  Now, we just have to put them up and take them down each year.   We will see how that goes.  Trial and error for so  many things these days.  Big winds are always the biggest issue with tarps.   It blew darned hard yesterday afternoon so I will go see what happened since we hung everything later today.

One more story for this post.   These are Shadow's fawns at 3 days old.  I was walking down the road with Betsy and saw all three of them ~ Shadow and her twins ~ along the side.   I kept walking but told Betsy to sit about 50 yards back.   Right away, Shadow saw my camera ~ was just carrying the Sony as it's small and it was looking like rain again.   She was focused on that ~ and I was keeping a good eye on her, believe me.   Well ~ I got a couple of nice shots like this of the twins.  Had a couple with Shadow in too.  She had still been giving the camera the evil eye so I was going to leave.  However, Shadow beat me to it.  She walked off into this woods here ~ twins following.   She was almost out of sight in the alder when the trailing fawn had a change of heart and decided to come back, across the road, and come and smell my knee.  Well, in all my years around deer and fawns, I have never had that happen.   Well ~ Shadow happened to look back and see that and was immediately unhappy.   She came back out of the woods and up on her hind legs so fast, it wasn't even funny.  She started swinging those legs and the camera straps broke the first whack.  Camera was on the ground.  I turned to let my back catch more of it as she proceeded to give me a pounding.  She got up on her hind legs 3 times and gave me what for!   Well ~ that was enough.  She got down and looked at me.  I said ~ "Shadow, that wasn't very nice.  I didn't do anything."   She walked off.   Shadow is now 10 years old.  I have known her and fed her by hand, petted her, whatever, since she adopted us when she was orphaned at 6 months old.  She has since brought the fawns into the yard ~ when it is now ok to be nearer them.   But, not too  close yet.   She walks up to me and Betsy like nothing ever happened.   I had a black and blue arm like you wouldn't believe.  My back was sore for a few days too.   All a part of life in the northwoods with the critters ~ I guess.   Life is interesting.........